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You may have heard this before. Or maybe you haven’t.

Either way, it’s a summary.

… of the 3 things you need to do, to become an amazing copywriter who consistently writes pieces that are explosively successful… AND who maintains their status as “top notch” copywriter.

It’s about as good a summary as I’ve seen.

And if you’re even THINKING of thinking of trying to get better at copywriting, here is THE way forward for you.

What?

This:

“Ground yourself in the true fundamentals of marketing…heighten your awareness of what’s working NOW…and continually capture ideas, headlines, thoughts, techniques, etc.” -Gary Halbert (One of the greatest ever copywriters) 

See?

3 things.

(1) Learn the fundamentals. And here’s my addition to Gary’s advice: continually remind yourself of the fundamentals. Don’t just read through Claude Hopkins’ Scientific Advertising once, and assume that you’ve “got it.” Read through it once a year. Personally, I read through one of Gary Bencivenga’s “Marketing Bullets” (go google them if you don’t know what they are) once every day. As a continual reminder to myself of the fundamentals.

(2) Educate yourself on the tactics that are working NOW. i.e. Figure out all the latest and coolest techniques on how to up your webinar response. And how to get people to show up to your webinars. And don’t always poo-poo (as I’m personally prone to doing) the people who talk about some awesome new technique they discovered for getting Facebook Ads to convert twice as much. At least listen to them… weigh their “discoveries” against your knowledge of the fundamentals… try it out… and if it works, awesome. It may not work a year from now. But at least it works now.

(3) Always be looking for new “hooks,” and inspiration for your copy. When you’re watching movies. When you’re reading books. When you’re walking around your neighborhood. When you’re talking with friends. Keep a notebook handy, or a place in your phone where you can jot thoughts down. Great hooks for copy don’t always come when you want or expect them to. So be prepared for the moments when you’re NOT expecting them… but they come in a flash.

And then, you will become (and remain) a truly great copywriter.

For goodness sake…

Stop trying to be so fancy in your emails!

Yes, I know.

… I know that when you see all those fancy features – templates, and gizmos, and graphics, and “If-then” conditions in MailChimp, or InfusionSoft – you get all insecure. And you feel like you’re obviously making a huge mistake if you’re not using all that stuff. Obviously it’s there because if you use it, it’ll improve your email marketing. So obviously you need to grab as many of those fancy features as you can, and stuff them into your emails.

…right?

…

NO.

No no nono nononownononwonfoeinfowneofjpwoeijfopiwejfoewjfiopjewpofjweofijewopifjpoewjifoewpjf

…

Trust me.

It’s fine.

Ignore ’em. Skip all the fancy templates… and scroll down to that “Plain Text” template. Write some words. Sign email. Send.

Bam.

But…

Why is this?

• Why is it better to keep it simple… and ignore the fancy features?
• Why are the features there in the first place, if you shouldn’t use them?
• And when should you make an *exception*… and actually try using the fancy features?

Answers forthcoming.

But I need to write an email for one of my clients right now.

More soon.

K bye.

If you’re going to run an A/B test…

… say on 2 different subject lines, or 2 headlines for a landing page, or 2 AdWords ads…

Never EVER test 2 slightly varied pieces. That’s really easy to do. And tempting. And it appeals to your inner-lazy. And you’ve heard the gurus blabber about how they once tested a eensy-weensy variation on a page… and got a 6,000% boost in conversion.

Despite all this…

Don’t do that. Don’t test what the Conversion Rate Experts call “meek tweaks.” If you do that, you’ve already failed the test before you’ve even run it.

Instead…

You should ALWAYS test radically different, big, BOLD variations on a headline. Or subject line. Or landing page. Because when you test big, bold changes… you have a much bigger, bolder chance of getting bigger, bolder results with one of the variations.

i.e…

This would be a terrible A/B test:

Subject line A: “I can’t believe I’m doing this…”
Subject line B: “I can’t believe I’m doing this sale…” 

Why?

Because the variation is so small.

Just 1 word changed.

Better:

Subject line A: “I can’t believe I’m doing this…”
Subject line B: “People are telling me I’m insane for running this sale…” 

Even better:

Subject line A: “I can’t believe I’m doing this…” 
Subject line B: “I might go broke soon. Here’s why…” 

Even better:

Subject line A: “I can’t believe I’m doing this…”
Subject line B: “The quest for true life ends here” 

See?

Test big changes.

And by that last example…

You can probably see why it’s the most extreme change: the idea underneath the subject line… the “hook,” the angle I take to try to sell the email is 100% different than variation A.

Test changes like that. Not “meek tweaks.”

If novel-writing is an art…

Copywriting is a science.

It’s calculated. Formulaic. Measurement-based. Feedback-driven.

That being said…

Truly great scientists… and truly great artists… they both know that when you become great at either craft, the ‘neat’ lines separating these two fields begin to blur. Art becomes science. And science art.

Thus…

Great copywriting combines both science and art.

Yes, it’s calculated. But you need more than cold calculations. You need compelling, vivid pictures painted with your words. You need living, breathing, powerful metaphors. And you need to craft phrases that are more than the output of some dead formula.

