Why most A-list copywriters are frauds

Following is part 3 of my interview with Kim Krause Schwalm. A lot of people flippantly throw the term “A-list copywriter” around. And almost all of them are out-right frauds. Liars. Or else, maybe just idiots who don't know better. I even see NPC anons with cartoons as their avatars on Twitter claim to be “A-list” copywriters, when it’s obvious they aren’t qualified to pour water out of a boot much less write ads at the highest level of the game like the small handful of copywriters like Kim do. Keep that in mind as you read this 5-part interview series. On that note: Below Kim talks about opens & stories. Here goes… === elBENBO: How do you approach writing the openings of your ads? KIM KRAUSE SCHWALM: It’s based on my research and what state of awareness the prospect has of the problem and the solution, as well as the stage of market sophistication the market is in. Story leads can work well and offer you an easier way in, as humans are wired for stories and thus more receptive to them. Problem/solution leads and “Big secret” (or “hidden cause”) leads work well when the prospect is more aware of the problem, but perhaps not your solution… or that your solution offers them a better, faster, easier way of solving their problem. I see a lot of common mistakes copywriters make when it comes to writing a good lead. It’s the most crucial part of your promo or sales letter right after the main headline. Yet after all the hard work and expense of driving a prospect to your sales page or mailing them a promo… and all that time spent perfecting just the right main headline to pull them into your sales copy… these killer mistakes make your prospect stop reading and move onto something else. That first sentence is especially important. I spend a lot of time rewriting it and making it as compelling as possible. It should also not be a “disconnect” from the main headline and deck copy. Think about what the prospect expects to hear next. The other important tip for writing a good lead, or body copy for that matter, is to not go off on tangents. Keep the flow logical and focused. Otherwise you risk losing and confusing your reader. elBENBO: What would you tell someone asking about how to get started to become a great storyteller for copywriting? KIM KRAUSE SCHWALM: There are all sorts of courses and books on the subject. But I think it’s best to read actual stories or get practice telling stories to others. One thing you can do that’s also quite joyful is to read books out loud to young children (children’s books, of course) and you can see first-hand what makes for a good story. You can also read blogs and sign up for emails that have nothing to do with copywriting or marketing. One of my favorites is “Sean of the South”. His stories get me almost every time, in terms of an emotional response. They often choke me up, or make me feel good about what’s right with the world. Some people are just natural-born storytellers. I wish I had met my grandfather on my mother’s side while he was still alive. Apparently, he was an amazing storyteller. He’d come back from his travels in southeast Asia (he was in the rubber business), where he’d spend months in the remote jungles of Singapore or Vietnam. He would make up children’s stories involving a cast of animal characters to while away the time. When he’d finally come home, all 10 (yes, 10!) of his children would eagerly gather around him to hear his latest round of stories. One of these days I’d love to use his characters and stories in a children’s book. You can find material for stories or story leads just about anywhere. If you’re writing to your own list, people love hearing your stories. Share your defeats… your challenges… your travel adventures… your childhood experiences… or stories about your dog. Even the more mundane everyday life things can be interesting. For story leads in promos I’ve written, I’ve found great stories in related (and unrelated) books… online reviews (just came across an incredible story in an Amazon review for a similar product I’m writing for)… forums… interviewing customers… and many other places. A great story often has a surprise element, a relatable event that triggers a strong emotional response, or it could just be something outrageous that they just have to read to find out what happens. === So ends part 3 of my 5 part interview with Kim. If you want the details on the special discount I made with Kim to give my boys & ghouls on her exclusive Copywriting Maximus bundle of training for those buying through my affiliate link, see the page at the URL below. It ain’t cheap, though. In fact, it’s quite pricey, as it should be. But, it’s discounted via my affiliate link until this coming Friday, 4/7 at midnight EDT. Go here for more info: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com/kim]( Ben Settle P.S. Buy from my affiliate link by the deadline and I’ll also ship you (at my expense, not yours) another bundle of copywriting joy I am officially calling: “Email Players: Copy Salesliloquies Vol 1” Specifically it includes: The June 2020, February 2021, June 2021, & May 2022 Email Players issues. Plus, also, the transcripts of a couple intense line-by-line sales letter analyses (for my Subscription Biz & Social Lair book offers) I did for our $499/month Profit Pirates clients. Here are a few of the things I share in this bundle of trainings: * Word-for-word the single most valuable copywriting bullet point technique I have ever used. * An extremely clever persuasion secret invented thousands of years ago (and more recently perfected for copywriting by the late, great copywriter Gene Schwartz) that can potentially “ratchet up” your sales copy response like nothing else you’ve ever tested! * A bestselling writer’s secret for writing sales copy, emails, and other advertising that is so “tight” you can practically bounce a quarter off of it! * How to master the lost art of combining content with promotion in your emails. * How to develop your own copywriting style — and avoid sounding like a wannabe of someone else. * The secret technique Jack London, Hunter S. Thompson, and Benjamin Franklin used to quickly excel at the art & craft of writing. * A brand spanking new way (I invented after watching a couple Tarantino movies) to do market research that has put me in touch with my market in a way where I could probably make sales if I wrote my pitches on a wall in crayon. * A clever trick Steve Jobs used to have his audiences literally “leaning in” to hear what he had to say. * The “O” word that is quite possibly the single most persuasive word ever invented for bullets. * An ingenious 2-word combo that can give even outrageous headlines and/or sales letter openers “built in” credibility & believability. * An old magalog trick you can use to make your bullets look like they are giving an entire tip away… where the reader thinks they are learning something free… but really it just makes them want to buy the offer even more. * An infamously kooky newspaper ad