“What Warren Buffett told me in October 2017 about the future of newspapers…
And how to mine the 150-YEAR TREASURY of print advertising to SMASH your competition… long after the last newspaper rolls off the press
PLUS inflation OFFENSE for 2023 and beyond
Dear Marketing Friend,
Will you look back one day and declare: “2023 was a BREAKTHROUGH year!?”
Forget about inflation, recessions and even depressions.
You need just two things — IDEAS and ACTION.
Let me explain.
No matter your market or industry…
No matter how long you’ve been in business…
No matter what city or country you call home…
We’re ALL in the IDEA business
And no matter what goes down in the in the world economy — including the now endless parade of emergencies (pandemic, climate, energy and war) — it’s important to cleave to this truth…
Marketers are the middlemen between prospects and dreams!
Because you’re never just selling a product or service — your offers bring ORDER to the lives of your prospects and customers — even if just in those moments they inhabit the world of promise and possibility in your ads.
Perhaps, you haven’t yet had your big BREAKTHROUGH.
Or perhaps, you’ve blazed your share of trails and are planning your “last hurrah.”
Whatever the case…
You’ve come to the right place.
And in case you’re wondering…
Why is a dysfunctional recluse like me claiming I can help you?
Let’s give it a whirl.
I’ll try to make this an “about me” page that’s more about YOU and the future of direct response… because I know this… your chances of hitting a grand slam SOAR, once you deep dive into the treasure filled ocean of winning advertising.
Here’s some of what you’ll find on this unusual “about me” page:
♦ Advice from two direct marketing HEAVYWEIGHTS… who’ve been in business for eight (8!) decades… on WINNING in any market!
♦ Profiting with Ogilvy’s “Instant Authority Secret”… whether you’ve been in business twenty years or two weeks
♦ The BILLION dollar brand that went from $497 a share to 43 cents… when they TURNED OFF direct response
♦ The REAL difference between a recession and a depression… and how to SUCCEED in good and bad times alike… as “an economy of one”
♦ What to do if you don’t have a customer list yet? (From a marketer who went from pushing a broom on the factory floor… to acquiring MILLIONS of customers
♦ And more!
Who am I?
I’m a direct response addict, advertiser and archivist.
A hopeless bibliophile, history buff, linguistic dilettante, gym rat and dad. The young’uns often rib me about being a boomer. I’m not!
Now a semi-sane teetotaler and a pretty pious (though flawed!) Latin Mass Roman Catholic. I’m 1890 ELO rated in chess and a former governor of the storied Marshall Chess Club in New York City.
I met my future wife at the Marshall late one summer night while having a beer and solving some chess compositions with my friend, Grandmaster William Lombardy, who was Fischer’s coach during the 1972 World Championship against Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, among other accomplishments.
I promptly toppled my bottle of beer on the inlaid chess table within thirty seconds after Anjelina sat down. Interestingly, my parents met in Washington Square Park just three blocks south, so I guess there’s some romantic providence about Greenwich Village where I’m concerned.
I’ve been fortunate to have worked with hundreds of fantastic marketers, copywriters and business builders from around the globe, from value investing billionaires like Norman Rentrop, to serial entrepreneurs and world class health and beauty brand builders like Peter Nicholas… and from founders and copy chiefs of every sized company… to neophyte copywriters, direct marketers and veteran entrepreneurs, who’ve just discovered the raw POWER of direct response.
I’m still captivated by all facets of direct response, but particularly the old school of direct mail and print. I’ve invested over a million bucks on subscriptions and products to keep my name (and aliases!) seeded on direct mail lists.
But it’s PRINT advertising that still captivates me the most… and even…
This closing chapter of newspaper print advertising…
in the States offers overlooked opportunities for the right advertisers. I know many direct response players who’ve made their bones during the GOLDEN age of print. One of my long time clients and friends in Australia produced an ad that pulled 15 times ad cost.
He paid $5,000 per insertion in The Sydney Morning Herald in the 1990s and ran the table for response.
