Octavio Urzua - Updated Marketing & Investing Strategies » copywriting

Protected: Six Ways to Turn a “No” Into “Yes

Octavio Urzua — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:27:47 +0000

Protected: How to get your clients attention in 5 sec?

Octavio Urzua — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:35:12 +0000

Bill Glazer’s Outrageous Advertising

Octavio Urzua — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:59:00 +0000

Could your sales could use a boost? Try one of these 17
things:

1. Eat lunch at a diner and write a message to your
customers on the paper placemat. Photocopy the placemat
(stains and all) and mail it to your customers.

2. Send your customers an empty popcorn bag with a letter
inside along with a movie ticket.

3. Mark up your sales letter with hand-written scribbles -
whether online or offline

4. Send your customers a handy testimonial form that asks
them specific questions about what they liked

5. Turn a brown paper bag into an envelope

6. Send letters in an “X-Ray Film: Do Not Bend” envelope

7. Build a promotion around an oddball holiday, like
National Pistachio Day

8. Steal one of the 100 Greatest Headlines Ever Written

9. Go back through the last year and mark (a) the
promotions that flopped, and (b) the promotions that hit pay
dirt, and decide what made the successful ones work. Re-spin
and run again.

10. Look at all your advertising pieces and ask, “What’s
the FIRST thing people see when they look at this?”

11. Identify something the media is saying that you
disagree with and boldly proclaim to your customers how the
newspapers and TV stations are LYING to them.

12. Mail your customers a wallet with money-saving coupons
inside

13. Try a fear-of-loss offer instead of benefit-of-gain

14. Identify a project that doesn’t currently have a
deadline, and set one

15. Identify an ad that doesn’t currently have a deadline,
and create one

16. Mail a letter with a grabber attached to it – some
physical item that demands attention. Even a penny or rubber
band can boost response

17. Crumple up a letter inside a pill bottle. When
unfolded, the letter says, “This is what the doctor
ordered…”

I STOLE every single one of these from Bill Glazer’s book
“Outrageous Advertising that’s Outrageously Successful”
which you can get for $19.95 (CHEAP!!!). You should steal
some ideas from this book, too:

Source: Outrageous Advertising by Bill Glazer

Blockbuster Ad Revealed

Octavio Urzua — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:07:45 +0000

Ted Nicholas (pictured at left) is one the most successful and revered copywriters and information marketers alive today.

His copy and marketing brainstorms have been directly responsible for more than $5.7 BILLION in sales over the span of his 50-plus-year career.

Ted’s remarkable copywriting skill allowed him to turn his first information product — a book called How To Form Your Own Corporation Without a Lawyer for Under $50 — into one of the best selling business books of all time.

He wrote literally hundreds of ads for this book with headlines such as Lawyers Would Love to Ban My Book! Here’s what they don’t want you to know … You Don’t Have to Be Rich to Incorporate — But It May Be Your Best Route to Wealth … Wage Your Own Personal Tax Revolt … and the perennially swiped, What Will You Do When Your Assets Are Seized to Satisfy A Judgment Against Your Corporation?

These ads appeared in major national newspapers and magazines with mass circulation and Ted was able to split-test dozens of different headlines and appeals.

A while back, I interviewed Ted and dug deep into the story behind one of the most successful of these ads.

And I thought it would be fun to run a little quiz here in THE TOTAL PACKAGE to see if you could identify that winning ad — kind of like trying to identify the killer in a police lineup.

Below, you’ll find the headline and lead from two ads that Ted used to sell How To Form Your Own Corporation Without a Lawyer for Under $50. One of the ads broke even, and the other was a blockbuster money-spinner that made Ted millions.

Can you guess the killer ad just by looking?

Go ahead and study the headline and lead from both ads. Then post a comment telling me which one you think was the blockbuster, and why. Keep in mind that results were tabulated across a wide variety of general interest business-oriented magazines and newspapers.

Only Way Left For
Little Guy To Get Rich …

Here is the uncensored message my wife
asked me not to write

“I love my wife. And I understand why she wants me to keep my mouth shut. She wants to protect me from the IRS.

But I can’t be quiet any longer. I’m angry. We are really getting jerked around. And I’m tired of it.

The government says one thing. And then does the opposite. Especially Bush. And I even voted for him. One of my biggest mistakes.

First the Feds talk tax cuts. Then they increase taxes. Remember the “read my lips” promise. Who are they kidding?

Average tax payers, you and me, are getting screwed.

