PART
I: INTRODUCTION
What is "direct response" copywriting?
What's the difference between direct response copywriting and "regular" copywriting? Increasingly, the answer is "no difference". DM copy is what Herschell Gordon Lewis calls "force communications"... writing that is designed to persuade somebody to do something.
In other words, ALL copywriting is direct response to the extent it's getting somebody to do something.
EXERCISE: Try to find a competently written ad in which no action or attitude change is desired from the reader.
Why
you are smart to be in this class:
A tangible promise: by the time you finish this course you will have the insights to produce significantly better copy and get better results than the majority of people who release direct marketing copy into the world. You are immediately going to be in the top 25% of your profession.
RECOMMENDED READING. These are books I'll refer to in this class. All are in print and available at amazon.com and other sources. You can also order them through a direct link on my website at http://www.otismaxwell.com/Resources.html
Robert Bly, "The Copywriter's Handbook" for basics
Herschell Gordon Lewis, "Sales Letters that Sizzle" for wordsmithing tricks
David Ogilvy "On Advertising" for perspective from one of the greats plus some good examples
John Caples "Tested Advertising Methods" for classic ads and split testing tips
FORMULAS
FOR SUCCESSFUL SELLING/WRITING
A direct response writer is a salesperson with a computer. Many of your communications may serve as the set-up for a live salesperson who takes over once you have generated a response. That's why the same principles and rules that apply to selling will work for your direct response writing.
TIP: You don't have to follow any of these formulas to the letter, but you should study them before deciding to go your own way.
AIDA. Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
ACCA. Awareness, Comprehension, Conviction, Action. Make consumers aware the product exists; help them comprehend what it does; convince them why they need it; motivate them to take action. (Bly)
Four Ps: Picture, Promise, Prove, Push. Picture what the product can do, promise the dream can come through, prove it with detail, push for the order. (Bly)
7 Steps To Closing More Sales from Roy Chitwood, Max Sacks International
Educational materials and training available at www.maxsacks.com
Here's how Roy Chitwood's seven steps translate to direct response copywriting...a scenario where the prospect goes through the same thought process but without us in the room.
|
DIRECT MARKETING STEP |
CORRESPONDS TO |
|
Get prospect's attention. |
Approach and qualification; agreement on need |
|
Present product benefits |
Fill the need |
|
Call to action |
Act of commitment |
|
Present company credentials |
Sell the company |
|
Call to action |
Act of commitment |
|
Statements about no-risk guarantee, ease of ordering, ease
of implementation etc. |
Cement the sale |
|
Call to action |
Ask for the order |
|
Back-end fulfillment |
Act of commitment |
Bob Bly's motivating sequence
Here's how you translate some of these rules into a direct marketing communication.
1. Get attention.
2. Show a need. What problem does the product or service solve?
3. Satisfy the need. Show how your product solves it.
4. Prove your superiority and reliability. This is where you have detail to support your leading premise.
WHY
DO PEOPLE BUY?
Here are Bob Bly's 22 motivators:
1. To be liked
2. To be appreciated
3. To be right
4. To feel important
5. To make money
6. To save money
7. To save time
8. To make work easier
9. To be secure
10. To be attractive
11. To be sexy
12. To be comfortable
13. To be distinctive
14. To be happy
15. To have fun
16. To gain knowledge
17. To be healthy
18. To satisfy curiosity
19. For convenience
20. Out of fear
21. Out of greed
22. Out of guilt
Here are Roy Chitwood's six buying motives
1.
Desire for gain (usually financial)
2.
Fear of loss (again, usually financial)
3.
Comfort and convenience
4.
Security and protection
5.
Pride of ownership
6. Satisfaction of emotion
And here are Bob Stone's "Two Categories of Human Wants"
|
The Desire to Gain
|
The Desire to Avoid Loss
|
|
To make money
To save time
To avoid effort
To achieve comfort
To have health
To be popular
To experience pleasure
To be clean
To be praised
To be in style
To gratify curiosity
To satisfy an appetite
To have beautiful possessions
To attract romantic partners
To be an individual
To emulate others
To take advantage of opportunities
|
To avoid criticism
To keep possessions
To avoid physical pain
To avoid loss of reputation
To avoid loss of money
To avoid trouble
|
Note these are all EMOTIONAL...people buy emotionally, not logically. This is true even when selling business products to people in a business setting, because people are still people.
HOW TO PRESENT YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE
You have reviewed the motivators...now you need to match up with the features of your product.
FABS—features, advantages and benefits
Feature: what it does
Advantage: how that makes it superior or delivers a technical benefit
Benefit: how that translates into a PERSONAL need solves
EXERCISE: Make a list of features, advantages and benefits for a #2 yellow pencil. Include as many as you can.
