The most important aspect of any
business is selling the product
or service. Without sales, no business can exist for very
long.
All sales begin with some
form of advertising. To build sales, this advertising
must be seen or heard by potential Buyers, and cause them
to react to the
advertising in some way. The credit for the success, or
the blame for the
failure of almost all ads, reverts back to the ad itself.
Generally, the "ad
writer" wants the prospect to do one of the
following:
a.) Visit the store, or web site, to see and judge
the product for himself, or
immediately write a check and send for the merchandise
being advertised.
b.)
Phone for an appointment to hear
the full sales presentation, or write for
further information which amounts to the same thing.
The bottom line in any ad
is quite simple: To make the reader Buy the product
or service. Any ad that causes the reader to only pause
in his thinking, to
just admire the product, or to simply believe what's
written about the product -
is not doing its job completely.
The "ad
writer" must know exactly what he wants his
reader to do, and any ad
that does not elicit the desired action is an absolute
waste of time and money.
In order to elicit the
desired action from the prospect, all ads are written
according to a simple "master formula" which
is:
l.)
Attract the "attention" of your
prospect
2.) "Interest"
your prospect in the product
3.) Cause
your prospect to "desire" the
product
4.) Demand
"action" from the prospect
Never forget the basic
rule of advertising copyrighting: "If the ad is not
read, it won't stimulate any sales; if it is not seen, it
cannot be read; and if
it does not command or grab the attention of the reader,
it will not be seen."
Most successful
advertising copywriters know these fundamentals backwards
and
forwards. Whether you know them already or you're just
now being exposed to
them, your knowledge and practice of these fundamentals
will determine the
extent of your success as an advertising copywriter.
Million Dollar Sales Letters
INTRODUCTION
Selling by mail can be the easiest and least expensive
method of selling your
services or commodities. It can also be the most difficult and the most
expensive method of doing the job. It all depends on the method you use
in
presenting your offering to your prospects; it depends on the kind of
a letter
you send to them.
To write such a letter, a message that explains concisely
yet completely and in
an action-compelling manner what you have to offer, is a job that demands
the
services of an expert versed in every one of the thousand phases of selling
and
one with many years of successful mail order experience at his command.
If you would choose the one man in the United States who
could write for you a
sales letter that would produce the results you desire, you would probably
ask
Robert Collier to do the job.
Backed by many years of success in the field of selling
by mail, selling every
commodity from trench machinery to fertilizers, books and raincoats, stocks
and
bonds and services, he has placed hundreds of millions of dollars into
the
pockets of the clients for whom he has written his master sales letter.
As a
consequence, he is today, America's premier writer of successful selling
letters.
Mr. Collier was asked to select from the many thousands
of sales letters
considered to be the best of them all. It was a difficult job to pick
fifteen of
the best from a list of ten thousand of the best, but the job is finished
and
here are the letters. These are the fifteen letters considered the best
ever
written by the man acknowledged to be the best writer of sales letters
in
America today. They have actually been tested, they have actually been
used,
and they actually sold over one million dollars of services and merchandise.
These letters will sell for you. Choose those which are
applicable to your own
business. Alter them only to such an extent as to accord with the products
and
services you have to sell. It will also pay you to study them all, for
they all
contain the essential elements that enter into every successful sales
letter.
They contain ideas that you may apply successfully in sales letters of
your own dictation.
CLASSIFIED ADS
Classified ads are the
ads from which all successful businesses are started.
These small, free or relatively inexpensive ads, give the
beginner an
opportunity to advertise his product or service without
losing his shirt if the
ad doesn't pull or the people don't break his door down
with demands for his
product. Classified ads are written according to all the
advertising rules.
What is said in a classified ad is the same that's said
in a larger, more
elaborate type of ad, except in condensed form.
To start learning how
to write good classified ads, clip ten classified ads
from
ten different mail order type publications - ads that you
think are pretty good.
Paste each of these ads onto a separate sheet of paper.
Analyze
each of these ads.
How has the
writer attracted your attention?
What about
the ads keeps your interest?
Are you
stimulated to want to know more
about the product being advertised?
Finally,
what action must you take?
Are all of
these points covered in the ad?
How
strongly are you "turned on" by
each of these ads?
