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Engaging Customers and Building Community with Copywriting and Content Marketing

12 Great Copywriters To Follow Right Now

June 2, 2014 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

12 Great Copywriters To Follow Right Now

copywriters to follow Copywriters read.

Besides actually sitting down and writing, it’s the only way to get good at writing.

Do you read good copy online, save swipe files, and even collect impressive direct mail pieces? Are you doing everything you can to understand how to get your message across and convert visitors into customers?

If not, start by reading copywriters who are really, really, really good at making things happen. I write, and read about writing daily, so I know who the great ones are. I’m sharing my list  of the best-of-the-best copywriters so you can do the same.

While they ‘re all drop-dead great, they each have their own style that comes from years of perfecting their craft.

Want some writing inspiration? Add a few of these writers’ blogs to your Feedly, or follow some on Twitter. Whatever you do, get your hands on some of their copy and study it!

I originally set out to write up a short description of why each writer is good, but instead decided to let their writing stand for itself. You’ll find links below to some of my favorite copywriters to follow — even some whose work isn’t commonly found online — and the best writing found on their websites, sales pages, emails, or guest blog posts.

So, without further ado, here’s the latest of the best copywriting around today.

Challenge: Bet you can’t NOT click something, do something they recommend, or at least change your mind about writing copy as you read their stuff. Oh, you’re going to love this.

1. Sandi Krakowski @sandikrakowski

An active blogger and teacher, Sandi was also my copywriting mentor for a spell. It was amazing having her keen eyes on my writing during our 6-month mentorship. She’s lots of fun, and always inspirational, too. Here’s a recent sample of her prolific blog: Where Should Most Of Your Activity Be In your Business Online?

2. Gary Bencivenga:

The landing page to sign up for the Marketing Bullets newsletter shows off this copywriter’s talent.

3. Bob Bly

Consider Bob Bly’s portfolio a swipe file of great copy. He’s an prolific, working copywriter who holds workshops, too!

4. Joanna Wiebe @copyhackers

…breaks it down for you and she’s an unapologetic sales person who’s into testing copy. Love her.

5. Brian Clark @BrianClark

Founder of Copyblogger…Not sure if he’s actively writing copy anymore, but he produces material and products related to copywriting and infomarketing. Bet you’re already following him, too!

6. Sonia Simone @soniasimone

She helps people who hate marketing, and delights people who do.

copywriters to follow Dan Kennedy7. Dan Kennedy

The head of GKIC, and accessible mostly through his courses and products, you can still check out books like The Ultimate Sales Letter, and the No BS Marketing series of books.

8. John Carlton @johncarlton007 (tweets like never, so don’t bother)

…but he has a great blog, The Rant.

9. Mark Ford/Michael Masterson

Under the pen name Michael Masterson, he developed a thorough copywriting course for AWAI called The Accelerated Program for 6-Figure Copywriting. (I recommend it, and if you’re on the email list, sometimes you can even get if for 50% off…no affiliation here.) Mark Ford still writes occasionally for EarlyToRise, and writes books on entrepreneurship.

10. Richard Armstrong

“Why bother reading this long and self-aggrandizing letter?” Because it’s good…and you’ll want the Free Sample Book

11. Demian Farnworth @demianfarnworth

I always want to put an “s” between the “n” and “f” in his last name, but there’s not. His writing rocks. Not social on Twitter, but he promotes his stuff there and on Copyblogger and here.

12. James Chartrand  …is really a she, and her blog Men with Pens entertains. She writes copy and designs pretty websites. 

Hope you enjoy these folks if you’re new to copywriting. Seasoned veterans, please share writers who trip your trigger in the comments below!

Filed Under: Copywriting Tagged With: best of copywriters, Bob Bly, Brian Clark, copywriter list, copywriters, copywriting, Dan Kennedy, Demian Farnworth, Gary Bencivenga, James Chartrand, Joanna Wiebe, John Carlton, Mark Ford, Richard Armstrong, Sandi Krakowski, Sonia Simone, swipe file

Three Ways Copywriting Is Like Riding A Bull

September 5, 2013 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

Three Ways Copywriting Is Like Riding A Bull

copywriting and bullridingA few seconds is all you get.

Not that I’ve ever actually ridden a bull — even a friendly one. (I’ve heard it’s hell on a manicure.)

Been to many a rodeo, though, where they save the toughest event for last: Bull riding.

