Copywriting
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…
Read MoreWhoa! 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…
Read MoreCopywriting legendĀ John CarltonĀ 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 establishmentā¦” ā¦ does NOT pack the same punch as “A penguin walks into a bar.” The one who wins…
Read MoreIt’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…
Read MoreI 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 –…
Read MoreLast 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…
Read MoreI 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…
Read More“Oily242” wants to throw in the towel. Writer’s block has wrecked him. He creates a “ton of content” for a startup — a blog/article each day, five LinkedIn posts per week, one weekly post on X, and a bi-weekly email newsletter. And now the well runs dry. In an online forum, Oily242 said, “I’m drawing…
Read MoreEarlier this week, a happy reader replied to one of my emails and called it “genius.” I have a love/hate relationship with notes like that. On one hand, I’m delighted she’s delighted. When I send an email, I aim to captivate and delight readers. On the other hand, I don’t like readers to think I’M…
Read MoreI estimate I’ve eaten 37,238 cookies this month — give or take. Chocolate chip cookies like Granny used to make. Peanut butter cookies topped with Hershey’s Kisses. Santa-shaped sugar cookies with red sprinkles. Reindeer-shaped shortbread cookies with green icing. I’m sick of cookies. So, of course… …I spent a chunk of yesterday reading about… …cookies.…
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