When you can reliably turn a $5,000 insertion into $75,000 in gross sales, you pull out all the stops and buy media EVERYWHERE… before your ad fatigues… and more urgently, before the legion of unsavory knock-off artists realizes what’s going on. Interestingly, almost everything my Aussie friend marketed was front-end only.
Australia is only 10% smaller than Brazil geographically, yet its population of just under 26 million is DWARFED by Brazil’s bustling 214 million. Brazil has been on FIRE in terms of direct response over the last decade.
Long time subscriber and copy chief at the mighty Empiricus Research in São Paulo, Roberto Altenhofen, must have single-handedly sent thousands of his able countrymen my way over the years.
Classic American direct mail and space advertising has been their diet for ratcheting up response… because the Web is just a blip on the screen in the scheme of things.
The fact is CRACKING copy works in almost any media, whether it’s online, DRTV, direct mail, radio or print.
But there’s an important thing to keep in mind about print. Long after the last newspaper runs off the press… the “technique” of print will LIVE on!
I’ll confidently go a step further: 10 years from today, you can continue to mine the LEGACY of print advertising and…
CASH IN on 150 years of “idea jackpots”
to SMASH your competition!
Seriously, almost every product or service you can think of (and a myriad you couldn’t even fathom) has been sold through print.
Whether it’s a…
– Lead magnet that lands 150,000 paying subscribers, like Sheet Music Magazine
– “Good cop, bad cop” ad where the founders spar on the page while offering the prospect a “better deal” as in Einstein Moomjy
– Fundraising fun of the Gentlefolk’s Aid Association fishing for WHALES in the ocean of print
– Kookie bass fisherman’s gadget that reeled in $100 million a year in sales, like the “The Flying Lure” or a…
– Rodale Books classic that turned a “small caliber” bullet into GIANT sales
Warren Bufffett may be right about the death of the print newspaper, as he conveyed to me in October of 2017. I’ll give you the full scoop in a moment, as promised.
But the print magazine sure isn’t going anywhere.
Have a look at this textbook lead generation from Fisher Investments with $197 billion in managed funds. When Fisher’s marketing director contacted me in July of 2013 about how to make their direct mail advertising better…
I answered him in one word: “TESTING!”
But Fisher’s print and online advertising has always been beyond reproach.
Look how their full-page insertion from the August 2022 edition of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance segues to a flawless online landing page.
Times and technology may change, but…
Direct response remains the SECRET WEAPON
of the little guy and gal…
The kids mock my “boomerdom.”
You don’t realize how slow and cognitively challenged you are till you watch one of these “digital natives” run circles round you… texting at light speed… while switching among Snap, Insta and Discord.
There’s no contest… I’ve already conceded that battle.
But I know this.
If my head were threatened with the chopping block… I’ll take tested and proven ideas from print any day… versus obsessing over the latest tech trinkets.
from Joel Raphaelson
Because when you’re swimming against the tide in business… classic direct response offers a LIFE RAFT… you can almost always count on to get back to SAFE harbor.
It’s true.
No matter whether you’ve been writing copy for 30 days or 30 years…
No matter if you’re a rookie writer or an A-lister… founder or freelancer…
No matter your industry or specialization… city or country.
It helps having a few tricks up your sleeve too, like:
Ogilvy’s “Instant Authority Secret”… on page 65
… for KNOWING MORE… than everyone else.
Okay, you don’t actually need to know more than everyone else. That’s the beauty of this secret… which isn’t really a secret since it’s been out in the open since 1983.
You just have to appear to know more… and it’s vital your prospects believe so.
Why?
Because prospects perform a ruthless calculus on you and your business in a matter of seconds. Do it the way Ogilvy demonstrates and you can convey authority (near INSTANTLY) with your advertising in almost any market.
But what if you don’t have a long track record or you’re just starting out?
Let’s turn to page 65 in my dog-eared copy of Ogilvy On Advertising for starters.
to approve these “house ads”
You may have bumped into these ads before. Of course, “house ads” are not ads for selling a home, rather they’re an agency’s advertising that promotes its expertise, knowledge and services.