A bull rider gets eight seconds to prove himself. If he stays on the bull for 8 seconds, while the bull snorts, kicks and tries to throw him, his ride qualifies. During those 8 seconds, the rider can’t touch the ground (“hit the ground” is more like it); he can’t touch the bull with his free hand, and his rope hand has to stay in the rope.

Copywriters get less time than that. Three full seconds before the reader (the ultimate judge) decides whether to toss you or stick with you.

(I can almost hear you laughing right now. I must fancy myself as some tough little lady, because God planted in me an appreciation for traditional guy-stuff. I don’t know why I love rodeos, car races and boxing…I just do.)

Let’s keep with that bull and see if there’s a correlation to the dangerous sport of copywriting 😆  — and how readers tacitly score you:

First: You must keep control of the bull. You have to stay ON the bull. You can’t touch the ground. Writers have one purpose: to keep the reader engaged. It helps to stick with one message, one big idea. Your butt can leave the saddle, and you can spur the reader on with barbs of humor, arguments, bullet points and stories. But your main job is to ride one bull till the end. No switching bulls midway. (I’d like to see one of those tough-as-nails dudes do that trick!)

Next: You can’t touch the bull. This is referred to as a “slap” and will get you disqualified. Ever notice how the rider keeps that hand high in the air — as far away from the bull as possible? Again, it’s a control thing. If his arm gets whipped around so much that it slaps the bull’s body (or the rider’s own body), he loses. Writing is like keeping an upright position on a bull. Keeping an “upper hand” means maintaining a consistent tone, keeping spelling errors in check, respecting the different positions of your audience, and leading them to an easy conclusion.

Last: The riding hand (the one that’s holding on) can’t come free from the rope. Commitment, practice, tenacity — you need these to write every day. (Callouses don’t hurt either!) If you can keep a reader riveted for more than three seconds, it’s sign that you’ve been at it awhile.

There will be moments when you won’t want to keep your grasp on that promise you made yourself to write.

But don’t let go. Keep writing in spite of all the distractions, the dizzying exceptions to the rules, the fierce competition, and the trauma of spinning “down in the well” of writer’s block.

One ride does not a bull rider make. Neither can you judge your writing ability on one blog post, email or article. Some of it is going to be crap, let’s face it. And when it is, just get back in the saddle and try again.

A final note: In bull riding, the bull also gets scored. Changes in direction, kicking height, and spin all factor into the ride’s degree of difficulty. A dull bull can negatively affect the rider’s score, sometimes resulting in a do-over. Writers aren’t so lucky. 😉

Brush yourself off. Get back in the saddle. You’ll get another three seconds again real soon. Yeeee-ha!

Always open to weird metaphors…what’s your copywriting challenge like for you? 

 

Filed Under: Copywriting Tagged With: bull riding, bulls, copywriters, copywriting, copywriting tips, cowboys, eight seconds, practice writing, reader attention, riding a bull, rodeos, sport of writing, tenacity in copywriting, tough audience, tough crowd, writing, writing lessons, writing tips

Mobile + Email + Content + Talent = 2013 Small Business Edge

January 1, 2013 by jennifer mcgahan 2 Comments

mobile and email, the perfect small business mixIt’s the beginning of 2013 and the perfect storm is brewing for small business. Mobile + email + great content + available creative talent.

 

You don’t need a vast marketing department to make the most all of these variables and get your message out. It doesn’t have to be that hard. You can use simple tools and guidelines to make your email more readable on smartphones and tablets. You can learn tricks to get people to click through to your website easily on their mobile gadgets. You can send email without a lot of fuss and expense. In a matter of weeks you could be in your customer’s pocket. Literally!  

Now that you understand the power of mobile + email, how do you get people interested and keep them coming back? It takes content and people to write and design it.

The third factor in the perfect storm: Content, content, content. No one even reads traditional ad copy anymore. The whiff of “Look how great I am” advertising repels customers like weevils in white rice. Why should anyone blindly believe you? They need proof, and that means providing content: information, your rare brand of it, your particular take. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Email Tagged With: content creation, copy, copywriters, copywriting, creative jobs, creative talent, design, graphic designers, marketing for small business, mobile apps, mobile email, perfect storm, small business

F1 Afterglow And Its Affect On The Email Inbox

November 20, 2012 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

F1 and the email inboxConnections matter, especially in your customer’s email inbox.

Months of anticipation contribute to the letdown after the big event is over. Case in point: It’s been over 24 hours and I’m still not over the  Formula 1 race in Austin last weekend.

I’m still gaga over F1.

