Direct Response Copywriting Swipe File

Listen to direct response copywriters and they’ll tell you corporate copywriters are clueless branding nuts.

Corporate copywriters will tell you direct response copywriters are nothing more than peddlers of get rich quick schemes, enlargement pills, and slimming devices.

Who’s right? (I like to keep a foot in both camps.)

In the timeless words of the late Rodney King, “Can we all get along?”

Since the demise of Ogilvy & Mather Direct, corporate advertising ain’t what it used to be.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of great examples of corporate direct response advertising.

This ad hails from the late Ron Hoff, who was executive creative director at Ogilvy & Mather in New York, and Foote, Cone & Belding in Chicago.

Ron Hoff Talks Corporate Advertising was part of a series from the brilliant campaign: “The Wall Street Journal. It Works.”

Ken Roman, former CEO of Ogivly & Mather, is a fan of this campaign as well. I’ll have several more of these gems soon.

If you want to learn how to broadcast your expertise out to the broadest masses, this one is a keeper.

I’m partial to these two concepts:

…they [copywriters] should never start writing until they have seven times as many facts as they will actually use in an ad.

I have often wondered why corporate ads always strive to make the reader believe that the company is infallible. Admit one negative and the rest of your advertisement will gain believability.

So, here’s the ad: Ron Hoff Talks Corporate Advertising

1. Does it communicate, quickly, the “basics” of your business?

When you spend every hour of every working day thinking about your corporation, it’s easy to assume other people know all about your company. The products it makes. The industries it serves. The scope of its operation.
Corporate advertising often starts from a point far beyond the reader’s knowledge. Important legislators in your audience may not know you. Important investors may be only vaguely aware of your name. [Read more…] about Corporate Advertising: 12 Questions To Ask

A client consulted with me recently about an online sales letter and autoresponder campaign.

He told me the sales letter used to convert like gangbusters but now it was on life support.

Usually, it takes some probing to get to the cause of such a change in events, but a quick glance at his sales letter revealed the problem in moments.

His product looked good.

Copy respectable.

Offer enticing.

But the sales page had a bad case of a common malady called bonusitis.

Never heard of bonusitis?

[Read more…] about Bonusitis

Hard to believe the Bencivenga 100 Seminar was over 5 years ago.

I continue to meet and do business with many of the attendees of that historic gathering.

And speaking of attendees, the B-100 was like the Oscars of direct marketing. Legends and players of the highest caliber were all over the halls of the St. Regis Hotel.

I remember Doug D’Anna darting around in a dark suit in between sessions — an A-Lister on top of his game who was there to get better.

Gary called Doug, “one of my ablest competitors over the years” and it’s easy to see why.

Here’s a video where Doug walks you through one of his greatest DM achievements, The Great Retirement Betrayal. It was mailed in excess of 25 million times.

It’s called: “How To Write Long Copy That Makes Money.”

I’ve rarely seen someone so brimming with enthusiasm and so willing to share as Doug in this video.

(Full disclosure: I am not an affiliate and I get goose eggs if you buy Doug’s terrific DVD.)

Yesterday was a rare day when I went to look at server stats and noticed hundreds of visitors came to my blog via an article in “The Guardian” by Tom Meltzer entitled:

“The advert that just keeps going: It’s probably the longest-running ad in newspaper history.  So what’s the secret of its success?”

Tom Meltzer’s article was eyebrow-raising for two reasons. [Read more…] about Shamed By Your Swiping? “The Guardian” Challenges Lawrence

This is the tried-and-tested lead generation ad for The Institute of Children’s Literature.

It’s been going strong for over 30 years in both space and direct mail.

This space ad is the latest incarnation of the piece written by legendary copywriter, Malcom Decker.

If you’re a copy connoisseur, you’ll want to download the PDF by clicking on the thumb on the left and read it at your leisure.

Two of the main take-aways are the magic of the word “Institute” which has been used by savvy direct marketers since the 1920’s and the response-driving power of the “aptitude test.”

You know everbody “gets in.” Don’t you?

In case you missed the first piece on Swiping Successful Business Models, here it is.

The year was 1919.

18-year-old copywriter, Lillian Eichler, was working for the New York Ad Agency of Ruthrauff & Ryan.

Her first problem:

To move 1,000 dusty copies of the pre-1900 Encyclopedia of Etiquette, written by Eleanor Holt, which were sitting on Doubleday’s shelves.

Her second problem:

Most of the 1,000 copies were returned after the 5-day-trial period. Respondents weren’t thrilled with the ludicrously archaic text and pictures.

Lillian’s ad copy had emptied the shelves in mere days.

Doubleday, being the smart publishers they were, realized if Lillian’s ad copy could move 19th-Century books, she was probably gifted enough to rewrite the book herself and have a second go at advertising it.

The result:

Lillian’s revamped effort, The Book of Etiquette, sold two million copies at $2 each, in the course of two years, resulting in $2.5 million in net profits.

Nearly $26 million in 2008 dollars.

All inspired by the wish to unload a roomful of dusty books…and the vision of a young copywriter.

Reading this copy in 2008, it’s stunning to realize it came from the pen of an 18-year-old girl, nearly 90 years ago.

This ad was was written by Philip W. Lennen in 1924 and effectively launched the ad agency Lennen & Mitchell.

Lennen credited this ad in part with taking the agency from zero in billings in 1924 to $12,000,000 by 1948.

Lennen described the ad as follows:

“The effect of the advertisement was electric. It secured us leads on two very important accounts, which are still in our house today.”

Here’s an interesting comment on “conference copy.”

“Conference copy seldom holds a candle to the job done by the solitary worker who shuts himself up with his problem — and lives with it until he licks it.”

If you’ve been writing ads for any period of time, you know there’s a world of difference between a good bullet and a great bullet.

Good bullets make you say: “hum, that’s kind of interesting.”

Great bullets freeze you in your tracks and get you excited. And if the ad writer can pull off a half dozen great bullets, then the sale is virtually cinched.

I once heard A-list writer, David Deutch, remark that the secret to writing great bullets is to “bait the hook.”

I understand this to mean wrapping a prospect’s existing belief or a proof element around a claim and therby strengthening it severalfold.

Here’s an example.

Version A

• Seven secrets for safe-guarding your home

Version B

• Ex-professional burglar’s seven secrets for safe-guarding your home

Version A is good, of course. It employs the tried-and-tested specificity of numbers. But Version B bursts off the page thanks to the proof mechanism of “ex-professional burglar.”

Investing the time in reading world class bullets is an activity that pays for itself many times over.

Here’s an ad in the self-help and personal development arenas that’s loaded with great bullets.