It’s been awhile since we’ve talked about copywriting on the podcast, so I’m super excited to be welcoming copywriter Kirsty Fanton to the show. I met Kirsty recently at Kira Hug’s mastermind event, where she was telling me how she effectively uses psychology in her work to get maximum results for herself and her clients. Kirsty writes launch and email copy for personality-driven businesses, but she used to be a counselor specializing in loss and grief for a number of years, and she feels that there are lot of parallels between her former career and how she now approaches writing copy.  We talk a lot about email copy and specifically where to start when you’re writing copy, which is something that I’ve struggled with in the past. Kirsty shares how to get started and how to not “force it” when looking to communicate with your email list.   Like we talk about often on the show, a complete understanding of your target audience is key, and Kirsty reveals what this process looks like for her and what you should be looking out for.   She talks about the pitfalls to avoid with your copy and what she does when plotting our her email sequence. She says it can be for people writing copy to lose sight of what they’re trying to do with their message, and what we can do to prevent this.   Kirsty has a simple and intuitive framework of 5 core ingredients for writing effective copy, and you’re going to learn about it in this episode. What she talks about here is exactly the way I want you to be thinking about your online marketing campaigns, which is really looking at who your target audience is and how big the gap is with where they are now and where they want to be.   Before we start the show, I’ve got something to ask. How do you listen to this podcast? Is it in the iTunes app, Stitcher, Spotify or maybe iHeart Radio? Do you listen to it at regular speed, or maybe like me you listen to your podcasts at 1.5X speed? I want to know! Take a screenshot of you tuning in to The Art of Paid Traffic, and include it on your Instagram Story, while tagging me, @RickMulready!   Want to win a 30-minute strategy session with me? I’ll be drawing one winner at random each month, and all you have to do is give me your feedback on this podcast over at http://rickmulready.com/messenger, telling me what you’d like to hear more of - including topics you’d like to see covered, guests, style and frequency of the show!     On the Show Today You’ll Learn:   Why you need to be getting information from your audience about their struggles and what matters the most to them What to do if you don’t have an email list or existing customers to get this information from and then what to do with what you learn from them Some examples of open-ended questions you can ask your audience that Kirsty has found success with How you can segment your list and what we did with our first launch of a program in early 2017 What is the “therapeutic alliance” and how it relates to copywriting   What seems to be missing from the copy of many online marketers The questions people looking to hire a copywriter should be asking