David Garfinkel

4 quotes about the unimportance of sales copy

by

I was listening to the latest edition of the Copywriters Podcast, in which David Garfinkel interviews Brian Cassingena.

Brian used to be the head copywriter at Mindvalley, and now he seems to have gone rogue, helping individual businesses improve their sales funnels.

David asked Brian about the biggest mistake he sees with funnels. This was Brian’s response:

“[Businesses] are not split-testing enough. We assume — copywriters are the same — we assume we know what would work best.”

Isn’t that what you pay a copywriter for though?

A good copywriter — an A-lister like Brian — can be expected to get top-gun results much of the time, or at least drastically outperform some schmuck off the street.

Right?

Maybe not.

Here’s what Dan Ferrari, another big name who writes sales copy for the Motley Fool, has to say on the topic:

“The C-level marketers that test 50 promos per year will beat the A-list marketers that test 5.”

What?

Come on, Dan.

Seriously.

What about guys like Gary Bencivenga, whose copy never lost, always became the control, and made his clients millions of dollars without fail?

Well, here’s Gary Bencivenga himself, describing a part of his decision process on whether he would accept a project or not:

“What I really want to know about the advertising is whether or not I see an easy way for me to beat it. If the advertising was created by somebody like Clayton Makepeace, it’s an immediate turnoff.”

The fact is, Gary wasn’t “selling ice to eskimos.”

He would only take on “easy” projects where he had a great chance of succeeding right up front (no harm there, it’s a smart strategy).

And even then, he would spend months and months upon research, to ensure he would really get the best angle.

Which leads me to the final quote, this from Ben Settle (I’m paraphrasing):

“Copywriting isn’t hard if you know your market well.”

The thing is, copywriting isn’t some dark art where you either know the magic spell or you die.

Instead, it mainly comes down to two things:

1. Researching your market.

2. Testing to see which appeal works best.

If you want to see how this simple 2-step approach can successfully be used in practice (specifically, for selling health products such as supplements), you might like my upcoming book on email marketing for the health space.

It’s not out yet, but you can sign up to get it for free when I do finish it. Here’s the link:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails

Why you should ride the void like Indiana Jones

by

Stepping out into the void

“You must believe, boy”
— Indiana Jones’s dad

There’s a scene in the 3rd Indiana Jones movie where Indy has to take a leap of faith.

His father has been shot, and the only way to save him is to retrieve the Holy Grail, which cures and heals all.

Only one problem.

The Holy Grail is on the other side of an enormous rocky chasm.

There’s no bridge.

No way across.

“No man can jump this,” says Indy.

And then he realizes what he has to do.

So he takes a deep breath. Closes his eyes. And steps out into the void.

.

.

.

.

.

.

And yet he doesn’t fall.

Instead, he has stepped onto an invisible bridge, which, now that he’s stepped onto it, actually becomes visible, and leads him to the Grail. Father saved, evil guy defeated, the end.

I thought of this scene because I am trying to illustrate (to myself) and important copywriting lesson I heard today.

It came from David “world’s greatest copywriting coach” Garfinkel.

David was talking about the 6 main reasons that keep good copywriters from becoming great.

The first of these, however, is not limited to copywriting. In a nutshell, David is saying this first reason that holds copywriters back is a lack of confidence.

This might not sound like a great revelation, and in fact, it isn’t.

It’s what David said next that matters.

“How do you develop confidence?”

Successes can help.

So can failures, if you learn from them.

But according to David, neither of these is really the key to developing true confidence.

Instead, he says that confidence comes from knowing that you can deal with the inevitable setbacks that you will come across in any complex project. In other words, trusting that you will be able to problem-solve when the need arises.

I think the invisible bridge is a good metaphor for this.

The first time, it simply requires a leap of faith (that’s when you throw yourself into a situation without certainty that you will succeed).

From then on however, the bridge becomes visible, and you know that you can succeed — you have confidence — because success ultimately comes from handling real-life situations in real time.

And like I said, this isn’t limited to copywriting only.

It applies to any situation in which you need confidence.

For example, I’ve heard similar advice from pick-up coaches.

The RSD guys have a popular mantra, “You are enough.” To me, this  is ultimately about trusting that you’ll be able to handle yourself in the moment.

And daygame master Yad teaches something similar, except he phrases it as, “You have to learn to ride the void.” In other words, get comfortable with the tension of running out of things to say, because that’s when the best things happen.

So why ride the void?

The same reason why Indiana takes the leap of faith.

Because the Holy Grail is on the other side.