copywriter’s secret for using 1 & 2 word headlines to drive up readership & engagement with your sales copy. * 4 sneaky ways to “invalidate” your competition in your sales copy — even if they sell a better offer at a better price. * A 3-word transition sentence the late Gary Halbert used to help keep prospects reading his sales letters top to bottom. * The powerful “sentence stringing” method the late Gene Schwartz used all the time that can help even people with gnat-like attention spans reading your long form copy from headline to order form. * A verbal “twist” gurus & experts can use to stand out in markets full of other gurus & experts all competing for attention. * A secret way (invented by Aristotle over 2,000 years ago) for keeping even your most outrageous bullet point claims from being instantly rejected as typical marketing hype and empty promises. * How to make even “fantasy claims” that would ordinarily sound like complete and utter horse shyt sound completely true & legitimate in your sales copy. * How to increase your sales copy response by making it more legally compliant. * An engagement trick the brilliant late copywriter Jim Rutz used to make his copy easier to keep reading than to NOT keep reading. * 4 advanced bullet point tricks that can help drive your prospects practically insane with curiosity to get your offer. * The mysterious C-word that can potentially sell prospects on buying offers they normally wouldn’t care one iota about otherwise. * How to make “plain vanilla” features and ideas in an ad or email instantly sound dramatic & sexy. * How to make something that’s high ticket & expensive sound downright cheap by the time the prospect gets to the order form. * How to “borrow” credibility from Google and other big organizations in your niche to help sell your offers. * An old school negotiation trick you can apply to your order links that can (1) make you sound more credible (2) potentially nab your business anywhere from 2-5 times more sales than it would get otherwise and (3) sometimes even severely cut down on refunds all at the same time. * A tip (I learned straight from the single most prolific copywriter who has probably ever lived) that can let you pump out reams of pages of sales copy if you’re the easily bored & distracted type who has trouble focusing one project for long periods of time. * The big copywriting secret behind the empires created by history’s two most hated, most reviled, and most successful media tycoons. * A little-known (and almost never talked about) time management trick that can help reduce writing ad copy that normally would take hours to complete into mere minutes. (Before applying this trick it used to take 2, 3,4, even 5 times longer than it does now to write sales letters and emails, with zero reduction in quality.) * Why hardly any of the sales letters for the Email Players “pantheon” of offers & books has a story in them. * The only person on the planet I “endorse” to coach or consult on my behalf. * The secret way I use to write software offer ads that has resulted in 4xs the sales than even our most optimistic hopes when launching them. * The “application plan” sales letter secret that can potentially overwhelm people into wanting to buy from you. * A truly creepy-sounding writing trick bestselling author Stephen King uses to draw people deeper into his books - that can also be directly applied to your bullets, stories, offers, and other parts of your sales copy. * A cunning way to get more sales by urging your readers to leave your sales pitch and come back again later. * An old Hollywood producer's screenwriting trick for picking stories to develop into movies that can also work like crazy for selling offers via sales copy. * A simple bullet point template (anyone can use) that can sometimes make it all but neurologically impossible for your prospects to ignore your sales copy. * An old school MLM tactic (taught to new distributors so they are taken more seriously by friends, family, etc before "showing the the plan") that can help juice up your business’s credibility with your prospects. * A social engineering method that can help create lots of raw, almost neurotic, & completely irrational urgency to buy your offers at the close. * A little known bullet writing method that can literally help create new “neurological connections” in your prospect’s mind as they read. * A quirky memory trainer secret for making words, sentences, and even entire pages of your sales copy almost impossible to forget and far more likely to sell your offers. * How to make otherwise ordinary, “plain vanilla”, and even outright boring-sounding words & claims seem more dramatic, interesting, and sexy in your sales copy. * The bizarre reason why it’s almost always a good idea to put some kind of Biblical reference (even if selling to fire-breathing heathens) in your sales copy if you want to get as much engagement as possible. * Two sleepy little words (used by the late, great Gene Schwartz in some of his crazier ads) that can help make even your most outrageous headlines, bullets, and claims sound more believable. * An example of how to use the psychology behind why humans are so bizarrely attracted to seeing “freak show” exhibits (at circuses, in books, on TV, etc) to make your sales copy bullets more engaging and interesting. * A borderline devious (but totally ethical) way to put prospects in the “defensive crouch” right off the bat — with them finding ways to justify why they are qualified to buy, instead of you constantly proving why you should be bought from. * A powerful twist you can put on some of your bullets that can literally “light up” a prospect’s neurology — giving them almost no choice but to keep reading and wanting to buy whatever your business is selling. * How to open a prospect’s mind to at least hearing you out in your ad copy before telling them about a claim they’d otherwise find crazy, silly, stupid, or flat-out insulting to their intelligence. * A quickie way to “blunt” skepticism about one of your ad’s claims or benefits. * The single best place in your copy to put your offer’s biggest flaw, weakness, or drawback. * The strange reason why getting prospects to argue with your bullets can make them more susceptible to being influenced by your ads and buying your offers. * And lots more. Above isn’t even going into the analysis transcripts. (I’m too lazy to write more bullets — and this email is already way too long..) Bottom line: This bonus bundle of trainings I’ll ship you alone is several hundred dollars worth of value. And it’s all yours. But only if you buy Kim’s Copywriting Maximus offer with my affiliate link by the deadline. Here’s my affiliate link once again: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com/kim]( This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2023 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this email may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Settle, LLC. Click here to [unsubscribe]( Settle, LLC PO Box 1056 Gold Beach Oregon 97444 USA