Direct Response Copywriter on The Surprising Truth About Word of Mouth Advertising

The other night, I got into a somewhat heated ‘discussion’ about word of mouth advertising.

You’ve heard the old saying … “word of mouth advertising is the best form of advertising.”

It’s obviously and completely untrue.

Shock ... HORROR!

Consider this … if it were true, then nobody would advertise anything. They would only have to rely on word of mouth advertising. I would not have an existence as a direct response copywriter.

Let’s consider this scenario … TOTALLY true. A woman visits a ski lodge in a ski town for about 2 weeks every year in the middle of winter. She sits regally in the lobby every evening where she holds court. She proceeds to say HORRIBLE things about most of the restaurants in the ski town, as she downs several glasses of white wine.

This, my brothers and sisters, is called “word of mouth advertising.” How can this non-stop trash talking be the best form of advertising? In fact, I would call it the WORST form of advertising and I feel sorry for the restaurant owners who put everything into running a business only to have it sledged by this crazy person who only wants to hear herself talk and sound important.

I firmly believe my clients are generally happy with my work. They measure results and they keep offering me direct response copywriting assignments. Do they refer me to other clients?

No.

Why?

Because they don’t want me working for competitors. I sometimes get referrals but they’re not the type of client or work I want. I’m also certain there are people in direct marketing who know me but say bad things about me. Maybe I’m wrong about this but I don’t think I am.

Either way, I’m NOT relying on “word of mouth” advertising. I’m not in control of my potential clients and I’m NOT in control of the message. Why would I NOT want to be in control of my marketing? I'm waiting for that answer.

What’s the best form of marketing?

It’s fundamentally sound direct marketing.

You build or find a list of people who need/want what you have to offer. You let them know you have what they want through direct response copy. You keep testing to discover what works. You have a relentless desire to boost revenue and conversion.

Easier said than done, of course, but that approach, my brothers and sisters, is more reliable and proven … and measured … than hoping that a woman in the lobby of a ski chalet decides she likes you.

Some people will understand the truth about word of mouth advertising. Others won't.

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I'm a direct response copywriter working for clients around the world. Enter your information to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here when you have a project you'd like to discuss. I'm also a Dan Kennedy certified copywriter for information products.

Direct Response Copywriter on "Voice" Part 2

In the last blog, I wrote that capturing the voice in direct response copy is largely irrelevant. In fact, it’s totally irrelevant.

Remember … as a direct response copywriter, my job is to motivate readers/viewers/listeners to take the next step in the sales process. This task revolves around benefits, the offer, clarity, headlines, and answering the question the potential buyer is asking: “what’s in it for me?” The potential buyer DOES NOT care about your voice. They care about their favorite person, which is … drum roll … themselves.

Last year, an advertising agency contacted me with an emergency project. I’m always happy to help. I had to rewrite a video script.

The account executive was especially clear about the voice. “It’s really important you capture the voice here.”

I said what I always say, “I’m not very good at capturing the voice but I’m really good at motivating the potential buyer to take the next step in the sale process.”

The account executive gave me the green light for the project anyway. They were happy with the new script, and, in fact, the agency's client said to the account executive: “you did a great job capturing the voice.”

I simply wrote direct response copy how I usually write copy. But I always like kudos!

Now … I can “turn up the volume” a bit and turn it down depending on the product or service but that’s not capturing the “voice.” You can see my guide to direct response volume here.

I can write “shamwow” copy that’s loud or I can write quieter copy that’s significantly toned down … say for a current client who owns retirement communities. But that’s not voice … that’s VOLUME.

If you’re a company and you run the marketing and you have a service or product you want to sell and you’re looking for a direct response copywriter, focus on the results the copywriter has achieved. And totally ignore voice and don’t ask the copywriter to try to “capture the voice.”

Do you want to capture the voice or do you want to sell your products/services? Do you want kudos and awards for your advertising or do you want money in your bank account?

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I'm a direct response copywriter working for clients around the world. Enter your information to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or [contact me here][2] when you have a project you'd like to discuss. I'm also a Dan Kennedy certified copywriter for information products.

Direct Response Copywriter on "Voice" and Whether It's Important. Part 1.

A few years ago, a potential client contacted me about some work. This client needed a direct response copywriter, mostly for landing pages and emails. The client said, “I’m going to ask three copywriters to write about the same product and we’ll see who captures the voice the best.” To their credit, the client offered full pay for the project. Sometimes, a potential client will ask for a “spec” project without any remuneration. I’ll say “yes” only when it’s an established client with a serious copy chief and mega-traffic.

But I digress.

I told the client, up front, that I was more concerned with capturing the sale than capturing the voice but … I would write the spec anyway. The client sells consumer-based financial information based around a celebrity/personality. One goal was to capture “the voice” of the guru.

So I wrote the spec piece to the best of my ability. A few weeks later, I got an email from the copy chief saying, essentially, “we liked your work but we found another copywriter who more closely captured the voice.” A polite rejection, but a rejection nonetheless. I really wasn’t all that worried, even though it would have been a decent amount of work.

Why was I not lying on the floor, weeping?

Who likes rejection?

It’s pretty easy. “Capturing the voice” is seriously overrated and essentially irrelevant in direct response copywriting.

“HERESY!” you shout. “Advertising has to have personality … VOICE … you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Let me explain.

I’m a direct response copywriter, not a branding copywriter. “Capturing the voice” is an ethereal concept that relates to branding marketing and not direct marketing. The person interested in your product or service is NOT interested in your “voice.”

