Direct Response Copywriter on What It's All About Part 3

In the last blog, I wrote about a marketing problem I encountered a few weeks ago while on vacation.

So let’s get into what direct marketing and direct response copywriting is all about.

With a different approach, a more direct approach, the ski instructors I wrote about in the last blog would have all been working that day; they would have had skiers to instruct. They would have earned money that day.

As a direct response copywriter, I have only one task: write copy that generates revenue for my clients. Yes … I do this ethically and I don’t make stuff up but the ultimate goal is to help my clients get leads and revenue. No copywriter needs to make stuff up.

As such, my copy has helped my clients be wildly successful. One client has grown from 6 employees to almost 60. Another client became the fastest-growing company in the region where I live. One client has clients who are increasing leads by 300 and 400 percent.

My copy doesn’t always work but I have lots of success stories. And I fully admit my role is just one of several important parts in the sales chain. But let’s think about the real results: prosperity for my clients … jobs … economic success … economic growth … and more.

So, ultimately, that’s what direct marketing is all about. The success of clients. They pay me to grow revenue and the value of the business.

Of course, as a direct marketing writer, I’m constantly straddling the line between success and failure. One the one hand, I’m striving to beat the control and it’s great when that happens. Conversely, projects can sometimes fail. But in direct response, we take failure and learn and move forward. In the branding world, nobody knows what works and what doesn’t.

Direct marketing and direct response copywriting is, ultimately, all about prosperity.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I write direct response copy for clients around the world. Enter your information 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.

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Disclaimer for the above.

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 What It's All About Part 2

In the last blog, I introduced a series of blogs about what direct response copywriting is all about.

And I promised a story. Here you go ...

A few weeks ago, I visited a famous ski resort. I have visited this resort every year for 12 years in a row. I’m in the database. I have always taken at least one ski lesson per trip. It’s in the database.

At one part of the resort, several ski instructors optimistically wait every morning for skiers to show up and take lessons. The instructors are among the world’s best. They are independent contractors and work is never guaranteed. No skiers. No money.

You’ll find anywhere from 4-8 instructors at the meet-up but I’ve only ever seen 2 … at most … get work for the day.

The resort knows a couple of things about me:

• I visit at least once a year so I like the resort.
• I have always taken lessons.

I'm a prime target ... a REPEAT BUYER ... so ...

You might have thought I would have received an email (or 5) encouraging me to take lessons just after I booked my trip. You would have thought the telephone booking agent would have upsold me to some discount lessons.

No emails. No upsell.

However, I always get a survey AFTER my visit asking me about my lesson.

Too late, team.

Two years ago, to generate more revenue, the marketing people doubled the price of the lesson and re-branded the name of the lessons. But it's exactly the same instruction.

That’s Post Office pricing strategy.

If the marketing people decide to put this direct response copywriter – or any competent direct marketer – in charge of getting those ski instructors a ton of business, I would follow these steps.

1. Look at inventory and demand over the last several years to determine pricing.
2. Create a segmented database of people who have taken lessons.
3. Marry that list to the list of people who have booked trips.
4. Send emails to the new list … with a special and aggressive offer.
5. Measure the results.

Even with the most basic email platform, like MailChimp, I could organize this.

Admittedly, I have simplified the steps. But I should have received several emails giving me the opportunity to take lessons at well below the “rack” rate. There was plenty of inventory and it was the end of the season. I'm sure the instructors and the resort would rather have some business than none.

The fact I didn’t get any emails selling lessons? Rookie mistake and epic marketing fail.

Why bother with the steps above?

I’ll answer the question in the next blog.

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One problem … from my view as a guest/customer, the resort is more focused on branding, image, and the “trendy” marketing tactics (like Twitter) than direct marketing. The result? World-class ski instructors not getting any work.

More soon …

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I write direct response copy for clients around the world. Enter your information 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.

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Disclaimer for the above.

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 What It's All About. Part 1.

Marketing – especially direct marketing – is hard. It’s not for the weak and it’s not for people who want to win prizes and look good.

Every serious direct marketer – and direct response copywriter – has looked really really bad; they have suffered epic failures. And because we direct marketers and direct marketing writers are accountable down to the last penny, we always know what’s working and what’s not. Those who live in the branding and “image” world are never accountable … or at least not like us.