The new law doesn’t bother the rich fat cats much. They still have loopholes galore. Let’s face it. They always will.

But recently I ran across a workable angle. It’s cheap. And it’s legal. It’s meant for the rich. But it’s perfect for us little guys. You don’t need any money. And we can get the same breaks the rich get.

I can hardly believe it. Get this. I formed a corporation. Of my own. For peanuts.

It’s my way of fighting back.

Now I have a small one-man corporation. I operate out of my apartment. My work? I’m a commercial designer. Brochures, fliers – stuff like that. On my income I didn’t think I could save much. But I’m paying almost zero taxes. And it’s legit. Just like big business does it. I have no guilt. Uncle Sam already gets plenty. Too much from all of us.

One thing the Feds didn’t bother much under the new tax laws – corporate tax goodies. Guess they figured right. Burden business too much. Result? No jobs for anybody. Including them. Not to worry. They know better.

From a buddy, I heard about this unusual book. It’s called HOW TO FORM YOUR OWN CORPORATION WITHOUT A LAWYER FOR UNDER $50, by Ted Nicholas. Damnedest book I’ve ever seen. Has the forms right in it. Pages are perforated. You just fill in some blanks, rip ‘em out, and mail them in. A couple of days later you’ve got a corporation. No wonder it’s a best seller. (They tell me over 650,000 copies have been sold.)

OK, so you get the gist of it. Homespun. Buddy to buddy. Story-based. The main appeal is tax savings.

The headline stops the reader with an appeal to greed. But the dominant emotion targeted in the body copy is actually anger.

How do you think it stacked up against the one below? Same book, same offer. Totally different ad …

DANGER
All Your Personal Assets
Could Be Wiped Out Overnight

There is only one completely safe way to protect your car, home, cash, and other personal assets from business risks

It’s downright scary.

As a self-employed individual, your home, car, stocks, and other personal assets are always at risk.

The big fear is that a business disaster, which is beyond anyone’s control, could happen to you. An accident, lawsuit, or financial loss … events which happen every day … could wipe you out.

A major problem is that we live in a ‘litigation-happy’ society. It’s often a dangerous and naive assumption to believe that no one will ever sue you. A law-suit could be filed by a customer, supplier, relative, or disgruntled employee. In fact, there is a strong probability you will be sued in the near future even if you are very careful. You could lose, often on some technical point of law with which you are unfamiliar. If so … boom! Just like that you could lose your business. In addition, your home, cars, cash, stocks, bonds, and other assets could also go down the drain without proper protection.

Fortunately, you personally can avoid this risk. How? Incorporation.

The only way to separate business from personal assets is by forming your own corporation. Almost no amount of insurance can protect you from all kinds of risk like incorporation can. And you can do so even if you’re the only employee. In this way, if the worst happens, you lose only what is invested in the business itself.

Incorporation is also important for the doctor, dentist, or other professional. Unfortunately, many are dissolving their professional corporations because of the new Keogh rules. However, many are unaware of the risks they are taking.

An incorporated physician does not avoid personal liability in conducting his profession, during surgery for example. But he/she does protect personal liability just like any other business person when it comes to debts incurred by the practice, nonmedically related lawsuit judgments, leases, investments which go sour, etc.

But a word of caution. Misinformation about incorporation abounds. If any of your advisors have recommended you not incorporate or dissolve your corporation … whether you have employees or a one-person corporation … you’d be smart to consider the facts. Only then would you be in a position to make an informed decision.

Myth – Keoghs have been …

OK, that should give you the tone and flavor of this one. Here, the dominant emotion is fear. And the ad is selling protection.

Which ad do you think was the blockbuster, and why?

Give me your thoughts in the comment box below. If you get it wrong, you’ll be in good company.

Next week, I’ll post the correct answer in this column, along with a critically important lesson that could be worth millions to you.

So go ahead and have fun with this. Which ad is the blockbuster? Take your best guess, and then come back here next week to see if you’re right.

Source: makepeacetotalpackage
—–
As I write this, we have 51 votes for ad #1, Only Way Left for Little Guy to Get Rich. And 28 votes for ad #2, DANGER — All Your Personal Assets Could Be Wiped Out Over Night.

