Welcome to the 134th edition of the Weekly Round-Up — your once-a-week digest filled with copywriting insights, AI tips, must-read articles, pretty cool copy examples, and more!
In this week’s issue:
Copy Tip: Reframing loss aversion
AI Tip: Using Claude to reframe loss aversion
Your Brand Narrative Is What Strangers Can Repeat (via Copywriter Collective)
Marketers Can’t Optimize Their Way Out of a Trust Problem (via AdWeek)
On Being an Inefficient Writer (via Psychology Meets Writing)
Podcast Pick: The Quitting Expert (feat. Seth Godin)
Swipe File Additions
Job opportunities
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Copy Tip of the Week
Read your own CTA out loud.
Notice everything you’re asking your reader to lose.
“Pay only $49.”
“Sign up to get started.”
“90-minute webinar.”
Small words, but each one tells the reader what they’re giving up (i.e. money, time, effort).
You don’t feel it, because you already know the trade is worth it. But your reader hasn’t made that trade yet, so the cost is still the very first thing they notice.
This is loss aversion working against you, and it can be difficult to catch in your own copy. Why? Well, you’re too close to the offer to feel what a stranger feels reading it cold.
Read your words slowly and identify every instance you’re asking your reader to give something up. Then, rewrite it.
“Pay only $49” becomes “invest $49 in clarity and confidence.”
“Sign up to get started” becomes “start your next win today.”
Same offer and price, but a completely different feeling walking in.
Your offer’s not usually the problem, but the words guarding the door to it can be.
AI Insight of the Week
Need help putting that above copy tip into action?
This is actually where AI can be useful.
Paste your copy into Claude and give it one job: find every line that frames the offer as something the reader gives up, and ask it to rewrite it as something they gain.
The trick: don’t feed it your draft. Feed it your copy you think you’re ready to publish.
Must-Read Articles
Your Brand Narrative Is What Strangers Can Repeat (via Copywriter Collective)
Why I recommend it: One client spent months positioning around “intelligent workflow orchestration.” Their customers described them as “the ones who kill the Friday-afternoon spreadsheet.” Jack Stafford’s test for whether you actually have a brand narrative: ask three people at your company to tell the story separately. If you get three different companies that share a logo, you don’t have one yet.
Marketers Can’t Optimize Their Way Out of a Trust Problem (via AdWeek)
Why I recommend it: A kids’ store that calls your wife to say “those shorts your son liked are back in” does more for trust than an entire lifecycle marketing stack. Doug Zarkin’s argument: we got smarter at reaching people and worse at keeping them — because if your customer only shows up when you discount, you’re not chosen, you’re just convenient.
On Being an Inefficient Writer (via Psychology Meets Writing)
Why I recommend it: A 3,000-word daily quota nearly killed one writer’s love for the craft — and Hemingway learned to write better sentences by staring at Cézanne paintings, not by writing more. A short, personal reminder that the detours, the false starts, and the unfinished sentences aren’t waste. They’re where the real work happens.
Podcast/Video Pick of the Week
DIARY OF A CEO
The Quitting Expert: Quit NOW Before AI Makes The Choice For You, This Is a Superpower! | Seth Godin
🎧 Listen on iTunes | Listen on Spotify | Watch on YouTube
Why I recommend it: You’re not stuck because you want something. You’re stuck because you want two things that can’t coexist — and you’re hiding the conflict behind the word “but.” Seth Godin’s framework: name the “but,” forgive the voice you’re not going to serve, and start throwing instead of obsessing over the catch. Because juggling isn’t about catching. If you get good at throwing, the catches take care of themselves.
Pretty Fly Copy
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Format: Ad
Why I like it: One of the things I love about Southwest’s branding is that they make everything feel lighthearted and human. In this case, they gave something as mundane as a catering truck and gave it a personality with nothing but five words.
ZIPPO
Format: Billboard
Spotted by: Kalpesh Bandkar
Why I like it: In the words of Kalpesh, “ You can print the lighter. You can print the logo. But why print the flame when the street already gives you one?”
HISCOX
Format: Direct Mail
Spotted by: Andrew Tindall
Why I like it: One of the most powerful things you can do as a copywriter is to remind your reader of what’s at stake – but you don’t always have to use words to do that. This direct mailer is a case in point.
Classifieds
Job Opportunities
That’s it for this week! If you have questions or comments — drop a note below.
✌️
Matt
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