Perhaps this leads to the somewhat obvious question. Why bother with direct response marketing if failure is part of the equation? The answer depends on how you look at direct response.

I’ve had sales pages convert at 5% … which is really, really high. But that also means a 95% failure rate.

So with such a high failure rate – if you look at direct marketing that way – you might ask the obvious question, “why bother?”

In this series of blogs, I’m going to write about the power of direct response marketing and the real reasons it’s so vitally important.

You lot in the branding world won’t enjoy this series of blogs … especially if you like the lack of accountability in your world and view direct response marketing as somewhat crass.

However, after reading this series, you’ll understand direct response marketing with much more clarity.

Something that happened recently motivated me to write this series. And in the next blog, I’ll detail exactly what transpired and why it pushed me to write.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I write direct response copy for clients around the world. Enter your information 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.

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Disclaimer for the above.

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 Making Copy Readable

I’m a big fan of long-form direct response copy. No surprise there – I’m a direct response copywriter. In tests, long-form direct response copy performs better than short copy … especially when selling expensive items.

A couple of long-time truths about long-form copy.

1. The more you tell, the more you sell.
2. Copy needs to be as long as it needs to be.

Direct marketing copywriters must be given the width to write as much as they need to write. It’s not always possible with direct mail – especially when someone has a budget. But online, there’s no limit … just testing.

One (usually) forgotten key to success with a long-form sales page is making it readable for the scanner.

When I come across a sales page for a product I might want to buy, I start by scanning. So … key points must be made through:

• Photos with captions
• Pull quotes
• Subheads
• Videos
• Testimonials
• Other proof elements

These elements tell me what’s going on as I’m scanning. After scanning, if I’m interested in the product or service, I will read every word, especially if the product is expensive.

There’s nothing wrong with direct response copywriters writing a lot of somewhat dense copy. But the reader must be able to figure out what’s going on just by scanning.

When you need guidance, look at newspapers, magazines, and news-oriented websites. These are generally brilliant at making copy readable for the scanner.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I write direct response copy for clients around the world. Enter your information 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 for the above.

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 Apple

Apple recently announced the arrival of their new watch. Not exactly a closely guarded secret. A Wall Street Journal article said Apple was trying to become like Rolex and I’ve seen other articles touting Apple as wanting to become a luxury brand.

People who believe that branding is marketing – and I’m not one of them – like to gush about the Apple brand … its “brand authority” and “brand value” and other such nonsense. Yes … Apple is a brand (so are you) and yes, Apple spends money on branding and probably has branding police and the like.

But here’s the truth about Apple: it’s a direct response company.

Let’s take a look at iTunes, a huge money-spinner for Apple and a source of constant revenue. You might think you’re buying an iPod or a iWatch or an iPhone. What you’re really buying is a way to buy more stuff through iTunes. The phone also helps Apple tap into continuity revenue from monthly phone bills.

Remember those print ads for Record of the Month Club or Book of the Month Club? You got 8 records for 99 cents or 12 books for 3 dollars; then you bought a book or record every month until you said, “stop!” The Apple model is essentially the same and it’s a DIRECT RESPONSE model and not a branding model.

I’m writing this blog on my MacBook Pro. It’s great but it’s not a big profit maker for Apple. It can be if I start buying stuff from Apple but buying a one off product once every three years is not the source of big revenue. The MacBook Pro is an awesome product for this direct response copywriter but the money is in repeat revenue from iTunes.

Very quietly, Apple is brilliant at email marketing. That’s an exercise in direct response. And if you look closely at Apple’s copy for expensive products, there’s plenty of copy. They use long-form copy. Again, that’s direct response copywriting, not branding copywriting.

Try checking out when you buy something on Apple’s site, as I have, and they try to upsell you like crazy. Again … an exercise in direct marketing.

Remember this fact: before he became a corporate rock star, Steve Jobs sold stuff from a booth in a shopping mall. So he knew how to sell. People who know how to sell are usually in the direct response camp. You can gush over Apple’s brand all you like but it’s a direct response company ... which is why it's so successful.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I write direct response copy for clients around the world. Enter your information 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 for the above.

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.