Copywriting is one of the most important tools you can use to boost ticket sales, donations, and revenue across various platforms. And the best part is—it costs $0 to update the words you use.

In this episode, learn five actionable tips on how creating small, emotional connections through specific language creates a big and lasting impact on your revenue. Hone your copywriting skills as a no cost tool to grab your patrons’ attention, fill those seats, and bring in more donations.

Hey, Offstagers, hopefully if you are listening to this

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episode, you know this is a part two.

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It's a continuation of the last

episode on the topic of leveraging and

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up leveling the words we use in our

communications at arts organizations

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to make those words work harder for us.

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As I said before in the last episode.

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This is a topic that is the singular

most important thing you can do, in

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my opinion at least, if you want to

increase ticket sales, grow subscriptions,

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grow donations, if you want to

grow your audience and donor base.

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So if you haven't listened to

part one yet, I highly recommend

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you go back and start there.

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There is a lot of context and

just a ton of important tips

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and high value for you there.

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That episode is called do this one

thing to make the biggest difference

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in your sales and fundraising.

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And it's literally the

episode right before this one.

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So go there now if you haven't

listened to that one yet.

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So I don't know, maybe if you're

listening to this, you have listened

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to part one or here you are now.

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People think copywriting is not sexy.

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It is.

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It is sexy.

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Like we need a t shirt or something.

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Strong copywriting is sexy.

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Maybe that t shirt

already exists somewhere.

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It's probably next to the t

shirt that says data is sexy.

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But.

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I digress.

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It says a lot about the kind

of t shirts I want, I guess.

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But anyways, the point is, I talked

about this in the last episode, the

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part one, and that's to say that if I

had to answer the question, what's the

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one thing arts organizations can do?

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So many of you ask a

version of this to me.

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What's the one thing I can do

to increase sales and donations?

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It would be this topic of copywriting.

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The longer answer is that I think

there's more than one thing, but

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for everyone who's like, if you

had to pick just one, this is it.

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This is that topic.

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Why?

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Because we, arts managers, arts

organizations, arts administrators, use

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written word so much in everything we do.

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No matter your artistic discipline,

symphonies, operas, orchestras, chamber

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ensembles, theaters, museums, other

visitor based cultural institutions,

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you name it, dance companies, we

use the written word everywhere.

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So I listed these in part one,

but to name them again, website.

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First and foremost, more people

visit the website than we serve.

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Via any other means.

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So the copy plus writing copy for

the user, so, so important here.

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Program book.

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If you're at an exhibit based

institution or visitor based

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institution, that's the object labels.

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Social media, of course, for all

of us, multiple channels there.

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Press releases.

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So many press releases are.

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Just really, I'm pausing, but the word

is sterile, is what was coming to mind.

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Like, very clinical, there's

so much we can do to better up

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level the copywriting there.

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Email blast, no matter whether

that's for marketing or fundraising.

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Every piece of marketing and fundraising

collateral, so that's, Postcards,

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season brochures, all the donor

communications, solicitations, appeal

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letters, acknowledgment letters, so that's

another one that can be pretty sterile.

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Donor benefits, emails, brochures,

campaign case for support, website again

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on all the fundraising side, and then

of course digital, digital ads, and then

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I already mentioned the social media

feeds themselves, and on and on and on.

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It's just that we use words

more than anything that we do.

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We use words everywhere, and the

choices we make, the word choices.

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are so important.

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You know, the adage is just so true.

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The pen is mightier than the sword.

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I don't know if any of you out there are

using swords, but the pen is mightier.

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Uh, and I guess another thing I

should say is that the pen is a

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whole lot cheaper than the sword.

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Okay, I gotta get off this

analogy, but I've been there.

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The point is, when I was chief

executive at an orchestra, we had

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zero money when I first started.

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I've talked about this before, but zero.

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And so, for anybody who, you know,

feels like that right now, like, I got

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nothing, Aubrey, like, then take notes.

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And I've actually, the freebie for the

episode helps you with the cheat sheet,

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so you don't have to take notes, but

I'll share more on that in a second.

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The idea is just that.

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It's the best free solution to really

work on the skill of copywriting.

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And if you're part of a team, have

everybody on your team work on that

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too, the different people who are

responsible for writing different things.

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So I've just felt the pain where I

felt like I had no options, no money.

