Copywriters Podcast

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/
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We’re back with Craig Dave Carbol and today we’re going to really dig into his secrets about writing exceptional copy for eCommerce landing pages.

Craig was with us last week. He has written for such well-known clients as Jon Benson and Mind Valley. But what really sets him apart are his accomplishments in eCommerce, where he has written for big brands in consumer markets like apparel, athletic gear and outdoor living. His copy has raked in more than $33 million in sales in the last year and a half.

Craig has come up with a system for writing copy just like he’s writing. The system is teachable, and it’s called Cashvertorials™. He’s told us about it today and walk through a promotion he did using this very renegade and very profitable form of copy.

To get free access to Craig’s course, go to:

https://www.cashvertorials.com/
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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/

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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-critiques


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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/

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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/
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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/

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Elmer Wheeler may have been the best-paid copywriter of all time, on a dollars-per-word basis. In the 1930s, Texaco paid him $5000 to come up with the question “Is your oil at the proper level today, sir?” In 2021 money, that was the equivalent of about $95,000 — for nine words.

Or, more than $10,000 for each of those nine words.

But those nine words had some other dollars attached to them as well. Texaco estimated gas station attendants who asked customers that question ended up opening one-quarter of a million car hoods — and, you can bet, selling lots and lots of extra motor oil soon after they did.

By 1938, Elmer Wheeler had worked out tested selling sentences for 5000 products, according to an article about him in the New Yorker. One of those sentences, for Barbasol shaving cream, reportedly increased sales by 300%.

In 1940, he wrote a book called “Sizzlemanship: More than 2,000 Successful Selling Pitches to Command Instant Attention and Buying Action.” It is out of print today, but there’s a Kindle edition available on Amazon for a few dollars.

He’s definitely one of the most interesting and, I’m sorry to say, overlooked Old Masters in copywriting. But we’re going to do something to correct that overlooked part today.

I have a hard copy of the book and I pored over it to find a few examples of his tested selling sentences we could look at today.

Now remember there are more than 2,000 tested selling sentences in the book. Even if we were to read them without saying anything else, that would take several podcasts.

So what I’ve decided to do is find five categories of sentences that would give every copywriter a real edge, once this information is incorporated in their thinking and their copy.

Elmer Wheeler was way ahead of his time, nearly 100 years ago. But we can all benefit from his timeless, market-tested wisdom. And that’s what we cover in today’s episode.

Sizzlemanship, by Elmer Wheeler

https://www.amazon.com/Sizzlemanship-New-Tested-Selling-Sentences-ebook/dp/B01M691BVV
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We’ve had really good responses for our Old Masters Series shows, where we look at one important copywriter from the past, and people were literally falling all over themselves when we brought on Sean Vosler a few weeks ago to talk about the founding fathers of copywriting. We had to send out the special writers unit of the Copy Patrol to pick those people up off the floor.

But my friend and client Jason Parker made a suggestion that kicks things up a notch even higher. The idea involves finding the best single idea from the greatest copywriters, that we can all use today.

I really appreciate Jason’s suggestion and want to give him a shout-out right here and right now. I should also say that I spent a lot of time mulling this over, and today’s show is what I came up with.

We’re going to look at five “keepers.” A keeper in this case is an idea you want to carry with you for the rest of your life, because it’s so good. Five keepers from five of copywriting’s greats. They range from the early 1900s to the last 20 years.

The way I chose these five keepers was by asking: What’s one thing that not only worked when the copywriter introduced it, but works just as well today?

Also, what’s something simple enough that we can talk about in just a few minutes, and everyone will understand it. With one exception. One of these concepts, from Gene Schwartz, really takes a while to make it your own. I included because it’s so important, and so rarely understood, that it was worth breaking the guidelines to get you started on it if you don’t already know it and use it.

Besides Gene Schwartz, the other four copywriters are: Claude Hopkins, John E. Kennedy, John Caples and Gary Halbert.

Links:

breakthroughadvertisingbook.combreakthroughadvertisingbook.com

thegaryhalbertletter.comthegaryhalbertletter.com

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We’re really lucky today to have Marissa Morgan as our special guest today, and you’ll see why in just a minute or two. I met Marissa as a guest on her show earlier this year, and you’ll hear more about that in a few minutes.

But that show is only the latest chapter in Marissa’s very impressive resume. Before we get to the highlights, let me share the one reason you should pay very close attention to everything she says and does today. It’s that that Marissa excels at two of the most important skills to have at this time in history.

- Being on TV, and

- Selling on TV.

Marissa has more than $25 million in sales to her name on Home Shopping Network and other TV shopping channels. Personally. But wait, there’s more. A lot more.

As an actress, she’s been on TV shows including Ray Donovan, Fuller House, and Bixler High Private Eye, just to name a few. Most of the time, she gets cast as a news anchor or a police officer.

She’s done stand-up at The Comedy Store and The Improv in LA. And while she still appears on ShopHQ TV today, she’s also got an exciting new role that’s really relevant to online entrepreneurs with a startup called ngagge, which she’ll tell us about in a bit on today’s show.

Here’s what I asked her:

1. Marissa, welcome and thanks for joining us. I’m a big fan of yours and I’m also a big fan of the Showtime series Ray Donovan. You got a role very few people get to have in acting, because you “played yourself.” Could you tell us about it?

2. So let’s talk about Home Shopping Network. I know it’s only one of several TV shopping channels where you have hosted, but it’s definitely the best known to most of our subscribers.

Tell us about how you got started… a memorable experience or two… and what your learned in your training.

3. OK, so, moving into the world of the online entrepreneurs and copywriters, what can you tell us about selling online when it’s just you and your computer rather than a whole studio setup?

What are people doing right?

What are people doing that’s not quite right?

What do you notice most frequently that people can do to improve?

4. And this brings us right up to the present. You have a show on ngagge, where I was fortunate enough to be your guest. Tell us about the company, what you’re doing, and what opportunities there are for our listeners?

https://www.ngagge.com/


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