Many of you went about this the right way … approaching the copy as a consumer first, and as a marketer second. This is one area where your gut is usually a lot smarter than your brain. If the copy makes you feel like buying, it’s probably the winner. Beyond actually tossing stuff in the mail or up on the Web and testing it, that “where do I buy this” reaction is what you’re looking for when you ask somebody to evaluate your copy.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t then stop and try to figure out how the writer got you there. You should. And many of you did, sharing some brilliant insights along the way.

Our panel favored ad #1 strongly. Let’s examine the reasoning.

Story Based: Somebody mentioned “David and Goliath.” Yes, this is the classic underdog story we all love and respond to. Hollywood is full of them, because they work.

What I found fascinating though, were the repeated references to how the story actually made the copy more believable. Comments like “He’s giving me the real goods.” It seems to come from the heart.” “It’s believable.” “I swallowed it hook, line and sinker before I realized it.” Interesting.

Bonds against a common enemy: Selling is all about making a connection. And there’s nothing that connects people like a common enemy. Remember the gag, “War of the World’s?” World peace and brotherly love nearly broke out overnight at the threat of aliens attacking our planet. That’s exactly the kind of camaraderie you want to foster with your prospects, and ad #1 did this brilliantly.

Positive message out-pulls a negative message: I don’t like maxims. While it’s true you have to be careful with negative messages, I don’t think you can sell effectively without some negativity. Happy people make lousy customers.

The danger is twofold — denial and powerlessness. Put your prospect in too much pain before giving him hope and you’ll lose him. Give him only things to move away from and nothing to move toward and he will find it much more difficult to respond.

It’s OK to scare the dickens out of them, just make sure you come to the rescue quickly and build them up before the close.

If you study Clayton’s copy, you’ll notice that he often opens with negative, fear-based themes. But if you look carefully, you’ll always see he’s quick to shine a positive light on the situation as well. Some calamity is coming to get you if you don’t watch out, but if you take action now, you can not only safeguard your wealth, you can actually turn it into the profit opportunity of a lifetime.

Makes a personal connection: Intimacy is probably the biggest advantage ad #1 has over ad #2. This comment sums it up beautifully. “The guy was talking to me. There was no one else in the room. The other ad had dentists and doctors and a whole bunch of other people in the room.”

Appeals to a wider audience: I have to agree with this, but it’s also important to understand that simply appealing to a wider audience is no guarantee of success. Often it makes sense to narrow your appeal, making your offering exclusive to a select sub-set of the broader market.

Sounds easier: The following phrase from ad #1 has to be one of the most brilliant pieces of consumption copy I’ve ever seen. “Damnedest book I’ve ever seen. Has the forms right in it. Pages are perforated. You just fill in some blanks, rip ‘em out, and mail them in. A couple of days later you’ve got a corporation.” Sounds like child’s play.

Product identified earlier: Should you be rushing to get to your offer? Not at the expense of doing the necessary spade work. That said, the spade work got done pretty fast in ad #1, didn’t it?

Resonates with my own emotions: This ad tapped into a dominant resident emotion (anger) the target market was already feeling, brought it to full consciousness, and then channeled it onto the product. Absolutely brilliant. Here we are, decades after this ad ran, and TTP readers are still relating strongly to the appeal.

More emotional, right-brain targeted: The first ad is much more emotionally rich than the second ad. The headline appeals to hope and greed, even fear of being left out. The opening paragraph, where Ted talks about his wife, evokes love. The main theme is all about anger. There is a richness to it that enchants you.

Better characterization: The beauty of this first ad is that it characterizes the prospect as a certain kind of person — the little guy, fighting back. The second ad does nothing deliberate to characterize the prospect.

Anger is a more actionable emotion than fear: I have to agree with this. Certainly fear gets our attention, but as a couple of our panelists pointed out, it makes us want to run away and hide. Think of the language of fear. Paralyzed by fear. Frozen with fear. Petrified. Is that how you want your prospect to feel when you ask for the order? Absolutely not.

When faced with danger, the natural first reaction is fear. Next, a decision. Fight or flight?

Your prospect can flee by simply shutting down his browser and going back to bed. If you want him to buy your product, lead with fear if you like, but transmute that fear to anger and you’ll close more sales.

More captivating, interesting, and easier to read: Certainly was. Short sentences … no ten-dollar words … story … emotional richness … positive. All these things give ad #1 a big readership advantage over ad #2.

Of course, many of our panelists who voted for ad #1 had things to say about ad #2. Here are the comments that showed up again and again.

Negative tone of ad unappealing: Reading comments that made this point was definitely an eye-opener, but when you think about it for a minute it makes total sense. If your copy evokes only negative emotions, the very act of reading it is burdensome.

