Direct response copywriter on the big fat split Infinitive

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the split infinitive. I’m not big on split infinitives so the book cover below stopped me in my tracks. Note the adverb that’s doing the dirty work—IN ITALICS!!!!!

Ouch!

I would have written: “How to Stay Slim the Rest of Your Days” or something similar. But would it have been a best seller with a different title? If I’m the publisher and tests show the split infinitive version will sell more, I’m splitting this big fat infinitive. One of my roles as a direct response copywriter is to ignore my grammatical and syntactical preferences and write copy that will persuade the reader to pull a credit card out of their wallet and BUY!

Oh and Charla…the pressure’s on…you HAVE  to stay thin forever!

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

Direct Response Copywriter Likes and Hates Pricing Strategy

From a pricing standpoint, one of the oldest tricks in the book is asking for a whopping price increase then ‘settling’ for a smaller (but still considerable) increase. The local power company just used this tactic.

If I want electricity in my house, I have to go through Duke Energy unless I spend a small fortune on solar energy and wait 20 years for an ROI. Or I could hook 2,000 hamsters to 2,000 wheels and yell, ‘go!’

So…Duke Energy is a monopoly. Yes…I can cook with gas and even run other stuff off gas but Duke Energy, due to state regulations (and the money they funnel to politicians through 'campaign donations'), gets to have a monopoly when it comes to electricity—with the State of North Carolina having final say over rates.

So this year Duke Energy asked for a 14% rate increase. The company faced howls of protest. So they ‘settled’ for 7% because they ‘care’ about consumers—the same consumers who face declining real income and a stagnant economy...and don't need hikes in power rates.

While I find monopolies abhorrent—especially when they are state sponsored—Duke Energy used a good pricing strategy.

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Helping a Local Establishment

I’m really excited to be helping a local business, Sir Edmond Halley’s, with some marketing. We’re starting with some email marketing and we set up a birthday club to get some opt in emails. Yes…free dinner on your birthday from Sir Ed’s. GO HERE NOW!

We’ll be pounding away with direct marketing and some direct response copywriting.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

A Lesson in Branding from a Direct Response Copywriter

A couple of final thoughts from the Glazer Kennedy Info-summit a couple of weeks ago in Atlanta.

Dan Kennedy spoke for a total of eight hours. He spent five minutes talking about branding. In the other 475 minutes, Kennedy gave a clinic in the precise execution of direct response tactics—and it was a thing of great beauty.

It was wonderful to be in the company of so many direct response people. These are my favorite type of (business) people; these are the people who understand the value of direct response copywriting and they are some of THE most successful entrepreneurs on the planet. There were marketers in that room at the elegant Sheraton Atlanta who generate millions in revenue with very few employees.

These entrepreneurs spend time working on positioning but rarely spend time working on branding. A good lesson there...

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

Direct Response Copywriter at Dan Kennedy Info Summit Day 2

Last night, Dan Kennedy spoke about information marketing. All the speakers so far have been accomplished and polished. But Dan Kennedy was clearly a notch above all of them. His delivery is droll yet entertaining and the content was superb. He kept a room of about 500 people engaged for well over two hours and we had started at 8 a.m.; the evening session was from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and everyone was quiet and entertained right until 9:30.

Kennedy is punctual, starting right at 7:00 and finishing on the dot at 9:30.

He detailed how he sells information. It’s a complex model and he uses the type of sales analytics that a Fortune 100 company uses. It’s a science and if you want to compete against that type of operation, you should start by being able to analyze precisely how much a customer will buy after the 7^th month of being a member of the Platinum Inner Circle. Yes--it's that detailed. It's a serious operation.

The speakers today were excellent and I particularly liked Ed Bush’s business model helping lawyers get leads. If they leave him, the flow of qualfied leads comes to a grinding halt. John Limbocker was impressive; he’s an SEO guru. He gave us a quick primer about SEO.

Here's a superb way to get a reader interested in a product. Perry Marshall's facebook test.

I’m looking forward to hearing more from Dan Kennedy tonight. These are long days that require quite a bit of stamina—even though I’m sitting down the entire time.

Spotted this graffiti on the way back from lunch.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

Direct Response Copywriter at Dan Kennedy Info Summit Day 1

At the dinner break at the first day of the Dan Kennedy Info-Marketing Summit here in Atlanta.

Some thoughts (there's another session coming up--it's all day, four days in a row).

Dan Kennedy opened the summit with a short presentation. He said, “you’re here to shop.” And there’s plenty of shopping. In fact, the “Back of the Room” operation is a store.

The summit is a little bit of a 'pitch fest' but some of the speakers were informational. Internet marketer Andy Jenkins was impressive as he detailed how he pitches his products at launch.

I wish speakers would mind their language—there’s no need to use even mildly offensive words. Why risk offending anyone?

I’m coming up with a lot of good ideas from simply being away from my computer.

The highlight of the day was listening to the former editor of The National Enquirer, Iain Calder, originally from Scotland. He did pretty much whatever it legally took to get the stories first. They sold 6.5 million copies of their Elvis issue (when The King died). The issue cost 35 cents. While I don’t want to sell scandalous information, I admire the approach to content. Their content sold publications at the newsstand. They paid a ton to find and keep the top writers. Lesson there...

Great to see Will Swayne who is here all the way from Brisbane, Australia.

Thanks to the staff at the Hilton Downtown Atlanta for their flexibility for a loyal Hilton guest. Superb hotel.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.