Direct Response Copywriter on High-Converting Emails. Part 4. Headlines in Emails?

I get a lot of emails every day. I’m sure you’re in the same boat. Some are business-related, like emails from clients. Others are marketing emails trying to motivate me to buy something. Sadly, I also get a ton of spam, even from legitimate companies … or companies that pose as legitimate.

If you’re writing an email and the subject line motivated someone to open your email, that’s bit step. However, the work has just begun. Now you have to motivate the reader to keep reading. And that’s where I see a lot of direct response copywriters fail.

What’s going on?

They forget to include a headline in the email. I see tons of emails without a headline. That’s a mistake.

The headline must complement and augment the subject line. It must draw the reader into the body of the email. And then I recommend a number of subheads in the body of the email. A subhead is the same as a headline, essentially. The subheads let scanners know what's happening and what's in it for them.

Some emails are long. Some are short. But every email should include a headline plus some subheads.

Next time you're looking at emails, see which ones have a strong headline.

Direct Response Copywriter on the Important Difference Between Persuasion and Motivation.

I bought and read a book recently titled “The Art of Persuasion.” How could I, as a direct response copywriter, NOT buy a book with that title? The author, Trish Hall, is a writer and editor and used to edit the Op-Ed pages at The New York Times. A big position in the world of American journalism.

You can see the full review of the book here.

I didn’t have high hopes for the book for two reasons.

First, people who edit Op-Ed pages have zero accountability. Ditto the people who anonymously write the editorials. More on this later.

Second, there’s a significant but subtle difference between persuasion and motivation. Persuasion is trying to get someone to change their mind. It’s trying to turn a liberal into a conservative and vice versa. It’s really, really hard. Persuasion is going up to someone in the Sahara and saying, “how about a really nice sun lamp?”

Motivation is different. It’s going up to that same person in the Sahara and saying, “how about a gallon of really cold water?”

Motivation is connecting the needs and desires of potential customers to the benefits of a product or service. I write a lot of golf copy and golfers want more distance. So … when I sell a product that promises … more distance … the result is usually pretty good. But let’s say I go up to someone who hates golf and try to sell them a golf club. It’s going to end in tears. No direct response copywriter can do that.

Motivation, in Op-Ed terms, is writing a piece about a liberal cause to the readers of The New York Times. The readers of said organ have a liberal bent. They want liberal articles to back up their views.

As a direct response copywriter, it’s VITAL you understand the difference between persuasion and motivation.

It’s not a huge surprise the book by Ms. Hall was not relevant to my work as a direct response copywriter.

I used to work for ‘big newspaper.’ It was a newspaper in the top 30 in the U.S. based on circulation. I was on the business side.

The people who organized the op-ed pages and wrote the editorial pages were, to be polite, very odd. My boss left my division to write editorials. He once confided: “It’s not very difficult … we write something then have some martinis for lunch then go home.” And that’s from someone who won a Pulitzer Prize.

I remember the guy who was in charge of the editorial board. I told him I disagreed with an editorial and he pompously replied, “you can.” The editorials were slanted one way but represented the newspaper. Thus the views of the editorial board became my views. Not exactly fair … from a group of people who were supposedly all about fairness. The newspaper would endorse candidates in elections. Why?

The guy in charge once wrote in one of his op-ed pieces, “I was a good writer.” Until that point, I hadn’t realized. How nice of him to let me know. He published a book of his editorials. Have you seen it on the best-seller lists? No? I haven’t either.

I always wondered why newspapers published editorials. “Because the newspaper has to stand for something,” was always the answer. “Then why not stand for impartiality, reporting the news, and not being biased?” was my answer.

My newspaper and publishing days are behind me now, thankfully. Here’s the problem with editorial writers and those of that ilk. It’s all theory. They never actually have to sell anything. There’s no accountability. They win awards given by other editorial writers. Eventually, everyone wins something and is an ‘award-winning journalist’ or whatever.

Newspapers have declined in almost every market in the United States. They’ve sold their buildings. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs. The people who owned the newspapers could have owned all the big Internet sites and be minting it now but they believed nothing would happen to them and then were late to the party.

The publisher at the newspaper where I worked was one of the more vapid people I’ve met. His brother was more interested in his corporate jet than dealing with the digital age. For every dollar those guys were making in the early 90s, they’re now making ten cents.

But I digress.

