Direct Response Copywriting Swipe File

Thomas Aquinas spelled out the Seven Deadly sins or vitia capitalia (capital sins) in the 13th Century.

Pride, covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and sloth. (I’ve only nailed down four of these within the last hour.)

800 years later, Max Sackheim is sitting in his office on 5th Avenue trying to come up with a great headline for a full page display ad for his ad agency.

What does he do? He smartly swipes Aquinas.

And thanks to Saint Thomas, Max not only gets the seed for a great headline but the whole structure of his ad. Click here for this behemoth of an ad.

A Google search of “seven deadly” mistakes reveals this is heavily swiped.

Here’s a few results I found based on this versatile headline.

• Seven Deadly Mistakes Presenters Make

• Seven Deadly Web Development Mistakes

• Seven Deadly Home Buying Mistakes

This is a headline that’s always going to have juice because of the magic of the number seven and the proof mechanism built into the headline. See Max Sackheim’s earlier home run ad here.

With some stylistic updates, there’s hardly an advertiser today who couldn’t profit from a careful read of this ad.

Ask Yourself These Questions About Your Advertising

1. Does it give the reader a reason for NOT reading?
2. Are we using headlines that whisper sweet nothings?
3. Are we using pictures that do not talk?
4. Is our advertising cursed with cleverness?
5. Does our approach go around Robin Hood’s barn?
6. Do our advertisements leave ’em dangling?
7. Do our advertisements contain “Yackety-Yack” copy?

Why should anyone read your advertising? Is it NEWS? Does it PROMISE anything of importance for the reader? Or is it just “another ad?”

Why should anyone believe your advertising? Are you really convincing – or just “talky?”

Why should anyone do anything about your advertising? Do you give them a chance – or do you leave them high and dry?

Can we get a hallelujah for Max?

If you’ve heard the story of a young Gene Schwartz working one day in the mail room and a few short years later becoming a mail order millionaire, then here is an interesting ad.

It was written in 1975 by the son of the man who showed Gene the ropes in the early 50s, Cecil Hoge, the founder and president of the Huber Hoge, Inc.

The promise of this ad is essentially a stone’s throw away from the internet marketing pitches that plague us today… but there’s a key difference.

Most of those offers lack the sophistication of even hinting that they might not be for you.

Not here. [Read more…] about Mail Order Ad by Gene Schwartz’s Copywriting Mentor: Cecil Hoge

Advertising has a lot in common with chess.

To the outsider looking in, it can be hard to understand what’s going on.

“Hey, why did White resign?” is a typical comment, you’d find in a random YouTube video. [Read more…] about I Like This Headline… Too Bad No One Else Did

In 2016, I was having lunch with European marketing magnate and world class value investor, Norman Rentrop.

Norman is remarkably down to earth, so you might not take him for a billionaire… UNTIL you spend a few hours with him, observe his insatiable curiosity about all things and take in his incisive insights about business and life that puts mere mortals like me to shame. [Read more…] about Copy Test: “Write If You Want Work” (UPDATE)

There’s been a lot written on Bruce Barton, so I figured I’d add a small piece to the pile.

Bruce Barton packed a lot into one lifetime. He was…

* Chairman and co-founder of one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, BBD&O

* Publicist, magazine editor and fiction writer

* United States Congressman and a prominent rival of FDR and the New Deal. (FDR singled out Barton and two other Republican foes in the fantasy firm of  “Martin, Barton & Fish.”)

* A source of countless cling-to-the-memory quotes and catchy phrases (like: “If advertising has flaws, so has marriage.”)

* And…one heck of a copywriter.

A donation letter he penned to 24 wealthy men in 1925, requesting $1,000, received a 100% response rate. [Read more…] about Bruce Barton: The Advertising Copywriter

One late summer evening, two copywriters sat down at their keyboards to craft sales letters for almost identical products.

They were very much alike, these two copywriters.

Both had years of experience writing every type of ad and were dynamos at selling to their core markets.

Both writers were also dedicated students of direct response marketing and were up on the latest trends and techniques for making their clients (and themselves) ever larger profits.

But while one writer spent an entire week on writing and edits, his leisure-loving colleague cranked his final draft out within hours of sitting down that first evening.

And here’s the capper. [Read more…] about A Tale Of Two Copywriters