Selling prevention: You have to admit, this is a big one. Ad #2 is selling protection against risk. This is a very hard thing to do. Just ask the life insurance industry. These guys got smart years ago and started selling their policies as “investments.”

Could ad #2 have used stories and anecdotes and statistics to make the point that litigation is imminent? Sure. But selling this product as asset protection versus tax savings is an uphill battle (IMHO).

So what about those who voted for ad #2? Here’s what that camp had to say about why they feel ad #2 was the winner.

Fear is a more powerful motivator than anger: Everybody’s heard the ancient selling maxim, “The fear of loss trumps the desire for gain.” I hate maxims. It may be true, but only if the prospect of loss is imminent, and the reality of that loss a virtual certainty, which is rarely the case — unless you, as a seller, can engineer that imminence and certainty.

I’m willing to bet this particular maxim originated with the idea of “take away” selling, where you force your prospect to make a decision by “taking away” the gain you’ve promised, but have not yet delivered — as in “the price is doubling tonight at mid-night,” “the product is going off the market tomorrow,” etc.

Speaks directly to the prospect: Several panelists felt ad #2 was more direct because it made much more liberal use of the word “you” than ad #1. “I have to go with #2. Better use of bringing the reader into the framing task with the use of “you” instead of all the “I”,”I”,”me”, etc.”

I actually asked Ted about this when I interviewed him.

Daniel Levis: You didn’t use the magic “YOU” word once in the headline or first three paragraphs, and you used the words “my,” “me” and “I” 13 times. So what do you have to say for this me, me, me tone of the copy in this piece?

Ted Nicholas: [Laughs]. I thought I would just have some fun, and write an ad that was unlike any ad that I’d ever written before. I imagined myself talking to a friend over a couple of beers, in a bar. And that’s how I would talk, and that’s not normally how I would write copy. I wanted to have a different tone, a different point of view, a whole different approach, throw every rule in the book out the window and just have some fun. I wanted to see if I wrote an ad based on pure emotion — exactly how I personally feel — if other people would respond to that approach.

There’s magic in that answer.

Headline stopped me more forcefully — Ad #2 does have a great headline. Not everybody liked it, but the consensus was that it was a better stopper. Some panelists didn’t even read ad #1, making their determination solely on the strength of the headline in ad #2. Does a better headline always make a better ad?

And here’s the criticism of ad #1 that contributed to their decision to vote for ad #2.

Talks politics, naming “Bush” as the enemy: They say you should never mix discussion of religion, politics or sex with business. Personally I think that’s total B.S.

Naming Bush was one of the most powerful triggers in ad #1. Why? It put a face on the enemy. Entrepreneurs, in particular, were peeved with Bush for breaking his “no new taxes” promise. Personalizing the enemy intensified that anger.

Ted is a Libertarian. His ideal customers are Libertarians. The backend products appeal to the Libertarian mindset. Does it really matter if Ted offends Liberals? No.

Most people with an entrepreneurial bent are anti BIG government — and the confiscatory taxation it entails. May of them vote Republican grudgingly and then fume for years while the Republicans break their promises of fiscal conservatism and spend like drunken sailors.

Your politics and your religion and even your attitudes toward sexually-charged topics are some of the strongest ways of characterizing yourself as one of “us” — whatever “us” you happen to be targeting.

So has all of the study and hard work paid off for TOTAL PACKAGE readers? Did the majority correctly identify the killer ad?

YES! Ad #1 is the blockbuster.
I promised you a million dollar
lesson last week, and here it is …

Numerous panelists seemed to be filtering their opinion through widely accepted sales dogma, such as, “the fear of loss trumps the desire for gain,’ “don’t mix discussion of sex, politics or religion with business,” “positive headlines out-pull negative headlines,” “over-use the word you, under-use the word I”, and so on.

The truth about sales copy is that it is situational. Each time you sit down to write a piece of copy, you are approaching a brand new problem that has never existed before.

What matters most is what your ideal prospect is thinking and feeling about what you want to talk to him about at the exact moment he experiences your copy. What’s happening in the media to influence him? What is his reaction to what’s happening in the world around him? What emotions are those influences arousing within him right now?

The more accurately you can anticipate those thoughts and feelings and align your copy with them, the better your chances of success. To say that one emotion is stronger than another, or that you should NEVER do this, or ALWAYS do that, is missing the point. You are not writing in a vacuum.

