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.

A Superb Benefit Headline

Like so many products today, car rental is pretty much a commodity. Sites like Orbitz have made shopping for a rental car an exercise in picking the best price. Yes--there are tie-ins and frequent user programs but it's all pretty much the same. You get to the car rental place. You're treated very well. You get into a car with a no-smoking sticker but the car smells like the last person who rented it had a three-pack-a-day habit. I had a certificate for Budget and I have a Budget card and so I went to the Budget site for a recent car rental and the first words I saw were:

Rent a car in just 60 seconds.

See it here.

There are some other clear benefit headlines on the home page.

Thank You to Andrew Wood for the Testimonial

One of my clients is Legendary Marketing, the top golf, resort, and destination advertising agency on the planet. I love working with Legendary because it's all about direct response. And the turnaround has to be FAST.

Andrew Wood started the company and he's a remarkable entrepreneur. He's also a tremendous DR copywriter and marketing expert. (Maybe there's a connection there...) Take a look at his new Cunningly Clever Marketing site. His blog is one the best--especially if you like DR. And what works in golf marketing works for everything else provided you follow the absolute laws of direct response. Be warned when it comes to the blog; Andrew tells it like it is...which I like.

Andrew is selective when it comes to copywriters and I'm really delighted to be one of the freelancers he contracts. I was even more delighted when he left this recommendation on my LinkedIn page.

"Unlike most copywriters Scott has a great understanding of direct response copy. The kind that actually makes you money instead of merely filling the page with prose! That's why we use him again and again."

Cheers, Andrew.

Andrew Wood, founder of Legendary Marketing. Thank you for the recommendation, Andrew.

Invasion of the Direct Response Advertisers...and Copywriters

One of my first copywriting jobs was in the advertising department of a department store chain. My boss was a chain smoking wafer thin woman who was 54 trying to be 23. Yes--in this department, you could smoke and I was one of the few people who did not. I used to write the copy for these "double truck" ads that would take up two pages in the newspaper. I would write about four lines of copy for each item and there were usually about 20 household items. Yes--I wrote about the many benefits of a coffee maker. Good training, actually.

Those department store ads in newspapers have gone the way of smoking in the workplace. So, who is advertising in the newspaper these days? Yes, there are some local businesses and a few big brands like Verizon. But guess who started popping up in my newspaper? Direct response advertisers, selling anything from Amish-made space heaters to miracle arthritis cures.

The copy in these ads is mostly very good. DR media buyers are usually excellent at getting media space extremely cheaply. I haven't seen many DR ads recently so I wonder if the DR ads are getting enough pull to justify the cost of the placement. From a DR standpoint, newspaper placement makes sense because of the older demographic; the ads look 90 per cent like an article and yes, they have to put the word "advertisement" at the top of the page but any DR ad that looks like an article is more likely to maximize response.

I think the invasion will likely continue.

Open your paper and you'll find that DR advertisers have invaded...