This episode explores how different types of writing training—school, journalism, technical, corporate, and advertising—can negatively impact copywriting. It emphasizes the importance of direct response principles: motivating action and telling the reader what to do next. It contrasts these styles with direct response copywriting, which prioritizes immediate action and sales, offering practical tips for copywriters to avoid common pitfalls and improve their copy.
Our special guest today, John Jantsch, is going to tell you about what could be the single most valuable sentence you have in your business for getting clients and customers. John’s the author of the Wall Street Journal best-seller Duct Tape Marketing, as well as three other books. Now when John talks about “core,” I’m pretty sure he’s not talking about your abs, lower back, and hip flexors. No, the single most valuable sentence John’s referring to is your core message. That’s something he also ...
You could have written the greatest copy in the world. Perfectly targeted with a killer offer. Great price. Unique and highly desirable. But I can tell you one way it is guaranteed NOT to work. And that’s if nobody reads it. Don’t laugh; it happens. There are a couple more than a dozen crucial things you must know and consistently DO to make your copy as easy to read as possible. Most people know some of these things. Very few people seem to know all of them… or at least USE all of them consiste...
Ever get frustrated with what happens when you try to get an AI to write something? According to Google Workspace Labs, the average prompt people give an AI is nine words or less. Nine words! The AI needs a lot more information than that to do a decent job for you. But the question is–what information? Today, we’re going to take a look at how AI goes so very wrong for so many people—and give you some proven ideas on what to do about it. -- Here’s a great general model for prompts, which has been...
Do storytelling skills REALLY make a difference for you? Just ask our special guest today, Parker Worth. Parker decided he had enough of high school at 16. His first job was cleaning toilets. From there, he went to electrician school and, after a few years, got a job traveling around the world as an electrician. But his own story really starts to take off when he discovers social media. That led to this advice for him: “Just hop on Twitter.” At first, not much happened. But one day he got a powe...
Today we’re talking about three new ways to use ChatGPT for copywriters and business owners, and another development from another company which is a lot lower priced than ChatGPT’s a month for its premium service. We’ll also talk a little about some other specific ways to use OTHER AIs, but a lot of our focus is on ChatGPT. Now, to be clear, I wasn’t all that hot on ChatGPT 18 months ago. But in the AI world, 18 months is more like a couple of decades. Things have changed and definitely gotten b...
One meeting of the minds reigns supreme above all others in copywriting–and that’s when the copywriter understands and addresses the same thoughts that are most pressing in the minds of their best prospect. Our returning champion today is the incredible Caleb O’Dowd. He was here a few weeks ago when he told us some closely guarded secrets from his book “Monetization: How To Optimize Sales Funnels and Skyrocket Back Ends.” Caleb has worked in some of the toughest and most competitive industries i...
One of the greatest insiders in direct response today is not primarily a copywriter, but a graphic designer. Actually, our returning champion Lori Haller is a designer… and so much more. She works side by side with many of the greatest copywriters of our time to help create control-beating packages, for clients like Boardroom, Healthy Directions, Dr. Al Sears, Nutri-Health, KCI Communications, and Agora. She has coached clients around the world, and she is an in-demand speaker and trainer. I’ve ...
27 Years Ago, pop singer Cher asked us this question: “Do you believe in life after love?” … and it promptly rocketed to the top of the charts, selling 11 million copies of the song. Today, in 2025, a better question—especially for copywriters—is “Do you believe in sales without belief?” It’s a question our returning champion today, Billy Broas, has thought about a lot, and mastered the answer to. And he’s written a book about it, which I highly recommend and we’ll talk about later in the show. ...
Two of the most confrontive words in a conversation are “Prove It!” Nobody really likes to be challenged about how true what they are saying. But when it comes to writing copy in the real world, you have to expect that prospects WON’T believe you. In fact, the more they like a claim you make, the more skeptical they will be. Why? Because of human nature. And also, because they’ve been disappointed before. You can almost imagine them in a cover band, screaming at you, “We won’t be fooled again!” ...
