Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
May 26, 2008
Issue #425
Dear Business-Builder,
What are you doing reading this?
You should be somewhere else — thanking a soldier, for instance.
I see — you’re a workaholic, too; right?
You’re focusing on ways to make a bundle so you can pay more taxes so Washington will take better care of our returning vets?
Oh — alrighty then, I salute you.
So here’s a fun little idea that has made me a bunch of money over the years …
Say you’re at the point where you have to write the ultimate headline for your new promotion.
So what do you do?
Well, most writers begin by writing something that contains the benefit the product offers.
Or maybe you decide to begin with a headline that’s dripping with intrigue and irony. A John Carlton “How a bald-headed barber saved my hair” kind of thing.
Or maybe you’re playing with one of the 42 other headline idea-starters I covered in those DVDs of the Power Marketing Summit you borrowed from a friend.
Here’s a thought — why not NOT do any of that?
Why not open your browser and search Google Images instead?
See, if there’s anything that’ll punch up the power of a headline, it’s a photograph that amplifies its emotional intensity.
Some time ago, for example, I decided to go to my rich old white male conservative investor prospects with a headline that read, “The DEMOCRATS are Coming!”
The deck copy of course, explained why that’s bad … and why reading the bookalog could save you from the plagues that are about to descend upon all of our houses: Higher taxes, bigger government, less privacy, more regulation, and of course, an economic and stock market catastrophe of Biblical proportions.
Still though, the copy just didn’t quite do it for me — and at first, I couldn’t figure out why.
Then, it struck me. My prospect isn’t afraid of “Democrats” — he’s terrified of specific liberals and their harebrained schemes for his life. Like Hillary. And Obama. And Howard Dean. And Teddy Kennedy. And Charlie Rangel.
So I jumped online and found images of each of these miscreants … added them to the headline … and — voila! — the headline came alive.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
December 31, 2007
Issue #321
Here’s your THIRD holiday gift
… to start your New Year off with a bang!
Dear Business Builder,
It’s New Year’s Eve day, and Clayton is taking a much-needed break.
But that doesn’t mean he isn’t thinking about you. In fact, he told me to give you a special gift to get your New Year off to a revenue-rocketing start.
It’s a recording of one of our most popular webinars – a "masters" class that Clayton taught with Bob Bly on creating …
Red-Hot Headlines that
Double Your Response
Until now, this webinar has only been seen by members of Clayton’s EasyWriters Marketing Club and few select others who attended by special invitation. It brought rave reviews all around.
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
October 31, 2007
Issue #269
In this special interview issue:
- The most important thing to test on any landing page (no, itβs not the headline) …
- What makes a great headline …
- What to do when your target market is fed up with hype and inflated claims …
- The secret to writing a great lead … long copy versus short copy … and how to use graphics for increased response …
- Plus more!
Dear Web Business Builder,
One of the most esteemed members of my board of advisors is of course, John Caples. Not a week goes by that I don’t think silently to myself, “What would Caples do”, when confronted with this online marketing challenge or that.
And indeed, rarely does his advice fail to help. It’s only fitting then that I interview him, and bring you his wisdom in the pages of Web Marketing Advisor.
Daniel Levis: So John, why don’t we start by having you give our dear readers a little background on you? How did you get into this racket?
John Caples: After leaving the naval academy in 1924 I went to work for New York Telephone and it bored the daylights out of me. I really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew I didn’t want to be an engineer at the NY Telephone Company, or anything even close.
So I paid a career counselor a tidy sum to help me figure out what kind of a career suited me, and that I could be happy in. Her written report was full of my shortcomings and unsuitability for most of the areas I had indicated an interest. Yet at the very end – I suppose in an effort to add some encouragement to an otherwise dreary assessment – she offered, “I would not discourage you in your ambition to become a writer.”
I took her advice, and enrolled in courses in copywriting at Columbia University, and in the fall of ’25 I was offered a job at a mail order agency at $25 a week, $6 less than I was making at the phone company. Of course I jumped at it.
Most of the copy I was writing was for home study courses. You know, things like improving your mind, learning a new language, improving your business skills, and of course, learning to play the piano.
Today, I think you call those info-products.
I loved my new job. I still remember my first big homerun. The headline went, “They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano – But When I Started to Play!” That ad put me on the map. Not because it was cute or clever, but because it produced results. Orders!
Mail order was a lot of fun. I’ll never forget the time I went home for Christmas one year. I could feel the pride welling up inside me as I showed my dear Mother my proof book, which contained some of the ads I had been working on at the time. I thought she would be so pleased with what I had achieved.
But her response just about knocked me off my chair. She read my headlines OUT LOUD, and with increasing concern …
"Fat men … Try This New Reducing Belt"
"Overnight, I Stopped Being The Underdog!"
"60 Days Ago They Called Me ‘Baldy’!"
Then she asked me questions like, "Can you really learn to play the piano through the mail?" and "Does this book really give you a magnetic personality?" Before long she closed the book up and said, "You had better not let your father see this".
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Posted by:
Carline Anglade-Cole
August 2, 2007
Issue #193
Do you know what I hate more than gyms?
GOING to a gym!
But when I finished working on a recent project about osteoporosis, I knew I needed to take action now to build my muscle strength and protect my delicate bones.
I run 3 miles a day with my dog, Jaws. So I’d give myself a “10” on the cardio scale. But as far as building muscle strength, I’m a big, fat ZERO.
And now that I’m in my forties – ok fine, LATE forties – I don’t want a “hump” in my future!
My fitness plan came together at a recent graduation party. My friend Anissa, a mild-mannered, very toned woman in her early 30’s, told me she decided to put her Masters degree in Exercise Fitness to work by starting her own in-home personal training business.
PERFECT!
I could kill three birds with one stone: Strengthen my muscles … give the economy a boost by supporting a home-based business … and help out my friend Anissa.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
July 23, 2007
Issue #184
In this issue:
- The 5 most effective techniques to boost credibility β and the one mistake to avoid …
- The single most important thing you MUST have right β or you may as well toss your promotion in the trash …
- How this powerful format transforms colder prospects into eager buyers …
- The quickest, easiest way to breathe butt-kicking, response-rocketing life into a dying control …
- The two troubling trends in financial marketing that you need to avoid like the plague …
- How to succeed big as a copywriter β with these two important attributes …
- And much MORE!
AWAI: In your opinion, what’s the most important part of a financial promotion? You may have just stated it … it needs to be alive with emotion. Are there any other elements critical to its success?
Clayton: I think anyone who has done any testing at all would agree that the headline and deck copy and the first few paragraphs of the main sales copy have a greater impact on response than any other part of a sales promotion. On countless occasions, I’ve taken a package that was pulling at, say, 120% of cost, tested new headline and deck copy and pushed response up to 150% or 170% of cost.
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