Posted by: Clayton Makepeace
April 9, 2009
Originally Posted On: November 12, 2007

From Zero to Hero in Record Time

• How to hone your copy skills to razor sharpness in no time flat …
• How business owners and marketing pros can get better sales copy faster …
• And much, Much MORE!

Dear Business-Builder,

This issue will make you money if you’ll let it …

If you’re a copywriter, the secrets I’m about to reveal will help you grow your skills faster – and prime you for plumb assignments from Agora Publishing and every one of its competitors.

And if you’re a business owner or marketing exec, you’re going to discover a better way to work with your writers – or even create a world-class in-house copywriting team from scratch – and get better copy faster than you may now believe possible.

What’s that you say? “Not a bad way to spend the next five minutes or so?”

Great! Here goes …

A few years ago, my agency – ResponseInk – signed a contract to take over in-house marketing for a financial client. In the first ten months, his sales went up 80%. By the end of the year, we had doubled his revenues and profits.

Unsurprisingly, the client wanted us to take over his online and offline customer acquisition marketing as well – so we happily signed a new contract with him.

Plus, another, much larger national firm (sorry – can’t tell you who) asked us to take them on. This company was a sales explosion waiting to happen, and I knew precisely what was needed to light the fuse for them. What’s more, I genuinely love this company. Heck: I’ve been a customer for more than 35 years!

But our little office building downtown was pretty much standing room only. So The Redhead found us a much larger building, got it remodeled and moved us in.

Then, with the New Year rapidly approaching, we were facing the task of recruiting and training a passel of new copywriters, designers and other marketing folk to accommodate our growing client list.

And so, I approached the coming year with fear and trembling. Because the fact is, training copywriters and designers – getting them to the point where they’re making me money and not merely slowing me down and costing me money – is a pain in the patootie.

Plus, I’m not very good at it these days. I just don’t have the time or the energy or the patience to spend hours digging for buried leads … juggling organizational jumbles … clarifying tangled, confusing paragraphs … bringing credibility to unbelievable ones … or breathing life into brain-dead boring ones.

Sometimes, the breakthrough you need
comes along just when you need it most …

Out of the blue, a friend called to say there was a new gun in town: A new copy chief at Agora who’s the best they’ve ever had.

So far, this wunderkind had recruited, trained and was now managing 14 writers! And not only that, his “fearsome fourteen” were actually cranking out winning promotions both on the Web and in direct mail!

My god – 14 writers! Just bringing along ONE new writer is enough to make me yearn for the sweet relief of death. But 14? Holey moley! This guy must be some kind of superman!

Now, as I’ve said a gazillion times before in these pages, great sales copy is the ONE scarce resource – the ONE barrier to growth – for every direct response company in existence.

Products? They’re easy – like Joe Sugarman once told me , “Just look for something everyone needs.”

… But if you can find a way to quickly and efficiently turn a pizza delivery boy into a winning copywriter – which, according to my friend, this amazing young copy chief has actually done – there’s no limit to how fast or how big your company (or more to the point, MY company) can grow.

“I gotta meet this guy,” says I.

Turns out I already had. His name is Mike Palmer and a year or so earlier, Mike and Greg Grillot – another superstar in the Agora constellation – came down to my little corner of Appalachia just to hang out with me for a couple of days.

So I didn’t figure that Mike would refuse to allow me to interview him – especially if I asked him real nice.

But would he be willing to reveal precisely – step-by-step – how he finds, recruits, trains and manages his writers?

Most guys wouldn’t be.

But I had an ace up my sleeve. See, I know that every company’s culture is a direct reflection of the owner’s personality and philosophy.

Agora is Bill Bonner’s company. Bill Bonner is scary smart. Bill is also generous to a fault. He knows that when he helps his competitors, they grow. When their mailing lists get bigger, there are more names of qualified prospects for Bill to rent. That means Bill’s company grows faster.

