Direct Response Copywriter on the Cartoonists

I spent my formative years in the United Kingdom. I grew up, therefore, with three media companions.

1. Seriously good newspapers with seriously good writing.
2. Tabloid newspapers with shoddy journalism but phenomenal writing.
3. High quality radio.

One day I’ll write about the tabloids—because the headlines and captions present a daily clinic in breathtakingly attention grabbing writing. And I'll go into my favorite radio shows like Just a Minute...another time, another day.

I believe I learned to write by reading the quality broadsheets like The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and The Guardian. A mixed bag politically but you can’t argue with the consistent quality of the writing.

Today, I want to focus on perhaps my favorite part of The Telegraph, the daily “Matt” cartoon. You can see the archive here.

You can see the current Matt cartoon here.

The newspaper just celebrated Matt’s 25^th anniversary. Here’s an article and video.

Matt cartoons are always funny—in a non-confrontational way. They poke fun at everyday life and its absurdity.

But the cartoons are arresting. They grab my attention—just like a good headline.

You can apply how Matt works to direct response headlines.

• He tries 6-20 jokes (similar to a headline)
• He ‘tests’ the cartoons on people in the office…simply asking their opinion
• He understands the daily pressure to produce
• For material, he uses topical subjects and completes research
• The visual (the cartoon) matches the joke—the perfect marriage of copy and graphic
• It’s simple—and you get the joke and the cartoon right away without having to dig

Matt isn’t trying to sell anything. But a direct response headline isn’t trying to sell a product directly. The perfect direct response headline simply persuades you to keep reading until you get to the final sales pitch where the you have to decide whether to leave or buy.

Part of me wishes I had just 5% of the raw talent of a Matt. I’d be able to write killer headlines in about 10 minutes.

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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.

I'm also a Dan Kennedy Certified Copywriter for Info-Marketers.

Disclaimer.

The Dan Kennedy Copywriter for Info-Marketers Certification is awarded to professional copywriters who have successfully completed a course of study of preparation for such copywriting.  This Certification has not been provided by an accredited education institution.  It does not constitute endorsement of or liability for any individual copywriter by Mr. Kennedy or any companies or organizations affiliated with Mr. Kennedy. The client's relationship is solely with the individual copywriter retained via any agreement.

Direct Response Copywriter on Branding Copywriters

When I retire, I will become a branding copywriter.

I will get a cushy job at a big agency in a big city. The office will have exposed girders, vents, and pipes. Industrial.

The agency will have a wall with lots of awards. The office will have a phalanx of vixen-ish young girls…media buyers with beautiful hair and busy weekends.

Account executives will ask me to come up with ideas and concepts. I will spend caffeine-fuelled hours in meetings with award-winning art directors, creative directors, and producers. When I get stuck, I’ll leave the office for a walk and dive into a café for a couple of hours to “get the creative juices flowing.”

I’ll suggest a TV shoot somewhere in northern Arizona and we’ll trundle off in February to Flagstaff and quickly outspend the unlimited budget.

We’ll create funny ads that run on TV shows like The Simpsons. People in Lousiville, Kentucky and Beaverton, Oregon will laugh. The client will laugh. We’ll have client dinners at upscale restaurants and I’ll order comically expensive Bordeaux.

Of course, I’ll win some awards and this will delight the client. We’ll have a lunch that will start at 1 p.m. and end at a 1 a.m. somewhere in Brooklyn.

At some stage, inevitably, the client will ask about the lack of impact on sales. The Executive Vice President of Nothing in Particular, or the agency owner's expensively suited daughter, will remind the client that “we’re not really trying to push a response here” and that we’re helping to maintain “brand integrity” which can be especially important when the competition is spending $125 million on TV this year.

Sales will drop but I’ll get a raise and my work will appear in Communication Arts. I’ll get a confidential call from a brisk Manhattan headhunter named Holly who has a really exceptional opportunity in a big agency that's looking for a new senior copywriter. I'll leverage the offer for another raise.

