How To Make Readers Love Your Ideas

When genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot. - D.H. Lawrence

Who doesn't want to be the one at the party, telling the story nobody can resist?

Even better, how about telling the story you know everybody will repeat tomorrow?

It's a great feeling, when it happens.

And I've just started reading a book that might help you make sure it happens more often.

It's called "Made to Stick," by brothers Chip and Dan Heath. I must have missed it the first time around. It came out in 2007.

But already, as I read, I'm thinking... wow, imagine how many people I could have protected from boring storytelling (mostly mine) in the time since.

Even more, though, I see huge parallels in the book that work for us, as copywriters.

Let me show you what I mean...

WHAT IT MEANS TO "MAKE IT STICK"

When the Heath's talk "stickiness," they're talking about those messages that people can't resist repeating.

You know them.

In fact, the book itself starts with one -- an urban legend about the guy who wakes up in a tub full of ice, one kidney short, after a bad date.

Urban legends are great examples of "sticky" tales because they best get remembered and passed around, solely on the steam they pick up from those that stumble across them.

And like I said, wouldn't you want to tell a story -- or better, write an ad -- that could do that?

Of course you would.

"Stickiness" in itself won't make you rich, of course. But the nature of a sticky tale or marketing message is not just that it gets passed around, but also that readers WANT to pass it around because it instantly engages and hangs on to their imaginations.

Imagine, say the Heath brothers, hearing the story about the guy who wakes up in the tub of ice. He sees a cell phone and a note telling him to call 911. "Stay calm," says the 911 operator, "we've seen this before -- one of your organs has been harvested."

Not true, by the way. But what are the chances you could relate that same story to a friend, a week from today? Pretty good. And I've only given you the short version.

Compare that to a memo from the boss or an ad from a business that's jammed with nothing but charts, statistics, and multi-syllabic claims.

Instantly forgettable.

The case I'm making -- and I credit it to what I expect to find in the book -- is that the same principles that make stories and other messages "sticky" can also make
your ad copy more powerful.

In fact, let's break it down right now, right here, and see what we come up with...

SIX "STICKY" PRINCIPLES, SIX SECRETS TO GREAT ADS

Not to preempt the impact of what you'll find in the book (and I encourage you to check it out), "Made to Stick" narrows lasting message power to six characteristics.

As I read a summary of all six, I couldn't help but notice how well they matched six big secrets to writing great copy... including a few secrets you've already seen written up here before.

For instance...

GREAT MESSAGES ARE SIMPLE:

The Heaths' #1  principle is that simple messages stick best. Common sense? Absolutely. And a great parallel to what my copy colleagues and I often talk about as the "Power of One."

In short, avoid giving too many points -- even great ones -- when you can. Instead, scale back to the single most important "takeaway" message. One great insight is much easier to absorb than a dozen (or even six... ahem) very good ones.

GREAT MESSAGES SURPRISE:

"Made to Stick" calls this the value of "unexpectedness." In the world of copy, we might call it instead the value of "uniqueness." Especially as in the famous "USP" or "Unique Selling Proposition."

Why does it matter so much to make your message new? Simple. Who wants to listen to the same old tales or promises, again and again? Why stick around for details
you can get anywhere?

Every seasoned copywriter knows that curiosity can be as powerful a motivator as a big promise, especially when it's relevant to what you know you're selling.

GREAT MESSAGES FEEL REAL:

The book calls this "concreteness" and makes a great analogy that you might remember: years back, a food researcher wanted to get across that movie popcorn was full of saturated fat.

He could have made his case with graphs and charts. He could have spelled out the fat content in milligrams. But he realized that wasn't enough. So instead he compared it to eating the equivalent in Big Macs.

Those kinds of analogies are more than just colorful. They make an idea feel real, by connecting something new to something instantly personal and understandable.

I would add that it's not just the vividness that makes a message stick, but also what we teach in copy workshops as "specificity." Details make readers soak up stories in a way generalities cannot.

GREAT MESSAGES ARE BELIEVABLE:

In sales copy, a lot of what you'll do is bend over backwards to prove your claims. Testimonials, studies, hard numbers, mainstream media quotes, photos of a bank statement or sharply contrasting "before and after" shots... there are lots of ways to do it.

And many times, it's only by making this case that you'll make your sale. But, warns the book, be careful. What you're doing isn't forcing an audience to consent to your claims.

Rather, you're putting them in a spot where they can feel like they've decided for themselves. Ask yourself, you might say, how much better would your own life be if you could do what my product claims you can do?

And maybe even, how much worse could it get if you pass up on this opportunity? And then make it real for them, by way of those proofs and similar examples.

GREAT MESSAGES GET YOU WORKED UP:

Why do fundraising letters always start out with a personal story? Because the more they mail out those requests, the more they realize: you get more money when you make it personal.

Statistics on how many people died in the earthquake in Haiti or how many buildings fell might make your eyes pops. But it's the story about a little girl who lost her mother that gets people to open checkbooks.

That's because we're programmed to get emotional when messages hit closer to home -- suddenly we're not talking vague millions, but your neighbor, your daughter, your friend, your wife. We can see that. More importantly, we can feel it.

Every kind of copy message works the same way. Tap emotions first and fast, get personal -- it's the only way to get doors to open consistently.

GREAT MESSAGES USE STORIES:

This might be the most instinctive "stickiness" secret of all. Like so many books in this vein, "Made to Stick" opens first with a string of stories, each of them proving the point better than the last.

There's no fighting it -- and no reason to fight it, either -- people love a good story. Why? Because there's no better, more painless way to package a message.

Stories seep into your conscious like good pop songs; with riffs and hooks that catch, and strings of notes you're hard-pressed to forget. Stories flow automatically.

They give your imagination a backdrop. And a map to follow, so you can tell yourself and others the same story -- and message -- over and over again.

Does every great message have to be built around a great story? No. But it doesn't hurt to have the story that tells it all, waiting in your arsenal.

I'm sure I'll come back with more from "Made to Stick" as I get into it. Already, in fact, I've got a few more CR issue ideas percolating along those lines.

'til then, be sure to get a copy and check it out for yourself. I've already added it to my list of "recommended reads" on the Copywriter's Roundtable website:

http://copywritersroundtable.com/further-reading

Contributed by John Forde
Guest Contributor

How I Finally Made A Success Of My Business - And How You Can Do The Same

In october 2006 I decided I'd had enough.

I'd had enough of working for other people and making them the kind of money I could only dream about.

I'd had enough of people looking over my shoulders constantly to ensure they squeezed every drop of blood for the pittance they paid me... even though I worked my butt off.

In fact, in one job my manager actually told me if all the other guys together did half as much work as I did by myself, he'd be a happy bunny. There were eight other people in the team.

Did that satisfy the bosses of the company?

Does spiderman really exist? (Okay, I only used that because I'm a die-hard comic book fan. But you know what I mean).

Anyway, in October 2006 I decided I was going to be self-employed. I was going my own way.

So I called up the relevant government department and told them so.

And I've been self-employed ever since.

Although I think the term self 'unemployed' would be more suitable.

