How to Instantly
Double the Response of Any Ad, Letter or Web Promotion
by David Garfinkel
Masters of marketing know a
secret that most business people
don't. I'm going to share it with
you now: You can go from
losing money to making money - sometimes,
a *lot* of money -
just by changing a few words.
What words are those? The first words...
in any letter, ad or
Web page. The words that make up
the headline.
Recently I was speaking to a business
group about writing killer
copy, and to make my point, I took
that day's edition of USA
Today and covered up all the headlines
on the front page with
inch-wide white correction tape.
I asked them what was wrong
with the newspaper.
"No headlines!" they blurted out,
almost all at once.
"Then why," I asked, "do so many
of your ads not have
headlines?"
Killer
Copy Tactics!
David Garfinkel
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This multimedia
interactive course will walk you through, step by step, what it takes to
write truly compelling ads.
The course
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You've just got to hear this! To find out about the
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and the identity of this mystery writer, click here:
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Tactics
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It's a fact: We have been conditioned
to decide what to read
based on the effect a few choice
words have on our thoughts and
our feelings. With books, it's often
the title. With articles in
the newspaper, it's the words in
a headline. With a magazine on
the newsstand, it's the headlines
on the cover.
Whether you know it or not, we decide
whether or not to read
ads, letters and Web pages the same
way.
So, if that's the case, how do you
write headlines to make
people want to read your copy, and
get interested in doing
business with you?
Make your headline create a vivid
picture and/or stimulate a
strong feeling.
In your business, many of your conversations
are logical and
factual. That's the nature of business
- and to do otherwise
would be considered "unbusinesslike."
However, about the worst thing you
can do for your promotion is
to have a strictly factual, logical
headline at the top of your
Web page, letter, ad, flyer or postcard.
Oh yes, the headline
has to be believable and make sense.
And what your headline says
has to be supported by logic and
facts later in your promotion.
But remember that the purpose of
your killer copy headline is to
stir the emotions of your prospect
in the direction of buying
what you have to sell... and to
get your prospect interested in
reading what comes next in your
copy.
Here's an example for a hypothetical
product that helps children
do better at school.
First, an ineffective headline:
Children who don't do well at school
will have many problems
later on in their lives
Now, a more effective headline:
"Daddy! Daddy! I got straight A's!"
he said proudly. Suddenly my
son's future was looking much brighter...
Notice how the first headline states
a fact but does not stir
emotions in a big way. The second
headline, using the same
number of words (17), conveys 1)
excitement 2) pride 3) hope for
the future, and it also creates
a beautiful scene in the
reader's mind of a happy parent-child
situation.
Action: When you are preparing or
revising a promotion, take the
time you need, or get the help you
need, to write a great
headline that creates a vivid picture
and stimulates strong
feelings in the mind of your prospect.
Use headlines that make your prospect
instantly understand your
most important benefit.
One of my favorite pieces of advertising
is a headline (and an
old slogan) for a plumbing service.
I'm not that big on
plumbing, personally - it's the
kind of thing you wish would
work perfectly all the time so you
never have to think about it!
Why, then, am I so fond of an old
plumbing headline? Because
it's a great example of making your
prospect instantly aware of
the benefit of your service.
The company is Roto-Rooter.
The headline is as follows:
Call Roto-Rooter - that's the name
- And away go troubles, down
the drain!
Wow - is that perfection in a couple
of lines, or what? You get
1) a call to action 2) company identification
and 3) a visual
description of the benefit.
That's hard to beat! If you've ever
had a stopped-up drain, you
know exactly why this would be of
benefit to you!
Killer Copy Point: Show your headline
to people who are
unfamiliar with your product and
company, but who would be good
prospects for what you are selling.
See how slowly or quickly
they understand what you are saying
- especially, what would be
the benefit to them. Keep rewriting
your headline until these
people instantly "get it!"
Make your headline pass the "Shortcut
Test"
Imagine all you were allowed to do
was run your headline plus a
toll-free number... as a classified
ad. Ask yourself this
question: Would it generate inquiries
for you in that form?