That might be exceptionally pleasant. One day.

But for now, I’ll stick with being a direct response copywriter.

I will continue to dig deep to find what really matters to the buyer. I’ll spend hours trying to get into the head and soul of the customer to find what they really, really want. Headlines will float around in my head and I’ll write 20-30 before settling on one I like.

Laughter? Forget it. We’re trying to persuade someone to pull their credit card out of their wallet and BUY. I'm not trying to be funny. I'm trying to be persuasive.

Something I write won’t work so I’ll try again. And again. And again…until I beat the control or establish one that helps the company get in the black.

I will get the snot beaten out of me. I'll have success. But I'll have failures. But I will ALWAYS be accountable.

It’s not easy being a direct response copywriter.

As David Ogilvy said in perhaps the most perfect endorsement of direct response marketing...

The problem with many copywriters is that they don’t really think in terms of selling. They’ve never written direct response. They’ve never tasted blood.

I've tasted blood, my friends.

I spend my days at a desk or cyber-tramping in a coffee shop, tweaking copy to improve response from 2.3% to 3.1%.

And yes, I will giddily write “your satisfaction is completely and totally guaranteed” and “finally—there’s an easy way to…” and "It's clear you have nothing to lose."

There won’t be any awards on my walls. No prizes or languid company dinners.

But my clients, hard-core entrepreneurs, will benefit massively from my work. They get it. They don't want awards. They want customers and clients.

They know this important truth:

“The ability to organize words that motivate people to buy is a super power.”

That’s from Dan Kennedy, for the record.

Writing direct response copy is sheer joy and never a job. Yes—the ancillary stuff is a pain but actually creating copy that’s going to help a company thrive is a lot of fun.

No—I have no desire to become a branding copywriter. I’ll stick with being a direct response copywriter as long as someone will invest in my services. You branding copywriters can keep your awards and exposed brick offices and funny ads.

I’ll be busy helping my clients make money.

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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.

I'm also a Dan Kennedy Certified Copywriter for Info-Marketers.

Disclaimer.

The Dan Kennedy Copywriter for Info-Marketers Certification is awarded to professional copywriters who have successfully completed a course of study of preparation for such copywriting.  This Certification has not been provided by an accredited education institution.  It does not constitute endorsement of or liability for any individual copywriter by Mr. Kennedy or any companies or organizations affiliated with Mr. Kennedy. The client's relationship is solely with the individual copywriter retained via any agreement.

Direct Response Copywriter on Dan Kennedy

I just invested in a Dan Kennedy copywriting course. The result? I'm now an official...

Dan Kennedy Certified Copywriter for Info-Marketers.

Kennedy is one of the copywriters I follow very closely.

The certification curriculum included: 

• A detailed description of how the information marketing industry operates
• What information marketers need and want
• 800 pages of examples of successful copy for information marketing
• How a copywriter can help information marketers generate revenue
• Specific copywriting techniques for information marketers

Because, as a direct response copywriter, I've written extensively in this niche, I knew a lot of the material but I learned some fresh techniques. Never a bad thing.

So...if you sell information and need a direct response copywriter...what's in this for you? 

1. You won't have to explain much, if anything, about the business. I get up to speed quickly and you don't have to spend hours explaining how everything works.
2. I use the same info-marketing copywriting techniques as Dan Kennedy who is a pretty decent information marketer and copywriter.
3. The course taught me how to help information marketers upsell, downsell, and generally increase revenue.
4. I discovered the importance of providing a complete range of copywriting services to information marketers. So with me, you get a 'one stop shop' for all your information marketing copywriting needs.

With my background in direct response copywriting and close to 20 years of experience in niche publishing, I believe I’m well positioned to help info-marketers sell information and write content that people will buy...time and time again.

