Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You ByWP Engine

Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting.

Start getting more from your site today!

Rainmaker.FM

The Digital Commerce and Content Marketing Podcast Network

  • Home
  • Shows
  • Hosts
  • About
  • Home
  • Shows
  • Hosts
  • About
  • Member Area
  • Log In
Menu
  • Log In
  • Free Training
7-Figure Small with Brian Clark
Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer
Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing
Get More Clients With Smarter Email Marketing
Hack the Entrepreneur
Members Only
Rainmaker.FM Elsewhere
Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites
StudioPress FM
Technology Translated
The Digital Entrepreneur
The Missing Link
The Showrunner
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
Youpreneur with Chris Ducker
Zero to Book
Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing
hosted by Darrell Vesterfelt and Tim Stoddart

7 Powerful Content Strategies Borrowed from Advertising Masters

  • Social:
  • Link:
  • Embed:
https://rainmaker.fm/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/copyblogger-039.mp3
Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes
Previous Episode:How to Handle Demographic and Psychographic Segmentation (without Looking Like an Idiot) More Episodes Next Episode:The 'Obligatory' Structure of Effective Content

All Episodes:

March 30, 2020

The Advantage of Email Marketing, Featuring Nathan Barry of ConvertKit

March 15, 2020

How to Write Content That Resonates

March 9, 2020

How to Conquer Your Fear of Selling, with Leah Neaderthal

March 2, 2020

How to Build Remarkable Products to Grow Your Business, with Ramit Sethi

February 17, 2020

What You Should Talk about on Your Podcast, with Tara McMullin

February 9, 2020

How to Win at Search in 2020

February 3, 2020

How to Turn Pro as a Freelance Writer

January 27, 2020

Marketing Segmentation and Personalization with Brennan Dunn of RightMessage

January 20, 2020

Podcasting Still Matters, with Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income

January 13, 2020

The New Look Copyblogger in 2020

January 8, 2020

New Year, New Copyblogger

October 23, 2019

The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur with John Jantsch

October 2, 2019

Consistency Will Take You Further

September 25, 2019

The Past, Present, and Future of Online Learning

September 16, 2019

How to Get More of the Right Things Done

September 9, 2019

Why the Future Is Still Email

September 3, 2019

What’s Next for
Copyblogger Media?

August 26, 2019

How Smart, Nimble Companies Are Using Webinars Today

August 19, 2019

The Clarity Method: A Conversation with Tim Brownson

August 12, 2019

Digital Business Trends and the Latest on the Rainmaker Platform

August 5, 2019

4 ‘Naive’ Business Principles for Enduring Success

July 8, 2019

How to Write an Epic Blog Post, Part 3: Polishing and Promotion

July 1, 2019

How to Write an Epic Blog Post, Part 2: Getting It Written

June 24, 2019

How to Write an Epic Blog Post, Part 1: Thinking and Research

June 17, 2019

3 Almost Magical Headline Ingredients for More Traffic, Engagement, and Shares

June 10, 2019

Lessons Any Business Can Learn from an Impressive Influencer Marketing Fail

June 3, 2019

13 Ways of Looking at a Headline

May 27, 2019

The 7 ‘Bad’ Habits of Incredibly Successful People

May 20, 2019

Writers: How to Move from Making a Living to Driving Revenue

May 13, 2019

Choose the Right Frame to Boost the Power of Your Content

May 6, 2019

How Copywriting Teacher Belinda Weaver Reenergized Her Email List for Massive Engagement

April 29, 2019

3 Reasons Why Really Good Writers Sometimes Can’t Find Great Clients

April 22, 2019

3 Slightly Embarrassing Emotions that Drive Effective Copywriting

April 15, 2019

Get 10 Content Marketing Boosters in 20 Minutes

April 8, 2019

Becoming the ‘Chief Empathy Officer’ of Your Copy and Content

April 1, 2019

One of the Most Important Marketing Decisions You’ll Ever Make

March 18, 2019

What Nobody Wants to Hear about Content Marketing

March 11, 2019

Getting Your Big, Scary Projects Finished: A Conversation about Growing Gills

March 4, 2019

When Is It Time to Bring in a Professional Copywriter?

February 25, 2019

Using Content to Systematically Move Prospects Toward a Purchase

February 18, 2019

Understanding the Lifecycles of Your Website, with Pamela Wilson

February 11, 2019

5 Ways to Manage a Stress-Induced Creative Slump

February 4, 2019

3 Ways Strategic Content Can Drive Measurable Business Outcomes

January 28, 2019

The Social Media Platform Every Content Creator Should Be Using in 2019 (Nope, It’s Not Facebook)

January 21, 2019

Real Talk about Generating High-Quality Content

January 14, 2019

A Conversation with Paul Jarvis about Staying a ‘Company of One’

October 29, 2018

The 3 Plus 1 Foundational Elements of Effective Persuasion

October 22, 2018

5 Essential Copywriting Techniques from Copyblogger

October 15, 2018

5 Ways to Recover Your Professional and Creative Confidence

October 8, 2018

5 Stinky Sardine Secrets to Make Your Content More Fascinating

September 24, 2018

The Mindset ‘Hack’ that Frees Your Creativity and Makes You Happier

September 18, 2018

How to Kill Your Sales and Mess up Your Business: Lessons from a Used Car Salesman

September 4, 2018

The 7 Things Writers Need to Make a (Good) Living

August 27, 2018

Are You Making These Social Media Marketing Mistakes?