I'll give you an example from my
own business. I'm taking the
headline and subheadline from a
long-copy print promotion for my
product called Killer Copy Tactics:
Money-Making Secrets Every Business
Owner Needs
For years, sales copywriting experts
have quietly made millions
with these little-known secrets.
Now you can use this
information yourself. Call (000)
000-0000
I used this example for purposes
of illustration. Read it again,
and ask yourself if these words
alone, printed in the right
location, wouldn't prompt qualified
prospects to call for more
information?
Killer Copy Point: Put your headline
and subheadline through the
Shortcut Test. Make sure that these
words alone plus a toll-free
number are likely to generate a
response from qualified
prospects.
The art of writing headlines is a
special skill well worth the
time and effort it takes to develop.
There are many known
statistics in direct marketing that
bear repeating here:
· Five times as many people
read the headline as read the ad or
letter.
· Changes in headlines have
produced documented increases in
sales of 200%, 500% and, in one
extreme case, 1,850% more sales!
· It's a good idea to write
15 or 20 headlines for your letter
or ad, and use the "leftover" headlines
as part of the selling
copy itself.
Become a student of headlines and
a connoisseur of great
headlines. Collect them, think about
them, practice writing
them. The reward for your efforts
will show up every time you
get another order or inquiry that
you never would have gotten if
you didn't make the effort!
(c) 2000 David Garfinkel. All rights
reserved. David Garfinkel
is widely recognized by many "marketing
gurus" as their secret
weapon. That is, he is known as
"The World's Greatest
Copywriting Coach"; because, he
can, like no other, teach you
how to turn words into cash. David
is also the author and
narrator of Killer Copy Tactics,
the Web's first and only
totally interactive audio/visual
learning system for writing
killer sales copy. You can learn
more about this course at
http://www.KillerCopyTactics.com/g.o/21247
Killer Copy: Words That
Are Like Magnets to Money
by David Garfinkel
I'll never forget what my accountant
said five years ago when he
saw the ad I wrote for my services:
"How many scotches did you
drink before you wrote this?"
He was kidding about the scotch.
But he just couldn't believe
anyone in their right mind would
write such a bold and
outrageous ad for their own writing,
consulting and speaking
services, as I had.
Well, I spent $300 on that ad --
$200 to run it in a local trade
association directory, and $100
to have it reprinted as a flyer.
The following year, that $300 ad
turned into $12,341 in new
business for me. And $12,341
was just a tiny fraction of my
total business that year.
Why did I make so much money myself
while there were so many
thousands of "starving writers"
in the world? The answer may
surprise you. You see, it's
not because I'm a better writer.
It's not my schooling. Not
my resume. Not any talent I was
born with.
Who
is This Man?
Who is this
man that has written ads that have earned millions of dollars? And why
do they call him the world's greatest copywriting coach?
Click below
to find out who he is!
http://www.KillerCopyTactics.com/g.o/21247
It's all because I learned how to
write "killer copy."
How do you write killer copy?
You start your killer copy with an
emotion-packed opening
statement that will get the attention
of your reader. This
opening statement may be:
* a headline
* an opening sentence
* a subject line on an email
* the header on a Web page
... or for that matter, the opening
words in a telemarketing
script, radio commercial, or TV
spot. What's important is that
you understand - your first words
count for everything - because
you must captivate peoples' imagination
with those words in
order to keep their attention.
Here are examples of opening statements
from actual successful
marketing pieces:
a) "Take the luxury vacation of your
dreams at a reduced cost
because of this special offer" (from
a travel agency's letter to
business owners.)
b) "How to stop overwhelm before
it stops you" (from a personal
coach's ad aimed at stressed-out
overachievers)
c) "Why almost every financial statement
in family court may not
disclose the full net worth of the
opposing spouse" (from an
investigator's sales letter to divorce
lawyers.)
Then, after your emotion-packed opening
statement, you just
a) Make a promise
b) Back it up with convincing proof
and
c) Ask for action
Let's look at how you do each of
those three techniques.
