Copywriters Podcast

Copywriters are solitary creatures who spend large amounts of time alone. Yet the good ones understand quite a bit more about human motivations and behaviors than almost anyone else, including most professional psychologists.

Why is that? A lot of it comes from observation and thinking about what they have observed. But more to the point, they have to… or, their copy just won't work.

Last week we talked about a "core curriculum" of books people copywriters need to read. This week, we're going to talk about "the advanced stuff" – a deep and possibly disturbing survey of how and why people do what they do. Stuff you need to know if you want to improve the response to your copy.

So today these words are especially relevant:

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.

Now, some friendly advice regarding what we're going to be talking about today. Of the dozens of books I considered for last week's episode and this one, the nine books I'm suggesting today made the cut. My advice is that you need to brace yourself when you read them. This stuff can be scary, because as you start to find out how people REALLY behave – and why – it will almost certainly shake up some of your cherished assumptions about humanity.

But as a marketer and copywriter, you need to know anyway.

Three categories of books:

1. Persuasion

2. Story

3. The mind, and learning

-Persuasion Books

• Spence is a lawyer with an incredible winning record

• Learned some hard lessons early on, changed his approach

• Not easy or fun, but incredibly valuable

• Visionary thinker about persuasion

• This book could upset you – it's worth the disruption

• I have it on order. I've only looked at the table of contents on Amazon.

• Former top FBI hostage negotiator

• Not what you would expect

• Some very valuable insights about persuasion I've never seen anywhere else.

- Story Book

• Talks about story and how the human brain responds to it

• She's got plenty of Hollywood and NY publishing experience

• Great teacher – clear explainer

- Books on the Mind and Learning

• Two types of people

• Invaluable for understanding those who will/those who won't

• Author is Stanford professor

• Shows why talent is NOT the deciding factor

• Lots of tips for learning and improvement

• Good introduction to work of Anders Ericsson (book 8)

• Great book by terrific writer

• Helps you understand the frustrations of getting better

• Short book, easy read, strangely motivating

• The "10,000 hour rule" demystified

• Clear and well written, but not an easy read

• If you want to become a master copywriter, you must read this

- Evolutionary Psychology

• Will open your eyes to things you never thought about

• Not always pleasant and sometimes scary

• You'll understand human nature at a MUCH deeper level


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When I first got into writing copy, I was having a hard time finding any good information about how to do it. So I took every seminar I could and read every book I could find. It was exhausting, and frankly, maybe not the best use of my time.

Originally I put this episode together with the plan to come up with a handful of books every copywriter should read – what I wish I had known when I started.

But my list got so long that I realized we were going to need two episodes to cover things fully.

So this is part 1 – what I'd call "the core curriculum." Next week, we'll go through a second list I'm calling "the advanced stuff."

First, a pleasant reminder:

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.

Now, to the books. Some of the books I read, like Ted Nicholas's "Magic Words That Bring You Riches," are either not available at all, or available in very limited quantities. I set three ground rules for this core curriculum:

. You have to be able to get the book easily

. Each book is a course in itself. You don't need a study group or someone else to walk you through any of them to get really good value from them.

. They're affordable. (One is a little pricey… but… it's worth every penny.)

-Copywriting Books

1. Scientific Advertising, by Claude Hopkins

• The "foundation document" of copywriting/direct response marketing

• Ogilvy: Read 7 times; I've read 15 times; recently re-reading

• Not easy or fun, but incredibly valuable

2. The Adweek Copywriting Handbook, by Joe Sugarman

• Based on a seminar Joe used to give in his home

• Joe's a dm pioneer and great copywriter

• Easy to read, very valuable

3. The Ultimate Sales Letter, by Dan Kennedy

• Takes you through all the steps

• I've always found Dan Kennedy to be reliable source of great money-making ideas

• Can absolutely put you on the right path to writing a winner

4. Breakthrough Advertising, by Eugene Schwartz

• Hard to read and understand

• Like a gold mine. 30 years later, I'm still getting new ideas from it

• Expensive for a book – but worth it

5. Breakthrough Copywriting, by David Garfinkel

• Easy to understand

• Comprehensive

• Includes templates and tools for a copywriter

- Sales/Marketing/Creativity Books

6. Tested Sentences That Sell, by Elmer Wheeler

• Early pioneer in testing words, phrases, pitches

• The words/sentences may or may not work for you

• But the method of split testing always works. This

is a good introduction to split testing.

7. Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath

• Excellent book on clear, memorable communication

• "Curse of knowledge" is super-valuable concept

• Very practical, useful for copywriters

8. A Technique for Producing Ideas, by James Webb Young

• Great introduction to / and working method for / tapping into the power of the unconscious mind for writing copy

• Tremendous overall book to read for brainstorming and creativity

• Worth reading more than once; I've read it five times.

- Online Resource

9. The Gary Halbert Letter, thegaryhalbertletter.com


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The other day I was watching a TV interview with a Hollywood actor in his 80s. The interviewer asked him, "What do you think of all the new movies with special effects and robot characters?"

The actor clearly didn't want to answer the question directly. Instead, he said: "What I look for in a script is three things:

1) What's the story?

2) Who are the characters that embody the story?

3) What's the emotion?"

It was a good answer, and I think the third thing the old actor mentioned is also important for copywriters. Even more than that, I think the conventional wisdom we've gotten about emotion is not nearly specific enough to be useful. I'll review the conventional wisdom in this episode, & replace it with specifics you can use.

Before we do, here's something that you might not find emotional at all:

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.

Now, let's talk about emotion in copy.

You'll often hear that the emotions you want to appeal to in copy are fear and greed.

There's truth in that. But it's so broad and general. And what can you do with that information, really? It leaves you guessing. We'll get very specific in just a sec.

First, let's start with some basics:

- You need to provoke emotion to prompt a sale. People don't make decisions based on rational thinking, even though some think they do (and would get very upset if you told them otherwise. Hmmm… think about that!)

People make decisions based on emotion. So you need to prompt emotion.

- You can prompt positive emotions, but that's much harder work, since people don't always trust or believe good feelings. But they do tend to believe negative emotions more often. Negative emotions seem more "real."

- So today we're going to focus on three proven uses of negative emotion. These are from Chapter 9 of my book Breakthrough Copywriting. I call them "emotional triggers."

- What I'm going to share with you can be adapted in almost any selling situation to sell a product or service.

Emotional Trigger 1:

This one's called "Anger to Envy to Offer."

Let me read some copy to you, and then we'll dig into it.

This copy is for an ebook on auto repair:

"For most people, the only thing worse than going to the dentist is taking your car to the mechanic. At least the dentist warns you when he's going to hurt you and he does his best to numb the pain, but Mike Thompson is different.

"For Mike, going to the mechanic is never a big deal, because he's never been overcharged, and he always gets treated with a level of courtesy and respect that a king would expect. Does Mike know something you don't know? He probably does, and that's why I thought you'd be interested in his new eBook Never Let Your Mechanic Intimidate You Again: How to Stay in Control and Save a Lot of Money with Every Auto Repair You Get from Now On."

OK – what's going on here?

Let's talk in broad-brush strokes about the psychology of this:

Anger and jealousy are two of the most powerful motivators known. In fact, someone said to me that jealousy is fear of loss brought into the immediate present. Think about that. If you see someone else walking away with something you want, that's fear of loss right before your eyes.

Now, in this case, I made a statement that would arouse anger in my target market. If I had this book, and you have a car, and you've ever been treated badly by a mechanic, you'd probably buy the book right now, wouldn't you?

The second thing is that I made a contrasting statement about a positive aspect of the same situation. Here is the contrasting statement. "But Mike Thompson is different. For Mike, going to the mechanic is never a big deal because he's never been overcharged, and he always gets treated with a level of courtesy and respect that a king would expect."

