Best Content Elevates One's Thinking: Interview with Ben Settle

We are excited to have Ben on our blog. So, without further ado, let’s move to our interview!

Magda: Are there any qualities that make a good copywriter?

Ben: The ability to dig into a market and find out everything they can about them. A copywriter is less about writing and more about knowing your market. The best copywriters aren’t necessarily great “writers” — they simply know their markets better than anyone else. They know what to say, which is far more important than how you say it.

M: Can you share your 3 top tactics for creating a successful blog post?

B: Blog posts, as well as emails, articles, and any other kind of content online should entertain, educate, and elevate one’s thinking. People today crave entertainment over anything else — their insistence otherwise notwithstanding. If you don’t entertain you’ll lose a lot of readers. But, people also want information, too, so you have to deliver that. But the best content not only entertains and educates but elevates someone’s thinking to another level. Do those three things, and you’ll create a readership that can’t wait to read what you have to say.

M:  What is the biggest challenge in copywriting?

B: Reader skepticism. We live in the age of the skeptic. Everyone has been screwed over by someone and so are rightfully skeptical. And this is good news because in most markets only about 5% of the people are hyper buyers (who will buy everything and anything). There are 2-5 times more skeptics. That means, if you know how to sell to skeptics you will get 2-5 times more sales than copywriters who don’t know how to sell to skeptics (and few copywriters know how to sell to skeptics).

M: How do you see the future of content marketing?

B: It’s all about infotainment — combining entertainment with information. People are easily bored. Attention spans are dropping like a politician’s pants at a brothel. If you don’t make your content fun, you’re dead in the water.

M: Thank you for the interview, Ben!

You can read more about Ben and his approach to marketing and copywriting on his blog.