1. Make a promise. The
letter about luxury vacations starts
with these words:
"Imagine taking your winter vacation
knowing you aren't
spending a penny more than you have
to - secure that you have
a team of travel experts making
sure every little detail of
your vacation goes smoothly. "Here's
how you can have that
vacation right now: Take advantage
of an unusual promotion our
company is doing. Let me explain."
Pretty exciting, right? Even
if you don't think so, the people
who got the letter did - because
the letter produced an amazing
$5 million in sales for the travel
agency.
2. Back it up with convincing proof.
The personal coach's ad
for stressed-out overachievers,
the one that begins "How to stop
overwhelm before it stops you,"
contains this proof:
* 3 case studies,
* 3 testimonials,
* detailed credentials of the coach
* and a money-back guarantee.
Despite its stunningly bold claims,
the ad comes across as very
believable and has generated a record-breaking
parade of new
clients.
3. Ask for action. The
investigator's sales letter to divorce
lawyers, beginning "Why almost every
financial statement in
family court may not disclose the
full net worth of the opposing
spouse," ends this way:
"I would like to meet with you at
no charge to show you how I
can be of service to you and your
clients in future family law
cases.
"Please call me at your convenience
so we can set up a meeting
to discuss further how I can assist
your clients recover their
fair share of assets. Call
me directly at
x- x- x- x."
Killer copy always asks for action
in the most powerful way
possible. Notice how the above
words spell out exactly what to
do, and even make a big promise
- that the lawyer reading the
letter will recover more money in
court for their clients (and,
therefore, get more money themselves).
As you can see, a few words of killer
copy can lead to massive
amounts of money. In fact,
many people say writing killer copy
is the single most valuable money-making
skill in the world.
And recently, writing copy was named
as one of the top 10
emerging professions for the new
century.
It doesn't surprise me. In
the age of the Internet, the old
style of advertising copy -- saying
something clever, and hoping
people remember - just doesn't cut
it anymore.
Besides, these days, with business-to-business
advertising
growing so fast, the traditional
advertising industry is feeling
a lot of pressure for ads that really
produce results. Why?
Because, old-style advertising that
entertains, but does not
sell, is not cost-effective enough
for many companies in today's
hyper-competitive market.
Recently I heard from my former accountant.
(A few years ago,
he left accounting to start a new
business.)
He asked me if I wouldn't mind sharing
some ideas on how he
could write killer copy for his
own business.
I said sure. And now he's on
his way to doing the same thing
that I do, for himself.
Funny thing about the conversation
we had the other day. Unlike
the conversation we had back in
1995, he didn't kid me about
drinking scotch, or anything else.
Maybe he finally realized
that when it comes to increasing
your income, killer copy is
serious business.
http://www.KillerCopyTactics.com/g.o/21247
DISCOVER
THE FORTUNE HIDDEN IN YOUR WEBSITE
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everywhere are raving about this new course
"Killer
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will increase
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and this course is the key to better copy! Check it out:
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1,001
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The Death of Positioning?
by Mark
Joyner CEO, Aesop.Com
I always get a bit nervous when I
start talking about the less
testable theories of marketing.
I call this "touchy-feely"
marketing. I'm a real "show
me" kind of person, and I will
rarely make a statement about marketing
without having tested a
theory on real products I'm selling
myself.
This is one exception. It would
be quite difficult to test some
of the ideas I'm about to put forth
here. Nonetheless, it's an
important concept that will change
the way you think about your
web promotion efforts.
For years it has been believed that
for a product to succeed it
must "position" itself properly
in the mind of the consumer.
Ries and Trout (the best known spokesmen
of this theory) make a
powerful case. They claim
that the overall mass of information
with which a consumer is bombarded
every day makes it hard for
him to remember any information
at all.
However, the way our brain categorizes
and stores information
helps to determine which of these
bits of information are
remembered. The Law of Primacy,
for example, states that it is
easier to remember the first of
any list.
For example, can you name the following:
1. Your first kiss
2. The first President of the
United States
3. Your first day in your current
house
4. Your first day at your last
job
Now, try to name your second kiss,
the second President, the
second day... Do you follow?
