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.

Are you persistent?

Several years ago, I wrote a book with Jim McLean, the golf teacher and founder of the most successful chain of golf schools in the world. I'm working on a digital version of that book...more on that later.

One of Jim's mentors, and we talk about this in the book, said:

I NEVER SAW A PERSISTENT MAN FAIL

Let's make this positive...because I'm a copywriter and I'm always trying to sell happiness.

PERSISTENT PEOPLE ARE MORE LIKELY TO SUCCEED

There's a company in Charlotte that I'd like to do business with. After two emails and about seven phone calls I got the appointment and met with the decision maker today. This person said, "you're persistent."

Music to my ears.

When you need direct response quickly, visit my web site here.

www.scottmartinwriting.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.

This ad was not a snore

The merchants of direct response are increasingly active in the local newspaper. There was a great DR ad in the sports section today with the headline...

Are You Snoring Yourself to Death?

Of course, it looked just like a regular article. There was a photo of a woman next to a man who must have been snoring; the woman had her pillow around her ears. There was a ton of copy--written just like a newspaper article. I can't show you the ad but I went to the website for the product (out of sheer DR curiosity, of course) and, the site is all DR. It's a thing of beauty.

Actually, it's not that great looking a site but the ad and the site have everything.

Video

Testimonials

Lots of copy

Call to action

Clear benefits

A solution to a problem

A clear USP

Guarantee

Two different ways to order

And so on...

So, from my DR perspective, their marketing is not a snore at all and I'm sure they are selling a lot of a product that looks like it costs about $2 to make but sells for $89.97 (plus shipping and handling).

My guess is that an "A" list copywriter wrote all this.