Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
July 31, 2006
In this admittedly scatterbrained issue:
- The single most amazing thing ever invented – and how it can bring you everything you’ve ever desired …
- Why – and how – ordinary words compel human beings to action …
- Why John E. Kennedy’s “Reason-Why” philosophy will only get you half-way to paradise …
- The insulting truth about your product nobody else will tell you …
- How Dominant Emotion sales copy can multiply your sales and profits … Five often-overlooked kinds of emotions that can explode your response …
- And much, MUCH MORE!
Dear Business Builder,
First things first. I just gotta say it: THANK YOU!
Three short years ago, The Total Package was a babe in arms with only a tiny handful of readers here in America.
Today – thanks in large part to a bunch of nice folks who’ve recommended us to friends – you’re sharing this issue with thousands of folks in all 50 US states …
… PLUS nearly 25 thousand direct response devotees in more than FIVE DOZEN other countries!
- Our little Tower of Babble has attracted readers in nearly all the major English-speaking countries – Canada, The UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand …
- Just South of me, there are Total Packagers reading this in Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, Colombia and Brazil …
- Most of Western Europe is covered too – with faithful readers in France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland …
- In Eastern Europe, we have hair-on-fire direct response capitalists in Russia, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, The Czech Republic, Croatia, Latvia and Estonia (what – no Lithuanians? We’ll have to work on that!) …
- In Africa, The Total Package is read by Kenyans, South Africans, Botswanans, Zimbabweans and – er … Côte d’Ivoire – ians(?) …
- In the Far East and Pacific, we have bretheren and sisteren in China, India, Japan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Singapore, The Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Plus, we’re proud to have loyal readers in the tiny island nations of Samoa, Micronesia and Tuvalu.
Last year, the smallest nation represented among us was Niue with a population of 1,444. Sorry guys – you’ve been one-upped: One of the 596 folks who call the Cocos (Keeling) Islands home is now a Total Packageite!
- Plus, every Monday throughout the Middle East, direct response pros in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Syria, Brunei, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Qatar crack open our latest issue …
- And considering what they’re going through right now, I think we should all ask whatever deities we worship to watch over our dozen or so fellow readers in Israel and Lebanon.
That’s 66 nations in all – 67 if you count the USofA. (68 if you count North Carolina as a separate country. Which I sometimes do – especially when attempting to translate Mountain English into something more coherent!)
Think that’s amazing? HAH! Try Googling your own name and finding a bunch of websites talking about you in languages you can’t even begin to understand!
Here’s one …
“Damslog: Daarmee komt u al een heel eind in het testje over direct marketing van Clayton Makepeace. Nadat u de antwoorden hebt gegeven, krijgt u een pagina met de …”
Now, I’m not sure what a “Damslog” is – never been called one before – but I’m pretty sure them’s fightin’ words.
This next one – looks like Russian to me – looks like someone has put me at the very top of a list of guys who have made an “Error:”
“Блог: Бизнес под микроскопом: Июль: 1. Clayton Makepeace …
… And I won’t even begin to try to sort this one out …
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
July 25, 2006
Issue WMA #8
In this article
- 6ways to make your sales stories more effective …
- How to use story based curiosity to cement readership …
- Why sales narrative makes it almost impossible to trumpet features at the expense of benefits …
- Two ways to use satire to prime your prospects for the close …
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And more!
Dear Web Business Builder,
Since the first caveman figured out how to tie a sharp rock to the end of a sturdy stick with a piece of vine, and hack off slabs of mastodon meat with it for fire roasting, storytelling has been the way knowledge has been passed from one person to another.
Around the campfire blaze, the tribal members would gather, the little children gazing cautiously out from behind their parents, their eyes shining wide like silver dollars, listening… The grizzled old witch Doctor — can you hear his crackling voice, as he spins a yarn of bygone days?
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
July 24, 2006
Issue #53
In this issue:
- How a “crazy (like a fox)” Canuck revolutionized the power of advertising copy in a dingy saloon …
- The deceptively simple secret that built the world’s largest advertising agency – and made its owner a cool $627 MILLION …
- The EIGHT things your ad copy must do to make the sale …
- Why image advertising is always second best …
- How to ensure your best prospect reads and responds to your promotion …
- Legendary advice on the writing process that will have you getting bigger winners more often …
- The single most profitable way to spend one hour this week …
- Why the “Long Copy vs. Short Copy” argument is specious …
- And much, MUCH MORE!
Dear Business-Builder,
When last we checked in on the great masters of advertising and copywriting, it was 1880. And John E. Powers – a curmudgeon of the highest order – ruled the advertising roost in America.
As you’ll remember, Powers – said by many to be the world’s first professional copywriter – doubled sales for Wanamaker’s Department Stores by creating print ads that were short, simple and brutally honest:
“Print the news of the store,” said he. “No ‘catchy headings,’ … no smartness, no brag, no ‘fine writing,’ no fooling, no foolery, no attempt at advertising, no anxiety to sell, no mercenary admiration; hang up the goods in the papers, one at a time, a few today, tomorrow the same or others.”
Now, Powers’ success at Wanamakers did more than make his client rich. It also made Powers very well-off. And of course, it revolutionized the entire vocation (it would be puffery to refer to advertising as an “industry” at the time) of 19th Century ad writing.
Powers’ frank, Spartan approach to ad copy was an order of magnitude more effective than the exaggerated promises and flowery language that had been in vogue for the century before he came along. And that made him the hero of advertisers – and students of advertising – from sea to shining sea.
By the early 1900s, every self-respecting ad man in the US could quote John E. Powers chapter and verse. And as we’re about to see, his influence reached well beyond our borders.