Ads like:
♦ “How to create advertising that sells”
♦ “How to create financial advertising that sells”… and
♦ “How to advertise travel”
You get the idea.
Few understand this process better than Ken Roman, former CEO of Ogilvy & Mather.
Back in 2010, I interviewed Ken Roman during the launch for his book: The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising.
Like a typical, turbo-charged CEO, Ken carried on the conversation from the back of a yellow cab, while cruising around the snowdrifts of Manhattan during a minor blizzard.
He offers a detailed explanation on the process of how these epic ads came together, (including Ogilvy’s “magic lantern”) plus the role of his brilliant partner and copy chief, Joel Raphaelson, in overseeing the campaign.
These ads sparked red HOT interest…
… in Ogilvy & Mather Direct and generated reprint requests for ten years after the ads ran. More importantly, they reeled in plenty of NEW BUSINESS in the teeming ocean waters of print.
But what if you’re not monolithic agency?
What if you’re a one-man or one-woman shop… a freelancer or solopreneur?
You might even have a limited track record… or no track record at all.
What to do?
(See page 65… for the answer.)
Here’s the lowdown from Ogilvy on the aforementioned page 65 in Ogilvy On Advertising:
“The purpose of my ads was to project the agency as knowing more about advertising. You may argue that this strategy was ill-advised, knowledge being no guarantee of creativity: But at least it was unique, because no other agency could have run such advertisements — they lacked the required knowledge. My ads not only promised useful information, they provided it. And they worked — in many countries.
This strategy goes way beyond the old sales adage: “the more you tell, the more you sell.”
Ogilvy proclaims: “The purpose of my ads was to project the agency as knowing more about advertising.”
And the beauty of this approach is… it works whether you’ve been in business twenty years or two weeks… IF you’re willing to commit to the necessary research… crystalize it… and get it on paper.
Would you like to project iron-clad authority in your marketing… that transcends the product or service you’re selling?
Listen to Ogilvy.
1) Promise useful information and…
2) Provide it!
You need a strong CTA (call to action) too, but you likely know that.
It doesn’t get any simpler than this. And if your “global headquarters” happens to be a desk wedged against a basement furnace… don’t worry, because it hardly matters these days.
Don’t doubt the power of this approach!
Because it works whether you’re selling financial services, gourmet food, or even drywall repair. Use this ad as a template… and if you’re planning on running a “How to create drywall repair advertising that sells”… lemme know, I’m in the market.
After our packed interview, Ken offered to put me in touch with two direct marketing heavyweights.
Jerry Pickholz was the former chairman of O&M Direct Worldwide.
He built the biggest and best direct marketing company in the business for Ogilvy & Mather.
We had a lively conversation, including the role of Facebook in direct marketing at the time in November 2012. I opined it was little more than a gimmick, Jerry insisted Facebook was a reality and “part of today’s direct marketing.”
Jerry was right.
When I asked him what was the largest direct mail campaign he oversaw, he answered: “Every household in America for AT&T!”
Drayton Bird was the other heavyweight.
I informed Ken I’d been following Drayton for years and I scrupulously heed his advice, especially about “stealing from the best.”
Fittingly, I’ve pilfered more from Drayton than anybody. So let’s keep the trend going.
I must have referred to the email Drayton sent out on May 28, 2022 a dozen times. The subject line is: “Here are 10 simple suggestions for lawyers.”
And since I’m not a lawyer, Drayton instructively adds this line at the top of the body copy: “>> (They’ll work for you too).”
Why listen to the old Bird from Bristol?
One reason among many is Drayton has been through more:
Recessions, market corrections and downturns…
than almost all of us. So I lapped up his “10 simple suggestions.” These are the FUNDAMENTALS for success in marketing and business in ANY time, but particularly in an economic crunch.
Let’s look at two of them, this one first: “Simple Suggestion #3: Keep marketing”
By the way, if you too have a larcenous appetite for sensational money-making ideas, you should get on Drayton Bird’s list pronto.
Drayton’s “Simple Suggestion #3” is apropos for our times: “Keep marketing.”
