Direct Response Copywriter on "Legendary" Status

There are two words bandied about a lot these days: awesome and legendary. It’s the latter I’ll focus on in this blog.

I’m still a big fan of radio, especially BBC Radio. Maybe it’s because I grew up listening to all those BBC stations during my formative years in west London. Maybe it's because it's free and they don't have commercials.

I went to a boarding school on a hill in London. I could pick up a wide variety of radio stations up there.

Many evenings, I used to set my radio to AM (called medium wave in the UK) and I’d pick up stations from Germany, France, and way beyond. I even used to pick up US Armed forces radio and I’d listen to NFL games. I once picked up a New York rock station. Today, BBC Radio is, for some reason, called SOUNDS. Sort of like the restaurants that say they have “eats” instead of “food.”

But I digress, as is often my wont. I was listening to a live concert on Radio 2 the other day. It was a Beatles tribute with a number of different singers and performer. The host introduced EVERY singer and performer with the adjective: LEGENDARY.

What does “legendary” actually mean?

All writers should look up the actual definitions of words they use. Yes, even copywriters.

My albeit rudimentary dictionary has two interesting definitions of LEGENDARY.

1. Of, described in, or based on, legends.
2. Remarkable enough to be famous; very well known.

If I venture into my trusty thesaurus, what do I find?

Curiously, my thesaurus, which I received as gift in 1980, and is the genuine “Roget’s” doesn’t even move toward the “famous” meaning. I get …

• Traditional
• Imaginary(!)
• Narrative
• Mythological

So “legendary” is one of those words whose meaning has evolved. English is fluid, malleable, and distinctly capricious. I love it.

When an emcee says, the “legendary” (insert name) what is the emcee saying? He or she isn’t saying the person is traditional, imaginary, or mythological … or part of a narrative. The emcee is saying …

• Really amazing
• Superb
• Someone you should listen to
• Elite
• Highly accomplished

And so on …

Martin Amis says that every writer should have a dictionary and a thesaurus on their desk when they’re writing. Dan Kennedy has said the same.

Why?

Because, if you’re a writer, the accurate selection of accurate words is a huge part of your work. It’s a whopping part of my work as a direct response copywriter.

By the way, I’d love to see Martin Amis and Dan Kennedy, two highly accomplished writers, meet and talk about writing. I’d pay a lot to hear that conversation.

Sadly, the word “legendary” is way overused in direct marketing, even with the “new” meaning of the word.

However, if you employ the “famous” meaning, then it’s highly applicable. I recently saw a video featuring a direct response copywriter giving a presentation. The host of the meeting introduced the copywriter by saying, predictably, “the LEGENDARY JOHN SMITH.” I changed the name, just so you know.

Said direct response copywriter is, indeed, legendary based on the “famous” definition. In fact, I would say he’s famous for just that, being famous. He speaks at a large number of events even though the copy that advertises these engagements often says, “make sure you fly around the world to come to our $3,000 event because John Smith rarely speaks or appears at events.”

OK.

But just because you’re famous, does that mean you’re any good?

The answer of course, is NO.

I’ve seen the work of this "legend" and, quite frankly, it’s packed full of lies. He’s part of a core group of "legendary" direct marketers who hold conferences, speak at each other’s events, and tell everyone how great they are. Nice work if you can get it. I’m totally certain this happens in other industries.

His website, written in the third person, is replete with lies, flatus, self-congratulation, and raw guff. A big part of me wonders if he’s ever actually written anything that’s really worked. There's no actual proof on his website. And there he is, up on stage, being legendary, and issuing advice that’s totally wrong.

There’s a great line in one of the Dirty Harry movies, Sudden Impact, where Clint Eastwood tells one his superiors, “you’re a legend in your own mind.”

We’re so very fortunate in direct marketing. We measure our results to the penny. A direct response copywriter can legitimately point at results and/or longevity with direct marketing clients. The latter is a powerful way to measure success. Are your clients continuously hiring you? Yes? Then you know how to write direct response copy that converts.

In the branding world, you can become “legendary” because you’ve won a bunch of awards … awards handed out by other branding types. There’s lots to go around. Got a dog? Your dog could probably win an award for something in the branding universe.

