Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
July 14, 2008
Issue #458
My best-laid plans blown to bits …
Dear Business-Builder,
What a great weekend!
The Redhead and I spent the last few days at The Wentworth Mansion in Charleston, touring historic Revolutionary-War era homes and eating way too much low country food …
Frankly, I had too much fun to write an issue over the weekend. And this morning, with IndyMac going belly-up … Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac imploding … Bernanke and Paulson kicking the printing presses into hyperdrive … and an explosion in emergency projects for my two favorite clients, I simply don’t have time to publish my issue today.
But, we are ready to announce the winners in last week’s twin challenges:
The winners of the “Best Sales Letter” challenge are:
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Posted by:
Troy White
July 11, 2008
Issue #457
Fellow Business-Builder,
With The Ultimate Desktop Copy Coach now out, you have seen the immense potential of the right words to the right market.
This is an incredible program for those who want to take their marketing to a new level.
Today, I want to discuss an area that many small business owners struggle with – yet it will instantly add to the results you are getting.
Case in point …
A while back, a company hired me to write some sales copy for a seminar promotion – some autoresponders for the drip campaign and a landing page for teleseminars.
Which I did.
I also gave them a marketing plan and some copy to recruit joint venture partners.
A few months later, I got a call from them claiming the copy wasn’t working.
When I pressed them on the stats, here is what I got: 22 signups for the seminar at $2,497 each = $54,934 in revenues - a very healthy return on the copywriting investment.
So what was their problem?
They thought they should have 50 people.
Upon further investigation:
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
July 9, 2008
Issue #455
Dear Web Business-Builder,
The other day, my wife came home from shopping at Costco Wholesale. She saves so darn much money there it ends up costing me a bloody fortune.
This time, one of the bright shiny objects she couldn’t wait to take out of the box was a brand new water cooler. Not any old water cooler, mind you …
This one dispenses cold water … boils it … takes pictures … and turns the outside lights on and off while you’re away on holidays. And that means there’s a lengthy owner’s manual and endless instructions to follow before you can take a drink.
My grandson put it together, but before we could plop one of those big plastic jugs of water on top — dilemma.
Seems before you can install said water jug, you’ve got to clean the unit with a special cleaning kit available online at the manufacturer’s website.
I’m thinking, hey, now there’s a way to drive follow-on sales. Until I visit their website …
The link we’re given in the owner’s manual takes us to the company’s home page (first of three screenshots pictured at right) where we are confronted by a cornucopia of attractions. The cleaning kit, however, is nowhere in sight. We are forced to dig for it.
This is annoying to say the least. Why couldn’t they have sent us directly to the page with the item for sale so we could buy the darn thing?
Finally we find the page about cleaning kits (third image) and are presented with two choices. Trouble is, they seem identical except for the packaging. Confused … we become distracted … no order. Do you think it’s the first time this has happened? What a shame to lose sales so needlessly …
The lesson should be clear. When driving traffic to your website, don’t force people to navigate to find the item you’ve promised or leave them guessing about what they should order. Take them directly to the page that satisfies their needs, and tell them what to do and why to do it. This should just be common sense. But how often do you get this kind of runaround online? A lot!
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Posted by:
Larry Owen
July 8, 2008
Issue #454
Subject of the autopsy: Digest-size bookalog; 48-pages, full-color
Client category: Vitamins and Health Supplements
Writer: Carline Anglade-Cole
Designer: Larry Owen
“The Shocking Truth About Chlorella”
I chose this direct-mail Bookalog to examine because:
a. It is a very recent 2008 package
b. Carline Anglade-Cole was the copywriter
c. Carline’s copy strategy is clever and unique
d. It posed interesting graphic design challenges
e. I think I was able to overcome these design challenges
f. It’s a WINNER!
The covers of this bookalog get attention. “The Shocking Truth About Chlorella” … reader, take WARNING! … Suggesting there’s something inherently WRONG with this popular health remedy — even though it outlines on the same cover the many health benefits of the supplement. Tricky.
The back cover even suggests this nutrient might be ILLEGAL! Ban it!?
The copy actually promotes a product by seemingly putting it down. It’s a clever bait-and-switch that reveals itself inside, where we want the reader to go.
The curious reader, stimulated, reads on. Only after many pages of selling the health benefits of the remedy is the secret warning revealed: the client’s chlorella is the ONE chlorella that’s any good.
This strategy is the brainchild of Carline Anglade-Cole, a diversely talented health writer with contagious enthusiasm. I delight in the fact I designed her first blockbuster winning health magalog in 1999, “The Forbidden Secrets of SEX and HEALING.”
First, I’ll frame my thoughts about the mechanics of this “Shocking Truth” bookalog design, then I’ll outline the 8 identifiable inherent challenges I had to satisfy. This should be helpful to both copywriters and artists.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
July 7, 2008
Issue #453
Here’s something that will make
even the rankest amateur copywriter smile:
Hands-down, the WORST direct mail piece
I’ve ever seen!
Dear Business-Builder,
I’ve got a corker for you this week …
You only think that bomb you just wrote had to be the worst ever. Once you see this piece of certified direct mail doo-doo, you’re going to feel like a genius.
Especially when you think about how the company that mailed this travesty is one of the largest in its industry – and probably paid some huge, international ad agency a king’s ransom to create it.
And that, somewhere, even as you read this, some ka-ka-for-brains creative director is probably being nominated for a place in the Advertising Hall of Fame.
At the very least, this should be encouraging for you.
Because you know what?
SOMEBODY got paid good money to write this!
Nearly every week, I get letters from skeptics who ask if you really can make money as a copywriter.
From now on, I’m going to just send them a copy of this promotion and say, “Could you write a letter like this? If so, YES YOU CAN make good money writing copy. Because somebody actually got paid to write this!”
Of course, if you or anyone else who reads The Total Package ever creates anything like this piece of garbage and I hear about it, there’ll be hell to pay.
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