The headline:
“Fortunately, most Investors think like losers. That’s how people like me get rich.”
The photo:
A smug, smiling Julian Snyder straddles his limo, across the street from the New York Stock Exchange.
It takes no more than two seconds to absorb his positioning, making this a most memorable investment ad.
The appeal of the book, The Way of The Hunter-Warrior: How To Make A Killing In Any Market is based on the power of metaphor.
Take the following:More on The Way of The Hunter-Warrior: Julian M. Snyder (Investment Ad #44)
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I just turned up a fascinating, two-page direct mail piece for one of the most important sales letter books ever written: The Robert Collier Letter Book. I suspect the piece may have been written by Robert Collier, himself, though it’s signed by Paul Crane of Parker Publishing.
The copy is in need of some touch-ups for today’s audience, but overall, it’s better crafted than the majority of pitches for similar material today.
The Robert Collier Letter BookMore on Rare Direct Mail Ad for The Robert Collier Letter Book
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Here is the 1968 space ad Eugene Schwartz wrote for Dr. Henry Bieler’s book, “Food Is Your Best Medicine.”
This ad is still an excellent model for an advertiser in the health and wellness market.
Everything you’d expect in a Gene Schwartz ad is here:
* The irresistible “Try-Before-You-Buy” offer.
* Gene’s hallmark “future pacing.”
* The big promise to change your life overnight…under the guidance of a world class medical authority.
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“Five disturbing facts…” was a widely inserted display ad from the early 1970’s, created by Richard Calderhead’s ad agency, Calderhead Jackson.
Though the agency, as its client, was only a few years from extinction at the time this ad ran, this was an example of the high level of direct response the agency put out.
The ad is one part product positioning statement, one part industry expose.
Though this is an ad for yesteryear’s obsolete product, the copy still shines through.
Of course, the speaker manufacturer, Rectilinear Research, produced a superior product which is the launchpad for all great copy.
Click on the thumbnail to download a PDF of the ad.
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“Have you ever wondered how you could get a job as an advertising copywriter? Have you ever wondered if you could get a job as an advertising copywriter? This is your chance to find out. With this copy test. Eight entertaining and involving assignments that should stimulate and challenge you to do the thing you do best. Write.”
This was the opening of an unusual ad.
25 Years ago, the mega ad agency, J. Walter Thompson, ran this full page copy test in the New York Times, entitled, “Write If You Want Work.”
The candidates who took them up were given eight unusual writing assignments.
My favorite is #6.
“You’ve heard the story about the man who made a fortune selling refrigerators to Eskimos. In not more than 100 words, how would you sell a telephone to a Trappist monk, who is observing the strict Rule of Silence? (But he can nod acceptance at the end.)”
Ten people passed and joined JWT’s 85 member creative team.
Sorry, neither I, nor perhaps even JWT, have the winning submissions to this unusual series of exercises. Just reading the test will uncork your creativity bottle.
Click on the thumbnail to open the PDF.
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One of the most unsung copywriting talents is the husband and wife team, Ralph and Shoshanna Ginzburg.
Ralph Ginzburg was the front man and the raw energy behind the duo and he wound up in two Supreme Court battles.
In one case, several analysts believe he lost an obscenity conviction and went to jail for a book title that was too good.
What was the title?More on You’re Being Robbed!
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Twitter.
Why do I need it and why do I care?
That’s been my reaction for the last two years.
I first heard about Twitter over two years ago when my friend Joe Orr told me about it at the System Seminar. That would be the closest I’d come to getting on Twitter until two weeks ago.
So, why did I sit on the sidelines for the last two years?
I guess I’m one part late adapter and one part contrarian. Plus, I just didn’t see why it mattered when I have healthy email and direct mail lists. That was my “case against Twitter.”
Well, I was pleasantly surprised to discover there’s much more to Twitter than I ever imagined and the traffic explosions to this site are proof of that.
As a marketer and copywriter, I see Twitter as both a marketing channel and a testing medium.
As a marketing channel, it’s ideal for these reasons:
- Twitter is all about instant gratification. Send a tweet and within seconds, the Twitter universe is reading it.
- Twitter appeals to the A.D.D. (attention deficit disorder) in all of us in this digital age because you have 140 characters max to craft your message.
- Twitter creates the illusion of importance. A shopping bag lady on 6th Avenue can have thousands of followers by creating a free account using a computer at the New York Public Library.
And as a testing medium it’s fabalicious (made up word).
Craft your pithiest tweet or headline and plug in a URL. If it’s hot, you’ll see a stampede of traffic heading to the page — provided it’s one of your own sites with Analytics installed. If it’s not hot, you’ll see the tumbleweeds blowing by.
Besides getting an 800% spike in traffic in one day, I’ve been noticing traffic from diverse sources that I’ve never seen before.
These stats are from the first two weeks in May.
Facebook traffic? Never got much before.
Gizmodo…what’s that?
Ycombinator.com? Never heard of it, yet it sent 1,441 visitors in a day.
