Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
September 4, 2008
Issue #16
Part One
In this special interview issue …
- How a little "romance" can grab your prospects' attention and sell them your product …
- The ultimate key to advertising success in today's crowded market …
- The truth about traditional benefit-oriented selling — and how it just might be killing sales …
- The one part of every promotion that's even more important than the headline …
- What you must know about your prospects before you write a word of copy …
- A simple way you can get better, more profitable copy out of every copywriter your hire …
- The most common blunder in advertising today …
- And much, MUCH MORE!
Dear Business-Builder,
Several years back, I gave up freelancing to "go exclusive" with a single client. Between 1999 and 2003, we quadrupled the size of his customer files, along with his revenue and profits.
In 2004, I ended that exclusive arrangement and started talking with my old clients again — and all I heard was "Arthur Johnson" this and "Arthur Johnson" that.
Seems in my absence from the freelance scene, a new guy had showed up … created a gaggle of hot new controls for Boardroom, Agora, Phillips and others … and had joined the elite ranks of our industry's "A" level writers.
I've mentioned Arthur several times before in THE TOTAL PACKAGE — particularly, his red-hot "Had Enough?" control for Dr. William Campbell Douglass. It's a textbook case on how to electrify a maturing market and get a blockbuster control when everyone else is failing.
Recently, I had the opportunity to ask Arthur about the secrets of his stellar success. His answers will be of tremendous value to anyone who writes sales copy or works with writers.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
September 1, 2008
Issue #493
Dear Business-Builder,
Are you having a great Labor Day weekend? Sure hope so!
Man — can you believe how fast summer zipped by? Seems like only yesterday, I was celebrating the appearance of the first buds on our giant tulip poplar trees. Now, those leaves are beginning to turn.
So here we are, planning a party to watch the first games of the regular football season just one week from yesterday. Amazing.
Now, if you’re doing your job right, you’re not reading this. You’re swilling beer, chowing down on burgers and beans and embarrassing yourself in front of your closest friends and family.
Of course, you could be a workaholic like me — or simply taking a break from the festivities to check your e-mail. And if that’s the case, I owe you an issue. So here goes …
Back in the old days — when 99% of my business was creating direct mail promotions — it was a well-known fact that there are two crucial “hot points” for marketing every year: January and September.
Why? Well, because these two months signal watershed events in our prospects’ lives.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
August 25, 2008
Issue #488
Dear Business-Builder,
OK — I won’t lie to you. I’m up to my eyeballs today. So instead of taking the usual four to six hours to write an issue, I’m going to let you write it for me.
Devious, right?
Here’s the deal. Pretty much at random, we picked a direct mail piece that just hit our mailbox. I didn’t write it nor do I know who did. It’s not the greatest promotion for a financial newsletter ever written, and it’s certainly not the worst.
But the fact is, the publisher thought enough of this copy to spend a pretty penny printing and mailing it. And although I don’t know the publisher personally, I figure we could maybe do him a huge favor by critiquing this direct mail piece for him.
Because like all promotions, this one could probably be improved — and I’m counting on you to help me do it.
Just click here (or right-click and choose “Save Target As …” to save it the file to your computer) to download the PDF of the direct mail piece, then give us your ideas for strengthening this copy on the blog at the end of this post.
I’ll check back in several times each day to keep the conversation going and to add my two cents-worth. Then, next Monday, when we’re done, I’ll send all of our best suggestions and ideas to the publisher and invite him to contact you to get more ideas or maybe even to write a promotion for him.
You’ll probably want to know a little bit about the prospects this package was written for. Typically, the ideal prospect for a financial newsletter is male, average age 65, politically conservative who has subscribed to other financial newsletters in the recent past. Average total net worth is around $1 million.
This should be a fantastic exercise. We’ll all learn from it and — who knows? — you may even wind up with a new client as a result!
So what are you waiting for? Download the PDF and get to work!
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
August 18, 2008
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.
So let me ask you: WHY do you think all those people are doing so much better than you in so many different areas?
Are they all thousands of times smarter than you?
Do they work thousands of times harder?
Are they thousands of times luckier?
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
August 12, 2008
Issue #479
Dear Business-Builder,
Sorry about yesterday. We returned from our ten-day vacation Sunday night and frankly, I’m still jet-lagged.
San Fran was outstanding. We stayed downtown and I swear I feel like we walked every square inch of it. And Chinatown. And Fisherman’s Wharf. And the Marina District. And Haight-Ashbury.
I’m pleased and somewhat relieved to report that the Pacific Ocean is still right where it was last time I saw it. No lower; no higher. And that Alioto’s still serves the best clam chowder I’ve ever sunk a spoon into.
The redwoods were grand, Carmel was charming and Big Sur — despite the recent fires there — was breathtaking, Hearst Castle was amazing but frankly, a little sad. Probably the gloomiest house I’ve ever seen.
Santa Barbara seduced all of us and our three-night stay at Raffles L’Ermitage in Beverly Hills was interesting. Didn’t really see any celebrities in the bar, but James Woods did hop out of his car just as we hopped into ours.
And of course, three days of revisiting my old stomping grounds in South Bay and Hollyweird and the “V.I.P. Behind the Scenes Tour” of Universal Studios were a blast.
Now, I just need a vacation from my vacation.
But before I hit the sack, here’s some stuff I’ve been thinking about that I hope will help …
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