Copywriters Podcast

David Garfinkel
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Copywriting lessons from David Garfinkel

  1. 4d ago

    Old Masters Series: Robert Collier

    He is known for one of the most famous sayings in copywriting: “Enter the conversation already going on in the prospect’s mind.” Yet most copywriters don’t know much about him, or even who he is. That would be Robert Collier, who introduced the concept to copywriting 90 years ago, when he published The Robert Collier Letter Book. I first learned about the book from Gary Halbert, more than 30 years ago. Halbert said it was one of a handful of books every copywriter needs to read. Robert Collier himself used direct mail to sell all kinds of stuff. He sold raincoats for $14.65 by mail. Made-to-measure suits for $37.50. Sets of books. Magazine subscriptions.  And Collier tested everything. When a letter worked, he wanted to know why. When it flopped, he wanted to know that, too. The Robert Collier Letter Book is where he showcased his work. You get a chance to look at what he wrote, and read about the reasoning behind his decisions. We went through the book and pulled out seven lessons. Each one starts with Collier's own words and then we'll talk about what each lesson means for you, today, whether you’re writing Facebook ads, youtube scripts, or full-fledged sales letters. RESOURCES: The Robert Collier Letter Book https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GKQPG89G   The Persuasion Story Code https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFD2KXNQ

  2. Aug 31

    Back To School For Copywriters

    Somewhere near you, right now, there's a store with a whole aisle of spiral notebooks marked down to 79 cents. The gargantuan engines of the big yellow buses are getting tuned up or are already tuned up and ready to roll.  Pencils are getting sharpened.  And millions of kids are about to get something most adults never get anymore: A fresh start. A new year of learning. Think about that. Students get new supplies, new subjects, new teachers. All kinds of fun, and discovery, and spitballs from the back of the class. Meanwhile, what do we get? Nothing. As copywriters and business owners, we just keep working. Sadly, for us, there's no first day where everything smells like fresh pencil shavings and great possibilities. Unless, of course, we build that first day ourselves. So today, we're going back to school, but in a WAY different way than you did when you were a kid. Everything on the agenda is designed to do one of two things: either sharpen a skill you use to make money, or refresh your imagination that is so vital to the work we do. SUMMARY 1. Recess - Buy something fun from an ecommerce site and take notes on every piece of messaging. - Buy something else and enjoy it without taking a single note. - Take a real walk with no phone, no podcast, no earbuds. If you are a fan of situational awareness, you would be in condition yellow. 2. School Supplies - Pay for at least one AI subscription and actually use it. - Start a swipe file, or clean out the one you already have. - Get a real notebook and a pen you actually like to use. 3. Books - Read Obvious Adams, by Robert Updegraff.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T14VCJE - Read a bestseller — something easy and fun. - Read one of my books: Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00513MQ2G/Breakthrough Copywritinghttps://www.amazon.com/dp/1548706957 The Persuasion Story Codehttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFD2KXNQ 4. Extra Curricular Activities - Go out to a movie and pay attention to the people, the film, and the marketing. - Hand-copy some pages of fiction and some great copy, to get a sense of the rhythm and feel. - Interview one real customer and write down their exact words. 5. Free Time - Learn to turn your brain off from work. - Binge-watch something on Netflix. - Listen to a new kind of music just to rattle or soothe your brain.

  3. Aug 24

    Protecting Your Freelance Business, With Copywriter Kim Krause Schwalm

    How do you make the transition from having a job to being a freelance copywriter? Or, maybe more to the point, if you’re already a freelancer, how do you do what you do and get all the advantages of being a business? Most copywriters don’t know. It took me years to find out and figure it out myself. Today we’re going to drastically shorten the learning curve for a lot of listeners. Our returning champion is Kim Krause Schwalm. Not only has she made this transition–from Publisher to freelancer–herself, getting established as a top A-list copywriting and making millions of dollars for her freelance clients… But Kim has also mentored dozens of copywriters, marketers, and business owners. She knows what it takes to get the best of both worlds–having a job, and having your own business–and she has helped many other people enjoy those advantages. Today, she’s going to share those secrets. Resources:Kim’s book Client Badassery Secrets is available in print or as an e-book from Amazon and other online booksellers.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGV7MZ8P And to find out more about Kim’s copywriting trainings or to get on her email list, go to www.KimSchwalm.com.