You see, I tried to learn how to make money on the internet. I bought one course after another.

Each time the promise was:

1. I had to spend money to make money


2. "Our course is the best one. And you'll definitely make money with it"

Three years and about $50,000.00 later (no typo), all I had to show for myself was a huge debt, with no ability to pay it back.

I was desperate.

Then, in October 2008 Drayton Bird held his first course in Direct and Digital Marketing through EADIM (European Academy of Direct and Interactive Marketing).

The cost was 3,000 Euros. I couldn't afford it.

So I ended up wasting more money trying to learn more stuff that was no good And getting even deeper in debt on my credit cards.

(funny how we can't afford to pay for something sensible, but can afford to get even more in debt, huh?).

Then in August 2009 I decided enough really was enough.

I borrowed the money from my brother and enrolled on that year's EADIM course.

Was it worth it?

It was the single best investment I've made in all these years of struggling.

In fact, I made back my investment at least 5 times since. And more.

I was so enthusiastic about this course that Drayton Bird himself sent me an email and offered me the chance to work with him.

The result?

Check out this site: www.directmarketingcourse.com

I had a big hand in that copy.

This is what Ross Bowring, a fellow copywriter on the Warrior Forum, said of the copy on this site...

"Rezbi... Bravo! And I've never said "Bravo" to anyone before (!) That's a very nicely written letter. Skillfully communicates benefits with no hype whatsoever. Read the whole thing. Never usually do that. Mightily impressed."

And this is what Drayton said of the same...

Enthusiasm without knowledge is useless. Rezbi is one of those rare and valuable people - a genuine enthusiast who studies. He was hugely valuable to me in working on the promotion for EADIM. The (very complex) landing page is a good example of his work, a great joint effort!

All I can say is this - I got the opportunity to work on this, and on others, as a direct result of going on that course last year. It is, in my opinion, the best course on direct and digital marketing that exists today.

And, if ANYONE is really serious about their career, online or offline - no matter which industry they are in - they would be jumping to get on this course.

Now my question is: How serious are you?

Don't waste any more time or money. Get on this course and - finally - start making a success of your business and career.

If nothing else, at least go and check out the site to see how much I've accomplished as a result of doing this course. And how much you could, too: www.directmarketingcourse.com

Oh, I nearly forgot... if you book before the end of the year, you also get a HUGE 34% discount.

And, if you can't afford that measly sum, you can even pay by monthly installments.

Check it out: www.directmarketingcourse.com

Best,
Rezbi

The Tone Of Voice In Copy

Did you know the sounds different letters make can make your copy more or less powerful?

It’s true. Or, at least, it is according to G.W. Freeman.

He wrote an article around 90 years ago where he gives examples. How the letter ‘S’ can make your copy sound ‘faster’. How the letter ‘P’ can give your copy 'power'.

And how the letter ‘H’ can give your copy ‘force’.

Maybe you have other thoughts about this. Let me know what you think.

Meanwhile, take it away G.W.

The Tone Of Voice In Copy

By G. W. Freeman

“EASY to write, hard to read,” was declared by Robert Louis Stevenson to be an axiom of the scrivener's art . . . and advertising writing cannot escape the laws that govern the creation of all effective copy.

Two people utter identical phrases, and one repels by his truculent gruffness, whereas the other with soft and pleasing tones, charms.

That is a matter of tone of voice.

The printed word offers few mechanical devices for indicating stress and   manner, and so the advertising writer must employ words as tools for modifying stress and tone, and by his literary style develop a pleasing tone of voice in his copy.

The pictorial side gets painful thought so as to make the advertisement appeal.

And then the one element that can really appeal to the mind and to the imagination is dismissed with "Make it brief," or "Just talk naturally."

"Natural" copy is the hardest to write. It takes most labor, that is, if it seems natural

For most copy that is written "just like you talk" reads like nothing under heaven.

Here is a piece of copy written "naturally" by an engineer for a manufacturer of rubber belts:

". . . the present day farmer will buy only the best, regardless of initial cost, for experience has taught him that low first costs invariably mean higher ultimate costs."

That's natural writing.

But does it sound as natural as this: "Did you ever buy a likely looking scrub cow only to find that she never gave enough milk to pay for her feed? If you have, you've learned that low first cost does not always pay best. There are scrubs among farm belts, and there are pure-breds, and you know which kind will give you satisfaction."

Professional rhetoricians bid us avoid "alliteration's artful aid."

And yet there is a valid reason why we, as copy writers, should employ it.

Alliteration formed the basis of the early poetry of our race, and that early influence is persistent.

Our forefathers, sitting through long cold evenings in their draughty halls, drank and sang in unison, eagerly beating time to the alliterative syllables of the song.

Consider this stanza from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (937 A.D.):

Her Aethelstan cynig,
eorla drighten beorna beahgifa,
and his brothor eac Eadmund Aethling,
ealdor laugne tir ge slogan aet Saecce,
suorda ecgum.

Vowels alliterated with any other vowels, as in the first and third lines. See how the b's beat through the second line, and the s's through the fourth.

Alliteration is valuable in headlines

"Montreal or Miami, it's all the same to a Marmon," is more effective than "Palm Beach or Quebec, it's all the same to a Marmon."

The value of the alliteration is in its swing and tinkle.

But alliteration is attractive and useful only in headlines. In body text it gives an effect of insincerity.

Consider this bit of copy which appeared in a booklet issued years ago by an advertising agency: "We produce copy that causes prospects to pause, ponder and purchase."

That not only sounds strained, it bears the earmarks of the "smart alec."

RHYME is always to be avoided in headlines, just as every copywriter shuns accidental rhymes in the body of his text

And yet, while rhymed headlines and rhymed text are anathema, rhymed slogans are worth their weight in platinum because they jingle around in the brain like an unforgettable tune:

"The Wilson Label Protects Your Table."

"Read and Write by Emeralite."

These belong right along with

"Thirty days hath September"

and

"Punch, brothers, punch with care, punch in the presence of the passengaire."

And for the same good reason—we can't forget the rhyme.

We all know that words suggest related ideas—connotation. The more pleasing the connotation, the more pleasing the effect of the word.

The classic horrible example once quoted by an otherwise intelligent advertising man was "Make the old home into a new house." And I personally don't believe that any advertising man, not even the boss's younger brother, ever wrote that!

But aside from their connotation, are there any pleasing words—or unpleasing ones?

In and of themselves, pleasant or unpleasant?

THUS there is a displeasing sequence: The liquids, "1" and "r," are closely related in sound, and like people that are closely related, they do not get along well together.

Consider this sentence from a recent "Sunmaid Raisin" page advertisement in the Post:

"If you like delicious, wholesome, full fruited raisin bread."

—

I defy anyone to read that the first time and not say, "delicious, wholesome, full fluited raisin bread," or at least "Full fruited laisin bled."

It's like that classic tongue twister, "The rat ran over the roof with a lump of raw liver in its mouth."

Discordant sounds have their use; however, for the skillful copy writer will employ them when he touches lightly on those conditions which he wishes to appear unpleasant.

