Copywriters Podcast

This podcast episode emphasizes the importance of conducting research in copywriting. It discusses the impact of a redesign on an ad, highlights the significance of customer preferences, and shares examples of open-ended questions. The episode also explores the fear of criticism, the value of customer reviews, and the importance of understanding the market in copywriting.

Discover how well-crafted bullet points can transform your copy into a sales powerhouse. Hear a compelling story about a veteran who highlights the importance of addressing specific customer needs when making purchasing decisions. Learn expert tips on creating impactful, concise bullets that resonate emotionally with your audience. Explore the term 'fascinations' in persuasive writing and how they can influence reader choices. By mastering these techniques, you'll engage customers and boost conversions effortlessly.

Learn how to effectively use demonstrations in your copywriting, engage prospects through imagination, and create effective demonstration stories. The importance of legal review for extreme claims and highly regulated industries is also discussed. The episode mentions the upcoming topic of 'bullet points' in copywriting.

Birds and airplanes don’t always get along so well. Just ask Sully Sullenberger, the Air Force Academy graduate. On January 15, 2009, Captain Sullenberger was piloting a commercial flight on an Airbus A320 as it took off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport—and the plane ran smack-dab into a flock of birds. Both engines went out immediately. One caught fire. Sullenberger quickly decided there was only one way he could save the lives of the people on the the plane, and that was to do the impossible: land it on the Hudson River. It was a risky move, but he correctly concluded it was his only option. What happened next has been called “The Miracle on the Hudson.” Captain Sullenberger and his co-pilot Jeff Skiles made a safe landing on the icy river. All 150 passengers, 5 crew members, and both pilots of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 were rescued safely. That’s a truly heroic story. And, it’s a perfect example of what mythologist Joseph Campbell calls “The Hero’s Journey.” This kind of story can work very well sometimes in sales copy. Yet at other times, a hero’s journey is the worst possible kind of story you can use. We’ll cover what a hero’s journey is – a six-step formula. When this kind of story works in your copy, and when it doesn’t. How to create your own hero’s journey. But first, let me tell you a true story about copywriting: Copy is powerful is powerful… it’s SO powerful. I’m going to give you some really powerful new strategies today. And then, you’re responsible for how you use what you hear on this podcast. You. Yes, you! Most of the time, common sense is all you need. But if you make extreme claims… and/or if you’re writing copy for offers in highly regulated industries like health, finance, and business opportunity… you may want to get a legal review after you write and before you start using your copy. My larger clients do this all the time. What are the elements of a hero’s journey story? you have an ordinary person on a typical day, who is suddenly thrown into a MISSION (Captain Sullenburger, another day, another flight) the MISSION gradually becomes more and more crucial, and difficult (bird strike! No engines) the ordinary person is now walking the path of a HERO (he’s evaluating his options, but all the doors close except landing the plane on the river. He has no other choice. None.) At a crucial point, the mission becomes a matter of life-and-death. Either literally or symbolically Happy