Direct Response Copywriter Details Marketing Lessons from the Royal Wedding

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ROYAL WEDDING MARKETING LESSONS...from but a lowly direct response copywriter...

1. SPEED

2. EVENTS CREATE OPPORTUNITIES

3. CONTENT IS KING...THE KING IS CONTENT

4. BUILD AROUND EVENTS

5. BUILD ANTICIPATION

5a. PUBLICIZE

At age 15, in 1981, my parents let me go down to Fleet Street in central London the night before Diana and Charles got married. I went with Danny Milan and we spent the night in sleeping bags along with seven punk rockers--with nose rings, purple hair, and poor personal hygiene. It was great fun, though, and I was in the front row along the route.

There's another big wedding coming up on Friday (I've heard) and while I can't think of any copywriting lessons, there are PLENTY of marketing lessons.

Speed. 60 minutes after the royal couple leaves Westminster Abbey, a company will have an MP3 of the entire service ready for download. The CD will be ready in stores in three days. "Speed is a strategy" as Andrew Wood says. Get to market quickly. Make decisions. Act. BE FIRST.

Events create opportunities. Use them. Write an email about the Royal Wedding and the marketing angles. A store I've worked with that sells home "stuff" has been going bonkers with the wedding.

CONTENT IS KING...In this case, the content IS the king or someone who might be king one day. Is YOUR content Royal Wedding brilliant?

Merchandise around events. The Royal Wedding has been a massive bonus for companies that make and sell everything from plates to beach towels. I still own a copy of NOT THE ROYAL WEDDING...a book/spoof from a popular comedy show, Not the Nine O'Clock News.

Build anticipation. The Royal Wedding has been a big event since the announcement of the engagement last year. Start promoting your "big event" weeks before the event--and promote it frequently.

Publicize like crazy. Even the most ardent royal hater in the UK will have to admit that 1 billion eyeballs on central London is pretty good publicity for the tourism business. In fact, the Royal Wedding will be on YouTube. It's easier than ever to publicize your events: take photos and post them to your Facebook page. Shoot video. Blog. PR is no longer about the local newspaper and TV stations--it's your website, your blog, your Facebook page. And TV stations and newspapers look for all this "stuff" when they're scratching around for stories.

The most important marketing lesson from this Royal Wedding is speed. Update your website quickly. Get your Facebook page updated FAST. Move. Make decisions. Eliminate decision making by committee.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte NC. My full website is here.

 

Direct Response Copywriter Learns from Teenagers

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Teenagers are an interesting group. Vivacious. Moody. Unpredictable. Trying to be old. But still so young. I want to tell them...in 20 years, you'll want to be young again. Enjoy being young!

I hang out in a coffee shop and there are plenty of teenagers, especially later in the afternoon on weekdays; there's a high school with over 3,000 students less than a mile away.

Teenagers LOVE to tell other teenagers how brilliant they are. "I came first in this...I got this new pair of shoes...my new boyfriend is...my new girlfriend is..."

Of course, we all love to boast. In fact, I often come across websites that are one big boast.

Several years ago, a magazine here in Charlotte called "Charlotte's Best" would let advertisers call themselves...Charlotte's Best...So Bob's Taxidermy would tell everyone, "We're Charlotte's Best Taxidermist."

Don't you hate it when the person next to you in the coffee shop spends 30 minutes telling you how brilliant they are? It makes me want to bang my head against the wall.

I recently received an email newsletter from a local company. Look at it now.

It's one big boast and fails to answer THE question the prospect is asking, "What's in it for me?"

I'm just as guilty as anyone when it comes to this...I'm about to re-do my website and while my current direct response copywriting site is not replete with boasting, I'm going to be careful on the new one to make sure every word is directed to ensuring I'm addressing the needs of my prospects.

Yes--a track record is important. And testimonials are vital too. But it's much more important to find out what really matters to the prospect--and tell them how your product or service applies to what really matters or solves their problem.

For example...I'm going to ask those teenagers, "would you like a product that will make you look 10 years older?" Or perhaps I will tell them, "I'm Charlotte's best."

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I'm a direct response copywriter. My full website is here.

Click here for a free direct response 'PREFLIGHT' checklist.

Copywriter Embraces Positivity...and Hemingway

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One of my copywriting "issues" is being too negative--letting the reader stew in their own juices a little too long. It's important to express some sympathy and understanding but if the reader is suffering from heel pain, there's no need to remind the reader about how much their feet hurt for 500 words. Get to the positivity...the solutions...the happiness.

As a direct response copywriter, I use a direct response copywriting checklist. One of the items on the list...SELL HAPPINESS. Get that heel pain sufferer to imagine life without heel pain...bounding down the road, able to run marathons and standing up for long periods at parties...or hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.

When I'm writing, I take a look at a paragraph I've just written and instantly turn any negative sentences and phrases into positives.

So...

You will no longer suffer from heel pain...

Becomes...