In sports, results and numbers provide most of the story. A quarterback can have great numbers. But the numbers tell only a small part of the story. Members of his team have to block. Runners have to run. Receivers have to catch and run precise routes. The offensive coordinator has to make great calls.

It’s the same in direct response copywriting. I was just going through all the old Boardroom controls and, for the first time, I noticed a common theme: those magalogs are pretty much just a big collection of bulleted fascinations.

At Boardroom, they quickly found a formula that worked. They had great lists and a great offer … SEND NO MONEY NOW. They stuck to the formula. Why not?

A direct response copywriter doesn’t work in a vacuum, despite what the “legendary” John Smith will tell you. Lists and traffic have to be there. The offer has to be great. Testing is vital. Copywriters can get the blame for a promotion that bombs … which isn’t always fair. But even the most productive copywriters work as part of a team.

Many of the so-called “legendary” copywriters are from the “say whatever you want/big promise" school of direct response copywriting. And three of the “legends” from this school got into major legal trouble due, in part, to this approach. And members of this school of thought are up there, “legends of direct response copywriting” on that stage, or in a webinar, telling me how to write copy.

When someone introduces a copywriter as “legendary” at an event, I’m going to laugh, roll my eyes, and, as politely as possible, head straight to the bar.

Here’s the truth: there are lots of really productive copywriters you never meet because they never get out there and they’re not in that group of people who speak at $3,000 events and tell everyone how “legendary” they are. It’s these totally un-sung copywriters who are the really brilliant ones. They’re quietly generating millions in revenue for their clients and helping build the long-term value of the business. Find these copywriters. Learn from them and be extremely careful when you hear the “L” word. Ironically, one of my friends and someone who really knows what he's doing, Andrew Wood uses the "legendary" moniker. Listen to him, though, and read all his books.

Direct Response Copywriter on Clayton Makepeace. Additional Thoughts.

My blog about Clayton Makepeace led to a significant “spike” in my traffic and so I’d like to add some additional thoughts for those interested. Hopefully, these additional musings will help your direct marketing and direct response copywriting.

As I mentioned, I purchased Clayton’s “Quick Start” copywriting system. I refer to it so often that some of the pages are falling out. I don’t remember ever seeing the “b” word.

BRANDING.

It’s clear that Clayton never thought about branding. He was a pedal-to-the-metal direct marketer. However, through his copy, he helped to build some massive brands: Boardroom and Weiss. There's a valuable lesson right there.

I mentioned it’s difficult to find the Quick Start program. I lied. AWAI currently offers it for $1295. The sales page is below. Total disclosure: I’m not getting an affiliate commission.

https://www.awai.com/p/is/qsc/

Strangely, the copy isn’t that good. Take my word for it as a working direct response copywriter: spend the money.

One of the freebies is a conversation with my good friend, and elite-level copywriter, Brad Petersen. There’s only one freebie that’s rubbish. I won’t go there here.

When Clayton interviewed Gary Bencivenga on his blog, they didn’t talk about branding once. They discussed generating revenue and how to make that happen.

Clayton had an interesting approach to writing headlines. Here’s a Clayton headline block.

*

FORBIDDEN CURES!

Confidential Report Inside

Remarkable Cures CENSORED By Knife-Happy Surgeons and Greedy Drug Companies!

*

And here’s a subhead I love …

ALSO INSIDE: 129 Amazing Medical Secrets Your Doctor Won’t Tell You!

His headline deck had a one or two word headline with a longer subhead.

Compare and contrast to a Dan Kennedy headline which can be really long.

But there’s a commonality. Both copywriters follow the John Caples headline formula:

Curiosity + Self-Interest = Compelling Appeal

What do I like the most about Clayton’s copy? Clarity. It’s something I strive to achieve. You can read Clayton’s copy and instantly understand what’s going on. It’s not easy. That clarity is one of the hallmarks of an "elite level" direct response copywriter.

Every single part of the copy was vital to Clayton. The headline was vital but the guarantee was vital, too. I pity the copy cub who provided Clayton with a guarantee like: SATISFACTION GUARANTEED OR YOUR MONEY BACK.

A Clayton Makepeace guarantee was almost an essay.

The same with freemiums. “Put big effort into selling the freemiums,” said Clayton.