Rate these ads on a
scale of one to ten, with ten being the best
according to
the formula I've given you. Now, just for practice,
without clipping the ads,
do the same thing with ten different ads from a Sears,
Wards or JC Penney's
catalog. In fact, every ad you see from now on, quickly
analyze it, and rate it
somewhere on your scale. If you'll practice this
exercise on a regular basis,
you'll soon be able to quickly recognize the "Power
Points" of any ad you see,
and know within your own mind whether an ad is good, bad
or otherwise, and what
makes it so.
Practice for an hour
each day, write the ads you've rated 8, 9, and 10
exactly
as they've been written. This will give you the
"feel" of the fundamentals and
style necessary in writing classified ads.
Your next project will be
to pick out what you consider to be the ten
"worst"
ads you can find in the classifieds sections. Clip these
out and paste them
onto a sheet of paper so you can work with them.
Read these ads over
a couple of times, and then beside each of them,
write a
short comment stating why you think it's bad. It might be
lost in the crowd.
It doesn't attract attention or doesn't hold the reader's
interest. It offers
nothing special to make the reader want to own the
product. Maybe, there's no
demand for action.
You probably already know
what's coming next, and that's right, break out those
pencils, erasers and scratch paper - and start rewriting
these ads to include
the missing elements.
Each day for the next
month, practice writing the ten best ads for an hour,
just
the way they were originally written. Pick out ten of the
worst ads, analyze
those ads, and then practice rewriting those until they
measure up to doing the
job they were intended to do.
Once you're satisfied
that the ads you've rewritten are perfect, go back
into
each ad and cross out the words that can be eliminated
without detracting from
the ad. Classified ads are almost always
"finalized" in the style of a
telegram.
EXAMPLE: I'll arrive at 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon,
the 15th. Meet me at
Sardi's. All my love, Jim.
EDITED FOR SENDING:
Arrive 2 pm - 15th - Sardi's. Love, Jim.
CLASSIFIED AD: Save
on your food bills! Reduced prices on every shelf in the
store! Stock up now while supplies are complete! Come on
in today, to Jerry's
Family Supermarkets!
EDITED FOR PUBLICATION:
Save on Food! Everything bargain priced! Limited
supplies! Hurry! Jerry's Markets!
It takes dedicated and
regular practice, but you can do it. Simply recognize
and understand the basic formula - practice reading and
writing the good ones -
and rewriting the bad ones to make them better. Practice,
and keep at it, over
and over, every day - until the formula, the idea, and
the feel of this kind of
ad writing becomes second nature to you. This is the
ONLY WAY to gain expertise in writing good classified
ads.
Display Advertisements
A display or space ad
differs from a classified ad because it has a headline,
layout, and because the style isn't telegraphic. However,
the fundamentals of
writing the display or space ad are exactly the same as
for a classified ad.
The basic difference is that you have more room in which
to emphasize the
"master formula."
Most successful
copywriters rate the headline and/or the lead
sentence of an ad as the most important part of the ad,
and in reality, you
should do the same. After all, when your ad is surrounded
by hundreds of other
ads, and information or entertainment, what makes you
think anyone is going to
see your particular ad?
The truth is, they're
not going to see your ad unless you can "grab"
their
attention and entice them to read all of what you have to
say. Your headline,
or lead sentence when no headline is used, has to make it
more difficult for
your prospect to ignore or pass over, than to stop and
read your ad. If you
don't capture the attention of your reader with your
headline, anything beyond
is useless effort and wasted money.
Successful advertising
headlines - in classified ads, your first three to
five
words serve as your headline - are written as
promises, either implied or
direct. The first example promises to show you how to
save money, make money,
or attain a desired goal. The second is a warning against
something
undesirable.
EXAMPLE
OF A PROMISE:
Are You Ready To Become A Millionaire - In Just 18
Months?
EXAMPLE
OF A WARNING:
Do You Make These Mistakes In English?
In both of these examples,
I've posed a question as the headline. Headlines
that ask a question seem to attract the reader's
attention almost as surely as a
moth is drawn to a flame. Once he's seen the question, he
just can't seem to
keep himself from reading the rest of the ad to find out
the answer. The best
headline questions are those that challenge the reader;
that involve his self-esteem, and do not allow him to dismiss your question
with a simple yes or no.