With this in mind…

Be on the lookout for great phrases. Phrases that make you stop, and smile.

Phrases that seem to ‘open up’ your soul, so that fresh air can come in.

I was recently listening to a song…

And in it, the singer has a line where he’s trying to communicate the thought, “we fear silence.”

But instead…

He used a phrase that was wonderful. And captured my attention. And opened up my soul.

He said, “we fear the space between our breaths.”

Be on the lookout for phrases like that.

Learn to notice them. Write them down.

Return to them.

Sit with them.

Appreciate them.

And in time, you’ll learn to create them yourself.

I’ve had clients who wrongly assumed that because their offer was *so* good, their audience would immediately recognize how much of a ‘no-brainer’ buying that particular product was. And so my clients failed to give the product the promotion it needed. They expected the product to “sell itself.” And then it didn’t.

Basically…

Don’t do that.

If your offer is truly amazing, SHOW your audience that it’s amazing!

Don’t just expect them to ‘see’ it and magically ‘get’ it.

Explain in detail everything they’re getting.

List it all out.

Don’t be afraid of length; say it all.

Explain to your audience why this offer is such a great deal.

…or else your product may end up in that graveyard of products which were good, and which were packaged in good offers… but which never saw the light of day because no one ever explained to potential buyers why the products were so good.

Copywriting tip for the holidays:

Know that there’s more important stuff out there than copywriting. More important stuff than your sales metrics.

And truly…

The best copywriters are deeply interested in things totally unrelated to copywriting.

And truly…

It helps them write better copy, to have other hobbies. And other interests. Because when they do other things, it gives the copywriting part of their brain rest. Which is necessary… if you want that part of your brain to stay happy, and healthy, and alive, and fresh.

So go enjoy your family. Your friends. Pursue God. Eat good food. Drink eggnog.

It’ll be good for your copywriting. And your soul.

This will be my shortest post yet:

No.

Email marketing is not dead.

To quote Perry Marshall…

Email marketing is *still* the center of the marketing universe at the onset of 2018. It’s far from dead. It will not die in the foreseeable future. It is all-important. It is worth mastering. It is more important than your “social media.” If you pay attention to how online political campaigning runs these days… you’ll notice that when Trump (for example) wants to rile people up, he uses social media. But when he wants to raise money, he uses email. There’s a reason it happens this way.

You can heave a big sigh of relief. Because the trick that I’m about to reveal… for driving your email opens through the roof… is neither hypey, deceptive, nor manipulative(as many “tricks” for improving open rates tend to be…).

That’s why it’s so great.

The trick is to refer to something that’s globally trending in your subject line. And even better if the trending topic is NOT intuitively related to your product/business. Like if you write about copywriting… and you use “Bitcoin” in your subject line. Like I did in the headline for this post. Not intuitively connected. And so open rates will soar… because people will be curious about why *you* would be sending them an email about “Bitcoin,” or “Trump,” or “Brexit,” or whatever the trending topic may be at the time. And then… *click*

Just make sure the trend is really big… and that the vast majority of your readers actually know about it.

And also make sure that you meaningfully relate your email to whatever trending topic you choose. Or you’ll do more harm than good. (See my post about the terrible things that happen if you fail to “pay off” your subject lines) For good examples of trend-riding subject lines that actually get paid off in the email body… go sign up for Ben Settle’s email list. He does this kind of thinger masterfully.

And now that you’ve learned another piece of sage copywriting wisdom…

Go get ’em, Tiger!

In copywriting…

“P.S.” doesn’t stand for “Post Scriptum.”

It stands for “Pebble in Shoe.”

Let me explain…

The best  “P.S.” sections are the ones that throw a pebble in your shoe. So that as you walk away from the email… or the sales letter… you can’t stop thinking about the offer you were exposed to. Because every step you take, the little pebble in your shoe jabs you. Reminding you of the pebble’s (read: “offer’s”) existence:

Step… Step… Step…

Ouch… Ouch… Ouch…

So how do you do this?

How do you “throw a pebble in your reader’s shoe” with your P.S. section?

One of my favorite ways is to add one final, concise, well-crafted pitch. Dig deep into the reader’s pain point one more time, concisely… or maybe confront one of their lingering objections head on… and then re-state the offer. And make it sound kind of “ultimatum-ish”:

P.S. If you’re still unsure about whether this is for you… I totally get it.

But let me say one last thing: the proof is in the pudding. My students are out there KILLING it. And they were NOT that good when they started. Just ask them; what they accomplished, they accomplished through this program.

…and if they can do it, so can you. I fully believe that. So let’s sign you up before I end my special offer tonight. Click here to sign up.

Get the idea?

That’s not the only way you can effectively use your “P.S.” section – but it’s one of my favorites.

If you want to try using your “P.S.” to do something else, that’s fine.

Just remember the goal of this section:

You’re trying to leave the reader with one, final “sticky” thought that’s gonna swish around in their minds as they walk away… and eventually cause them to come back to the letter, pick up their phone, and dial the number.

So I repeat…

In copywriting, “P.S.” doesn’t stand for “Post Scriptum.”

It stands for “Pebble in Shoe.”