Do you feel a little jealous of this guy? We've gone from anger, "That blankety-blank mechanic said it'd be ready at five and it's not done," to envy, "This other guy never has to put up with it," to offer, "And here's my offer." "Does Mike know something that you don't know? He probably does, and that's why I thought you'd be interested in this new eBook, Never Let Your Mechanic Intimidate You Again."

The way you can use this is

• Make a statement your prospect or reader can identify with – about a negative situation that gets them angry. Just not angry at you.

• Then, make a contrasting statement about a positive version of the same situation. Your prospect reading this will feel envy of the person in this situation who has it better than they do.

• From there, slip right into your offer – the solution that can get your prospect out of the bad situation they're currently in, and into the situation of the person they envy, from your story.

Emotional Trigger #2:

It's called Doubt to Confidence.

Now, notice only the first emotion is negative – doubt. I mean, who doesn't want to feel more confident in life?

Here's some copy for an imaginary ebook for doctors, dentists, chiropractors, and other health-care professionals. Listen:

"Professionals have an especially thorny problem when it comes to marketing, because often the kind of marketing likely to work is deemed too aggressive. On top of that, ethical standards often stand in the way of getting results from ads and mailings. When I started to read Never-Empty Waiting Room, I wondered if it would have the same tepid techniques I've read about so many times before."

That part was the doubt. Now, here comes the confidence:

"It turns out my fears were groundless. The go-for-it methods mentioned in this book could never be called unethical, yet they work like a charm… "

And you can almost feel the formerly worried prospect breathe a sigh of relief.

The way you do this is pretty straightforward – you use a testimonial that starts out with the same doubts a prospect has. And you give the story a happy ending by transforming the doubts into confidence.

When you ask someone for a testimonial, find out from them what specific results they are getting. Ask them to think back to when they read your copy. Was it hard for them to believe at the time that they could get these results? Ask them to include how they felt before, and how they feel now. And to tell why they feel that way.

This is another reason you should constantly be gathering testimonials.

Emotional Trigger #3:

This one's called "Shared Outrage." That sounds like a lot of fun, doesn't it?

Here's an example of this trigger in copy:

"You know what it's like when diets don't work. It sucks. I remember one so-called 'diet' I went on. What a load of crap! I had stomach pains for weeks! I didn't sleep well, I was crabby and tired all the time, and at the end of five weeks I'd gained five pounds! I was so mad I wanted to smash something into a thousand little pieces.

"It was then that I made myself a solemn promise—never go through that humiliation again! I wanted a way to lose weight that was easy and permanent. I searched and searched until I had all the pieces in place for the perfect program—the No-brainer, No-gainer Weight Management Plan. And now I'm ready to share it with you."

See, the way this one works is you AND the prospect get mad at the same thing!

And your solution solves the problem you're both mad about.

And here's how you do it:

First, you express your anger about a situation you're upset about, that your prospect is upset about, too.

That's anger, and people can relate to that anger. But you're not angry AT them – you're angry at the same thing they're angry at.

Then, you use that anger as a springboard to get to a solution. One that soothes your anger, and should soothe your prospect's anger as well.

--

OK, that's it – three emotional triggers:

1. Anger to Envy to Offer

2. Doubt to Confidence

3. Shared Outrage

That's three of 11 emotional triggers in total, in chapter 9 of Breakthrough Copywriting. And the book has 12 other chapters with hands-on, ready-to-use tools as well.


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I remember a few years ago I had had it up to here with all the bulky, complicated audio equipment cluttering up my house. I needed something simpler, faster, better. I called BH Photo Video in New York and got a salesman, Aaron, on the line who listened very carefully to me. At one point I said to him, "Listen, I am not a technical wizard. I don't want to spend 15 minutes adjusting knobs and faders just to be able to record something."