Thus a Weed Chain advertisement, which described the "smug" content of the foolish driver who left his chains back in the garage.

But on the positive side of the subject, are there pleasing words?

Who does not roll such words as these under his tongue?

• Power


• Purple


• Promise


• Progress


• Proven


• Providence

And as for "profit"—the greatest of these is Profit.

Closely allied to "v" is "f," and r-p-f is almost as pleasing at r-p-v.

Consider these trade names:

• Paramount Pictures


• Packard


• Peerless


• Pierce Arrow

and

• Ivory Soap

See how they are charged with "r's" and "p's."

Contrast these two pieces of copy —one full of "r's" with one "f" and one "p" and the other a succession of "k" sounds:

"She will be beautiful of course in the rosy future pictured by a mother's dream."

"Wash your hair becomingly, always have it beautifully clean and well kept and it will add more than anything else to your attractiveness."

Now examine this from a recent Jordon offering:

"Nimble, snug and hammock swung close to the skimming road, this fascinating car glides lightly on its way."

Count the "s's".

That's the secret of its speed and action. For "s" is the symbol of the present active verb.

It denotes action.

To speed copy use short words. Short sentences. Short paragraphs. Words filled with s's.

But speed isn't always what we are after.

Sometimes a client prefers that we obtain results—and that often calls for emphasis. To give weight to any point use, a few more words.

"Every drill is inspected 50 times" may be just as true as "Every drill is inspected time and again, thoroughly, painstakingly, and must meet no less than 50 separate tests", but it carries less weight than the longer sentence.

Don't be obsessed by the short-word, "mania". If you want weight, and even if you need a long word for beauty, don't balk at a polysyllable.

Short words aren't necessarily "good old Anglo-Saxon". Latin has given us "mob" and "vest" and "togs".

If you want force, I suggest that you try out a few words with initial "H".

'H' is a forceful letter.

Just open your mouth and let out a "whoop" or a "holler" and you'll see why.

The Greeks called the H-sound a "rough breathing".

Just listen a moment to this list:

• Ha


• Halt


• Hold on


• Hump


• Hey you


• Hark


• Hand it


• Here


• Hack


• Hit


• Hate


• Hell

That gives us a clue to the strength that has been injected into this headline – The Blue Heart guarantees excess rope strength – “The Blue Heart” sounds stronger than the word “strength”.

Best,
Rezbi
www.directmarketingcourse.com
www.hotbuttoncopywriting.com
www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com

Excuses... Excuses... Excuses...

I could come up with plenty of reasons why I haven't been posting to my blog.

However, only one is of any significance - I've been working.

The thing is, I like blogging. I like researching and finding new things to write about.

Most of all, I like to write about things I have to dig up. Things no one else writes about - probably - because it takes 'detective' work. Hence the name 'The Marketing Sleuth'.

I've been working on a project for a very high profile marketer and I've learned so much from him. He just happens to be one of the best marketers and copywriters of the last 50+ years.

But I've missed writing to my blog.

And so, I've decided I'm going to come back and give you more articles on a regular basis.

You may wonder why I decided to write a post explaining my reasons for not keeping my blog updated. Well, the reason is a post by Melinda Brennan on copyblogger called 6 Online Marketing Mistakes that Will Kill Your Business.

I really just wanted to clarify, to myself, that it's not one of those reasons keeping me away.

Go and check out the post. It's an eye-opener for anyone who makes excuses about why they don't succeed.

Best,
Rezbi
www.directmarketingcourse.com
www.hotbuttoncopywriting.com
www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com

Communicating - Or Just Making Pretty Shapes?

Do your prospects and customers find your messages hard to take in? It sounds crazy – but it happens most of the time.

Have you ever asked yourself why you communicate? Let’s face it: unless, like a politician, you suffer from a constant need to bore other people, you must have a purpose.

Maybe it’s to sell something: your product or service, or firm. Perhaps it’s to make something happen, or prevent it happening. Possibly it’s to clarify a misunderstanding or put over your point of view.

You may have many objectives. But whatever your purpose, I imagine you would agree it is, above all, essential that your audience understands what you are saying - quickly, easily and correctly. Otherwise, how are you to achieve your purpose?

Yet you may be surprised to know that many, perhaps most, printed commercial messages are ill understood by readers. The chief reason is that those who prepare them - writers and designers - know astoundingly little about what makes things easy to read.

For the most part, they rely on their own taste and judgement, or what is fashionable in “creative” circles. I put quotes round the word creative because, although the word implies originality, most slavishly follow whatever the current fad may be.

Slavish followers of fashion

Thus, if the fashion is for sans-serif type, or emphasising words regardless of their importance, or using certain words or phrases – like “strategic” or “key issues”, you will find many writers and art directors use them regardless of their suitability or how well they get your message across.

We can all have opinions about what we like, or what we think is tasteful, clever or well-arranged or visually exciting, but what really matters is, how well is your message conveyed? And oddly enough, a simple look at any daily paper reveals most of the principles.

The fundamental thing to recognise about words, type and layout is simple. They are tools to convey your message as clearly and quickly as possible. As the great typographical authority, Stanley Morison, noted: “Any disposition of type which, whatever the intention, comes between the reader and the meaning, is wrong”.

As you will see shortly, if you rely on taste, opinion or fashion the result is often disastrous; but happily, two men devoted many years to discovering how better use of language, type and layout makes for better communication.

Decades of research

One was Rudolph Flesch, an American, who studied what kinds and arrangements of words, sentences and paragraphs are most easily read. The other, an academic at the University of New South Wales called Colin Wheildon, conceived the idea of learning not whether people liked or disliked certain layouts or type styles, but how well they communicated.

He did this by taking some 200 Australian consumers, getting them to read certain passages laid-out in various ways, then asking them to describe what they had just read. He also asked them how easy they had found a particular piece to read. In other words he wanted to know how well different layout styles and typographic styles worked from a practical, not an aesthetic point of view.

The original research took over two years. As far as I know it is the most extensive and thorough of its kind. It has been extended and repeated over the 20-odd years since, and came out three years ago in a full-length book with the title 'Type and Layout'*. I recommend it if you want to make sure that whatever your message is, it gets through as well as possible.

In addition, since all messages aim to elicit a response – either, “yes, I understand” or “yes, I will do what you ask,” a lot of the results of direct response advertising can teach us lessons about what works and what doesn’t.

This piece distils some of the main things that have been learned from these three sources but the principal lesson is clear: people’s eyes and brains are lazy. If the eye has to adjust or make an effort, it will avoid doing so if possible. The same applies to the brain.

This should not surprise you: after all, how many business ideas – fast food, for example – succeed simply because people are lazy? First, let’s look at what has been learned about layout and typography.

A page of copy in serif type was comprehended well by 67% of readers. When the same copy was reset in sans serif, the figures nose-dived to 12%.

Why? Because the little “feet” on a line of serif type help keep people’s eyes on that line. So if you use sans serif type, make sure there’s plenty of leading – space – between the lines.

