Getting Started in Copywriting with Jerrod Harlan
Here are the notes from a super insightful call I had with Jerrod Harlan. He’s currently earning over 6-figures in copywriting and shares some of his best tips based on the experience he’s had working in this field.
Note: Everything here isn’t word-for-word but pretty close to it based on the notes I took over the interview we had.
Did you start in a marketing role with praxis or transfer to that role?
I didn’t take an apprenticeship after praxis. Starting Praxis I wanted to do sales because of my previous sales background. By month 2 I’d found copywriting and fell in love with it. So I then tailored everything towards copywriting. Once I got to the apprenticeship there was nothing available in copywriting and I didn’t want to go into a job that I didn’t truly love. Plus before praxis I already owned a brick and mortar business, thus my success wasn’t based on the apprenticeship. I was dead set on starting a copywriting role and starting working on freelance Copywriting.
What kind of work do you do in marketing and how did you approach your career development from the start?
Copywriting, specializing in Sales letters and Facebook ads and emails oriented towards getting the user to take action.
I started by hiring a copywriting mentor. The perk of this was that my mentor had clients coming to him but was too busy for to work on all so he referred some of his clients to me leading me to land 4 clients that way.
Freelancing is riskier and more challenging than taking an apprenticeship/entry-level marketing role. I would advise taking a marketing role so you can pad your failures and if you have a company behind you then those failures aren’t as impacting on your career.
A few months back I left freelancing to accept a full-time position at a company which is a perk when you get good enough at freelancing that bigger companies will start noticing you.
I ended up meeting the copy chief at this company and they made me an offer, so now I work full time for a direct response based natural health company.
What does copywriting entail on a day to day basis?
I look over 3 departments
Continuity program which is like a monthly membership club. So I write persuasive copy to get these people to utilize the resources at their disposal. The reason behind this is that if people don’t utilize the resources then they probably won’t stick with the membership. Our sticking rate has moved from 3 to 4/5 months which has created tremendous revenue for the company.
Email Copy: This company has a 1.3 million person email list which has many affiliate links within it. Not long emails with narrative but 100 word emails that get people interested in the next step in funnels from the affiliate.
Writing Long Copy: I work on retention campaigns which include writing 8–10 page sales letter for anyone that has bought their supplement in the past.
And Freelancing included all that work plus the added work of looking for new clients and building a network and referrals.
For whatever marketing role, what’s utterly crucial is staying up to date with your market and your prospects. You need to know what’s going with the buyers.
An example would be that in Natural health, 75% of customers are women that are 30–60 years old. Part of the job is keeping a thumb on the pulse of what’s going on in that market. In this example that would mean reading Women’s World magazine. Every day I’ll read these affiliate offers that the market is seeing and news that the audience would be interested in. These gives me plenty of ideas when i’m writing that I can tailor towards my audience.
It’s a synergy of what’s going on in your competitors and how you can offer something better that solves your problem better.
Are there misconceptions people have about this role that you think is untrue?
A lot of marketers see themselves as the creative type and that’s well and good but getting people to buy stuff is just implementing proven sales structures.
The most successful copywriters are not creative at all, but they know how to sell. They know how to answer objections, stay up to date with the market, and how to lead their buyer. They follow the sales structure then add creativity into it rather than approaching creativity as being the foundation.
Watch Harmon brothers ads and you’ll notice that there’s a sales structure there even though these ads are highly creative.
Sales structure:
- The Problem
- Why its a problem
- Our new Solution
- Proof that our new solutions work
What’s your approach to Failure?
It’s all about trial and error and being able to analyze why. The reason I’m earning 6 figures is because the failures don’t determine my self-worth and I don’t take it personally when something I write fails. Its a learned skill.
People will want to get into marketing for the freedom and lifestyle it can provide. But for the small percentage that gets into it, most people take their failures personally and it destroys their ego and self-worth, leading them to quit.
My background was in sales which very much helped with my success because I already learned how to fail.
Ask: Why did this happen and how can I prevent this from happening next time?
Asking the right questions is important.
Most never get clients, you may think there’s a lot of competition but there really isn’t.
You can be the best copywriter but if you don’t know your market and the problems they need solved then you’ll ultimately fail. And learning this comes with experimentation and trying new things consistently.
You should be out there talking to your market, and realize you’re always going to have those failures.
What are your favorite marketing books or blogs?
Sign up for Roy Furr’s email list at breakthroughmarketingsecrets.
He had a similar rise. Roy got a marketing job, learned and is now an A-list freelance copywriter. Roy puts out a daily email which is always filled with straight gold.
Study the greats
Trends change but human nature doesn’t change
That’s why studying the classics of the 1900’s is still so powerful.
Such as the book How to write a great advertisement — Viktor Scwab
Contagious by Johan Berger
Johan is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania
Really dives into how marketing makes people take action and its really, really good
You can read this book 100 times and still get value from it every time
Win your case by Gerry Spence
He’s a trial lawyer.
His whole thing is he knows how to create compelling logical cases to “win your case.”
Read these and you’ll have a more solid foundation of marketing than 90% of people.
Really understand that humans make decisions on emotion and then justify it with logic.
