The Copywriter’s 2020 Guide to…
BIG MONEY in BIG CHUNKS
“The person who is the best prepared and the most knowledgeable
makes the most money. It’s so simple.” (Eugene Schwartz)
Dear Marketing Friend,
It’s the one thing that makes all the difference.
No matter what products and services you sell…
No matter what city or country you call home…
No matter whether you or your company turn over $100 thousand a year… a $100 million or more…
If you’re a marketer or copywriter in North America… imagine instantly knowing more about direct response advertising than your colleagues and competitors.
All with the push of a button.
And if you’re outside the States… it’s time to bring the power of American direct response into your market and clobber the competition.
Here’s what it’s all about.
I’ve put together the largest hand-picked, fully digitized swipe file of WINNING direct respnse onto a lightning fast USB 3.0 External Hard Drive… 57 GIGABYTES worth.
From the tabloid-sized magalogs and big bookalogs of the major mailers… to direct mail from obscure marketers far and wide… to an arsenal of print advertising like you’ve never seen.
You see, each year, I spend a small fortune on subscriptions, product purchase, advisories and memberships.
Why?
Not because I’m lacking for products or newsletters, but to keep my name (and aliases!) seeded on direct mail buyer lists.
This keeps my mailbox stuffed with the latest and greatest advertising.
But you don’t have to spend years… or fortunes… to get your hands on the greatest swipe file of the 21st Century.
That’s because you can…
Steal these swipes!
I have a confession.
Advertising may be creative… but I hate creating.
I’d rather rely something that’s made money again and again.
Like Yale Hirsch’s “Steal These Stocks!”
This ad ran more times than anyone can count… and sucked up leads like crazy for Hirsch’s Smart Money.
What do you do when you find a zinger of an ad like this?
You put a gold star on it… file it away… and test it.
Because a winner like this is 100 TIMES more valuable than ten textbooks of theory.
Moreover, as Ecclesiastes 1:9 says:
“There is nothing new under the sun.”
Take Martin Conroy’s direct mail letter about “Two Young Men.”
It’s credited with selling a BILLION DOLLARS worth of Wall Street Journal subscriptions over the course of three decades.
No matter how many times you read this piece, it never loses its magic.
It starts:
“Dear Reader:
On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college. They were very much alike, these two young men.
Both had been better than average students, both were personable and both—as young college graduates are—were filled with ambitious dreams for the future.
Recently, these men returned to their college for their 25th reunion.
They were still very much alike. Both were happily married. Both had three children. And both, it turned out, had gone to work for the same Midwestern manufacturing company after graduation, and were still there.
But there was a difference. One of the men was manager of a small department of that company. The other was its president.”
What made this ad so great?
Just think of how many times a day people take “evasive maneuvers” when thrown into a sales situation.
The average prospect has a little voice inside screaming: “En garde!”
And it’s very difficult to sell once that’s happened.
One way around this is to tell a story.
The great thing about telling stories is they don’t necessarily need to relate to the product we’re selling.
Nowhere does the ad state the successful man was a Wall Street Journal reader and the other wasn’t.
It’s implied.
And just as importantly as getting our prospects to read our ads without their sensors buzzing, storytelling has almost magical powers of suspending disbelief.
A good story — and hopefully one that’s also relevant to our product — sails past left brain logic and scrutiny and into that much more welcoming realm for selling of right brain feeling and imagination.
When prospects read Martin Conroy’s mail piece, they didn’t need any facts, surveys or studies showing conclusively that Wall Street Journal readers out-earned and out-performed those who didn’t.
They were left with only one thought: I want to be like the successful guy in the ad!
Creativity… Not!
I’ll let you in on a little secret.
As triumphant as Conroy’s ad for The Wall Street Journal was, he didn’t come up with the idea for the “Two Young Men” ad any more than I did “Steal These Swipes!”
As a matter of fact, he lifted the story line from another famous 20th Century ad man, Bruce Barton.
Barton wrote a space ad in 1919 for his long time client, The Alexander Hamilton Institute, the premier self-help and business development entity of the early 20th Century.
The headline for the ad was “The Story of two men who fought in the Civil War” which opened like this:
“From a certain little town in Massachusetts two men went to the Civil War. Each of them had enjoyed the same educational advantage, and so far as anyone could judge, their prospects for success were equally good.
One man accumulated a fortune. The other spent his last years almost entirely dependent upon his children for support.”
If you look at Martin Conroy’s and Bruce Barton’s openers side-by-side, it’s clear they were created from the same mold.
But guess what?
Just as Conroy was inspired by Bruce Barton — Barton took his plot cue from a successful ad written the year before — with what should now be familiar deck copy:
“The story of two clerks in New York City who started together a few years ago, side by side, each earning $12 a week.”
This 1918 ad sold the memory course du jour, the Roth Memory Course, and told “the story of two clerks.”
The clerk “with the memory” went on to become the head of a giant publishing enterprise. The other became “a petty bill collector.”
So much for creativity!
The memory ad hails from the ad agency of Ruthrauff & Ryan, which was a veritable all star team of copywriters, including on staff at various times: John Caples, Maxwell Sackheim, Victor Schwab, Wilbur Ruthrauff and Lillian Eichler Watson of Book of Etiquette fame.
We may never know who among these world-class writers actually wrote the ad.
And it really doesn’t matter.
Because “There is nothing new under the sun.”
So, why not take advantage of these…
5,037 WINNING Ads &
and 2020 RESPONSE ROCKETS
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KILLER CHIRO campaign grew this franchise from a handful to HUNDREDS of clinics.
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Even he will buy…
Once you learn the LAST SECRETS LEFT for driving response at will in 2020… 2025… and beyond.
Take a close look at him.
He’s the proverbial somnambulant sloth… the textbook couch potato.
Too lazy to move… too indifferent to notice… too sedate to take action.
Most marketers and copywriters have little chance of getting his attention… let alone making the sale.
But there are a small number of outliers with the power to compel the sale… even from the likes of him and the growing legion of his kind.
And when you can sell to him, it’s like having the power of Galahad — the power to pull the embedded sword out of stone with ease — even after countless others have tried and failed.
It’s 2020.
Can there really be any secrets left?
I have a confession.
I go through periods of feeling jaded about direct response.
The same old products and promos get recycled ad nauseam.
Rare is the day when something new and original comes on the scene.
Some days I even feel like throwing in the towel.
But then I’ll discover something that changes EVERYTHING — something new and exciting — bona fide secrets with astonishing response boosting power.
These same secrets can breath new life into your response rates… no matter how long you’ve been at it.
Let me elaborate.
No matter whether you’ve been writing copy for 30 days or 30 years…
No matter if you’re a rookie writer or an A-lister… founder or freelancer…
No matter your industry or specialization… city or country…
Even if you’ve invested a million or more on marketing and advertising resources…
If you sell by direct response…
Then this is the one thing that could make all the difference… for systematically lifting your response rates in 2020 and beyond.
If you’d like to be among a small number of elite who’s privy to these gems… then…
Let me tell you about…
The real enemy strangling the life
out of your sales
Dear Marketing Friend,
It happened almost 15 years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday.
Gary Bencivenga held his once in a lifetime seminar at the St Regis Hotel in New York.
Was it the greatest assembly of marketing and copywriting talent in one room?
Quite possibly.
But several years before this legendary event, Gary gave his first presentation at Rodale Press.
The VHS tapes occupy a prominent shelf in my library. 🙂
It was here that he first shared his “YEAH, SURE!” believably field test for any advertising claim.
It’s elegantly simple since everyone has this mechanism built in.
What is it?
It’s the skeptical “YEAH, RIGHT!” or “YEAH, SURE!” the prospect hears in her head when she runs into…
OVER THE TOP Advertising Claims
Take these headlines from actual ads:
“Burns Away More Fat Each 24 Hours Than If You Ran 14 Miles A Day!”
(“YEAH, SURE!”)
“$100,000 For Answering Your Phone”
(“YEAH, RIGHT!”)
“Erases Wrinkles Instantly”
(YEAH, SURE!”)
“Imagine Losing As Much As 50% Of All Excess Fat In Just 14 Days!”
(“YEAH, RIGHT!”)
“FREE MONEY!”
(YEAH, SURE!)
Credibility stretchers?
Yeah, sure!
But as great as this exercise is, testing is ultimately the answer to everything in direct response, as Gary reiterated many times during those two days in May 2005.
Sometimes the exceptions to the rules turn out to be big winners.
Shoshana Ginzburg’s “FREE MONEY!” was such a hit with hundreds of insertions from February 1973 to May 1975.
Ditto for National Grants Conference’s “Free Money.” This full page winner also ran as 2-page spreads from 1999 to 2007.
There will always be exceptions like these but Gary’s seminar was about stacking the odds in our favor. Bottom line… even the greenest attendees in that room (and I was surely one of them) wouldn’t pen many hyperbolic headlines like the ones above.
But it turns out today…
The REAL SALES KILLER isn’t “Yeah, right!” It’s “Yeah, but…”
So…
Why do some prospects get
EVER SO CLOSE TO BUYING… but don’t?
I call them the “almosters.”
They almost buy… but.
Here’s the problem with these prospects.
…They believe your claims about your product or service…
…They believe your product works… and might be of benefit to them…
…They believe you…
BUT…
Something holds them back on a deeper level.
They say to themselves… “Yeah, but.”
As in, “Yeah, but… the product or service won’t work for me.”
There are a number of reasons why they disqualify themselves.
Here are a few:
-
- They’ve surely been let down by a product or service similar to yours… sometime in the past.
-
- They cling to the notion that their problem is so ingrained… so desperate… that nothing can help them.
-
- They’re convinced some problem intrinsic to them — their age, circumstances or work ethic — will prevent your product or service from working for them.
-
- They have shelves and computer drives full of information products they’ve barely touched… and realize yours will only be adding to the pile.
-
- And in some cases, they may even fear your product or service will lead them to fulfilling their aspirations.
Nowadays…
Even the best sales pitches… for the
greatest products fall short without this…
It doesn’t matter how great your sales pitch is… or how many years you’ve logged as an ad writer.
Nor does it matter if your product or service is the best thing since sliced bread.
Unless you’re actively doing this in almost every ad or promotion you churn out… it’s certain you’re leaking response.
And if I hadn’t stumbled on this hundred year old secret… from one of the ablest ad agencies in history… and seen the thousands of ad insertions to back it up… I wouldn’t have believed it myself.
More on that in a moment.
The fact is… if you don’t batten down the hatches against your prospect’s “Yeah, but…” objections… you’re dead in the water.
A short travel back in time makes the case.
Some internet marketers today long for the early 2000s… back when you could put out a decent offer for almost anything and get a crushing response.
They think selling’s hard today.
Surprisingly…
The advertisers of the 1920s had it WAY harder…
There was never a more jaded… jilted… doubting… disbelieving prospect… than in the era AFTER the fall of patent medicine.
What was patent medicine?
They were the elixirs… tonics… and liniments of the 1800s and early 1900s.
Originally, letters patent authorized the use of royal endorsements for advertising.
Patent medicine included everything from snake oil to swamp root… and from wizard oils to electromagnetic bathing fluids.
Their effectiveness… unproven.
Their safety… questionable.
Their curative claims… off the charts.
For every known ailment — there was a patent medicine promising a cure.
But the risk to consumers was high.
Some got poisoned…
Some died…
Everyone got duped…
Patent Medicine was the Wild West
of products, pitchmen and promotions
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the final three decades of the 19th Century, the national wealth of the United States quadrupled. Then it doubled again by 1914.
Patent pitchmen were getting rich.
What was it really like during this advertising era?
Forget the Web… forget TV… heck, forget radio.
Print was the ONLY game in town during the patent medicine heyday… with the exception of a smattering of early direct mail.
Ever heard of swamp root?
EVERYONE had at the time this ad ran in 1902.
There were a staggering 232,550 ad insertions for swamp root between 1872 and 1920.
There was no ailment it couldn’t cure.
Of course, with 10% alcohol as one of its key ingredients, it’d make anyone feel good.
All in all…
Swamp Root Pulled
$500 Million in Sales
inflation adjusted for 2020.
Dr. Andral Kilmer came up with the idea for swamp root in 1872. Despite the exotic sounding name, it was not sourced from the bottom of a Louisiana swamp. Besides alcohol it contained prosaic ingredients like: peppermint, cinnamon, valerian root, and sassafras.
But that didn’t stop it from becoming an immediate hit and Andral eventually brought his brothers, Jonas and Andrew, onboard.
The Kilmer brothers banked fortunes with the product… but that was just the beginning.
Jonas’ son, Willis — fresh from Cornell with an advertising degree… and a gift for promotion — catapulted the company to the next level with his national advertising campaigns.
Backwoods folks might not be able to identify the U.S. president… but they instantly recognized Andral Kilmer, whose likeness was printed on every box of Swamp Root.
Risk-Free Trial Offers… Keyed Advertising…
Retail and Mail Order Product Distribution
Not bad for the year 1902.
Even though the order coupon hadn’t been devised yet… it didn’t stop Willis from taking Swamp Root to the cosmos
Here was his call to action which appeared in thousands of ads:
“If you have the slightest symptoms of kidney, liver or bladder trouble, or if there is the slightest trace of it in your family history, send at once to Dr. Kilmer & Co., Binghamton, N. Y., who will gladly send you by mail, immediately, without cost to you, a sample bottle of the wonderful remedy, Swamp-Root, and a book containing many of the thousands upon thousands of testimonials received from men and women cured by Swamp-Root. In writing, be sure to say that you read this generous offer in The Nashville Sunday American. Swamp-Root is Pleasant to Take and is for Sale at All Drug Stores in Bottles of Two Prices and Two Sizes — Fifty Cents and One Dollar”
After a string of buyouts, deaths and company shuffling, Willis Sharpe Kilmer wound up with control of the company. The flamboyant pitchman built an empire on patent medicine filled with mansions, yachts and Kentucky Derby winners.