August 20, 2018

Fix These 7 About Page Mistakes for More Traffic and (Possibly) Better SEO

August 13, 2018

7 Ways to Boost Your Creativity

August 6, 2018

A 10-Step ‘Checklist’ for Your Content Marketing Site

July 30, 2018

The 3 Keys to Publishing Strong Content … Even If You Aren’t a ‘Great’ Writer (Yet)

July 23, 2018

Fix These 3 Points of Failure to Get Better Results for Your Content

July 16, 2018

Big Changes at ConvertKit: A Discussion with Founder Nathan Barry

July 9, 2018

3 Skills to Master to Become a Marketing Badass this Year

June 18, 2018

The Quiet Power of Conversational Copy

June 11, 2018

5 Rules of Thumb to Relieve SEO-Induced Stress

June 4, 2018

How to Use the GDPR to Make Your Business Stronger than Ever

May 14, 2018

‘Good Karma’ Selling that Works: A Conversation with Tim Paige

April 30, 2018

How to Get More Comfortable (and Effective) at Selling

April 23, 2018

Privacy and Permission in the Wake of Cambridge Analytica

April 16, 2018

Seth Godin and How to Create Change

April 9, 2018

Email? Chatbots? Social? How Are We Supposed to Reach People?

March 26, 2018

The Double-Edged Sword that Can Make (or Break) Your Content

March 19, 2018

Make More Progress by Getting (Gently) Out of Your Comfort Zone

March 12, 2018

Are You Doing Content Marketing Wrong?

March 5, 2018

Storytelling for Modern Content Marketing (Part 2 of 2)

February 26, 2018

Storytelling for Modern Content Marketing (Part 1 of 2)

February 19, 2018

10 Quality Factors Search Engines Need to See on Your Site

February 12, 2018

A Simple Content Strategy to Make Your Site Massively More Useful

February 5, 2018

How to Avoid a Heartbreaking Business Failure

January 29, 2018

Hey Writers: Let’s Get You Paid What You’re Worth

January 15, 2018

5 Keys to Making Your Content More Shareable

December 18, 2017

3 Observations on Trends (but not Predictions) for 2018

December 11, 2017

3 Tips Now to Build a Strong Foundation in 2018

December 4, 2017

The 3 Success Factors that Help Writers Earn a Great Living

November 27, 2017

How to Recognize a Great Content Idea

November 20, 2017

How to Cultivate a More Meaningful Gratitude Practice

November 13, 2017

Advice for Poets, Advice for Killers

October 30, 2017

Face Your Business Fears on Halloween Week

October 23, 2017

How to Make Smarter Decisions about Your Website

October 2, 2017

A Series of Unfortunate Content Events

September 18, 2017

The Evolution of a Successful Copywriter

August 28, 2017

7 Ways to Improve Your Marketing by Harnessing the Power of Evil

August 14, 2017

Smart Questions from our Brilliant Audience

August 7, 2017

Does the Web Have Enough Patience for Your In-Depth Content?

July 31, 2017

How to Write (Much Better) Blog Comments

July 17, 2017

Which Works Better: Positive or Negative Content?

July 10, 2017

How to Attract the Exact Customers You Want

July 3, 2017

How to Create Stability and Success as an Artist

June 19, 2017

Two Powerful Resources for Life-Changing Growth

June 12, 2017

How to Turn All that Marketing Advice into Action

June 5, 2017

How to Develop a Compelling Marketing Idea in 4 Steps

May 30, 2017

Getting Over the Fear of Selling

May 22, 2017

Talking Community and Digital Business with Tara Gentile

May 15, 2017

Plagiarism, Self-Deception, Bad Sandwiches, and Other Interesting Disasters

May 1, 2017

Professional Writers: Find Out How to Get Certified by Copyblogger

April 17, 2017

The Painful Core Lesson Taught by 3 Astonishing Big-Brand Fails

April 3, 2017

5 Mindset Habits that Actually Work

March 27, 2017

On Grammar, Usage, and Not Being a Great Big Jerk

March 20, 2017

Creative Strategies for Content Writers

March 13, 2017

A New Ultra-Easy Resource for Creating Excellent WordPress Sites

February 20, 2017

Thriving Freelancers and Clients from Hell

February 13, 2017

Politics, Content Marketing, and the 2017 Super Bowl Ads

February 6, 2017

Copyblogger Book Club: Winning the Story Wars

January 23, 2017

3 Content Marketing Strategy Fails (and How to Fix Them)

January 9, 2017

The 2017 Content Excellence Challenge: Your January Assignments

December 19, 2016

Bad Writing Advice: The ‘Post Truth’ Episode

December 12, 2016

Get Ready Now for a Creative and Productive 2017

December 5, 2016

The 4 Pillars Every Online Business Is Built On

November 28, 2016

Orbit Media’s Latest Survey of 1000 Bloggers

November 14, 2016

Have You Already Missed the Podcasting Gold Rush?