It's obviously much easier to
remember the first. It almost
goes without saying.
According to Ries and Trout, this
phenomenon accounts for the
success of many of today's continued
successes. Coca-Cola,
Levi-Straus, IBM.... These companies
have a primary position in
the minds of the consumer because
they got there first.
Now, there is more to it than that
(there are a great many other
psychological factors that affect
the position of a product in
one's mind- see 1,001 Killer Internet
Marketing Tactics for more
details), but you get the general
idea. This concept has been a
decisive one in shaping the ad campaigns
of the last 20 years.
The only problem is, the whole field
of marketing and
advertising itself has been turned
on its head by the Internet.
The rules have changed. We
have had the great privilege of
witnessing a "paradigm shift".
A paradigm shift occurs when a new
invention or discovery
completely changes the way we look
at the world. The Internet
has not only caused a paradigm shift
itself, but it is the
catalyst of other paradigm shifts
by increasing the rate at
which we exchange information.
So, we have to be willing to let
go of certain beliefs when this
occurs.
The million dollar question is, is
Positioning one of these
concepts which we will have to discard?
My answer is a resounding "no", but
there is a new concept that
will greatly affect the importance
positioning will play in
determining who buys. The
position of a product in one's mind
will always have a great impact
on whether or not one chooses to
purchase that product, but, I propose
that on the Internet,
there is one single factor that
is of even greater importance:
Timing
This states that the marketer must
deliver the Right Message to
the Right Consumer at the Right
Time.
These days, when your average net
consumer wants something, he
wants it fast. For example,
some time ago I was looking for a
web host for one of our web sites
(to protect those involved I
won't mention any names).
For various reasons, we had to move
and we had to move fast. I
really didn't want to have to spend
a lot of time talking to prospective
companies. I just wanted
to get the site up and running on
a new server so we didn't lose
traffic. An acquaintance linked
me up with a company that
reportedly could get the job done
quickly and do it well. There
were even a few things that bothered
me about this company from
the start, but I was assured all
would be well.
I hate to admit it, but I'm just
plain lazy. We decided to go
with this particular company because
of the Timing of the whole
deal. At that time, this was
more important than a company
name. There were a number of big
name companies that had a
better Position in my mind, but
that just didn't matter. The
decision was a mistake, for sure
- one I will always regret -
but, it is the decision I made at
the time. This inferior
company got my business because
of timing.
Now, if one of the big name companies
had been there at the
right time, there is almost no doubt
in my mind that they would
have received my business.
But they weren't. So, in this case,
Timing was more important than Positioning.
If you spend a few moments thinking
about this, you'll surely
find a few examples in your past
experience where this theory
has held true.
Now, here are a few ways that you
can apply this principle to
your online business:
1. Offer Speedy (If Not Instant)
Fulfillment
Have you ever had to make a decision
between two similar
products - one that could get it
to you right away and another
that would take a few days? Personally,
I've chosen products of
lower quality based on their delivery
times. (OK, now you know.
I'm lazy and impatient.
But, you'd better love me. I *am* Joe
Six-Pack.)
2. Find the Right Consumers
in the right place
There are places online where people
ripe for your product are
hanging out right now. Seek
those places out and get your
message there one way or another.
An obvious example would be
someone searching for your type
of product on a search engine.
Or, perhaps you sell saddle-soap
and there is a forum or
newsgroup all about horse saddles.
Maybe you offer rare books
and you find someone that owns a
newsletter dedicated to rare
book finding. These are the
places where you want to get your
message seen.
3. Create the Right Time
Sometimes you get the Right Message
to the Right Consumer, but
at the wrong time. Maybe the
consumer just isn't ready to buy
right now. That's no problem.
Create a sense of urgency by
explaining what would happen if
the consumer didn't purchase
your product today. What would
they stand to lose? Do this and
it will become clearer to them that
the right time is now.
