TCC Podcast 6: Copywriting in a Small Agency with Luke Trayser - a podcast by Kira Hug and Rob Marsh

In the sixth episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, Kira and Rob talk with Luke Trayser, Senior Copywriter at midwestern advertising agency Ivor Andrew. Luke shares his thoughts about writing on Medium, using humor in his copy, and what copywriters might expect to earn while working at an agency. Listen to the episode, then check out Luke's writing advice on Medium. Click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript.


The people and stuff we mentioned on the show:Ivor Andrew
Luke’s Articles on MediumSimple Truth
How to be a CopywriterA place to interact with other copywriters
HyperInkCreativity Inc. by Ed Catmull
Ogilvy on AdvertisingScientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins
Luke’s TwitterKira’s website
Rob’s websiteThe Copywriter Club Facebook Group
Intro: Content (for now)Outro: Gravity
Full Transcript:KH: What if you could hang out with really talented copywriters and other experts, ask them about their successes and failures, their work processes and their habits, then steal an idea or two to inspire your own work? That's what Rob and I try to do every week at The Copywriter Club Podcast.

RM: You're invited to join the club for episode six as we chat with Luke Trayser, copywriter at Ivor Andrew, about writing for an ad agency, publishing on Medium, ghosting e-books, and his thoughts on how to be a copywriter.

KH: Hey, Rob and Luke. How are you guys doing?LT: Hey there, Kira. Yeah. I'm doing good.

KH: Good. I think a good place to start, Rob, you originally found Luke when we were thinking of people that would be a great addition to this podcast, and you mentioned Luke, so I want to hear from you. What really stood out to you about him when you found him on the web?RM: I was looking around for writers to follow on Twitter, and I stumbled across Luke's profile somewhere, I don't remember, and clicked through to some stuff that he had been writing on Medium, I think, in particular the article How To Be A Copywriter, or How To Be A Writer, and it covered, I don't know, 12 things that you want to do. I thought, as I was reading through this, Luke might be fun to talk about, or talk to.

Luke, my first question for you is why Medium? Why not your own website or place where you own the real estate?LT: Well, I've done WordPress sites in the past, and they're pretty satisfying to actually work out in the back end, but it's also really time consuming. Something I really liked about Medium was how easy it was to just get in there, write, and publish. While you don't have total control over it, it does look pretty nice. It has a really nice built-in audience too. Yeah. It was just really easy for me to have an idea, crank it out in a hurry, without anything tripping me up like any light HTML or CSS or anything like that. Yeah. I found it really appealing, the way it was connected.

RM: Do you see most of your readers are coming from other people on Medium? How does that audience work in generating readership for what you do?LT: Yeah, using the tags for every article that goes up there, I stumble into new people. Yeah. It's a great way that I've made new friends without even meeting them face to face, like you two, a couple of good examples of that. Yeah. It's always really mind-blowing to me that people can just find something by someone they don't know and have it really resonate with them, and then a relationship can build from there. It's pretty cool.

KH: Luke, did you start writing on Medium to find clients for your current agency work, or did you start this before that? Could you just connect the dots to your background in writing?LT: Sure. Yeah. I first heard about Medium when I started my job in Chicago with an agency called Simple Truth. It was a great place, and one of my bosses told me about it and said I should give it a shot. We published a bunch of weird things, namely a fellow copywriter and I had some free time one day,

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Website of Kira Hug and Rob Marsh