Confidence in copywriting isn’t just about choosing the right words—it’s about embodying conviction in every line you write. In this episode, we explore the hidden ways self-doubt seeps into your messaging, sabotaging conversions before your prospects even realize why. From subconscious hesitations to subtle linguistic hedging, you’ll discover how these confidence leaks silently erode trust and diminish persuasive impact. But awareness alone isn’t enough. We’ll walk through the exact mental shif...
Today we look at an old and very true saying: It’s not about the money you make, but about the money you KEEP. There’s an old joke about a guy who loses money on every sale, but, he says, “I make it up in volume.” We’re not talking about back ends or affiliate sales here. Things can go sideways in your business if you’re not making enough sales, or your profit margins are too small. Or upside down, like the guy in the joke. But you’ve got an even a bigger problem even if you’re making enough sal...
We’re past the point of wondering about or fearing AI when it comes to copywriting. At this point, the big question is: What do I need to know, do and have to make it work for me? I say that because copywriters at all levels of skill and in all niches are using AI in all kinds of ways. It’s no longer the new new thing. It’s a part of the business, and it continues to grow in importance and ability to do more and more complex things really well. But you have to grow with it. Many people think the...
We have a very special guest today. A legend among insiders, Caleb O’Dowd is a master marketer and copywriter. He has been launching and scaling businesses from zero to seven figures and eight figures, through the smart use of great copy and strategic sales funnels. In more industries than I can count. Including some of the most brutally competitive. I was thrilled when Caleb agreed to come on Copywriters Podcast for many reasons, especially the one that he has written a new book: Monetization: ...
At the highest levels of copywriting, big financial publishers ask copywriters to do a “re-lead” when they want to increase conversion on a proven offer. What’s that? A re-lead is basically a reframing of the intro to a sales letter, in the hopes that the reframing will spur greater sales. And it’s probably no coincidence that when my mentoring clients show me copy they’re having trouble with, the first thing I look at is the headline and lead. A revamping of those two things — the beginning of ...
You could say the purpose of a sales funnel is to create desire that leads up to a sale, but these days, if that’s what you say, you’ve left out an important part. A part that very well could make the difference between a sale and no sale. With trust in general at such an all-time low and the feeling of isolation so rampant, people want a little more. They want to feel like you, as a business or a businessperson, care. Both about them personally, and the things they care about. You don’t need to...
Our returning champion is Brenna McGowan, the master of the pre-launch. Today she’s going to tell us about a special pre-launch technique called Anticipation Marketing™. Perhaps the best advantage it gives you is it puts you front and center in your prospects’ minds, and at the same time gets them eagerly looking forward to getting the full details about what you’re going to launch. Maybe even more important is that it revolves around one word: Trust. As we’ve talked about here before, and as yo...
It’s the day before the day of the night before Christmas as we put this on the air, and a very unknown year looms ahead. One thing for sure, no matter what happens: The market will be more unforgiving in 2025 than it was in 2024. Why? It’s simple. Competition keeps growing. So does impatience among almost all consumers, and mistrust among many of them. What this means to you, as a copywriter, is now more than ever, you can’t afford to do a half-assed job on your copy. Sounds pretty bleak and te...
So, we’re right in the middle of the Christmas shopping season as we come to you this week, and I’m wondering: Have you figured out how to delight your customers and fatten up your bank account? If you haven’t you’re not alone. Many copywriters and businesses don’t know exactly what to do to join in the holiday buying and selling fun… so they don’t do anything. Which is a shame, because there’s a ton of people out there just looking for a good excuse to buy something. So this podcast is my gift ...
For the copywriting word of the year, I’d like to nominate the word “authenticity.” It’s a big deal right now. People talk about it a lot. I will give you an example on today’s show of how an accidental Facebook ad created more engagement than anything else I’ve ever seen. I went over the ad with my clients and we figured out that it was the way they used authenticity in the writing of it that touched so many people and inspired so much response. These days, slick marketing is on a steep decline...