Twitter seems to set off little firestorms of traffic in the most unusual places. Yesterday, one of the About.com editors created a link to one of this site’s pages. Again, never had that happen B.T. (before Twitter).
Most importantly, the bounce rates, TOPs (time on page) and CTRs (click through rates) were very respectable. Ditto for conversion to opt-in.
As a comparison, this site has appeared on the home page of StumbleUpon.com several times and the traffic has been about as untargeted as it gets. Bounce rates in the 90’s and 10 seconds time on the page.
Moreover, I’ve noticed the weekend traffic — the lightest of the week — has picked up by 50%. Whether this will last over the long haul is anybody’s guess but the short term results alone are worth reporting.
Questions:
Here are some of my observations after being on Twitter for two weeks.
How important is it to amass followers?
It seems to me that the rules of quality list building apply here. Though a DM or email list is by no means a pure analogy to Twitter. I’d rather have a relevant, responsive list of 1,000 people who KNOW me instead of 100,000 random names or in this case, followers. Though unlike the direct mail world where there’s a cost associated with dead weight names, there doesn’t seem to be a downside to having meaningless followers in addition to relevant ones. Plus, it seems the sheer force of inertia kicks in at some point and the followers just keep coming. Take a look at Shaq or Ashton Kutcher on Twitter.
What about reciprocity?
You follow me and I’ll follow you seems to be the unwritten rule for most Twitterers because that’s what makes your list of followers grow the fastest. In my case, except for “follow spam” I follow in kind, those who follow me. But after two weeks of using Twitter, it seems clear that one needs multiple IDs to have a sane user experience. At the most basic, one marketing/business ID and one personal ID, though a pure marketer would segment each and every niche into separate ID’s.
Is it possible to effectively Twitter with all the spam tweets?
What’s true in the broader marketing world is also true on Twitter. 80% of the people usually get it wrong. A smaller percentage will be more or less on target. And a smaller percentage than that will win most of the marbles. Understand, I’m talking about using Twitter purely for marketing and lead generation.
My case in point are all the annoying direct messages one gets bombarded with after following another Twitter user. Like:
- “I REALLY appreciate the follow. If I can help you with Klamath Falls Real Estate please let me know.”
- “Hi! Free travel advice.”
- “Get fit, both physcally AND financially.”
Never mind that I don’t know where Klamath Falls is, nor desire free travel advice — especially not free travel advice, nor wish to get fit “physcally” fit (his spelling, perhaps a combination of physically and fiscally?)
Of course, the deluge of messages are about how to get more Twitter followers and make more money or some combination of the two.
So, when a smart marketer sends a tweet, it tends to rise above the noise. The ones who do this consistently become the thought leaders.
And speaking of smart marketers, if you’re going to offer a free widget or a “Twitter trinket,” why not make it one with universal interest. Here’s a neat one that Malaysian marketer, Kenneth Yu, has put together called The Dark Side of Twitter.
Anyway, to wrap it up, in just two weeks, I’ve gone from Twitter apathetic to really appreciating the service and planning new ways to market using the Twitter channel.
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Twitter may be headed to the moon with 17 million US visitors in April but there’s surprising evidence that a “Twitter-like” service called the Notificator was up and running in London in 1935.
Robot Messenger Displays Person-to-Person Notes In Public
Source: Modern Mechanix (Aug, 1935)
TO AID persons who wish to make or cancel appointments or inform friends of their whereabouts, a robot message carrier has been introduced in London, England. Known as the “notificator,” the new machine is installed in streets, stores, railroad stations or other public places where individuals may leave messages for friends.
The user walks up on a small platform in front of the machine, writes a brief message on a continuous strip of paper and drops a coin in the slot. The inscription moves up behind a glass panel where it remains in public view for at least two hours so that the person for whom it is intended may have sufficient time to observe the note at the appointed place. The machine is similar in appearance to a candy-vending device.
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Copywriter #1 built a subscription base up to 1.5 million paying subscribers through space advertising marked by outrageous photos, headline grabbers and copywriting fascinations that kept the prospect glued to his 3,000 word ads.
Copywriter #2 was the driving force behind a direct response company that reached $100 million per year in sales. He also pioneered the use of a punctuation mark to drive response like crazy. Not an exclamation mark. (See page 4)
Copywriter #3 was one of the best business opportunity copywriters of all time, even publishing numerous full page ads in the conservative, Wall Street Journal. Can you really sell $10 million worth of a self-published book via 1-step space ads today? (See page 5)
There’s plenty of actionable copy and ideas in this 1.77 megabyte, 11-page PDF. Download your copy here.
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Now I approach a tragic epoch in my life. I was close to my limits in Grand Rapids. The offer from Lord & Thomas gave me wider recognition. Ambition surged within me, because of my mother’s blood. I became anxious to go higher.
But I had built a new home in Grand Rapids. All the friends I knew were about me. There I enjoyed prestige. I knew that in a larger field I would have to sacrifice the things that I loved most.More on My Life In Advertising (Chapter 5: Larger Fields) Claude Hopkins
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