Posted by:
Troy White
July 15, 2010
Issue #972
In this issue:
- The easiest way to win over your prospects and convince them to buy from you for the first time …
- Small Business Mastery readers speak out …
- Templates and samples to use for creating your own sales system …
- And Much More!
Fellow Business Builder,
Thank you for your excellent response to my article "How to Write Lead Generation Display Ads." Some of your comments hit a note with me and I first wanted to address these before moving on to the actual templates for creating your display ads.
Steve had said "I never even thought of doing non-traditional small display ads. I feel like a fool."
My thoughts to you Steve are – don’t feel like a fool – feel like an awakening! Most people look at display ads in a certain way, and it can be difficult to see new ways of looking at them. Which is the problem. After seeing hundreds of display ads in a day or week, all following the same useless format, it’s no wonder we have a tough time seeing the alternatives. This approach works really well for small businesses. It is simple to implement. And it gets you solid results. Try it out and please let us know how it goes.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
February 19, 2010
Issue #57
Three Powerful Persuasion Strategies And How to Use Each One To Rocket Your Response
In this issue:
- How to structure a logical argument that will have your prospects ready, willing and even eager to buy …
- The astonishing response-rocketing power of the “scientific demonstration” – and how I used it to sell more than $7 million-worth of products in a single DM package…
- Eight Ways to turn ordinary testimonials into profit-pulling powerhouses…
- And MUCH MORE!
Dear Business-Builder,
Over the years, I’ve tried to teach lots of folks to write sales copy – and (have I mentioned this before?) not all of them have gone on to be stellar successes.
One of my most spectacular failures had a Ph.D. in English Lit. Another was a crackerjack newspaper reporter. Still another had penned a best-seller and now wanted to try her hand at writing sales copy.
All three of these guys and gals were great word-jugglers. But as direct response copywriters, every one of them was hopeless. Not one of them could have written a winning sales letter if you’d held a .44 magnum to his or her highly educated head.
Looking back, though, it wasn’t their fault that they couldn’t “get” it. It was mine.
I should have been flogged for hiring these “great writers” in the first place.
See, I didn’t need great writers. I needed great salespeople – experts in the art and science of persuasion – who could also write.
They didn’t have to be Shakespeares, Longfellows or Hemmingways. They just needed to have a knack for helping others see things their way … and for persuading others to take a particular action – i.e. to look at their headlines, read their sales messages and for god’s sake, to order the doggoned product!
Put simply, I needed PERSUADERS.
So much is written today about the technical, nuts-and bolts aspects of writing great sales copy: How to structure a headline. How to use power words. How to find the right tone. How to write a fascination. How to close with conviction.
Too little, in my opinion, is written about how to be persuasive. And I mean to remedy that.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
January 8, 2010
Issue #232
Dear Business-Builder,
TGIF … The weekend is here and I am, doing my dead-level best to give you a thought or an idea or an inspiration or something that will make the few minutes you spend reading this the best investment of your week.
So what do you want to talk about?
What’s that you say? You want to talk about money?
What a coinkie-dinkie – that’s what’s been on my mind, too…
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
July 31, 2009
Issue #14
(… And Great Copy Into A WINDFALL
For Copywriters And Our Clients)
"There are certain prime human emotions with which the thoughts of all of us are occupied a goodly part of the time. Tune in on them, and you have your reader's attention. Tie it up to the thing you have to offer, and you are sure of his interest."
– Robert Collier
The Robert Collier Letter Book
Dear Business-Builder,
In the nearly forty years since I created my first little piece of direct response sales copy, I've written considerably more than a thousand direct response ads, television spots and mail pieces.
Because nearly all of them were direct response promotions, each produced an easily measurable and almost immediate result. And over the years, as I studied those results, my approach to strategizing and creating sales promotions began to evolve.
Today, my work process is very different than it was in those early years. My first thought is no longer about the product benefits or even the product's USP. Nor do I begin each project by thinking about all the rational "reasons why" my prospect should buy.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
July 24, 2009
Issue #11
- Why Sidebars Matter
- Dumb Sidebars – Where Even Seasoned Copywriters Go Wrong
- 21 Smart Sidebars That Invariably Increase Readership and Response
- And MORE!
Dear Business-Builder,
I didn’t create the first-ever magalog. That dubious honor – so far as I can tell – goes to Jim Rutz and Ed Elliott.
I’ve tried to forgive them. Really, I have.
Before they invented this dynamo of the direct response marketing world in the 80s, “long copy” meant a 16-page sales letter: One w-i-d-e column of text, set in a nice, fat, space-eating Courier type.
But Mr. Rutz and Mr. Elliott changed that forever. Their 24-page magalog – packed with dense, columnated 12-point type – doubled and in some cases tripled or even quadrupled the amount of copy the rest of us had to write just to keep up.
And even worse, it meant we had to begin thinking about more than just writing a coherent sales letter and letting the designer worry about making it look like the Rutz/Elliott grand slam.
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