Article by Mark Joyner, CEO of Aesop
Marketing Corporation and
creator of 1001 Killer Internet
Marketing Tactics - a *must
have* tool for anyone serious about
doing business on the
Internet. Do yourself a favor and
check this one out today:
http://www.KillerTactics.com/g.o/21247
Warning:
Your Email is Invisible
by Mark Joyner, CEO, Aesop.Com
What I'm about to show you will increase
the number of people that read your
email significantly. (I'm
talking about
legitimate opt-in or one-to-one
emails
here, not spam.)
Many email clients will allow you
to
filter out "junk" based on a set
of
rules. For example, anything
that
starts with "ADV:" or includes such
text
as "this email is sent in compliance
with..." can be filtered out and
sent
directly to your trash file.
If you're like me and get tons of
email
every day, this can be quite useful.
I
just don't have time to read about
every
time some South American pharmacy
is
running a special on Viagra.
The problem is that these rules are
not
always accurate. That is,
sometimes
these "junk email" rules filter
out
important email as well.
Surprisingly, these rules are not
very
forgiving at times. If I were
to write
such rules I would do so under the
assumption that it is better to
let some
spam slip through than to erroneously
filter out something important.
But,
we're not so lucky. Many of
the junk
filtering rules are valid, but others
are not.
You should comb through any of the
automated follow up emails or
newsletters you send out and remove
anything that might trigger a spam
filter. Since some of these
rules are
quite arcane, it is probably best
to
send the email to yourself and receive
it with a client that has junk-filtering
rules turned on. I've found
that the
Outlook junk filtering rules are
the
harshest, so you might try that.
If the
email is not filtered, you're probably
OK. If it is, play with it
until the
email is accepted.
Here are some things to look for
that
you may not expect. The following
will
trigger junk email filters in Outlook
and keep your email from being read:
"FREE"
When in ALL CAPS anywhere
in your email.
You shouldn't use ALL CAPS
for anything
anyway, though, if you can
avoid it.
"sales@anydomain"
If this is in the from address.
Believe
it or not!
"extra income"
When found anywhere in the
message.
"for free?" or "for
free!"
When found anywhere in the
message.
This one is really silly.
I can think
of quite a few uses for this
phrase
outside of junk email...
Of course, there are quite a few
other
rules that will trigger junk email
filters, but these are ones that
could
easily trip you up. Just remember
to
test the mail yourself to make sure.
Doing this will significantly increase
the number of people that actually
read
the mail you send them.
Article by Mark Joyner, CEO of Aesop
Marketing
Corporation and creator of 1001
Killer Internet
Marketing Tactics - a *must have*
tool for
anyone serious about doing business
on the
Internet. Do yourself a favor and
check this
one out today:
http://www.KillerTactics.com/g.o/21247 |
There
are 5 Tactics your Internet business must employ *immediately* if
you wish
to succeed in the next 90 days. Does your business employ all 5?
Click here
to learn all 5:
http://www.KillerTactics.com/g.o/21247
|
*Why Test?*
by Mark Joyner
CEO, Aesop.Com
Marketing should be treated like
a science. If you are serious
about making money on the Internet,
it is absolutely crucial
that you spend some time testing
your results and refining your
approach.
Let me drive this point home.
Say for example you have a
website that gives you a visit to
sale ratio of about 200 to 1.
Not really bad as far as web sites
go. Most do far worse.
Now, assume that you get 5,000 visits
per month. Do the math.
That’s 25 sales per month.
If your profit from each sale is
$50, you are making $1250 per month
profit from your
website.Now, what would happen,
if by changing one small thing
on your website, you could improve
that ratio to say 150 to 1.
It may not seem significant, but
let’s see how it works on
paper.
Now, instead of 25 sales per month,
you are doing 33. Multiply
that by $50 and you are now making
$1650 per month. That’s a
difference of $400. It’s not
like you’re having to work any
harder for that additional $400.
Your website is always there.
Now, the example I have shown you
here is quite mild to some of
the drastic improvements I have
seen as a result of market
testing. All my life I’ve
heard people say "don’t work hard -
work smart!"
This is excellent advice. Working
smart means getting more from
less effort.
Well, testing is a systematic way
of helping you to work smart.
