Direct Response Copywriter on How Readers Actually Read Copy

I just read a couple of long-form pieces of direct response copywriting. And these were LONG…

One was 30,000 words; the other was 12,000 words. That’s 42,000 words and the literary world has produced shorter novels.

Reading these two behemoths reminded me of how potential buyers look at sales pages and how copy should be organized.

For both pieces, written by top copywriters, I looked at the headline, the deck, and the lead, and looked for how much the products cost.

Once I had a sense of the price, sorry…investment…I started to read the copy. The first time around, I looked mostly at the subheads. Then, because I was extremely interested in the products, I read every word of the copy. It took a while!

I was looking for two things:

1. What I was going to get.
2. If the listed features and benefits were going to solve my problem and produce an ROI.

I was also interested in the guarantee in case the products turned out to be poor.

So…here’s what we can we discover from this experience.

1. The headline and deck must quickly and clearly spell out the clear benefit and the product. It’s not a time to be clever. It’s a time to be straightforward, lucid, and clear.
2. If people are genuinely interested in the product or service, they will instantly look for the price. If the price is high, then having a “three easy payments of” option is important. There must be TONS of copy to justify an expensive purchase.
3. Pay close attention to the subheads. These should be every bit as strong as the strongest headlines.
4. It’s unlikely that someone will sit down and read every word of long-form copy right away. But, to justify an expensive purchase, they will read every word—especially when it comes to key features and benefits…plus the full description of what you get.

It’s sort of like car buying. Some people will buy a car because they like the color or the stereo. Others will buy because of the engine’s torque and/or efficiency. Others will buy because of the payments. Others want to know everything they can discover. The advertising for the car has to provide information for every type of buyer.

Strong long-form copy written by a long-form copywriter will satiate every type of potential buyer.

And yes—I bought the two products…persuaded by the long-form copy written by a top direct response copywriter.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I specialize in providing content and copy for the direct marketing environment for clients around the planet. I specialize in sales page copy, landing page copy and copy that persuades readers to pull out their credit card and buy. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here if you have a project you'd like me to quote.

Direct Response Copywriter on Content

If you’re in marketing and/or direct response copywriting, you’ve heard it a bazillion times.

CONTENT IS KING

And it’s true.

Sadly, even some of the biggest names in the information marketing business fail when it comes to their content.

You’ll hear a lot of “I’ve got the magic, secret sauce to make your digital marketing cook!” when we all know that’s hype.

There are no marketing secrets: the playbook has been written. Executing the plays requires precision and patience; many people with very little marketing experience have marketed themselves and their products successfully.

However, many marketers fail when it comes to their content—what they actually sell and this can impact the long-term revenue.

I recently signed up for a monthly copywriting improvement program from a mega-marketer. The program was around $200 a month. I got a binder and a TON of stuff arrived every month and yes, I had access to a monthly conference call with a big name copywriter, but the quality of the content was poor. So I cancelled and I’ll be cautious about buying again from this vendor.

A conference for marketers took place late last year and I attended. It was good fun and some of the speakers were excellent. But 75% of the speakers had nothing to say except, “buy my product for $400.” Poor content.

One company’s content is superb one day, modest the next. The company sells a continuity program so the content needs to be superb every day to avoid cancellations and deliver on the promise in the copy.

Two years ago, I wrote some copy for one of the (former) rock stars of information marketing. He asked me to write a sales page for the main product—a library of videos about Internet marketing. When I watched many of the videos, they comprised two people talking about how great it was to be a part of the program. There was little, if anything, in the way of useful and tangible information.

I haven’t named names but I will now.

Bob Bly’s information products are excellent and I’ve only sent one product back. Andrew Wood’s content (Legendary Marketing) is also superb. Bly’s products are sensibly priced and the PDFs provide valuable information on every page. He also collaborates with genuine experts and this augments the quality and reliability of the information. Andrew’s books about marketing provide a superb introduction to direct marketing and his other products explain the way to marry direct marketing with the most recent platforms.

I’m a direct response copywriter and web copywriter today but I used to publish magazines. I worked extremely hard to provide readers with routinely superb content. And my magazines always flourished. I would often meet a reader who would say, “I read your magazine from cover to cover. I love it.” I’ve written or worked on 18 books and I’ve always provided a manuscript I believe provides real value. A weekly email I wrote for a certain area in Charlotte had 70% open rates; the industry average is around 15%. CONTENT!

