Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
June 11, 2009
Issue #196
Dear Business-Builder,
In April of 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt confiscated all gold coins, ingots and notes owned by Americans. Anyone caught with more than $100-worth of non-jewelry gold would be slammed with a $10,000 fine – about $143,000 in today’s dollars.
Fast forward to the early 1970s: Huge federal deficits from the Vietnam War were coming home to roost and inflation was raising its ugly head. The value of the U.S. dollar was plunging. Our cost of living was beginning to soar.
And because owning gold – the world’s most time-honored store of value and inflation hedge – was still a crime, American consumers, savers, investors and retirees had little choice but to watch helplessly as inflation robbed them blind.
That’s when an obscure Louisiana school teacher decided to force the mighty U.S. government to legalize gold ownership.
He didn’t care that he was “just one man” and that he’d be challenging America’s mightiest financial institutions and most powerful politicians.
Nor did his lack of funds to mount such a daunting national campaign faze him.
The fact that a horrendous automobile accident had left him paralyzed from the chest down and confined to a wheelchair didn’t even begin to enter into his thinking.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
May 28, 2009
Issue #483
Dear Business-Builder,
The great investor Warren Buffet has a net worth of about $62 billion. That’s sixty-two thousand million dollars.
If your net worth is $10 million, Warren is 6,200 times richer than you.
If you’re worth $1 million, he has 62,000 times more money than you do.
If your net worth is $100,000, Mr. Buffet is 620,000 times richer than you are.
There are people whose businesses grow a hundred, maybe even a thousand times or more faster than yours does. For every new customer you attract, they attract 100, 1,000, maybe even 10,000 or more.
There are people who look, feel and perform ten, twenty, even thirty years younger than you do …
Who have far greater success in love and relationships (OK – maybe just in sex) than you do …
Who live better for less, have greener lawns, clearer skin, more hair, thinner waists and smaller butts, better-behaved or more successful kids, more friends or are more successful in some other area of life than you are.
Sorry – but you know it’s true. And no, I’m not trying to depress you – just trying to make a very important point.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
May 21, 2009
Issue #190
- Four Principles All Great Opening Sales Copy Shares …
- Seven Proven Ways to Get Your Sales Copy Off to a Fast Start …
- Much More!
Dear Business-Builder,
You’ve stopped your prospect in his tracks with a powerful, emotionally-driven headline and deck …
Your deck copy supports and expands upon your headline structure, adding specificity, intrigue, irony and intensity – all wrapped around powerful reasons why reading your ad is the single most important thing he could possibly do now …
Now it’s time to really get his juices flowing – with powerful, emotionally-driven, opening copy that makes it impossible for him to look away.
And so there you sit; staring at a blank page and wondering how in the hell you’re going to get the conversation started.
Good thing you clicked through to today’s issue of The Total Package – isn’t it, Sparky?
Cause that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today: Seven great ways to get your body copy started with a bang!
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
May 7, 2009
Issue #172
In this issue:
- Eight steps to a compelling close …
- The two spreadsheets you must have to plan a successful final assault …
- How to fully dimensionalize the value of your offer in ways that make your prospect eager to buy now …
- Two ways to introduce your price without inducing sticker shock …
- Five techniques for making your price feel like the bargain of the century …
- The secret of creating guarantee copy that pulls double duty …
- The #1 mistake even top copywriters make when writing offer copy …
- When treating your prospect like a three-year-old pays big dividends …
- The amazing power of the “Crossroads Close” – and how it can help send your response through the roof …
- The four most effective techniques I’ve ever used when writing my P.S. …
- And much, MUCH MORE!
Dear Business-Builder,
OK … So you’ve grabbed your prospect’s attention with a compelling proposition, story, USP, intrigue or advertorial headline.
You’ve intensified his resolve to read your ad with deck copy that illuminates and expands on your head … intrigues him with reasons why, if he stops reading now, he’ll regret it for the rest of his life … and just for good measure, you threw in a heaping helping of credibility elements.
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Posted by:
Troy White
March 27, 2009
Issue #149
Troy White is on the road this week. But don’t worry — before he left, he searched the archives and found one of his best articles to bring you in today’s Total Package. Enjoy!
– Wendy Makepeace
General Manager
The Total Package
In this issue:
- Branding 101 from the Canadian Beaver
- Quarter BILLION dollar empire began with handwritten letters
- Breaking through the clutter – e-mail vs. print … the results are in!
- Segmentation creates campaign windfall
- What to test … how to test … and why you MUST be testing
- And Much More!
Fellow Business-Builder,
Love us or not, Canadians are here to stay. What’s amazing is to look at the disproportionate number of Canadian success stories, especially when you look at the fact that we have 10% of the population of the US. I have lived both north and south of the border – and I much prefer the Southern weather (I moved to Dallas in July and was in heaven at 115 degrees)! But I also love my Canada.
I am continually amazed at some of the ingenuity that comes from Canadian businesses as well. Many of them never hit the media south of the border, but have some incredible lessons to share.
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