I’ve worked very hard over the years to become a super-fast copywriter. I used to say, “there’s only one copywriter who is faster than me and that’s Clayton Makepeace.” Your direct response copywriter should produce revenue-generating copy quickly. The faster the copywriter gets the copy to you, provided it's solid, the faster you're making money.

Clayton said “I’m not the most expensive copywriter but I’m the fastest.” It’s hard to imagine that anyone would charge more than Clayton. That took some cheek.

Let me give you the link to Clayton’s blog one more time.

http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/archives/gary-bencivenga-with-clayton-makepeace-part-1/

My condolences to family and close friends.

Direct Response Copywriter on the Legacy of Clayton Makepeace

A big name in the copywriting world left us last week, Clayton Makepeace. He was the #1 working direct response copywriter for many years. I know he wrote for Boardroom and established some controls there, always a sure sign of ability. He also wrote a ton of copy for Weiss Research.

For many years, Makepeace had his own shop, complete with copy cubs. He must have had many clients over the years. I believe Makepeace was in movies, or TV, or something in Hollywood before getting into copywriting. He was a producer or director, or maybe both.

I met Clayton several times at the AWAI Bootcamp in Delray Beach. He was always the star of the show, hands down. He held court at the bar in the hotel where the event takes place. His presentation on the final day was always the best and I actually got some valuable direction: not always the case from the bootcamp presentations. I also met him at the Titans Mastermind one time in Miami. We didn’t get a chance to chat very much.

What was Clayton like in person? I only met him briefly, ultimately, and he was pleasant, affable, gentlemanly, and gregarious. He enjoyed life, touring the country on a Harley, etc.

Here’s what every direct response copywriter and direct marketeer should take here, in no particular order.

First, Clayton was one of the good guys, white hat all the way. He certainly put the truth in the best possible light but he was NOT in the camp of copywriters who will just make things up. Clayton did his homework. He found the truth. He told the truth. His research was really deep.

I invested (and it’s a lot of money) in Clayton's Quick Start Copywriting System. It’s two manuals and it set me back over $1,000. But it’s worth every penny. Interestingly, and in opposition to the AWAI pitch, the introduction includes these words:

“Before you take the copywriting world by storm, there’s something you should know …

Pursuing a copywriting career is NOT a get-rich-quick-scheme.”

There are lots of copywriters who are simply famous for being famous. In fact, here’s something Clayton wrote on his blog …

“Right now, the Internet is crawling with charlatans claiming to be the greatest copywriter alive – and then urging you to pay them a fortune for their books and courses. Many are complete frauds – scam artists who have never had a single hot control for a major mailer – looking to make a quick buck off of you.”

That was in 2008. Things haven’t changed that much.

You’ll hear the word “legendary” bandied about. These “legendary” copywriters had a couple of successful promotions 20 years ago, got on the speaking circuit, and now hawk their overpriced products and services.

Clayton Makepeace was actually the real deal. He had a lot of talent AND he really worked to learn as much as he could. Clayton knew direct response copywriting and he knew direct marketing. I’d like to meet someone with a deeper technical knowledge. And it was all based on what worked. A big goal of mine is to develop that level of direct marketing technical know-how. Clayton really studied … and it showed.

I don’t think Clayton ever wrote a book, which is a pity. There’s the Quick Start Copywriting System. But you’ll find a deep well of information on his blog. It’s here.

Clayton’s blog is free and it’s essentially one of the best books ever written about direct marketing.

AWAI has a really great course featuring Clayton detailing how to write a VSL. It’s gold. It’s called “The Makepeace Method for Making a Fortune Writing Video Sales Letters.” Invest in that if you want to write high-converting VSLs.

Maybe there are some other resources I don’t know about.

We really lost a giant in the direct response copywriting world this past week. If you’re a direct response copywriter or you’re in direct marketing, learn as much as you can from Clayton and ignore the 'charlatans' he wrote about on his blog.

Direct Response Copywriter on The Truth About Marketing

I just finished going through the edits for one of my books. It’s my 17th and it’s about marketing, specifically direct marketing and the power of direct response copywriting.

The book will help all business people understand direct response copywriting and the work of a direct response copywriter. Everyone should understand what a direct response copywriter does, and can do, for a business.