Perceived legibility of a series of headlines went down by over 20% when the setting was changed from capitals and lower case to capitals only. Imagine what happens to comprehension when someone sets a whole page in “caps” – which is quite the rage at the moment.

The eye recognises shapes, not individual letters, and a word set in caps has no shape, whereas the descenders and ascenders in caps and lower case give a word shape. What are descenders and ascenders? Well, in the word “shape”, h is an ascender and p is a descender.

Good comprehension slumped when type was set with ragged right setting (typically down from 67% to 38%) or, even more so with ragged left setting (67 down to 10 percent).

That’s because the eye has to adjust constantly. Often people set long passages “centred” – ragged on both sides. What do you suppose that does to comprehension?

For the same reason constant changes in typeface are not only ugly but confusing. This also applies to the needless changes in type size so fashionable amongst advertising agency art directors.

At least one person in ten has imperfect eyesight. So copy in very small type is usually unwise. And type set over tints or textures or colours so that it does not stand out clearly is fatal.

• Type set in narrow columns is easy to read - the eye doesn’t have to travel so far. Around 50 characters per line is about as long as it should go.

• Readers found headlines

laid out in a series

of “decks” or layers

like this were hard

to comprehend.

56% said they found headlines of more than four decks difficult.

Visual elements that point out of the layout - like people’s feet, or their sight lines - lead the readers out of the advertisement.

Illustrations that block off a column halfway down the page discourage the reader from travelling further.

Headlines marooned in the middle of the copy destroy the flow of that copy and halve good comprehension. So do headlines placed under the copy. The reader can’t be bothered to look up to the start of the copy.

Long, unbroken blocks of type are daunting. They should be broken up by crossheads, indents, and changes in type. Giving ‘shape’ to long letters also encourages readership.

• Huge headings take up expensive space you have paid for and only work if you have readers with arms 8 feet long.

When a lot of type is reversed out white on black, it kills response. In the case of one full-page magazine advertisement, response doubled when white on black was replaced with the normal black on white.

Captions are heavily read. If you run a picture without a caption, you lose the chance to communicate.

• Pictures of people’s faces gain enormous attention. Use them wherever you can.

Techniques that make for easier reading

If you buy The Wall Street Journal you will see how surprisingly easy the front page is to read. That is because it follows the rules laid down by Rudolph Flesch.

Best sellers and tabloid newspapers adhere to these techniques, as do direct response copywriters. They all have to make reading easy. Otherwise they go broke.

Sentences should be short. An average 16 words per sentence is ideal. The easiest sentence to read contains eight words. The average reader finds anything longer than 32 words hard to take in.

Paragraphs should be short, containing just one thought in each particularly the first paragraph.

• However, vary sentence and paragraph lengths to avoid dullness.

Words should be short and lively, not long and dull: eg, buy, not purchase; free. Not complimentary.

• Never use unnecessary words: eg, “for free” should be “free”; “miss out on” should be “miss”; “male personnel” should be “men”.

“You”, “yours” and “your” should appear 2-3 times more than “I”, “we”, “our”, “us” and “ours”. That’s because readers are interested in themselves – just as you are.

Use words and phrases at paragraph beginnings that encourage continued reading - like “And”, “Moreover”, “That is why” and “What’s more”. If you put questions at paragraph ends, this helps too. Why?

Because reader wants to know the answer – which is why you just read this sentence.

If you break sentences at the ends of pages and columns, this also encourages continued reading. Put ‘Please turn over’ or the like at the end of a letter page.

There are other points well worth knowing, but that’s all I have room for here. Thanks for reading through to the end; I hope you found it easy - and clear.

Best,
Drayton
www.directmarketingcourse.com
www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com

Who Have You Read Lately?

A couple of days ago I sat through a course on writing by Drayton Bird, along with 40 or so other people.

The good thing was, although it was a live seminar, I didn't have to leave the comfort of my home: It was a webinar.

This was one of three webinars Drayton is holding on learning how to write to persuade.

And one thing he emphasized, along with many others, is the importance of reading. Not reading books on writing, or marketing, or any type of business book.

The books he told us to read are novels. And not just any novels, but novels written by people who know, or knew (some may or may not be alive now), how to write.

You see, these people write in such a way that you can't resist reading on. Their style of writing compels you to read from beginning to end.

One author I find unable to put down is Agatha Christie. I never used to read her books until Matt Furey recommended them in one of his emails.

Now I'm hooked.

The thing with Agatha Christie, and the ones on Drayton's list,  is that if you read them you can see why they're so good.

And, if you follow the way they write, it can only make your own writing much better.

And that includes copywriting.

If you want to know more about the writing course, go here http://www.draytonbird.com/proper. That's not an affiliate link.

Meanwhile, it just so happens I found a very interesting piece on the importance of reading. It was written almost a hundred years ago by one of the founders of the BBD&O advertising agency, Bruce Barton.

It's a short but compelling piece. I enjoyed reading it. I think you will, too.

Take it away, Bruce.

Your Body May Live In The Cellar; But It's Your Own Fault If Your Mind Lives There

THE other night my friend Ferrero and I spent a few years with Julius Caesar in ancient Rome.

We went with him on his campaigns in Gaul. Those were wonderful battles -- wonderful fighters.

From a hill-top we could watch the whole battle -- thousands of men driving at each other with their swords, hurling their javelins at short range. No smoke, no trenches; just primitive, hand-to-hand conflict.

We came back to Rome. The city was in a turmoil. Our great chariots thundered through the streets in triumph; our captives, our spoils, our banners made a magnificent procession. The crowds cheered wildly.

Another evening my friend Green and I had a great time together in ancient
Britain.

We went down to Runnymede with a group of English nobles. They were powerful men, each a petty king in his own section; but every one of them took his life in his hand on that expedition.

And there we gathered around King John, and forced him, against his will, to put his name to the Magna Carta, the Great Charter which is the foundation of
English liberties -- and our own.

I had a fine time with Napoleon a few nights before.

I met him when he landed in France, after the escape from Elba.

Up through the southern provinces he came, gathering a few troops there, winning over by the force of his eloquence the regiments sent to capture him.

We arrived in Paris. Hurriedly, but with supreme confidence that the Little
Corporal could never fail; we got together a makeshift army and set out to strike the winning blow at Waterloo.

That battle -- I shall never forget it.

Another day I went over to old Concord, and spent the whole afternoon with Emerson.

We talked about Representative Men. Well, well, you say, what foolishness is this? What do you mean by saying you lived with Caesar and Napoleon and Emerson -- all centuries apart, all long since dead?

If you do not know what I mean, then I pity you.

Have you never come home tired from your office, and with a book transported your foolish little mind clear out of the present day?

Have you never learned the joy of surrendering yourself to the companionship of the great men of the past?

Have you never sat in the little London Club and heard Sam Johnson thunder his philosophy of life?

Have you never sailed up and down the American coast with Captain John Smith, dodging the Indians and opening up a new continent?

Are you one of the wretched, poverty stricken souls who have never learned to escape from yourself through the blessed magic of good books?

Have you contented yourself all your life with the companionship of good pinochle-players, when you might have been a familiar friend of Socrates and
Milton and Napoleon and Cromwell and Washington and Columbus and Shakespeare and Lincoln and Rousseau?