At the time of his death in 1940, his estate was valued near $15 million — $260 million in today’s money.
He was just one of many who made vast fortunes during the patent medicine era.
Cocaine… Morphine… Chloroform
They were standard ingredients.
Even in baby meds.
Alcohol was a given and could be as high as 40%… equal to 80 proof whiskey.
But not all patent medicines were bogus.
Some have even lasted to this day along with a change in ingredients and a scaling down of claims.
Take Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound.
This women’s tonic has been on the market continuously since 1876.
There have been OVER ONE MILLON print ad insertions for the product.
Unlike the snake oil salesmen of her time, Pinkham was an accomplished herbalist and locals flocked to her in the early days when she still prepared the remedy on her kitchen stove.
She wrote her own advertising copy and personally answered thousands of letters from her customers.
But Pinkham was the rare, legitimate patent medicine promoter.
Meanwhile…
World class hucksters dominated patent medicine
If you wanted to make a quick bundle during the patent medicine heyday, all you had to do was put “Indian” in your product name and feature some Native Americans in your ads.
Prior to 1881 no American Indian had ever heard of Kickapoo Sagwa.
It sprang from the imaginations of two veteran patent medicine promoters, John Healy and Charles Bigelow, scammers of the highest order.
They spun an origin story that would make marketers today envious.
It was reprinted countless times.
All of it was fiction.
“The Adventures of a United States Government Scout. The same remedy that effected his cure now used throughout the Civilized WorldSome years ago, Mr. Charles Bigelow, now one of the proprietors of the famous Kickapoo Indian Remedies, was acting as a government scout in the Indian territory.
He was known at that time as ‘Texas Charlie,’ and while on one of his expeditions was taken sick with a severe fever, and for a few days lay at death’s door. During his sickness, he was cared for by an Indian Chief and his family, in whose lodge he lay, so weak he could hardly raise his eyelids.
An Indian doctor visited him, and gave him that now most famous of Indian remedies, Indian Sagwa, and by its use he was snatched from the jaws of death and restored to health, owing his life to the wonderful efficacy and curative power of this medicine.
He then endeavored to persuade the Indians to give him the secret of its ingredients. This at first they refused to do, but after much persuasion and many discussions they at last partially yielded to his request, and the Chief of the Tribe sent East with Mr. Bigelow five of his most renowned medicine men, together with an ample supply of the roots, herbs, barks, gums, etc., used in the manufacture of their medicines.
What started thus in a small way has ever since increased, and today there is manufactured from similar materials gathered by the Indians themselves, their famous remedies, which have done so much to alleviate suffering of every description.”
One hundred touring medicine shows
Healy and Bigelow hired Native Americans by the hundreds, none of them real Kickapoo, to join touring companies selling Sagwa and other Kickapoo products throughout rural America. During the show, an Indian delivered an impassioned oration that described the dramatic origin of the remedy and how it saved countless Indian lives… and after great sacrifice would be offered to audience members.
Except for the alcohol, everything about Kickapoo Sagwa was fake — especially the testimonials which carried tremendous weight in those days.
This plug is from the legendary Buffalo Bill who was also making millions with his own Wild West touring show.
“Kickapoo Indian Sagwa is the only remedy the Indians ever use, and has been known to them for ages. An Indian would as soon be without his horse, gun, or blanket as without Sagwa.” (Colonel William F. Cody)
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t’s wasn’t enough that print was the only game in town at the time…
It’s wasn’t enough that almost all publications took bundles of cash in advance to run these ads… regardless of what the ads claimed…
Sometimes… patent medicine ads appeared right under the masthead.
Like the above ad for Dr. David Kennedy’s Favorite Remedy in a 1902 edition of The Evening Sentinel.
Kennedy’s ads held nothing back when it came to making claims.
“After Searching Tests — Dr. David Kennedy’s Favorite Remedy Has Proved Itself to be the Only Positive Cure for Kidney and Bladder Diseases.
Thousands of requests for free bottles of Dr. David Kennedy’s Favorite Remedy are received nearly every day by the manufacturers, and upon strict investigation, it has been found that no less than 91 out of every hundred of those receiving trial bottles have been so helped by the Remedy sent that they have bought large sized bottles at their druggists.”
Although Kennedy’s remedy promised to cure any and all kidney and bladder diseases, it was widely taken as a hangover treatment.
What was inside of Kennedy’s remedy?
The list of ingredients was only given to customers upon request… but unsurprisingly… it contained 18.4% of the “purest grain alcohol.”
Kennedy’s advertising was off the charts even for patent medicine standards.
And today’s advertisers couldn’t even dream this up…
Presidential assassination = advertising lead
No one today would believe the advertising techniques the patent med pushers used in their day.
This ad ran shortly after President McKinley was shot on September 5, 1901 while delivering an address at a fairgrounds before a crowd of 50,000 people.
As McKinnley’s condition appeared to improve in the days following the shooting, the David Kennedy Corporation had the misguided idea to run this ad.
It’s unique in the annals of advertising — even for patent medicine.
“WE MADE PRESIDENT McKINLEY WELL-
proportioned in this picture so as to attract your attention. You may be well-proportioned and look well, too, but do you feel well? That is the point. Don’t you sometimes feel almost as tired in the morning as when you went to bed?”
The chutzpah of the patent medicine men knew no bounds.
Testimonials — often by the dozens per ad — were the mainstay of patent medicine.
Usually they were clergymen, doctors, druggists and lawyers.
But some advertisers weren’t interested in lesser mortal chicanery.
Nuxated Iron ran ads with testimonials from dozens of former U.S. Senators, military heroes and sporting legends.
But this one certainly took the cake — it’s the only purported product plug from the Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. Of course, it was fabricated.
The envelope had been pushed too far because here came…
The Death Knell of Patent Medicine
In 1906, Upton Sinclair published his best selling expose, The Jungle.
His goal in describing the meat industry and its working conditions was to advance the cause of socialism in the United States.
But the public had a different reaction.
Readers were more concerned with the horribly unsanitary conditions at meat packing plants, as in — “Oh my God, that’s what’s in my hot dog!”
As Sinclair later commented: “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”
But a year before this gut turning expose, Collier’s Weekly published an equally damning account of the patent medicine industry written by Samuel Hopkins Adams called:
“The Great American Fraud”
“GULLIBLE America will spend this year some seventy-five millions of dollars in the purchase of patent medicines. In consideration of this sum it will swallow huge quantities of alcohol, an appalling amount of opiates and narcotics, a wide assortment of varied drugs ranging from powerful and dangerous heart depressants to insidious liver stimulants; and, in excess of all other ingredients, undiluted fraud. For fraud, exploited by the skilfulest of advertising bunco men, is the basis of the trade. Should the newspapers, the magazines and the medical journals refuse their pages to this class of advertisement, the patent medicine business in five years would be as scandalously historic as the South Sea Bubble, and the nation would be the richer not only in lives and money, but in drunkards and drug-fiends saved.”
The fact that print was the only medium around then worked the opposite way. The Collier’s series confirmed what everyone suspected — they were being duped on a grand scale by the patent medicine pushers to the tune of over $2 billion in 2020 dollars.
The expose resulted in the first Pure Food and Drug Act the following year.
While the new law didn’t ban alcohol, narcotics, and stimulants in the medicines, it required them to be labeled as such.
No longer could a manufacturer claim the product was a proprietary remedy brewed up by Kickapoo Indian medicine men.
The Act was the first nail in the coffin of patent medicine. Most of the traveling medicine companies melted away and the most fraudulent of the snake oil salesman dropped out of site.
By the time 1936 rolled around the Pure Food and Drug Act was revised to ban alcohol, narcotics and stimulants and the United States entered a long period of ever more drastic government regulations and oversight.
But the damage had been done — it became impossibly hard to market legitimate products after the patent medicine hucksters ran roughshod over the public for decades.
They were…
Duped… poisoned… some even died
[dropcap]P[/dropcap]atent med pushers scorched the forrest to the ground for a generation of advertisers.
Prospects doubted advertising claims — especially those in the health arena.
It got so bad, many marketers switched over to selling deodorants and toothpastes. They were an easier sell then the balms, serums and elixirs that once effortlessly made them bundles of bucks.
But not everyone took it lying down.
A little known mail order ad agency uncorked a powerful selling secret that put them head and shoulders above everyone else.
While other agencies were retreating… they were expanding.
When other advertisers threw in the towel… they doubled down.
While other agency’s clients landed in the poorhouse… they made theirs fabulously wealthy.
SMASHES “Yeah but” objections
If you’ve never heard of the ad agency, Ruthrauff & Ryan, join the club — perhaps, they’re the greatest unsung mail order agency in history.
At various times they boasted on staff some of the biggest advertising legends in history including: John Caples, Victor Schwab, Max Sackheim and Lillian Eichler Watson — the 18 year old copywriter who moved two million copies of The Book of Etiquette for Doubleday at $2 each.
Not bad for a teenager in the early 1920s.
Ruthrauff & Ryan knew a thing or two — they began as patent medicine advertisers but so did the father of modern direct response, Claude Hopkins. Heck, John D. Rockefeller’s father was a patent medicine salesman. Patent medicine once touched everything.
But the advertising techniques that once made money hand over fist became useless.
R&R figured out the…
MAGIC WORDS that get the “almosters” off the sidelines.
I’m an easy mark for anything that promises the magic words to say… and how to say them… to get a positive result.
I remember when Ted Nicholas’ book, “Magic Words,” came out in the 1990s. It’s had a center shelf library spot ever since. I’ve also sprung for numerous hypnotic writing and NLP courses promising the moon.
Maybe some work… but I have little faith in them.
Imagine when I’m driving down the street with someone like Norman Rentrop — who heads a 200 million euro per year operation — and turning to him to try some NLP woo-woo or other psychological strong arm tactic.
Maybe Dr. Milton Erickson could pull it off but not me.
Theses tactics don’t work with accomplished operators… and most would be foolish to try them.
But guess what?
You can throw most of that stuff out the window when you’re dealing with your average respondent too.
There’s one thing that’s been a constant for over 3,000 years.
It’s human nature.
Why would early early 20th Century prospects scoop up patent medicines by the bushel… just because they had the word Indian in the product name?
Were respondents just gullible in the early 1900s?
How different were they really then the droves of recent respondents who yielded to powerful origin leads like:
“Product used in Japan for 71 years relieves pain in 10 minutes without taking dangerous drugs”… or
“New Advanced Heating Pad From Canada Brings Pain Relief In As Fast As 30 Minutes”… or
“The Hunza Secret!”
Or how different were they than investors who snapped up shares of On-Line Plc and caused its stock to surge 394% in one day… just because the company added BLOCKCHAIN to its name?
Human nature hasn’t changed in 3,000 years… back when Mesopotamian merchants were haggling in market squares.
And it’s this very predictable element of human nature that can hand you…
More sales…. and higher conversions… just by sprinkling some SIMPLE WORDS in your ads
…When the first magalogs hit mailboxes in the mid-1980s… it was like shooting fish in a barrel.
…When initial advertorials ran in the early 20th Century… they instantly pulled 81% higher response than traditional ad formats… and
… When the “negative option” or “till forbid” offer came on the scene with Book of the Month Club… it built behemoths of companies overnight.
The SALES LIBERATOR is nothing so lofty…
and it doesn’t work all the time.
But for the products and offers it does goose sales for… it’s amazingly effective because it’s so simple.
No trance inductions….
No hypnotic language…
Nothing a copy cub couldn’t pull off… after learning in an afternoon.
Nothing more than…
Some simple words… strategically sprinkled in your ads that seal off the “Yeah but…” objections… and close down your prospect’s escape routes.
Whether it’s a VSL… email… DM package… press ad… or DRTV spot…
Whether it’s an ad you wrote five years ago or yesterday…
Whether you’re selling a low cost info product… or a high ticket package…
The SALES LIBERATOR forces the “almosters” off the sidelines because it shuts down the “Yeah, but” escape routes.
It worked against the plentiful objections in the minds of prospects after the collapse of patent medicine… and it works today.
And Ruthrauff and Ryan’s clients had to deal with…
A scorched Earth of disbelief and doubt...
After the patent med pushers ran amok for over a half-century.
While there’s infinitely more clutter today than there was 100 years ago — the level of doubt is no where near what legitimate health marketers had to fight against in the 1920s.
Thankfully an ingenious copywriter — possibly even patent med veteran, Wilbur Ruthrauff, himself — came up with an ingenious solution.
It sounds crazy but…
This hemorrhoid ad could be worthtens of millions of dollars… or far more…
to marketers and copywriters like us over the course of our careers.
Hard to believe… I know.
A hemorrhoid ad worth millions?
An ad about a condition that’s no laughing matter — yet elicits laughter — contains a timeless response boosting secret?
A sales liberator for 2020 and beyond?
I didn’t believe it myself. But the truth is it doesn’t matter WHAT’S for sale… it matters HOW it’s sold.
And there’s no arguing with THOUSANDS of insertions promising a real solution to a very real problem… one that plagues people equally today.
And there’s also no disputing the mile high skepticism prospects had at the close of the patent medicine era… especially about health related products.
The Sales Liberator is a POWERFUL… UNIVERSAL response booster…
where there is intense pain… or high aspiration.
It’s not something to be deployed for wishy-washy or middle of the road offerings.
