TCC Podcast #277: Writing Magnetic Copy and Creating a Signature Framework with Erin Pennings

Our guest on the 277th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast is Erin Pennings. Erin is a B2B storyteller and marketing strategist who has nailed a framework to help others write their own websites with ease. Creating a captivating website can be a daunting task (for copywriters and other business owners alike), and Erin reveals how to simplify the process.

Here’s how the episode breaks down:

• The transition from the tourism sector to copywriter.
• The early days of Facebook and LinkedIn and how Erin used it to her advantage.
• How where you start may not be where you end up. – Writer beginnings.
• Steps to finding your x-factor.
• 2 things that you’ll discover in exploring your x-factor.
• How to create a framework and processes and how it will help your business.
• How Erin divides her business into DFY and DWY offers.
• The process Erin uses to get website copy written in a week.
• Are live review edits the next big thing? How they can speed up the writing and editing phases.
• Utilizing a checklist for evaluating website copy.
• The transition, the struggles, and the mindset blocks that come from starting up a group program.
• How Erin’s group program students get their website copy done in 21 days.
• Mistakes copywriters make on their own websites plus how to navigate them.
• Building your email list and ramping up your lead generation.
• How to build boundaries around your life while being a yes person.
• Using your CEO days to get the most out of your time.
• Building a sustainable business – taking time off and getting paid for it.
• Her experience inside The Accelerator and transitioning into the Think Tank.

Tune into the episode by hitting the play button below or reading the transcript.

The people and stuff we mentioned on the show:

Kira’s website
Rob’s website
The Copywriter Club In Real Life Event
The Copywriter Club Facebook Group
The Copywriter Underground
Erin’s website
Grace’s website
Episode 154
Episode 262 

Full Transcript:

Rob:  A lot of copywriters write web copy for their clients, which is pretty natural because so many of our clients need help with their websites. But what about writing copy for your own website? That’s a bit trickier. In fact, we’ve talked with hundreds, and I’m not exaggerating that number, hundreds of copywriters who are perfectly comfortable writing web copy for their clients, but can’t seem to get past the blank page when it comes to their own website. You might be able to relate.

Our guest for this episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast is Erin Pennings. Erin created a framework that makes the writing of web copy, that whole process a lot easier, even when working on copy for our own businesses. And she shares that framework, plus some ideas about frameworks, live edits and a whole lot more in our interview today. You’ll want to stay tuned for this one, but before we get to Kira and me talking with Erin, my co-host here to add a few thoughts in today’s episode is Grace Baldwin, and Grace is a B2B SaaS copywriter brand strategist who works to help B2B SaaS startups with niche solutions to big problems, helping them tell stories that connect with their audience.

She’s an awesome copywriter, has a great newsletter. Welcome, Grace.

Grace:  Hi, Rob. I’m super excited to be here. Thanks for having me on.

Rob:  I am thrilled to have you here. We haven’t talked in a little while, so it’s just good hanging out with you for a few minutes anyway.

Grace:  Nice to catch up.

Rob:  So, before we dig into the episode, we need to remind you this episode is sponsored by The Copywriter Club in Real Life. That’s our in-person event that’s happening later next month, March 28th through the 30th in Nashville, Tennessee. The room’s really filling up. We only have about 200 seats in the room. It can’t be expanded, and there are a lot of copywriters there that you are going to know. You may have heard of. People who are speaking include Mike Kim, Brian Speronello, Bridget Lyon, Ash Chow, Linda Perry. We have copywriters like Annie Becher and Anna Hetzel, who are organizing a fun run with free t-shirts. And, I was just looking over the people who were actually just attending to attend, and they include people like Sarah Greesonbach, Kevin Rogers, Rachel Mazza, Jen Robbins, Brittany McBean, Kim Schwalm and even Grace Baldwin.

Grace:  Yes, I’m super excited about it. I can’t wait.

Rob:  If you want to hang out with all of these awesome people and about 170 others just like them, you can find the details and the link in the show notes to this episode of the podcast. Make sure you don’t miss out. It’s going to be an awesome, awesome event.

Grace:  You really won’t want to miss out. I went to the Not in Real Life event last year and it was a game changer. And so, I’m so excited for actually meeting everybody in real life this year. So, hope to see you there. It was really cool last year.

Rob:  Yeah, and last year had a lot of really good content but we couldn’t really do the one-to-one relationships and hanging out in the hallway or going to dinner together, and so we’re thrilled to be back live, doing it all over again. This will actually be the first time that I get to meet you in person, Grace, which will be really cool.

Grace:  Yeah, it’ll be weird but also very … I don’t know, it’s going to be very cool after a year of meeting over Zoom to actually see what you look like in person.

Rob:  Exactly. So again, check out the show notes for this episode. You can get your ticket. There really are literally less than 10 VIP tickets left and somewhere around 50 tickets to the event itself left. So if you’ve been thinking about it, jump on those because they’re going to be gone soon. All right, Grace. So, let’s jump in and listen to our interview here with Erin Pennings.

Erin:  I have been copywriting for longer than I ever realized. I had this picture in my head that copywriters were mad men style agency people from the 50s, and I didn’t really, for a long time, understand that what I was doing in a lot of my jobs was copywriting. But from the time that I worked in Alaska tourism to global tourism, and then back into bookmarking, it was all copywriting. It was all figuring out the right angle to get people to open emails. What made a good story? What people needed to believe in order to take action, whatever that action was. So, when I went out on my own and hung my proverbial shingle almost three years ago, it was “Okay, I’m going to do something with marketing, but what is it?” And then, I found copywriting. I’m like, “Hey, that’s what I’ve always done.” And holy cow, I can bring skills that I’ve been honing for the last 15 plus years and really help people make money and build their business and make a difference in their business.

Rob:  So, Erin, did I hear you right? You said you worked in Alaska tourism?

Erin:  Yeah. I grew up in Alaska in a really small touristy town. We had a ski resort and that’s the main business of the town was a ski resort in the winter and then in the summer, it was tourism. So, it was this natural thing that my first several jobs all were in hospitality from running a gift shop and actually doing sales, and some of it was on high end artwork, and then working in high end restaurants throughout college. It progressed from there. I’ve done everything from being the tour director on the front of the bus to promoting local tours.

Rob:  So now I want to tour. I want to hear the tourist spiel.

Erin:  I don’t know if I can do that. It was really funny because I’d hop up in the front of the bus and I’d put on this persona. It was still me, but it was a different person than the person that you’d interact with on a day-to-day basis. We could talk about anything from where we were going that day to fun and weird stories.

Kira:  What do you miss the most about Alaska? Because, I know you are no longer there. What are some of the specifics that you miss?

Erin:  A lot of it, I miss the people. There’s this unique, independent spirit of … Everyone is mostly fine with people being who they are. And, I can’t really quantify that with words. It’s a lot of you do you and that’s cool. I’m going to do me. So, there’s something about that that I have not found anywhere else that I’ve lived, and I’ve lived in some other places. That’s number one. But number two is summers. Man, you can’t beat summers in Alaska with