My uncles have been going to Indianapolis 500 for as long as I can remember. It’s always been on my bucket list to go with them one year. But this year I got the chance to do one better. When F1 became a reality in my own hometown of Austin last summer, my dad and uncles called to tell me they were coming down for the event. You can’t be car fans and NOT go to the first F1 race in Austin; out of the question! This was my chance to check it out.

To say it was fun is an understatement. The noise, the sheer power of gorgeous gleaming machines flying along the track at up to 230 mph. Drivers executing turns at top speeds capable of producing 5 G’s of force. Man, machine and millions of sponsors’ dollars putting everything on the line for speed times measured in thousandths of a second.

F1 racing is gripping good stuff! Check out turn 1 of the first lap and tell me if you don’t love this! [Video]

The race last weekend pretty much carried me away. It was a mini vacation (not long enough) from which I’m still trying to get a grip on reality. I spent half the day figuring out when and where I can see another race. I might be hooked.

Whether it’s true love or infatuation, I don’t know. What I do know is, I sat down at my computer this morning to a load of email. Literally hundreds of messages greeted me since Friday evening.

As much as people talk about the importance of subject lines, when push comes to shove and you have to ruthlessly delete email from your inbox, subject lines matter less than two other criteria.

Today the true test of subject lines never even got a chance. I had to get through the bulk of email based on the sender, and what I knew of them.

When you need to delete hundreds of email at a time, it comes down to two simple factors.

  • Past behavior
  • Perceived value of the sender’s email.

Here’s how I whittled down my inbox this Monday morning.

First I scanned my inbox for my clients’ email. These are customers I am currently working with who contacted me over the weekend. Obviously I read these. Next was family. Not always necessary to respond to, but should be scanned nevertheless.

Next, business emails. Bills, receipts, auto responders of payments and ad receipts, etc. Keep those.

Next I had to get through all the stuff that I subscribe to. My discretionary emails.

Interestingly, the criteria for reading or deleting all came down to two things: The sender and my knowledge of their email patterns based on past sending behavior.

I immediately deleted anything I knew would be presented  again in the near future. Some senders produce content that I know will be repeated and accessible through future sends. I deleted those. Their reliability in this case got them deleted! They’re going to send me the same stuff again soon. I already know this base on past sends.

I got rid of stuff I subscribe to through a different channel. For example if I subscribe to an RSS feed via Google reader, I deleted that email. If I’m on a list that takes all content and sends an aggregated version of it at week’s end, I deleted that email. I know I’ll get another chance to review it within a few days.

If I knew it was a regular sender and the message might be an exclusive message with a non-repeatable content inside, I decided whether I wanted to check out the message based on he subject line. Here’s where the subject line actually held some real clout. Admittedly I had so many emails to get through I deleted these based on the sender. But if I know the sender’s content is unique and valuable, I peeked at it before deleting it.

Notices from social sites…I deleted those, too. My daily routine is to check out my social sites and respond to comments, etc, so I  was okay deleting those without reading them. Come to think of it, maybe it’s time to stop those daily notifications like “You have new followers on Twitter, or “This cool person just started following all your boards on Pinterest.” I don’t need to be reminded to keep tabs on that.

Want to know what I did read? Basically, three emails this morning:

1. Sandy Krakowski’s email, my go-to online small biz mentor…for inspiration.

2. Alan Weiss’ Monday morning email…for practical personal and business advice. (As a new subscriber, I’m intrigued with his emails.)

3. Jeff Goins’ email, a fellow writer…his earnestness and warmth are comforting.

I needed these emails today…because if F1 was like a circus, the Renaissance Festival or the Grateful Dead, I’d probably leave everything behind and follow it around the globe. I’m in an F1 frenzy. Good thing it takes money to go to Monaco and Singapore to follow F1. Reality (family and finances) is a good thing. : ) These three email senders would get me back on track and cure my F1 hangover.

And so it all comes down to this: the connection the recipient feels to the sender of the emails, regardless of how she feels about F1 racing. 🙂

I deleted over 90% of my emails without reading them simply based on: first, the sender address; and second, my knowledge of their past sending behavior.

Pretty eye-opening, don’t you think? How do you go about deciding what stays and what goes when your inbox is flooded? I’d love your input!

Filed Under: Email Tagged With: Alan Weiss, Austin, copywriters, copywriting, delete email, deleting email, email inbox, email marketing, F1, formula one, Jeff Goins, managing email inbox, MyTeamConnects, Sandi Krakowski, subject lines, TX

B2B Marketing’s Navel Gazing Problem

August 8, 2012 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

 

B2B Marketing Navel Gazing

 

The term B2B Marketing should be wiped from “business-speak” altogether.