“Try to leave the coming recession in better shape than your competitors. Keep in touch with your clients – including the past ones – and prospects. It costs next to nothing to keep emailing. Do so.
Some of your competitors will give up in despair and if you keep going when others quit, you always emerge from a recession in a much stronger position than them.”
This applies to one-man shops and multinationals alike!
Because there are different ways of imparting lessons in business and life: one is following sage advice… and the other is watching a TRAIN WRECK in real time.
Take Revlon.
They turned OFF direct response advertising…
now Revlon’s GONE
Revlon was founded during the dark days of the Great Depression.
It’s been a staple in cosmetics counters ever since.
And it was direct response advertising with cracking copy that built Revlon into a billion dollar brand.
But 90 years later, the company is on the ropes. It may not yet be gone, but it’s on life support.
How does a brand with products in almost every retail location in America go under?
It’s sadly simple. They STOPPED doing what got them to the top.
Take a look at this chart. It reads like a corporate “death on the installment plan” with a stock price going from $497 to 43 cents.
Granted it’s a different world than when Revlon launched 90 years ago. Take social media.
Today’s social media superstars, like Rihanna and Kylie Jenner, push their cosmetics products directly to millions of followers on Instagram.
Few can compete with that.
That’s why you…
NEVER give up the “home court advantage” of direct response
… especially when it’s the very thing that built your brand.
Revlon’s star began fading long before social media came on the scene. Frankly, things started going south not long after Ron Perelman’s hostile takeover of the company in 1985.
But back in its glory days, Revlon tested like crazed arsonists. Here’s a great example. This ad got shut down faster than a three-card monte game outside a police precinct because of over the top claims.
Since it was behemoth Revlon, they paid the fine and moved on.
Mind you, no one is suggesting making bogus claims to bump sales. NEVER do it. But it’s better to push the envelope with rigorous TESTING… than it is to sit on your laurels.
In the words of my copywriting mentor, Gary Bencivenga, “Write like a crazed arsonist — edit like a Supreme Court Justice.”
It’s high time I get to the part with the “Oracle of Omaha” or…
Warren Buffett on the death of printed newspapers…
If you had a chance to ask Warren Buffett a few questions about business and life, what would you ask him?
I had such an opportunity in October of 2017, though not by the conventional means you may think.
Back then, my wife took her finance class to Omaha to attend the annual Berkshire meeting, along with select universities from around the country.
During a group lunch with several university finance classes present, one of my wife’s more assertive students walked over to the neighboring table and asked: “Mr. Buffett, why don’t you come and sit at our University of Arizona table?”
Now that’s a girl who’s going places.
And hot diggity, he obliged!
Guess who prepared a crib sheet of questions he handed to his loving spouse in advance?
It was a long shot, but:
I got my questions to Warren Buffett… without bidding, without travel, and without an outlay of millions…
And that suits a bootstrapping quasi-hermit like me just fine.
The first question I posed, since Warren Buffett owned 30 newspapers at the time was: “How much longer is there for printed newspapers?”
His answer: “They’re going down the drain. Maybe, five years left for many of them.”
He was mostly on the mark.
He also answered a question on living in a big city versus a small one. He once lived in New York and commented: “The City is all about short-term stimulation and people are less reflective. In Omaha, I’ve lived in the same house for over 50 years, a few blocks from my grandparents. There’s plenty of convenience and resources at my disposal.”
And here’s an interesting answer to a question about “160 IQs.” (Blessed relief for some of us.)
“There’s no need for too high of an IQ. If you’ve got a 160 IQ, sell 30 points to someone else. You have to be a good person, willing to contribute and create value. High IQs were in abundance at Long Term Capital Management, look where that got them. Above all: read, read, read.”
Speaking of reading, I’m looking for a few good men and women just like YOU because readers make the world go round.
I’d like to offer Magic Headlines Volume 2
YOURS FREE!
No credit card needed for this instant PDF download.
Of course, I’ll send you some marketing emails once in a while.
If you don’t care for them, you can tell me to buzz off.