November 7, 2016

Getting More Traffic, Links, and Shares to Your Content

October 31, 2016

5 Quick Wins for Content Marketers

October 24, 2016

Announcing: An Intriguing New Tool for Collaborative Content

October 17, 2016

A New Book to Make Content Marketing Easier

October 10, 2016

Behind the Scenes at Copyblogger: Our New Email Approach

October 3, 2016

The ‘Obligatory’ Structure of Effective Content

September 26, 2016

7 Powerful Content Strategies Borrowed from Advertising Masters

September 15, 2016

How to Handle Demographic and Psychographic Segmentation (without Looking Like an Idiot)

September 8, 2016

Ethics, Professionalism, and Good Manners for Content Marketers

September 1, 2016

3 Questions that Can Haunt Creative Professionals

August 25, 2016

How to Give and Get Exceptional Testimonials, Part Two

August 18, 2016

How to Give and Get Exceptional Testimonials, Part One

August 11, 2016

Are You Leaving Money on the Table with Weak Headlines?

August 4, 2016

Content Marketing for Nonprofits

July 28, 2016

The One-Two Punch that Creates the Most Successful Copywriters

July 21, 2016

PokĂŠmon Go: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

July 14, 2016

5 Suggestions When You’re Writing About Controversy

July 7, 2016

Announcing: A Breakthrough Educational Collaboration between Copyblogger and U.C. Davis

June 30, 2016

How to Break Past the #1 Conversion Killer

June 23, 2016

The New Age of Marketing Automation: Powerful, Simple, Cost-Effective

June 16, 2016

How to Make a (Really Good) Living as a Freelance Writer

June 9, 2016

Self-Publishing, Side Hustles, and Doing It All: A Conversation with Linda Formichelli

June 2, 2016

A Process for Content Marketing Success

May 26, 2016

Content Marketing Best Practices: Getting Email Opt-Ins

May 19, 2016

Behind the Scenes: Adventures in Advertising

May 12, 2016

Trump, Apple, and Facebook Advertising: Content Marketing News for May, 2016

May 5, 2016

Sally Hogshead and the Art of Fascination

April 28, 2016

Behind the Scenes at the Rainmaker Digital Company Meeting!

April 14, 2016

Social Media News, Social Media Constants

April 7, 2016

Strategies for B2B Podcasting, with Clark Buckner

March 31, 2016

Content Marketing Success Stories: Fitness Powerhouse Examine.com

March 24, 2016

Behind the Scenes: An Inside Look at the Rainmaker FM Redesign

March 17, 2016

Our Latest Advice and Resources for Digital Business Owners

March 10, 2016

Should Content Publishers Adopt Google’s New AMP?

March 3, 2016

7 Ways to Get Smarter with Social Media Listening

February 25, 2016

Content Marketing Shout-Out: Orbit Media and Andy Crestodina

February 18, 2016

The Tactic You Should Steal from Copyblogger

February 11, 2016

Content Marketing News for February, 2016

February 4, 2016

Email Marketing: The Misunderstood Powerhouse

January 28, 2016

The Secret Weapon Behind Great Websites: The Role of the Content Editor

January 21, 2016

Behind the Scenes: The Relaunch and Re-Imagining of Copyblogger.com

January 14, 2016

Trends and Predictions for Digital Commerce: A Conversation with Brian Clark

January 7, 2016

2016 Content Marketing Resolutions

December 28, 2015

The End of The Lede, The Beginning of Copyblogger FM

November 10, 2015

Constraints Can Be Blessings (Plus 2 Other Essential Lessons Jerod Re-Learned This Week)

November 3, 2015

Long or Short? The Content Length Question Answered, Once and For All

October 27, 2015

The Simple Publishing Hack That Gives Old Content New Life (Plus 3 More Tips)

October 20, 2015

The Surprising Truth about Earning a Profit from Your Content

October 13, 2015

How to Move Your Audience From Infatuation to Love

October 6, 2015

3 Things Your Audience Wants You to Know about Useful Content

September 29, 2015

Revisiting Authenticity: What It Is, What It’s Not, and Why It Matters

September 22, 2015

Publishing Lessons from Dave Pell, the Most Fascinating Email Newsletter Writer in the Business

September 15, 2015

Why Content Creators Should Kiss Their Programmers

September 8, 2015

Finally — A Podcast about the Superiority of Written Content

September 1, 2015

Hot Seat: Grilling Jerod on Using Audio Content to Seed a Content Arsenal

August 25, 2015

How to Optimize Your Headlines for Content Discovery with Vinegar (Before You Die of Cholera)

August 18, 2015

5 Stories That Explain Jerod Morris (Plus One Massive Marketing Lesson)

August 11, 2015

Lede Potpourri: A Big Idea, Talking About Demian Behind His Back, and Lessons from #PM15

August 4, 2015

How to Attend an Industry Conference Like a Boss

July 28, 2015

Getting the Most Out of a Conference When You’re There to Promote, Part 1

July 21, 2015

How Much Does the Modern Content Marketer Need to Know About SEO?

July 14, 2015

Are Podcasters Digitally Sharecropping Without Realizing It?