You'll be the envy of your
friends is another kind of "reader appeal" to
incorporate into your headline whenever appropriate. The
appeal has to do with
basic psychology: everyone wants to be well thought of,
and consequently, will
read into the body of your ad to find out how he can gain
the respect and
accolades of his friends.
Wherever and whenever
possible, use colloquialisms or words that are not
usually found in advertisements. The idea is to
shock or shake the reader out of his reverie and cause
him to take notice of your ad. Most of the headlines
you see day in and day out, have a certain sameness with
just the words rearranged. The
reader may see these headlines with his eyes, but his
brain fails to focus on
any of them because there's nothing different or out of
the ordinary to arrest
his attention.
EXAMPLE
OF COLLOQUIALISM:
Are You Developing A POT BELLY?
Another attention-grabber
kind of head-line is the comparative price headline:
Three For Only $3, Regularly $3 Each! Still another of
the "tried and proven"
kind of headlines is the specific question: Do You Suffer
From These Symptoms.
And of course, if you offer a strong guarantee, you
should say so in your
headline: Your Money Refunded, If You Don't Make $100,000
Your First Year.
How To headlines have a
very strong basic appeal, but in some instances,
they're better used as book titles than advertising
headlines. Who else wants in on the finer things - which
your product or service presumably offers - is another
approach with a very strong reader appeal. The psychology
here being the need
of everyone to belong to a group - complete with status
and prestige
motivations.
Whenever, and as often as
you can possibly work it in, you should use the word
"you" in your headline, and throughout
your copy. After all, your ad should be
directed to "one" person, and the person
reading your ad wants to feel that
you're talking to him personally, not everyone who lives
on his street.
Personalize, and be
specific! You can throw the teachings of your English
teachers out the window, and the rules of "third
person, singular" or whatever
else tends to inhibit your writing. Whenever you sit down
to write advertising
copy intended to pull the orders - sell the product - you
should picture
yourself in a one-on-one situation and "talk"
to your reader just as if you
sitting across from him at your dining room table.
Say what you mean,
and sell HIM on the product your offering. Be specific
and ask him if these are the things that bother him - are
these the things he wants - and he's the one you want to
Buy the product . . .
The layout you
devise for your ad, or the frame you build around it,
should also
command attention. Either make it so spectacular that
it stands out like
lobster at a chili dinner, or so uncommonly simple that
it catches the reader's
eye because of its very simplicity. It's also important
that you don't get cute
with a lot of unrelated graphics and artwork.
Your ad should convey
the feeling of excitement and movement, but should
not tire the eyes or disrupt the flow of the message
you're trying to present. Any graphics or artwork you use
should be relevant to your product, its use and/or the
copy you've written about it.
Graphics should not be
used as artistic touches, or to create an atmosphere.
Any illustrations with your ad should compliment the
selling of your product,
and prove or substantiate specific points in your copy.
Once you have your
reader's attention, the only way you're going to keep it
is
by quickly and emphatically telling him what your product
will do for him.
Your potential Buyer
doesn't care in the least how long it's taken you to
produce
the product, how long you've been in business, nor how
many years you've
spent learning your craft. He wants to know specifically
how he's going to
benefit from the purchase of your product.
Generally,
his wants will fall into one of the following categories:
Better health,
more comfort,
more money,
more leisure
time,
more
popularity,
greater
beauty,
success and/or
security.
Even though you have
your reader's attention, you must follow through
with an enumeration of the benefits he can gain. In
essence, you must reiterate the
advantages, comfort and happiness he'll enjoy - as you
have implied in your
headline.
Mentally picture your
prospect - determine his wants and emotional
needs - put yourself in his shoes, and ask
yourself If I were reading this ad, what are the
things that would appeal to me? Write your copy to appeal
to your reader's
wants and emotional needs/ego cravings.
Remember, it's not the
"safety features" that have sold cars for the
past 50
years - nor has it been the need of transportation - it
has been, and almost
certainly always will be the advertising writer's
recognition of people's wants
and emotional needs/ego cravings.
Visualize your prospect,
recognize his wants and satisfy them. Writing good
advertising copy is nothing more or less than knowing "who"
your Buyers are; recognizing what they wants; and
then telling them how your product will fulfill
each of those wants. Remember this because it's one of
the "vitally important"
keys to writing advertising copy that does the job you
intend for it to do.