Where was I? Oh, yeah, back to my print ad fetish.
You can clearly see the downward trend since 2017. There are far fewer advertisers and most of the giants have pulled out.
Indeed, a few months after broadcasting an email with the subject line, “Marketing Gems & Lunch with Warren Buffett,” I got a reply from a friend who was one of the biggest and ablest alt-health info marketers in print.
Here’s what he wrote: “The question about ‘newspapers down the drain’ in less than 5 yrs sent chills down my body!”
He wasn’t alone — lots of advertisers pulled the plug on print.
One day the last printed newspaper will roll off the press.
But it will hardly matter.
You see, yesteryear’s marketers have already sold the things you and I do today… already endured the peaks and valleys of good and bad markets.
And besides the near endless treasure trove of advertising ideas you can capture from our great predecessors from the past…
You can also learn a thing or two about the right MIND SET.
Recessions and depressions come and go.
But marketers remain the middlemen between prospects and dreams!
in tough times in this 1974 smash hit!
This is also an attitude of realizing people will ALWAYS continue to buy and sell and GET RICH… no matter how dystopian the economy gets, barring of course the dark extremes of some of my favorite films: Mad Max, The Day After and Threads.
And speaking of dark, do you know the difference between a recession and a depression?
I’ll tell you:
“A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, but a depression is when you lose your own.”
Maybe you’re an old timer like me and recall Ronald Reagan springing this line on the campaign trail in September 1980.
But Reagan got this zinger from labor leader, Dave Beck.
Think about this amusing yet profound quote for a moment. Because this concept impacts the way you understand EVERY NAME that crosses your prospect and customer lists.
And if you don’t yet have a customer file, stay tuned for some VITAL advice from a billion-dollar selling marketer on how to build one.
For now, here’s the original source of the quote from the front page of the Portland Press Herald, February 15, 1954,
Beck was a wily union man and negotiator, but it would be hard for even him to get away with: “I’m strictly non-partisan” today.
Try telling someone you’re “apolitical” nowadays and they just might reply: “But are you an apolitical liberal or an apolitical conservative?”
Politics aside…
There’s one thing everyone understands…
and that’s financial PAIN.
Take a look at your customer file and EXPLORE the names.
Which of your customers is experiencing a recession… which a depression? Which of their customers is in the same boat?
Child’s play to understand, yet a head-spinning realization at the same time.
It sure beats the dry parlance of economists that put readers to sleep. Like, a depression is “a decline in real GDP exceeding 10%, or a recession lasting 2 or more years.”
But the truth is it doesn’t matter what economists proclaim because…
As a marketer and business builder…
you’re “an economy of one”
Cultivate this attitude while you keep exploring and expanding your customer and prospect lists, while concentrating on the things you KNOW.
That’s the other tidbit from Drayton which saved me several fortunes over the years.
Simple Suggestion #4: “Don’t waste time on stuff that’s nothing to do with you.”
“No point in reading about Bitcoin if you don’t understand it; no point in knowing you can do well investing in gold if you have no spare cash.
Keep an eye on everything you think interesting or instructive.
But invest your time, thought, energy on what is relevant to you, nothing else. If it is nothing to do with how your practice might succeed, ignore it.”
Drayton loathes flattery, but you’d have to be mad not to listen to him.
Here’s someone else worth listing to — Dan Rosenthal has been in the business a whopping 8 DECADES, just like Drayton.
The great financial copywriter, who launched the first $5,000 advisory service and sold it out to 200 subscribers within a week, lives in the Far East these days.
Known as the “copy ogre” for his gentile manner while copy chiefing writers, Dan wrote me from Bangkok in May of 2017.
This grizzled old gold bug sure sprinkled a lot of GOLD in that message including: “the best copy is ‘listened not written.’ You sit down. Let your client talk. He knows what his product is all about. You just have to write it down coherently and powerfully.”
Your bottom line as a marketer or copywriter depends on your FOCUS on opportunity, while tuning out all the noise.
Forget about “inflation defense” because the best defense is a strong OFFENSE.