It’s just like the scientific method,
really. You may remember
it from school. There are
many versions of the scientific
method for different disciplines
and many scientists will argue
about which approach is best.
For our purposes, let’s take a
very bare-boned and simple version.
It’s really all we need:
a. Generate a hypothesis.
b. Test your hypothesis by performing
an experiment and
recording the results.
c. Perform calculations and draw
conclusions.
d. Confirm or refine your original
hypothesis.
For example, let’s say in the above
example, we hypothesize that
by adding a money back guarantee,
we will get a better visit to
sale ratio. This is our hypothesis.
To test this, we make the
change on our websites and record
our results. That’s our
experiment. After a few weeks
(or any period of time we
determine to be sufficient) we conclude
the experiment and
perform calculation on our data.
We then discover that the
visit to sale ratio did, indeed,
improve during the course of
our test run. We can then
draw a conclusion that our original
hypothesis is correct.Seems pretty
simple, right? Well,
actually no...
*Controls and Statistical Significance*
In the preceding example, we did
a pretty straightforward and
simple test. However, the results
we have drawn may not be
valid.
For example, what if the majority
of visitors we received before
the test run came as the result
of a banner ad campaign we were
running? Then, without us
knowing it, sometime during the
campaign a company favorably reviews
our product and drives
people to our site. It could be
the case that people who read
that review were more likely to
buy the product.
It could also be the case that they
were much more likely to buy
and that adding the guarantee lessened
the effectiveness of the
site. Or, it could even be
the case that the guarantee did
increase the effectiveness of the
site, but not as much as we
thought.
The problem is, we just don’t know.To
address this issue and to
improve the reliability of our tests,
we need to establish
"controls". A control is a
measure that allows us to isolate
the factors which are causing the
effects we record.
For example, a better way to run
this test would have been to
run two websites at the same time.
Both of them identical in
every way (promoted the same way,
designed the same way-
everything) except for the one element
we think will make a
difference. The site without
the change is called the control
site. The site with the change
is the test subject.
This same principle can be applied
to any other type of
marketing. If you want to
test the effectiveness of a banner
ad, run two banner ads on the same
site for the same period of
time. If you run one banner ad on
one site and the other on yet
a different site, you can’t be sure
that your results are valid.
Using strict control techniques improves
the chances that your
findings will be valid.
*Statistical Significance*
Even if we use good controls, we
can still never be sure of our
results. There may be something
affecting the test we haven’t
thought of. That’s why we
also need to resolve ourselves to the
fact that the results of one single
test should not be accepted
as conclusive.
Rather, we need to perform a great
many tests and look at the
over all trends. Only after we have
compiled a considerable
amount of information can we safely
draw any conclusions.
Just how much testing is enough is
up to you. You should test
until you are satisfied, but be
honest with yourself. Don’t just
stop testing out of laziness!
*Turning tests into profits*
The idea here is to test as many
different methods as possible,
discover the most effective method,
and crank up the volume on
your best method. When you
get into serious volume and your
business is really doing well, even
minor differences in results
will have a major impact on the
amount of money you take home.
And sometimes very subtle and minor
changes to a website will
make huge differences in your results.
If you could find out which of your
advertising campaigns was
bringing in the most money for you,
wouldn’t it make sense to
put more effort into that campaign?
Or do more of that type of
campaign? Wouldn’t you be
crazy not to?
In the following chapters...
http://www.KillerTactics.com/g.o/21247
... we’ll show you exactly how to
track and monitor the results
of all of your Internet marketing
efforts. After we show you
the logic behind each method of
testing, we’ll show you the
physical tools and techniques you
need to employ to track your
success.
Tracking is just recording the results
of one campaign or
another.
Testing is the systematic monitoring
of these campaigns to
discover what is working and what
is not using the scientific
method.
Article by Mark Joyner, CEO of Aesop
Marketing Corporation and
creator of 1001 Killer Internet
Marketing Tactics - a *must
have* tool for anyone serious about
doing business on the
Internet. Do yourself a favor and
check this one out today:
http://www.KillerTactics.com/g.o/21247
Go to nitromarketing
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