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And I'm telling you, here's an option.

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Best ROI, period, out there.

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So if you are either in the camp

of wanting one thing to improve

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your sales and donations this year.

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Or, in the camp of, we have no money,

these two episodes are your ticket.

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The last episode plus

this episode right here.

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Before we get going, if you know someone

or are thinking of someone in your mind

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right now and are like, this could be

helpful to them, or, you know, so and so

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should really hear this, do me a favor,

do your organization a favor, and do the

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field a favor, and share it with them.

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Bye bye.

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Because I am here to tell you that

if you get super serious about your

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copywriting, it will make a difference at

a cost to you of literally zero dollars.

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So copywriting is super sexy.

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Print the t shirts, folks, because

increasing sales and donations is sexy.

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Definitely in my book.

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There are no excuses.

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It's just plain old skill building.

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And I am here to tell you that.

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to help you do that.

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So part two on copywriting,

let's get it going.

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I'm Aubrey Bergauer and

welcome to my podcast.

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I'm known in the arts world for

being customer centric, data

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obsessed, and for growing revenue.

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The arts are my vehicle to make the

change I want to see in this world, like

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creating places of belonging, pursuing

gender and racial equality, developing

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high performing teams and leaders, and

leveraging technology to elevate our work.

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I've been called the Steve

Jobs of classical music and the

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Sheryl Sandberg of the symphony.

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I've held offstage roles managing

millions of dollars in revenue at

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major institutions and as chief

executive of an orchestra where we

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doubled the size of the audience and

nearly quadrupled the donor base.

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And now I'm here to help you

achieve that same kind of success.

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In this podcast, we are sorting

through the data inside and outside

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the arts, applying those Findings to

our work, leading out with our values

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and bringing in some expert voices

along the way, all to build the vibrant

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future we know is possible for our

institutions and for ourselves as

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offstage administrators and leaders.

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This podcast is about

optimizing the business around

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the art, not sacrificing it.

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You're listening to The Offstage Mic.

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Have you read CoreStorm's new

State of the Arts report yet?

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It's a data driven resource for all

things arts education in the past year.

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This one is for all the executive

directors of non profit arts

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organizations, teaching artists, and other

leaders in the arts and culture community.

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Imagine tapping into more than 10

years of exclusive class registration

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data to uncover invaluable

insights for your organization.

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CourseStorm has done the legwork

so you can make informed decisions.

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Things like what day and time

is best to hold your class.

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When do most people register?

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And which digital marketing

channel is most effective?

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Discover the successes and

strategies of arts education

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programs that not only weathered the

pandemic storm, but are thriving.

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Yes, you heard that right.

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Thriving.

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I love that the State of the

Arts report shares exclusive data

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from the top class registration

software company, CourseStorm.

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I got to see trends discovered

from CourseStorm's analysis of more

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than 1 million class registrations.

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And you'll want to see them too.

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So if you're ready to elevate your

education program, don't miss out

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on the state of the arts report.

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Visit Core storm.com/soar.

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That's slash SOAR, like the

acronym for State of the Arts.

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And download the free report today.

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co So, here we go.

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In total, last episode plus this

episode, all together, I am sharing

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nine copywriting tips for you.

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This is not an exhaustive list of all

you can do, but there is a lot of good

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value here, so we're sticking to nine,

nine tips to get you going and to start

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driving more emotional connections

and ultimately that desired behavior.

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And the desired behavior is ticket

sales, subscriptions, donations.

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Or, in the case of PR, press releases

that desired behavior is coverage,

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is a story being told about you,

inspiring that desired behavior.

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For social media, building emotional

connections that drive the desired

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behavior, that's likes, shares, comments,

engagement, stopping the scroll, right?

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For program book, the desired behavior

would be, we want our audience to

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have a feeling of understanding.

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We want to demystify the art, and we

want to be the guide for attendees

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to help them on their journey.

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We could do a whole other episode on

the idea of people reading the program

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book should feel like it's their trusted

guide, as opposed to a distant scholarly

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publication of some sort, right?

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Okay, whole other episode someday.

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The point is, our copy and the words we

used are to elicit an emotional response.

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that drives a desired behavior.

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That's why we're here.

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That's why we're covering this.

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That's why I think it's so important.