You make the rules — that’s why you’re in marketing, right?
Keep fortifying your product or service because Rosser Reeves’ maxim (via Gary Bencivenga) is timeless:
“A gifted product is mightier than a gifted pen.”
The world’s greatest copy isn’t worth a dime if the product or service is shoddy.
Next, remember: your customer file is the most valuable asset you’ve got.
Legendary West Coast marketer, Bob Hemmings, tells the story of working as a young man for a jeweler at the massive 47th Street Jewelry Exchange in Manhattan in the late 1930s.
At the end of the day, all of the jewelers would empty their showcases and put their wares in a safe.
The exception?
Hemmings’ boss who…
Left his jewelry out on the counter and put his customer list in the safe
“If somebody steals my jewelry, the insurance company will pay,” he said to Hemmings.
“If I lose my list of customers, I’m out of business.”
(Source: Hatch, Denison. Target Marketing; Philadelphia Vol. 18, Iss. 9, (Sep 1995)
But what if you don’t have a customer list yet?
… or you’re looking to expand into new markets.
The best advice I’ve ever heard comes from a marketer who’s sold over a billion dollars worth of just ONE product: the “Amish space heater.”
He’s pocketed several hundred million dollars over the years in direct marketing and is now onto his (surprising!) second career.
He spoke publicly only once over the last thirty years and will NOT grant an interview to anyone. I know because I’ve tried to arrange one, my friendship with his operations manager notwithstanding.
Rod Napier has had several million names in multiple markets in his customer file over the years. Here’s his OLD SCHOOL ADVICE about what to do if you’re just starting to build your customer list. Same applies with your first prospect list!
VITAL NOTE: Many will scoff at this, the same they do at Gary Halbert’s recommendation about writing a sales letter BY HAND to impress copywriting technique on a neural level.
They’ll flat out IGNORE this counsel and just rely on an email marketing platform instead. There’s no getting through to these types. All one can say is perhaps someone with over a MILLION NAMES on his customer file knows more than you.
Onward!
♦ Get 3×5 index cards and write or print the names of your customers (even if it’s still a handful) as well as ALL the information you have on each customer: contact info, products or services they’ve bought, number of purchases, transaction values, etc.
♦ Get a shoebox and store the index cards with your customers’ information inside. Review the cards often and keep a record of how many times you’ve contacted them, what else you can sell them and who they can refer to you. Work like mad on your lead generation and customer acquisition so you can keep adding names to your file.
♦ Put your pride aside! There’s a tactile value to this practice that transcends conventional wisdom. The man responsible for this advice once pushed a broom around the warehouse floor of the company he rose to the top of.
And speaking of lead generation, perhaps we can keep in touch? The easiest way to do so is through the free Magic Headlines offer just beneath.
Yours for bolder response,
Lawrence Bernstein
866-863-4850
(Toll-free 24 hour hotline in North America)
I’m looking for a few good men and women just like YOU because readers make the world go round.
I’d like to offer Magic Headlines Volume 2
YOURS FREE!
No credit card needed for this instant PDF download.
Of course, I’ll send you some marketing emails once in a while.
If you don’t care for them, you can tell me to buzz off.
Some comments from clients, colleagues and friends…
who I bribed asked(!) for a blurb
“I love the mix of past and present which shows that direct mail is still viable today.
I live in London, there is no other way for me to get access to this stuff over here.”
(Ranveer Singh, London Copywriter)
“There are few who can hold a candle to Lawrence Bernstein when it comes to knowledge of direct mail and print advertising, past and present. I turn to him for one reason and one reason only — because he’s a walking encyclopedia. His input has helped me with significant customer events.”
(Perry Marshall, The man’s got a Wiki page.)
“Lawrence, thank you for the deep dive into the treasure filled ocean of winning direct marketing pieces.
Looks like you are not only a triple AAA (addict, advertiser and archivist) direct response genius. You literally BREATHE direct response wisdom.”
(Gabi Weidmann, Top German Copywriter, Arzberg, Germany)
“Lawrence Bernstein is the best — and most obsessed — direct marketing archivist I’ve ever met.