That’s not to say that execution doesn’t matter. It does. In fact, it would have been absolutely unfair of me to ask you to take this little quiz without having an opportunity to evaluate the public mind at the exact time these ads appeared (decades ago) if execution wasn’t so crucial.

The execution of ad #1 was clearly light years ahead of the execution in ad #2. Had the alignment been wrong however, it wouldn’t have mattered.

I hope you found this little virtual workshop worthwhile. As always, your comments are immensely appreciated.

Source: The Web Marketing Advisor by Daniel Levis

Protected: Joe Polish

Octavio Urzua — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:50:51 +0000

The Big Idea

Octavio Urzua — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 13:18:36 +0000

I have learned many valuable lessons from my 15-year partnership with Agora’s legendary CEO, marketing genius Bill Bonner. None is more important than the Big Idea.

In my father’s time, this concept was best understood by David Ogilvy, one of the most successful commercial advertising men who ever lived.

In our time, that position is held by Bill. He’s widely recognized as the man who brought the big idea into consumer direct marketing and sold more than a billion dollars’ worth of publications by doing so. I know. I saw him do it.

I want to share Bill’s secret with you today.

I won’t be able to show you everything about it and exactly how to execute it. But I will tell you why and how his concept of the big idea is unique, powerful, and profitable.

It may be the best direct-marketing technique of them all.

When I started consulting with Agora in the early 1990s, I came equipped with half a dozen theories about direct marketing that I had used to start a bunch of successful businesses (including one that hit $135 million).

We applied some of these to the Agora product line, and did very well. But when I worked directly with Bill, I discovered an entirely new way to create blockbuster promotions.

I had never heard of the big idea. But when Bill told me about it, I went directly to Ogilvy’s book, Ogilvy on Advertising, and studied it from cover to cover. I remember being particularly struck by the following:

“You will never win fame and fortune unless you invent big ideas. It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.

“Big ideas come from the unconscious. This is true in art, in science, and in advertising. But your unconscious has to be well informed, or your idea will be irrelevant. Stuff your conscious mind with information, then unhook your rational thought process.”

Ogilvy also explains how to recognize the big ideas of others.

(This is a great way to figure out if your big ideas pass muster too.) Just ask yourself these five questions:

1. Did it make me gasp when I first saw it?
2. Do I wish I had thought of it myself?
3. Is it unique?
4. Does it fit the strategy to perfection?
5. Could it be used for 30 years?

The first package that came over my desk my first week with Agora was a prime example of a big idea promotion. It was written by Lee Euler for a newsletter called Strategic Investing. The copy was formatted as a “bookalog” (a direct-mail format, new at the time, that looks like a paperback book) and titled “Plague of the Black Debt.” It was a huge success.

If memory serves, we mailed more than 14 million of those bookalogs and generated more than $7 million in revenues. The novelty of the format was an important part of the promotion’s success. Just as important was the copy itself.

It opened with this:

“You don’t have to be a conservative, a liberal, or anything at all to understand that America is about to be flattened by a tidal wave …

“That’s right, folks. Now that Clinton’s budget bill has passed – and if his economic projections are on target – we’re going to add $1 trillion to the federal debt in the next four years. That’s more than George Bush added in his four years. And it’s almost as much as Reagan added in eight years.

“It doesn’t matter whether you prefer my figures or Bill Clinton’s. We’re merely talking about different shades of disaster. When you’re dead, you’re dead. There aren’t some people who are ‘more dead’ than others.”

This wasn’t the first big idea package Agora had mailed. The very first promotion Bill wrote for the International Living newsletter was based on a big idea. It was the “control package” for almost 20 years. Thirty million pieces must have been mailed. (If Bill had gotten two cents per piece – standard for copywriters – he would have made $600,000 in royalties!)

The big idea of the International Living package was presented this way:

“You look out your window, past your gardener, who is busily pruning the lemon, cherry, and fig trees … amidst the splendor of gardenias, hibiscus, and hollyhocks.

“The sky is clear blue. The sea is a deeper blue, sparkling with sunlight.

“A gentle breeze comes drifting in from the ocean, clean and refreshing, as your maid brings you breakfast in bed.

“For a moment, you think you have died and gone to heaven.

“But this paradise is real. And affordable. In fact, it costs only half as much to live this dream lifestyle … as it would to stay in your own home!”

I was eager to learn how to write big idea promotions myself. But it wasn’t easy. My first few attempts fell flat. I asked Bill about it and, as I remember, he gave me a Yoda-like answer that I didn’t really understand.