And it only works for real products with proven track records… not hucksters looking for a fast buck… and a new technique of manipulation.
I stumbled upon it several months ago while digging around some online databases.
What I discovered was ad after ad… page after page… insertion after insertion… for a blockbuster product no one would know of today. The last insertion ran in March of 1958.
[dropcap]S[/dropcap]o why pull the plug on a powerhouse product… backed up by world class advertising… after 37 years of success?
Unfortunately, it’s far too common in direct response. Without a succession plan, the curtain often comes down when a founder leaves the scene.
But the Sales Liberator is just as powerful today because it seals off your prospects’ objections… both conscious and subconscious… just as it did for disbelieving and doubting prospects after the patent medicine era.
Over the last few months, I’ve written and run ads for everything from low priced information products to high priced cosmetics… and almost immediately experienced a sizable POP in response… just by utilizing the Sales Liberator… and without changing other response factors.
The last copywriting secrets left?
You’re never going to sell to the majority… but there’s a nice segment of prospects waiting to hand you their money.
They are the almosters.
And the Sale Liberator pulls them off the sidelines… and into your customer file.
But if you’re one of the rare insiders who says “I knew that.” after watching the videos and exploring Sales Liberator Module #1 then ask yourself this:
How many times have you actively deployed it in your sales pieces?
How many times have you strategically sprinkled it in your copy?
Now take one of your proven promos and put its MAGIC WORDS to work… then check your response rates.
If your products and services fall on the ends of the pain-pleasure axis — of strong affliction or high aspiration — you may be very pleasantly surprised by the response boosting power of the Sales Liberator Module #1.
Even the most reliable… hyper-responsive customers are surrounded by walls of distraction.
Endless clutter… crying babies… complaining spouses… shortages of time… ringing devices… and bombardment from fifty directions.
But the somnambulant sloth above makes them look like pushovers.
He’s too lazy to move… too satiated to care… to oblivious to anything beyond the perimeter of the sofa.
But the truth is he buys.
And when you can sell to him, it’s like having the power of Galahad — the power to pull the embedded sword out of stone with ease — even after countless others have tried and failed.
One marketer has excelled at reaching him and his kind
like no other in recent history.
After selling well over a billion dollars via direct response…
Mr. X has largely retired.
Yes, it’s old and tired — the Mr. X pseudonym has been dragged out for far too long — more often than not as a marketing ploy.
But this Mr. X is the real deal.
While he’s been “hiding in plain sight” for over fifteen years…
While he’s captured millions of customers in multiple markets…
He’s remained under the radar to this day.
How far under the radar is he?
Dan Kennedy misidentified him in a 2012 sales letter, and even dissected one of his ads in a May 2011 newsletter, without knowing the source of the ad.
At the time, Mr. X’s companies were hovering under $350 million a year in revenue.
This is not about taking a swipe at Dan — he’s forgotten more than many of us will know about direct response.
But if Dan Kennedy was in the dark about the identity of Mr. X, it speaks for itself.
While Mr. X has substantially pulled back and is semi-retired, his current ads offer a MASTER LESSON in how to force the couch potato to GET UP and take IMMEDIATE ACTION.
The Sales Liberator Series conntains one of the most powerful swipe files (and video breakdowns) you’ll ever get your hands on for learning the secrets of marketing to the masses and COMPELLING RESPONSE NOW.
I’m pulling out ALL the stops to get this in YOUR hands…
Why?
Thank goodness direct response offers us a universe of unfolding opportunities.
And the one that’s seized my attention now is fundraising.
I’m after (another) world class collection of fundraising packages… and I’m raising funds to do it. 🙂
I need to get a hold of this before someone beats me to the punch.
So I’ve loaded up Response Rockets like nothing ever seen before… and slashed it to rock bottom.
Because it is a true rock bottom offer, the price may go up at any time (few will notice it’s so low) or the offer may be pulled altogether.
So, why not claim your…
SUPER POWERS for 2020… and beyond
- World’s wealthiest working copywriter. Only known to cosmetics marketing insiders. Equity partner in a conglomerate that sells in the BILLIONS. His complete swipe file. (“World’s Wealthiest Copywriter” on Response Rockets)
- Print to VSL Goldmine. The hottest “old school” traffic source and the marketer that’s claimed it all for himself. (“Print to VSL Goldmine” on Response Rockets)
- The Ultimate “Stick Swipes.” Ingenious membership newsletter that almost forces product consumption… by one of the all time greats. (“Ultimate Stick Swipes” on Response Rockets.)
- 1,853 HEALTH & BEAUTY print ads. Everything under the sun. (“Health & Beauty MegaBase” on Response Rockets)
- HIGH TICKET Selling (Part 1): “How to turn $49 investment newsletter subscribers into high ticket buyers… for a $10 Million week. (“High Ticket” on Response Rockets)
- 634 FINANCIAL ads. DM packages & print with 15,000 fully searchable keywords. Investment newsletters, trading systems and software, options advisories, penny stock pitches and more. (“Financial MegaBase” on Response Rockets)
- CRIMINAL CLOSER’S Manual: The Feds shut them down… but not before this rogue firm booked $250 million in sales. This 76-page training manual was mandatory reading for employees. (“Criminal Closers” on Response Rockets)
- KILLER CHIRO campaign grew this franchise from a handful to HUNDREDS of clinics. 29 ads… 134 total chiro ads. (“Killer Chiro” on Response Rockets)
- 30-page checklist for writing “Story Ads that Sell.” (page 600, Direct Response Players Volume 3)
- ALT-HEALTH. 320 Direct Mail control packages. (DM Health MegaBase on Response Rockets)
- 4-foot-11 marketing GIANT’s fool proof knock-off insurance… and $200 million payday. 52 ads. (“4-foot-11 Marketing Giant” on Response Rockets.)
- SELF-HELP secrets. 209 DM packages and print ads. (“Self-Help” on Response Rockets)
- Supplement Swipes… 352 proven print ads. (“Supplement Swipes” on Response Rockets)
- RETAIL COPYWRITING dwarfs mail order… and this treasure trove of 420 long copy ads TROUNCED the competition. (“Retail Copywriting” on Response Rockets)
- HEALTH INFO-MARKETER’s secret stash. No pills or potions here. The secrets of selling health related books, reports and plans… 185 winning ads. (“Health Info Marketing” on Response Rockets)
- “Dentorials” that pull. 69 print ads. (“DENTAL” on Response Rockets)
PREPPER products. Market of hillbillies, paranoids and cooks? Think again. The survivalist’s market continues to soar… and high ticket products abound. 124-page lesson for selling $10,000 power generators… 84-page “how to” for pitching $500 freeze-dried food rations… a 30-page control for moving cases of colloidal silver kits. (“High Ticket” on Response Rockets)
- FASCINATION FILES. 134 pages. Ad collection sent unsolicited to direct response legend, Marty Edelston. His friendship worth a thousandfold the check. (“Fascination Files” on Response Rockets)
- HOT NEW direct response lead. $8.5 million in sales and 80,000 new customers thanks to this unlikely lead. Working like gangbusters in health and wealth. (“Hot New Lead” on Response Rockets)
- $2,000 GOLD? The greatest silver and gold print ad swipe file there is… from a 50-year copywriting veteran. 75 ads. (“Silver & Gold” on Response Rockets)
- Socialist’s SALES SECRETS. He once boasted in a headline: “Do You Realize (blank) is the Largest Book Publishing Enterprise Ever in Existence?” But since he sold HUNDREDS of millions of books, none can quibble. His 223-page title testing manual… and greatest ads collection. (“Socialist’s Sales Secrets” on on Response Rockets)
- WEIGHT LOSS. Many marketers don’t have the risk tolerance for it. But if you do… try this: 1) a good advertising lawyer and 2) this weight loss swipe file of 171 current and recent print ads, including: supplements, weight loss centers, hypnosis, and cosmetic surgery. (“Weight Loss” on Response Rockets)
- FUNDRAISING fortunes. Ogilvy’s response boosting dynamite (not in any of his books)… British advertiser’s £147.7 million windfall in 2015… Virginia farmer’s formidable fundraising secrets… €278 million raised in 2015 by this monolith. 68 ads. (“Fundraising” on Response Rockets)
- Unbeatable BIZ-OPs and perfect pitches. 130 long running print ads. (“Biz-Op” on Response Rockets)
- REAL ESTATE. Greatest “nothing down” pitches in print… TAKE AWAY selling to the tune of $19,000,00 worth of lots sold in a single day (in the 1920s)… Secrets of sight unseen selling… Urban land CRISIS and selling the dream of “small town America”… How B.K. Haynes sold more land per ad than ten competitors combined. (“Real Estate” on Response Rockets)
- HIGH TICKET Selling (Part 3): From $500 supplements to $5,000 options advisories. (“High Ticket” on Response Rockets)
- PICK-UP artist in print. Mild mannered agency-man by day… pick up artist by night. His pioneering print campaign. (“Pick Up” on Response Rockets)
Listen, there’s more MONEY MAKING fire power than any sane man or woman can deploy in a lifetime.
Here’s more of what awaits you.
Profiles of “Direct Response Players”
Direct Response Players #1: “The agency that hated the agency business… and
bought out its clients”
Tale of the Tape: “4-Day Formula” Creators. 9,232 total retail print ad insertions. (420 ads in “Retail Copywriting Kingdom” on Response Rockets).
Forget the 4-hour nonsense. Here’s the ad agency that built some of the biggest franchises with a 4-day work week and loads of long copy.
Lansdale & Carr founded:
- 4day Tire Stores, one of the nation’s largest retail tire dealerships with sales of $80 million a year (inflation adjusted 🙂 ). 4day relied on powerful “reason-why” copy to dissolve price shopping, train customers for life… and grow the franchise like MAD.
- 4day Golf Clinics and Pro Shops, the biggest chain of retail golf shops on the West Coast that ran some of the most responsive quarter-page verticals in the history of print.
Lansdale bought out former clients:
- Dorman-Winthrop, and turned them into the nation’s largest men’s clothing operation… facing the San Diego Freeway at the Magnolia St. offramp. Their advertising arsenal included: personality in advertising, iron clad “reason-why” copy and “story selling,”
- Standard Shoe Stores… whose 3,348 fractional ads were plastered all over the L.A. Times for years.
For good measure they also owned a mail-order tire company (Teletire), a wholesale truck tire company (Macho Tire Enterprises), and they had a minority interest in a luxury yacht broker, Yacht Sales International of Newport Beach.
They LAUGHED at his 4-day work week idea…
till he sold $80 million worth of tires in one year
Never heard of Lansdale & Carr?
You’re not alone. Search the web for them and you won’t find much.
There are the obits of both founders in The L.A. Times and a trade journal article about the folding of 4day Tire, after the founders passed away — unfortunately commonplace in companies without a succession plan.
Back when they got started in the tire business though, no one gave them a chance.
The landlord at the original West Lost Angeles location on Sepulveda Boulevard demanded a year’s rent in advance before handing them the key. It became one of their busiest locations.
Phil Lansdale was the creative force, while Don Carr was the numbers cruncher and together, they came up with the…
4-Day Formula
Just as the name suggests, stores were only open four days a week, from Wednesday to Saturday.
Why four days?
Of all the expenses a tire dealership has, labor is the biggest and most of that is due to overtime. The four-day week kept labor costs way down and structured store hours only around peak times. It also made the stores recognizably DIFFERENT from everyone else’s, as expressed in…
4day’s powerful 22-word U.S.P.
“Open only during 40 most efficient selling hours. We can sell at cut prices by developing maximum sales with 1-shift overhead.”
Most important, it allowed 4day to OUTSELL every other chain in the country when it came to top-end radial tires.
The sun has long since set on the 4day chapter and the Lansdale advertising empire, but its lessons are evergreen for any direct response advertiser.
Starting with the most basic one…
How many retail businesses give the customer
a REASON to do business with them?
Take this ad from 26 years ago as an example. (You can click on the thumb to enlarge it.)
This is how 4day grew from one shop to industry domination — long copy underpinned by flawless “reasons why” and valuable info in every ad.
There’s not just one but a colossal 39 reasons — many the average tire customer would never fathom — and it’s backed up by 4day’s guarantee and the company president’s contact info if there’s a complaint.
Take the big one: #2 on the list of 39 reasons.
“2. Cut prices. We undersell by taking less markup than others take.”
It’s succinct and immediately understandable, but a reason nevertheless… and rightfully tops the list of 39.
Lansdale companies were usually positioned as price cutters, but there was always a CLEAR PRICING METHODOLOGY detailed in the copy, never a “We’ll beat any price” claim.
As anyone who’s been around the block in direct response knows, competing on price alone is a recipe for failure. That’s why it’s essential to acquire the right long term customers to sell to again… and again.
But just as important, is disqualifying the wrong ones who think only in the single dimension of price.
No retail advertising did this better than Lansdale’s.
4day may have sold tires… but they knew how to…
GET RID of Tire Kickers
Some price shoppers can be redeemed, once things are explained to them — the rest are best cut loose.
Here’s one of the best arguments against sleazy retail sales come-ons and it applies to any industry. Every prospect with a brain knows it but nothing beats spelling it out for him.
“Do you fall for the ‘we’ll beat any price’ tire gimmick?”
“Some things never change. Open the newspaper and you’ll see some tire dealer boasting in his ads that he’ll beat any price.
What he really means is that he usually overcharges you. But if you show him our 4day printed price list or one of our ads, he’ll drop his price one penny below ours. After you leave he raises his prices again
Does it make sense to buy tires from someone just because he’ll save you one whole penny?