As a direct response copywriter, it’s hard to write inspirational copy for a product that’s poor. However, when the content is deep, valuable, and strong, the copy almost writes itself.

If you’re superb at marketing, you’ve achieved a great deal: successful execution of a marketing plan requires major, major work. However, make sure the content you’re selling…whatever it might be…OVER DELIVERS on the promises in the copy. Then the content becomes another marketing tool.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I specialize in providing content and copy for the direct marketing environment for clients around the planet. I specialize in sales page copy, landing page copy and copy that persuades readers to pull out their credit card and buy. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here if you have a project you'd like me to quote.

Direct Response Copywriter on Hype and the Beauty of Simplicity

If you’ve watched a direct response TV ad or infomercial, then you know all about tonality.

Ads for cleaning products bleat. Ads for life insurance purr.

As a direct response copywriter, one of my goals is to get the tone correct. Some products require a little bit of hyperventilation. Others require a more subtle and respectful tone.

I can HYPE! IT! UP! with the very best but I can also turn down the volume.

When it comes to hype, I’m extremely cautions. Consumers are increasingly wary and skeptical and mega-hype can damage conversion. And potential customers are intelligent: they don't need hype; they need a solution.

Someone I know was thinking about paying to attend a conference. The copy for the conference included the phrase:

"Mingle with the masters..."

To the person thinking about the conference, that tiny bit of hype turned him off and so he didn't spend the money for the event.

Herschell Gordon Lewis, one of my copywriting heroes and perhaps the spokesmodel for anti-hype, despises the exclamation mark and believes it’s a sure sign of a poor copywriter. So I use exclamation marks sparingly!!!!!!

Hype is often a cover for a poor sales argument, offer, product, or service.

The reason for buying—the value proposition—should provide the excitement. The offer, guarantee, bonus items, testimonials and additional elements simply buttress the primary reason to buy.

In the past six months or so, I’ve primarily been using a straightforward tone and it’s been extremely effective based on test results.

Here’s the product.

Here’s what it does.

Here’s the problem it solves.

Here’s why you need to have it.

Here’s why you should pay the money.

You take no risk.

Here are the goodies.

Here's what you lose if you don't buy now.

Yes—the occasionally powerful metaphor and the occasional bit of semi-breathlessness can provide some vivacity but simplicity, logic, salient facts, and clarity triumph over pure hype.

This approach DOES NOT provide an excuse to eschew personality. While people don't always buy from manic crazy salespeople, they don't buy from dullards with the personality of a brick.

PLEASE KEEP IT SIMPLE

When a product solves a complex problem or if the product has a lot of moving parts, it can be tempting to ask the copywriter to complicate the copy by including everything about everything and making the offer overly complex.

That’s where the USP comes in.

That’s where simplicity is vital. I like to focus on one primary idea for most of the copy.

I admire marketers who keep concepts and copy simple. Far too many marketers complicate offers, products, and deals—to the point where the reader is confused. A confused reader quickly clicks to another company or trashes the mail piece.

Yes...getting to that simple clarity is hard but it's worth the effort.

When I’m writing copy, I like to:

• Keep the syntax simple
• Find the strongest value proposition
• Make the offer extremely clear and simple to understand

Using this approach, the reader can quickly understand the reason to buy and also create their own hype—because the product or service scratches their itch.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I specialize in providing content and copy for the direct marketing environment for clients around the planet. I specialize in sales page copy, landing page copy and copy that just plain persuades readers to pull out their credit card and buy. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here if you have a project you'd like me to quote.

What this Direct Response Copywriter Thinks About the Toyota Space Shuttle Stunt

Nice Stunt but…

On October 13, a Toyota Tundra, a pickup truck, will tow the 300,000 pound space shuttle to its final resting place at The California Science Center.

The choice of truck is no accident: it’s an advertising stunt organized by Saatchi and Saatchi to promote their client, Toyota.

Don’t believe it? Click here.

It will be amazing advertising with a 'to-die-for' message: "our truck is so strong it can tow a space shuttle."

The creatives at Saatchi and Saatchi who have organized this ad are giddy with themselves. Toyota got the nod, evidently, because it already had a ‘relationship’ with the aforementioned California Science Center.

OK. Follow the money. Whatever.

There will be plenty of free pub but the actual advertising will be on YouTube. It’s not actually that difficult to rig a vehicle to tow something big but that’s neither here nor there. A tug can tow a 747-8 that weighs over 975,000 pounds (442,253 kg) MTOW.

