How Billion Dollar Companies Write “How To Reports”

Many people consider direct response marketing as a medium for peddling $39.95 gadgets, diet pills and costume jewelry.

Not so.

The power of direct response copy works as surely on a prospect for a pair of thermal underwear as it does on one procuring a million dollar fire safety system.

This direct response ad from Johnson Controls is exemplary in every way. I don’t know who the writer was but it comes from Fax Cone’s agency: Foot Cone & Belding

Like all good “special reports,” the advertising in itself is valuable. It defines 13 essentials of a fire safety system.

Imagine a building safety manager meeting these 13 bullet points. By the time he’s gotten through half of them, his mind is racing. By the last bullet, he’s likely worried.

Fortunately, he can send for the “Free Fire Safety Booklet” offered in the last paragraph.

The proof mechanisms in this ad are superb as well.

Johnson Controls has designed and installed more computerized automation systems than any other company by far. This report tells you 13 things a modern fire safety system must or should do and how it can be made to pay for itself in just three years.

“How To Keep Your Building From Being Branded a Firetrap”