Direct Response Copywriter on Results

I've been working with a local restaurant to help them boost their business. The owners are friends and I'm planning strategy and executing the tactics. It's not really what I do. I'm a direct response copywriter and, as such, I'm usually just the writer but I like the restaurant and I like the owners and staff so it's fun to run a campaign.

Six months ago, they had no opt in email database. In fact, no database at all. To build the database, I used the oldest trick in the book: something free on your birthday. For the restaurant, you get a free dinner and dessert on or near your birthday.

In six months, the restaurant has 1,421 opt in emails and people are taking advantage of the irresistible offer. Here are the benefits to this small restaurant in a hard-to-find location that needs a steady flow of business:

• Friends tell friends. Viral marketing.
• Friends bring friends to their free birthday dinner. This means a steady flow of people who are discovering, or rediscovering, the restaurant. The 'newbies' join the database to get their free dinner.
• At least four parties--with more than 10 people--a week.
• Increased sales of 'refreshing' beverages. High margin business.
• The ability to promote specials and events to the database. It's an excellent and inexpensive way to keep the name of the restaurant in front of people.
• Very soon, they'll be able to start selling gift certificates. Gift cards really help a restaurant increase revenue.

The manager regularly has a wad of receipts from people who are taking advantage of the free birthday dinner. Most restaurants use 'branding' advertising; these restaurants waste money on advertising in magazines and mindless coupons.

I'm using some simple direct response techniques. Direct response copywriting is part of the equation. While the emails we send to the database are fun, they also request a specific action. Here's an example of an email. If you live in Charlotte, here's the opt in form so you can get your free dinner.

Open rates for the emails are 31%. The average on the email provider we use is 15%.

It's really exciting to help this wonderful business and to see the delight on the face of the owners. They are seeing actual results from the investment in the promotion and in my services.

Whatever the size of your business, use direct response marketing techniques.

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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. I increasingly specialize in sales pages and landing pages. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

Direct Response Copywriter Meets the Next Generation of Direct Marketers

I read a lot about direct response marketing and direct response copywriting. Most of the authors of the ‘must reads’ are reaching retirement age. One book was originally published in the early 1990s and there’s a somewhat tentative chapter about the Internet in the tome.

Back then, the Internet must have terrified the lions of direct response which, back then, was predominantly direct mail.

But here’s an extremely prescient excerpt from the book. (Written in the 1990s).

“The Internet has stormed into the marketing consciousness of uncounted companies…someday in the future, once a secure payment system has been embedded in the Internet, it will become the interactive medium envisioned by its current proponents. However, until it is better organized, with some controls in place, it is unlikely to blaze new trails in sales. When that time does come, as it is sure to do, concern is going to centralize on the ‘reach’ of the new medium. That alone makes it the most interesting medium to come along in decades for direct marketing practioners.”

And then the chapter concludes with:

“The Internet is going to be a major player in the future.”

That's prescience.

A number of people in their 20s and early 30s are quietly making a big splash in marketing—using the Internet alone. Remember—these people are late to the party: when the Internet got hot, they were in diapers or worrying about acne.

It’s tempting to think of these ‘bright young things’ as being the ones who are changing everything. Yes—they’re using a different medium but the ones I know who are really successful understand direct response and pay extremely close attention to the big names of direct marketing…those lions of direct response who are now grey and getting senior discounts at Wendy’s.

The ‘youngsters’ are especially interested in testing and response metrics…just like the old guard of direct response. Their testing shows that using direct marketing is the most effective way to market on the Internet. No real shock to me.

Many ‘new’ marketers succumb to the temptations of branding advertising—which, because it can’t be measured, is essentially dead. Some youngsters are trying to persuade everyone that social media is going to change everything but statistics prove that social media provides a tepid response—at best. GM pulled all their advertising recently from Facebook.

For what it’s worth, I believe these ‘bright young things’ are going to discover something astonishing in the next couple of years…this amazing direct marketing tool called direct mail. They’re going to try it—and they’re going to execute the techniques flawlessly—and discover that ROI is higher than their beloved Internet with a cost per customer acquisition that’s lower than the Internet. The cost of traffic on the Internet is moving upwards...rapidly.

It’s interesting being a direct response copywriter now. The youngsters who understand the Internet much better than I ever will are thankfully intelligent enough to know that direct response techniques still rock.

P.S. The book I mention is Denny Hatch’s classic: 2,239 Tested Secrets for Direct Marketing Success.

Direct Response Copywriter Provides Tips from Top Copywriters: Clayton Makepeace.

The importance of perception.

What’s the difference between a salesman who struggles and one who makes the sale every time? Does the client perceive the sale as fair or unfair? A successful salesman has clients who believe they are working with a professional who cares about the product and backs the sale. Clients can sense a salesman who has a vested interest in repeat business and ensures client satisfaction.

Clayton Makepeace is a resourceful salesman: he gives the impression on his website he cares about his clients by investing in his own time in helping his clients. The relationship starts with ‘freebies’ and ‘bonuses.’ He begins his relationship with his clients (and colleagues) by sharing and giving.

The Makepeace website is organized, accessible, and even academic:

1)    Archives. You can search his website for information and track how the business has changed.

2)    A Direct Response Glossary: Almost every term and explaining countless words associated with copywriting.