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So, okay, quick review on part one,

just to really quickly list it down.

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The first four tips I gave in the

last episode were, number one,

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talk like your customers talk.

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Number two, start with the juiciest,

most interesting line first.

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The purpose of that first line is

to get people to just keep reading.

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We just talked about the desired

behavior, but the first line

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is not about that behavior.

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The first line is about

get them to keep reading.

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Okay, point three.

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Write answers to what your customer

needs, wants, or has questions about.

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Do that in your copy.

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And four, add urgency.

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So again, if this is all new to you,

go back, listen to the last episode.

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It's all spelled out with tons of

examples, details, and explanations

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of what to do and not to do.

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So now, on to tips

number five through nine.

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I mentioned before you don't

actually have to take notes.

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I mean, you can if you want, of

course, but I've got it all for you

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in a free download for this episode.

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It's called The Do's and

Don'ts of Copywriting, 9

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Tips to Level Up Immediately.

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So it's the rundown of everything

we've covered in the last

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episode as well as this episode.

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Go to my website to get yours.

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It's aubreybergauer.

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com slash 27.

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That's number 27 for episode 27.

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And as we're hitting the

rest of these tips, I.

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I first want to talk about the role of AI,

because we haven't talked about that yet.

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So here's my take on AI.

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I am a big fan of efficiency, for sure.

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We are in a world where literally

every arts organization says they

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don't have enough time, people, right?

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So if we can get a boost or we

can get some help or something to

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improve efficiency, I am all for it.

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To dig a little deeper, my experience

with AI, I would say, is twofold.

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I think AI is good for drafting.

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So all these things we're talking

about, all the places we have copy,

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every single one of those channels

I've mentioned, it can really help.

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Again, as the draft, not the final thing.

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I've not, I don't think I've

used Chad GPT or any of the

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others I've played around with.

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Like once have I seen what they generated

and then was like, yep, that's the winner.

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So just no draft starting point.

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That's the main thing.

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But that's enough.

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Like sometimes we just need our

brains to kind of get the little

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jumpstart or have a little start.

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Spark.

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Or sometimes it's easier if you

have the list of tips in front of

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you if you go get the download.

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You can see what the AI tool

generates and then be like, uh uh,

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but I can see how to make it better.

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So again, just sometimes having

that draft is just a big body of

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work that really helps, like I

said, kind of jumpstart our brains.

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So yeah.

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Good, good, good for

the first pass, usually.

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My other, I said it was twofold, so my

other piece of the experience with AI

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tools is that I, we, you, all of us, have

to learn to get better with our prompts.

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So I've learned.

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Chat GPT, for example, but I'm

sure the others too, can take

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a lot of direction, actually.

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For example, give it my prompt, draft

something, I don't know, whether it's

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social media caption or whatever.

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And then you can say, now write that

in a more approachable way with plain

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English that's easy to understand.

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Like, you can literally say that

in the prompts for chat GPT.

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And so you're training it to

do exactly what I told you.

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Like, wasn't that tip number one,

talk like your customers talk in plain

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English that's easy to understand.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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I just wanted to share those

additional thoughts, tips on kind

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of the role of AI in all of this.

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So it's a starting place, but we

can get better with our prompts and

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helping refine the voice of the AI too.

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Alright.

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If you are wanting to explore AI and how

it can help you, by all means, go for it.

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I think is the moral of the story here.

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And I would say if we can use.

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Not just AI, but any tool available.

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There are so many now of all kinds

of different tools to save you time,

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brain space, create efficiency.

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I am probably always going to say,

explore that, do it, go for it.

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We need all the help we can get, right?

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Like, we need all the help we

can get on our super lean staffs.

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Plus, I guess probably every business

in any sector wants to be more

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efficient, wants to get a leg up.

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So in that sense, all of this

is not particularly unique to

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nonprofits or arts managers or arts

organizations, for that matter.

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Okay, and I just want to share, I

was just recently reading before

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recording this episode, HubSpot's

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And this is all about the

different marketing trends.

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And they just recently released this,

if you're listening to this episode.

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kind of around the time it comes out.

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And this is what they said on efficiency.

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They said, quote, efficiency leads

to innovative, more human marketing.

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I think that's really,

in some ways, profound.

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I don't mean to be too dramatic

about it, but efficiency leads to

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innovative, more human marketing.