Bill’s protege at the time was John Forde, a bright young man with a classical education. John had developed an intuitive way of decoding Bill’s cryptic way of answering questions. He was very helpful in getting me closer to mastering the big idea.

Writing about it some years later in his Copywriter’s Roundtable e-newsletter, John had this to say about the big idea:

“Think about it.

“When you have a ‘great’ conversation … read a ‘great’ book … or see a ‘great’ documentary … what grabs you? Is it the litany of small details? Or the golden thread that unites them?

“More often, for most of us, it’s the latter.

“And the more you ‘get’ the core idea behind a story, a speech, a revelation … the more memorable that one core message becomes.

“This is just as true in sales copy.

“One message, well developed, just has more impact than ads – short or long – that are overloaded with competing ideas.”

When I finally figure out how to apply David Ogilvy’s concept of the big idea to direct marketing, I was able to teach it to some of Agora’s young marketing bucks. One of them, Porter Stansberry, soon wrote one of the biggest big idea packages in Agora’s history.

His big idea, in a nutshell, was that the Internet was going to have as big an impact on the 21st century as the railroad had had on the 20th century. Here’s how he expressed it in his lead:

“Imagine yourself wearing a top hat and tails, on the balcony of a private rail car, the wind whistling past as you sip the finest French champagne …

“It’s 1850; the railroad is growing like a vine towards the west. And, although you don’t know it yet, the same rail that you are riding on today will soon more than triple your wealth, making you and your family into one of the great American dynasties …

“America’s economic history is illuminated by such stories of quick fortunes made by daring entrepreneurs with new technologies – railroads, motorcars, and more recently, computers. I’ve spent nearly my entire professional life studying exactly how great entrepreneurs made their fortunes – both in the past and today. What I’ve learned contradicts what most people believe about wealth building – and explains why 95% of mutual fund managers can’t beat the market’s average return.

“I’m writing to you today to show you what I’ve found. This year, four out of the six stocks I’ve picked for a well-known investment club have more than doubled the S&P 500′s return for all of last year. Meanwhile the other stocks are poised to earn more than my first recommendations combined by the end of this year. I’ll show you exactly how I did it. But for now, flash back again – it’s 1908 …

“You’re an urban banker in Detroit, living a life of country clubs and summer ballroom parties …”

Throughout its history Agora has published hundreds of big idea packages. And they have been a big part of the company’s growth – from an $8 million business when I started working with them to one with revenues in excess of $300 million today.

The big idea is now widely known and talked about. But most direct-response marketers who attempt to use this technique fail miserably because they don’t’ really understand how to do it.

Recently, Bill and I met with the writers from one of Agora’s financial advisory divisions. They presented us with a number of leads that they thought contained big ideas. In almost every case, they were wrong. One of these leads predicted that China and the USA were going to be battling it out over the dollar, and this was going to have a major effect on investing in the next 10 or 15 years.

“Well, that’s not really a big idea,” Bill said.

They all looked at us wide-eyed. “How could that not be a big idea?” the writer of the lead said. “Our two economies combined dwarf most of the rest of the world. If we get into a major fight with one another, it will affect every investment everywhere.”

“That’s a big concept,” I chimed in. “But it’s not a big idea.”

“Isn’t that just semantics?” someone else asked. “Big idea, big concept. Don’t they both mean the same thing?”

The answer was no. A big and definite no. But try as we did, we were not able to get them to understand exactly what we meant by a big idea.

“It’s ironic,” I remember thinking. “I’ve become a Yoda too!”

Obviously, there was a gulf between our understanding of this important technique and the definition that was being given to this third generation of copywriters who were producing the promotions Agora was relying on.
“Show Me the Money!”

You asked, now we deliver!

This November, a dozen Internet legends (who have started & grown 41+ businesses with combined sales of over $1.12 billion) will respond to this brazen challenge. Each pledges to reveal at least one idea that could generate a minimum of $10,000 cash in the next 6 months…

Their “pledges” taken together could help you pocket $120,000 (and maybe much more) in cold hard cash by May 10, 2010!

PLUS: One of them (“Mr. X”, sworn to secrecy) will finally reveal the shocking, proprietary $5 million+ secret that stands to revolutionize the online marketing world… (Michael Masterson calls this “a world-class game changer”!)