ending – hero overcomes insurmountable odds, wins, then goes on to share what he learned with others (wisdom) Tragedy – hero fails, dies. My own hero’s journey Trying to make a living as a writer after my big corporate gig Things got worse and worse; debt; tax problems; relationship blew up I discovered copywriting I HAD to make it work Abacus letter – I died a thousand deaths writing it, but, it worked. Company went on to make $40 million with it over the course of a decade People started asking me to teach them copywriting I started to put out products, write books, and become The World’s Greatest Copywriting Coach (ORDINARY LIFE – trying to make a living as a writer SUDDENLY THROWN INTO MISSION – I need to change something to survive WALKING PATH OF HERO – It’s copywriting… and it’s do-or-die) CRUCIAL POINT – Abacus letter. HAVE to make it work or my new career dies. And I can’t go back to the old one. Life-or-death. HAPPY ENDING – It works – into eight figures of sales. I continue in my new life, adding: putting out products, writing books, and becoming the World’s Greatest Copywriting Coach. Every hero’s journey has some version of this. It’s true in romances and comedies, too. It’s true in comic books. I just saw the movie Jack Reacher, Never Look Back. Classic Hero’s Journey. The Rocky and Bullwinkle movie, from the year 2000, was basically a cartoon brought into 3D. It was a hero’s journey. Singin’ in the Rain, the 1950s romantic comedy, follows a fun and light-hearted version of the hero’s journey. It’s a flexible format… and it’s pretty universal. There are some fairly convincing theories that we are genetically wired to tell and hear stories. When this kind of story works in your copy — and when it doesn’t I started studying the Hero’s Journey in New York City in 1982, at a playwriting class, and I’ve been studying it in one form or another for over 30 years. Hollywood classes; books on fiction writing; observation and analysis of movies; writing stories… long list of different ways I’ve studied it. It took me a long time to really get. I understand it pretty well. Bringing it into copy is another story. I’ve used it; I’ve coached others on how to use it. It can really work great, but there’s one thing to remember. Often it doesn’t work, and you’re better off without it. Also, there are lots of little details to keep track of. For the story, your hero really needs an inner journey and an outer journey. And for a solid hero’s journey, what they hero wants needs to be at odds with what he really needs. Dialogue needs to match and end character traits. And it goes on and on and on. It can get really complicated. It doesn’t have to all the time when you use a hero’s journey story in a sales letter, but you do need to know what to leave in and what to take out… and while sometimes it’s no big deal and it’s a perfect fit, other times it’s more trouble than it’s worth. I’ll get into some alternatives that work better than a hero’s in many cases in the next podcast. But you still need to know how to build one in case you need to use one. How to create your own hero’s journey story It’s probably going to be a story about transformation It’ll go like this I had this problem I looked for / tried everything Nothing worked I was about to give up Then I discovered [PRODUCT] [SERVICE] I used [IT]; here’s what happened It might be easier and better in the third person Jane had this problem She looked for / tried everything Nothing worked She was about to give up Then she discovered [PRODUCT] [SERVICE] She used [IT]; here’s what happened. Next podcast: Simple little stories anyone can use along with a hero’s journey story or without a hero’s journey story at all!Download.