The "desire"
portion of your ad is where you present the facts
of your product; create and justify your prospect's
conviction, and cause him to demand
"a piece of the action" for himself.
It's vitally necessary
that you present "proven facts" about
your product
because survey results show that at least 8% of the
people reading your ad -
especially those reading it for the first time - will
tend to question its
authenticity.
So, the more facts you
can present in the ad, the more credible your
offer. As you write this part of your ad, always
remember that the more facts about the
product you present, the more product you'll sell. People
want facts as
reasons, and/or excuses for Buying a product - to justify
to themselves and
others, that they haven't been "taken" by
a slick copywriter.
It's like the girl who
wants to marry the guy her father calls a "no good
bum."
Her heart - her emotions - tell her yes, but she needs
facts to nullify the seed
of doubt lingering in her mind - to rationalize her
decision to go on with the
wedding.
In other words, the
"desire" portion of your ad has to build belief
and
credibility in the mind of your prospect. It has to
assure him of his good
judgement in the final decision to Buy - furnish evidence
of the benefits you've
promised - and afford him a "safety net" in
case anyone should question his
decision to Buy.
People tend to believe
the things that appeal to their individual desires,
fears and other emotions. Once you've established a
belief in this manner, logic
and reasoning are used to support it. People believe
what they "want" to believe. Your reader
"wants" to believe your ad if he's read it
through this far - it's
up to you to support his initial desire.
Study your product and
everything about it - visualize the wants of your
prospective Buyers - dig up the facts, and you'll almost
always find plenty of
facts to support the Buyer's reasons for Buying.
Here is where you use results
of tests conducted, growing sales figures to prove
increasing popularity, and "user" testimonials
or endorsements. It's also
important that you present these facts - test results,
sales figures, and/or
testimonials - from the consumer point of view, and not
that of the manufacturer
Before you end this
portion of your ad and get into your demand for action,
summarize everything you've presented thus far. Draw a
mental picture for your
potential Buyer. Let him imagine owning the product.
Induce him to visualize
all of the benefits you've promised. Give him the keys to
seeing himself richer,
enjoying luxury, having time to do whatever he'd like to
do, and with all of his
dreams fulfilled.
This can be handled in one
or two sentences, or spelled out in a paragraph or
more, but it's the absolute ingredient you must include
prior to closing the
sale. Study all the sales presentations you've ever
heard - look at every
winning ad - this the element included in all of them
that actually makes the sale for you. Remember it,
use it, and don't try to sell anything without it.
As Victor Schwab puts it
so succinctly in his best-selling book, How To Write A
Good Advertisement: Every one of the fundamentals in the
"master formula" is
necessary. Those people who are - easy to sell may
perhaps be sold even if some
of these factors are left out, but it's wiser to plan
your advertisement so that
it will have a Popular impact upon those who are
"hardest" to sell. For, unlike
face-to-face selling, we cannot in printed advertising
come to a "trial close" in our sales talk - in
order to see if those who are easier to sell will welcome
the dotted line without further persuasion.
We must assume that we are
talking to the hardest ones - and that the more
thoroughly our copy sells both the hard and the easy,
the better chance we have against the competition
for the consumer dollars - and also the less dependent we
will be upon the usual completely ineffective
follow-through on our advertising effort which later
takes place at the sales counter itself.
Ask For Action - Demand The Money
Lots of ads are beautiful,
almost perfectly written, and quite convincing - yet
they fail to ask for or demand action from the reader.
If you want the reader
to have your product, then tell him so and demand that he
send his money now.
Unless you enjoy entertaining your prospects with your
beautiful writing skills,
always demand that he complete the sale now, by taking
action now - by calling a
telephone number and ordering, by writing his check and
rushing it to the post
office, or by ordering from your Web site.
Once you've got him on
the hook, land him! Don't
let him get away. Probably, one
of the most common and best methods of moving the
reader's to
act now, is written in some form of the following:
All of this can be yours!
You can start enjoying this new way of life
immediately, simply by sending a check for $XX! Don't put
it off, then later
wish you had gotten in on the ground floor. Make out that
check now, and "be IN
on the ground floor!" Act now, and as an
"early-bird" Buyer, we'll include a
big bonus package - absolutely free, simply for acting
immediately! You win all
the way! We take all the risks. If you're not satisfied,
simply return the
product and we'll quickly refund your money! Do it now!