That’s why every single time I’ve asked one of Agora’s leading lights to share his or her most effective business-building, response-boosting secrets with you, they’ve quickly and cheerfully agreed.

They get it.

So when I asked Mike Palmer to tell me in painstaking detail how he’s cranking out great new writers faster than Carter’s cranks out little liver pills, he said, “Sure!”

Which is why I can give you the philosophy behind Mike’s approach – a philosophy that is too often lost in the day-to-day, rough-and-tumble, make-it-up-as-you-go-along, free-for-all we like to call “doing binness.”

Now, before I tell you the right way – how Mike does it – let me tell you the wrong way: The way I’ve been doing it…

From Dumb Copy Chief to Smart Copy Chief
in 60 Minutes Flat

My philosophy has always been to hire writers who show me some decent samples, then throw them into the deep end – giving them their first assignment their first day on the job.

It’s not that I figure they’ll either sink or swim; I know they’re going to sink. And I know the job is going to take four or five times longer than if I’d written it myself – and that in the end, I’m probably going to have to pretty much write it myself anyway.

My hope though, is that the copywriter will learn volumes from the experience and that each succeeding project will take fewer drafts and less of my time.

Doesn’t work that way. For most new writers, seeing the river of red cyber-ink on his or her beloved draft (I mark it up with change tracking on), is a killer. Some just figure, “What’s the point? Clayton’s going to re-write this whole thing anyway.” And I end up with a frustrated, disillusioned employee on my hands.

Mike’s genius is in finding a way to make his writers gain confidence and skill with each draft by requiring them to meet challenges the copy poses themselves. And he does that by bringing structure and simplicity to the training process.

Mike begins by paying his trainees not to write for their first couple of weeks on the job. Instead, he pays them to read.

For ten glorious workdays – and hopefully for fourteen nights and three weekends – Mike’s copy cubs are required to immerse themselves in The Masters. They must, of course, devour Michael Masterson’s AWAI copywriting course. And by the end of two weeks, they’re able to cite Hopkins, Caples, Schwab, Ogilvy and Gene Schwartz chapter and verse.

Much better – right?

Next, Mike simplified and brings simplicity and structure to the review process. He identified two critical things his cubs’ headlines must do – and the one job that their opening copy must accomplish.

He then gives each new writer an assignment, asking that they write ONLY the headline and first couple of pages of copy. And he tells them that before they’ll be allowed to write the rest of the promotion, these two or three pages must glisten.

The review process is a beautiful thing. In a quick 30- or 40-minute meeting each week, a panel of experienced writers meets with Mike and the new writer. Mike and each member of his review panel rates how well the work accomplishes the stated objectives on a scale of one to four.

If the headline and/or the opening copy scores less than a three, the copy cub is sent back to his or her cubicle – with the review panel’s comments and suggestions in hand – to take another crack at it. If the copy is a three or better, it passes muster and the writer is allowed to complete his first draft and submit a copy to each member of the review panel before his next copy review.

Here again, Mike has made things blindingly simple. He has identified three common problems most drafts share – and asks his reviewers to tag any guilty sentence or paragraph with a letter that identifies the crime. Once again, it’s up to the writer to solve the problem.

And when the final copy passes muster and begins spinning off money like crazy, Bill Bonner, Mike Palmer and the copy cub divvy up the profits. That’s right; copy cubs can earn royalties at Agora.

The genius of this approach is that it demands that new writers meet their own challenges and solve their own problems. And I also love the fact that while Mike’s approach leverages the experience and genius of senior writers, it requires them to spend only a few hours a week helping new writers along. They’ve freed senior writers to spend most of their time writing their own copy – and making themselves (and everyone else in the food chain) richer.

Brilliant, no?

If you’re a copywriter, why not find yourself a few buddies (online copywriting forums are great for this) and create your own copy review committee?

Doesn’t matter whether they’re in your home town or on the other side of the planet – you can do this over the Web. You can do it cheap through e-mails, or you can invest a few shekels and use www.gotomeeting.com so you can all be looking at the same parts of each draft as you crit it.

