ARE YOU ABOUT TO BE CAUGHT ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE 1980 GOLD PLAY? OR MISS IT ALTOGETHER BY NOT READING THE JANEWAY LETTER?

NO ONE BUT ELIOT JANEWAY HAS BEEN RIGHT— AND MARKET EVENTS HAVE MADE HIM RIGHTER BY THE DAY— ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ACTIONS THAT MADE GOLD TAKE OFF AGAIN.

He caught the gold bugs and their favorite analysts and chart-pointers on the bear side—the wrong side! — of their own market for the second time this year. Now they’re all getting back on the Janeway bandwagon for the second time this year. Their direction is finally right, though their timing has been consistently wrong, and their selectivity predictably reckless. What else is new?

The right way — the only way — to direct, select and time market moves, not just in gold, is to master the political calculations needed to make successful investment decisions. And Eliot Janeway is the master of how the action in gold holds the key to the performance of all other markets—especially silver— in this critical political year for the United States.

[Read more…] about ARE YOU ABOUT TO BE CAUGHT ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE 1980 GOLD PLAY?

One of my subscribers, who’s among the top five financial copywriters today, put me on the spot about the numbers from this promotion.

It’s a romantic notion to think that Dan Rosenthal rode off into the sunset with millions in royalties from just a few days of work, but it seems unlikely.

I’d gotten this info from one of Clayton Makepeace’s contributors a few years ago and taken it as fact.

Lesson? Trust but verify! Trust but verify!

This is a very good letter but not of blockbuster caliber and the numbers do not seem to add up.

So, I retract everything beneath the line.

And by the way, Dan is alive, well and still working, according to an acquaintance who met him for lunch in the Far East a few weeks ago.

This is Dan Rosenthal’s direct mail piece that brought in $12 million in orders in a few weeks.

The story goes that Dan went to the publisher with the idea, took two weeks to write and polish it and then walked away with 30% of the take.

What a concept.

No graphic design, no sidebars — just a 5-page paper-and-ink sales letter with a 1-page response form.

This is one of the all-time great sales letter openers for a financial newsletter. And with the price of gold closing in on three times the price per ounce when this letter mailed, it packs even more of a wallop.

Dan Rosenthal’s sales letter for the “Natural Resource Hunter.”

And here’s one of his print ads for the Silver & Gold Report.

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Dan Rosenthal is not only one of the legends of financial copywriting but he’s one of my all time favorite print ad copywriters.

This space ad for the Silver & Gold Report had insertions 25 years ago. I could easily see this in print today with few modifications.

“Millions of gold coins in circulation today are counterfeits

…and it’s impossible to spot most of them with the naked eye.”

Like a nice soothing cup of instant money?

Bank of America has got your fix.

This portentous Bank of America spot from the pre-Starbucks 1960s accurately captures the dual American dependence on caffeine and debt.

Decades later, BofA acquired Coutrywide Financial, one of the biggest instant money purveyors of our time.

(Transcript)

ANNOUNCER: Do you have money jitters? Ask the obliging Bank of America for a jar of soothing instant money. M – O – N – E – Y, in the form of a convenient personal loan, available now at Bank of America.

Of course, the junkie has hell to pay for all these “money fixes,” as this graph shows.

The headline:

“Fortunately, most Investors think like losers. That’s how people like me get rich.”

The photo:

A smug, smiling Julian Snyder straddles his limo, across the street from the New York Stock Exchange.

It takes no more than two seconds to absorb his positioning, making this a most memorable investment ad.

The appeal of the book, The Way of The Hunter-Warrior: How To Make A Killing In Any Market is based on the power of metaphor.

Take the following: [Read more…] about The Way of The Hunter-Warrior: Julian M. Snyder (Investment Ad #44)

If  you had to sum up just one rule of successful financial direct mail marketing, this would be a candidate:

“[People] walk around with their umbilical cords in hand, looking for a place to plug them in.”

As a copywriter and marketer, I always try to stay mindful of this, but the truth is, I’m as susceptible to this reality as anyone else.

There’s an old adage that salesmen are easy to sell to and since copywriters are salesmen in print, many of us spend a small fortune being persuaded.