More important than that, he’s one of the best teachers at explaining why all these classic ads and sales letters work like gangbusters. What he offers is truly a multi-million dollar direct response education.
In fact, if you can’t figure out how to cram a copious quantity of cashola into your coffers with what Lawrence offers, I predict a steady stream of name tags, paper hats and “you want fries with that?” in your future.”
(Doberman Dan, www.DobermanDan.com)
“I just want to thank you for creating this.
This is easily the most useful copywriting tool since the invention of the word processor. I’ve gone through nearly a ream of paper printing out great, hard-to-find controls.”
Tricia Geib, Geib Direct
“I have the hard drive plugged in all the time. :)”
(Nik Thakorlal, CEO and Founder of LeadsHook)
“From zero to $20 million in two years… at 25 years of age”
(João Eduardo de Campos, Brazilian supplement selling sensation, Santa Catarina, Brazil)
“Looking for BIG IDEAS that could catapult your copy (and your royalties) into the big leagues?
Lawrence has always been my GO-TO guy for finding direct response blockbusters (recent and back to the beginning of time)…
… that light up the neural pathways, and spark connections and ideas I would have never considered otherwise.
Ad Money Machine is aptly named – a resource no self-respecting direct response copywriter can live without!”
(Kelvin Parker, Kelvin Parker, Direct Response Copywriter, CustomerTriggeredPersuasion.com)
“Lawrence. The truth is I lied ! A few days ago when I messaged you that I had already made the price of admission (7500usd) by just reading half of your direct mail masterpiece well let’s just say it was 10 times that. I thank the Lord for having rediscovered you again.”
(Peter Nicholas, Australian serial entrepreneur and world beating health & beauty brand builder)
“Thanks to your guidance, my business is booming. I literally have more clients than I can handle.”
(Financial copywriter, (Awaiting permission to use his name.)
“I love receiving packages from you. You’re like a Direct-Response Santa.”
(Dr. Karl Blanks, Chairman and Co-Founder of Conversion Rate Experts with clients including: GE, Lloyds, Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Sony, Vodafone and PayPal)
Hi Lawrence,
Your swipe file and commentaries have become the most powerful weapon to boost our response rates.
There’s swipe files and swipe files. I’ve seen nothing that comes close. It’s unique. It’s the Ultimate.
I refer to it over and over, every week and I am still amazed at it’s power.
Plus It often helps to simplify the complicated!
If I told you how many times I made my investment back I would lose all credibility.
Lawrence, I really have to thank you for your very clever and powerful marketing tool. The tool responsible for our surge in sales!
Every company — direct response or not — should get their hands on your membership.”
(Donald James, Aussie Founder and Marketing Veteran, Sydney)
“God, Lawrence, I really appreciate your stuff, so here’s a testimonial:
If you want to succeed gloriously in this business (assuming you have any talent, of course) sit down for a month and read, learn and practice the principles you unearth in this treasury of great stuff. Marvelous!”
(Drayton Bird, Direct marketing legend at 86 years young, Bristol, England)
“You’re one crazy dude to do all this work, but until you get therapy, I’ll take advantage of it with glee!”
(Dr. Jack Booman, Leading Chiro copywriter, Spring Grove, Minnesota)
“As a marketing enthusiast and dedicated student of the craft, I’m constantly searching for valuable insight and information. And once I found YOU (many years ago) I felt like I had finally found what I was looking for.
I was right.
Since that day, EVERY marketing strategy, sales system, retention model, acquisition model, process, advertisement, etc., that I have executed started with FIRST referencing one or more elements from you, your website, or your partners. From my own house ads to ads for my clients, the foundation of everything I have done began with listening to your teachings, or the teachings of those that you reference/endorse. Dead or alive.
I now own and operate a successful digital ad agency with over 50 employees (give or take a few employees depending on economics 😉 and feel as though I owe you more than a bit of gratitude for my success.