If you’re a business owner or marketing exec, you can use Mike’s brainstorm, too. It doesn’t even matter if you don’t know the first thing about copy. Just talk a couple of senior freelancers into participating in return for a share of the royalties the cubs’ copy earns.

Hope this helps …

Yours for Bigger Winners, More Often,

Clayton Makepeace
Publisher & Editor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE

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15 Comments »

1. Comment by Markus Trauernicht — November 12, 2007 @ 11:42 am

   I really get jealous when I hear how Agora works together with copywriters in the USA. The first salesletter I wrote for a client was for a subsidiary of Agora in Germany, after they had recently asked me to write a salesletter for them. But no royalties. Only a flat fee when I beat the control. I beat the control and now I see that same salesletter, knowing I could definitely improve it easily. It could have been far more of a WIN-WIN. And payments are no comparison to the USA.

   The standard directmail salesletter in Germany is half a page to barely one page long. Mostly all about features, no benefits. Seems like directmarketing over here is many years behind. Probably I will translate my current assignment (private-equity-investing) for a Swiss company into English as a speculative assignment when it is finished and start concentrating on clients in the USA.

   It just amazes me how directmarketing companies work closely with copywriters in your country. Even listbuilding is a drag over here, as listsharing is so contradictory to the German or European mentality.

   Regards
   Markus Trauernicht from Berlin

2. Comment by Glen Kohlenberg — April 9, 2009 @ 11:34 am

   Clayton this is some great stuff.Thanks I needed the help. I remember not long ago that Mr. Masterson said to write the headline and a couple of paragraphs and that this was the most important to get started.

   I like the mentor ideal also and maybe I can find some on the warrior forum.

   Thanks Clayton and to Mr. Palmer

   Glen

3. Comment by Shanika Journey — April 9, 2009 @ 11:44 am

   Wow. What an incredible way to mastermind with other copywriters and improve your technique.

   I really like that. I’m already on Twitter with a slew of copywriters. This is a great to network and create beautiful masterpieces. Everybody wins!

   Bravo! Bravo! Can’t wait to try this….

4. Comment by John Deck — April 9, 2009 @ 11:57 am

   I have written 100s (if not 1000s) of sales letters over the years. There done as part of my B2B direct sales efforts. Each was a little different responding to the solutions the customer was interested in and where they were in the sales process.

   I spent the bulk of my time on the first paragraph or two and the last call to action.

   My “sales letters” got better as I studied sales copywriting. They do not call it salesmanship in print for nothing.

   John Deck

5. Comment by Bart Murray — April 9, 2009 @ 12:02 pm

   Thanks for sharing Wendy and Clayton….it sort of reminds me of the E-Myth for Copywriters, don’t think that ol’ Michael Gerber coined that one yet? True, everything works better with a sytem, so you are not working “in” the business …you are working “on” the business! Wonder if this is what it would be like to work for you?

6. Comment by Rod Newbound, RN — April 9, 2009 @ 12:07 pm

   Thanks Clayton.

   Terrific article with some real nuggets. Your ability to craft a simple declarative statement into a mind sticking image makes reading your articles down right fun.

   A couple examples: “or breathing life into brain-dead boring ones” & “Bill Bonner is scary smart…”

   I’m currently working through Michael Masterson’s AWAI copywriting course, but now I have a stronger reason to pick up the pace.

7. Comment by Peter — April 9, 2009 @ 7:06 pm

   Clayton,

   Short and to the point. I’ll follow the your course of action and timeline the best I can. I’ve already picked up ‘Tested Advertising Methods’ by Caples and ‘Scientific Advertising’ by Hopkins. I’ll dig in to the AWAI course again. I’ll see If I can dig up the other authors.

   -Peter

   P.S. You’re sayin’ some greasy cheese-lovin’ pizza boy is gonna beat me at copywriting success? Piffles! (I like pepperoni myself:)

8. Comment by Tia Dobi — April 10, 2009 @ 8:24 am

   How would you resolve these discrepencies between the Agora Peer Review and the process for your readers?

