Direct Response Copywriting Swipe File

“Five disturbing facts…” was a widely inserted display ad from the early 1970’s, created by Richard Calderhead’s ad agency, Calderhead Jackson.

Though the agency, as its client, was only a few years from extinction at the time this ad ran, this was an example of the high level of direct response the agency put out.

The ad is one part product positioning statement, one part industry expose.

Though this is an ad for yesteryear’s obsolete product, the copy still shines through.

Of course, the speaker manufacturer, Rectilinear Research, produced a superior product which is the launchpad for all great copy.

Click on the thumbnail to download a PDF of the ad.

So, what makes a great order form?

I’ve got three words for you.

Last things first.

Lots of copywriters tackle the sales letter first.

Some start by writing pages of bullets and culling the best for the headline.

Others prefer building an elaborate outline and filling in the spaces as they go.

But I’m partial to the “last things first” approach by starting with the order form.

Why?

[Read more…] about 6 Rules: How To Write an Order Form

What’s the power concept in copywriting?

Why do you need it?

And how’s it different from a hook?

We’ll get to that in a minute, soldier.

For now, just know the ad you’re looking at and its back story will make it all clear.

Upon approving this print ad, the creative director immediately sent a letter to the client which read:

This is one of the best headlines I have seen in 30 years in this business. If you never run another advertisement run this one.

The client, Robert Young, never wrote this ad, though he often claimed he did.

Who was Robert Young?

[Read more…] about The Power Concept In Copy

Bud Weckesser was easily one of the most versatile direct response copywriters of all time — equally gifted at writing ads in biz-op, weight loss, self-publishing or how to reports like: “How To Make Your Own German-Style Lager Beer For Only 12 Cents A Bottle!”

Unlike a lot of his colleagues, he never set foot in an ad agency.

He was a professor at Penn State Behrend, Kent State University and Purdue University and received his doctorate in speech communication from Michigan State University in 1963.

After he was bitten by the mail order bug, he quickly became one of the most visible print advertisers in the States.

His specialties were:

• Using numerous detailed case studies, which served as strong proof elements
• Offering a test to the reader as a hook to delve into the body copy
• Including his phone number near the top of an ad to overcome mail order skittishness. Here is an example from his 1977 ad, “The $220,000 Man.” “We belong to the Dunkirk Chamber of Commerce. Our telephone number is 716-555-8300. We’re there from 9-5 on weekdays.”

This ad of Professor Weckesser’s is another one of my favorites. It sold over one million copies of a $12.95 book through print advertising sans back end.

Many direct response copywriters look at agency people as scared, pseudo-practitioners hiding out in their cushy offices and insulated from the real world results of their craft by layers of decision insurance.

I’ll admit the level of direct response competence has taken a dive at the agency level. I don’t see companies like Ogilvy & Mather, J. Walter Thompson or Foote, Cone & Belding doing anything remotely as good in print as they did 25 or more years ago.

For that matter, the quality of print advertising as a whole is far less incisive than it used to be — leaving ample room for smart direct response practitioners to succeed in this medium.

But there are plenty of great examples of direct response distinction in space, if you know where to find them.

This one hails from the fabulous series I keep telling you about — “The Wall Street Journal. It Works.”

(Hey, Rupert Murdoch, if you’re reading this, maybe it’s time to take these print ads out of retirement and spruce up your ad revenue.)

So, who is John O’Toole?

He was the president of Foote, Cone and Belding who grew the agency’s revenue ten-fold during his tenure.

And he started off in the biz as a copywriter under the legendary ad man and copywriter, Fairfax Cone.

Some of the nuggets from this ad.

On life with Fax Cone:

A magnificent teacher. His prime lesson: write to a single individual, not the hypothetical masses. Fax would never let writers get tangled up in a web of creative conceit: you quickly learned that no matter how hard you worked on an ad, you could make it better. Fax believed writers had the ability to step back from their work, and look at it through the eyes of a consumer. He was as tough on himself as he was on the writers who worked for him.

On long copy:

Persuasion by essay. A powerful technique that lets you speak to the consumer as a friend. You tell your story leisurely, but without wasted words. You put forth logic and facts that lead to persuasion. Good copy is read — be it long or short. But provided your premise is accurate. Long copy increases the power of persuasion, and without decreasing readership.

On print:

Print may well be the strongest medium of all, if you have the energy and skill to deal with the discipline of the printed page. It tests the skills of the writer, for the persuasion of the copy is critical to success. It tests the abilities of the art director for the clarity of design is critical to readership. Finally, print is the most controllable of all media, with the ultimate product clearly reflecting the skills of just two or three people. If it’s strong, and memorable, and persuasive, it’s your achievement — not that of platoons of specialists who can make a weak idea look good.

If you’ve ever wondered how sales letters with atrocious copy can mail multiple times, you’re not alone.

This direct mail letter, “How To Legally Rob Slot Machines In Any Casino,” mailed frequently around 2005.

While the copy looks pathetic to the trained eye, this mail piece gets the core appeal right for this market.

Probably more than any other market, respondents to “gambling systems” have a reputation for being dupes. As one of the characters in Richard Armstrong’s wonderful book,“God Doesn’t Shoot Craps,” says: if gambling systems actually worked, casinos couldn’t afford to put volcanoes out front.

The American television news magazine, 60 Minutes, did a segment recently on the psychology (and pathology) of the slot machine player. It’s worth watching if you’re interested in this market.

How To Legally Rob Slot Machines In Any Casino (8 megabyte PDF, 12-pages including lift letters and reply envelope.)

This 3,232 2-page spread for the World Wildlife Fund was published in July, 1979 and was created by Ogilvy & Mather.

Like anything O&M did in this period, this is an exemplary ad in this category. Ogilvy mentions it in the chapter, Wanted: A Renaissance In Print Advertising in the landmark advertising book,
Ogilvy On Advertising.

Back From The Dead (2-page, 629 kb PDF)

Caples on Copy, published 33 years ago was part of the brilliant “The Wall Street Journal. It Works.” campaign.

This print ad is like getting a bite size version of Tested Advertising Methods. (Note: the 4th edition or earlier of that book is the way to go because later editions include an ivory tower ad man.)

There’s all kinds of timeless wisdom in this ad like:

Clients get tired of ads before the public does.

Overwriting is the key. If you need a thousand words, write two thousand. Trim vigorously. Fact-packed messages carry a wallop. Don’t be afraid of long copy. If your ad is interesting, people will be hungry for all the copy you can give them. If the ad is dull, short copy won’t save it.

Times change. People don’t. Words like ‘free’ and ‘new’ are as potent as ever. Ads that appeal to a reader’s self interest still work. People may disagree about what self improvement is important, but we all want to improve ourselves. Ads that offer news still work. The subjects that are news change, but the human curiosity to know what’s new doesn’t. These appeals worked fifty years ago. They work today. They’ll work fifty years hence.

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