"Of course not," he said. "You want to stay in a state of flow."

He had me right there. I had never thought about that before, but he was absolutely right. That was why I hated all the complicated stuff – it pulled me out of my flow state. And if I wasn't in a flow state, I couldn't do a compelling recording.

Then Aaron very patiently and thoroughly recommended a device called an Apogee Duet. It cost about four times what I had planned to spend. But the more he talked, the bigger a believer I became.

I bought it, because I was in a state of total conviction. And years of experience has proven this was the right audio device for me. In fact, I'm using it right now, even as we speak.

Copywriters can create conviction in their sales letters and ads the same way my salesman created it in me. And conviction can make all the difference with a hesitating buyer. We'll talk about that today.

First, I'd like to mention this:

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.

▾ What conviction is

• deep-seated belief that takes away all barriers to action

• In a movie, you can see this in a major way in how the hero, eventually, gets to a point where they will STOP AT NOTHING to achieve their goal

• In copy, it's seldom as dramatic as it is in a Hollywood movie. But it's just as important. Because conviction is what opens the door to a sale that sticks.

▾ Why it's important

• When you have created conviction in your prospect, they are as ready to buy as they'll ever be.

▾ What happens when you create it

• You put yourself, as a copywriter, in the perfect position to close the sale

▾ What happens when you don't

• You might get the sale, but you risk getting buyer's remorse, which means: more refunds, and more customers from hell

▾ Where most people screw up

• They do a "paint by numbers" approach to creating conviction rather than really working at it to make it powerful: research, selection, feeling, thinking

• They don't create an authentic, believable conversation in their copy

between themselves and the prospect

▾ Where you need to start: yourself

▾ If you don't believe in the product or service you're selling — to the point where you would buy it yourself, you've got three choices:

• Convince yourself so you really do believe in it that much

• Fake it. Pretend that you believe in it that much and write from that state of mind. (Not recommended, but we don't always end up writing the copy we would most like to write.)

• Walk away. If you can't "mock up" a feeling of conviction in yourself, you're not doing yourself or your client (or your business) any favors. You shouldn't be writing the piece.

• … but, assuming you can develop a solid feeling of conviction in yourself, here are some powerful techniques:

▾ Make it personal… relevant… meaningful

• personal

- Talk about how the product or service fits into the prospect's life, and what difference it will make. Aaron did that, and it made all the difference for me. This means you really have to understand the prospects and their lives, including their frustrations and why

they have those frustrations.

• relevant

- don't give generic reasons and examples. Be specific. So it's believable. Remember again Aaron.

• meaningful

- Again, you need to really understand your prospect. Only then will you know what's meaningful to them. Aaron understands creative people and performers, and he knows getting in a state of flow and staying there is high on the priority list!

• Use metaphors, analogies, comparisons

Especially when you have something that's new or unfamiliar to your prospect. Compare it to something familiar. "It's the Swiss Army Knife of food processors." Someone who's into cooking will get that right away.

• Write to a PERSON from YOURSELF

Imagine someone you know, like, and care about. Write in a way that would create conviction in them.

• Specifics rather than generalities

Kim Phelan: Specifics spark emotions; (usually) generalities don't.

• "Important trivialities"

Find out the little details most people would never care about, but your prospect cares about a lot. Mentioning those can strengthen conviction.


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I saw a story on quora.com about Arnold Schwarzenegger. Before he became California's governor and while he was still a bodybuilder, he was walking down Venice Beach in southern California.

Two young women saw his huge muscles, and I do mean huge!, and one of them supposedly said, "Ewww… I would never want to look like that!"

He replied, "And you never willllll."

The point being, he didn't really care what other people thought about the way he looked – he was pretty confident in who he was.

Now, it's a great story and as a copywriter, you do need to worry… at least, about how prospects respond to your copy.

And always keep this in mind:

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.