One of the people involved in the stunt has breathlessly declared: “This isn’t advertising. It’s history.”

Publicity comes and goes. It mostly goes. Tuesday’s news is usually forgotten by Thursday. It might be history but it's forgotten eventually.

If I were the marketing manager for Toyota, I would say to the advertising genii, “Nice stunt. Well done. Throw a party. BUT...how are we going to measure the direct impact on Tundra sales? Will it affect overall Toyota sales? What’s the ROI?”

As a direct response copywriter, I can be creative but there’s only one reason to get my creative boots on: drive response.

The people involved in the project are:

• Executive Creative Directors Chris Adams and Margaret Keene
• Senior Copywriter Graham McCann
• Creative Director Erich Funke
• Senior Art Director Verner Soler

Chris, Margaret, Graham, Erich, and Verner: please tell me how many Tundras the stunt sells. If it sells TONS of Tundras, hats off. But if Tundra sales fail to increase enough to justify the cost, what’s the point?

If you tell me it’s all to promote the brand then it’s ALL a waste of time…to this direct response copywriter. We don't do branding in direct response because you can't directly measure ROI.

And if you disagree with my logic, go here and tell me why David Ogilvy is wrong.

Hat's off. Great stunt. What's the ROI?

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I specialize in providing content and copy for the direct marketing environment for clients around the planet. I specialize in sales page copy, landing page copy and copy that just plain persuades readers to pull out their credit card and buy. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here if you have a project you'd like me to quote.

Direct Response Copywriter on Political Advertising

Here in Charlotte, where I’m a Charlotte copywriter…

Sorry…I had my SEO copywriter boots on…let me start again. Apologies…

Here in Charlotte, where I’m a Charlotte direct response copywriter, we just hosted the Democratic National Convention. Quite a circus. A huge event for Charlotte. Those guys were on spring break.

The center of Charlotte, the intersection of Trade and Tryon, was a zoo. We had three days of near chaos and more police than I've ever seen in one place.

For the record, I vote. I’m not registered with any political party but I vote. And it's private.

So please understand: this blog is not a political broadcast. I’m not taking sides.

The election is almost seven weeks away as I write and I have some advice for politicians based on speeches I’ve heard recently and, especially, on the mail I receive from candidates.

Use direct marketing techniques and hire a direct response copywriter.

Political advertising is extremely poor. Why? I’m not really sure. My guess: the world of politics is full of consultants and ‘experts’ who don’t know much and certainly have never picked up a book about direct marketing.

It’s extremely rare in direct response to see advertising that shamelessly bashes the competition. But in political advertising, it’s the norm: hammer the other candidate even if you lie.

In direct response, we shamelessly promote the benefits of a product. Yes—there might be the occasional harmless comparison chart but that’s pretty much it when it comes to being nasty about the competition. Data shows that saying rude things about the competition doesn’t sell stuff.

A politician is a product and the goal is to persuade the voter to buy the product. The voter, like a good consumer, is asking, “what’s in it for me?”

So, dear politicians, ANSWER THE QUESTION.

I’m dying for a political speech that gives me:

• A reason to get excited.
• The big idea.
• Something even vaguely approaching a USP.
• Concrete benefits.
• An irresistible offer.

My mailbox will soon be overflowing with vague and vacuous postcards and letters from candiates. Many politicians don’t even list their party affiliation. And the promises are clichés.

"I'm here for you."

"You can be confident I will represent YOUR interests."

"I will FIGHT to lower your taxes."

The problem is obvious. Politicians (and their expensive consultants) use branding advertising instead of direct response advertising. It’s all about image.

Yet every politician strives to look exactly the same. Dark suit. White shirt. Bright tie. And for the women: bright suit. Wide smile. Country club hair. So the image advertising isn't about differentiation or standing out. It's about looking the same as everyone else. Bizarre.

If I were a politician, I would use every direct response tactic in the book. If you’re a politician and you’re guaranteed to win due to the demographics of your district, well done.

But if you’re a politician and you’re in a tight race, ask your marketing people how much they know about direct marketing or direct response copywriting or Dan Kennedy or Scientific Advertising.

If your ‘team of experts’ stares back blankly when you ask them about Dan Kennedy, find a team that can execute direct marketing techniques. You’ll win. Going away.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I specialize in providing content and copy for the direct marketing environment for clients around the planet. I specialize in sales page copy, landing page copy and copy that just plain persuades readers to pull out their credit card and buy. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here if you have a project you'd like me to quote.