And that’s not all you’ll get… not by a long shot. You’ll also receive free…

An individually customized 3-part business acceleration plan…

One dozen additional “Mastermind Conferences” all throughout 2010…

Plus…

A $500 discount!

Get all the exciting details right here.

So I set to work writing this – an attempt to explain, in the clearest terms, just what the big idea is and what it isn’t.

Let’s start with a definition that borrows from Ogilvy: A big idea is an idea that is instantly comprehended as important, exciting, and beneficial. It also leads to an inevitable conclusion, a conclusion that makes it easy to sell your product. Furthermore, it is an idea that will continue to be important and exciting for a long time.

That’s a mouthful. So let’s break it down.

A big idea is important.

By important, I mean important to the customer – not the copywriter – and relevant to the product being sold. The devaluation of the dollar may be important to American investors, in general. But it won’t be important to a customer who is being asked to buy a newsletter about a type of investment that won’t be affected by the dollar’s decline. The swine flu may be important to this same customer – but it cannot possibly be relevant in a sales letter that is selling investment advice.

A big idea is exciting.

You are not going to excite your customer by repeating the predictions or promises that the rest of the media is publishing. They have already been exposed to those ideas. To provoke real excitement, you need to go beyond the conventional. You need to find some new angle that makes your customer sit up and pay attention.

A big idea is beneficial.

The excitement created must benefit the customer. Put differently, it should make the customer want to buy the product being sold. Let’s say you’re selling grass-fed beef. You can get your customer excited by telling him about how quickly people in this country are becoming poor. But that kind of excitement will make him less – not more – likely to buy the expensive type of meat you’re selling.

A big idea leads to an inevitable conclusion.

The big idea must contain some internal logic that is fundamentally simple. It must be easy to grasp and easy to see how the product you are selling solves a particular problem or delivers on a stated promise. The best big ideas tie into something that makes the product unique. As soon as the customer hears the idea, he begins to feel the need for the product, even before it is mentioned in the copy.

The best big ideas do all of that work with a very few words. The sale is half-made in the headline or by the end of the first paragraph.

Let me give you three examples.

In this first example, the big idea is aimed at readers concerned with their health:

How the French Live Longer Than Everyone Else …

Even though they eat like kings and smoke like chimneys!

This headline offers to answer a riddle that has puzzled the reader for many years: why the French – who eat cheese, meat, and rich sauces – stay so thin. And another riddle the reader just discovered: why the French – who smoke like chimneys – outlive everyone else too!

Implicit, here, is a promise that will appeal to almost anyone: You can eat like the French eat … and lose weight … and live longer.

This next example is a big idea that would interest avid golfers:

Want to slash strokes from your game almost overnight?
Amazing Secret Discovered By
One-Legged Golfer Adds 50 Yards
To Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks and Slices …
And Can Slash Up To 10 Strokes From Your Game
Almost Overnight!

The idea that there’s a secret discovered by a one-legged golfer is exciting.It implies that if the reader has two legs, he’ll have an even greater advantage. Plus, the promise that this secret could add 50 yards to his drives and slash up to 10 strokes from his game is both VERY important and beneficial.

The reader can’t help but come to the conclusion that he needs this secret.

Finally, here’s an example geared toward savvy investors:

Outlawed for 41 years, now legal again,
This investment launched the largest
family fortune the world has ever seen …
and could return 665% in the next 12 months.

The big idea is that this secret investment was once illegal. It’s exciting, because it’s the same investment that launched the largest family fortune in history. What’s more, once the reader learns what this investment is, he could stand to make a 665% return on his money in a year or less. That makes it important and beneficial.

The inevitable conclusion: “I’ve got to read this and find out what this investment is.”

Source: The Big Idea By Michael Masterson

Who Is Elmer Wheeler… and How Can He Boost Your Response Rate?

Octavio Urzua — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:28:11 +0000

“We are selling dreams. We are merchants of happiness.”

Bernard Loiseau
Who Is Elmer Wheeler… and How Can He Boost Your Response Rate?
By John Wood

The year was 1937…

The Great Depression was still taking a heavy toll. Prices and profits were low… international trade was down by two-thirds… millions stood in line for jobs that didn’t exist.

But not everyone was suffering.

A young man by the name of Elmer Wheeler was paid $5,000 for coming up with nine simple words.

You see, at the time, Texaco was looking to sell more motor oil to their customers. Too many people, without giving it a second thought, said “No” when a service station attendant asked “Check your oil today?”