Now, let's talk about confidence, and then we'll talk about how to build and keep a high level of confidence as a copywriter.

There are some people who think you can say magic words over and over and that will make you confident. It's a very seductive theory, but it's simply not true.

Then there are more sophisticated theories about deliberately rewiring your brain to increase your confidence. I don't know how that works, but I've never seen that work for copywriters.

I'm not against these things. I'm only against depending on them by themselves. I know some of the most successful copywriters used techniques to build on the foundation of ability, skill and copywriting experience that gave them confidence in the first place.

And I want to stick to the foundational stuff in today's episode.

To start with, big difference between

- confidence in self and ability to get the job done, and get results, and

- confidence in a particular piece of copy you're writing or you've just written

Self: This is what you want to establish, fortify, increase. We'll talk about how in depth in a few minutes.

A particular piece of copy: Some anxiety is the price you pay to do this work.

Reasons:

- You never know for sure how well it will work until you test it

- The creative process includes anxiety. Universally. All writers. Musicians. Comedians. Public speakers. Artists. Many other types of performers.

> Aaron Sorkin quote abt screenwriting (paraphrasing): Very productive sessions followed by long periods of depression. (He was clearly only half-kidding, if kidding at all)

- This is not necessarily something to "cure" – it's something to learn to live with. Here's why:

o Edge of Chaos – you're going where no one's ever been before

o Creativity, by its very nature, takes you from the familiar to the unfamiliar. If it's totally familiar, it's the same old shit, and it may not work very well. If it's unfamiliar, it might be uncomfortable.

- When you get into that flow state, it's an adventure.

- Two pieces of advice, which I've used successfully myself:

o Surrender to the weird feelings. That helps them move through you and move on. Fighting them locks 'em in.

o Attributed to Fritz Perls, founder of Gestalt Therapy: "Fear is excitement without breathing."

You don't need to be a nervous wreck. Everyone has their own way of handling it. I'm going through all of this in detail to point out that you can still be baseline confident and solid, and if you're freaking out about a particular project you're working on – that's to be expected sometimes. Don't confuse that with lack of confidence. They're two different things.

Now that we have "The Creativity Dance" covered, let's talk about baseline confidence.

Four key steps most people are too scared to take:

1. Failure

2. Resiliance

3. Reflection and analysis

4. Adjustment

And start over.

Most people think confidence comes from success. And there's some truth to that. But if you take a person who has only had success and put him in a situation where he fails, he's not going to handle it very well. Deep down such a person knows that. And that's why that person is not really as baseline confident as the person who's had his share of success, but also weathered his share of storms.

That's confidence.

The other key ingredient to baseline confidence is learning. Not just learning through doing, but learning through studying. Reading the copywriting books. Taking seminars. Studying what other people are doing with their copy. Really building a practical knowledge base about copywriting.

Hey, even listening to the Copywriters Podcast.

ESPECIALLY listening to the Copywriters Podcast.

Hey, let me tell you about scaling the heights, in a way you've probably never thought of before.

This will help you grasp what I'm saying about baseline confidence, compared to temporary uncomfortable feelings on a project.

Have you ever been on the top of a skyscraper under construction?

I have. Many years ago. The early 1980s. I was a reporter for a construction magazine. The contractor invited me up to the top of this building on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago. I'm not sure why. Part of the story, I guess.

When I was up there, I'm not sure I had any tether. But I know the scaffolding or whatever it was called was solid around me. The floorboards were nailed down and weren't bending or creaking. It was kinda windy up there, though.

I'd never been up nearly that high on a building in the open air. It was scary. But I felt confident that the scaffolding and the floorboards were solid.

Now imagine that the scaffolding was rusty and not well put together. And one of the floorboards broke when I stepped on it. I would have felt entirely different. Not just scared of the heights and the wind, but really worried, maybe even terrified, that I was going to take a 200-story plunge to the ground.