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I mean, that's exactly

what we're going for here.

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The report goes on to say, quote,

Today, marketers have a new assessment

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Assistant to help with everyday tasks,

brainstorming, research, content creation,

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data analysis, reporting and automation.

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Your friendly neighborhood AI tool.

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And so, you know, I was talking about the

prompts and getting better at the prompts.

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You could even say, here's the

concert program, insert all the info,

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performers, all that kind of stuff.

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And you can say as your prompt,

brainstorm 20 different potential

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titles for this concert.

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I think that's so cool.

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And then even if it doesn't nail it.

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You are reading that list, and

you have just, I keep coming back

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to this word jumpstarted, you've

just jumpstarted your own brain.

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It puts you in the critical and creative,

that combination of critical and

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creative thinking space, so that your

brain is working in the background.

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And by the time you read that list

and get to idea number 20, you

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will have others coming to mind.

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If you don't believe me, try it.

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It just is going to spur

new and more ideas for you.

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Honestly, I am working on this myself.

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I have to confess, the default in

me is often the old way that relies

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a hundred percent on myself or

somebody else on my team or their

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own creativity or my own creativity.

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And, um, That is actually

holding me back, holding us back.

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When I think about jumpstarting

my own creativity, that's an

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advantage plus a time saver.

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So I am playing around with AI myself

a little bit, trying to get better

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at it, trying to push myself in this

area because I see the benefits.

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And then lastly, the tech is

only going to get better, right?

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This technology is not

going away for sure.

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So I would say.

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Not only am I encouraging this, but

encouraging at least dabbling, playing

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around, getting familiar with the

technology and the tools because it is

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only going to serve you going forward.

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Okay, let's call all of

this free bonus tip 4.

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5.

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We left off with tip number four

in the last episode, and now

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let's move on to tip number five.

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Be specific.

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Any time you are writing a

list of benefits or features.

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Take away and more.

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Like, we see this all the time.

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Like, somebody says, I don't

know, the upcoming opera has great

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sets, awesome costumes, and more.

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Don't say and more.

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Instead, you have to say

exactly what you're selling.

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This is important to the shift

in consumer behavior today.

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And more is kind of a lazy catch

all, and we have to stop doing

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it because it's not effective.

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Not because I'm criticizing lazy

copywriting, just because it doesn't work.

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And that's the part I'm trying

to help you get away from.

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So instead, you have to

find something else to say.

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instead of the vague and more.

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What is it?

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Great sets, awesome costumes,

and special choreography.

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I don't know.

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I'm making this up.

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But similarly, avoid rhetorical questions.

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So many times we waste that first line

of copy with a rhetorical question.

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Sometimes it's okay.

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Sometimes it's okay.

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When you're defaulting to that, a

fair amount, flex that copywriting

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muscle, and try to do better.

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Occasionally, like I said, like, like

an example of when it might work is when

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it's an actual question your customer

is asking, like we noted before.

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But a lot of times it just weakens

the copy, kind of wastes words, so

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find a way to reword it when you can.

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Just jump to the answer, usually, is the

solution to this copywriting challenge.

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So here's a great one when

we're talking about be specific.

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You can also Use a number to

convey specificity and credibility

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and Specific numbers are more

believable than round numbers.

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Don't just say, you know, when

we've got up to 90 people on

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stage, say we have 72 members in

the orchestra or whatever it is.

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Or literally the way I set up the title of

this episode, nine tips for copywriting.

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Be specific and don't give a round number.

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That is intentional even in

the title of this episode.

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Tip number six, drop the superlatives.

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Think.

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Just the facts.

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This is really a blast from the

past, but did anybody watch Dragnet?

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Dragnet, when did it come on?

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The 50s or 60s, I want to say.

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I could be wrong on that, but I think it

was black and white originally, so that

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gives some semblance of a time period.

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But the detective would

say, just the facts, ma'am.

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That's where that came from.

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It came from Dragnet.

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And that's the other way to

say, drop the superlatives.

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And this is definitely research

based and definitely applies

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to so many arts organizations.

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So hear me out.

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There is a study that found, they actually

measured this, like how many superlatives,

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these like flowery adjectives,

performed better in copywriting.

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And in their copywriting, they

found that zero or one superlatives

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performed best in all of their tests.