If so, cut out this paragraph from a great man and paste it in your hat:

I would rather be a  beggary and dwell in a garret, than a king who did not love books.

There are some marvellous experiences coming to you.

You can in the evenings to come jar yourself out of the petty rut where circumstance has placed you, and become a familiar of the immortals.

You may learn to face the world with a new confidence, a new poise, a new self respect, because you have made yourself a citizen of the ages.

Do some real reading.

Do it for the joy it will give you: Do it for the good it will do you.

"Show me a family of readers,” said Napoleon, “and I will show you the people who rule the world."

Best,
Rezbi
www.directmarketingcourse.com
www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com

Failure - A Friendly Kick Up The Backside

I'm a lazy sod given half a chance, so I thought I'd let an old friend do a bit of work.

Christian Digby-Firth was one of my creative directors years ago at O & M and has a very neat turn of phrase.

Good writing is always a good thing to note if you want good people, since as Dr. Johnson observed, "Language is the dress of thought."

Here's something Christian sent me just now.

"What is it about airport ads? They're breeding grounds for some of the most fatuous copy lines in the biz. "We know what it takes to be a Tiger", "In business people are good together", "Hello", etc. etc and all the others too crushingly dull to recall. Which is of course your point.

International committee work, I suppose.

"Make the most of now" is Vodafone's anxious strategic imperative writ large: i.e. "Please use your mobile phone to do all sorts of things that are pointless to you but profitable to us, and do them now because we don't make anything on your boring old voice calls".

Now, I have to confess that though I agree with almost everything in that hilarious little note, I don't agree with that.

I think the Tiger campaign is very cleverly aimed at executives with very small p**cks and even smaller minds who want to feel like they're big bold business marauders - and who are gullible enough to believe Accenture will help them do it without having to think, in exchange for absurdly large sums of money.

But there is an important point I want to make (besides one I made in an earlier piece, which is that emotion beats logic, even in business).

It's: Playing on people's inadequacies is a very smart thing to do.

Take a look at any successful self-help ad, and you'll see what they do.

I mentioned Max Sackheim a week or so ago - the man who wrote "My First 50 years in Advertising".

He wrote an ad entitled, "Do you make these mistakes in English?" aimed to sell English courses to immigrants who felt unsure about their English. It ran successfully for 40 years.

Here it is:



Lillian Eichler wrote an ad with the heading, "Again she orders - A Chicken Salad, Please." - to sell a book of etiquette to people who felt socially inadequate.

It took three writers to produce an ad headed, "Here's an extra $50, Grace - I'm making real money now" - aimed to sell correspondence courses. This is one of my favourite headlines ever..

Now, I hope you're not going to give me that bleeding heart stuff about playing on people's fears. If you do I will tell you one thing I know for sure, in fact I bet on it once..

Recently I was speaking at Manchester University, and the celebrity speaker was a famous chef. I was discussing what motivates successful people with a lady at my table..

I said, "It's fear of failure - and I bet this man is no exception."

The man's speech began almost word for word with what I'd said. He revealed how he feared not living up to his father's expectations..

People who achieve do so almost always because they fear to fail..

And people who fail usually do so because they're cocksure -not worried about failing, and so don't try hard enough.

Best,
Drayton
www.directmarketingcourse.com
www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com

"The Greatest DM Creative Of This Generation"

This is Steve Harrison...

"The greatest DM creative of this generation."

A bold claim, you might say, but that's not me saying it. It was a claim made by the UK’s leading advertising journal, Campaign magazine.



Steve was one of the presenters at the direct marketing course ran by Drayton Bird's European Academy of Direct and Interactive Marketing, or EADIM for short.

Let me tell you, Steve alone was worth the fee for the course.

And that's saying something when you consider some of the industry's biggest hitters were also there presenting.

It's happening again starting this October. I'll give you more details soon.

Best,
Rezbi
www.eadim.com
www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com

How Often Should You Talk Yo Your Customers?

This video may sound a bit like it was recorded in a municipal swimming baths (actually it was my partner Al'S quaint West Country residence) but once you've got over that, you may find it useful.



That's because it deals with something I must have been asked a thousand times: how often should I mail/email my clients?

This reminds me of another hoary old favourite: how long should the copy be?

And both remind me of the philosopher Bertrand Russell's remark that "What men seek is not knowledge, but certainty."

Some people think they should be talking more often, lest their customers think they are being ignored; others think they should talk less for fear of boring them.

The truth is, as so often, that it depends on a myriad things. In this 2 minute 6 second clip I get pretty excited about the subject - but don't let that put you off.

By the way, I have just finished putting together the examples for the first How to Write Proper webinar.

Best,
Drayton
www.eadim.com
www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com

Here's Where I Stole Lots Of "My" Ideas From ... Now It's Your Turn

If you read these serpentine ramblings you know I greatly admire the Venerable Denny Hatch.

Denny, with almost demented dedication, has over the last 26 years created the world's largest organised direct mail library - over 200,000 samples.

But what is more important, he knows what worked - and what didn't, and can tell you why, because he knows more than anyone about the subject.

18 years ago I rang his wife, Peggy (who is as able as he is!) to ask how many mailings he read a month.

"Between one and two thousand," she replied. "Mind you, he doesn't read all of them all through."

"I should bloody well hope not," I thought. "The poor man would end up in a loony bin if he did."

Anyhow, since that time, Denny's mammoth compendium of the best mailings ever - Million $$$ Mailings, created with Axel Andersson - has been my secret weapon.

I use it to cheat.

I thumb through it for inspiration - and for ideas to steal, adapt and use in seminars. It contains 71 of the most successful mailings ever written. Only last month I wrote something that pulled like an express train based on one line I spotted and “improved”.

I refer to it more than Caples, more than Hopkins, more than Ogilvy.

The only problem is, it is a WHACKING GREAT TOME, 477 pages long - I yearn to beat up recalcitrant clients with it. I can't find the ideas I want quickly. And it is 18 years old, so some important new stuff is not in it.

Now, praise the Lord, Denny has come up with something that's bang up-to-date, and a lot shorter. So I can find tested ideas to steal in minutes.

It’s a report called The Secrets of Emotional Hot-ButtonCopywriting. You can get it at http://hotbuttoncopywriting.com/.

But to call it a report does it too little justice. It is atreasure trove. I flipped it open just now and immediately saw an extraordinary opening line "I'm sitting in my wheelchair today, mad as hell" ... imagine what that could do for your e-mail opening rates!

(Do not think for a second that what applies in direct mail does not apply online. It is pretty much all relevant - and the examples you see are from the best of the best in a business that has been around for centuries, not decades).

As the title says, the report is based on the turbulent, gnawing human emotions - the hot buttons - that make your customers buy. And it features the best mailings of the last 20 years. Only Denny could have put it together, because only Denny has this astonishing archive of material.

And Denny does something so many fail to do: he tells you WHY things work. You will never get this from some of the hyped-up piffle that sails into your inbox every day.