Wheeler suggested replacing “Check your oil today?” with “Is your oil at the proper level today, sir?”

Now asking something like “Is your oil at the proper level today, sir?” would seem to be just good horse sense. A line so simple you’d think most gas station owners would naturally come up with it — but few did.

Which is why Texaco paid Wheeler $5,000 for it… a small fortune back then.

They got their money’s worth and more. In one week, Texaco attendants got under 250,000 more hoods.

Another Wheeler triumph came when he was asked by the president of Barbasol to help them sell more shaving cream.

The slogan they had tried was “How Would You Like to Save Six Minutes Shaving?”

Wheeler suggested: “Use Barbasol. Just spread it on. Shave it off. Nothing else required!”

When they tested it, they found it increased sales by 102 percent.

A light bulb went off in Wheeler’s head, and he came up with another suggestion: “How would you like to slash your shaving time in half?”

That one increased sales by another 300 percent.

Over the years, Wheeler tested 105,000 selling statements for 5,000 products. He eliminated 100,000 of them.

Here’s how he summed up the philosophy behind what he called “Tested Selling”…

“Don’t think so much about what you want to say as about what the prospect wants to hear — then the response you will get will more often be the one you are aiming for.”

Great advice.

Wheelerpoint #1. “Don’t sell the steak — sell the sizzle.”

This just might be the most famous piece of sales advice ever. So what does it mean? Sell benefits and deeper benefits. Your prospect could care less about the product itself. Wheeler wrote: “The sizzle has sold more steaks than the cow ever has, although the cow is, of course, mighty important.”

Wheelerpoint #2. “Don’t write — telegraph!”

Back in Wheeler’s day, telegraphs were a popular way for people to send messages. But they were charged by the word. So, to keep the price down, they had to choose their words wisely. By saying “Don’t write — telegraph,” Wheeler meant “Make every word count.” He often said that the first 10 words of your sales copy are more important than the next 10,000, and you have only 10 short seconds to catch your prospect’s attention with them.

Wheelerpoint #3. “Say it with flowers.”

This simply means that it’s not enough to make a statement to your prospect, you have to prove it. In other words, you say “I love you,” and then you prove it by sending flowers. (Of course, you have to be sincere and do it convincingly.

Wheelerpoint #4. “Don’t ask if — ask which.”

Meaning, always give your prospect a choice between something and something … never between something and nothing. For Abraham and Straus, for example, Wheeler worked out a way for their soda fountains to sell more eggs. Instead of asking “Would you like an egg with that?” the clerk would ask “One egg or two eggs?” while holding an egg in each hand. The result? Seven out of 10 customers added at least one egg to their order.

I’d like to add my two cents to this one…

I’m continually surprised by how many waiters and waitresses don’t use this gentle sales technique. Most ask if you’ll be having wine with dinner. Few say, “Will you be having white wine or red wine with dinner tonight?”

One more example from Wheeler:

He noticed that when a customer at the soda fountain requested a cola and was asked whether they wanted “small” or “large,” most chose “small.” He wondered what would happen if the clerk, instead, just said “Large one?” When they put it to the test, they found that seven out of 10 people said “Yes.” This simple idea could have a dramatic effect on a fast-food restaurant’s bottom line. If they sell 500 drinks a day and the difference between a small and a large is 50 cents, converting 70 percent of their drink orders to “large” translates into an additional $175 per day. Over a year, that’s an increase of $63,875!

Wheelerpoint #5. “Watch your bark!”

This one came out of Wheeler’s love of dogs — and how much you can tell about how dogs feel by the way they wag their tails and the sound of their barks. By saying “Watch your bark!” Wheeler’s reminding us that it’s not just what you say, but how you say it. For marketers, that means keeping the tone of their sales copy conversational and engaging.

I’ve printed out these five Wheelerpoints and taped them next to my computer. They’re as meaningful for all of us in the “persuasion business” today as they were when Elmer came up with them 60+ years ago.

Source: ETR 1-10-09

Protected: John Carlton

Octavio Urzua — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:39:12 +0000

Who Is Elmer Wheeler… and How Can He Boost Your Response Rate?

Octavio Urzua — Tue, 01 May 2007 16:25:42 +0000

“We are selling dreams. We are merchants of happiness.”
Bernard Loiseau

The year was 1937… The Great Depression was still taking a heavy toll. Prices and profits were low… international trade was down by two-thirds… millions stood in line for jobs that didn’t exist. But not everyone was suffering.