Even in an era of email, the direct mail letter is a classic proving ground. Why? There's no graphics or electronics to protect you, nothing but your word pictures and powers of persuasion to help you sell. That's why the first day of my DMA course is mostly devoted to the Letter. Here's a handout I provide for my students, including wisdom from esteemed colleagues Bob Bly, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Roy Chitwood and more.
See "Copywriting that Gets RESULTS!" (pdf)
See "Copywriting that Gets RESULTS!" (html, with some formatting issues)
Catalog copywriting is an underappreciated art form and a great proving ground for other, higher profile work. For several years I wrote a column for Maxwell Sroge's "Catalog Marketing Newsletter". This download includes the columns that were most-requested for reprints.
See "Catalog Copywriting is hard, dirty work..." (pdf)
Welcome to my time capsule. After some work in databased correspondence in the early 1990s, I became convinced that marketers were not taking their audiences seriously enough as evidenced by the lack of personalization in their communications. I did a lot of research to prove that marketers need to understand, and reflect, changing social trends. Fortunately for all of us, my argument was rendered moot soon thereafter when Al Gore invented the Internet.
See "Getting Personal in an Impersonal World" (pdf)
Otis Maxwell