A friend just forwarded me (as a joke) one of those emails that say “all you need is this set of DVDs and booklets and your copy will “write itself” automatically.

What drivel!

Here, for $89, you can get what you really need – theCopy Thieves’ Almanac. I may use one of the mailings in a speech I make in a week's time. I will certainly adapt another for some work I have to do for an investment client.

Here again is where to order: http://hotbuttoncopywriting.com/.

Why not make it the next thing you do? Just one idea could double the response from your next effort. I have seen it happen. I know.

Best,
Drayton
http://directmarketingcourse.com/
www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com

How To Charm Your Prospects

Last week I sat beside Drayton and watched him go through copy written by one of his clients. Keep in mind this piece of copy wasn't bad.

Drayton just sat there, in front of his screen, and edited it with such ease it was amazing.

By the time he finished, it was a masterpiece.

Best,
Rezbi
www.eadim.com
www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com

Drayton Bird On The Most Common Copywriting Mistake

In copy one of the worst things you can do is to drag on about irrelevant things.

This is a mistake I always made before Drayton kept drumming it into my head. I guess I still do make this mistake, but not as much as before.

As David Ogilvy used to say, "You can't bore people into buying your product. You can only interest them in buying it."

Best,
Rezbi
www.eadim.com
www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com

Watch Your Tone!

Do you suffer from a crippling condition called deadline panic?

I do - and it attacked me with some ferocity recently when after a few glasses of cheering sangria I looked at my schedule for the week.

I was immediately reminded of a maxim by one of my old bosses: "Whatever you're doing, you should have started sooner" - Bill Phillips.

Bill Phillips ran Ogilvy & Mather when I sold my old agency to them, and we both like quotations.

(One of his I particularly appreciate is "A neat stall is the sign of a dead horse" - and if you saw my desk, you'd know why)

Anyhow, I realised with some alarm that I was going to Bucharest and Kiev that week to do 4 seminars, one of which I hadn't written yet.

Since it takes a couple of days' work to put together a good talk, this was quite a worry, so I started going through possible material.

And by chance I found one or two good quotations. Here is the man who wrote the first:



Did you recognise him? It is Evelyn Waugh, one of the great comic writers of the 20th century, and a wonderful stylist.

During the Second World War he and his wife used to write to each other and on one occasion he wrote complaining about how dull her letters were.

"A good letter is like a conversation," he wrote.

This reminded me of a meeting I had with the managing director of Mercedes Passenger Cars about 17 years ago when we started doing their direct marketing.

He was concerned about the tone of their copy - and in fact that is why we got the business.

We talked about this for a while, then I said,

"Have you ever actually sold cars?"

"Yes" he said.

Then I asked: "Did you talk to your customers the way you've been talking to me?"

"Yes."

"Well," I replied. "That is the kind of tone your direct mail should have."

The difference between good copy and so-so copy is largely about tone. Of course, few writers even understand the basics, but even if they do most write with a sort of half-witted enthusiasm, where everything is "fabulous" and "exciting". So the copy lacks credibility. Readers say, "Oh, come on."

The really good copy is conversational in tone, and is adapted to suit the context

Read your copy out loud. Does it sound like someone talking? It should.

And does it sound like typical "sales" copy any one of your competitors could run. It shouldn't.

The other thing to watch out for is that the language must be appropriate to the writer - and the recipient.

If you're supposed to be the chairman, write like a wise and friendly adviser. If you're writing to another chairman, write as an equal. If you're supposed to be someone who handles complaints, adapt accordingly. And so on.

It's deceptively simple - but not that easy to do. You just have to work at it.

Best,
Drayton

P.S.  This is number 25 of Drayton Bird’s 101 free helpful marketing ideas.  You can sign up on the link below for the rest.

—————————————–

www.draytonbirdcommonsense.com / www.eadim.com

Who Else Wants To Write Better - Or Knows People Who Do? Friday's Response Thrilled Me To Bits (With A Couple Of Surprises)

If you follow all these disjointed ramblings you know I vented a little spleen last week about an e-mail I got, and said I would run a series of webinars on better writing.

Three things happened. First, a surprising number of people said they'd be interested, including one of the best copywriters I know. Second, the man whose firm ran the copy sent a very temperate comment whilst lolling in his second home in Italy - paid for by such seminars. And third, one of my heroes, Denny Hatch, sent a congratulatory note.

Well, thank you to everyone who replied - and what can we learn from this?

1. Many people realise that bad writing holds back careers, plays havoc and bedevils business.


2. The people who want to improve are often the people who are good already. The useless carry on regardless. So, the good get better and the bad fall further behind.


3. Quality matters more than technique. If what you offer is appealing even bad writing, within reason, won't kill it as long as the benefits are clearly described, which they were in this case.

A delightful story was told by the great cartoonist and writer Thurber about the eccentric editor of the New Yorker magazine, Harold Ross.


Ross was a gloomy nit-picker, hardly ever satisfied, and with little apparent sense of humour. On the rare occasion when he saw a contribution he liked he would murmur, "I am encouraged to go on."


Well, I am encouraged to go on - I have a few other subjects that may interest you like positioning, fund-raising, briefing, research and testing, brand building, how to present, how to be a good creative director, creative analysis and so on.


Let me know if any of those sound interesting, please - or if you have any other suggestions.


I will now prepare the better writing webinars. They will chiefly be concerned with writing to persuade - but cover everything from what to do before you write and how to manage your time to how to get ideas, with advice on better writing from George Orwell and much more.


So if more of you are interested, let me know that too.

Best,
Drayton
Websites: www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com / www.eadim.com

Why Jargon Muddies The Water

Do you know what single thing in modern life annoys people more than any other?

Here's a clue.



Yes. The dear old automated touch-tone system.

And I learned what irritates business people most a few weeks ago. It's people using jargon in meetings. In fact a few years ago I read that over 25% of business executives admitted to using jargon they didn't understand in meetings

No wonder, then, that when it comes to selling technological things so many messages dissolve into a sort of linguistic swamp.

Here's a good example from an e-mail someone sent me this morning:

At Blah-co we have just developed an email stationery online software package that allows one in house member of staff to deploy all email users with a professionally designed Email stationery template, designed by one of our team of designers to all users and to include their unique contact details, meaning not only will the presentation of their emails improve but equally as important all be consistent throughout your organisation. (whew!)

Because of the way the templates are constructed our solutions avoid all types filtering ensuring your mail always arrives.

Well, I think I understand the beginning and the end and recognize all the words but I'm damned if I know what they mean when put together.

Here's another series of examples extracted from mailings sent by another firm.

"Are you one of those lucky few who have bedded down IT operations?"

"Would you realise a significant increase in business agility, accelerated decision making, employees pursuing a common agenda and a heightened awareness of your strategy?"

"Miss or ignore priority system availability or leadership messages"

"Adopting a new change driver that communicates change and strategy in a high impact and engaging way"

"Intranets suffer the limitations of pull technology"

"A controlled feedback channel enables you to capture a snapshot of employee morale in real time"

"Cascade this down to your people"

They actually have something great to sell, so I tried to translate their stuff into English.

