Imagine yourself wearing a top hat on the balcony of a private rail car…
10:40pm
Saint Paul
Wednesday I watched a conversation between Mike Ward, legendary copywriter, and Porter Stansberry, founder of Stansberry Research, the powerhouse behind “The Railroad Across America” (promoting Internet infrastructure) and other winning financial packages.
Porter said he built his multi-zillion dollar financial publishing business on the back of:
trust, transparency, mission, point of view, authenticity, and expertise.
I didn’t want to lose those 6 ideas, so I’ll post ’em here to share with you.
(But notice, none of these human concepts require AI, but AI can try to fake ’em… Can your readers tell?….)
In a 2004 memo I dug up, Porter shared what makes for a great financial copywriter.
Many of these same ideas apply to a great copywriter in any market…
Research the topic:
Read a dozen books on the topic.
Subscribe to weekly print information like newspapers and magazines, and read quality websites. (What, you don’t read print?)
Study your competition’s marketing and product.
Research the market:
What are your ideal buyers’ hopes and fears?
What’s the best ad ever in your market?
What’s selling now, and what emotional hooks, product benefits and closes are doing the lifting?
Position your offer:
Match your theme, writing and price to your buyers.
Appeal to an easy-to-identify group that represents a large part of your market.
Search for a Big Idea
(and hope that you find it)
Develop your:
Curiosity, sense of humor, work ethic, discipline, and desire to beat what came before.
One of the biggest challenges a marketer faces is switching industries, because so much of the research we just discussed is industry specific, and time specific as well.
But other skills and concepts, like overcoming objections before they arise, is transferable.
That’s why I love this game:
Always something new to learn!
Cheers to your success,
Jeffrey
PS. Want links to The Railroad Across America and Porter Stansberry’s 2004 memo How to Write Financial Newsletter Advertising that Sells ?
I don’t own these files. But I dug ’em up and will be happy to send the links your way.
Reply now, type PORTER and click [Send] and I’ll zap both links to you (PDFs) to download before they’re gone (and I have no idea when that might be –– they’re not my files –– might happen before this gets to you –– probably not tho).