 

Who ever heard of a big fat business with buildings and products and “a brand;” actually connecting with another “important business” on a meaningful level?

Businesses don’t make connections and decisions; people do! B2B Marketing Campaigns that forget this are flushing money away.

B2B marketing doesn’t seem to work very well for a lot of companies. Traditional advertising and email marketing can seem like a waste of time and money.

According to Richard Levey of Chief Marketer, “80% of the marketing and sales executives surveyed by Corporate Visions indicate their demand generation programs are ineffective, and poorly constructed sales material is a big reason why.”

So if business people even find their own ads kind of boring, how dull must they seem to their customers?

Pretty eye-opening, don’t you think?

B2B Marketing professionals can be the worst type of navel gazers! Click to tweet!

Most sales copy is all about the benefits and the value the company offers, but it does nothing to address the customer’s pain. In fact, most sales copywriters don’t even pretend to know what the pain really is! The producers of these marketing materials take the very high road and crank out words and pictures that illustrate how they can help solve this or that problem du jour. This makes them feel smart and justifies their paychcecks.

Unfortuantely many times they’re just guessing. They know their own stuff so well they think their customer wants it, even though they don’t — at least not at the moment.

Here’s a simple way to connect and dispel of that extra whiff of stand-offishness B2B marketing materials tend to have. 

When you’re are writing copy for a business to communicate with another business you need to remember that there is a person on the other end of that email, blog post, Facebook update, or tweet.

REAL PEOPLE move these businesses and make buying decisions; not abstract entities. (Of course sometimes, you need to get more than one person on board to make a sale.) A company has a culture, a product, and a space in which employees work and socialize, but the people who make decisions have a lot more than that…

They are concerned with the age-old things: “status, security, comfort, fear, convenience, money, and all the other primal preoccupations of our species throughout the centuries” [Quote from Words That Sell, Richard Bayan]

There’s no way to imagine all the possible forces acting on that influencer/ decision-maker you need to reach. Think of the unlimited possibilities, needs and concerns:

  • Leading a fired-up team through a new project
  • Thinking about a sick mother at home
  • Taking a lunch hour to deliver cupcakes to their kid’s school
  • Hitting their sales numbers this week
  • Pushing a deadline out to the farthest limit (no more wiggle room)
  • Buying a new car this week
  • Getting through the day unnoticed because they put on two different shoes that morning. (I actually heard this story from one of the most put-together business women I’ve met this year!)
  • Meeting with that department head who doesn’t see value in their recent contributions

You’ll never know unless…

You ask them. That’s it…just ask. 

You can do that, you know. In spite of your slick, glossy brochures and neatly targeted promotions and packages…you can sometimes show your humanity and simply say you ‘d like to know exactly what they’re going through.

The #1 way to know what’s really on their minds?

Forget the B2B Marketing tactics for a minute. Leave an open door and a way for your customers to voice their concerns. This small gesture goes a long way toward getting a vital champion on your side. Just opening some channels of communication will transport people from “prospect” to “friend.” (And it’s always better doing business with people you like!)

Decision makers are looking for other people to verify that your business is the real deal. Inviting people to a Facebook page or your Twitter stream (with pictures of people — not just your logo!) is a step in the right direction.

The amount of time people spend on social sites during the workday is rising, and they’re not all looking at pictures of their friends’ pets, checking Olympic updates or reading inspirational memes featuring sunsets! 

Interaction with businesses on social sites is dramatically changing the way people do business. B2B Marketing that leaves this out will fall way behind in the coming year or two. Don’t let that be you!

Your customers are real people with real concerns. To make real connections, think “person to person.” Not building to a building, product to a product, a brand to a brand. Click to tweet!

Touch the heart of the person behind the business by asking their opinion and showing the real people behind your own business.

Only when you really know who they are, will you be able to drop the phony B2B marketing stuff that isn’t working anyway.

Looking for connections that keep your company within fingertip’s reach of your ideal clients? Stay in their loop, instead of hoping they stay in yours. Click to tweet! 

Share your biggest frustration with B2B marketing..I’ll be waiting over on Facebook.

Filed Under: Content Marketing Tagged With: advertising, B2B Marketing, copywriters, customer, email marketing, Facebook, marketing strategy, prospect, sales copy, sales material, social media, Twitter, Words that Sell

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