July 7, 2015

Celebrating Our 101st Episode (with a Special Guest Interviewer)

June 30, 2015

Why The Phrase ‘Leaders Are Readers’ Should Die

June 23, 2015

Why You Should Think Outside the Box About Online Courses

June 16, 2015

The Proper (and Safe) Way to Republish Old Articles

June 9, 2015

How to Grow an Audience on LinkedIn by Repurposing Content

June 2, 2015

Key Takeaways from Three-and-a-Half Hours with Henry Rollins

May 27, 2015

Rapid-Fire Takeaways from Authority Rainmaker

May 19, 2015

The Proper Way to Grow an Audience on Medium

May 12, 2015

The Introvert’s Guide to Launching a Successful Podcast

May 5, 2015

The One Quality All Popular Podcasts Share

April 28, 2015

Proof That Grit Is the Only Way to Reach Your Potential

April 21, 2015

Do We Celebrate Failure Too Much?

April 14, 2015

Choose Yourself Part 2: James Altucher Fights Back

April 7, 2015

Should We Fear Content Shock? (Or Could It Actually Be a Good Thing?)

March 31, 2015

Should You Really ‘Walk in the Direction of Your Fear’?

March 24, 2015

Is ‘Choose Yourself’ Good Advice … or New-Age Phooey?

March 17, 2015

Is Authority Earned or Bestowed?

March 3, 2015

Dan Pink on How to Succeed in the New Era of Selling

February 24, 2015

Here’s How to Answer the Most Important Question in Life (and Make a Living from It)

February 17, 2015

Sally Hogshead on How You Can Unlock Your Natural Ability to Fascinate

February 10, 2015

How to Learn from Your Successes

January 27, 2015

How to Learn From Your Mistakes

January 13, 2015

Lessons Learned from Conducting Two Monster Audience Surveys

December 16, 2014

Adaptive Content: A Trend to Pay Attention to in 2015

December 2, 2014

The Most Important Lessons You Should Have Learned in 2014

November 18, 2014

How We Built Our Careers Online (And What You Can Learn From It)

November 4, 2014

Interview with Brian Clark: How Customer Experience Maps Help You Develop a Smarter Content Strategy

October 21, 2014

How Empathy Maps Help You Speak Directly to the Hearts of Your Audience

October 7, 2014

How to Ignite a Feeling in Your Audience

September 23, 2014

Are You Overlooking This Cornerstone of a Smart Content Strategy?

June 26, 2014

How to Curate Knowledge, Turn it Into Wisdom, and Build Your Audience

June 19, 2014

How Successful Writers Curate Ideas

June 13, 2014

The 5 W’s of Link Curation

June 6, 2014

Why You Should Curate Content (And How to Do It Right)

May 30, 2014

How Freaks and Misfits Can Succeed in Business: A Conversation with Chris Brogan

May 23, 2014

The 2 Reasons People Don’t Click on Your Buttons … And How to Overcome Them

May 16, 2014

Chase Customers, Not Clicks

May 9, 2014

How to Be Authentic

May 2, 2014

How to Close With Style

April 25, 2014

The Best of Seth Godin on Copyblogger

April 17, 2014

How to Choose Arresting Images for Your Blog Posts (And Why You Should)

April 11, 2014

Removing Blog Comments: The View So Far

April 4, 2014

How to Use Internal Cliffhangers

March 28, 2014

Hangout Hot Seat with Brian Clark

March 21, 2014

How to Tell a Seductive Story

March 14, 2014

How to Create Exquisite Subheads

March 7, 2014

How to Write Killer Bullet Points

February 28, 2014

How to Write Damn Good Sentences

February 21, 2014

How to Use Persuasive Words

February 14, 2014

Michael Stelzner on Capturing Emails and Committing to Quality

February 7, 2014

How to Nail Your Opening

January 24, 2014

How to Write a Magnetic Headline (in Under 15 Minutes)

May 18, 2012

Seth Godin on When You Should Start Marketing Your Product, Service, or Idea

May 11, 2012

How to Attract an Audience by Integrating Content, Social, and Search

March 30, 2012

Why You Should Build an Audience Before You Build a Business

March 16, 2012

How Chris Brogan Built His Content Platform

March 9, 2012

Jay Baer on How to Turn Interested Prospects into Lifelong Customers

March 2, 2012

A 30-Minute Copywriting Course from a Master of the Craft

February 24, 2012

The Path to a Legendary Copywriting Career

February 17, 2012

5 Tips for Affiliate Marketing Beginners

February 10, 2012

Why Not Sell Physical Stuff With Digital Media?

February 3, 2012

Whether You Call it Blogging or Not, Online Content Still Rules

January 27, 2012

Answers to the 3 Biggest Email Marketing Questions We Get

January 20, 2012

How to Newsjack Your Way to Free Media Exposure with David Meerman Scott

January 13, 2012

Steven Pressfield and the War of Work

November 18, 2011

The Strategy Behind the Copyblogger Redesign

November 11, 2011

7 Ways to Create an Email Marketing "Snowball Effect"

November 4, 2011

Warning: If You're Not a Privacy Nut, You're Losing Sales

October 28, 2011

The 3 Kinds of Writing That Builds a Business

October 21, 2011

The Art of Seductive Writing: A Conversation with Robert Greene

October 7, 2011

Why Content Marketing Doesn't Suck

September 30, 2011

Are You Weird Enough to Succeed at Content Marketing?