Roy Chitwood on how to present Features Advantages and Benefits:
To move smoothly from Step Four to Step Five (in his seven-step selling method), use the following transition statement: "There are several important features about [product or service] that I'd like to tell you about."
Then go directly into the Feature/Benefit/Reaction sequence. In this procedure, you will stress the intangible benefits your product or service provides, especially those that appeal to your prospect's dominant Buying Motives.
Here's how it works:
1. Name a feature of your product or service. The feature represents important information about your product or service: the fact that a product is compact or portable, etc.
2. Paint a vivid, word picture of the benefits that feature provides. The benefit highlights what the feature will do for the prospect and appeals to one or a combination of the prospects buying motives: Desire for Gain, Fear of Loss, Comfort and Convenience, Security and Protection, Pride of Ownership, and Satisfaction of Emotion.
3. Ask a reaction question tied to that benefit. The reaction question draws out the response the prospect will base his/her buying decision on.
On finding and defining the USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
This is the attribute that makes your product different from any other...at least in the way you describe it.
Anticipating and dealing with the buyer's concerns
What is the reader thinking while you are presenting product benefits?
Here are Roy Chitwood's five buying decisions...and they are always made in this precise order:
1.
About you... are you a person I want to do business with?
2.
About the company you work for or represent.
3.
About your product or service.
4.
About the price of the product or service you are selling.
5.
About the time to buy.
Roy Chitwood's Guaranteed Close:
"If we can (summary of action to be taken), can you think of any reason why we shouldn't (summary of desired act of commitment)?"
Sometimes the prospect will say "no" which means they've said "yes". More likely, they'll ask for more information or raise an objection. In which case you:
á Acknowledge the objection.
á Re-establish your areas of agreement.
á Add a new feature/benefit/reaction sequence.
á
Ask for the order again.
Sometimes the objection is not a real one but a futile attempt to wriggle out of the salesperson's grip... in which case you:
á Acknowledge the objection.
á Re-establish your areas of agreement.
á Uncover the real objection.
á Handle the real objection.
á Optionally, add a new feature/benefit/reaction sequence.
á Ask for the order again.
Roy Chitwood says you should expect to use one of these approaches repeatedly...you will close as many as 5 times before you get the sale. As you go on:
á Acknowledge the objection.
á Cite the penalty for not buying or acting now.
á Optionally, add a new feature/benefit/reaction sequence.
á
Ask for the order again.
On dealing with FUDS...
These are the Fears, Uncertainties and Doubts that can kill a sale just before it happens or cause a product to be returned after the purchase because of buyer's remorse. A salesperson tries to bring out FUDs during the closing process so they can be dealt with and dismissed. You, too, should anticipate what your buyer might be concerned about and respond proactively. A lot of this has to do with a strong GUARANTEE.
RECOMMENDED READING. Here some of the best-known books on selling. I think every copywriter should read a few of these.
Napoleon Hill's "Think & Grow Rich"
Dale Carnegie" "How to Win Friends and Influence People"
Zig Ziglar's "See You at the Top"
Brian Tracy's "Maximum Achievement"
PART II: THE CRAFT OF DIRECT RESPONSE COPYWRITING
Now let's translate some of this selling philosophy into copywriting. We're going to do this by focusing on one specific direct mail element... the LETTER. Here's why:
á Letter writing is the DNA...it has the infinitely reproducible elements that can be applied to other media. Once you know how to write a letter you can do it all.
UPDATE: As this course has evolved I've realized that email messages must be considered in tandem with the direct mail letter. As we'll see, many of the same rules apply to both.
This is a simple mechanical formula to produce successful letters...follow these and you can't go wrong.
1. Promise your most important benefit in your headline or first paragraph.
2. Immediately enlarge on your most important benefit.
3. Tell readers specifically what they are going to get.
4. Back up your statements with proof and endorsements.
5. Tell readers what they might lose if they don't act.
6. Rephrase your prominent benefits in your closing offer.
7. Invite action.
1. The letter should be a single coherent statement.
2. The letter should get to the point.
3. The letter should tell the reader what to do.
LETTER COMPONENTS: The Johnson Box
Named for Hank Johnson, a Time-Life copywriter of the 1960s. Also called the overline or superscript. This is copy that appears above the salutation, before the letter "begins".
Personalization is preferred, but if you have to preprint make it work as hard as it can for you. Some examples from Herschell Lewis:
Dear Fellow Member
Dear Executive
Dear Colleague
Dear World Traveler
Dear Collector
Dear Golf Nut or (better) Dear Fellow Golf Nut
Some options to begin a letter:
TIP: Keep the first sentence short. (HGL) This tells the reader that the letter is going to be easy to read (even if it gets denser later on).