We don’t think so.
“No pricing tricks at 4day”
You know exactly what you’ll pay at 4day because our prices are posted in plain sight in each of our stores.
Ask the manager for a copy of our printed price list. It’s yours to keep.”
Who’s ever heard of an agency that buys its clients?
The biggest drawback of the advertising business hasn’t changed.
As Lansdale put it: “l was always at the mercy of my clients.”
Most clients were too conservative for his taste. So he developed a peculiar habit of buying them out.
One of his biggest accounts was the discount men’s clothing store, Dorman-Winthrop, whose management passed on to the founders’ offspring.
What did the young heirs to this venerable retailer decide to do?
They immediately went about DESTROYING the very thing that built the company — it’s advertising. And that left Lansdale no choice but to buy them out.
What Morty and Jay knew about
direct response… that Unilever doesn’t
This ad’s from the Los Angeles Times on Feb. 20, 1971. (Click on the thumb to enlarge it.)
Yes, it ran over forty-five years ago, but it’s stocked with all of the WEAPONS of direct response we prize today: personality in advertising, iron-clad “reason why,” targeting objections early and often, “story selling” and more.
But if you asked a random web jock what he thinks of it, he’d likely label it as “stone age” and irrelevant.
Pity him.
He’ll never understand anything about the role of direct response in shaving off years and vast expense in building a thriving business.
But you could make the same claim about many multi-nationals.
Take Unilever.
It has a market cap of just under $117 billion.
Unilever GOBBLED up more direct response driven companies recently than Pac-Man pac-dots, companies like: Murad, Dermalogica, Kate Somerville and REN… and made their entrepreneurial founders wealthy in the process.
A sensible outsider might ask, “Why doesn’t Unilever just set up their own direct response division — and save a fortune — by creating these kinds of companies instead of acquiring them?”
But that’s the…
“Evergreen arbitrage” of direct response
Unilver and companies like them only know how to acquire, not create.
They’re no more wired for direct response than the Dorman-Winthrop kids were to run a company built on the art of retail copywriting.
Phil Lansdale was a behind-the-scenes retail ad genius who crossed into the rare realm of acquirer.
When once asked if he was “impressed” with his own advertising, he scoffed:
“Ads, shmads. That’s child’s play. I dislike the advertising business and I despise the agency business. The agency business is to make ads and who the hell needs ads? Our job is to take something and make it better.”
Direct Response Player #2: “Dentist to the (almost) stars
Some advertisers have never picked up an advertising book in their lives, yet somehow they come up with an ad that nails it.
And if you’re a player in print, it’s not just what you say but who hears it.
This Upper West Side dentist stopped advertising 25 years ago — he built up such a vast patient base in a red hot market that he’ll live off referrals till he puts down his dental tools for good.
Here’s a quick test.
Aside from financial types, admen and lawyers, what is there more of in Manhattan than anywhere else? If you thought “waiters,” you’re half right — it’s actors.
And while most of them will never get past a casting call, few are quick to let go of the dream… and they’ll pay anything to keep it alive. And that’s how Dr. X made his bones. He ran hundreds of ads for over ten years in Backstage, the “casting bible” for theater performers.
The headline, “Is your smile holding you back?” seems prosaic enough, but sometimes that’s what works best.
“Stains. Gaps. Uneven teeth. Discolorations. If you’re a performer or model, your smile could be holding you back… spoiling a great audition… undermining a super portfolio. .. or making you self-conscious right when you need all the confidence you can muster.
For nine years I’ve improved the smiles of hundreds of performers, models and others in the public eye. I’m proud to say that several of my “star” patients are appearing on Broadway and in TV series right now.”
Not only is this a perfect message to market match but these fledgling actors — in a city filled with them — are prime prospects for the high end services that make some dentists rich.
(69 print ads in “DENTAL” on Response Rockets)
- Casino magnate’s 7 MAGIC WORDS heralded the deal of the century. (Direct Response Players Volume 3, page 471)
- $500 bottle of supplements? (“High Ticket” on Response Rockets)
- Secrets of using time frames to ramp up claims… from Dow Theory Forecasts. 60 years in print and 3,694 insertions. (page 532)
- “H-BOMB on paper.” Little known response booster… with the power of a bomb. (page 343)
- SHEEP get slaughtered. The investment ad that nailed the sales psychology of winners versus losers faster than any financial print ad in history. (page 500)
- The space to buy NEXT to your ad that can TRIPLE readership… and DOUBLE response (Vol. II Intro, page 7)
- 2 MAGIC words in the health, beauty and diet markets (page 46)
- The headline every fundraising advertiser’s thought of… but only one had the courage to run. (page 572)
- BORING BOOKS? 328,099 book club ad insertions in the history of print. And Classics Club offered the most prosaic of titles from the likes of Plato, Aristotle, and Marcus Aurelius. Secrets of BIG IDEA ads that transcend the product for sale. (page 552)
- The formula” for selling to seniors in print (page 135)
- World’s greatest gadget swipe file (72 pages in “Gadget Swipes” on Response Rockets
- You’re MAD… if you don’t test this offer headline in health and beauty at least once. (page 432)
- BEAT THE IRS. Ad campaign that licked the IRS and saved this advertiser hundreds of millions in tax dollars. (page 587)
- How a copywriting footnote turned into a $500 million business (page 17)
- Print campaign from the fund with $40 billion under management. (page 499)
- 96-year old secret for SMASHING competing retail insertions on the same page. (page 536)
- FORGET Martin Conroy. Everyone touts the billion dollars plus in sales attributed to his “Two Young Men” direct mail letter. But it was these 2,988 “tinytorials” for trial subscriptions to “The Wall Street Journal” that worked customer acquisition like crazy for decades. (page 538)
Direct Response Player #3: “How Evelyn Wood built
the fastest franchise in speed reading”
“I took a course in speed reading. They taught me how to read down the center of the page. At the end of the course I read ‘War and Peace’ in 20 minutes. It deals with Russia.”
But Evelyn Wood’s Reading Dynamics was no joke — it was making money hand over fist. By 1978, when the movement reached its peak, there were 150 franchise locations throughout the United States and many more overseas, charging a respectable $395 a head.
Their print ad campaign was nothing to laugh at either and with 8,220 print insertions, Reading Dynamics knew its direct response.
And you couldn’t ask for a more streamlined business model than Reading Dynamics. Besides advertising, its only expenses were instructors and hotel conference rooms.
How could any advertiser have
a more powerful grabber in 1975 than Jaws?
Reading Dynamics hit it out of the park when it came to “zeitgeist marketing” and there were other films and series in this campaign besides Jaws, like: The Godfather, The Exorcist, and Roots.
Just think of a traumatized Jaws filmgoer coming across this ad. Click on the thumb above and take a look. Imagine it’s 1975. Have you ever seen a more foolproof way of entering the conversation in the prospect’s mind? The 3-word headline, “It sounds incredible,” immediately tackles any objections to the claim in the subhead, “JAWS IN 41 MINUTES.”
Faster reading, better comprehension, 550,000 graduates, and the power of demonstration through an invitation to a free Mini Lesson… what prospect could resist?
This campaign was a win for the franchise, its students, the film studios, the publisher… and literacy itself. Why don’t more advertisers try this?
For dentists, chiropractors, cosmetic surgeons,
optometrists, hypnotists, osteopaths, aestheticians
and 22 more professional practice areas
- FORGET AdWords. Use this “leadvertorial” in a direct response “hotbed” instead. Almost no competition. (page 362)
- KILLER CHIRO campaign grew this franchise from a handful to HUNDREDS of clinics. 29 ads… 134 total chiro ads. (“Killer Chiro” on Response Rockets)
- Harley Street nutritionist and life coach’s AMAZING advertising for selling to the royal family, celebrities and the well-to-do. (22 ads in “Royal Family Advisor” on Response Rockets)
- HYPNOSIS for Health. (25 ads in “Hypnosis for Health” on Response Rockets)
- “Leadvertorial” that gets 3-5 times higher readership when it’s NEXT to this (page 359)
- “Dentorial” PULLS more leads than the average dentist does teeth (page 349 plus 69 print ads in “DENTAL” on Response Rockets)
- This lead helps optometrists across America SEE higher response (page 350)
- Chiro “leadvertorials” that beacon to ideal prospects like a lighthouse in a sea of clutter (page 360)
- Legal “leadvertorials” prosecute the competition (page 369)
- The leadvertorial “double-up.” Pound for pound the best remnant space a professional practitioner may ever buy. (page 361)
- Dentist’s 10-YEAR headline asked this group a simple question… got resounding response… and built a high end practice (page 348)
- How this “tinytorial” in the “A” section of a HOTBED publication outpulls ads 2… 4… even 8 TIMES larger (page 363)
- 2-step ad with a recorded message line. DEAD in 2020? The surprising answer. (page 366)
- Why the newspaper is still king of the hill when marketing to seniors and many boomers… and is the only way to reach many of them (Vol. II Intro, page 6)
- NATUROROPATH’s KNOCKOUT advertorials. (25 ads in “Naturopath” on Response Rockets)
- Super COSMETIC SURGERY Swipes. (30 ads in “Cosmetic Surgery Swipes” on Response Rockets)
- Chiropractors can’t stop swiping this Eugene Schwartz headline. It’s been going strong since 1952. Now charting like mad in health and wealth. (page 425)
Direct Response Player #4: “The Pharmacist Frontman”
He came from a line of pill and potion entrepreneurs. His grandfather immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe — a perennial hotbed of cosmetology — and founded his first company in 1904.
The company then passed to his father, also a pharmacist, and eventually to him in the 1980s. He worked the sales magic of direct response via advertorials for 27 years… and grew the company by multiples. His specialty was the fractional ad and he had over 10,000 ad insertions across North America. His ads sold off the page and promoted his products at retail partner locations.
One ad alone, with a deceivingly “simple” headline, had a whopping 3,059 insertions.
Why were his anti-aging ads so successful?
Because in the age of “Dr. Google,” where anyone can play a doctor at home, the photo of an M.D. in a white coat does not have the power it once did.
But there have been a SLEW of ads featuring pharmacists over the last few years that have had stunning longevity.
Direct Response Players Vol. 2 is loaded with advertisers who are raking it in with this response secret.
So, next time you’re contemplating a “white coat promo,” consider this:
“Pharmacists were ranked as the second most trusted profession in 2014, according to the results of an annual Gallup poll that asks consumers to rate professions according to perceptions of honesty and ethical standards.”
And pharmacists routinely rank in the top three professions of the annual Gallup poll.
Direct Response Players Vol. 2 will introduce you to advertisers whose fractional insertions often outpull ads 2… 4… even 8 TIMES larger.
Their secret?
The good old advertorial.
20th Century advertising legend, John Caples, was the first to advocate and rigorously test the advertorial format.
One of his earliest split-run tests, in which one version of an ad was formatted as a traditional ad and the other as an advertorial, resulted in the advertorial format getting 81% more orders.
Little has changed since Caples’ original findings and there’s a greater array of advertorial formats in 2020 then he could have ever imagined: tinytorials, multitorials, leadvertorials, front pagevertorials, Dear Abbytorials and “the ad within the advertorial.”
The advertorial formats you don’t know…
“The tinytorial” or tiny advertorial packs a punch and can be used to sell off the page, push retail, expand brand awareness… or do all three. Large advertisers often ignore them and it’s a pity because they could utilize them to amp up full-page ads or DRTV spots. Smaller advertisers are totally unaware of the selling potential of the space.
The “pharmacist frontman” ran half and full-page ads but the tinytorial was the backbone of his company for decades. The tinytorial just above for Primatene had 14,744 insertions and ran for 28 year without changing a word of copy.
Then there’s the “multitorial” which violates the usual rule of one offer or product per ad. But rules were made to be broken. One player in print’s main ad format is the multitorial which often has up to ten alt-health products per page.
Their insertions run in big national publications like, USA Weekend,Star, National Enquirer and dozens more. An earlier incarnation of the company was devoted to information marketing but today, it’s all about supplements, which can be ordered toll-free by phone and online, as well as purchased at the big three: Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid.
The “leadvertorial” is pound for pound the most effective advertising space most professional practitioners will ever buy. But with all the web jocks running around touting everything from conversion rate optimization to funnel creation, everyone seems to have forgotten the power of the free report tied to the recorded message line. Yet, savvy attorneys, chiropractors, investment advisors and more use this as their bread and butter format to haul in leads by the boatload, while their competitors bleed each other dry with pay per click and online display.
The newspaper is still king of the hill when marketing to seniors…
and many boomers and the only way to reach many of them. The benefit of the “free recorded message” is still as compelling in 2020 as it was in 1990. It’s nonthreatening and as immediate as picking up the phone any time of day or night. Unlike the web, the competition’s almost nonexistent in many newspaper markets.
Why do they work so well now that we’re in 2020?
Ironically because over $30 billion of newspaper print ad revenue vaporized since 2003.
Classifieds gutted… retail advertising shrunken… and national ads contracted. The flat-footed advertisers who bailed on print or fled online, hadn’t a clue what they were doing in the first place. Now that all the waste circulation’s been swept away, the rising tide has lifted the boats of all direct response advertisers.
Publications where response was cold… HOT… hotbed newspapers… even HOTTER.
“The front pagevertorial” wasn’t created by Ogilvy but he turned it into a formidable weapon for his marquis client, Helena Rubinstein, whose cosmetics line was one of the biggest and best known in the mid-20th Century. While Rubinstein’s business was structured as a retail cosmetics line, tethered to prestigious salon addresses on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago and Fifth Avenue in New York, she also did a lot of mail order business.
