Copywriting

Here’s a question I spotted in one of those online marketing forums this morning: What is the most painful part of content marketing? This one struck a nerve. Lots of responses, many with a common theme. “LargeLine” said: “Always coming up with fresh and engaging ideas consistently. It can be tough to keep your audience interested.”…

If you’ve spent much time in my world, you know I’m fond of Eugene Schwartz. He’s among the great copywriters of the 20th century, and he wrote a book called “Breakthrough Advertising” which I reread every couple of years. At the beginning of Chapter Seven, Schwartz writes… “…Advertising is the literature of desire. It is…

I came across this question in an online marketing forum recently: Is email marketing still worth it in 2024? On this, there is no debate. The answer is YES! Email marketing is still worth it. I founded an email marketing software company in 2001 — back when most people had not heard of email marketing, much…

My AI copywriting robot, “B-9?”, is depressed. He thinks I don’t like him anymore. Yesterday, I wrote an email ripping a spammer for sending me a pitchy, AI-generated email. “B-9?” took it personally. “You hate robots,” he sniffed. “No! No!” I said. “I LOVE robots — especially you.” “B-9?” crossed his arms, turned his back…

Whoa! I just escaped from Bizarro World where everything is backwards. Up is down. Beautiful is ugly. And… Terrible (subject lines) are “perfect.” Let me ‘splain… My client — let’s call him Michael — asked me for help to write a subject line for an email he’ll send next week to a purchased list. The…

Copywriting legend John Carlton dropped this truth bomb on his email list yesterday: Finding the right words matter. “Smart sounding speech” does NOT equal real communication. When telling a joke, saying, “A loquacious Antarctic fowl entered a libations establishment…” … does NOT pack the same punch as “A penguin walks into a bar.” The one who wins…

It’s time for another episode of Spammy Spam and the Spammers who Spam Me. This turd of an AI-powered email plopped into my inbox over the weekend: Hi Tom, As you celebrated the success of your Mastermind Book Club Co-Founder role at Story Power Marketing, I’m excited to share that your team’s efforts in transforming…

I visited an online marketing forum this morning and saw this headline: “My 17-step process for writing really good blog posts that people will ACTUALLY read.” Wow! 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 –…

Last month, my Tesla Model 3 (I call her “Iris”) sent me a message to tell me she had evolved. Iris does that frequently. She connects to the internet… …downloads a software update to upgrade her brain… …and tells me all the things she can do now that she couldn’t do before. Cool. I’m used…

I remember the first time I attended an “AI Training” following the 2022 release of ChatGPT. The expert shared a mountain of prompts… …prompts to write an email… …prompts to generate content ideas… …prompts to create a Facebook ad… …even prompts to write a job application. Everyone in the room dutifully wrote down all the…