  4. Aug 17

    The Magic Power of DON’T

    Nathan came up with the idea for this show, and it started, of all places, in his mom’s kitchen. Here’s what happened:  If Mom says dinner will be ready in 30 minutes, Nathan is much less likely to go digging through the fridge. So if she wanted to stop him from digging through the fridge, she wouldn’t have to say a word about the fridge. She could just start cooking dinner. Think about that for a second. No argument. No lecture. No “get out of the fridge.” Just one piece of information—and an entire behavior stops in its tracks. When Nathan told me this, I had one of those moments where you realize you’ve been looking at something really important your whole career, without ever really seeing it. By that I mean, the insanely simple power of copy to STOP you from doing something. Here’s why I didn’t see that: Every copywriting formula out there is built to do the opposite. To get someone to START a behavior. To push people toward taking action. But there’s a whole nother side of influence that almost nobody in our business talks about.  Not because it doesn’t work. It does. People don’t talk about it because it’s never been named and explained. Today, we’re gonna change all that. We’re talking about using copy to DISsuade people – to STOP a behavior that’s standing between your prospect and the sale (or between your son and his dinner). We’re going to look at how this technique works, why it’s so powerful, and how you can add it to your skill set, today.

  5. Aug 10

    The Master Key To Persuasion

    I was rummaging around on youtube when I came across this video with an outrageous claim: “This book literally teaches you to think like a Harvard lawyer.” My skepticism shot into high gear, but when I watched the video, from a youtube educator named Stephan L. Petro, I saw he was on the level. I’ll tell you about the book in a minute. It’s really valuable for any copywriter, because it will help you sharpen up your sales argument quite a bit. But more important, it has one idea called “the bridge” which most experienced copywriters do automatically but most beginners miss out on–and this idea can make all the difference between whether your copy works. Now, we’re not lawyers, but in some ways we do the same thing, so it will be worthwhile to find out more about this book and what it means to us as copywriters. Resources The Uses of Argument, by Stephen E. Toulmin https://www.amazon.com/Uses-Argument-Stephen-Toulmin/dp/0521534836 The Persuasion Story Code https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFD2KXNQ

  6. Aug 3

    More Screenwriting Secrets For Copywriters

    This week I had a great conversation with a Hollywood screenwriting coach and screenwriter himself, and it reminded me about how much people in Hollywood know that copywriters can learn and use. One of his most important points was there are structures that make stories work. Not rigid formulas or two-dimensional templates, but guidelines with benchmarks that have proven time and time again to act as a container for great stories. I was reminded that we’re not always talking hero’s journey when we look at stories. I went back into some of my own research and found some more micro-story structures that we as copywriters can adapt to make our own copy that much more compelling. We did this a couple months ago when we talked about The Dark Knight, Inception and Rocky. Today I’ve got three new story types that will add a little Hollywood intrigue to our sales letters, sales funnels, websites and VSLs.  Really, to any type of copy. RESOURCE: The Persuasion Story Code https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFD2KXNQ

  7. Jul 27

    Old Masters Series, Advertising’s Founder, Albert Lasker Part 3

    Today we’re continuing with Part 3 of our Old Masters Series, focusing on the contributions of Albert Lasker.  That’s because in 1898, Albert Lasker arrived in Chicago to work at Lord and Thomas, which he took over in only a few years. And what Lasker and the copywriters he hired would do over the next 10 years would change the course of advertising. We’ve covered lessons in Parts 1 and 2 of this Old Masters Series. Particularly, lessons for direct-response marketers. Today we’re going to cover the last four lessons and then broaden our lens, because Lasker in fact had major and lasting impacts on our CULTURE, and he hasn’t gotten all that much credit for it as far as I’ve been able to tell. So now’s the perfect time, since I think you’ll find some of the most important changes he caused to be interesting and possibly very useful in your own world. Resources: The Man Who Sold America, by Jeffrey L. Cruikshank and Arthur W Schultz  https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Sold-America-Advertising-ebook/dp/B003SNJYTY The Persuasion Story Code https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFD2KXNQ

  8. Jul 20

    Will AI Shopping Make Copywriting Obsolete?

    The world of copywriting and ecommerce almost changed forever last September 29, when Open AI launched something called Instant Checkout. This new service was designed to let you seamlessly buy something right from Chat GPT. Instant Checkout crashed and burned over the next six months for a number of reasons. One, the infrastructure wasn’t there to let it happen. It was launched before there were enough figurative runways, air traffic control towers, connections between Chat GPT and merchants, and other things like that. Two, the cost to merchants was really out of line:7% per transaction, more than double what they were paying when customers came directly to their site. They shut it down in March. Not forever; just, for now. So Instant Checkout was an early attempt at what’s called Agentic Shopping, where you order right from the AI and an AI agent does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. We’re most likely 3-5 years out from Agentic Shopping becoming a widespread reality. But when it does, our world as copywriters will change. In a big way. We’re going to look at how, and what you can do to prepare for this inevitable future, today.

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Copywriting lessons from David Garfinkel

Information

  • Creator
    David Garfinkel
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    490
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © David Garfinkel
  • Show Website
    Copywriters Podcast

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