I was recently watching a video sales letter from an investment advice publisher. The narrator told the story of Steve Jobs, in 2008, walking in the hills of San Jose, California, with one of Apple’s best engineers. Jobs had the vision of an Apple car. The one problem he couldn’t see his way past at the time was the enormous amount of data back and forth needed to make this kind of car work. The technology was not available in 2008 to transmit, manage, store, and access all that data – fast enough to operate the kind of car Steve Jobs had in mind. Fast forward to today, nearly a decade later. The narrator of the VSL said, one company now has the technology needed to bring into physical reality Steve Jobs’s unrealized vision. That one mystery company, the narrator said, has solved the one problem standing in the way of building the Apple car. (Of course, the narrator wouldn’t reveal which company it was. You had to buy the investment newsletter for that, which I didn’t do.) Now here’s the point: Solving one crucial problem can be worth A LOT to a company… or, to an individual. Or both. And, when you put the promise of a solution to an important problem into your headline… that can be a crucial ingredient in a very profitable sales message. Today we’re going to talk about how all that works, and how you can do that… but first… Let me remind you that copy is powerful. Now, you’re responsible for how you use what you hear on this podcast. Most of the time, common sense is all you need. But if you make extreme claims… and/or if you’re writing copy for offers in highly regulated industries like health, finance, and business opportunity… you may want to get a legal review after you write and before you start using your copy. My larger clients do this all the time. OK, now back to problems and solutions… and the problem-solution headline. • Why you get your best results when you identify the itch that they can’t scratch… and, how to identify that itch. - Let’s talk about carpet-bombing versus laser focus. Out with the carpet and in with the laser. ° O.M. Scott, founder of a company in the 1800s that today is known as Scott’s Miracle Grow ° Carpet-bombing approach. Could have advertised his original grass - seed with all of these possible benefits - The speed that the grass grows - the research that went into developing the grass seed - the cost-effectiveness of the product - that the grass seed required less fertilizer than other brands - awards the grass seed had won ° But Mr. Scott was smarter than that. He knew people didn’t care or worry about those things. ° What they did worry about was: that their grass would turn brown in the summer, or just that it “wasn’t green enough.” (You’ve probably seen people worry about this. Maybe you’ve even experienced this worry yourself about your own lawn.) ° So – he told his marketing team: “People don’t buy our grass seed… they buy greener lawns.” ° Because Mr. Scott knew the itch they couldn’t scratch was, “How can I get a greener lawn?” ° It looks simple. And the result is simple. Getting to that result, though, is rarely simple. As you will discover the next time you try to do this yourself. ° But I’d like to make it simpler for you. ° So… how do you do this for your own product or service, and your own marketing? ° Step 1. Get to know a few of the people who are likely to be your customers. ° Step 2. Talk to them. LISTEN to what they say. Listen closely. Nail down what they say and how they say it. Especially, their complaints. Not about your product or politics or religion or sports. Their complaints about the problem your product or service seeks to solve. ° Then… get the answer to this famous question: “What keeps them awake at night?” ° The answer to this is “the itch they cannot scratch.” ° IMPORTANT: DON’T rephrase it to make it more “correct.” Don’t say, “We increase the chlorophyll content of every blade of grass you grow.” Say it the way they say it, so they’ll instantly recognize it: “We give you a greener lawn.” • The hard core reality is most people are NOT driven by goals or dreams. Instead, they simply live their life dealing with one problem after another. Knowing this helps you to get people to buy into your solution. How to “reach people where they live” with your headline: ° First, understand that seeking out and focusing on problems is built into human biochemistry. There’s a solid feeling of familiar certainty that courses through us when we have the chemical cortisol in our system, which is associated with worry and danger. We automatically revert towards the negative. This default response is built in to protect us. ° For the purpose of creating your winning problem-solution headline, consider this: Every complaint you hear is the expression of a problem in search of a solution. ° Again, the language people most commonly use in their complaints, or in descriptions of their worries and their problems, is the language you want to make careful note of. (Yes, that means “write it down.”) °As a business owner or copywriter or marketing pro, you may have worked hard to keep your thinking and even all your languaging very positive. Understand – this is a learned and added skill. And that most people are not like that. Even people who are very positive most of the time are not always so positive when it comes to how they think and feel about problems. ° The key to problem-solution headlines – as with so much of copywriting – is to really understand at a very specific level how your customers actually think, feel, and talk about the problem or problems you can help them solve. ° The point of greatest pain and urgency is always a good bet on where to start, and what to talk about in your headline. It’s the itch they cannot scratch. • How to create a great problem-solution headline for your next promotion ° Here’s a classic problem-solution headline most people already know: They laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I began to play… (John Caples) ° Why is this a “problem-solution” headline? And why is it good? ° Well-known fear of most people is public speaking. Seinfeld joke. Playing the piano in front of others has got to be right up there with public speaking. ° So what’s the problem with public speaking? People will laugh at you. You’ll be embarrassed. ° Same thing with playing the piano in front of a group. ° In this headline, the implied solution is that they weren’t ridiculing… they were impressed. Appreciative. ° WARNING: This is a very hard kind of headline to write from in many instances. Writing first person copy can be tough until you have enough experience. It requires more advanced skills than second person (you) or third person (he, she) copy. Easy and acceptable solution: Write it in third person. This way: They laughed when he sat down at the piano… but when he began to play… ° The key thing is to focus on the problem / fear of problem / your prospect has… and promise, or at least strongly hint at, a solution. Here are a few templates to get you started on your problem/solution headline: People Who Used To __(have problem)__ Now __(have arrived at this solution)__ Finally… A Way To __(solve a problem)__ Once You Know This, You’ll Laugh At __(problem)__ Famous European Secret For __(solving the problem)__ Now Available In America Why This __(someone like your prospect)__ never worries about __(problem)__ anymoreDownload.

