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Hey, Inbox Hackers. Glad to have ya because Friday’s Main Thing is giving you 7 quick and dirty (minus Grammar Girl) ways to improve your copywriting. Or if you have a writer, pass the tips along to them.

After that, you can sift through This Week’s Marketing Wrap-Up.

Appetizer: The top 15 brands that spent the most on podcast advertising (newest data). See #10 - #15 here.

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The Main Thing

Copy the Greats to Improve Your Copywriting

I’ve given this tip before but never with a 7-headed approach.

In my 13 years of being a paid writer, I have found no better way to improve my writing than by copying hall-of-fame writers.

No. Not swiping great copy, ads, headlines. That kind of swiping is great. But this goes deeper. 

My technique is to take a pencil and yellow notepad and then “copy” great writing. I hand-write it.

This gives me the feel that the original author had when they wrote it. Lets me wiggle into a hall-of-fame writer’s head.

That’s pretty dang valuable for such a low-effort action.

Going further, I haven’t only hand-written the great ads or sales letters Dan Kennedy and Gary Halbert wrote. I also copy sports headlines by hand. Book titles. Slogans on packages of products I see in the store. 

It makes me a stronger, more versatile copywriter. 

So, to help you use this technique, I cobbled together seven different writers. 

You don’t have to use all of them. Choose three or four and go copy some of their writing - pencil and paper - typing isn’t as effective for getting their mindset / skill into your brain.

7 Writers to Copy & Carve Their Superpowers into Your Mind

#1 Taylor Swift. I’m a 51-year-old man. So I’m not a T.S. fan. But clearly, this woman has insane writing skills. Whatever she does to touch the souls of her billion fans is valuable to any copywriter. 

She can make people sob or cheer like crazy. Pretty valuable for copywriters, yeah?

#2 Dan Kennedy. Reading this marketing legend’s books is good enough. Yet, hand-writing his copy will help you step up your copywriting game.

It’ll help you see how he makes his books page turners. Which is the same way he gets people pay attention to and keep reading his sales letters. 

#3 David Garfinkel. A good place to start is his book Story Code. A great alternative angle on the popular StoryBrand philosophy. Garfinkel’s little example stories in the book are good to ingrain in your head so you can produce similarly powerful mini-stories that sell.

#4 Ben Settle. He has lots of psychological skills to get a feel for. Such as his pricing methods. Charges way more for a marketing book than you could imagine. And writes the sales copy for those books that makes the reader feel like a buffoon for not buying it!

But his best skill? Email subject lines. Well worth you hand-writing those lines to see how he gets people to open his emails day after day (he emails 7 days a week - often more than once per day).

#5 Lee Child. Sold over 100 million copies of his Jack Reacher novels. The skill you can learn from “tracing” his writings?

How to punch readers in the face from the get-go! Headlines. Hooks. Opening sentences. Mr. Child is as punchy as any writer ever. 

You can learn a ton about work ethic too. Dude’s written a book a year for nearly 30 years. 

#6 Turnpike Troubadours. Hand-writing brilliant song lyrics from the best in the business will help any copywriter improve. Such as…

…“Stuck here in Tulsa with my Oklahoma blues with a pair of concrete shoes.”

Lots more of their lyrics on this Reddit thread. Or you could use the Avett Brothers’ lyrics (Rick Rubin said they were his favorite songwriters currently).

#7 Jack Carr. I’m not into his highly popular books, mainly because they sorta read like an ad. Weird. Lotta brand name-dropping in his books. 

But that’s actually a good thing to mimic if you’re trying to sprinkle in affiliate links or your other products in the content you produce. 

Now, grab that pencil and paper and practice. 

Up next, This Week’s Marketing Wrap-Up.

Please share Inbox Hacking with a fellow marketing maniac or business owner. I appreciate you reading. So do my two pups since it keeps them supplied with brand-name treats.

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin.

“Accuracy does not equal authority. You don’t have to be accurate to establish authority; in fact, you can be extremely vague and create more authority than when trying to be direct.” ~Ryan Deiss.