You’ve been sitting at your computer for 40 minutes, watching that blinking cursor. Why is writing so difficult?

Creating captivating sales messages can’t be that hard, can it?

Copywriting is a real skill. Learning to craft punchy, eloquent, and clear messages with your writing is trickier than it sounds. But with good guidance, and a can-do attitude, the mysteries of the written word will reveal themselves to you.

Our guest for this show is Rob Marsh, the co-founder of The Copywriters Club. We’ll be going through a crash course in copywriting 101 and Rob will be sharing some stories and lessons he’s learned from year in the writing trenches.    

The podcast covers:

• The fundamental principles of good copywriting. They’re not rocket science (In fact you’re probably doing some already)
• The 3 huge mistakes beginner copywriters ALWAYS make, avoid these today and watch your writing improve ten fold
• The ethics of copywriting - How to sell sell sell without losing your soul

Rob Marsh Guest Profile

Rob Marsh Co-host of the copywriters club podcast. He has over 20 years experience writing direct response sales copy for companies around the world. Prior to starting The Copywriter’s Club rob worked for a startup that was acquired by HP. After that he ran his own SaaS company.

Rob’s varied roles mean he’s worked for clients such as American Express and Pluralsight.

Find out more about Rob below:

https://thecopywriterclub.com/about/

https://thecopywriterclub.com/podcast/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertbmarsh/

Transcribed highlights from the show

Dan: What are the 3 big mistakes you see beginner copywriters make again and again?

Rob: Number 1 assuming that you actually know who your customer actually is. And this is true especially for a lot of small business people. We go in business because we had a problem and we solved it.

So you say hey, I’ll sell this problem to people who have a similar problem. But the very fact that a business owner has actually taken an action to solve a problem means it changes their perspective and suddenly you start talking about the problem in different ways.

You have the curse of knowledge, so you know things that your customer hasn’t actually experienced yet and does not know. They may not know the same things about the problem or solution that you do. Their awareness levels are all different so never assume you actually know the customer.

Number 2, don’t exaggerate. When you exaggerate your product starts to raise objections in your customers mind. They start thinking “Well that can’t be true, it doesn’t feel right”.

So only say things that are true that you can back up and that you can prove.

And then the third don’t. Because most of us learn how to write in school we all think we can write our own copy. The reality is, when you’re starting out you don’t have the budget to hire a copywriter, so you’ll do it yourself and kind of figure it out on your own.

But there’s so much advantage in having a copywriter that has really studied the principles of persuasion, they know human psychology, they know what works when it comes to headlines and calls to action.

They know how to overcome the objections and write a guarantee. It’s so much better when you have the budget, to hire a copywriter to work with you. Don’t go cheap on that because if they don’t cost a lot they probably don’t know a lot. But it also shouldn’t cost you a fortune.  

So, don’t go it alone unless you absolutely have to.