Have you ever heard a song and thought, “Dang! How did they do that? I wish my copy was that catchy!” Well, Nathan and I have thought the same thing and in fact pondered the similarities between writing a song and writing copy. You see, we’re both songwriters. We stoutly assert that we are both amateurs at this. At one point, music was Nathan’s business. I never got that far. It’s always been just a hobby for me. But I have studied and tried intently. Just turned out that wasn’t my path. However...
Ever wonder why some copywriters consistently crush it while others struggle to get conversions? This episode dives deep into the Five Stages of Copywriter Awareness—a transformative framework that shows the path from instinctive, mediocre copy to breakthrough results. If you’ve ever felt like your copy was missing something, this episode will pinpoint exactly where you’re stuck and how to advance. Starting at Stage One, you’ll learn why writing based solely on your own perspective often falls f...
Once you’ve finished your copy, the anxiety begins. And it almost always boils down to the answer to this question: How good is this copy–really? When people ask me to critique their copy, they’re often amazed at how quickly I can get to the heart of things. Once I have an overall opinion, I’ll drill down to a lot of specifics. But I think it’s important today not to talk about those specifics, but instead to talk about that quick take. How do you know if it’s any good to begin with? I’m going t...
Today we’re going to do another episode of “Just because it’s a story, it’s not a hero’s journey story.” What I mean by that is, many people have been misleading copywriters and salespeople for a while now. Saying, if you’re going to tell a story, it’s got to be a hero’s journey story. As you may know, in my book The Persuasion Story Code, I show 25 types of stories that are decidedly NOT hero’s journeys. That actually come from successful sales letters and other direct response copy. That you c...
It’s become so common we don’t even think about sometimes, but subscription products have really taken over our world in a way no one could ever have predicted. And along with them, new demands and new opportunities for copywriting. If you look at the past, you’ll see a lot of promotions were based on a single sale, with the copywriter or the business HOPING that the customer might buy the upsell. These days, recurring revenue is just a matter-of-fact business model. The question is, how do you ...
If you would like your lead magnets to perform better and get you more qualified prospects and customers, wouldn’t it make sense to look at the most popular form of engagement in the world for some clues? I’m talking about video games. According to the sports and gaming platform Sportskeeda, last year gaming was a $396 billion industry. Movies, $284 billion and music, only $28 billion. Marketing logic tells us that video games are so popular because they give people something they want that mayb...
Four months ago, I was completely skeptical about AI and how it would ever fit into copywriting. I saw a post on LinkedIn by Brian Halpin, a copywriter working in Jason Parker’s agency. Brian talked about some unbelievable results, nearly one million in sales, that they had gotten with a VSL that was 80% written by AI. I’ve known Jason for more than 10 years, and Brian’s post piqued my interest. Jason agreed to come onto the podcast to talk about what he was doing. Nathan insisted we bring Jason...
The term “cult” has become such a loaded word lately. People who aren’t members of certain groups call the groups a cult, and the members of those groups resent and deny it. Yet, are all cults bad? Maybe some are, maybe some aren’t. But on today’s show, Nathan Fraser is going to talk about a special kind of cult that, in his view, is not only GOOD — but actually necessary to the survival of some of his clients. We’ve got to admit, these are not what you usually think of when you hear the word “c...
Ever wonder how to set yourself, your product, or your business apart? It’s a big puzzle these days. The best general advice I’ve heard is from recent podcast guest Scott Zetlan: “Different is better than better.” It almost sounds silly, but in the super-competitive marketplace, where products live in the real world, it’s not silly at all. It’s actually profound. Because here’s what it means: When you can show something DIFFERENT about what you’re offering that MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE to your pr...
Job one for a copywriter is getting and keeping attention. We always give that our best shot. But there are some situations where you need to do this more intensely, and you don’t want to come across like a screaming insane person yelling loudly just to get attention. So we need to come up with some unusual techniques, to increase the intensity without pushing our prospects away. That’s what today’s show is about. I’ve identified five unusual copy techniques that are especially helpful for cold ...
