On Dog Crap…And Copywriting…

Okay, I didn’t want to go here… …But I recently observed a telemarketing company trying to sell using guarantees – without first building value for the prospects. I’ve also recently read a few websites attempting to do the same thing. So, I’m being forced, against my will, to pull out my “Dog Crap” analogy. So, [...]

How to Write Better Copy – Instantly!

Want to start writing better copy – instantly? Then perhaps you need to throw out your computer and pick up a pen. This insight comes from writing teacher Shari Wilson. She noticed that her student’s writing transitions,  flow and idea sequencing was better on handwritten in-class essays over those they worked on outside of class [...]

Secret To Positioning Yourself as “The Expert” in 30-seconds

Announcing: The Secret Formula You Can Use To Position Yourself as “The Expert” and Knock Your Competitors Out Of The Game in 30 Seconds (without sounding like an arrogant bastard) I’ve never made this strategy public before, but have taught it to private clients over the years. This formula can be used on everything from [...]

Craft!

As some of you know, I’ve been hot on the trail of copy examples from Frank Irving Fletcher – probably the highest paid copywriter in the last 100 years. This example of his copy selling a $1000 (in 1920′s dollars – probably $10,000 today) caracul (sheep) coat is one of the finest examples of copy [...]

Gun pointed at my chest, Prison Thugs and Death Threats..

Finally got around to writing up an article about a little brush I had with a gun pointed at my chest, police helicopters and some thugs from Folsum maximum security prison… Hey – all of life can’t be about copy… *********** Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of the most unusual circumstances… But, of [...]

The “McLean Formula” for Copywriting Success

Ed Mclean in his book “The Basics of Copy” gives his insight about when you are ready to actually sit down and start writing the copy… “You know your reader so well you can almost see her. You know your product so throughly you could get up right now and deliver a half hour talk [...]

Using Disruption to create breakthrough copy

In his book, Disruption, Jean-Marie Dru gives his agencies formula for creating advertising breakthroughs: Find conventions and “disrupt” them. Like many direct response copywriters, I’ve thrown more than a few stones at the “creative” coming out of the modern advertising agency.  But, I have to give a grudging nod to Dru’s formula. It is very [...]

Copywriting paradise

This morning in my email in-box were emails from top copywriters Drayton Bird, Doug D’anna and Clayton Makepeace. On my hard-drive is a virtual swipefile of hundreds of proven ads and sales letters. I’ve got a little window on my web browser that opens up 150 years of proven ads and headlines and marketing approaches [...]

Copwriters: Early Brilliance – Later Consistency?

It strikes me odd that two of our greatest copywriters are best known for some of their earliest work. John Caples best known ad “They Laughed When I Sat Down At the Piano But When I Started to Play!” was written very early in his career. Ed McLean wrote the famous, “If the list upon [...]

Copywriting for Skeptics

Bob Bly recently released a new version of Claude Hopkin’s classic “Tested Advertising”. In it, he includes the Lord & Thomas creed. Creed #38 is on “Skeptics.” The first line reads.. “We are dealing with a world of skeptics.” My first thought was, “Wow. If they thought people were skeptical in the late 1920′s, you [...]

Copywriting: The Power…

I’ve seen a common belief among great writers; whether they be fiction, poets, prose or copywriters. Each has a core belief in the power of words to influence both the lives and world around them. For example: I think of novel writer and educator, John Gardner’s, admonition to novelists to be careful what they write [...]

The copywriters creative paradox

Over 20 years ago now, I was in a round table discussion debating the colleges restraints on creativity in regard to skits. There were tight “moral” guidelines and each skit had to be performed and “checked” by a member of the faculty. One member of the panel was describing what a terrible constraint this was [...]

Hemingway on story telling for copywriters…

“Story selling” seems to be the magic amulet of the moment these days. So, I point you to a “micro story” written by Hemingway. Example: “For Sale: Baby shoes. Never Worn.” – Attributed to Ernest Hemingway There you have it. 6 words. Could you communicate more emotion about a product in that few words? If [...]

Copywriter’s Simple Secret to Million-Dollar Breakthroughs…

Fact: The most important element of the headline is the core appeal. Second comes the way that appeal is expressed. Twice now in the last 3 months I’ve worked with my clients to shatter previous results by combining the two highest testing core appeals into a single headline. The result isn’t just (1+1 = 2). [...]

Battle of the Copywriting styles…

“That ad you ran looks like a Mattress ad” “Our ads look like Kohls’s ads” “That looks like cheap MLM crap” “That’s looks like a letter and the last letter we sent didn’t work so this won’t either” “That looks like a cheesy Dan Kennedy ad.” “These ads have to look as good as the [...]

Copywriting Virus!

I’ve seen it again… The world’s worst headline. I’ve been seeing this menace rear it’s head now for 18 years. This virus-like headline must have been designed in a top secret, “Black” laboratory to kill the sales of a very specific class of business person: The Local Retailer. I think that if any business person [...]

Secret ingredient that creates copywriting breakthroughs

Over the years I’ve seen that there is a hidden, secret ingredient behind many of the greatest copywriting breakthroughs… Courage. In fact, without courage most of the breakthrough advertising we admire would never have seen the light of day. Here’s a fact: If you write copy – good copy – you will be critisized. The [...]

Selling “ideas” not products…

Want an unfair advantage over the competitors you are advising against? Then stop selling your product or discounts and start selling “ideas”. What does that mean? I’ve just loaded up a short course examing the ads of Frank Irving Fletcher. Fletcher was earning $200,000 a year as a freelance ad writer in the late 20′s. [...]

The Truth about Great Copywriting…

This bit of truth about what it takes to create great copy is from advertising legend, James R. Adams… “When the biography of Claude Hopkins was published, a copywriting friend of mine read it and said he would not wish to succeed if it took as much effort as it had cost Mr. Hopkins. I [...]

“I Love Deadlines”

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.” — Douglas Adams I have to admit – I feel the same way. On the other hand, there is always that burst of adrenalin that kicks in as a deadline approaches and a blank screen with a blinking curser is mocking [...]

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