Wear the Acme "Easy Night" Boot for just 14 nights and you will soon walk easily...even hike up a Colorado mountain.

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On Brevity

I have to admit a weakness for long, involved sentences, like the ones you will typically read in novels by Martin Amis, Charlotte Bronte, Tom Wolfe, Dickens, and other writers with a passion for over-expression and literary gluttony, as exemplified most commonly in, perhaps, mid-Victorian novels but also present more recently in writing by students at American Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs where "has been" and "never were" writers who are themselves extremely mediocre, instruct "would be" writers how to write fiction that will likely never be published by one of the "big six" publishing houses but will end up, like their teachers' writings, in the so-called slush pile, which is a stack, sometimes moving, sometimes not, of manuscripts that mostly novice writers have sent to agents and publishers in the hope their work, often replete with long, involved sentences (with an abundance of semi-colons) will help them earn a significant advance and get them in the literary 'game.'

OK...you won't read anything like THAT in ANY of my direct response copy but I find myself with a tendency to write long sentences. The cure: Hemingway.

From...The Sun Also Rises.

There was a light in the concierge's room and I knocked on the door and she gave me my mail. I wished her good night and went up-stairs. There were two letters and some papers.

Simple. Efficient. And a touch of tension...what was in the letters and papers?

I'm striving to write simple and efficient copy without making it anorexic or overly taut. Just like a simple conversation.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. My website is here.

Personality in Copywriting

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One of the reasons big companies spend millions, even billions, on branding advertising is to give their product a personality--to differentiate their widget from all the others. Some companies even use fictitious "personalities" to give a bland product some life. Uncle Ben's. Betty Crocker. Mr. Clean. The Jolly Green Giant.

And many companies hire celebrities...again, to give the product some life. Arnold Palmer recommends you get your clothes cleaned at Arnold Palmer Dry Cleaners. And yes--there was a chain of Arnold Palmer Dry Cleaners.

If you haven't got a celebrity, or you haven't got a billion dollar budget, you can still get some personality into your marketing, specifically your website.

The copy on the site should be a conversation between the person behind the product and the buyer. This means extensive use of the pronoun "you."

"We're great" becomes "You're going to look and feel a lot younger." I always like writing copy when the sales pitch comes directly from the owner of the company or the inventor of the product. It's a LOT more powerful.

Think about the last time someone came into your home to sell gutters or something similar. If the person was dull, you were less likely to buy. If the person was an extrovert and a character--plus had a great product--then you were more likely to pay attention.

So please, someone, explain to me why so many websites are dull and lacking in character/personality.

Bring your site to life with video, a photo gallery, and testimonials from satisfied customers. Include a Frequently Asked Questions page. Get someone with an effusive character at your company to write a blog. Make their love of life shine through.

There's no need to be obnoxious or silly. Although if that's your character--have at it. Just avoid the typical "cookie cutter" corporate-style copy and content that makes so many websites a total yawn. Get people fired up about your product--give it some PERSONALITY.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. My website is here.

Copywriter finds key to successful marketing/sales

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I've worked in copywriting, niche publishing, content, communications (whatever that is!), and the like for more years that I care to admit (22). And I suppose that makes me a bit of a nomad or, even worse, the dreaded "multi-dabbling freelancer."

So this time last year I finally chose to stop dabbling and start specializing. Niche print publishing is OVER and so that was easy. I never really enjoyed the business anyway. I had been writing direct response copy for several years and always enjoyed it so I simply chose to specialize in the "buy now" and "your satisfaction is..." even though it's more complicated that a few "reliable" phrases. I know other writers and certainly the branding copywriters look down their nose at the direct response copywriter but I don't really care. I love writing pedal-to-the-metal direct response copy. Three reasons.

  1. It's measurable. No place to hide. You get the results or you don't. My brothers and sisters in the world of branding copywriting flee from this type of accountability. It's not about "image" it's about RESPONSE.
  2. It helps businesses succeed--and that's hugely excited.
  3. I enjoy the challenge of discovering what's going to persuade the reader to take the next step in the sales process.

Because I'm a freelancer, I'm constantly marketing. And if you're a freelancer and you're NOT marketing, give up freelancing.

I've discovered that passion is the most powerful sales weapon. Yet you'll rarely read about passion in sales and marketing books. My passion for direct response copywriting comes through when I speak with prospects and it separates me from other copywriters.

So I'm always striving to create passion when I write copy and convey the client's passion to their potential customers. As I reorganize my website, my #1 goal is to convey my passion in all my content (blogs, copy, podcasts, video, etc.)

Yes--people buy because I provide a solution to a problem, specifically low conversion. But people also buy for emotional reasons backed by logic.

"This guy is seriously into direct response copywriting and the enthusiasm is infectious; but he also gets results."

Here's some content from people I know who are seriously passionate.

 

 

Get some passion into your marketing and get routinely superb results.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, NC. My current website is here. My clients measure results. They keep hiring me.