The front pagevertorial is ideal for companies with one or more product lines and since it mimics the front page of a newspaper, it has the benefit of multiple readership paths, which usually lead to higher response.
In 2020, it’s evolved into the magazine “advertorial spread.”
And remember, next time someone says “print is dead” or a magazine is “an Ipad that doesn’t work,” that 204 new print magazines launched in 2015 including websites turned into print magazines like heavyweights, CNET and WebMD. Ask them: “Why these big web brands would venture into a dying medium?”
“The Dear Abbytorial” uses the irresistible appeal of the advice column to win readership. The Athenian Mercury contained the first known advice column in 1690. Advice columnists, like Dear Abby and Ask Ann Landers, are known as the “agony aunt” or uncle in the UK. But whatever name they go by, the advice column format is one of the most underused, yet highest attention grabbing formats there is. The “pharmacist frontman” also wielded the Dear Abby with lethal sales power for decades.
Why is the “Dear Abby” the secret weapon
of print advertisers in the know?
Because the advice column mirrors our standard problem-agitation-solution approach. The reader is expecting a problem to be brought up, then addressed and solved in the confines of the column. And like the early advertorial format Caples trumpeted, people are “trained” to read it. While, it’s a natural for health and beauty products, there’s seemingly no end of products or services that can profit from it.
Print publications, and newspapers particularly, are far less crowded than they were ten years ago. This has helped not only loosen advertising departments’ regulations but made remnant space more readily available… which segues into…
The “ad within the advertorial.” It was a no-no for many years with most advertising departments because of its slick A.B.A. (anything but advertising) camouflage. Is it an ad? Is it an article? No one can tell. And because of that, response can often fly off the charts.
As publications grope for revenue in 2020, the tables have turned… and the ball is in the advertiser’s court. Mark O. Haroldsen ran these ads across the country in big market publications in the late 1980s and filled hotel rooms with anxious would be money makers.
Joe Karbo also ran this format in the late stages of his “Lazy Man’s Way to Riches” campaign. One of the perks of this format that Karbo jumped on is the ability to trumpet:
“The Lazy Man’s Way lo Riches” has appeared in Fortune, Newsweek, Time, Reader’s Digest, Barron’s, Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, Dun’s Review, Money Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, New York Times … in hundreds of magazines and newspapers in the United States, England, Canada, and Australia.”
Readers had surely seen Karbo’s ads before but didn’t take the bait. But after reading the above caption, they’re forced to ask themselves: “Why didn’t I order?”
“Direct Response Players” Volumes 1-3 deliver HUNDREDS more ideas and response boosters for ramping up print ads:
From a 7-second format change that can automatically bump response by 10%-15% for ANY print ad… to the space to buy NEXT to your ad that can TRIPLE readership… and DOUBLE response… to MAGIC words in the health, beauty and diet markets that ignite readership and response… to hundreds more.
Direct Response Player #5: From London lawyer’s underground epiphany in 1960 to €278 million in funds raised in 2015
Pills, potions, investment newsletters and self-help courses: the stuff sales letters are made for.
It helps a copywriter now and then to step out of his own arena.
And London lawyer, Peter Benenson, had a copywriter’s blood.
Peter Benenson set up Amnesty International humbly enough. He got on the London Tube one morning to go to work as usual with the Daily Telegraph rolled under his arm, when he came across an article about two Portuguese men jailed for drinking a toast to freedom in a Lisbon cafe. He persuaded hundreds of people to write to the Portuguese dictatorship of the day, demanding their release, and the plan worked.
The idea of ordinary people writing letters to protect forgotten prisoners — represented by Amnesty’s symbol of a candle circled by barbed wire — caught on all around the world.
Today, Amnesty has 7 million international members and supporters with monthly memberships beginning at $10.
How could any newspaper reader ignore: “Write your own bloody headline?”
(26 ads in “Amnesty” on Response Rockets)
- ANTI-AGING Swipes (96 ads in “Anti-Aging” on Response Rockets)
- Men’s Health Swipes (116 ads in “Men’s Health” on Response Rockets)
- Men’s health advertiser’s “DECOY ad” — a bikini-clad woman in a tanning bed — runs next to the actual ad. Known to the cognoscenti of print players… but this is far more powerful (and legitimate) at consistently landing attention and readership (Player In Print, Vol. II Intro, page 7)
- 7-SECOND format change can automatically bump response by 10%-15% for ANY print ad… once you know this (Vol. II Intro, page 4)
- He made a KILLING in direct response before getting killed in the mutual fund business… just before the Crash of ’87. (page 506)
- 2,653 insertions by the original “GET RICH in real estate” promoter (page 561)
- FLORIDA LAND FRENZY: $19,000,00 worth of lots sold in a single day… in 1926. But promoter dies under mysterious circumstances aboard the RMS Majestic only months after full page ads ran. The earliest known TAKE-AWAY advertising in print. (page 549)
- How a macabre attack by two goons on a Midtown Manhattan street turned into the most dramatic proof element ever dared in beauty advertising (page 342)
- You may never offer a lifetime subscription… but if you do… (page 564)
- These 14,744 “tinytorials” ran for 28 years… without changing a word of copy (page 358)
- When bubbles burst… how nothing down hustlers profitably change course when their promise falls on deaf ears. (page 479)
- How to create an impregnable MARKETING MOAT around your brand or product (Vol. I Intro, page 13)
- RATE CARDS: $48,400 for a full color page in The National Enquirer… $199,000 in USA Today… $576,500 for Better Homes and Gardens… $784,900 in Parade. Direct Response Players NEVER pay the rate card. And more importantly, they ALWAYS test in cheap direct response hotbeds like these first. (Vol. II Intro, page 5)
- Secrets of the “NO SALE” and “No Sale Held Over” (pages 454)
- 2 MAGIC WORDS in this headline formula turned these 6 ads into multi-year controls (pages 462)
- Why “cerebral” ads are the kiss of DEATH in biz-op (page 175)
- The 4-foot-11 marketing GIANT who created the perfect knock-off… and devised a fool-proof way to foil knock-off artists (page 293)
- Why green products are destined to make a mountain of greenbacks (page 181)
- Not enough advertisers test this 1-word headline. How good is it? A full page didn’t cut it heading heading into 2018… now it’s up to two-and-a-half pages. (page 458)
- Book from the remainder bin saves company from extinction (page 188)
- Measly million a year in mail order? Or a brand that sells for $200 million? (page 329)
Direct Response Player #6: From penny-a-word science-fiction writer
to $600 million net worth
L. Ron Hubbard is quoted as saying in 1949:
“Y’know, we’re all wasting our time writing this hack science fiction! You wanta make real money, you gotta start a religion!”
Five years later, he did just that.
There are more than a few copywriters who can relate.
Thanks to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, it’s remarkably easy to start a religion.
It reads:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof .”
So if you wanted to start a religion based around resolving past-life traumas due to the tyrant ruler Xemu’s interstellar shenanigans of 75 million years ago… you’d be free to do so… and to convert as many followers as you wished.
Here’s why some might consider it.
It’s all about:
The World’s Most Coveted Business Status…
No, it’s not the Forbes List, it’s TAX EXEMPTION… and Hubbard’s organization achieved it TWICE.
It gets more interesting.
Someone with the inclination could spend the better portion of a month watching Scientology exposés and documentaries online … and never come by it. And few would even think to look.
It’s the advertising secret Scientology used to REGAIN tax exempt status after losing it due to “Operation Snow White.”
That was Scientology’s internal name for the mass infiltration of 136 government agencies, foreign embassies and consulates with the attempt to purge unfavorable records about Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
By the time the government caught on and came after them, Hubbard went on the lam while his wife took the fall for the mountain of criminal activities.
The kind of moxie demonstrated by “Operation Snow White” combined with widespread public antipathy toward Scientology made anyone wonder:
How in the world could Scientology regain tax exempt status?
Of course, it’s advertising that holds the answer.
And advertise Scientology did.
They spent untold millions on multiple insertions of 26 full-page ads in The New York Times and The Washington Post and their target was the German government and its treatment of the Church of Scientology in Germany.
The fight against the common enemy, or the common perceived enemy is blunt, yet remarkably effective and it’s been the go-to advertising theme for Scientology over the years, whether the foe was the IRS, the German Government or the War on Drugs.
The ads in the German campaign compared the treatment of Scientologists in Germany to that of the Jews before the Holocaust. And even though these were advocacy ads, they were direct response in nature.
Readers were encouraged to write to a list of names in every ad, usually including President Bill Clinton, Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the U.S. Secretary of State and the German Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The campaign worked. The landmark reversal shocked tax experts and saved the church hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes over the last 23 years. After the IRS ruling, the State Department jumped on board and formally criticized Germany for discriminating against Scientologists.
Beating the IRS and regaining tax exempt status is impressive work for an ad campaign. Makes finding the next “Snuggie” look like child’s play.
- FORMIDABLE FUNDRAISING: This secret — learned by David Ogilvy in his twilight years — ensures higher response across the board. Not in any of his books. (page 569)
- 2 MAGIC WORDS sold these relationship books by the boatload. (page 565)
- Brand building ad format almost every health and beauty advertiser is overlooking (page 291)
- Secrets of peripheral products that cash in on insane trends (page 170)
- £147.7 million annual budget… Royal National Lifeboat Institution was founded in 1824. Secrets of their success. (page 571)
- Classic direct response + brand building = $1 billion in sales (page 22)
- UNBEATABLE BIZ-OP: Energy Group of America had the dream pitch. Power proof elements via the U.S. Government’s oil lottery, a mail drop in the Empire State Building, and a 1-800 number. This ad has everything… including this timeless truth about biz-op seekers. (page 597)
- The “tiny pill” response booster (page 333)
- “Good cop-bad cop” advertising (page 247)
- 2,411 word lesson in the power of origin marketing (page 189)
- ZIKA virus: it was the 4-letter word on every athlete and attendee’s mind at the Rio Olympics. Now it’s gained a foothold in South Florida and spreading. Demand for this high priced specialty product could be insatiable come Spring. What it is… and how to sell it. (page 87)
- Secrets of the “reversed Trojan Horse” (page 25)
- “SEX That Sells” series that turned heads and opened wallets. (page 449)
to direct response superstar”
On February 12, 2009, the New York Times published a half-page exposé about his company but the founder’s name is conspicuously absent from the article. Now that’s deep cover… and it’s by intention. Little’s changed since. Here are a few of his achievements.
- Turned a copywriting footnote into a big idea that sold over $500 million worth of a product.
- Founded a numismatics company that sold $365,290,090 worth of products. (This is a dated company figure from his list rental division from September 2012.)
- Grew a supplements company from start up to maturity in short order and sold it to Twinlab in 2012 for a giant payday.
- Devised a NEW response booster that shifts the sales equation from “yes or no” to “Am I eligible?”
- Is the player in print who sells off the page while building brand awareness and pushing retail. His understanding of retail as the endgame of direct response helped rapidly get his products on the shelves of thousands of chain stores.
- Uses CTAs (calls to action) that pack a punch like none other… and genuinely employ urgency, specificity, scarcity, social proof and greed. Direct response on this level demands only one means of response: the toll-free order hotline plus overflow hotlines.
- Is a master at turning freemiums into fortunes.
- Packs more selling power into a caption than some writers do in an entire ad. How? First, start with visually arresting, boldly emotional images. Then jam a laundry list of direct response elements into the caption, like: scarcity, overcoming objections, social proof, restating deadlines, order options, event marketing, satisfaction guarantee and pushing retail.
Direct Response Players Vol. 1 highlights his complete direct response advertising methodology with products in DOZENS of markets.
(365 ads in “Ex-factory Floor Worker” on Response Rockets)
Direct Response Player #8: ” Mild mannered copywriter by day…
pick up artist by night”
If you picked up a magazine or newspaper in the 1970s or 1980s, you would’ve encountered an ad like this from Eric Weber’s Symphony Press.
Weber was a timid young copywriter working for Prentice Hall who wasn’t having much luck with love, when he decided there had to be a better way to meet women.
So, he took tape recorder in hand and spent his weekends approaching women and asking them what a man could do to pique their interest.
At night, he’d transcribe the tapes.
He realized he was onto something when he met the woman he’d later marry. Eventually, he had enough material for a book, but no publisher would option “How to Pick Up Girls.”
One day Weber was sitting on his psychoanalyst’s sofa complaining that he’d worked thousands of hours on his book, but couldn’t get it published. His analyst replied, “You’re in advertising. Promote your own book and sell it yourself by mail order.”
That’s exactly what he did and he went on to sell millions of copies of his books and became the first “king” of the dating market.
- CLANDESTINE advertising cabal. Letter drop at Kent House, 87 Regent Street, London was their only calling card. Their print ads were thorns in the sides of governments on both sides of the Atlantic. (page 592)
- From “freemiums” to $500 million in sales (Direct Response Players Vol. I Intro, page 15)
- Was Gene Schwartz wrong? Commodity product that created its own demand… and sold for 10 TIMES the competition. The difference? World class copy and positioning. (page 12)
- Going, Going Gone! B. K. Haynes employed urgency and powerful proof elements to sell more land per ad than ten competitors combined. 2,430 space ad insertions. (page 539)
- $3 MILION A MONTH operator… in the 90s. His litmus test for all successful BIZ-OP promotions. (page 599)
- 2,803 ad insertions from 1966 to 2008 built one of the largest retailers of its kind in North America (page 242)
- BANNED for 30 years — now viable again. Most ad departments prohibited this format because of its slick A.B.A. (anything but advertising) camouflage. But with many publications now groping for revenue… “the ad within the advertorial” is fair game. (page 197)
- 89 year-old antidote to discounting… from the world’s second highest paid copywriter… after Claude Hopkins. (page 535)
- How to knock-off a successful product with better story, better copy and better marketing… and sell a half-BILLION dollars of product in the process (page 2)
- WINNING financial advertising… from the winner of the World Cup Championship of Futures Trading. (page 504)
- Financial copywriters know Louis Engel’s epic ad… ten thousand responses from a 6,540 word ad and a buried offer. Here’s the follow-up ad that kept the momentum flying high for Merrill Lynch. (page 511)
- Print ad secrets from the UK’s leading Independent Financial Adviser. (page 501)
- They swiped Caples… but no one LAUGHED at American Educational’s sales. 30 years of “story selling” ads (page 378)
Direct Response Players #9: “Nordic Invaders”
Some supplement sellers push products for decades by mail order… chug along but never seem to grow.