September 23, 2011

What Works With SEO Right Now and Why No One Does What You Want

September 16, 2011

Are You Flushing Your Marketing Down the Social Media Toilet?

September 11, 2011

Seth Godin on Blogging, Business Books, and Creating Content that Matters

September 2, 2011

The Return of Copyblogger Radio …

June 10, 2011

Answered: Your Most Burning Content Marketing Questions

June 3, 2011

How to Get All the Clients and Customers You Can Handle

May 20, 2011

Is Content Marketing Worth the Work?

May 13, 2011

How to Write Nearly Undeletable Emails

May 6, 2011

Is the Online Gold Rush Over?

April 22, 2011

The Art of Enchanting Online Marketing with Guy Kawasaki

April 15, 2011

The Market for Something to Believe in is Infinite: An Interview with Hugh MacLeod

April 8, 2011

How to Constantly Create Compelling Content

March 25, 2011

The Content Marketing Question You Need to Answer … Now

March 18, 2011

Good SEO is Simple. Really.

March 4, 2011

Did Social Media Kill the Marketing Star?

February 25, 2011

How to Write (and Execute) a Simple but Powerful Business Plan

February 17, 2011

How to Kick Groupon to the Curb and Become a Local Hero

February 3, 2011

Convert … Or Die

January 27, 2011

Attention: Is Your Headline Getting Any?

January 20, 2011

How to Craft Landing Pages that Work

January 13, 2011

Why Every Smart Business is in the Media Business

January 5, 2011

2011 Content Marketing Predictions

December 15, 2010

Tim Ferriss on How to Reinvent Yourself with Blog Marketing

December 8, 2010

The 6 Elements of an Influential Web Experience

December 1, 2010

Your Staggeringly Unfair Marketing Advantage

November 17, 2010

How to Get Some Action

November 10, 2010

The Foundation of All Marketing that Works

November 3, 2010

Introducing Copyblogger Radio

September 26, 2016

7 Powerful Content Strategies Borrowed from Advertising Masters

The Copyblogger blog was founded on a simple but powerful idea — that our content (blogs, podcasts, video) can be strengthened by adapting techniques from the world of direct response copywriting.

Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You ByWP Engine

Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting.

Start getting more from your site today!

Today, Sonia drills into some specific techniques and approaches that we can profitably swipe from our direct response brothers and sisters.

In this 24-minute episode, Sonia Simone talks about:

  • The crucial difference between subscribers and an audience
  • How to develop a “big idea” that tells the world who you are
  • The boring-sounding secret of the really great copywriters (this is especially powerful today)
  • The fascinating world of recommendation algorithms
  • Working toward business goals without sounding like an infomercial
  • 9 quick ideas to make your content more interesting

Listen to Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing below ...

7 Powerful Content Strategies Borrowed from Advertising MastersSonia Simone
  • Social:
  • Link:
  • Embed:
https://rainmaker.fm/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/copyblogger-039.mp3
Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes

The Show Notes

  • This podcast episode was adapted from a shorter text version, called 7 Things the Great Copywriters Wish You Knew
  • Grab our Magnetic Headlines ebook — it’s free and full of simple techniques that will bring a lot more attention to your content
  • Mary Wells Lawrence’s fascinating autobiography, A Big Life in Advertising
  • Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, on “the boys in the basement” and other writing essentials
  • Get signed up for My Copyblogger (it’s free), to pick up our complete content marketing library
  • Here’s my post all about the copywriting Call to Action
  • Brian Clark’s post: Does Telling Someone to “Click Here” Work? (remember, don’t overuse this — save it for when it can do you the most good)
  • I would love to meet you in person at our live event in October! Click here to learn more about the Digital Commerce Summit (See what I did there?) 😉
  • I’m always happy to see your questions or your thoughts on Twitter @soniasimone (or you can always drop a question right here in the comments!)

The Transcript

7 Powerful Content Strategies Borrowed from Advertising Masters

Sonia Simone: This episode of Copyblogger FM is brought to you by Digital Commerce Summit. We’ll be telling you more about this amazing life event later in the show, but check out Rainmaker.FM/Summit for all the details. That’s Rainmaker.FM/Summit.

Hey there, it’s great to see you again. My name is Sonia Simone, and this is Copyblogger FM, a content marketing podcast. For those of you who don’t know me yet, I’m the chief content officer over at Rainmaker Digital, and I like to hang out with folks who do the heavy lifting over on the Copyblogger blog.

This podcast is about content marketing best practices, tips, strategies, news, and the occasional rant. Today, I wanted to talk about one of the first themes, one of the original themes of Copyblogger, which was this intersection of copywriting, persuasive copywriting, and content. Back in the day, when Brian Clark the heretic first started talking about this combination, we didn’t call it content, necessarily. That’s why the name of the blog is Copyblogger.

We talked about blogging. We talked about social sharing sites, that kind of thing. Brian was a student of what’s called ‘direct response copywriting,’ and he perceived that you could make the whole blogging thing more effective if you took some lessons from some of the things that direct marketers have learned over the years in their quest to sell us stuff. So the great advertisers and especially the great direct mail, if you want to avoid the euphemism ‘junk mail’ — those folks really knew how to craft content to capture attention that persuaded us to take an action.