TIP: I usually try writing several different openings to choose from. Sometimes I end up cutting the first paragraph entirely on further review—which means I've taken too much time with wind-up and the second paragraph is where I get to the point.
The call to action is the language that tells people what you want to do and how they can do it.
OFFERS
The offer is what the recipient gets when they respond. One of your key jobs as the copywriter is to present the offer in the most appealing way possible...and often you'll be charged to come up with the offer.
Components of an offer:
For lead generation, you're selling a follow-up contact rather than the product itself. So your offer will be a booklet or a little gift when they ask for more information. Be careful with gifts for a business-to-business audience: in these days of corporate governance concerns many people aren't allowed to accept gifts.
Tip: you can often use a rich, multi-part offer to pull the reader through a letter. Describe just part of it at the beginning and hint that there's more...then add elements as you go as a way to make transitions and keep the reader involved.
Tip: If you are offering a gift, it's better to tie it into the product. Otherwise you get people responding who don't match the buyer profile.
You're the copywriter, not the merchandiser or owner, so it's not really your place to go inventing guarantees. But consider this: most businesses will make a refund to a truly unhappy customer...better than having them badmouth you to their friends. This amounts to an existing guarantee that isn't being promoted. So why not turn it into a marketing tool to answer the very powerful objection, "what happens if I receive this thing that I can't see...and I don't like it?"
Tell your client they shouldn't worry about being taken advantage of. Those who want to do this will find a way in any case. The extra sales from the guarantee should offset the costs of honoring the guarantee.
When stating a guarantee, go all the way. Tell exactly what you'll do and what they need to do to be honored. Don't use qualifiers—they make it look like the company's trying to weasel out of it. "Guaranteed, Period" from Lands End is about as good as you can get.
26 TIPS, TRICKS AND TECHNIQUES FOR EFFECTIVE LETTERS
The #1 thing to keep in mind is that you are writing for a reader who may bolt at any time and who is also not likely, in today's postliterate environment, to be an able reader. You want to make it easy to scan and you want to provide visual hooks, like the pegs a mountain climber uses, to pull them along to your offer.
9. Avoid words that can be misread by a hurrying reader. Examples: through, though, thought.
10. Use indented paragraphs, bullets, subheads to make your copy easier to scan. These are also helpful for organizing facts that would be too dense to present in run-on copy.
11. Use subheads (usually centered and bold face) to break a longer letter into sections. Be careful, though, if you're looking for a personalized effect. A good compromise is an occasional underlined paragraph or lead-in statement that serves the same purpose as a head, but looks like body copy.
12. Avoid NON SEQUITURS ...they may not be bad, they're just not logical supporting to what came before. People need to be lead by the nose. They will wander off if you don't.
13. Avoid subjunctives except as a negative. Don't say if you order this product, say when you use the product. But it is okay to say if you were to lose an arm and a leg, this insurance would cover you.
14. It's almost always a good idea to use active voice vs. passive. Passive takes more words. It takes longer for people to understand what you are trying to communicate. And it comes across as a lack of enthusiasm.
15. Avoid Germanic-type constructions where you start with a modifying phrase and the reader has to struggle past it to understand. Here's an example from a collectibles letter (cited by HGL): "Revered and admired for its graceful flight and its powerful command of the heavens, the falcon has long been associated with majesty, lordliness and elegance."
16. Avoid the word "it " because the reader must go back and find out what "it" refers to.
17. DON'T INSULT THE READER. HGL refers to this as "someone who comes out swinging and starts Round 1 by hitting the referee"...who is in fact the reader who sits as judge, jury and executioner of your dm pice. Great example, "Dear Mr. Lewis: It always amazes me that less than 25% of the executives who receive this letter respond."
18. Understand the different usage of can't vs. won't. Won't is a promise, Can't is an inexhorable force. (HGL)
19. Watch out for "as backward" sentences. These start with "as" and refer back to something else in the letter...as a rule of thumb they are usually deadly.
20. Remember that SPECIFICS SELL... in part because they are more believable than generalizations. "10 reasons to buy today" is more credible than "here are some reasons to buy today" and 9 or 11 might be better still.
21. Use YOU in the copy as much as possible. As Ray Jutkins says, "don't forget to WHIFF 'em" which refers not to baseball but the sales acronym that means "What's In It For Me?"
22. Avoid "I" and "me" if at all possible unless you are creating a persona that will help make the connection with the reader. Abhor "about our organization" chest-pounding unless it's translated into benefits (pretty unlikely).