Let me show you how that true story provides a model for the difference between baseline confidence and the anxiety or other negative feelings you might have when you're working on some copy.

The solid scaffolding and the stable floorboards are like baseline confidence. In copywriting, your scaffolding and your floorboards are you experience, including your failures – what you learned from them, and what you decided to do differently until you found out what works.

The scaffolding and the floorboards are also your study and your experience with others – mentors, teachers, other copywriters, clients. All of the things we've talked about.

But each new piece you write might be like walking around for the first time in the open air, 200 stories up. You have a solid foundation underneath you and around you to give you confidence, but you could still feel a little weird in an unfamiliar place.

Now I want to turn the Arnold story we started with on its head a little bit. Actually Arnold DID care what people thought about him. A lot. He wouldn't have won the bodybuilding contests if the judges didn't think he was the best. He wouldn't have starred in so many movies if directors didn't like him best, and of course audiences. And he wouldn't have gotten elected California governor if enough people didn't vote for him.

The key thing about Arnold and the women on the beach is, he ACCEPTED himself for who he was. He wasn't insecure about THAT.

But other people do matter. And to get confidence as a copywriter, you want to be around other people. It could be work in a group. It could be taking seminars. It could be getting a mentor. It's important not to go it alone and to learn from others. That builds confidence too.


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With a few years of success under my belt as a copywriter, I started to notice there were two types of clients who were approaching me. The first kind of client was way better at what they did than their marketing indicated. The second kind of client had really exciting marketing that made big, big promises – but their level of quality didn't come close to measuring up.

Once I realized this, I made a decision: I would only work with the first kind of client. I could help them because once their marketing caught up to the quality of what they were offering, they would make a lot more money.

But I was also determined to stay away from the second type of prospect. I wasn't in the business of improving the quality of what they delivered to the prospect. So the best I could do, if I was successful, would be to increase the level of fraud in their marketing.

No thanks.

And that brings us to what we're going to talk about today: hype. It was hype in the marketing of the clients I didn't want to work with that pushed me away from them to begin with. But hype remains an ever-present mystery, and problem, for a lot of copywriters and marketers in a lot of situations.

In this episode, I'll explain why, and what you can do about it.

But first, listen to this:

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.

What's hype / what's mistaken for hype but NOT hype / what's simply not hype at all

- hype: big claim with no substantiation

- not hype, but looks like it: big claim, with inadequate substantiation

- simply not hype: usually dry, sterile facts. They are true but they don't sell.

Why the hype problem?

- you need a BIG CLAIM and EXCITEMENT to sell

- both can be either negative or positive

Problem #1: When copy's "too mild"

- true, you could never be accused of being hypey

- the problem is, "mild" copy almost never sells. You need to be aggressive and confident enough to get people convinced to buy from you

- so mild copy won't work very well

Example: Money-making skill training

"Too mild" headline: You'll probably make a little extra money when you learn these skills

You're off the hook for overpromising, but, you won't get enough interest or sales with such a tentative attitude.

Problem #2: When copy's too "over the top"

- This, of course, is hype in it's most toxic form

- The problem is, people won't believe it. Or if they do, they'll get disappointed and look for a refund… maybe even seek revenge.

And then there's the problem with the regulators, if they see it…

Example: Money-making skill training

Too "over the top headline"

Make an extra million dollars a month – in your spare time!

It's very appealing, but you're going to run into all kinds of problems with it.

I'm giving very extreme, blatant examples to make the point. Real problems with hype follow the same pattern. And the solution I'm about to lay out works just as well with more everyday hype problems.

The Solution: Deeper research plus extended creativity

- So, let's say you have the same program we're talking about

- You call your 20 best students

- 12 of them tell you they have doubled their income in a few months

- Six of them say they would give you a testimonial or case study

That's the deeper research part. The extended creativity is: brainstorming how you can take that information and put it into your headline.

So you come up with nine headlines that don't quite work.

