Try This Insider “Beta” Copywriting Tactic

David Patrick | Steal This Copy
Steal This Copy
Published in
2 min readJun 8, 2022

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I’m finally back at the climbing gym.

My last 9 months of climbing were spent on the walls of the high desert … basically sequestered from society.

Beautiful.

And also kinda lonely.

But since I’m in the city again for the foreseeable future, I’m back in the gym.

So after plunking down the $50 initiation fee plus another $84 for my first month, I’m handed the coveted “golden key” to the facility.

AKA … my keyring scan card.

I walk in, grab my shoes and chalk, and plop myself down in front of a nice lookin’ v3 that a few other climbers are working on.

(A “v” is like a grade for how hard the climb is. It ranges from v0 to v11+. Yes, I suck but I’m trying to get better, okay?)

One of my intentions for getting a membership is to make more friends. Something I’ve sort of … neglected to do recently as I’ve been so busy.

So when one of the climbers on the route I was about to try introduced himself, I obviously got excited.

Here’s how the conversation went, 100% verbatim.

Him: “Hey, I’m Matt, I was a copywriter for 6 years, and I climb!”

Me: “Hi, I’m David, I’m a copywriter RIGHT NOW, and I climb!”

Him: “Oh, SICK brah! Want to like, totally send it with us rad dudicles?”

Me: “HELL yes my brother in words. Especially if we nerd out on copywriting together!”

Lol. You get the point.

It was awesome to meet another copywriter while I was at the gym.

I met a few other climbers while I was there too. By the end of my session, there were 4 of us climbing together.

The whole experience reminded me of how much more fun it is when you climb with other people.

Mostly because of this idea in climbing called giving “beta.”

It’s when another climber gives you the “insider” info on how to climb the route after they’ve successfully climbed it themselves.

Very similar to copywriting.

When I was a junior in my first copywriting role, the senior copywriter helped me learn a ton just by reviewing my copy.

And now that I’m in a hoity-toity “senior” role, I help new writers on my team by giving them the “beta” on what type of copy tends to convert, at least for our specific industry and acquisition channels.

This knowledge is invaluable. I know it was for me.

And if you don’t have any sort of feedback loop like this, might I suggest my daily email list?

You can consider it a sort of … “beta” … on the tactics I see working in the copywriting world.

I’ll climb the routes of the copywriting mountains, I’ll give you the beta as I go.

It’ll be good jolly fun. And hopefully, you learn a thing or two.

You just have to sign up for my daily emails here: www.stealthiscopy.com.

David Patrick

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