If you’re an ambitious information marketer, I can write:

• Direct response copy for sales pages
• Emails and autoresponders
• Newsletters
• Sales copy for events
• Articles
• Content

All the copy and content you need if you’re an info-marketer.

I really enjoy writing for people who sell information. It’s a great business.

Contact me here if you want to discuss a project or discuss your copy and content needs. And go here for free resources and checklists. 

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Here’s the disclaimer I have to include.

The Dan Kennedy Copywriter for Info-Marketers Certification is awarded to professional copywriters who have successfully completed a course of study of preparation for such copywriting.  This Certification has not been provided by an accredited education institution.  It does not constitute endorsement of or liability for any individual copywriter by Mr. Kennedy or any companies or organizations affiliated with Mr. Kennedy.  The client's relationship is solely with the individual copywriter retained via any agreement.

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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 Reads The New York Times and Sees Something Missing

On Sunday, while getting my coffee in the local Starbucks, I splashed out $6 for the elephantine Sunday edition of The New York Times. I love visiting New York and, periodically, I like the full ‘old-school’ feel of a big city newspaper.

From a content standpoint, the sheer depth and breadth is impressive. A lot of typing. The quality of the writing surprisingly varies from the sublime to the shoddy. And the writers, fully supported by the copy editors, are never afraid to insert an adverb or adverbial clause between the infinitive version of a verb.

Memo to said writers and editors...a split infinitive is poor writing.

But moving on…

After reading chunks of the content, I read every page looking at the ads.

This exercise coincides with going through Gary Bencivenga’s 7 Master Secrets of Wealth Creation for Marketers and Copywriters DVD product.

Full disclosure: no affiliate deal here.

Much of Gary Bencivenga’s work appeared in newspapers. Here’s an example.

Direct marketers, armed with a direct response copywriter, earned millions through these relatively simple space ads. The copywriter charged a lot and the space was expensive but the ROI was through the roof…on the front end and back end.

I saw just ONE ad in The New York Times that may have qualified as a direct response ad…for The Great Courses. I saw a lot of expensive branding ads and it was hard to find an offer, CTA, or arresting headline.

And all of this in a city that remains the epicenter of direct response advertising.

Yes—circulation numbers are down for print versions of newspapers but I still think there’s a massive opportunity for the serious direct marketers to generate leads and revenues in newspapers.

Direct Response Copywriter Makes Bold Predictions

It's early in the year, the time when pundits and various others make bold predictions; mine for 2013...

1. Headlines will draw the reader into the copy.
2. The highest converting copy will clearly show the reader how you solve their problem or scratch their itch.
3. Simple, clear copy will be (mostly) more effective than hype-y copy. But test.
4. Easy to understand offers will pull more than complex and convoluted offers that even a Mensa member would be find confusing.
5. Mitigating risk will be vital.
6. Avoiding words like ‘mitigating’ in copy will be vital.
7. Strong subheads will be important because readers initially skim the copy.
8. Somebody will try to be creative, break all the rules of direct response copy, fail miserably, and look like a dolt.
9. Friendly, warm, conversational copy will prove more effective than dull copy.
10. For any copy that tries to convince the reader to pull their credit card out of their wallet, even for a trial offer, long copy will be more convincing than short copy.
11. Clear and precise PROOF will be extremely important.
12. Those who view a direct response copywriter as an investment will thrive. Those who view direct response copywriting as an expense or commodity will fail.
13. Direct response copywriters who 'check their egos at the door' and tweak and change based on data will get work; those who fail to pay homage to visual website optimizer, etc. will starve.
14. Direct response copywriters will look for clients who understand (and love) direct marketing.

“BUT WAIT!” you say, "that’s ‘old’ stuff. Surely there’s something NEW and INNOVATIVE coming up!

First, don’t call me Shirley.

Second: the core principles of direct response copywriting haven’t changed for 200 years. They won’t change in 2013. And they won’t change for another 100 years.

And that's my FEARLESS prediction.

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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.