   1) Agora: ….a panel of experienced writers meets with Mike and the new writer.

   - how many readers of this blog equate their experience with the professional experience of an Agora senior copwyriter? (Is that true?)

   1a) Mike and each member of his review panel rates how well the work accomplishes the stated objectives on a scale of one to four.

   - what are those objectives and which readers here have those and use them?

   2) If the headline and/or the opening copy scores less than a three, the copy cub is sent back to his or her cubicle – with the review panel’s comments and suggestions in hand – to take another crack at it.

   - How could novice, neophyte writers make comments and suggestions that are sound direct marketing principles if s/he doesn’t know what those and

   2a) worse! Simply make suggestions that are opinionated, irrational and harmful to the profit of the copy?

   ….Here again, Mike has made things blindingly simple. He has identified three common problems most drafts share – and asks his reviewers to tag any guilty sentence or paragraph with a letter that identifies the crime.

   It’s a truism the skills and abilities of the Agora team to untrained, non-practitioners is as different as lightning and the lightning bug.

   Plus Sr Agora writers and mentored Agora newbies are not setting themselves up for disastrous relationships and wild confusion so often the consistent result of blind-leading-blind peer review groups.

   Students are not skilled professionals- that’s why they’re called students…I am not seeing this student to student (and students with no or varying curriculem mind you) methodology being used in the paid school classroom.

   What I’ve learned is that the teachers are still teaching and grading the papers - as is done at Agora.

9. Comment by John Gilger — April 10, 2009 @ 9:06 am

   This does work.

   I’m a member of AWAI’s Circle of Success and we have been through these reviews multiple times. I’ve lead a few myself.

   The problem I’ve found with the concept of finding other copywriters online for a “review group” is that few experienced writers are willing to participate.

   I think all of us in the copywriting community are looking for someone more skilled than ourselves to help us move up to the next level, but few of us are willing to be the mentor and help the newbies along.

   At least that’s my two cents this morning

   John Gilger

10. Comment by Tracy Needham — April 11, 2009 @ 5:26 pm

    Actually, you don’t even need to pony up the fees for GoToMeeting. If the group is small enough, you could use something like http://www.dimdim.com for free instead.

    Great suggestions–but I have the same concern as John when it comes to looking online–everyone’s always looking for a mentor but no one wants to be one.

    Tracy

11. Comment by mark — April 12, 2009 @ 7:43 am

    Your article title did not match your content.

12. Comment by Tia Dobi — April 13, 2009 @ 9:47 pm

    Right now, I am also a member of AWAI Circle of Success Programme and have seen many instances where this student peer review has not worked.

    In fact, since I’ve been a member of as many as 5 of these groups simultanously, it’s always fun to throw in a headline that a master copywriter (i.e. Makepeace) wrote and see how the group scores it.

    Without telling them it’s a proven master copywriter’s header.

    100% of the few times I’ve done this, the scores returned by the group were: low. Below a 3.

    Naughty? OR smart business for a lady who doesn’t have time precious energy and talent to waste?

    (I may be the only group member to my specific groups who can cite Hopkins, Caples, Schwab, Ogilvy and Gene Schwartz chapter and verse. Although to think any human can do this with just 2 weeks of reading seems untrue. How many weeks, nah years, have readers been coming here to learn?)

    I concur this article does not make good on the promise of its header…specifically with the 3 bullets below that.

    What it does make good on however, is this sub-head:

    From Dumb Copy Chief to Smart Copy Chief
    in 60 Minutes Flat

    Although it seems odd that any seasoned business pro couldn’t figure this type of process out quicker sooner faster. Doctors model doctors, filmmakers model other crew personnel…apprenticeship is ions old, it seems to me.

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15. Comment by Shane Arthur — October 6, 2009 @ 11:36 am

    That’s a solid method for sure. Agora gets two thumbs up in my book for that.