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The S.T.U.P.I.D. Email (Friday July 22nd, 2022)

(Swipe, Thought, Uplifting, Picture, Interesting, Drawing)

This is a fun email for Friday July 22nd, 2022. Hope you like it 🙂

🎤 Listen to this email here:

Swipe:

This is an old ad for Hasselblad cameras that's performing what's known as "Price Justification."

vinatge-camera-ad-better-.jpeg

Price justification is how you explain your product costing 10X more than a competitor.

Here’s some examples of Price Justification for a camera:
• “This is what Steve Spielberg uses to film”
• “Hasselblad cameras were used on the moon”
• “The lenses take 3 months each to make”

These are many "features" that allow businesses to charge more money for a product, such as:

  • Rarity: Only a few will be made, like small batch whiskey.
  • Organic: It costs more money to produce and is better for you.
  • Exclusivity: If an old product is discontinued. Like classic cars.
  • Handmade: Harder and longer to make things by hand.
  • Fame: If the person/thing is famous and well known.
  • Art: If something is “art” there’s technically no price ceiling for it.
  • Punctuality: It's always delivers on time.
  • Speed: If your product is faster than others.
  • Higher Quality: Like Ikea vs West Elm.
  • More Features: If your product can do more things that are useful.
  • Less Features: Simplifying a product can add value. Like Apple.
  • Trust: If your product/company are more trustworthy than others.
  • Talent: Some services just have better people.
  • Brand Recognition: If your product has cache. Like Gucci.
  • History: If there is some historical value to the product.
  • Just Charging More: Sometimes you can simply just charge more to appear luxurious.
  • Convenience: Being in right place, right time. Like airport stores.
  • Monopoly: If you’re the only provider, you can keep prices high.

You can also combine these qualities together to create a “Premium” product that's higher priced than competitors.

Thought:

One reason people get so-called "Writer's Block" is they are trying to write a SINGLE perfect post.

writers-block-new.png

For example when people try to craft a cold email, they get scared it won't work.

This is why we always encourage people to write 3 drafts:
• Long
• Medium
• Short

1.) Start by writing long.
2.) Then whittle it down to medium.
3.) Then whittle it down to short.
4.) Send 10 of each.
5.) Then pick the winner.

Uplifting:

My friend Nick Gray does parties all the time. He always tries to invite ppl who don’t all know each other.

  • Does roughly 3 ice breakers per party
  • Makes everyone wear name tags

It almost seems funny at first, but is 10X easier to meet people you don’t know and have conversations!

 

Pro-Tip: Allow OTHER PEOPLE to throw parties at your place, you do very little of the work, and get major cred 😛

Picture:

I saw this bag in the wild. When someone was designing this bag, they HAD to know it looks like a blob fish right?? 😂

FX5GV-HX0AIusxb.jpg

The term for this phenomena of "something that looks like a face" is called Pareidolia.

Here's other random things that look like funny faces 😂

funny-faces-Pareidolia.png

Interesting:

YouTube video traffic is like SEO traffic: Make it once and it chugs along steadily.

In last 30 days this Codie Sanchez interview we recorded months ago brought in:
• 5,553 views
• 1,300 hours of watch time
• 75 subscribers

codie-nev-talk.jpg

Even after not posting on YouTube for 2 months the platform keeps promoting and building an audience.

It's a stark contrast to other social channels which drop off a cliff if you don't frequently post.

Drawing:

extra-eyes.png

Question for the writers on this email list:

Who do you have review your copy before publishing it?

Reply to this post and let me know!
A.)
Write it, and don't get feedback from others.
B.) Write it, and show it to other writers.
C.) Write it, and show it to co-workers.
D.) Some other process?
Reply and let me know!

Sincerely,
Neville Medhora -
CopywritingCourse.com | @NevMed

nev-head.webp

48 Comments


Recommended Comments



D) OTHER. Write and show to client. Have to be careful because often they just say it's great without much critical thinking. 
 
Thanks for the reminder about multiple versions! 
 
Today is the day I start writing short blog posts (100-200 words) again for a former employer and for a new client he picked up. I'm looking forward to flexing my extemporaneous writing muscles. 
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  • Administrator

That's a great process Mary....especially when writing for clients you've got to often run it by multiple people (or worse: multiple LAYERS of management 😳). 

Also congrats on the new gig, short blog posts are the most fun! Let us know if you need any help with them.

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I have a word proofer read over 90% of my content produced for public consumption.  
 
That’s different than a proof reader who just does grammar.  Julie and I have been working together over 20 years. She now has her own business: www.wordproofing.com and performs a combination of grammar correction and content reading to tell me if it makes sense to her.  Many a times, she’s said, “I’m confused by what you've written.” She offers a couple of different interpretations for me to consider to consider using or I re-write it to clarify what I’m not conveying well.
 
It saves me lots of embarrassment, creates clearer communications, and a more professional outcome. 
 
Full Disclosure: She did not word proof this email.  I own all the typos, misspelled words, and stupid syntax errors.
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  • Administrator

Hey Kevin that's a great process. Having a professional look over everything you've written is a GREAT idea! 

You're correct that most of what a copywriter does is not necessarily improve spelling and grammar (much of that is automatically fixed by software nowadays), but rather seeing "if something makes sense." 

In our community this is what we constantly do with people...and try to reduce the amount of brain cycles someone must spend to understand a concept.

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B, or I guess D.

I write our weekly mailout and the founder (who is a master copywriter) edits it and sends it back, I then load it into the mailer, make a loom of me reading it out loud to catch mistakes then we sent it out.

We promote tandem writing where one person does the draft and hands it off to the other person as soon as the draft is done, the editor then takes over and finalizes it. I find writing is much quicker this way. I have a couple Acadium apprentices at the moment and one of the exercises I gave them was a 30 min challenge where they write for 30 mins then hand it to the other apprentice to finish it off. It was a lot of fun and teaches them to let go of inhibitions, develops trust and fast tracks the ability to accept and use feedback productively.

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  • Administrator

Wow Ivan that's quite a process! Never heard this exact workflow before, thanks for sharing 🙂 

I like how the writers only have 30 minutes, so they hand in something pretty rough that then gets re-written. If you let someone finish it 100%, they often take feedback more harshly than if it's a draft. 

Cool process!

  • Like 2
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Mostly A (Write it, and don't get feedback from others), sometimes D? I ask my partner to take a look as a non-writer to check if the text is easy to follow, etc.

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  • Administrator

That's a great little system Madelayne! I bet your partner is good to run it by and can give great notes on how to improve or reduce confusion in the writing!

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  • Administrator

That's great Dean....I often do the same: 

Walk away from my writing, then come back in an hour or so and re-read and make changes.

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  • Administrator

Tom, that's a great system. Especially if your co-workers are working on the same products, it's super helpful to have a 2nd or 3rd pair of eyes on it!

extra-eyes.png
Pictured: a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th pair of eyes!

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  • Administrator

That's awesome you bought Nick's book Alif! He's such a great party host. 

I'm also sometimes Option A, it just depends on the project. There's no right or wrong way 🙂 

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