In that book and, indeed, in many of my blogs, I HAMMER away at branding advertising and the people who say stupid things like “brand equity” and “brand engagement” and “re-branding” and "brand authority." I pound away mercilessly at branding agencies and their ilk.

Quite frankly, I love it. I’m not the only one who thinks this way. I’m not comparing myself to David Ogilvy, Gary Bencivenga, Dan Kennedy, Claude Hopkins, and John Caples, but they ALL say precisely the same thing about branding and creativity. They are all on the direct marketing side.

I’m not writing to please the merchants of branding. They aren’t my clients, unless they all decide to cross the chasm. I don’t care what they think. I care about the business owners who NEED direct marketing. I care about the CEO of a company who has been duped by an overpaid CMO into thinking that branding is what it’s all about. I care about the people who are directly impacted by the raw malpractice of so many CMOs who have never even heard of books like Tested Advertising Methods and Scientific Advertising. These CMOs win prizes and they take home bonuses and big paychecks but they rarely know anything about selling, which is what marketing is all about.

You won’t get apologies from me when I point out the malfeasance. I’m a direct response copywriter. You’ll be over there winning prizes. I’ll be over here driving revenue.

Direct Response Copywriter on Masterclass, Vandalism, Goodby, and Silverstein.

I was on Facebook the other day and I saw an ad for Masterclass.

In case you don’t know, Masterclass is an info-marketing company. The products usually feature someone extremely famous who talks about what they do. For example, there’s a series with Robert De Niro talking about acting. Famous chefs talk about food. Famous directors talk about, you guessed it, directing.

I spoke with the people at Masterclass a couple of years ago because they were looking for a copywriter. It turns out they know very little about direct marketing, surprisingly, and I communicated with someone who had an MBA from a top business school and she was all about “brand authority” and “brand voice” and other nonsense. What does an MBA get you when it comes to real marketing? Not much.

When I look at the Masterclass sales pages, they are shockingly terrible. They could be making SO MUCH MORE MONEY if they had a direct response copywriter and direct marketers on their team. Oh well.

Maybe they’re testing like crazy and long-form copy doesn’t work. I doubt that. There are direct marketing rookie mistakes all over the place like setting white type on a black background. Masterclass provides a textbook example of a company that’s thinking “branding” while they should be thinking “direct marketing.” Mind you, every company should be thinking "direct marketing" all the time.

I’ve written copy for many of the world’s top info-marketers. The Masterclass sales page is awful. It looks good, I suppose. But they could be making so much more cash. My clients in the info-marketing space are typically brilliant when it comes to direct marketing. Put some direct marketers in charge of Masterclass and the results would be sensational.

But I digress.

The ad I saw was for a series of videos with Goodby, Silverstein, and Partners, the San Francisco-based branding agency. The video includes Rich Silverstein and Jeff Goodby, the founders.

The agency has won a ton of awards and is perhaps most famous for the “Got Milk?” campaign.

In the promo, Jeff Goodby says, with great emphasis …

“Advertising is like vandalism. It’s loud. It’s in your face. And it’s still there the next day.”

Interesting.

I’m a big fan of advertising, specifically direct marketing. I’m not a big fan of vandalism. Someone vandalized my car last summer and it cost me $1,000. Great!

Jeff Goodby totally misses the point here. The goal of advertising is to sell products and services. Does that mean vandalism? Totally not.

I’m not thinking about vandalism when I’m writing copy. What am I thinking about?

Helping my clients be wildly successful. What the potential customer really wants. Finding which benefits of the product/service will appeal to those potential clients. The perfect execution of proven direct response copywriting techniques. Massive testing. Measuring everything to the penny. And more ...

Proof? David Ogilvy, John Caples, Gary Bencivenga, and Claude Hopkins would all agree.

In fact, here's what Gary Bencivenga writes in his Bencivenga Bullets.

"First, I believe the purpose of advertising is to sell, not win awards or applause."

If you want to argue with the copywriter the world's greatest direct marketers were lining up to hire, have at it.

And, of course, I must provide a link here to one of the greatest marketing videos ever produced: David Ogilvy, WE SELL OR ELSE. Click here now.

Advertising is not about awards. It’s not about the advertising hall of fame. It’s not about branding and cute milk moustache ads. It’s certainly not about vandalism. It’s about generating revenue, ethically, for my clients and helping them reach their business and personal goals.