My journey from unaware to most aware

A tale for invisible copywriters >>  Moment One: When I found out the freelance copywriter doing my employer’s overflow work was charging $100 / hr. More than twice my pay. Moment Two: When I found out the person who wrote our direct-response mailers was charging $30K for each mailer he wrote. Three times my annual bonus. Moment Trois: When my creative department was pitted against a creative agency to see whose email would perform best. And we lost. Those are the three moments of my in-house copywriting career I won’t forget. I’ll forget the overtime, the annoying rounds of feedback, all that stuff. But those three moments are perma-stamped on my brain. Because those three moments moved me from Unaware to Problem Aware in my career. The problem: my team devalued me. At least, that's how I saw it. They paid other copywriters more. They wanted to hire agencies to do my job.  But then it occurred to me: My team was actually INVESTING -- investing heavily -- in copywriting. So it wasn’t that they de-valued copywriting. It was this: They didn’t value MY copywriting. Because of this: I wasn’t giving the marketing team what they needed from their senior copywriter. Sure, what I wrote sounded good, so my creative director always signed off on it. But was it working? Was it helping all those marketing managers (aka my internal clients) put up bigger, prettier slides filled with graphs showing increased market share, higher average order values, more revenue? Were they getting bigger, better bonuses because my copy was actually performing? Or was my failure to generate way more sales and revenue hurting their performance reviews and their bank accounts? It wasn't that the de-valued me. They just valued results. And what’s more! Unlike me, they actually believed copy could bring in results. They were throwing tons of money at bringing people in for those results. Because my copy wasn’t doing the trick. The problem was ME. Determined never to be anyone's problem (and to correct, oh, three years of effing up the whole point of my job), I flung myself hard into the world of split-testing and conversion rate optimization. I grabbed hold of every insight I could find into why those ugly AF direct response mailers worked so well, and I threw it all at the pages and emails I was writing. And, pretty quickly, my team stopped talking about us vs agencies. I spent years doing that, cramming academic studies and massive bodies of work into my brain, then pushing it all onto the page, then measuring how it performed, then relentlessly trying to beat every new control I came up with. I had to invent conversion copywriting. Because if any copywriters were doing this stuff, they sure as hell weren’t teaching it. There were no solutions, no products I could google. There was no [Copy School]( when I was starting out or even a half-decade into my career. There was only the quietly held belief, throughout my team, that copy could sell. My job was not to write but to sell using writing. And if you’re a copywriter or digital marketer in charge of customer-facing assets… ...your job is not to write but to sell using writing. In spite of what many a well-intentioned creative director or brand manager might tell you, all copywriters are hired to sell. It’s the best-kept secret in marketing. But it’s something your CMO and CFO know well. Which is why now is the time to fire [this booklet]( off to your CMO or CFO to ask for budget to cover a year of Copy School for you, with which you’ll develop skills to sell at scale using writing, including: >> Tested practices in strategic copywriting across the customer journey >> The voice of the current customer, the voice of the future customer >> Research techniques, like analyzing user tests and surveying people immediately before and immediately after they buy >> Time-tested persuasion frameworks (as in, PAS and beyond) >> Mind-reader shortcuts and techniques in human decision-making You’ll get examples. And over-the-shoulder tutorials. And when you [join now]( you’ll also get fast-paced muscle-building practice opportunities, with full access to our ever-growing library of The Practice copywriting workouts: You’ll start with the Unskippables, which will give you the foundation you need to sell using writing. This will immediately and permanently alter the way you think about writing copy. Then you’ll get custom lesson-filled roadmaps for everything your team needs you to write in order to sell like a mofo: From there, scroll down to the Advanced and Fill in the Gaps areas. This is where you'll flesh out your training roadmap with all the extras that CROs, copywriters, content folks and total word nerds love. Jump to any writing, editing or optimizing roadmap in [Copy School + The Practice]( to quickly prove ROI to your CMO, your CFO and your team. Or start the best way: with the Research phase… then the Planning phase. And actually nail the stuff that makes great copy so great. THAT’S how you'll set yourself up for results, like in-house copywriter Rob Young got after joining Copy School: "I’ve done two email campaigns, and the results are nothing but excellent. One of our sales reps sent this note to our boss (VP of Marketing) and cc’d a few others: "Great new email. I often send out something similar but not as saucy or contemporary. EXCELLENT. Whoever made this up, it’s working like mad." Rob was able to put his hand up and take a little well-deserved credit. And Marian Schembari was able to land her dream in-house copywriting job thanks to Copy School. She’s since been promoted to lead a whole copywriting team there. "I credit Joanna with my entire career. Seriously. Before her trainings, I thought being a good writer was enough to make me a great copywriter. WRONG. Joanna’s techniques are groundbreaking." [Go here to see how other in-house and agency marketers and copywriters are getting results with Copy School]( Because if you’re thinking it’s time to provide major value to your team -- for maximum job security and, perhaps more importantly, for optimum love from your coworkers -- now’s the time to join. You’ll save $200+ a month or $2000+ a year. Plus, you’ve got 14 days to get a full refund. And you can cancel anytime. [Check out the new Copy School]( before the price triples on April 20. Or reply to this email with your questions. If you’ve read this far, chances are good: you’ve got questions. Oh, and don’t forget to [forward this to your boss if you’re hoping they’ll cover your enrollment]( ~jo :)     You can stop receiving emails about this special promo by [clicking here to opt out]( [The Copyhackers website]( Sent to: {EMAIL} [Unsubscribe]( Copyhackers, 10158 103 St NW Unit 200, Edmonton, Alberta T5J 0X6, Canada