Copywriters Podcast

Get ready for a master class in creating eight-figure sales letters, from a copywriter who has done it… over and over and over again. I’m really excited that today, we have Mike Pavlish on the show. He has written promotions for health supplements that have in many cases brought in more than $10 million apiece. And he’s done this for some of the most successful supplement companies in the world, including Agora, Dr. Al Sears, Healthy Directions and many others. Mike has also written for smaller entrepreneurs who sell supplements online. All told, Mike’s sales letters and VSLs have sold more than half a billion dollars worth of supplements. Half a billion dollars. It’s not often we get someone at this level of accomplishment on the podcast. Mike shared with us how he does what he does… in considerable, incredibly valuable detail. That is, how to develop and write supplement promotions that bring in $10 million or more. Here are some of the things we covered: • How to know if your niche is good • What to look for in a product, if you want a big success • What your research should focus on • What’s different (that copywriters need to know about) today, compared to even the recent past • Mike’s deceptively simple but super-powerful way of writing irresistible headlines! Mike Pavlish’s website: https://www.mikepavlish.com/Download.

We’re back with our Old Masters Series, and this is part 3 of a four-part series -- What Your Prospects Most Want To Know. I would add, what is it that they want to know right away, and whether or not your tell them might decide whether or not they keep on reading? The answer is the still: What will your product, or service, do for me? But this time, we’re going to take it from a different angle. Up to now, we’ve talked about what your product can help them do and help them gain. But this time, it’s what your product will help the prospect save. Some things will be familiar, but I suspect you’ll hear some things you’ve never thought of before. So here’s what we’re going to do today. We’ll go over all seven things Schwab found prospects want to know if your product can help them save. I’ll show you how and why. We’ll cover some examples you are probably familiar with in general, like product categories, or in specific, like promotions you’ve probably heard of. Again, let me remind you that Vic Schwab spent 44 years working in advertising and kept a lot of notes. Everything here is based on testing and very scrupulous observation, with an eye towards what stimulates inquiries and what generates sales. From the eye of a master. That’s because Ad Age magazine called Schwab “the greatest mail-order copywriter of all time.” In 1941, he wrote a series of five articles for Printers Ink magazine and titled the series “How to Write a Good Advertisement.” In 1961, he expanded that series into the book, “How to Write a Good Ad.” The book is so important that my mentoring clients and I spend almost half a year going through this book in a special way I’ve developed. It’s as good in its own way as Gene Schwartz’s “Breakthrough Advertising.” In short, I’d saw Schwab’s book is a gold mine for copywriters. Also, a quick reminder: Everything in this and the other three podcasts in this series come from page 47… the first half of the page. That might seem like a lot of podcast based on very little information, but remember, he spent 44 years testing and tracking ads and reviewing other top-performing ads. So it’s condensed practical wisdom. The book and the link: How to Write a Good Advertisement, by Victor Schwab https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Good-Advertisement-Copywriting-ebook/dp/B01AXJ7SES/Download.

I’m thrilled that our guest today is Daniel Throssell, a very unconventional and highly successful copywriter from Perth, Australia. He’s the driving marketing force behind the blockbuster bestselling book The Barefoot Investor. Daniel has a slew of very impressive testimonials on his site, to give you and idea of what other top people in copywriting are saying about him: Our friend Ben Settle calls Daniel, “One of Australia’s top copywriters.” Andrew Campbell, Harmon Brothers Ad Agency, writes, “In my role, I work with some of the best writers in the world. When I saw your copy, I knew you were one of the best, too.” And our friend Justin Blackman characterizes Daniel this way: “A wacky, wacky man of tremendous talent.” There’s one more person I’d like to mention in this intro, and that’s Copywriters Podcast subscriber Stuart Marmorstein. Stuart reached out to me personally and recommended Daniel. Stuart also helped us get in touch, and thanks for that. Stuart was particularly impressed by Daniel’s Parallel Welcome Sequence, which kind of takes the first emails someone gets when they join your list -- and turns it on its head. That’s the first thing he’s going to tell us about today, along with some highlights from his tremendous book launch. Daniel shared with us what he learned from the Barefoot Investor launch, and how it led to his Parallel Welcome Sequence… and how he uses a contrarian approach to “warm up” his own new subscribers, instead of cooling them down. Plus, he shared more email tips that every copywriter and company can learn from… and use! Daniel’s website is https://persuasivepage.com/. He also revealed how be broke an ironclad rule of copy -- which is, don’t use humor -- and turned entertainment into a marketing plus for his business.Download.