Meanwhile, another group focuses on retail distribution and remote selling. They start company after company and eventually sell to whale sized acquirers, the likes of Unilever, who recently swallowed up direct response driven companies: Murad, Dermalogica, Kate Somerville and REN.
What makes the difference?
Two of the keys have nothing to do with copywriting or marketing. What are they? They’re pharma style packaging and top graphic design.
And few are doing it as well as the “Nordic Invaders” who rate high on any takeover target list.
The Health & Beauty MegaBase (jammed with 1,853 print ads) holds their complete advertising campaign running on two continents. While many copywriters would be quick to label their leads as testimonial headlines, they’d be completely missing the nuance that’s kept these Vikings on a tear.
Direct Response Players #10: “5-foot-tall marketing giant”
and the “natural born hustler”
They ran one of the most successful ad agencies in Washington D.C. before embarking on one of the biggest “heists” in direct response. One was a born hustler.
What makes a “born hustler?”
“Born hustlers can see the real reasons people want things; they are not fooled by the reasons people give for wanting things. The born hustler learns how people pretend, and he knows that lust and greed and conspiracy and other censored feelings are what make people want things as much as love, charity, virtue and other feelings sanctioned by preachers and the newspapers. They do not have to study at any school to learn these things, and the born hustler like Mac knows, by knowing himself, exactly how much wanting is and is not free from certain ideas of sin.”
One day, a friend tipped the duo off about a potentially lucrative market that was open, but warned other investors had lost money in it. Who better than two advertising pros to test it? They spun off some prototypes and placed a small ad in a home and garden magazine. Within a few weeks, their secretary was filling 3,000 orders.
They were onto something big. The only problem was 2,800 of the 3,000 people who ordered demanded refunds within 10 days because the original product was junk.
Back to the drawing board.
It wasn’t long before they had a vastly improved product. They placed a half page ad in the same kind of magazine; the ad said the same thing as the first one did. This time 4,600 orders came in and the nervous secretary didn’t have a single refund to handle.
There were some more speed bumps and further tinkering with the product, but they ended up with the ultimate mail order product — one with demand as vast and margins as high as it has today. They next turned their attention to retail while the mail order business blazed on.
Ironically, theirs was a knock-off product (albeit a “legitimate” one) and with all their advertising brilliance and mounting success they now faced being knocked off themselves.
“I needed something they couldn’t steal.”
“But as with anything brilliant, people will steal it if they can. It was not long before people [the hustler] calls “the pirates” came along and changed a word here and there in his copy and used it to sell their own fakes. [He] was outraged and his face still turns an unhealthy red color when he talks about pirates and how the copyright laws do not protect ad copy, not even great copy like his. He was so afraid of the pirates that one day he invented [the ultimate knock-off defense] “I needed something they couldn’t steal,” he said.
Their case study is one of the most powerful any marketer will see and one of the cleanest “Zero to Sixty” businesses in direct response history.
Direct Response Players Vol. 2 contains the complete case study, as well as their longest running control ads from 1969-1991. In 1992, QVC bought the company for over $200 million.
(51 ads in “4-Foot-11 Giant” on Response Rockets)
- How the PROS test for “brand rollout” when they’ve got a winning product name. (page 56)
- Why a unique column that originated in 1690 could be the HOTTEST advertorial format in 2020… and beyond (page 211)
- SIGHT UNSEEN SELLING. The biggest and best real estate pitches coincided with bubble bursts, whether it was Florida land in the 1920s or Florida condos in the 2000s. Cialdini-like persuasion packed into this land boom spread… just as the bottom fell out. (pages 550 & 551)
- The original “How to Rob Banks Legally” ad (page 505)
- Selling nutritional drinks by the truckload with “story selling” (page 388)
- How to WEAVE an irresistible origin story that transcends the rug for sale (page 257)
- How PROS use direct response to sell cars (page 219)
-
- The case against origin marketing (page 210)
- 3 MAGIC words headline and a multi-year control for Yale Hirsch’s “Smart Money.” Begging for insertions in 2020. (page 514)
- Hirsch headlines were heavy on alliteration and powerhouse lead gen (page 517)
- PROPHETS IN PRINT: This advertiser’s empire ran into the billions… with large global holdings in securities and land. How he used print to capture the attention of a sitting U.S. President… every day of his tenure in office. (page 589)
- FANTASTIC FINANCIAL advertising from a Broadway singer-songwriter… 1,169 insertions for Indicator Digest. (page 518)
Direct Response Player #11:
“The man who called Black Monday on live TV”
Nothing beats being right… especially when everyone else is so wrong. And if you’re a financial newsletter publisher that does so on live TV, you can certainly count on a bump in subscriptions.
Martin Zweig called Black Monday on Lou Rukeyser’s Wall Street Week, on the October 16, 1987 broadcast.
He was a larger than life character who vowed to become a millionaire after buying his first stock at the age of 13. He later lived atop the Pierre Hotel on 5th Avenue, at the time, most expensive residence in the U.S.
Zweig was a prolific print advertiser who walked his talk. His newsletter, the Zweig Forecast, delivered a 16 percent per annum compounding return, the highest risk-adjusted return of any market advisory service between 1980 and 1995.
(33 control ads in “Martin Zwieg” on Response Rockets, 634 total FINANCIAL ads. DM packages & print on Response Rockets)
Direct Response Player #12: “The Old Lion”
He’s now in the last chapter of his career and on the cusp of a massive new breakthrough with “clean green products.” Here’s why he’s likely to succeed.
- The old lion’s company, founded in 1968, was estimated by Business Insights to have gross billings of $573,000,000 in 2004 with 750 employees. This is the last reported year in the database.
- He took an indebted, basement run company to 4,000% growth and turned it into an industry leader.
- He pulled off an act of advertising alchemy no one dared try in direct response before. He reinvented a commodity product in 2004 that sells for 10 times that of competitors. He’s sold over 3 million of them through print, direct mail and TV for gross sales of over $1 billion.
- He mailed hundreds of millions of direct mail promotions in North America and had tens of thousands of display ad insertions.
- The old lion has a 40+ year track record as one of the most successful and prolific print ad copywriters with products in categories including: supplements, health devices, weight loss, exercise equipment, golf, flags, numismatics, heaters, coolers, air purifiers, costume jewelry, information products, business opportunity, horoscopes, beauty and rejuvenation, memorabilia, specialty products, home study courses, gadgets, cleaning products, cruises, art work sweepstakes, gourmet food and politics.
- He devised the campaign that pulled $262 for every letter mailed and got between a 3% and 5% response rate (depending on the list) for an average order of $6,000 to $8,000. By all accounts, the highest known GPP (Gross profit per prospect) of any promotion ever mailed.
- The old lion is a master at marketing and selling $500 specialty goods off the page. After 40 years of plying his trade, he remains one of the foremost print ad copywriters and the greatest exponent of “Q&A copywriting.”
(365 ads in “Old Lion” on Response Rockets)
- 36 years of clobbering competitors in this ultra-competitive market… thanks to the outrageous challenge. (page 474)
- The ONLY classified ad in Direct Response Players… from this financial advertiser with a $600 million net worth. (page 522)
- Tales of an ex-factory floor worker who built a BILLION dollar direct response empire… sold over $500 million in specialty products… sold over $500 million in coins and currency… and sold a supplements division to Twinlab for over $100 million (Direct Response Players Vol. I Intro, page 4)
- HOTTEST headline and photo combo in biz-op history. Begging to be re-purposed in a proper market. (page 422)
- 70’s Sales Secrets. These financial advertisers milked this lead for all it was worth. (page 520)
- Secrets of advertorials with MULTI readership paths (page 276)
- Art of “Question & Answer copywriting” (page 49)
- How a Hungarian Uprising refugee used origin marketing to build a chain of upscale salons and a booming mail order business. (page 203)
- Premiums that PULL financial newsletter subscribers like crazy (page 516)
- Recession advertising that sells (page 413)
- BILLION dollar direct response dynamo that can’t sell in print (page 375)
- Stuart Berger’s “Southampton Diet” was the celebrity diet du jour of the early 80s. He had no training in nutrition and died of heart disease 12 years later… at a weight of 365 POUNDS. But not before making millions… how he did it. (page 533)
- How the world’s first heart transplant surgeon became the “world’s weirdest” frontman in anti-aging (page 338)
Direct Response Players #13: “The Carpet Kings”
They spent more on advertising than many competitors tallied in net sales and built one the largest carpet chains on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Their full page ads filled New York metropolitan newspapers and magazines for 42 years.
Copy underpinned their long running success and if you haven’t seen a Carpet Kings’ ad, you’ve yet to know some of the most successful retail copywriting ever printed.
Above all, their retail advertising always transcended the rug for sale… with lines of copy like:
“It is here in the mountains, among the virgin forests of fir and pine that descendants of Aryans and Mongols weave rugs exactly the same way their ancestors did. Malting dyes for the clean, clear reds, blues, greens and yellows of their designs from the trees and.flowers around them.”
While their copy trumped everyone in the space before or since… it’s in the art of turning a sale into an event where the the Carpet Kings shone.
“It’s monumental. It’s larger than life. And it’s here. Presenting [Carpet Kings’] 4 1/2 day Warehouse Sale, a sale of such grand proportion, it could only fit in our warehouse. Your home will never be the same after the immense savings on our hand knotted Oriental rugs, area rugs, broadloom, fine furniture, and remnants. It’s everything from sunwash to saxonies, Bijars to berbers, Persians to pindots and from living rooms to lamps. When it comes to these savings, bigger is better.”
Their ad campaigns were so powerful they dug into Tri-state area consumers’ psyches like deer ticks… and more than enough dropped what they were doing and headed across the George Washington Bridge to keep the Carpet Kings going for over four decades.
And if that isn’t enough, the contrasting characters of the Carpet Kings is the textbook example of personality in copy. They were masters of “good cop-bad cop” advertising, with one founder serving as the customer’s adversary and the other as his advocate.
(66 ads in “Carpet Kings” on Response Rockets)
- CROOKS, thieves and liars… a.k.a. 2017 retail banking. But not at the Bowery Savings Bank. Long copy was their trust winning cornerstone. (page 530)
- 1920s copywriting legend: Frank Irving Fletcher. From $10 a week at an artificial flower company to $200,000 a year in salary ($2.7 million in 2019 dollars). Retail advertising success that transcends time. (page 537)
- Contrarian claims. The original “Get Rich Slowly” ad. (page 529)
- What the PROS test in print when there’s potential: headlines, price, photos, offer and celebrity endorsement (page 57)
- “Will a dolphin save your life?” Virginia farmer’s fundraising success secrets. (page 573)
- BANNED: Mark O. Haroldsen’s “ad within the advertorial” filled seminar rooms from coast-to-coast with anxious would-be-money-makers. So devilishly clever, most ad departments banned it for decades (page 195)
- Hitting a hole in one with golf advertorials… to the tune of 472 insertions (page 221)
- The art of book club copywriting from the adman who crossed the $100 million threshold in sales. (page 557)
- Fine furniture advertorial drove prospects down a pothole ridden New Jersey street for years (page 223)
- Breakthrough + money saver lead (page 138)
- The Surgeon General response booster (page 114)
- “Traveltorial” sent unwitting thousands of respondents into discount travel clubs (page 224)
- € 278 Million raised in 2015. Fundraising copy doesn’t get any better. (page 579)
Direct Response Player #14: “Bet-A-Million Bob’s Deal of the Century”
“Crazy Bob,” “The Polish Maverick” “Bet-A-Million Bob”…Bob Stupak had more monikers than anyone could keep track of.
But his list of sobriquets is easily outdone by job titles: casino magnate, world-record motorcycle racer, professional poker player, mayoral candidate and Harlem Globetrotter for a day.
Not on this list is, perhaps, the thing he was best at — marketer.
Stupak wasn’t a shy promoter. Vegas World boasted the worlds biggest sign in addition to the gambling industry’s largest direct mail campaign.
His hotel occupancy rate was locked at 100% year round thanks to his press ads and direct mail. He thrived off the “low rollers” — those who wagered little or nothing in Las Vegas — the Uncle Leroys and Aunt Mildreds of the heartland who headed to Vegas World in droves.
And how could they resist?
One line of copy alone hauled them in like a tuna trawler on a banner day: “Two chances to WIN $1 MILLION instantly.” Mind you this was back in 1983 when a mil was worth a bit more but there’s nothing like getting a prospect’s pulse pounding right from the subhead.
Stupak’s DM packages mailed for over 10 years without changing a word of copy. Ditto with most of his space ads.
When “Crazy Bob” Waved
His Magic Wand…
When you pick up a Bob Stupak ad, you’ve left the mere mortal’s advertising realm and entered the world of the irresistible offer.