That intersection is really the foundation of Copyblogger, and it’s what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about seven practices that the traditional direct marketer copywriters knew about and practiced and made part of their daily routine that are going to help you out with your content, whether it’s your podcast, your blog, your video channel, what have you.

All right, let’s dive into it. We’re going to start with headlines. It was one of the first things that Brian wrote about consistently on Copyblogger. It’s always been a big hit for us, and that’s because if your content doesn’t have an excellent headline on it, then it’s not going to get the attention. It’s not going to get the interest. It’s not going to get the shares. And if we can’t capture that attention at the outset, then you know nothing else can happen. We cannot deliver the rest of the message.

The Crucial Difference between Subscribers and an Audience

I want you to keep in mind that just because you have subscribers, that doesn’t mean you have an attentive audience. You still need to earn that attention, day in and day out. And I think that really great headlines have the reputation of being a trick or shallow. And they’re not a trick, and it’s not shallow.

It’s really about creating of a beautiful, elegant, and relevant package for your thoughtful content. If you think about it as a beautiful gift wrapping that makes your content appealing and special, honor the work you put into your content by crafting your headline as carefully as you craft the content.

We do have a free ebook for you all about crafting headlines that will give you some more concrete tips on how to write headlines that are going to get the kind of results that you’re looking for. Like a lot of the direct response advice, it’s probably 90 percent craft and 10 percent art. So if you can pick up the craft, if you can pick up the techniques, you really will find that you’re able to get a lot better results.

It’s a Fine Line between ‘Smart’ and ‘Clever’

The second thing I want to talk about, and this is dangerous to talk about in the world of social media and blogs and podcasts, but consider working on maybe not being quite so clever, which is kind of a loaded statement. Most of us listening to this podcast — certainly me, certainly all of us at the Copyblogger team — are wordsmiths. And we believe in craft. We believe in wordsmithing. That’s all good, but I wanted, when you’re talking about your content, to be in the service of clarity, rather than cleverness.

When I say ‘clever,’ I’m not saying ‘smart.’ They’re two different things. Cleverness tends to imply being a bit showoff-y. And it’s a fine line, because I don’t want you to have something generic, something without personality. But the puns, the in jokes, the kind of showoff-y, ‘look how cute and smart I am’ doesn’t do as well as the more thoughtful, intelligent, insightful but very, very clear content.

Just something to keep in mind. Sometimes we’re much too clever for our own good. I am as guilty or more so of this than anybody on the planet. But you always want to be on the lookout for it, because cleverness tends to be the enemy of clarity. And clarity is so important.

How to Develop a ‘Big Idea’ that Tells the World Who You Are

The third point I want to talk about today is developing your big idea. And this is a good ad campaign that would go nowhere until they had really pinned down an interesting, compelling big idea. The big idea is essentially — it’s an instant communication of a desirable benefit that’s compressed into a memorable statement. One of the ones that gets mentioned a lot, I’ve certainly mentioned it on the blog, is ‘a thousand songs in your pocket,’ which is of course more like 10,000 these days. But that was an early big idea statement that Apple used to market the iPod.

It goes beyond a sound bite. Big ideas should be able to be expressed in sound bites, but not all sound bites are big ideas. It’s really about conveying something that matters a lot to your audience in a very memorable and very pithy way. There are wonderful examples all over advertising.

One of my favorites came from a book by Mary Wells Lawrence. She was one of the original ‘Mad Men.’ She was one of the few women working at a high level in that field, in advertising in the ’60s, and she has a great book. It’s called A Big Life in Advertising, and she tells a great story about a campaign she did for Braniff Airlines. Her agency convinced Braniff to paint their airplanes these really saturated bright, fun colors — bright red, bright orange, bright yellow, these tropical hot colors — which was totally not done. At the time, airlines and airplanes were gray and subdued and stately.

The big idea was that Braniff was an advertising that was hip, that was young, that was fresh, that was modern. Keep in mind, this would have been in the early to mid-’60s, so that was a very resonant big idea at the time. But the thing about the big idea is, not only did Mary Wells Lawrence have to convince Braniff Airlines to paint the planes. She had to convince Braniff Airlines to live that promise, to live that big idea.

They actually had to — of course, they carried the colors through in things like the flight attendant uniforms, but they also had to carry it through in the attitudes that the flight attendants had and the attitudes that their advertising had. You saw an echo of this later with Virgin Airlines, kind of cheeky, very fresh, very modern. This is a big idea, and this is an example of a big idea that goes way beyond a tagline and really is just to permeate the whole business.

That’s the kind of thing that you’re looking for when you’re crafting these. We’re going to take a very short break and then after the break, we’ll be back with Copyblogger FM and I will let you know one of the best places to find those big ideas.

Jerod Morris: Hey, Jerod Morris here. If you know anything about Rainmaker Digital and Copyblogger, you may know that we produce incredible live events. Well, some would say that we produce incredible live events as an excuse to throw great parties, but that’s another story. We’ve got another one coming up this October in Denver. It’s called Digital Commerce Summit, and it is entirely focused on giving you the smartest ways to create and sell digital products and services. To get all the details and the very best deal on tickets, head over to Rainmaker.FM/Summit. That’s Rainmaker.FM/Summit.