We’re back with our Old Masters Series, and this is part 2 of a four-part series -- What Your Prospects Most Want To Know. I would add, what is it that they want to know right away, and whether or not your tell them might decide whether or not they keep on reading? The answer is the same as last time: What will your product, or service, do for me? But this time, we’re going into entirely new territory than we did last time. First let me say that this show is the Old Masters Series because it comes from a very special book: “How to Write a Good Advertisement,” by Victor Schwab. And I’ll remind you: Schwab identifies four categories of things a prospect wants a product to do for them: 1) help them gain something, 2) help them be something, 3) help them do something, and 4) help them save something. Last time, we talked about what your product will help them do. This time, it’s what the prospect will gain. And you might be surprised some of things old Mr. Schwab came up with. So here’s what we’re going to do today. First, we’ll go over all seven things Schwab found prospects want to know if your product can do. It doesn’t have to do more than one, and, as we’ll discuss, it may not even have to do one of these seven, but these are all proven winners. I’ll show you how and why. We’ll cover some examples you are probably familiar with in general, like product categories, or in specific, like promotions you’ve probably heard of. As for our source of this list of eight things: Vic Schwab spent 44 years working in advertising and kept a lot of notes. Ad Age magazine called Schwab “the greatest mail-order copywriter of all time.” In 1941, he wrote a series of five articles for Printers Ink magazine and titled the series “How to Write a Good Advertisement.” In 1961, he expanded that series into the book, “How to Write a Good Ad.” The book is so important that my mentoring clients and I spend almost half a year going through this book in a special way I’ve developed. It’s as good in its own way as Gene Schwartz’s “Breakthrough Advertising.” In short, I’d saw Schwab’s book is a gold mine for copywriters. Today, we’ll look at how you can use one or more of these seven things in your copy. Now, as I mentioned before, you don’t have to use one of these. But, your odds are usually a lot better if you do. But we’ll look at how you can use the general idea and adapt it to something else, if you think that will work better for you. Also, a quick reminder: Everything in this and the other three podcasts in this series come from page 47… the first half of the page. That might seem like a lot of podcast based on very little information, but remember, he spent 44 years testing and tracking ads and reviewing other top-performing ads. So it’s condensed practical wisdom. And a link to the book, How to Write a Good Advertisement, by Victor Schwab: https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Good-Advertisement-Copywriting-ebook/dp/B01AXJ7SES/Download.

Renowned copywriter Craig Dave Carbol shares his secrets for writing exceptional copy for eCommerce landing pages, generating over $33 million in sales in the last year. He introduces his teachable system called Cashvertorials™ and provides examples of its success. The podcast also explores the power of advertorials, optimizing buy button language, adding glamour to backyards, and the effectiveness of messaging in cash vertorials.

As some viewers have noticed, I wear a Pinky and the Brain hat. In the excellent cartoon where this comes from, when the Brain bonks Pinky on the head with a big hammer, it’s just another event in the day. No harm, no foul. The action continues like nothing happened. We’ll get to why I bring this up very soon. But I think you are in for a jolt of a very different sort with our guest today, power copywriter Craig Dave Cobol. He specializes in copy for eCommerce sites and his copy has racked up an astonishing $33 million in sales for his clients over the last couple years. He’s done this using a system he developed called “Cashvertorials™,” which is based on some carefully researched and tested neuroscience and persuasion material that he’ll share with us today. I should also mention that, like Nathan and myself, he’s a musician. One thing that sets him apart is he speaks Swedish, as does the world’s current top songwriter, Max Martin. Craig shared with us a slightly frightening and totally compelling account of his journey from being a “regular” high-powered copywriter to becoming a true renegade, with his new system. With innovative techniques like polarizing product reviews, cognitive ticklers, and product transformation, he shared with us a new way to galvanize prospect attention and bring in big sales numbers. You can learn about Craig’s free course here: https://www.cashvertorials.com/ Download.

So, you’ve probably heard the old but very true saying that goes like this: “Writing is rewriting.” And you must know by now that it means, you rarely get it 100% right on the first draft. All well and good. But the question is, how do you know what to rewrite? How do you even know what to look for? That’s what we covered in last week’s show, but we only got through half the list. Today, we’ll get through the other half. You see, I realized, every time I critique copy, I look for the same things. There are certain things that any piece of copy needs to have -- certain tests it needs to pass -- if it’s going to work in the marketplace. Previously, on Copywriters Podcast, we covered these first five qualities of copy you must look at. Now, we’re going to cover the last six. A lot of what we talk about today has to do with your prospect’s experience reading your copy. We get into three factors that keep people engage. But we’ll also cover three factors that are crucial in deepening your prospect’s understand of what your product can do for them. This, in turn, deepens their desire. And you know what happens next? That magical sound: ka-ching! Finally, I’ve helped people in more than 100 industries with their marketing, and my critiques have added a lot to their bottom lines. What I told you are the first things I look at. There are other thing that I didn’t have time to get into today. If you’d like me to critique your copy, just go to this page on my website and fill out the application. It takes just a few minutes: http://garfinkelcoaching.com/copy-critiqueshttp://garfinkelcoaching.com/copy-critiquesDownload.

