The Chameleon Copywriter

I’m not a catalog copywriter but I have a weakness for it and a secret wish to write copy for the J. Peterman catalog (my favorite catalog).
So this book jumped out at me and it looks quite interesting. It’s a collection of catalog snapshots from Sears, Neiman Marcus and many other catalogs over the years.
I [...]

I visited the Copywriters Board almost daily for a year and a half and had the pleasure of serving as moderator since February. Needless to say I felt a bit homeless when Michel Fortin decided he needed to shut it down.
Within 48 hours copywriter Bruce Wedding launched a new forum to fill the void. It’s [...]

Ryan Healy’s blog post about how to get your email opened set me to thinking again about how marketing is ultimately about connecting with people.
Email is the true test of whether or not a marketer can or cannot connect with people. Most marketers can’t rely solely on email to do this. They need to use [...]

Email copywriter Sean Furey says he doesn’t subscribe to more than a few lists because he says it’s like “pollution” to do so. He wants his ideas as a copywriter to be fresh.
Most copywriters diligently study sales letters for inspiration. But that’s different. You have to deliberately seek out a sales letter, by pulling it [...]

Matt Furey says it’s important to have a frame for your emails and he uses time and place as his frame.
That is, in the opening of your email, you should have a setting and refer to a specific time.
Here are some examples from emails I recently wrote for clients:
“That car reminds me of one night [...]

People often ask me if I follow a certain formula when writing email copy for my clients.
For clients who want a set number of plain text autoresponder emails for a series, I follow a certain structure most of the time:
* Begin with a story or interesting description and make the first paragraph very short, if [...]