In the late 1970s, famous copywriter Joe Karbo rocked the direct marketing world with his full-page newspaper ads. The headline was: “The Lazy Man’s Way To Riches.” Many people thought this was revolutionary. But actually, he wasn’t onto a new concept. You see, people had already been appealing to prospects’ laziness for decades. For example, in 1923, the legendary dancer and dance instructor Arthur Murray ran an ad in Popular Science magazine with this headline: “See How Easily You Can Learn To Dance This New Way.” So, it’s a time-tested technique. But can you use laziness headlines yourself? Absolutely! Even If your prospects are the hardest-working people on planet Earth, they’ll be more inclined to order your product when you use a laziness headline in the right way. We’ve got a lot to cover so you’ll really understand this and know how to do it. And we’ll have some fun along the way. First, though, fair warning: Copy is powerful. You’re responsible for how you use what you hear on this podcast. Most of the time, common sense is all you need. But if you make extreme claims… and/or if you’re writing copy for offers in highly regulated industries like health, finance, and business opportunity… you may want to get a legal review after you write and before you start using your copy. My larger clients do this all the time. OK. Now that we have that out of the way and my lawyer can go off and invent other things to do for me, let’s dig into laziness headlines. • How laziness is just part of human nature (even though many people go to great lengths to hide their laziness from you). “Life is hard and then you die” - may be true, but that is not a valid sales proposition :-> - everything has an easy part and a hard part. Start by emphasizing the easy part. - human brain. Frontal cerebral cortex – ego – “hard work.” Brain stem – old mammalian brain – busy enough keeping you alive and running your emotions – they like simple, easy. And they decide what you buy. -Just because someone works hard at one thing doesn’t mean they want to, or even are willing to, work hard at everything. - Look at how many advances have been commercial advances. No-iron shirts. I don’t know much about women’s clothes, but I imagine no-iron blouses, too. Automatic dishwasher. How much easier is it to use an iPad than a vintage 1995 Windows computer? Progress favors laziness. - People are so busy these days. Who wants to add one more difficult, time-consuming activity to their schedule? • People will pay you their hard-earned money for the opportunity to be lazy The 7 reasons people buy: 1. Make money 2. Save money 3. Save time 4. Reduce effort 5. Increase pleasure 6. Reduce or eliminate pain 7. Improve health 4 of these reasons appeal directly or indirectly to laziness ◆ (1) Save time – time is work (in prospect’s mind). Less time = less work ◆ (2) Save effort – very direct appeal to laziness ◆ (3,4)Increase pleasure, reduce pain – Hard work, no fun; pleasure is fun. Hard work – pain. Less pain = less hard work. - Garfinkel’s Law of Work > applies to how easy or hard it is for people to read your copy (not whether or not you talk about laziness in your copy) > “He who works, gets paid.” (“She who works, gets paid.”) > When they work hard trying to understand what you’re saying in your copy – they get paid (by keeping the money that you were supposed to get) > When you do the work necessary to make it easy for them to read and understand, they read easy, and you get paid. When you’re the one looking out for them (and their time, and their energy, and their peace of mind) – and you show it – you are much, much more likely to get the order. • The steps to putting together a great laziness headline 1. Think about what your product or service will do for your prospect – or how it will take the burden of doing something off their shoulders 2. In what way does that make it - easier - faster - less painful - more enjoyable - or in some other way, “less hard?” 3. From that, try one of these templates How Would You Like To ____ The Easy Way To ____ Save Up To ____ With ____ What If You Could ____ What Our Customers Love Most Is How _____Download.

The podcast discusses the power of curiosity headlines in copywriting and their ability to engage readers. It emphasizes the importance of responsible copywriting and legal review in regulated industries. The speakers also explore ways for copywriters to protect themselves and discuss the significance of delivering on promises and claims in advertising. They provide tips on creating effective curiosity headlines by understanding the target audience and using desire and frustration as powerful tools in headline writing.

David Garfinkel, the World's Greatest Copywriting Coach, has started a new podcast. What's it all about? Listen to find outDownload.