Your tenth one is:

Many of our students have doubled their income in less than six months.

Here's how you can do the same

That works. It's bold. It's on the edge – but it's not hype. It's true. You can prove it. More than that, you're not saying the prospect WILL do the same… you're saying they CAN.

Because not everyone will. But most people can, if they apply the training.

Bottom line on hype: If you take your promise to the MAXIMUM of what's POSSIBLE… and you let your prospect know that not everyone will do this, but if you follow instructions / do the work / use the method correctly, etc., it's possible for the prospect to do that well.


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Whenever you look at a bestselling book by a celebrity or a politician, the chances are better than good the so-called "author" didn't actually write it. A ghostwriter did. Good ghostwriters command fees comparable to, and sometimes exceeding, the fees of the best copywriters. One of the main reasons they get paid so well is they have the ultimate "chameleon" skill for a writer – they can write convincingly in someone else's voice.

As copywriters, we are often ghostwriters for our clients. How important is the skill of writing in your client's voice for you, as a copywriter? Today we'll talk about that… and… I'll give you some tips on how to do this.

Before we get into all of that, a reminder:

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.

So let's talk about writing in your client's voice… what it means… where it's important… and how much of it is important in copywriting.

Where Writers Must Totally "Speak" In Their Clients' Voices

- Speechwriters

- Ghostwriters for books

- Screenwriters (each major character needs a unique voice)

Here, mastery of "voice" is mandatory. Fortunately for copywriters, you don't need to be this skilled in capturing your client's voice.

Next Level Down: Webinars

A webinar is where the client speaks through an online presentation, usually with slides, to make a pitch. Getting some sense of the client's voice is really important here, because the slides and script (or outline) needs to line up

with a reasonable approximation of the way your client talks. If your client is stuck with a script that goes so far away from the way they talk, it won't ring true.

And you want it to ring true.

Next Level Down: Sales letters, print ads, emails

There are a few basics you should cover, which we'll get to in a minute. But remember, in most cases, nobody knows what your client really sounds like. So you need far less developed skills than you would as a speechwriter, a screenwriter, or a ghostwriter for a book.

A few words about writing conversationally, period.

This is one of the hardest things for most copywriters – really, most writers – to master. Writing in a way that sounds like speaking.

Why?

How to fix it:

- listen at a Starbuck's / transcribe like a secret agent

- interview / record / handwrite out the way a person talks

- develop an awareness. Which writing reads conversational? Why?

Which writing doesn't. Why

- Get The Art of Plain Talk by Rudolph Flesch. A lot of used copies are available on Amazon for as little as a few dollars. Read it. Figure out how you can put it into practice. It also looks like you can get a pdf of the book on scribd.com, if you sign up for scribd.

- Practice, practice, practice. This should be natural, but the school system and other institutions have beaten our natural ability to write conversationally, out of a lot of us.

So the first thing to do in writing in your client's voice is to learn to write like people speak. Any people. You. A "generic" person. By doing the things mentioned.

Now, assuming you have some sense of how to write conversationally, here are some tips for

- Remember you don't have to sound exactly like your prospect

- Here's how you need to reflect how they sound when they talk:

- values

- their reason-why. Find out why they're doing what they're

doing. See how you can include that in your copy. That personalizes the copy a lot without your having to be too precise in the language

- still, you want to make it sound as much like them as possible.

Again, interview them and transcribe the interview. Take note of

o Any pet words or phases

o Their overall view of the world

o The rhythm of their speech

o How emotional, or non-emotional, the way they talk is

- No matter what you find, you still want to aim for copy that works. So make sure your final draft has

- Clarity

- Simplicity

- Easy to understand words, sentences (high readability)

- And active voice. Tight, muscular writing. Focused on action!

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People always ask me, what's the difference between "copy" and "branding."

My answer is: There's no difference between copy and good branding. It's copy and bad branding that are so different.