One of the things people ask me for the most is copy critiques. Whether it’s an A-Lister with multiple controls for a big publisher… a B-Lister gunning to become an A-Lister… or a business owner who wrote their own copy, I look at the same things. It’s interesting, because the better the copywriter, the harder I have to look. The guys who are really good make everything appear to be smooth and perfect. There’s usually a handful of tiny, almost hidden flaws. Once those flaws are fixed, the copy gets supercharged to a new level. Even so, no matter who wrote the copy, I look for the same things. There are certain things that any piece of copy needs to have -- certain tests it needs to pass -- if it’s going to work in the marketplace. Today I’m going to share five of those things, and show you how I look at them, so you can do the same for your own copy. I’ve got six more, but they’ll have to wait until we do another show. So today’s episode is not about how to write a sales letter or a VSL. Either you already know that, or you can get my book, or Nathan’s book, or listen to a number of our other more than 200 podcasts for that. Plenty of good info out there on the writing phase. Maybe you’ve heard the phrase: The total is greater than than the sum of its parts. It’s a powerful idea. Once you put copy together, you’ve got a number of moving parts, working together. If one or more of them gets out of true, you could end up with a big problem. So this is not about how to write your copy. It’s how to go over it after it’s written. I made an effort to spell out my own thought process when I do a paid critique. What I did was mentally walk through what I look at along the way. I came up with 11 necessary things that need to be right, to make sure the copy as written stands a good chance of making the maximum sales. We’d have to rush through all 11 to fit them into one show, so I’ve broken the list into two shows. Today’s list is of the first five, and we’ll do the remaining six on a future show. To book me for a copy critique, go to: http://www.garfinkelcoaching.com/copy-critiques/ Download.

We’re back with our Old Masters Series, and this topic is so big and so important that we’re going to take four shows to do it. The question is: When your prospect starts to read your copy, what is the one thing your prospect wants to know, more than anything else? I won’t keep you waiting. The answer is simple. What your prospect wants to know is: What will your product, or service, do for me? It sounds like a simple question. Maybe even a stupid question. But it is neither stupid nor simple. Because the answer you give, and the way you put your answer together, will make all the difference for how long your prospect keeps reading. And, at the end of the day, whether or not your prospect actually buys. This show is in the Old Masters Series because it comes from a very special book: “How to Write a Good Advertisement,” by Victor Schwab. I’ll tell you more about the book in a few minutes. For now, Schwab identifies four categories of things a prospect wants a product to do for them: 1) help them gain something, 2) help them be something, 3) help them do something, and 4) help them save something. Today, we’re going to drill down on the things your prospect would like to know that your product will do for them. And you’ll see how you can use this information in your own copy. So here’s what we’re going to do today. First, we’ll go over all eight things Schwab found prospects want to know if your product can do. It doesn’t have to do more than one, and, as we’ll discuss, it may not even have to do one of these eight, but these are all proven winners. Vic Schwab spent 44 years working in advertising and kept a lot of notes. He took his fund of knowledge and organized it into this book, “How to Write a Good Ad.” It’s so important that my mentoring clients and I spend almost half a year going through this book in a special way I’ve developed. It’s as good in its own was as Gene Schwartz’s “Breakthrough Advertising.” In short, I’d saw Schwab’s book is a gold mine for copywriters. After we review the eight things, we’ll take a look at a few examples of how they show up in well-known ads. Then we’ll look at how you can use one or more of these in your copy. Now, as I mentioned before, you don’t have to use one of these eight. Your odds are usually a lot better if you do. But we’ll look at how you can use the general idea and adapt it to something else, if you think that will work better for you. And finally, we’ll look at what else you need to think about to really bring your prospect off the fence, once you have told your prospect what the offer will do for them. How to Write a Good Advertisement, by Victor Schwab https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Good-Advertisement-Copywriting-ebook/dp/B01AXJ7SES/Download.

We’ve got a very good show today, because our special guest is Thomas Dean Donnelly, an experienced Hollywood screenwriter. He’s also a teacher of writing all across the country, ranging from back east at Long Island University to here out west at the University of Southern California. The Hollywood Reporter ranks USC as the top university in the world for studying film. But Tom’s screenwriting credits are even more mind-boggling. He’s been at it for over 25 years, and projects he’s written for have grossed in excess of a billion dollars around the world. He’s worked on franchises ranging from Marvel’s Doctor Strange to The Walking Dead. He’s adapted the classic works of writers including Ray Bradbury, Stan Lee and Robert E. Howard. So it’s a bit of an understatement to say that Tom’s been around the block and he knows what he’s talking about. Today he’ll share some of his adventures in the film world with us… give us a few powerful screenwriter story secrets… and reveal the best single solution for writer’s block I’ve ever heard. Tom started by telling us about a chance connection he met through his work with the Boy Scouts that made him familiar with the copywriting world -- and a lot of what he talked about on today’s show is very relevant to copywriters. He gave us the insider’s view of writing hit movies for a living. This is information that would be hard to come by for anyone not already in the business. But perhaps the most stunning revelations he made were about story. Now, we're talking about storytelling a lot on this podcast, but Tom’s point of view is unique, and he’s got the track record -- and deep knowledge -- to back up everything he says. You’ll get tips that will help you with every story you write from now on. And I love what he had to say about writer’s block. I’ve never been satisfied with explanations I’ve heard about it, or solutions to get through it, until I heard what he had to say. This information may save you from a lot of grief and wasted time. Thomas offers private consultations. You can find out more about that on his website: http://sevenminutescreenwriter.com/ Download.