Here goes:
“Act now, to receive a virtually free Las Vegas vacation. For $198 per person or $396 per couple:
1. I will put you up in a luxurious mini-suite in an exciting Las Vegas hotel right on the famous strip.
2. I will give you free tickets to a show with name entertainers.
3. I will put a chilled bottle of Champagne in your room for free.
4. I’ll let you drink as much as want for free, whether you’re at the gaming tables, playing slots, or in one of the lounges.
5. I’ll hand you $1,000 of my money to gamble with for free.
6. I’ll let you keep all your winnings.
7. I’ll guarantee you’ll win a color TV, VCR, or a faux diamond ring.
Obviously, I’m not going to give this incredible deal to everybody in the whole world. There can only be [a small number] of these vacation packages available. First come, first served.”
When “Crazy Bob” waved his magic wand, they couldn’t say no. Customers happily gave him their money months to years in advance to nail down a Vegas World vacation package.
Of course, the magic didn’t last forever.
Stupak sold his interest to another corporation and had a near fatal motorcycle accident. The corporates came in and killed Bob’s beautiful direct response. But the country’s tallest freestanding observation tower, the Stratosphere, remains a testament to Bob Stupak’s irresistible offer.
- $180,000 raised in a single hour on a rush hour train out of Grand Central… written by David Ogilvy — not in his books. (page 580)
- How any chiropractor can adjust response with this leadvertorial (page 363)
- Dead plastic surgeon who became the frontman for one of the biggest selling diet pills in print (page 98)
- Irresistible offer headline from KCI (page 493)
- Most shoppers HIDE it at the checkout counter — but there’s no hiding the success of this product’s sales — 3,495 ad insertions. (page 602)
- Charlie Allen’s AMAZING advertorials in the golf market (page 222)
- Most persuasive “power of demonstration” campaign ever seen in print (page 228)
- Secrets of selling the excitement of “investment boredom.” (page 495)
- Potent combination of origin marketing and “story selling” propelled Featherspring’s sales for years (page 198)
- The FDA response booster (page 403)
- Little known response booster in the “A” section of The Daily Herald gave this “leadvertorial” a NIAGARA of readership and response (page 346)
- The GREED lead that siphoned $365 million out of the numismatics market (page 150)
- NEW response booster shifts the sales equation from “yes or no” to “Am I eligible?” (page 149)
- “Crisis copy” that sells. (page 496)
Direct Response Player #15: “Grizzled old goldbug’s
amazing advertising alchemy”
It’s no accident Dan Rosenthal was mentor to many of today’s copy legends, including Gary Bencivenga and Clayton Makepeace.
He’s known as the “copy ogre.”
Dan’s been writing about, promoting and investing in silver and gold for a stunning half-century.
He lives in the Far East these days and still has plenty of projects in the pipeline. His sales letters are spartan in the design sense, but name a writer who can match his knowledge, iron clad logic and white hot persuasion in the precious metals market.
His is not only the greatest silver and gold print ad swipe file there is but it’s loaded with Rosenthal’s hard won copywriting secrets like:
- The “magic tense” tested in thousands of insertions. (page 485)
- Fantastic freemiums. Offer as lead gen or just give it away? Dan Rosenthal’s surprising solution in the silver and gold markets. (page 482)
- The case against big benefit headlines (page 492)
(75 ads in “Silver & Gold” on Response Rockets, 634 total FINANCIAL ads)
- Space ad counterpart of the most successful financial direct mail package in history (page 507)
- 1-WORD headline winner for Pat Garrard’s “Capitalist Reporter” (page 513)
- “Four Honest Mechanics” and 895 “tinytorials” sold Esquire subscriptions like mad (page 601)
- Distasteful? Maybe. 9/11 and “negative event marketing.” (page 168)
- Revlon’s irresistible headline GRABBED readers’ (and regulators’) attention at the dawn of the anti-aging market (page 339)
- Selling an orchard full of fruit with one “story selling” ad (page 392)
- Black Monday sales secrets (page 255)
- The golfer that was struck by lightning and struck millions in mail order (page 26)
- FIELD RECON: you could have the best boat and fishing tackle but if you’re in a lake where the fish aren’t biting, or worse, where there are no fish, it’s for nought. The resource worth a FORTUNE to any direct response business. Let’s you know where the fish are biting… and who else is fishing. (Vol. II Intro, page 4)
- After you’ve sold 3 million units of a product… try this lead (page 16)
- MAGIC metaphors make the mechanism instantly understandable to the target market (page 402)
- New York socialite’s origin marketing success story turned bee pollen into an anti-aging sensation (page 200)
- What to do with the space you buy next to your fractional ad. Readership tripling potential. (Vol. II Intro, page 7)
and the last man standing in nothing down real estate”
Through the lens of 2020, this ad’s copy might not be up to snuff. But it wasn’t scintillating ad copy alone that kept Robert Allen’s ads and spots going strong for decades.Allen had countless competitors in the “nothing down” real estate market as late night TV junkies during the 1980s are sure to recall.* The avuncular Carlton Sheets with his trustworthy Midwestern accent. (Now retired.)* The rags-to-riches Vietnamese immigrant, Tom Vu, usually surrounded by bikini clad women. (Now a poker player.)* And the gritty salesman to the masses, Dave Del Dotto. (Now a winemaker.)But of all the “nothing down” pitchmen, Robert Allen is the last man standing after 36 years. And if the next real estate boom hits, Allen could challenge the father of “make money in real estate,” William Nickerson, for lifetime number of print ad insertions.Allen’s breakthrough ad hit the press on June 8, 1980 in the Los Angeles Times.
You don’t have to care for “nothing down” to appreciate the sales method. Strangely, Allen’s outrageous challenge been out in the open for decades and is viable in countless markets, yet few marketers have had the guts to try it.
It was almost too good to be true. The very newspaper that was feeding him leads and sales took the bait and challenged him.
In response to “Send me to any city… take away my wallet,” The Times fired off a letter to Allen.
“The Los Angeles Times financial section challenges you do to just that.” A formal answer from the author of the best-selling book was not long in arriving from his home base of Provo, Utah: “This letter is to formally accept your challenge … We’re going to have a great time.”
The sprawling 3-page article, “Buying Home Without Cash: Boastful Investor Accepts Times Challenge–and Wins” appeared in the 801-page Sunday edition of the L.A. Times on February 1, 1981.
No one could have predicted The Times article would be
worth tens of millions of dollars to Robert Allen
Under the conditions of “take away my wallet… give me 72 hours and $100 in pocket money” Times reporter, Martin Baron, shadowed Allen’s every move from Monday, January 12th starting at 6:00 am through Wednesday, January 14th at 5:15 pm. This included bunking at the same cheapie hotels to ensure Allen didn’t acquire any midnight financing.
The article covers the two days in glorious hour-to-hour detail, from scoping the real estate ads to the numerous calls from pay phones to negotiating with counter parties to entries like this:
“12:45 pm: In this city of fine restaurants, Allen chose to have lunch at Burger King. He spent a princely $1.60 for a cheeseburger and strawberry shake. I splurged with a Whopper, orange drink and large fries for $3.02.”
But when all was said and done, Allen had won the challenge and Baron gave him back his wallet. The Times article became Allen’s evergreen proof element, set him apart from every other nothing down pitchman and helped him fill hotel seminar rooms for decades.
Response Rockets… fits in your pocket…
More fire power than a skyscraper
full of the ablest ad agencies
Plug the 3.0 Secure Portable External Hard Drive into the USB port of any computer (Windows, Mac or Unix.)
Once Response Rockets whirls to life, the magic begins.
5,037 print and direct mail ads are at your command and you have the 10,000 foot view of direct response past and present. The PDFs range from 1-page space ads to 124-page bookalogs — the biggest, most actionable collection of ads on the planet!
But these are no ordinary PDFs.
Every keyword has been squeezed out of each promotion so you can search the individual folders… or the entire drive for any search term under the sun.
Search the Direct Mail MegaBase for a giant category like “arthritis” and you’ll find 160 DM packages that deal with arthritis. The Health & Beauty MegaBase has a colossal 280 print ads in which arthritis is mentioned.
Now take an obscure term like “pumpkin” and see Response Rockets shine. There are 33 results from the direct mail database and 19 from the print ad database.
You can immediately see:
- Which products are selling.
- What claims other advertisers are making.
- What studies are cited in the ads.
One piece of copy that jumps out is: “German Study of 2,245 Men Reveals that Pumpkin Seeds Are ‘Effective’ in Helping to Reduce Prostate Symptoms.”
Imagine how many hours you’ll save on research alone.
And when you factor your ability to instantly survey what hundreds of advertisers have run on almost any product or subject imaginable, you’re in a class by herself.
The tales of marketers burdened by enormous ad archives are numerous.
* European home study course marketer, Axel Andersson, had an entire house filled floor to ceiling with direct mail that he was trying to pass on ten years ago.
* Biz-op promoter extraordinaire, T.J. Rohleder, needed an 18-wheel, semi-trailer truck to haul away his mountain of swipes.
* And a top flight copywriter with a beautiful 2-bedroom apartment in Manhattan had one of his rooms stuffed with his ad archive.
Response Rockets has the advantage of fitting in your pocket and delivering exactly what you need… when you need it.
Take this 88-page bookalog. The product was promoted heavily by direct mail and long-form TV spots in the mid-2000s and typifies the numerous real estate investment pitches of the time.
Take a look at it.
At first glance it looks like any bookalog you’d receive in the mail… and eventually throw into a box or drawer, likely never to see again.
Not so with Response Rockets!
Since this promo deals with promissory notes, when you open the PDF and do a Cntrl+F, you can enter “promissory” (without quotes) and find every instance of the term in the 88-page bookalog. Do it with any keyword you like.
And you’ll use Response Rockets… with its whopping 57 GIGABYTES just as simply as you opened and searched this PDF… whether you’re searching through one ad or all 5,005 of them.
BONUS. It’s happened only once in the 130 year history of direct response.
These long lost ‘house training’ videos reveal the secrets that…
* Took an indebted, basement-run company to
4,000% growth… and a $150 million per year in earnings
* Helped a one-time factory floor worker build a
direct response empire of over a billion dollars in sales
* Created the highest gross-profit-per-prospect of any
promotion in history… with $262 per name mailed
* Launched a “commodity product” that sells
for 10 times more than equivalent products…
and inspired a higher priced ‘knockoff’
It happened only once in the 130 year history of direct response.
A major player opened its doors and revealed dozens of its most closely guarded, response-boosting and business-building secrets… showcased by real world test results.
Moreover, one of the presenters used these exact blueprints to build companies that have generated over a billion dollars in sales in numerous and diverse markets.
These videos may have been produced over twenty years ago…
But many of the concepts are still to be found nowhere else… thanks to a miscalculation Ben Suarez made. More on that in a moment.
This 20 hour training has dedicated sessions on:
* List testing methodologies
* Forecasting in direct response marketing
* Real Life Simulation (RLS) breakthrough research methodology
* Direct mail and print buying techniques
* Price setting methodology and price testing experience
* Product merchandising and acquisition
* Direct mail design techniques
* Sweepstakes marketing
* Legal and ethical considerations of DM
* Direct response competitive techniques
* Catalog marketing
* Customer acquisition offers and multi-stage marketing
* Telephone marketing and call scripting
* Art production and package design strategies
* Breakthrough copywriting techniques
* Ben Suarez’s money making DM and print promotional techniques
* Testing verses rollout
The sessions are underpinned by decades of SCI’s test results… as it grew from a company run in the basement of Ben Suarez’s home… to a top end of $573 million (as listed in Business Insights).
There’s one BIG caveat here.
It’s ALL about Direct Mail and Print.
So, for those marketers existing solely for the Internet, you’ll find nothing here but a stone age session on the “information super highway.”
See, when he decided to create this training, Ben Suarez was right about one thing… and surprisingly wrong about another.
He was dead-on accurate about creating a timeless training anyone could watch 20 years later and profit mightily from. He achieved this by gathering the best experts in his company, who were arguably among the leading experts in the world.
But Suarez was wrong about the demand for the product.
He not only invited members of the local business community to attend what turned out to be a once in a lifetime event, but had the videos edited and produced to sell as the ultimate home study course on direct marketing.
Suarez believed anyone with discernment would leap at such a training, yet it was so above and beyond the average respondent’s understanding, it was like selling the idea of a round planet to Neanderthal man. The promotions were shelved and the product hardly saw the light of day.
But, at least one man took it to the bank.
Ex-factory floor worker who used this info
to build a billion dollar direct response empire
says: “Never invent!”
Mr. X went to work at Suarez Corporation at age 15… pushing a broom on the factory floor.
By the time he was a presenter at this seminar, he worked his way through every position at SCI, as it grew by 4,000%.
He also married the boss’s daughter.
After leaving Suarez Corporation, Mr. X’s firms were massively successful right out of the gate. Before his retirement, he presided over multiple direct response businesses that rivaled those of his ex-father-in-law, Ben Suarez, while at his peak.
Here’s a rundown of Mr. X’s pre-retirement sales figures from just over five years ago.
- Heat Surge Amish Fireplaces: 840,341 fireplaces sold with a $460 average selling price = $386,566,860 gross revenue
- Cool Surge Portable Air Conditioners: 96,721 units sold at a $300 average selling price = $29,016,300 gross revenue
- Patent Health Diet and Joint Supplements: 344,439 units sold with a $100 average selling price = $34,444,390 in gross revenue
- World Reserve Monetary Exchange: 2,519,242 units sold at a $145 average selling price = $365,290,090 gross revenue
The sales figures speak for themselves.
