If you are a direct response writer, you can write a radio ad

I contacted a direct response advertising agency a couple of weeks ago. The agency is based in the Los Angeles area. They had a couple of clients who have experienced success with their advertising. However, things change and now, the ads are not getting the results of previous months. Remember, this agency is a direct response agency so they measure everything...excellent lesson there. They asked me to write some "spots" and, even though I had never written a radio ad, I simply used the time-tested fundamentals of direct response copy.

Here's the result. Thank you to Natalie Hale at Media Partners Worldwide for the opportunity.

URC-UNCERTAIN-2650

For my website, www.scottmartinwriting.com, go here.

Who else wants to be popular and sought-after?

On Thursday night, I watched TV. I rarely watch TV but I was somewhat interested in the first round of the NFL Draft. (For those of you who don't follow professional 'American' football, the draft is the event where the professional teams pick college players.) The draft continued on Friday and Saturday. The teams chose the most sought-after players on Thursday then the less sought-after players on Friday and Saturday.

Size, strength, speed, and physical characteristics are obviously important. But, physically, there's often very little difference between a player picked early and a player picked late. One guy is 300 pounds and the other is 310 pounds.

So...what really makes a player highly sought-after or not highly sought-after? Listening to the pundits, the difference is effort. From the pundits...

"This guy has a great motor."

"He's relentless."

"He never takes a play off."

"He's full speed all the time."

In the NFL, having all of the above is the difference between tens of thousands and millions. Literally.

In the latter stages of the draft, here's what I heard...

"Great physical talent but I've got questions about his work ethic."

"Takes plays off..."

"Big but needs to spend more time in the weight room getting stronger. I'm not sure he's proven he wants to do that."

As I move forward with my direct response copywriting and selling my services, I'm going to have to be relentless, full speed, etc. I've been that way to a certain extent but I have to be more relentless, more persistent, and work harder. I know it will pay off.

The NFL is classic 80/20: 20 per cent of the players make 80 per cent of the money. I learned a lot from the NFL draft and it had nothing to do with football.

For my direct response copywriting site, go here. Or visit www.scottmartincopywriting.com.

A marketing mistake

Just when I think I have my marketing somewhat organized, I make a mistake. Marketing is a huge part of my life, especially right now. One part of marketing is pre-qualification...making sure that the people who are interested in what you have are a good fit.

It's a fine line...I want the business but I don't want to waste time with people who don't want to do business in a way I think is realistic.

I met with some people recently who wanted direct response copy and I gave them a quote and they wanted to move forward but when I repeated the price and the terms I was pretty much told to get lost. I wasted about three hours meeting with them and sending a lot of emails back and forth.

My mistake: not pre-qualifying the prospect. This happens all the time but it was still painful--my fault entirely.

Direct Response Verification

The more I get into direct response (and I love it) the more I understand a couple of things.

1. Either you get the power of direct response and believe in it or you don't.

2. People who have been exposed to DR really understand it--because it works.

I was giving a marketing seminar today and was introducing key DR concepts. One of the attendees used to work for a women's clothing store that uses DR marketing exclusively; the attendee told everyone, unsolicited, that DR works and verified everything I was discussing in the seminar. The former assistant store manager basically said, "I can vouch that everything in this seminar works."

That's part of direct response. There are no secrets. You just get on with all the techniques.

For fast DR copy, go to my website, www.scottmartinwriting.com

Are we selling happiness?

Are we selling happiness?

Yesterday morning, I got on one of those dull and anonymous rental car busses—you know, the ones that take you from the airport to the car rental place and back. Usually, the driver is not especially interest in much of anything. On this occasion, the bus driver was energetic, happy, keen to help, and smiling all the time. He was walking happiness.

He reminded me of something that’s vital in all copywriting and it’s a big one on my copywriting checklist.

THE COPY MUST SELL HAPPINESS

Copywriting is salesmanship in words. Yes, people buy goods and services to solve a problem but, in most cases, people buy for emotional reasons backed by logic. Happiness is an emotion…just ask the bus driver.

For direct response copy quickly go to my website, www.scottmartinwriting.com.