23. If a statement is important, make it important. Write it so it's clear, so it stands out, so you telegraph that this deserves special attention. Don't expect your reader to do the extra work of sifting through and prioritizing your message. You'll invariably be disappointed.
24. Don't use unexplained and unproven comparatives and superlatives. (HGL). You're on trial here, remember. If the reader doubts you on this point, you'll lose them on the entire proposition. Is it worth it just to puff up the copy?
25. Get rid of qualifiers whenever possible. "Nearly perfect" isn't good enough.
26. Break a page in the middle of a sentence if possible and use "over, please" or "please continue".
A boy once wrote President Lincoln and asked how long a man's legs should be. He wrote back a personal reply: "Long enough to reach the ground." For sales letters, the answer is, "long enough to tell the story completely without padding." I've written letters as long as 24 pages for an expensive investment newsletter, and half a page for a high tech seminar invitation. Both were successful.
The Herschell Gordon Lewis' principle of VERISIMILITUDE
Verisimilitude is the appearance of truth—it describes something that looks and sounds true without necessarily being true, which is what we're striving to do with much direct mail. You want your letter to look and sound like something that is in the reader's experience. If you sign it Jimmy Carter, the reader needs to feel it is like something Jimmy Carter would write. If it is supposed to be a serious business offer, it should not have doodles in the margin. If it is supposed to be personal, don't use multiple fonts and colors. As with a magic act, verisimilitude takes advantage of the reader's willing suspension of disbelief. And if you lift the curtain by falling out of character, you're really insulting the reader's trust and you're very likely to lose them on the spot.
Herschell Lewis presents a great example of a fundraising appeal that fails because of a single poorly chosen word: "Around 2.5 million hungry people in the two western regions of Sudan will soon run out of food..." The word "around" is the killer. It suggests the person writing the letter didn't know how many people there were and didn't want to take the trouble to find out. If he doesn't care, why should we?
A letter is a very personal medium. People want to know who is writing to them. A slightly stiff banker? A kindly professor? A regular guy who's discovered something great? Adopting each of those approaches would create a very different voice in the same letter with the same offer.
Once you've chosen a voice, stick to it. A good example of what NOT to do is a personal-toned letter that suddenly shifts into legaleze or technical jargon. This brings the reader to a dead stop and you have to start them up again or (as will probably happen) lose them.
Other media have a voice too, especially catalogs and Web sites. You are acting as a tour guide here...the goal is to have a consistent approach to filtering and presenting information which helps the reader know what to expect.
A certain percentage of your readers will be with you automatically unless you say something to turn them off. A certain percentage will not buy under any circumstances.
You need to go for the guys in the middle, those who can be convinced but need some prodding. Write your letter to them and you'll multiply your chances of success.
The letter P.S.
Use the P.S. to...
A P.P.S. doesn't belong in a marketing letter ...shows you can't make up your mind.
This P.S. from St. Jude hospital resulted in a 19% response vs. no P.S. with everything else identical. Worked both with Danny Thomas as the signer and another person later. (HGL)
P.S. I hope that your own family never suffers the tragedy of losing a child to an incurable disease. At St. Jude, we're fighting to conquer these killers, and one day someone in your own family may live because we succeeded.
HOW TO GET READY FOR WRITING
"Advertising is hard"
--agency principal Tom Collins
Step One: Do your research
1. ROADWORK. Read publications your audience reads, go to their favorite Web sites, get on email newsletter lists, watch favorite programs, listen to their favorite radio stations. This tells you what they're interested in and also what their reading level is...technical or jargony vs. not, 4th grade vs. high school graduate. Also, you get free research by seeing ads that run a lot...probably successful.
2. Look at EXISTING materials. Your client's previous promotions, along with results! Also white papers and technical documents, product spec sheets and brochures. Your client may worry about biasing you, or that you will accidentally plagiarize. Your response is that you need this to avoid burning a lot of hours to reinvent the wheel.
3. Talk to real people involved with the product. They may be salespeople involved in selling to the leads you generate. You're really facing the same challenges, in fact you are the front end of the sales process, so hear what they say about pain points, objections, what makes the eyes light up.
Tips for conducting a research interview:
While interviewing in person, I handwrite my notes and then I type them into the computer as soon as possible. Sometimes I can interview someone on phone with headset and write as I talk, but I still go back and clean up and expand statements where they were talking too fast and I made a shorthand note. Sometimes it's my terrible handwriting...I look at it and I can't read it, but it reminds me of what I was thinking when I wrote that.
Once I've done all this, I often find I need very little referral to them...just getting it on the paper gets into my brain.
Use these as the basis of an interview...or to organize your own research.