Here is why: Good copy is not about you, or your product. Really. It's about the customer. What their life is like right now, and what their life experience will be like once they have your product, or use your service? That's what good copy is about.

And good branding is really a condensed description of what your customers experience doing business with you. Your reputation in a catchphrase.

Look at it this way. You know what a half-silvered mirror is? Where you can see through one side, but the other side is a mirror. Like you see on the back wall of an interrogation room on a detective show on TV.

The bad branders hold the mirror side in front of their own faces. So the customer sees the brander, the marketer. The good branders, and the copywriters, hold the transparent side to their faces and point the mirror side at their market. So customers see themselves when they look back at the mirror.

All of this gets back to the topic of today's episode, Including Yourself in Your Copy. As direct marketing copywriters, we have been sternly warned not to write about ourselves in our copy (or, write extensively about our clients when we're writing copy for someone else).

That's mostly good advice, but there are some exceptions. I want to dig into what they are and how to use them, today.

But first, I want to talk about you… and me… and copy.

Like this:

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.

Now, let's talk about when to include yourself… when not to… and why.

When I say "yourself" here, substitute "your clients" if you're a copywriter writing for a client.

When NOT to include yourself

- long rants about your life that have nothing to do with what you're selling. Especially bitching and moaning about the injustices of life. This is copywriting, not group therapy via email.

- your opinions, on politics, culture, sports, current events, and other external things. Now this can work in a post on your blog or on Facebook, to get people to know you and maybe start a discussion. But it's not going to help you sell anything unless it frames an argument related to what you're selling and your target audience shares the opinions you have that you have expressed in the copy.

- information you think will "humanize" the copy, but actually detracts from the sales momentum. Personal info about you that ties into your offer is good – we'll get to that in a minute – but randomly trying to "humanize" your copy by throwing stuff about yourself from out of left field and into your writing is a very bad idea.

- a long resume-like recital of all your credentials, degrees, certificates, trainings, and so on. Especially when they don't apply to your offer. You're trying to make a sale, not get a job!

When to include yourself

- Most important – your relevant credentials (difference between relevant and irrelevant – and why copy is different, say, than a resume or a platform speaker's introduction)

- your experience – as it relates to what you're selling. What have you done, seen, learned, that is important as regards the offer you're making?

- conversations with other people you have had, regarding your offer

Why people want to hear about you (as the product/service provider)

- They want to know if they can count on you – if you are trustworthy

- They want to know if you know what you're talking about and what your track record is – is what you are selling, something you have competence in?

- They want to know if you do your homework. That is, have you really done the study and had the experience to qualify as the expert you claim to be.


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Mike Shreeve joins us again to discuss what works (and what doesn't) when it comes to Facebook advertising.

Topics covered include:

- Could you take a few minutes to describe the Facebook ad landscape, the way most people see it?

- What are misconceptions most people have about using Facebook ads?

- What are the hard realities about Facebook rules regarding ads that frustrate most advertisers?

- You’ve found ways to make Facebook ads work that most people would have considered difficult or impossible. Could you share some secrets?

- What are the key points to remember to be successful with a Facebook ad?

- What have been some of your biggest wins with Facebook ads?

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Tune in to get the whole experience.


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Mike Shreeve is the man behind the curtain for a lot of successful people.

He joins us this week to discuss how to stop chasing clients, and instead, get them chasing you.

Here are just a few of the topics covered in this week's episode.

- Could you talk about your own experience getting clients: What you’ve done, what you’ve learned, what you’re doing differently today than you used to?

- What are the biggest mistakes copywriters typically make when they try to get clients?

- What keeps copywriters happy and keeps clients happy at the same time?

- You have a concept for copywriters you call “your superpower.” Could you explain that and give a couple examples?

- What are the red flags you’ve discovered that warn a copywriter to stay away from a potential client?

- If you could sum up everything we talked about today, what are you most important takeaways?


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