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And the more superlatives than that, two,

three, four, however many adjectives,

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flowery words people put in there.

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The worse the click

throughs, opens, reads, etc.

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So zero or one superlatives.

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That is what you need to know.

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Drop the superlatives.

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I literally went to, here's more

examples for you, literally went to a

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major orchestra's website and clicked

on the first concert on the homepage.

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And this is what that landing page

said, clicked on the whatever they were

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promoting on the homepage, took me to

this landing page for the concert, the

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program overview page, and it said,

quote, two orchestral innovators tackle

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the complexities of the human condition.

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Ricard Strauss passionate and provocative

symphony poems plumb the psychological

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depths of his literary sources.

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Maurice Ravel wrote Wrote his dark

and intense piano concerto for

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the left hand because the Austrian

pianist who commissioned it lost

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his right arm in World War I.

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The warped and tender waltzes of La Valse

are the Frenchman's response to the dream

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of Viennese refinement in a murderous age.

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Okay, first of all, that's a lot of words.

402

Second of all, that is

a lot of superlatives.

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So, I will say, to give credit, the

second sentence is actually really good.

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Maurice Ravel wrote his dark and intense

piano concerto for the left hand because

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the Austrian pianist who commissioned

it lost his right arm in World War I.

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I would say there's probably

more in there than needs to be.

407

You could probably quell that a bit, drop

some of these words, but Why it's good

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is because that's an interesting fact.

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The work is cool.

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It uses words that are

more understandable.

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Oh, it's for the left hand.

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Oh, because the person who

commissioned it had lost his right

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arm, so he needed only his left hand.

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So that's pretty good, but it's buried in

the middle of this big, long paragraph.

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So Drop the superlatives.

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Also just to be crystal clear, words

like world class and beloved are

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definitely superlatives and you should

definitely stop using those words.

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It goes back to point one

on using language like how

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your customers actually talk.

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What do people actually say?

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They say words like

awesome or crazy or best.

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Like just talk like people

talk and use interesting facts.

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That's definitely better and

easier to understand than.

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Viennese refinement in a murderous age.

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Like I said, this was literally

the first orchestra website I

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went to, literally clicked on the

first thing on the first page.

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This stuff is just pervasive, so I

really am not trying to throw shade

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or throw anybody under the bus.

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It's just not effective copywriting.

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So here are these examples to

try to help understand what's

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happening and what we can do to be

more effective, to drive results.

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That's what the copywriting is all

about, driving the results we need.

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Tip number 7 of 9.

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Use the active voice,

not the passive voice.

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So, for example, a social media post

that says something like, The orchestra

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shines under the baton of conductor name.

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That's passive.

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Versus, they make it look effortless.

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That's more active, it's also a

little juicier, it's a better hook.

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Or, they did this on just two rehearsals.

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That one line brings together

a lot of these other points.

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It's active.

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It's a specific number, two rehearsals.

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Plus it's a fact matching

the point on being specific.

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Plus there's no false enthusiasm.

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It's talking like your customers

talk, like that one line, they

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did this on just two rehearsals.

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That is a much more powerful.

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line of copy.

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And you know, it's so funny because

we internally in the arts, especially

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in the orchestra world, we're almost

never impressed by an orchestra

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doing a performance after just

two or three rehearsals because we

453

know they do it all the time, like

literally week after week, right?

454

But customers don't know that.

455

And it just makes me think about, this is

about using the active voice, but the sub

456

tip would be, you know, don't be afraid

to say the things that feel obvious to us,

457

but they're not obvious to our customers.

458

I've been thinking so much about

Caitlin Clarke lately, like for anybody

459

who's been following the Caitlin

Clarke phenomenon, nobody is saying.

460

Yeah, but she scores over 40 points

every game, so it's old hat now.

461

Right?

462

Like, nobody is saying, like, she's old

news because she excels every single

463

time and she does it every single time.

464

That's not, that's not the

topic of conversation with her.

465

The topic of conversation with her

is like, holy cow, she's exceptional.

466

So the things that Really

do make our artists so

467

exceptional, like, talk about it.

468

Nobody is saying Simone Biles

landed the most difficult vault

469

ever done in women's gymnastics.

470

Again, snooze fest, right?

471

Like both of those examples

are of greatness because

472

they do it again and again.

