|
Course Description Breakthrough Copywriting, by David Garfinkel This article describes David Garfinkel's philosophy of teaching copywriting, and goes on to describe his most popular learning system, Breakthrough Copywriting. David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting Institute, author of Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich, and co-author of Guerrilla Copywriting with Jay Conrad Levinson. He has been teaching writing to adults–with classes ranging from The Learning Annex to The Office of the President at the University of California–since 1987. David is also a highly accomplished copywriter. He has written copy that has created many millions of dollars in sales. For example, a three-page letter David wrote for Abacus Travel Management of Phoenix, Arizona, a six-person business, added $40 million to the firm’s sales, according to Abacus President Bonnie Levine. David’s approach to teaching is that copywriting is more of an activity than a body of knowledge. For that reason, he takes a coaching (rather than a classroom) approach to his instruction. Coaching, in his view, is about doing rather than solely knowing. In fact, David recently completed a Masters of Education degree and is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Human and Organization Development, which includes a year-long certificate program in Executive Coaching. All of this, he says, is part of his commitment to improve his skills and offerings to teach copywriting to freelancers and business. David has several programs available, including the first online multimedia copywriting course (April 11, 2000) called Killer Copy Tactics (http://www.davidgarfinkel.com/kct). However, he does not consider that his best program because the information about marketing on the Internet is so old, and because he has developed more effective teaching methods since he created this course originally in 1999. David’s key advantage in the marketplace is he is focused on getting quality writing done quickly, and has helped students and private clients double and even triple their copywriting speed. His newer course Breakthrough Copywriting includes far superior material. In two opening sessions, David provides specific methods and tools (templates) to get started quickly and to create the following elements of copy must faster than most writers, including even many experienced writers, do:
Each of the 9 main sessions of Breakthrough Copywriting is provided in video on DVD and audio CD, as well as in a printed, bound transcript. Here is an excerpt from the opening of Breakthrough Copywriting: Copywriting is about communicating with the emotional part of the person’s mind in such a way that what you say makes sense to the rational mind. The emotional part of your mind is called your unconscious mind. Within everyone’s unconscious mind, there’s a place called “Copywriting Junction.” It’s the intersection of a road where, on one side, it says “No,” and on the other side, it says “Yes.” That road crosses another road, to form the intersection. The other road, on one side, it says “Bad,” and the other side, it says “Good.” Right at the intersection is the place called “Maybe.” When people see your sales letter, copy, email, or Google AdWords, they’re in a condition of Maybe. Your job, with your copy, is to get your prospect through the intersection and onto the side of the road that says “Yes.” The Breakthrough Copywriting Model is unique because it covers skills and tools in four areas: 1. Thinking is vitally important, but this is also what you will learn at nearly every other copywriting seminar. Some of the thinking you will learn is better than other thinking, but thinking, by itself, is just not enough. 2. Feeling involves how you are able to convey passion and other feelings effectively in your writing so you’re not writing about them. People are getting what you’re feeling, or what you’re trying to make them feel. They are feeling that way. 3. Insight involves intuition and the ability to take your intuitive thoughts, feelings, impulses, and images – that information – and turn it into a conclusion, a direction, an action, a map, or a pathway. Insight is the ability to use your intuition to make money. 4. Energy means your energy level – how excited you are. That energy can be poured into the written word. It’s the energy of the writing, the rhythm, the passion, and the power. Now let’s talk about the “C Factor.” The “C Factor” is conversation. Copywriting is a conversation with your reader. Or, if you’re writing audio or podcasting, it is with your listener. Or, if you’re creating video, it’s with your viewer. Copywriting is a conversation. It’s not the written language; it’s the spoken language. In a way, it’s a different language. It uses the same words; it looks like the same words. Conditioning, practice, and habit are very important. When they told you in school not to end a sentence with a preposition, that was just the beginning of a long conditioning process to teach you to write in a way that was not effective in selling. In this program we’re going to make some course corrections so you will know how to write in a way that persuades. The first thing we need to talk about is conversation. You can look at conversation in a new way. Look at the way they write in the National Enquirer. It’s like hot gossip, between two people whispering in loud, hot whispers. That is a lot like the way you want your copy to be. You want your copy to be like you’re telling a friend about a secret that’s really exciting. So, you need to learn to, first of all, recognize it, and secondly, start to write that way. Copy is very intentional and is very focused on getting an action from the person reading it. The action does not have to be a sale. We’re going to talk about that in just a few minutes. But, traditional, institutional advertising – the kind you usually see in magazines – is called “Freudian advertising.” It’s called that because the people who put the advertising together are mainly concerned about what you think. It’s like they’re wondering “Oh, what are you thinking about me?” This reminds you of Sally Fields gushing, that famous night many years ago at the Academy Awards, “Oh, you like me.” Now, doing that isn’t going to make any sales, but it might help you in a popularity contest or win a poll where your recognition or popularity is higher. But, your banker doesn’t care and you don’t care. Or if you do care, it’s not going to help your business too much. Direct response copy has been described as Skinnerian or behaviorist. What does that mean? We don’t really care what you think, but we do care about what you do. We don’t care all that much if you like us, as long as you buy from us. We’re less concerned about how high esteem you hold us in. We’re more concerned that you become a customer, and you’re satisfied. David brought in a world-class faculty of experienced copywriters and other direct-response marketing specialists to teach this three-day seminar in Las Vegas. The tuition per person was $5,000, and all the participants gave it rave reviews. Examples on David’s World Copywriting Blog: http://world-copywriting-institute.typepad.com/world_copywriting_blog/2005/02/las_vegas_break.html Faculty at the seminar and on the videos, besides David, include: Michel Fortin, Brian Keith Voiles, Carl Galletti, Mike Stewart and Jim Van Wyck. David took a year to edit the 3-day seminar down to 9 DVDs. He added seven bonus interviews on specialty areas of copywriting, with experts including Jim Edwards and David Deutsch. Topics for the bonuses include: relationship-based copywriting, “A-List” (big newsletter publisher) copywriting, entrepreneurial information-product copywriting, and copywriting for audio. The program is available for $997, with free shipping in the U.S. and Canada, at http://www.davidgarfinkel.com/breakthrough
|