Every day, you send tens, hundreds, maybe thousands of e-mails to people who want or need to hear from you.

Maybe they're your colleagues, your customers, your employees or your prospects: many may actually have asked to hear from you.

Then what happens?

Your "wanted" messages get lost in a sea of Spam. So the poor recipients go through the infuriating task of fishing out what really interests them from all that rubbish.

A **** sends your messages on a different route. One that avoids the traffic jams. It's a desktop alert that jumps onto your screen no matter what you're doing. You can't ignore it; it appears whether you're onscreen or off.

And that's why firms as varied as Sky, Arsenal Football Club. Kelloggs and Warner Brothers use them.

Winston Churchill said, "Use simple words everyone knows, then everyone will understand."

This is important especially if you're selling a financial or technical product or service. Use a bit of jargon to reassure the anoraks, but put the rest in English.

So just to repeat, beware jargon, stick to plain English. And NEVER run a 70 word sentence like the one from Blah-co at the top.

And please don't use words like "access" as in "access the world's leading independent experts and other practitioners" when you mean "hear" or "meet" - which is what someone invited me to do when I was drafting this. Maybe they thought they were sounding important. I thought it sounded pompous and silly.

Oh, and if all else fails, just e-mail me: we sell the weirdest stuff pretty well.

Best,
Drayton

P.S.  This is number 13 of Drayton Bird’s 101 free helpful marketing ideas.  You can sign up on the link below for the rest.

—————————————–

Website: www.draytonbirdcommonsense.com / www.eadim.com

Write From Me To You

I just got a message from "The IDMF Team". The people who run the International Direct Marketing Fair.

What is this obsession with initials? Aren't there enough around? And what is this obsession with teams? Are we all playing football?

It's like being greeted by "the onboard team" - when I was on the train hopelessly delayed somewhere between Stafford and Crewe.

• If I want to reply to this message, who do I reply to? (I did - and got no response).


• Come to that, do you like dealing with a "team" or would you prefer to talk to one person and maybe build a relationship?


• "Team" is a negation of direct marketing - and service - which are about serving individuals better, based on their special characteristics.


• Somebody made a fortune by calling it "one-to-one" marketing - which it isn't, by the way.

Don't be a team - unless you've got 11 heads. Write from me to you.

By the way, their e-mail included a game. They call it an involvement device as it sounds posher than game - but which would you prefer? A game or an involvement device?

The team told me it was "an innovative" idea.

That's a word people use because they think it sounds a posher than new. Actually it sounds like something you've heard a million times before - and it bores you.

It really means something less than new. Sort of "new-like".

Don't use hackneyed language like that, please. It makes you sound like a politician.

Best,
Drayton

P.S.  This is number 10 of Drayton Bird’s 101 free helpful marketing ideas.  You can sign up on the link below for the rest.

—————————————–

Website: www.draytonbirdcommonsense.com / www.eadim.com

Click here to get 101 free helpful marketing ideas. Marketers from all over the world think they’re a pot of gold.

Use Emotional Appeal

Do you think the British are morphing in some weird way?

We were always known as a pretty dull, phlegmatic bunch, compared to the excitable French, the fiery Spanish and the sexy Italians.

Well, something strange seems to be happening in business.

Across the road from our offices a building firm says it's passionate about whatever it does. Pret-a-Manger is passionate about food. The North East is full of passionate people - and passionate country, too, so their posters claim. And Churchill are passionate about insurance.

Do these people have no sex lives, I sometimes wonder. (Though it certainly proves that many agencies are pretty passionate about copying each other.)

More to the point, all this passion reminds me of a big mistake many who sell to businesses make. That is to assume that business decisions are made on rational grounds and emotion doesn't come into it.

This is nonsense - and to prove it I often ask audiences whether they can think of anyone they work with that they hate. It never fails to raise a laugh of recognition.

Only human - with feelings

Don't you agree that the way we love to label things often does more to confuse than help?

We talk of above the line and below, of b2c and b2b. "Consumers" and "Business people". Is that how our customers see themselves? Do they have lines running through their brains?

They are all human beings. And we know perfectly well what things motivate people when we sell make-up, a car or even a hair-remover. People want to be looked at, admired - and definitely not shunned.

In business they want what? To be looked up to, admired - and definitely not shunned. To be successful, quoted as examples for other people to emulate - not seen as losers - in life or business.

Pretty similar, right?

So we repeatedly find when selling to business that if something isn't doing well, a dash of passion makes all the difference.

• For an express delivery firm we suggested delivery managers could go from zero - never noticed till something went wrong - to hero by relying on them.


• For a credit collection firm we focused on the stress credit managers experience when trying to reconcile the conflicting demands of the finance and sales directors.


• For a telephony service we wrote about the rage touch-tone services inspire in most people and contrasted it with their solution.

The truth is that you don't grow a second head on your way to the office; and you may spend more waking hours there than anywhere else. It's not necessarily less interesting or emotional a life than the one you spend at home. It is often more so.

People lie, cheat and finagle their way to whatever business goal they may have. And they kill for money - which is what most business revolves around.

Man is not a rational animal at work any more than anywhere else. He (or she) makes decisions on emotional grounds then tries to find logical arguments to explain them away.

So, if you want better results when selling to business, look in your heart - then use your head to find a way of explaining why the emotional argument makes sense.

A few people have asked for comments on various things. Thanks. Keep 'em coming.

Best,
Drayton

P.S.  This is number 9 of Drayton Bird’s 101 free helpful marketing ideas.  You can sign up on the link below for the rest.

—————————————–

Website: www.draytonbirdcommonsense.com / www.eadim.com

Click here to get 101 free helpful marketing ideas. Marketers from all over the world think they’re a pot of gold.

Benefit-Laden Titles For Your Products

Master copywriter and copywriting instructor, Ray L. Edwards, talks about alternative, benefit-laden, ways of saying the same thing in copy.

Do Your Sales Messages Do What A Salesman Would Do?

This is a blinding glimpse of the obvious - yet completely ignored by most marketers. But unlike the first, it comes with a special offer you might find even more helpful.

More on that in a moment, because first I'd like you to join me you on a journey back in time.

If you study advertising - and I imagine you do, or how can you improve? - you will notice that most is very bad. A good example from people who should know better ran a while ago on the London Underground. It was a poster from the Advertising Standards Authority which read:

"We're here to make advertising better. Not to make better advertising. (Sorry.)"

This is what I call "creative masturbation" - produced entirely to please the writer, with no discernible purpose whatever. It does absolutely nothing to satisfy the question in every reader's mind: "What's in it for me?"

But what do they mean by "better" advertising? More original? More "creative" - which for many means the same thing? Or with more "impact" - whatever that means?

Did you say, "yes" to one or more of the above? If you trust the real giants of the industry, they are all wrong.

To explain why, let me take you to a modest office above a bar in Chicago 103 years ago. There the first good definition of advertising emerged. Even now many marketers - even very big ones - don't know it; but those who do have a priceless advantage.