(Digital agency founder, received 1/7/14, prefers anonymity)
“I get loads of emails from online marketers looking to sell me stuff to improve my marketing, but I trust Lawrence to deliver quality every time.”
(Jamie Sylvian, London)
“By the way, Lawrence, I should thank you directly…
Back in early November, Michael Masterson and I gave a speech at the AWAI Copy Bootcamp in Delray that dealt, in part, with the value of focusing on one theme rather than many in headlines and leads.
And the example I threw into our Powerpoint came directly from your website (attributed) where you compared two products for better vision. Naturally, I don’t remember much about the convoluted example. But the better version came from Gene S., “Your Eyes Can Heal Themselves…”
I don’t know where you find this stuff, but the examples were invaluable at making a strong point quickly.
I hope some of the 300-400 people present took my advice during the talk and went looking for your site.”
(John Forde, A-List copywriter and Parisian)
“One of the secrets I teach copywriters and marketers who want to be more successful is to be sure they read a great direct response ad every day.
But where do you find an almost limitless supply of great ads to be inspired by?
The best source I have ever found is Lawrence’s site. I’ve been writing copy for more than 40 years now, and I still do my ‘ad-a-day’ thing, just to keep sharp.
I never fail to be inspired with new ideas when browsing through Lawrence’s collection of ads. I would gladly have paid him ten times, even 100 times its price. Investing in your own knowledge is always the greatest investment you can make, and this is one of the smartest ways to do it.”
(Gary Bencivenga, Copywriting legend and founder of the world beating Fresh Pressed Olive Oil Club)
This is REALLY GOOD STUFF! Also, GREATLY, appreciate the fact that you blew up the examples and published them in a Tabloid format.
Not everyone would go to the expense of doing that, but its the BEST way to see these examples. Thanks, AGAIN, for making this course available.
(Real estate marketing guru, Name withheld)
“Your manual has been instrumental in me writing an ad that generated over $20,000 in just two weeks, so cudos to you Lawrence.”
(Dr. Ivan Carney, Temecula, California)
“My jaw is literally black and blue from hitting the floor over and over again as I got to see the techniques you’ve uncovered. I never dreamed many of these things were even possible, let alone how easy you’ve made them. The word ‘miraculous’ comes to mind.”
(Ken McCarthy, System Seminar Founder)
“If you want to learn what it really takes to sell – well, every single thing he shows has a lesson. I got two ideas this morning for something I am working on, which is actually a get-rich-slowly-but-surely educational service for marketers.”
(Drayton Bird, David Ogilvy said of him: “Drayton Bird knows more about direct marketing than anyone in the world.”)
“I want to take a moment to thank you for providing these updates. You are one of those rare marketers who supports his customers LONG after the sale.
(Karl Barndt, Kuncketown, Pennsylvania)
“I want to thank you very much for coming out to Paradise Valley. It was a great day together with you. We very much appreciate your deep knowledge, insight and love and passion for the history and present of our industry.”
(Norman Rentrop, Founder Rentrop Verlag and one of Europe’s biggest direct marketers)
“Lawrence, you are probably the most dedicated direct response scholar I’ve ever met.”
Tony Flores, Financial Copywriter and longtime #1 to Clayton Makepeace
“I think you’re a genius.”
(Christian Godefroy, European direct response legend)
“I saw you on the Gary Bencivenga retirement DVDs that I purchased. Great publicity for you.
I have to tell you, combining Gary’s wisdom with your swipe files is a lethal weapon.
Confidentially, because I’m not a braggart (in fact, you’re the first person I’ve told this to), my design partner and I have beaten A-list, world-class copywriting and design competition – 4 straight times. That’s how much I’ve benefited from–and appreciate – your material.”
(Rich Silver, Crow Moon Marketing, Dahlonega, GA )
“Brilliant examples, great commentary. This one just gave me an idea for a newsletter we’re about to launch that I think will hit large. I don’t know where you find this stuff, but I’m glad you do.”
(John Forde, Paris)
“If Lawrence has got a product for sale, you should get it!”
(Marty Edelston, Direct response legend and Founder of Boardroom Inc.)
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