3)    Interviews with Six Top Copywriters: We learn what Makepeace feels is important to conduct a successful copywriting business.

4)    A Recommended Reading List. Resources to help answer many of the questions writers and clients have about the copywriting industry, advertising, marketing, and sales.

5)    Recommended Links: To help your writing and your business.

6)    Testimonials and Reader Responses: Learn from the work others have done and see what they are saying about Makepeace!

Makepeace helps his clients educate themselves and ‘do their homework’ using the tools he provides. Overloading your site with complicated flashing messages and images or weighing it down with thick, textbook like passages that a reader will never read is counterproductive. Harsh fonts and colors make the viewer anxious and look unprofessional. A website that’s a valuable resource means better business. The goal: make your website so approachable and well-stocked with useful information that people instantly bookmark it!

http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/

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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. I increasingly specialize in sales pages and landing pages. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

Direct Response Copywriter on The Google Penguin Update

I’m not an SEO expert. I’m a direct response copywriter and content creator so SEO is best left to people who don’t have the intellectual ability to produce money-sucking copy(!). So I don’t spend vast amounts of time worrying about search engine algorithms.

Google just made a big change to their algorithm through its Penguin Update.

The search engines wage a constant war with ‘black hat’ SEO practitioners. The search engines want to maintain the quality of their search results. The so-called ‘black hat bad guys’ want to use dodgy tactics to rig the search results.

There’s nothing illegal about the tactics of the bad guys. Companies like Google call them bad guys because Google sets the rules. But I don’t want to get into the whole ‘white hat’ and ‘black hat’ thing.

If you know nothing about SEO, the Penguin Update especially penalizes SEO practitioners who essentially produce nonsensical website content—content ‘written’ to improve SEO results; the content is often directly plagiarized from other sites.

Here’s an article from The Wall Street Journal explaining the impact.

From the remedies the article suggests…

1. Content is king. Make sure your website has original and accurate information. Google places the greatest value on sites providing the best possible user experience.
2. Use social media. Post links to content on your site from Twitter, Facebook and other social-media profiles. Your fans may repost the information.
3. Spread your wings. Don't rely just on Google. Look for other ways to attract people to your website, such as by running special promotions or buying ads.

If you rely on ‘black hat’ SEO techniques, Google is going to penalize you. You’re better off spending money on content and copywriting. Content to keep your visitors engaged and coming back to your website and social media outlets. Copywriting to persuade people to visit your website for the first time. And copywriting will also persuade people to take the next step in the sales process once they're on your site.

The Wall Street Journal says it best…

Make sure your website has original and accurate information. Google places the greatest value on sites providing the best possible user experience.

Again—I’m not an SEO expert but I believe EVERY search engine expert will tell you to pay close attention to superb and fresh content. Content will ALWAYS help your search engine results...and keep your prospects and customers engaged.

Remember Conversion

I’ve been working with an excellent SEO company. They get superb ‘white hat’ results for their clients. But there’s a problem. The companies they help aren’t getting results—phone calls, emails, opt-ins, etc.

That’s where conversion comes in…turning the visitors into buyers. If you want to do this, I’ve got the following advice.

1. Use proven conversion techniques for landing pages. DON’T reinvent the wheel.
2. Hire a direct response copywriter and use direct response copywriting techniques. We spend all day every day persuading people to BUY.

Again—I’m not an SEO expert. I’m much more important! But seriously…when you focus on content and proven conversion techniques, your digital marketing will thrive. Just make sure you hire top-quality talent.

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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. I increasingly specialize in sales pages and landing pages. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

Direct Response Copywriter Provides Tips from Top Copywriters: Richard Armstrong.

Richard Armstrong:

Direct Response copywriter Richard Armstrong teaches that one man’s junk mail is another man’s multi-million dollar business. His free eBook My First 40 Years in Junk Mail is a virtual text he provides as an introduction to his work. This eBook is a sales pitch for his business. He presents the book to anyone who visits his website as a ‘welcoming’ gift. This gift matches the tone of his website very well as his copy addresses web-surfers as “Friend” and converses with readers as if they have known him for years. In his eBook, Armstrong suggests his ‘junk mail’ line of work is entirely humble and without frills, yet lucrative to those who will take it seriously. We also learn from his writing how important it is to have a business plan, even if you are creating and marketing ‘junk.’

Armstrong demonstrates how vital to success it is for a copywriter to have go-to ‘do’ and ‘don’t’ lists which serve as practical mini-business plans.

Armstrong lets his clients know what he wants, and what he doesn’t want. Summarizing from his website www.freesamplebook.com, he wants client projects that:

Pay large amounts of money.
Are new.
Mail out on a larger scale.

What this means is that he likes challenging new work that pays a lot of money and reaches tons of people. This is great advice.
Armstrong claims scenarios that do not interest him are:

Last minute, hurried work.
Clients who do not know what they are doing.
Clients who scam.

Armstrong reminds us that what is best for your client’s business is often best for yours as well. Rushing is unprofessional, even if it pays more; it is better to have clients who know what they need to make their business succeed.

Any copywriter will do well to establish a firm business plan with established ideas like these ‘do and don’t’ lists. It is important to know what you expect and want so that you can clearly relate those ideas to your clients.

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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. I increasingly specialize in sales pages and landing pages. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.