And, Mr. X practices a key philosophy of this training: a thriving debt-free, direct response company usually beats the spotlight of “going public.”
But, perhaps, Mr. X’s most important implementation from the training is this.
(Almost) never invent!
The EdenPure space heater is one of the greatest success stories in the history of direct response… and Suarez has sold over a billion dollars worth of the units.
At its essence, it’s the same as a commodity heater for sale at any hardware store for between $30 and $50.
Here’s the difference.
EdenPure sells for 10 times equivalent space heaters.
So, next time someone asks you, “what’s so special about direct response?”
Show him an EdenPure ad.
And when he insists there must be a mechanical difference, look up the specs and tell him: “the unit that sells for ten times more consumes the exact same 1,500 watts of energy and produces the same 5,118 BTUs of heat.”
The difference… is what’s so special about direct response… when it works: better marketing, better copy, and a better story.
It’s hard to fathom how Mr. X could outdo Edenpure’s success.
But he did so by following the axiom off never inventing… then with…
Even better marketing… better copy…
and a better story
And this lets him sell at an even higher price point than Edenpure.
Better marketing… comes in the form of regional segmentation, increased urgency and believable scarcity. (He now pushes retail in every ad.)
Better copy… Mr. X has taken it to a high art form.
Better story… Amish craftsman start working “from the crack of dawn” to assemble the elegant “fireplace mantles” that contain the heater.
The product is no longer a space heater but a “Fireless Flame HEAT SURGE miracle heater.”
How high can the price go?
At $460, Mr. X is selling at a price point almost twenty times higher than heaters available at Walmart, Target and other retailers, that have the exact same BTU output.
Mr. X has taken what he learned at SCI, and the info revealed on these house training videos, to rapidly create his own direct response empire.
There’s more breakthrough direct response ideas in these videos, than some marketers are likely to encounter. Like…
The most successful direct mail promotion in history?
When you hear a marketer like Ben Suarez give you the play-by-play on a package like this, it raises the bar on your marketing ambitions.
The Titanic Expedition promotion, though it had a short life cycle, still maintains the highest gross profit per prospect of any mailing in history of$262 per name mailed.
Gross profit per prospect (GPP) is calculated by multiplying the gross profit by the percentage of pull and subtracting the solicitation (postage and printing) cost.
A respectable GPP for a direct mail promotion is 50 cents.
This one broke all records and brought in tens of millions in a matter of weeks.
The secret of creating a blockbuster of this caliber isn’t just in the offer… or the copy… or the list selection… but in learning to tether multi-stage marketing and call center marketing to the campaign.
You’ll have the insider’s scoop on this and dozens of other blockbuster money-makers in these long lost house training videos.
And best of all… you’ll have the near 500 ad MASTER SWIPE FILE that makes these concepts crystal clear… no matter what you’re marketing.
“From zero to $20 million in two years… at 25 years of age”
(João Eduardo de Campos, Brazilian direct response entrepreneur)
“Looking for BIG IDEAS that could catapult your copy (and your royalties) into the big leagues?
Lawrence has always been my GO-TO guy for finding direct response blockbusters (recent and back to the beginning of time)…
… that light up the neural pathways, and spark connections and ideas I would have never considered otherwise.
Ad Money Machine is aptly named – a resource no self-respecting direct response copywriter can live without!
(Kelvin Parker, Kelvin Parker, Direct Response Copywriter, CustomerTriggeredPersuasion.com)
“Lawrence. The truth is I lied ! A few days ago when I messaged you that I had already made the price of admission (7500usd) by just reading half of your direct mail masterpiece well let’s just say it was 10 times that. I thank the Lord for having rediscovered you again.”
(Peter Nicholas, Australian serial entrepreneur and world beating health & beauty brand builder)
“Thanks to your guidance, my business is booming. I literally have more clients than I can handle.”
(Financial copywriter, (Awaiting permission to use his name.)
“I love receiving packages from you. You’re like a Direct-Response Santa.”
(Dr. Karl Blanks, Chairman and Co-Founder of Conversion Rate Experts with clients including: GE, Lloyds, Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Sony, Vodafone and PayPal)
“If I told you how many times I made my investment back I would lose all credibility.
Lawrence, I really have to thank you for your very clever and powerful marketing tool. The tool responsible for our surge in sales!
Every company — direct response or not — should get their hands on it. If you don’t make at least 25 times or more on your investment I don’t think you opened the package and followed the step by step instructions.
(Direct response founder, Anonymous)
“God, Lawrence, I really appreciate your stuff, so here’s a testimonial:
If you want to succeed gloriously in this business (assuming you have any talent, of course) sit down for a month and read, learn and practice the principles you unearth in this treasury of great stuff. Marvelous!”
(Drayton Bird, Direct marketing legend, London)
“You’re one crazy dude to do all this work, but until you get therapy, I’ll take advantage of it with glee!”
(Dr. Jack Booman, Leading Chiro copywriter, Spring Grove, Minn.)
“As a marketing enthusiast and dedicated student of the craft, I’m constantly searching for valuable insight and information. And once I found YOU (many years ago) I felt like I had finally found what I was looking for.
I was right.
Since that day, EVERY marketing strategy, sales system, retention model, acquisition model, process, advertisement, etc., that I have executed started with FIRST referencing one or more elements from you, your website, or your partners. From my own house ads to ads for my clients, the foundation of everything I have done began with listening to your teachings, or the teachings of those that you reference/endorse. Dead or alive.
I now own and operate a successful digital ad agency with over 50 employees (give or take a few employees depending on economics 😉 and feel as though I owe you more than a bit of gratitude for my success.
(Digital agency founder, received 1/7/14, prefers anonymity)
“I get loads of emails from online marketers looking to sell me stuff to improve my marketing, but I trust Lawrence to deliver quality every time.”
(Jamie Sylvian, London)
“By the way, Lawrence, I should thank you directly…
Back in early November, Michael Masterson and I gave a speech at the AWAI Copy Bootcamp in Delray that dealt, in part, with the value of focusing on one theme rather than many in headlines and leads.
And the example I threw into our Powerpoint came directly from your website (attributed) where you compared two products for better vision. Naturally, I don’t remember much about the convoluted example. But the better version came from Gene S., “Your Eyes Can Heal Themselves…”
I don’t know where you find this stuff, but the examples were invaluable at making a strong point quickly.
I hope some of the 300-400 people present took my advice during the talk and went looking for your site.”
(John Forde, A-List copywriter and Parisian)
“Lawrence is the world’s greatest direct response researcher.”
(Gary Bencivenga, Copywriting legend)
This is REALLY GOOD STUFF! Also, GREATLY, appreciate the fact that you blew up the examples and published them in a Tabloid format.
Not everyone would go to the expense of doing that, but its the BEST way to see these examples. Thanks, AGAIN, for making this course available.
(Real estate marketing guru, Name withheld)
“Your manual has been instrumental in me writing an ad that generated over $20,000 in just two weeks, so cudos to you Lawrence.”
Dr. Ivan Carney, Temecula, CA
“My jaw is literally black and blue from hitting the floor over and over again as I got to see the techniques you’ve uncovered. I never dreamed many of these things were even possible, let alone how easy you’ve made them. The word ‘miraculous’ comes to mind.”
(Ken McCarthy, System Seminar Founder)
“If you want to learn what it really takes to sell – well, every single thing he shows has a lesson. I got two ideas this morning for something I am working on, which is actually a get-rich-slowly-but-surely educational service for marketers.”
(Drayton Bird, David Ogilvy said of him: “Drayton Bird knows more about direct marketing than anyone in the world.”)
“I want to take a moment to thank you for providing these updates. You are one of those rare marketers who supports his customers LONG after the sale.
(Karl Barndt, Kuncketown, Penn.)
“I want to thank you very much for coming out to Paradise Valley. It was a great day together with you. We very much appreciate your deep knowledge, insight and love and passion for the history and present of our industry.”
(Norman Rentrop, Founder Rentrop Verlag and one of Europe’s biggest direct marketers)
“Lawrence, you are probably the most dedicated direct response scholar I’ve ever met.”
Tony Flores, Financial Copywriter and longtime #1 to Clayton Makepeace
“I think you’re a genius.”
(Christian Godefroy, European direct response legend)
“I saw you on the Gary Bencivenga retirement DVDs that I purchased. Great publicity for you.
I have to tell you, combining Gary’s wisdom with your swipe files is a lethal weapon.
Confidentially, because I’m not a braggart (in fact, you’re the first person I’ve told this to), my design partner and I have beaten A-list, world-class copywriting and design competition – 4 straight times. That’s how much I’ve benefited from–and appreciate – your material.”
(Rich Silver, Crow Moon Marketing, Dahlonega, GA )
“Brilliant examples, great commentary. This one just gave me an idea for a newsletter we’re about to launch that I think will hit large. I don’t know where you find this stuff, but I’m glad you do.”
(John Forde, Paris)
“If Lawrence has got a product for sale, you should get it!”
(Marty Edelston, Direct response legend and Founder of Boardroom Inc.)
INSTANT ACCESS to…
Hundreds of “Case Studies in Case Creation”
THOUSANDS of WINNING ads… plus these Case Studies in Cash Creation are YOURS… as soon as you finish checkout.
Here’s just a fraction:
Story Selling THRILLER from €1.54 BILLION Fundraiser… This story selling SMASH hit continues its conquest of mailboxes all over parts East… and West.
MEASLY Million a Year in Mail Order… Or a Supplements Brand Selling for HUNDREDS of Millions? (The 3 MAGIC Keys)
UNWOKE Ad Triumph… How Ogilvy & Shell Oil SILENCED Greta Thunberg… 24 Years Before She Was Born
55 Trillion Emails NEVER Opened. Hundreds of MAGIC Subject Lines for rocking response in 2020 and beyond.
SMASHING Objections Your Prospects Don’t Even Know They Have… Yet! (Investment Ad Masterpiece from the COPY OGRE)
Shameless Swipers and the Most Knocked Off Diet Copy in History Run an ad like this today only if ORANGE is your favorite color. Prison orange.
Jay A’s Amazing 2-Page AD-VENTURE in USA Today
The Keepers of the Kingdoms & Selling Luxury Real Estate Here’s a lesson or two in selling high end real estate… from David Ogilvy’s son!
Direct Response Players Volume 1 (200+ Pages of Power Persuasion) The ultimate ad collection of two billion dollar selling marketers PLUS their massive 364 ad swipe file for nearly every market known to man.
A STUPID Mistake That Cost an Advertiser $300,000… by the New York Attorney General
(Almost) LOST 100 Year Old Response Booster SMASHES Your Customer’s Most Common (and Hidden) Objections. No matter your industry… no matter whether you’re doing a direct mail drop to a million… or an email blast from your kitchen table to 500… this (almost) LOST 100 year old response boosting secret could lead to your biggest breakthroughs of 2020… and beyond. 27 PACKED pages!
A TREASURY of Language Learning Copywriting Classics
Ad Lessons from the LARGEST Book Publishing Enterprise EVER in Existence (224-page “Dirty Dossier”)
FABULOUS Fascination Ringing the Register… 9 YEARS and Counting!
Renegade Rabbi’s $1.5 Billion Fabulous Fundraising
MAGIC Headline Sold 2.6 MILLION Books PLUS How to Burn a List of 175,000 Paying Subscribers
Billion Dollar TIDAL WAVE… of Anti-Aging Advertising Secrets
Lawrence’s Lessons On LIFETIME Offers
Thank You Mister President… For This Great Copywriting Lead
Winter Winner 2019 Mailbox Gladiatorial Games
Mom’s AMAZING Pineapple Weight Loss Pitch (Mailing 10 Years and Counting)
20 Year BLOCKBUSTER Headline in Foreign Language Learning
The Copywriter Whose Clients Bought Him A Mansion He was the mid 1980s diet kingpin — who became a jailbird — who became the world’s greatest “off the page” beauty copywriter.
Killer 2020 Supplements Control… and the A.B.A School of Advertising
How Gene Schwartz Got a $536,970 Ad Insertion… for FREE
Marketing Lesson from the Prepper’s Pantry
Biz-Op Letter VACUUMS Up $480,000 in ‘Small Checks’ in an Afternoon
Dan Rosenthal on: “Writing with Your Ears,” Launching the First $5,000 Advisory… and Doing Deals for Millions
Ad Money Machine goes way beyond health and wealth.
Sure, you’ll find TONS of investment newsletter pitches, trading advisories, supplement promos and alternative health magalogs.
But they’re FAR from the be-all and end-all of direct response.
There are also GIANT categories… like these
Business Development, Corporate Advertising, Chiro & Dental, Prepper Pitches, Educational Advertising, Food Copy, Fundraising, Travel Advertising… even Religion, Philosophy & History
Your next million dollar idea may be mere moments away… and I’ve pulled out all the stops to get it in your hands.
You get what you pay for…
Sometimes you get much more.
That’s the promise of direct response, isn’t it?
Because direct response is all about achieving what outsiders consider impossible.
Whether it’s building a company in record time compared to conventional businesses… selling out a warehouse full of products… or devising a brand that can’t be knocked off by competitors.
You’ve likely read and written your share of sales letter closes.
The copywriter uses a typical value build, usually with references to products and services with defined prices, ranging from a cup of Starbucks to an Ivy League education.
But that’s tough to do here.
That’s because there’s never been anything like the Response Rockets 2020 Ultimate.
As copy legend Gene Schwartz said:
“The person who is the best prepared and the most knowledgeable makes the most money. It’s so simple.”
You’re only moments away from being better prepared than ever.
Yours for bolder response,
P.S. I’ve spent a million so you don’t have to.
Breakthrough Business Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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