Perhaps, you’re familiar with the above quotation via a well known marketing guru, who attributes the line to “a friend.”

[Read more…] about Financial Direct Mail That Sells

Imagine a world in which big banks actually had to create good advertising — a world where they didn’t sit high above Uncle Sam’s perpetual safety net.

Today, it’s accepted that certain banks are “too big to fail.”

The big banks have it made.

They get endless rivers of cash from Sugar Daddy Sam while facing no risk or consequences from their actions, like continuing to load up on toxic derivatives.

If they “win” they reap the rewards. If they lose, they can always fall back on Joe Tax Payer and Uncle Ben Bernanke.

Meanwhile, banks continue to squeeze the life out of small businesses by cutting their credit lines to the bone.

This wasn’t the way it always was, though it’s hard to remember a time before this.

This ad from a quarter century ago is proof that once upon a time, banks actually gave the appearance of caring…both about their customers and their advertising.

Anyone who lived in the New York Metropolitan area will remember the television ads for the Bowery Bank, featuring New York Yankee Hall-Of-Famer, Joe DiMaggio.

Here’s a print ad that’s just as memorable for copywriters.

It’s certainly something you wouldn’t see in 2010 — a long copy ad that pushes the product and plays the role of helpful adviser by demystifying the process of choosing certificates of deposit.

I really liked this copy from the middle column.

The other day, an ad in this paper promised CDs so rich that we had to read every word. Had a competitor gotten the drop on us?

Not at all. We had a lawyer decipher the 125-word footnote, written in the teeny-weeny size ad people call “mouse type.” The big numbers up above didn’t look so big after that.

Look before you leap. Read the footnotes first and ask lots of questions at the bank.

The Bowery would rather see you walk away from a deal you didn’t like than sign you up for one you misunderstood. The Bowery’s promise: the whole story every time.

The Bowery was gobbled up long ago by a chain of ever larger acquiring banks but good advertising remains timeless.

The info premium, “10 Ways To Make Your Money Worth More,” was offered countless times in their print advertising.

Click here for the PDF of “A Bill Of Rights For CD Buyers.”

This is a 1979 ad for Howard Ruff’s best-selling How To Prosper During the Coming Bad Years.

Though the specifics of this ad are fairly different from the 2008 Credit Crisis, the tone is a close enough match.

A handy ad for marketers to have in their arsenals nowadays.

Howard Ruff’s, Ruff Times, had one of the largest newsletter subscription bases in the 1980’s and he was at the height of his popularity during the gold bug fever of the late 70’s and early 80’s.

Two well known names today are Howard Ruff alumni: Jay Abraham and Doug D’Anna.

Ruff predicted an inflationary depression like the one that devastated Germany in the 1920’s, as well as a collapse of the U.S. currency to be replaced by a barter economy.

In a way, he was in the vanguard of the survivalist movement, advocating the storage of a year’s supply of dehydrated food, water purification devices and ammunition. [Read more…] about How To Prosper During the Coming Bad Years (Gloom and Doom Ad #8)

Whatever unfolds with the financial markets in the next few weeks, marketers need a game plan and be prepared to act quickly.

Here’s a lead generation ad for Howard Ruff’s Crash Course for the Serious Amateur Investor: How You Can Be A Successful Investor In Good Times or Bad.

This ad appeared in New York City area newspapers one month after the 1987 stock market crash.

Many marketers may not realize Merrill Lynch was a company built in part on direct response advertising.

This is the 6,540 word display ad written by copywriter Louis Engel in the 1940’s.

The offer is buried deep in the ad, yet it fetched over 10,000 responses.

In the last few days, I’ve spoken to friends around the globe — many who are marketers — and they’re lamenting over “losing money” in the financial markets.

We marketers should be grateful to be in the best (and most accountable) profession on the planet…producing riches out of thin air…and without the need for the colossal leverage that sent Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch (and potentially A.I.G.) down the tubes.

We can wake up  tomorrow morning a run a promotion that can fill our coffers with cold hard cash.

What of the lifelong employees of Lehman who had most of their assets in company stock?