Words like “prospects” and “email list” are cold. They sound transactional. Which is going to affect how you write. Do this instead… Use words like “brothers and sisters in arms”, “fellowship”, and “tribe” . Then, when you sit down to write… You’ll naturally write from a position of kinship, and wanting to help people… People […]
Blogger in chief at The Copywriter's Crucible. A blog focused on helping other copywriters to enhance their skillset and be of more value to clients, and thus push up their pay grade. Also dabbles in internet marketing, cycling and jaunts abroad, in no particular order.
How to survive the robot wars
Many guitarists start out wanting to sound like Led Zeppelin… But end up sounding like Kingdom Come. What’s this got to do with writing copy? When starting off you want to study the greats. Read their sales letters… copy them out by hand… and try to replicate their structure and writing style. But, in case […]
Go deeper to get more clicks
To get people to click through their emails, most copywriters go hard on curiosity. Sure, curiosity gets clicks. But conversions? Not as many as you’d hope. Try this instead… Go deeper. Go beyond curiosity, being entertaining or useful. Dig deeper into your reader’s psyche. Say something insightful about why they’re stuck which they’ve never heard […]
The power of dark moments
You always want your reader to think you’re just like them. Someone who worries about the same things… Faces the same daily struggles… And heck, even watches the same TV shows and shares the same worldview. Because the more you can mirror your reader… The more relatable your emails and sales pages will be. So […]
A powerful yet underused emotional trigger
Want to know one of the most powerful emotions to trigger in your copy? An emotion that makes us do crazy things… Makes us wildly jealous… And forces us to feel like we’re in constant competition with our friends, work colleagues, and the Jones’ next door? ENVY! Envy is a super powerful emotion. It’s envy […]
Affiliate World Asia – Email Marketing Takeaways
This week I was shaking hands and kissing babies at Affiliate World Asia. Met lots of high level people, particularly at the DRMP and Clickbank meetups. What I quickly learned is that the key to networking at these events is not to just talk business, but focus on getting to know people and making friends […]
3 Caples Copywriting Tips
This week I’ve been rereading Caples’ ‘Tested Advertising Methods’… A book David Ogilvy said is “Without doubt the most useful book about advertising that I have ever read.” Here are my 3 key takeaways: Success in marketing comes from A/B testing, nothing else You can spend years brushing up on best practices and sales psychology. […]
Harnessing the “Zeigarnik Effect” in Copy
Ever wondered how waiters can remember long orders in their heads… But forget them the moment they’re delivered to the table? It’s due to the “Zeigarnik Effect”… A principle you can harness in your copywriting. It works like this… The brain has an uncanny ability to store information that’s incomplete or unresolved… But it forgets […]
Four Winston Churchill Writing Tips
Sir Winston Churchill is famous for his rousing speeches that galvanized a nation… So he knew a thing or two about motivating people to take action. Churchill was a writing workhorse too… Penning more words than Dickens and Shakespeare combined. His published speeches stretch to eighteen volumes… While his memos and letters run into the […]
3 Ways to Harness the Power of Framing
Never underestimate the power of ‘framing’. Framing is what enables paintings sold for $5 on the street to demand $5,000 in an art gallery… Or why a famous violinist may get a standing ovation in a concert hall… But barely make $20 busking in the street. It’s all about how the offer is FRAMED. Here […]