The Boring-Sounding Secret of the Really Great Copywriters (This Is Especially Powerful Today)

Sonia Simone: Super, welcome back. It’s good to see you again. All right, I promised you that we would talk about where to find those big ideas that we’re looking for in our copy, in our content, and in our businesses. And the somewhat unsexy word that’s the answer to this question is research.

Gary Bencivenga is one of my favorite direct response copy teachers and masters of the craft. He once said that the best copywriters are the most tenacious researchers.

It’s about digging and then digging some more. It’s about continuing to be on the lookout for interesting little snippets or facts, compelling little scraps of dialog or phrasing from your audience and from your customers that you could use. You’re keeping an eye out for interesting stories, for case studies. You’re keeping an eye out for your customer problems, and of course your customer solutions.

The direct response copywriting folks always knew how important that was to research and research and research some more until you knew that target market better than they knew themselves. And now, 21st century fast-forward, we are competing with an incredibly high volume of content that is thin and weak and lacking in precisely this element of deep, solid research. It really is a way that you could stand out, that you can stand above the crowd, and that you can get your content to rise among this clutter and noise of the junky shallow stuff.

Just so I don’t miss the main idea here, when we talk about research, we’re talking about researching your topic as it pertains to your audience. So their view of your topic, their problems with it. What works for them, what doesn’t work for them. Where they get frustrated, all those good things. Research, combined with some time to really mull over and process what you find, and also combined with creative best practices — and these are things like taking lots of walks, looking outside your topic for fresh ideas, giving yourself plenty of time, doing lots of writing, free writing.

This combination — research plus time plus nurturing your own creativity — is the best place to get big ideas. The big ideas will hatch if you give it the right environment. And that is the right environment: immersion in your topic, taking care of your creative self, and giving yourself time for the idea to step forward out of the fog.

Stephen King calls this the ‘boys in the basement.’ I really think he has actually a terrific book on writing. I think it’s called something amazingly innovative, like On Writing, and he talks about the boys in the basement. In other words, the part of your brain that’s not necessarily front and center but works on things, chews on things in the background.

The Secret to Success? It Takes a ‘Starving Crowd’

All right, more big ideas from the direct response copywriting crew. This one comes from Gary Halbert, and Gary Halbert was a very, very capable direct response copywriter, actually quite a great direct response copywriter. A little bit notorious. He did go to jail, so he’s a figure of some legend. But Gary Halbert would like to tell a story about: What does it take for a restaurant to be successful? And he would speak about copywriting, and people would say, “It takes great location,” or “It takes the best food,” or “It takes impeccable service.”

His answer was no — it takes a starving crowd. If there’s a bunch of people who really need lunch or dinner, and they’re just starving, your restaurant’s going to do well.

Your job as a content marketer is to pull your starving crowd to you, to pull the audience to you that is hungry for something in your topic. Then, of course — and obviously you can see this ties closely with the point about research — it’s your job to figure out what they’re starving for. What are their questions? What are their problems? What are their frustrations? But you always want to keep that eye out. What is the audience hungry for? What is it that’s lacking in their experience today that you might be able to help them out with or fulfill?

On some level, that sounds like an obvious point, except I can’t tell you how many businesses, and especially digital businesses — I think because digital businesses are so simple to create. You fire up a website, you throw out a payment process, or you do a couple of things. You don’t have to sign a year lease and do all these things that brick-and-mortar businesses do.

A surprising number of digital businesses launch and put some investment into it, and they have no idea what the starving crowd is. They don’t know what the crowd is hungry for. They know what they want to sell. They don’t know what the audience wants to buy. Really, it’s a critical point, and it’s surprisingly easy to overlook when you’re excited about a new project.

The next point is just to really understand your goals, to understand where you’re going. A direct response copywriter would work with a very, very specific set of measurable goals — inquiries or sales, or there would be some call to action. And you would measure how well you did based on: Did the action happen or not? It was very binary. Direct response tends to be very binary: yes or no.

We do have a content marketing strategy ebook that will help you to understand some of the goals of content marketing, how they fit together, and will help you map out your own strategy for how you’re going to get where you want to go.

This podcast is based on a post I wrote called 7 Things the Great Copywriters Wish You Knew. And it was so interesting, but there was an advertiser or a marketer who was reading the post, and she got really upset that I pointed people to the content marketing strategy ebook, because she felt like it was supposed to be content and then that was like advertising. Somehow, I was muddying the well.

This is the point that I would argue the point on: Content marketing has to have a goal. And if you’re creating content marketing just to make the audience feel good, it’s really great to make the audience feel good, and it’s really great to educate the audience. It’s really great to create a warm environment in which you can do business with less friction.

Those are all valid points of content marketing, but at some point, you also have to make some of the traditional calls to action. You have to persuade. People have to go from feeling warm and fuzzy to actually doing the thing you need them to do as your customer.

Working toward Business Goals without Sounding Like an Infomercial

She and I agreed to disagree on that one, but the thing that made her uncomfortable was something called the ‘call to action.’ So I want to talk for a minute about calls to action, because this is a very important part of traditional direct response copy of traditional advertising, and it is interestingly the thing that will make you feel like your content might sound like an infomercial.

