Obviously, this trading alerts promo is from yesteryear. After all, it specifies on the order page: "I understand I'll start receiving e-mail and fax bulletins immediately..." But the teaser copy on the envelope echoes through time... … [Continue reading]
The one time Kent State communications professor Dr. Ernest Weckesser was a copywriting natural from the get-go. This particular ad had insertions in the hundreds throughout the early 1980s. There's something really captivating about this lead … [Continue reading]
Reverend Ike was an American evangelist-preacher based in New York City and known for the expression: “You can’t lose with the stuff I use!” He was also a HEAVY mail order marketer whose packages were known for excessive personalization and the … [Continue reading]
If compound interest is the "eighth wonder of the world"... And the quote is variously attributed to a plethora of heavyweights: - Ben Franklin - Baron de Rothschild - Albert Einstein - Bernard Baruch ...Then the ninth wonder of the world … [Continue reading]
Here's a recent 28-page package from Martin Weiss and the fine folks at Safe Money Report. … [Continue reading]
There's a reason KLM, the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands, stuck with David Ogilvy and his merry band of ad wizards. Imagine an American traveler contemplating a trip to Europe in the 1970s, two decades before the Web. There were travel … [Continue reading]
There's a surprising thing about the FREE STUFF and "save money" category in direct response. It's not just pensioners or those on fixed income that relish secret ways of saving money or getting free stuff. … [Continue reading]
Here's a typical promo for the trading market with an old-school product as the starting point: a $50 book. "With the Event-Trading System you can potentially make huge profits in a single day without buying a single share of stock. Event-Trading … [Continue reading]
Marketers everywhere should learn everything they can about EVERGREEN ideas and products. Because not everyone relishes constantly coming up with new products, marketing and ad copy. These magnificent ads from the 1980s weren't so unique for … [Continue reading]
Here's the latest incarnation of direct mail from the SUPER supplement that dominates direct mail from coast to coast. And the great thing about this BARNSTORMING package is it's a totally NEW treatment that uses the tested and proven elements of … [Continue reading]
Here's a collaborative project (of sorts) from two of my heroes: Gary Bencivenga and Marty Edelston. … [Continue reading]
Upton Sinclair: wrote in I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked. "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” … [Continue reading]
- Farmers' Almanac - The Guinness Book of Records - Bottom Line Yearbook Great publications have widely anticipated annual editions. … [Continue reading]
Here's a direct mail package from one of my favorite financial publishers with correspondingly killer direct mail marketing: Mark Skousen. This promo mailed two years after 9/11 for Skousen's FORECASTS & STRATEGIES at $99.95 for a yearly … [Continue reading]
45 years ago, the market for foot inserts was already mature. Plenty of marketers promised MIRACLES in the headlines, like: "This 2 OZ. Miracle... Makes foot pain and leg fatigue start to disappear within 1 hour!" It moved some product, but … [Continue reading]
"Ignore this sober warning, and you may as well take your savings ... your retirement - and your very financial security - and KISS THEM GOOD-BYE. On the other hand, if you HEED the warning in these pages and ACT on the advice I offer you in this … [Continue reading]
“A gifted product is mightier than a gifted pen.” Gary "the Great" Bencivenga laid this zinger on the direct response world in 2004 in his Bullets and expanded on it in his Retirement Seminar, a year later. (I'm looking at the quarter ounce … [Continue reading]
This SMASHING promo had it all. It had the: - Right product at the... - Right time... and perhaps most importantly, it had the... - RIGHT positioning. Seriously, I think everyone on planet Earth who was doing business online back … [Continue reading]
Few have a longer track record in newsletter publishing, financial punditry and direct marketing than Martin Weiss. Here's his latest (April 1, 2023) campaign that slammed into inboxes round the world... and that's no joke! … [Continue reading]
Here's a sales letter from early 2007. It cuts right to the chase with: - A 4-page sales letter - An interview insert - An order form The claims are on the mark for a creative thinking product: "You will learn how to 'feed the creative … [Continue reading]
Want to know the secret for staying on TOP... after you've scaled Everest? There's no better answer than this latest package from one of my favorite direct mail marketers and super supplements sellers. I'm talking about the Sinatra Nutrition … [Continue reading]
If there's a longer selling ebook than this one, I don't know it. It's as evergreen of a topic as it gets and not a word of copy has changed in nineteen years! … [Continue reading]
Today (March 24, 2023) I got an email from Doberman Dan Gallapoo about the passing of Brian Keith Voiles, who was a much loved colleague to many for 30 years. When I met Brian at Gary Bencivenga's Retirement Seminar almost 18 years ago, I was … [Continue reading]
Advertisers who can drop a quarter million dollars for full page color insertions in Time magazine must know a thing or two. No, we're not talking about pharma advertising here, but solid direct response in education. You've likely seen this … [Continue reading]
In this possibly convoluted entry, , I'm going to show you the promos which sold several million bucks worth of information products back in the mid-2000s. These straightforward sales letters are among the BEST TEMPLATES I've seen for selling … [Continue reading]