The potential client is asking, “what’s in it for me?” and “how will the product make me feel better about myself?”

I regularly write copy that’s essentially ghostwritten. The “author” of the copy isn’t me … it’s from the owner of the company. Again … I have no interest in “capturing the voice.”

I’m laser-focused on benefits … proof … clarity … grabbing the attention of the reader … the offer … you know … all the crucial elements of direct response copy.

For one of my clients, I write the copy but it officially comes from the founder of the company. This client has never ONCE said, “Scott, we need to talk about capturing voice.” I have written over 250 promotions for this client and every single one has met the sales expectation. Voice schmoice.

I’ve heard people say “copy has to have personality.” Once again … I don’t care. Why? Because the customer/client IS NOT interested in you and your personality. They are interested in themselves. It’s a reason why it’s almost always a mistake to build advertising around a celebrity, even if potential customers like the celebrity … a lot.

“HERESY!” you say.

Again … the potential customer is ultimately more interested about themselves and what they really want than any celebrity, unless, of course, they have a burning desire to learn more about the personality.

My clients are serious direct marketers. Let’s say I write a promotion and it fails miserably. What would happen if I said to the client, “no worries … I did a great job capturing the voice, though.” The client would fire me and I would not be surprised.

I'm in a marketing group comprising serious direct marketers. We recently had a speaker who essentially said he was more interested in capturing the voice in copy than results. I have to admit I was shaking my head in disbelief.

In the next part of this series, I’ll talk about further adventures in “capturing the voice” and a surprising email I received from an advertising agency in California.

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I'm a direct response copywriter working for clients around the world. Enter your information to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or [contact me here][2] when you have a project you'd like to discuss. I'm also a Dan Kennedy certified copywriter for information products.

Direct Response Copywriter on What it Takes to Succeed

For whatever reason(s) lot of nascent direct response copywriters have contacted me in the last three months asking for career advice.

Here’s the problem: unrealistic expectations.

Clayton Makepeace, currently the #1 copywriter in the world, writes in the beginning of his two-volume copywriting manual, “copywriting is not a get rick quick scheme” … or words to that effect. I totally agree.

Here’s one thing people have to understand in the world of direct response copywriting … a lot of copywriters, and I won’t name names, plus a lot of companies/entities who sell products and services to aspiring copywriters, and again, I won’t name names, tell boldfaced lies about copywriting.

You have to remember this: I’ve been writing copy pretty much my entire professional life so I know the business extremely well. There’s a lot I don’t know, which is why I’m always trying to learn and discover more, but I know more than the people who call or email me asking for advice. I know a lot more than these nascent copywriters.

Writing branding copy is super-easy because it’s not accountable. But writing direct response copy is extremely difficult because it’s accountable plus you have to have a serious grasp of direct response copywriting techniques.

For every 500 people who strive to get into direct response copywriting based on the “six-figure … work on the beach” promise, 499 fail. Why? Because they think it’s a get rich quick scheme where they will be earning well over $100,000 in the next 6 months, just by showing up.

The somewhat tired cliché of the “10,000 hours” applies.

It’s not really all that complicated.

Success in this business requires experience, hard work, graft, persistence, desire, passion, thorough knowledge of the techniques, great clients, plus marketing expertise. Anyone who thinks otherwise has bought into a promise that can’t be kept.

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I'm a direct response copywriter working for clients around the world. Enter your information to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or [contact me here][2] when you have a project you'd like to discuss. I'm also a Dan Kennedy certified copywriter for information products.

Direct Response Copywriter on AIDA. Part 4: Action.

In the last few emails, I talked about the first three parts of AIDA: attention, interest, and desire.

Now it’s time to discuss the “A” … action.

Take a look at advertisements in the branding world and you rarely see any type of call to action. Take a Budweiser ad, for example. You watch the ad then the ad ends. Nobody says to you, "go into your local convenience store or supermarket and buy Budweiser."

But in the world of direct response, action is vital because action is a vital part of ... well ... DIRECT RESPONSE. A response, by definition, requires action.

But there's more to action to the direct response copywriter than simply organizing a "buy now" button or including a phone number.

In physics, we learned "for every action, there is an equal or opposite reaction." Or something like that! It's somewhat the same in direct response copywriting. For every person thinking about taking the action you'd like them to take, there are 10 people who don't want to take the action, even though they might really like the product or service.

Why the non-motivation?

Pretty easy, really.

They have objections. These range from "it's too expensive" to "it's the wrong color" to "I don't know these people."

One of my jobs as a direct response copywriter is to find these objections then address them. Why? So the person on the fence takes the action I'd like them to take.

Here are some other ways to overcome objections.

• The guarantee.
• Two/three different price points.
• Testimonials.
• Different ways to respond, if possible.
• Bonus items.
• A free sample, if there's a soft offer.

I also like to TELL the prospect what to do next. I see a lot of copy that leaves out the "5 steps to take now" and related copy. Everything must be super-clear in copy, especially the steps you want people to take. A lot of companies just assume that people will know what to do next. I never make this assumption.

When I worked in a store seeling outdoor equipment, I was really good at helping people get interested in something. I was even better at moving them to the cash register and buying. I would find their objections, overcome any, and simply say, "are you ready to buy this?"

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I'm a direct response copywriter working for clients around the world. Enter your information to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or [contact me here][2] when you have a project you'd like to discuss. I'm also a Dan Kennedy certified copywriter for information products.