That phrase comes up all the time: It sounds like an infomercial. And the reason for this is that infomercials are extremely expensive to produce. They’re extremely expensive to buy the airtime, and so if they don’t use an effective call to action, they’re leaving a lot of dollars on the table.

A call to action is simply a very direct statement of what you want the person to do next. You just come out and tell them, “Here’s what to do next.” In old infomercials, it was ‘Call this number 1-800,’ and then they would read the number 10 times so it would stick in your head. Operators are standing by. Call now and you get a free bonus. Those are all calls to action. They’re specific, clear statements of what the person should do next.

In web copy, sometimes it is the words ‘click here.’ So interestingly, if you tell somebody to click here, you will get more clicks, and if you don’t tell them to click here and you just put a button — very strange, but sometimes marketing and advertising is kind of strange. You just go with what works.

Now, don’t do that all over the place. First of all, it’s not wonderful from a usability standpoint. If you want somebody to click on a link and it’s really important — it’s the one time in 20 when it matters more — then I’ll use ‘click here’ to learn more about the program, or something like that.

I use it sparingly. If you use it for every link, it’s not going to work. People are going to get blind to it, and it’s going to be very clunky and annoying. Calls to action are very cool, very effective. They can always use tightening. And in my opinion, every piece of content should have some kind of a call to action. It could be to read another piece of content. It could be to subscribe to your podcast channel or your YouTube channel. It could be to get started on an email list or pick up some kind of supplemental material.

But content should have calls to action. You should be moving people from one step to the next. That’s what content marketing is for. Otherwise, it’s just your hobby, and hobby writing is a wonderful and beautiful thing. It’s just, art is great — but art and content marketing are not exactly the same thing.

My final point, again that was made in that original post — you can always get additional links and resources and materials if you check out the show’s show notes. You can always find them on Copyblogger FM, as well as the complete archive for the show. I will leave that original post for you and if you’re interested, you can read through it and see how it compares. The points are all the same. Some of my examples are different.

Avoiding the ‘Worst Sin of Business’

The seventh point that I’ll leave you with is: Just don’t be boring. Dan Kennedy calls this the worst sin of business, I think. David Ogilvy has a great quote, “You can’t bore people into buying your product. You can only interest them in buying it.”

Boring content never worked particularly well. It really doesn’t work now, because there’s so much content on the web that people can always find something interesting to compete with your content. Make your content interesting. Make it exciting or compelling to read, and there are a lot of different ways you can do that.

One of the simplest ways you can do that is just to put more of your personality into your writing. Write with a point of view of voice, an interesting writing voice. But also you can use things like imagery and good design, and you can format your content so that is easy to read or easy to consume.

Your big idea is another thing that’s going to work against being boring. Big ideas are interesting by their nature. Storytelling is a great one. Stories are such good hooks, so when you find stories, become a collector of stories. And when you find them, use them. They really, really work with content, and they really help us to make that human-to-human connection.

Humor can work if you’re funny, and I will tell you the secret about why so many marketing teachers or even writing teachers will say, “Well, humor is very subjective.” I’ll tell you why so many marketing teachers will say, “Well, humor is very subjective.” When you hear somebody saying that, in my opinion, they’re telling you not everybody is funny.

Only use humor if you’re actually pretty sure you’re funny. It is true that different people find different things funny, so you have to make sure if you’re going to use humor that your audience is appreciative of the kind of humor that you’re using.

Another one that’s a maybe — it’s not boring, and it can be used well or it can be used badly — is controversy. You can use controversy to take a stand for what you believe in. That’s really effective. It really works, it’s very strong, or you can use controversy by picking a fight with everybody in your topic and just being an irascible bad-natured pest. That doesn’t tend to win you any business. It’s just hard for people to like you and trust you if you’re constantly getting into fights. Controversy is one. It can work, but it has to be used thoughtfully. And don’t overuse it.

That’s it for this week, that intersection of copywriting, direct response copywriting, and content marketing that we all love so much. This is Sonia Simone with Copyblogger FM. Thanks so much, and I’ll see you next week.

Never Miss New Shows and Episodes on Rainmaker.FM

Get the best of the Rainmaker.FM network in a single weekly email, along with two weeks
of free training that will change the way you think about online marketing ...

Free Registration

You might also like...

Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing

The 7 Things Writers Need to Make a (Good) Living

Listen to episode
Rough Draft

071 The Oldest Writing Trick in The Book

Listen to episode
Hit Publish

3 Steps for Making Success Stories a Part of Your Content Marketing Strategy that Works

Listen to episode
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience

How Award-Winning Sports & Travel Writer Adam Skolnick (Author of ‘One Breath’) Writes: Part One

Listen to episode
Rough Draft

089 The Clear-Copy Rule of Writing for the Web

Listen to episode
Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing

The 2017 Content Excellence Challenge: Your January Assignments

Listen to episode

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You ByWP Engine

Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting.

Start getting more from your site today!

Copyright © 2023 Rainmaker Digital, LLC. Powered by the Rainmaker Platform.

Privacy Policy  Âˇ  Refund Policy  Âˇ  Cookie Policy  Âˇ  Terms of Service  Âˇ  Contact