473

And it is the same with our artists.

474

They just did that on two rehearsals.

475

Active voice.

476

One more I just thought of.

477

Somebody was telling me, this was

a few years ago, but somebody was

478

telling me about their friend.

479

watching Long Long Play Piano

on YouTube for the first time.

480

They did not know him, they

didn't know who he was, and my

481

friend had shown this video.

482

To their friend.

483

Okay.

484

I don't know what the copy on that.

485

I'm going to tell you

what the friend said.

486

Talk about talking like your

patrons talk or your customers talk.

487

I'm going to tell you what they said

in a moment, but instead what I did

488

as I was, this was coming to mind in

preparation for this episode, I go

489

back to Instagram, open it up and I

thought, okay, let's just see what

490

posts are talking about a piano player.

491

All right, here's what I got.

492

First two posts I came across

talking about a piano player.

493

Quote, experience the striking stage

presence and jaw dropping bravura

494

of Yefim Bronfman in a solo recital.

495

On the program, and

then list of composers.

496

Next one.

497

I keep scrolling a couple

more later, another pianist.

498

Beatrice Rana and conductor name on

stage with insert big orchestra name

499

performing insert piece of music name

at insert venue name this past weekend.

500

Like, do you think the friend said

that when this person watched Long

501

Long Play for the first time, which,

by the way, is what we want happening

502

on our social channels, whether that's

YouTube or Instagram or wherever,

503

do you think the friend said that?

504

Like, wow, look at that

jaw dropping bravura.

505

No.

506

The friend said, wow,

his hands are blurry.

507

Like he is playing so

fast, his hands are blurry.

508

That's active voice.

509

That's actually what the

customer is thinking or saying.

510

It's such a better line of copy

that could've gone for any of these

511

pianists I just used the examples of.

512

Wow, their hands are blurry.

513

So much stronger than these other words.

514

These are actual examples in my feed

two seconds after I opened the app.

515

Okay.

516

Use active voice, not passive voice.

517

Number eight.

518

Tip number eight of nine.

519

Use white space.

520

Okay, this is now more

important off of social media.

521

There's definitely, it's definitely

important on social media.

522

You need line breaks and things

like that, but this is all kinds

523

of other copy we write as well.

524

So we need to help our copy look

clean, look uncluttered, and create

525

visual balance and breathing room.

526

This is important because We need

people to understand and take action.

527

We're using, we're trying to

drive an emotional reaction

528

to drive the desired behavior.

529

Right?

530

So we need our white space to help

us do that, to help somebody's brain

531

process what we're writing in this As

little time as possible, you know, we're

532

talking milliseconds or seconds, right?

533

So the whitespace helps us do that.

534

That means add in space between

sections of the email or website,

535

lots of paragraph breaks.

536

Sometimes even in my own

copy, it's treating a sentence

537

like a paragraph, right?

538

You write a sentence.

539

Basically, a paragraph break after that.

540

This is by design.

541

It's so people can process

what they're reading.

542

And another way to say

this is that people skim.

543

They don't read, they skim.

544

So help them skim.

545

If you want to increase conversions,

you have to help them read less.

546

Like maybe this sounds counterintuitive.

547

But it's not.

548

People are going to do what

they're going to do, right?

549

So help them get what they need or want

in the shortest amount of time possible.

550

Whitespace helps with that.

551

I see so many postcards and

brochures that come in the mail.

552

It's kind of season brochure time

right now as I'm recording this.

553

and it is a C of black type.

554

This is bad copywriting.

555

I know you have a lot to say.

556

We're going to talk about some of that in

the next and final tip, but you do this in

557

your own life too as a consumer yourself.

558

You don't read every word.

559

You skim to see if that email

or post or letter or postcard

560

or brochure is worth your time.

561

So help the reader take in what they

need in that like very short millisecond,

562

couple seconds chance we're given.

563

And then, like I said, this segues into

our next and final point, point nine

564

of nine, tip nine of nine, cut the copy

in half and then cut it in half again.

565

Sometimes longer form copy is effective.

566

Sometimes it is.

567

That is true.

568

But, generally speaking, for the

website, email, direct mail, and even

569

fundraising appeals, try to say what

you need to say in half the words.

570

I know that's hard.

571

Even in the fundraising appeal,

oh man, I've been there.