If you want to be a successful direct response copywriter and/or direct marketer, you have to understand the difference between persuasion and motivation.

And if you’re a Trish Hall, then pay close attention to direct response copywriting and direct marketing. We know what works when it comes to motivation. We have the results to prove it.

Direct Response Copywriter on the Right Type of Advice

Last week, I attended a conference in New York City. Digital Marketer marketed and organized the event. They organize quite a few events including the well-known and well-attended Traffic and Conversion Summit. They also sell marketing advice and related items. I’ve actually worked for them in the past.

The event in Manhattan was primarily for the people who own and run digital agencies.

“What’s a digital agency?” you might be asking.

It’s sort of like an advertising agency but it’s primarily focused on PPC, SEO, lead-generation, email, social media, and the like. Perhaps some of these agencies provide other services.

I attended because I knew there would be plenty of people and organizations looking for copywriters. I’ve been to conferences for direct response copywriters and I’ve enjoyed them … and learned from them … but there are lots of copywriters there and not many people looking for copywriters.

Ryan Deiss, one of the founders of Digital Marketer, spoke twice at the event. In both speeches, he helped my cause, and the cause of all professional copywriters, by talking, at length, about the vital importance of copy when it comes to marketing and agency success. Ryan even pointed the amassed to several books about copy including Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples.

You can see a review of Tested Advertising Methods and other direct marketing books here.

On one hand, it’s surprising that someone has to tell a bunch of marketers about the importance of copy. But, on the other hand, I’m not especially surprised: it’s rare in the advertising and marketing world for agency types to take copy seriously.

Why the latter?

There are lots of reasons. There are some people in the field who don’t know much about advertising. Shocking but true. There are lots of people who think “branding” is the answer and that’s a huge mistake ... they don't even know what a direct response copywriter does. Very few people in advertising truly understand direct marketing because it’s not taught in business schools … or anywhere. You have to learn about direct response and direct response copywriting on your own. This takes a special type of dedication. And many agency owners don’t want to be accountable and so they pursue the branding path.

The agency owners at the conference had one thing in common: the desire to improve and succeed. All good. There was a serious commitment to attending this conference. Hopefully, they listened to Ryan Deiss and have already ordered the books he recommended. Direct response copywriting is not the "latest greatest sexiest" thing in marketing but it can still produce massive revenue.

Direct Response Copywriter on Writing Copy Quickly

"Speed is a strategy," says one of my mentors in direct response copywriting, Andrew Wood. The concept also comes from one of the world’s most accomplished copywriters, Clayton Makepeace.

Andrew and Clayton write copy quickly. I strive to write copy quickly and I might be faster than the aforementioned. In a copywriting race, it would be close.

Some copywriters like to write between three and five major direct mail promotions a year. These might be upwards of 50 pages. It will take a month to research the project. A month to provide a draft. A month to go through revisions. A month to work on the design with the graphic designer. Then a couple of weeks for final changes.

I’m not one of those copywriters, unless I find a client who is paying me a decent sum up front for that promotion … with the probability of royalties on the back end. This can happen.

However, most of my clients typically want to move much faster. The faster they get their products and services to market, the faster they generate cash. They’re not looking for copywriting perfection. They want copy that will create a positive response and they want it quickly.

One of my clients will contact me on Wednesday. They will need about 4,000 words of copy for a product by the following Monday. I’ll get them the copy and the promotion will be up and running in 10 days. That’s called SPEED. It’s easier to move faster on the web. But you can be almost as fast with direct mail.

Some companies like to take their time and take months before sending copy live, either online or offline. Others like to move extremely quickly. I’m happy working in either environment.

I’ve always written quickly. Back in high school, and even earlier, I was always under some degree of pressure to write a lot in a short space of time. This happened every day with homework. Then it happened during exams where I’d have three hours to write four long essays. I also wrote for the school newspaper, regularly writing long pieces in a couple of hours. Earlier in my career, I’d produce a 100-page quarterly magazine without any freelancers. I’d write the ads and write all the articles plus sell advertising and manage the entire publishing cycle.

Speed is great for my clients. I can turn work around quickly so they generate revenue faster. But it’s also good for the writer because it means more opportunities.

Where can you speed things up when it comes to marketing? Speed is a mindset. I eat slowly. I usually ski relatively slowly and in control. But I can produce copy quickly. I've worked to become a fast professional copywriter.