Until then many vague phrases were used to describe advertising and how to do it. Most famous was the motto of A.J. Ayer, then the leading US agency. They said to get good advertising you must "Keep everlastingly at it". True; but not very helpful.

The office above the bar belonged to Lord & Thomas, a small firm destined to enjoy enormous success as a result of that evening. The intellectual curiosity of a young man who had just started running the firm had led him to seek a clear definition of his profession.

He was Albert Lasker, and he went on to make more money from advertising than anyone else, before or since. He realised that the way you define what you do determines what you do.

What built some of the world's biggest brands

On that night I mentioned a man in the bar below. He sent him up his card with a note saying: "I know you want to know what advertising is. I have the answer. Send back the card, and I will come and tell you".

So Lasker sent the card back, and a few minutes later a tall, striking moustachioed ex-Canadian Mountie called John E. Kennedy entered. He said to Lasker: "Advertising is salesmanship in print". Remembering that media now encompass not just print, but radio, the cinema, TV and the internet, that definition still stands.

Lasker hired Kennedy, and Lord & Thomas set out to spread the gospel of salesmanship in print. Before the end of World War 1 they were the world's largest advertising agency, which they remained until Lasker - who worked so hard he had regular nervous breakdowns - was away from the office for a while, and J. Walter Thompson overtook them.

Bad advertising is advertising which doesn't sell (and an amazing amount doesn't) or is aimed at satisfying the egos of those who create or run it - the clients - more than making sales.

In fact most creative people are more interested in awards than sales. That's not my opinion - just plain fact from research. They are keener on building their names than your sales.

So if you ever wonder why your stuff doesn't work, that's a good place to start: you're not reading from the same hymn sheet.

If it doesn't sell it isn't creative

Another early advertising titan, Claude Hopkins, succeeded Kennedy at Lord & Thomas. He put it this way: "Instead of sales, they seek applause".

Hopkins may have been the most able copywriter ever. He launched such famous brands as Quaker Puffed Wheat, Pepsodent and Chevrolet and his copy took a previously little known brand of beer, Schlitz, and quickly made it America's biggest seller.

He was so talented that Lasker hired him at the then un-heard of salary of...

I correspond with a lot of US internet experts. They operate in the newest, fastest growing medium. Yet strangely enough they all know and have learned from a book first published in 1924. Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins is the shortest and, still, probably the best book on the subject ever written. The shortest Chapter is called Just Salesmanship. If you read it you will know more about this business than most of the people in it. If you act on its lessons, I guarantee you will get better results. In his introduction to the book, David Ogilvy says that nobody should have anything to do with this business until he has read the book 7 times. Would you like it? Just insert you name and email address in the box on top right to download it.

$185,000 a year - when the dollar was worth 8 times more than now, and tax was almost nil.

Another legendary adman, Raymond Rubicam, noted, "The only purpose of advertising is to sell. It has no other justification worth mentioning". If you assume "sell" means to persuade anyone to do or believe something, it's hard to better that.

Bill Bernbach, named Adman of the 20th Century in Advertising Age, said, "All this talk of creativity has me worried. I fear lest in seeking the creativity we lose the sell".

What about originality? Well, Mozart - pretty creative, I think you will agree - said, "I never tried to be original in my life." And David Ogilvy said "Originality is the greatest sin in the advertiser's lexicon."

David practiced what he preached, too: he stole the line from his brother-in-law, Rosser Reeves, who invented the USP - Unique Selling Proposition.

At this point I bet you're wondering what my second helpful idea is. I've implied it but not said it. It is this. If you want your messages to work, just ask this simple question: Do they do what a salesman would do?

After all, if you could afford to, you would send the best salesmen you have round to every prospect. All other media are just substitutes for the real, live thing.

When we get a new client, if they use salespeople we usually get one to give us a live sales pitch. Then we try and replicate this in other media. The person who delivers that pitch gets his or her bread and butter from it. Nothing could be more powerful.

In the first three months of this year one of our clients enjoyed a 30% increase in sales - at a time when their chief competitors are either in the doldrums or actually losing money.

I would love to say this is all because of us, but of course there are many other factors. However, most of their leads come from two pieces - direct mail and door-drops. They were based almost entirely on a 2 hour pitch one of their top salesmen gave us - of course, without knowing we were not genuine prospects.

By the way, I am just amazed at how few marketers read books. They are like the man I mentioned in my last piece - too busy fighting alligators to drain the swamp.

The swamp is in fact the swamp of ignorance.

Why spend years learning by trial and error when a weekend with one good book can put you miles ahead? If you'd like any suggestions, let me know.

Best,
Drayton

P.S.  This is number 52 of Drayton Bird’s 101 free helpful marketing ideas.  You can sign up on the link below for the rest.

—————————————–

Website: www.draytonbirdcommonsense.com / www.eadim.com

Click here to get 101 free helpful marketing ideas. Marketers from all over the world think they’re a pot of gold.

A Tiny Change Can Triple Response

To my mind, one of the most interesting aspects of
any form of direct marketing is this: How small
changes can make such a huge difference in
response. Especially in headlines and subheadlines.

For example, a client reports adding a single letter
to a headline tripled response to an offer.

The first headline read:

Put More Cash Into Your Pocket

The new headline is:

Puts More Cash Into Your Pocket

The addition of the letter "s" to the word "put"
made a 300% difference. This is not a misprint!

Notice the addition of a single letter changes the
meaning of the word and implies an easier solution.

If this is not enough to convince any skeptic that
small changes, even a single letter, can make a
huge difference, I don't know what is.

Here are other examples whereby a single word or
phrase has made an enormous difference in
response.

First headline:

Learn the Secrets of Millionaire Copywriters

New headline:

Discover the Secrets of Millionaire Copywriters

This new headline more than doubled response.
This is undoubtedly because the word "learn"
suggests lots of hard work.

Another example.

First headline (on order form):

ORDER FORM

Second headline:

FREE TRIAL REQUEST

This is another 200 plus percent increase. Reason?
Consumers do not respond well to the word
"ORDER". While it's an extremely negative word,
the majority of marketers still overuse it.

The word "order" suggests spending money, which
no one likes.

Plus, no one likes to fill out forms. Not even
accountants!

Do you, dear reader, feel able to choose which of
two competing headlines is the winner and
produced the highest response based on actual sales
results?

** The Success Margin challenge **

I'll present three headlines which were tested
against each other. The body copy was the same in
each instance. The results varied significantly. The
winner produced sales increases of 145% to 212%
and 254% respectively.

Here they are:

1. (a) The Ultimate Tax Shelter
(b) Tax Shelter for all Incomes

2. (a) How to be a Successful Consultant
(b) What Makes a Consultant Successful?

3. (a) Do You Suffer Joint Pain?
(b) Do Your Joints Feel Like They Are on Fire?

Success Margin subscribers who choose all three
correctly will receive a special gift.

Dedicated to helping you constantly improve
response.

Your correspondent,
Ted Nicholas

—————

“This article appears courtesy of THE SUCCESS
MARGIN, the Internet’s most valuable success and
marketing e-zine. For a complimentary
subscription, visit http://www.tednicholas.com/