572

It's hard.

573

But again, most people

aren't really reading.

574

So it is a skill to be able to cut

it in half and cut it in half again.

575

Anybody who's worked for me has definitely

heard me say this, cut it in half.

576

So I'm just a longtime

broken record on this.

577

There is so much more

to say on this topic.

578

Just recently in one of my academy

office hours, a participant brought

579

their appeal letter to the office hours

and said, can we look at this together?

580

Can we talk about what to cut?

581

And there's a lot more to say.

582

Also, we also looked at like what the

research says about storytelling and

583

how to do that well across channels.

584

There is so much more to say on this

topic of copywriting, but before

585

we call it, I've got one more.

586

Let's call it the bonus 10th tip.

587

And that is that practice makes perfect.

588

Doing all of this is not easy, definitely

not easy at the beginning, and that

589

is why great copywriting is a skill.

590

It takes work to do all these things.

591

It takes mental work, mental

capacity, some mental gymnastics.

592

It takes brainstorming.

593

It definitely takes iteration.

594

You have to write, you have to rewrite,

you have to cut, you have to try it again.

595

Brainstorm a bunch of different

versions of the headline or the hook.

596

Like, that's, that's work.

597

It takes being able to cut

things that are good, not great.

598

That's hard too.

599

I, cutting in half is hard

because, you know, you get really

600

attached to what you're saying.

601

And I definitely do this myself.

602

So for sure, constantly working on this.

603

It means you can't always

bang it out in two seconds.

604

And I think so often in the arts, you

We're having to bang it out in two

605

seconds because we don't have time.

606

It's due tomorrow.

607

It's due yesterday, basically.

608

So it makes it hard to just

take the time to really try to

609

build the muscles to do this.

610

But keep practicing.

611

Keep building those chops.

612

It will pay off.

613

I can promise you.

614

That, and that is why big brands

and ad agencies, they have people

615

solely dedicated to copywriting.

616

Like it's their full title,

full job, copywriter.

617

They know the words we use are so

critically important to motivate action.

618

We at arts organizations

use words in so many places.

619

And being strategic about the

words you use makes the biggest

620

difference to your bottom line.

621

All right, folks, I hope you found

these last two episodes really packed

622

with actionable tips to immediately

increase your sales and donations via

623

the words you use in your copywriting.

624

I want you to have all the tips from

this episode and the last episode,

625

parts one and two, on this topic

of copywriting at your fingertips.

626

That way, next time you are writing

something, whether that's for a

627

website, collateral, brochure, social

media, fundraising appeal, a letter,

628

email, whatever, you can refer to

these pointers and level up what

629

you're putting out into the world to

get the results you want and need.

630

Go to my website and

get your free download.

631

It's called Do's and Don'ts

of Copywriting, 9 Tips

632

to Level Up Immediately.

633

Head to www.

634

aubreybergauer.

635

com slash 27.

636

That's number 27 for episode 27.

637

And to best use this download, I would

say next time you're writing something

638

for your organization, My recommendation

is either to first look at the list,

639

scan the tips, and then instantly that

puts your brain in the right brain space

640

to write great copy, and of course you

can refer to the tips and guide as you

641

go, or if you have something already

written, like webpages, for example,

642

the other recommendation or option is

to use the tips and compare against

643

what's already there so you can make

Smart, better choices about what to keep,

644

what to cut, and what to modify so that

that copy is working harder for you.

645

Again, it's aubreybergauer.

646

com slash 27, number 27, for episode 27.

647

That's all for today, folks.

648

Thanks so much for listening, and if you

like what you heard here, Hit that button

649

to follow or subscribe to this podcast.

650

If you're new, welcome.

651

I am so glad you made it.

652

And if you've been listening for

a while, I love so much that you

653

were getting value from this.

654

So if that's you, please take just two

seconds to leave a quick one tap rating.

655

Full on review isn't even

required if you're short on time.

656

To all of you once more, thanks again.

657

I'll see you next time right here.

658

On the Offstage Mic.

659

The Offstage Mic was produced by me,

Aubrey Bergauer, and edited by Novo

660

Music, an audio production company of

all women audio engineers and musicians.

661

Additional podcast support comes

from the Changing the Narrative

662

team and social media brand

management by Classical Content.

663

This is a production of

Changing the Narrative.