William Maynard of the Bates agency once wrote that “… most good copywriters fall into two categories. Poets. And killers. Poets see an ad as an end. Killers as a means to an end.”

And David Ogilvy famously added,”If you are both killer and poet, you get rich.”

We’ve talked before about the Killer and the Poet — and how you can learn to boost the qualities you might be lacking.

In today’s 21-minute episode, I talk about:

• Why it’s so useful to have that mix of killer and poet in our content
• The key difference between persuasion that works today and the copy from traditional direct response
• The specific “tricks of the trade” to look for when you’re reading writing books

Listen to Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing below ...

The Show Notes

• If you’re ready to see for yourself why more than 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress — the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins — swing by StudioPress.com for all the details.
• Copyblogger s Certified Content Marketer training is a powerful program that helps writers attract better clients — and more of them. New students will be able to sign up for a limited time soon. Add your name to join the waitlist and to get all of the details when they re available.
• Whatever you want to work on in your writing, you’ll probably find a good reference on our summer reading list of writing books over on Copyblogger
• My earlier podcast with additional thoughts on Killers and Poets
• My Copyblogger post on The Killer and the Poet
• Joanna Wiebe and Lance Jones’ site Copy Hackers has lots of terrific resources to improve your Killer abilities
• Bob Bly’s Copywriter’s Handbook is a solid choice for fundamental copywriting techniques

And, of course, I’m always happy to see your questions or thoughts on Twitter @soniasimone — or right here in the comments!