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
July 19, 2006
Issue WMA #7
In this article
- The Sale before the Sale…
- Viral Voodoo…
- How to make hay where most of your competition rolls over and goes
- to sleep…
- And more!
Dear Web Business Builder,
When I began my career in selling, I was about as green as a Chinese cabbage. Luckily, I also had a thick skin… and what I lacked in finesse I made up for in good old piss and vinegar …
Back in the Stone Age, believe it or not, we used to walk around cold calling on business people in the flesh. And, one day my unbridled enthusiasm for rejection almost got me ejected from a perfectly good prospect’s office. I had barged in without an appointment, and began delivering a sales talk.
That’s when it hit me I was losing plenty of excellent prospects because of my approach. I came to the realization there’s little point telling a sales story to someone who isn’t first sold on the importance of listening to it. Duh!
In the selling world, I solved this problem by abandoning my rude habit of “dropping in” on people and immediately trying to sell my service. Instead, I began to sell something entirely different …
After introducing my self in a way that somehow included the main unique benefit my company had to offer, I immediately went on to admit I didn’t know if what we had to offer was right for my prospect or not, and simply asked for an opportunity to explore their situation to see if it was. I went from cold calling, to warm approaching …
Sales resistance was considerably lessened, and I had a chance to figure out what my prospect’s really wanted. And in many cases, I was able to give it to them.
Soon I set my sites on larger clients that weren’t easily reached in the flesh, and began finding felicity with a phone. I found the same principle applied.
There was no point jabbering until I’d gotten permission. I used the same quick introduction technique, followed by an unusual question, “Am I calling you at a bad time?” This allowed my prospects to say what they loved to say “NO”, and I was in like Flynn.
Later I abandoned the practice of approaching people in person entirely, and began automating the whole front end of the sales cycle.
Why am I telling you this?
Well, because the first tip for turning little dollars into big dollars online is remarkably similar to what helped me to raise myself from failure to success in selling in those early years. And here it is …
Before selling the product, sell the appointment! Huh?
Allow me to explain. When I was selling telecom services, the first thing I sold was the consultation, which was in essence an opportunity for the prospect to explore their situation, and weigh their options. It was absolutely free, low key, and truly valuable to them.
Online, that means selling your prospects on allowing you to help them crystallize their thoughts about a given problem, before pitching them on your solution. And you do that by offering free information that does just that.
Think of it as a “consultation” in print. A Trojan horse that slips under the prospect’s “lead shield”… building tons of credibility and rapport for you… and most importantly selling your prospect on the importance of listening to your sales story.
Your “consultation” in print can be delivered as a discreet step in the sales process if you’re selling a high-ticket item, or as the front half of a single web page for a low-ticket item.
Either way, make a friend before you try to make a sale.
Figuratively walk around the desk and sit beside your prospect as a partner and advocate before you pitch!
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
July 17, 2006
Issue #52
Gala Anniversary Issue
A Year of Living Dangerously
(Some of) The Best of The Total Package (So Far!)
- The World’s 3 Most Powerful Headline Techniques
- 10 Rules for Generating Maximum Readability
- How Smart Companies Thrash the Competition
- Mastering the Art and Science of Seduction
- 21 “Non Rules” for Producing Bigger Winners, More Often
- The 75 Most Powerful Words and Phrases in the English Language
- How to Beat Writer’s Block
- 21 Kinds of Sidebars and How to Use Each One
- Legal Issues You Need to Know About
Holey moley – can you believe this is the fifty-twoth issue of The Total Package?!
I sure can’t: Seems like TTP #1 hit the ‘Net only yesterday!
Boy, oh boy – what a year it has been:
- The text of the 50 unique issues we’ve published so far (OK – I cheated: The two-part Gary Bencivenga interview was so good I ran it twice) now occupies more than 600 single-spaced pages on my hard drive …
- In September, I hosted my first-ever teleseminar – Kick Your Copywriting Business Into Hyperdrive – to rave reviews …
- In October, I confronted a raging, life-long case of stage fright to speak in public for the first time ever at the American Writer’s and Artists conference. I did OK – and was rewarded for my trouble with AWAI’s prestigious “Copywriter of The Year” trophy …
- In March, we began building The Profit Center™ website and are now adding new pages every couple of weeks – all designed to help you get bigger winners more often…
- In May, The Total Package Blog went live and is now helping writers and marketers network and share ideas with each other …
- In April, I attended my first copywriting conference ever – my own Power Marketing Summit™ – and delivered 20 hours of my best response-boosting secrets to about a hundred top marketers …
- In June, we launched our second free e-letter, Daniel Levis’ Web Marketing Advisor to a standing ovation from subscribers …
- In June, we began planning next year’s Power Marketing Summit in earnest, snagging some of America’s top marketers as special guest speakers (watch your inbox for the tantalizing details!) …
- This week, I’m doing the final installment of my five-part Virtual Hotseat Webinar – The 37 Most Valuable Marketing Lessons I’ve Ever Learned …
- We’re already planning our next webinar in which I’ll reveal the techniques I use to create out-of-the-park grand slams for financial products …
- And along the way, we created a pile of other tools to help you take your direct marketing career to the moon.
Not bad – huh?
Oh – and in our spare time, my team of copywriters and I also cranked out a gaggle of controls for my clients. About five million of those promos are now being stuffed into U.S. mailboxes each month, showering us with nearly $2 million a year in royalties.
And that doesn’t even begin to include the countless housefile promotions, web initiatives and even a complete website we’ve created for four separate clients!
And the best part is …
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