Get that check on its
way to us today, and receive the big bonus package! After
next week, we won't
be able to include the bonus as a part of this fantastic
deal, so act now! The
sooner you act, the more you win!
Offering a reward of
some kind will almost always stimulate the prospect to
take action. However, in mentioning the reward or
bonus, be very careful that you don't end up
receiving primarily, requests for the bonus with
mountains of
requests for refunds on the product to follow. The
bonus should be mentioned
only casually if you're asking for product orders;
and with lots of fanfare only
when you're seeking inquiries.
Too often the
copywriter, in his enthusiasm to pull in a record number
of
responses, confuses the reader by "forgetting about
the product," and devoting
his entire space allotted for the "demand for
action" to sending for the bonus.
Any reward offered should be closely related to the
product, and a bonus offered
only for immediate action on the part of the potential
Buyer.
Specify a time limit.
Tell your prospect that he must act within a certain time
limit or lose out on the bonus, face probably higher
prices, or even the
withdrawal of your offer. This is always a good hook to
get action.
Any kind of guarantee
you offer always helps to produce action from the
prospect. And the more liberal you can make your
guarantee, the more product
orders you'll receive. Be sure you state the guarantee
clearly and simply.
Make it so easy to understand that even a child would not
misinterpret what
you're saying.
The action you want
your prospect to take should be easy - clearly stated
- and devoid of any complicated procedural steps on his
part, or numerous directions
for him to follow.
Picture your prospect,
very comfortable in his favorite easy chair, idly
flipping through a magazine while
"half-watching" TV. He notices your ad, reads
through
it, and he's sold on your product. Now what does he do?
Remember, he's very
comfortable - you've "grabbed" his
attention, sparked his interest, painted a picture of
him enjoying a new kind of satisfaction, and he's
ready to Buy . . . Anything and everything you ask or
cause him to do is going
to disrupt this aura of comfort and contentment. Whatever
he must do had better
be simple, quick and easy!
Tell him without any ifs,
ands or buts, what to do - fill out the coupon, include
your check for the full amount, and send it in to us
today! Make it as easy for him as you possibly can -
simple and direct. And by all means, make sure your
address is on the order form he's supposed to complete
and mail in to you - your name and address on the
order form, as well as just above it. People sometimes
fill out a coupon, tear it off, seal it in an envelope
and don't know
where to send it. The easier you make it for him to
respond, the more responses you'll get!
There you have it, a
complete course on how to write ads that will pull more
orders for you - sell more of your product for you. It's
important to learn
"why" ads are written as they are and to
understand and use, the "master
formula" in your own ad writing endeavors.
By conscientiously studying
good advertising copy, and practicing writing
ads of your own, now that you have the knowledge and
understand what makes
advertising copy work, you should be able to quickly
develop your copyrighting
abilities to produce order-pulling ads for your own
products. Even so, and
once you do become proficient in writing ads for your own
products, you must
never stop "noticing" how ads are written,
designed and put together by other people. To stop
learning would be comparable to shutting yourself off
from
the rest of the world.
The best ad writers are
people in touch with the world in which they live. Every time they see a good ad, they clip it out and save
it. Regularly, they
pull out these files of good ads and study them, always
analyzing what makes
them good, and why they work.
There's no school in the
country that can give you the same kind of education
and expertise so necessary in the field of ad writing.
You must keep yourself
up-to-date, aware of, and in-the-know about the other guy
- his innovations,
style changes, and the methods he's using to sell his
products. On-the-job-training - study and practice - that's what it takes. If
you've got that burning
ambition to succeed, you can do it, too!
Questions & Answers
l.) WHAT'S THE MOST PROFITABLE
WAY TO USE CLASSIFIEDS?
Classifieds are best used
to build your mailing list of qualified prospects.
Use classifieds to offer a free catalog, booklet or
report relative to your
product line,
2.) WHAT
CAN YOU SELL "DIRECTLY" FROM CLASSIFIEDS?
Generally, anything and
everything, so long as it doesn't cost more than five
dollars which is about the most people will pay in
response to an offer in the
classifieds. These types of ads are great for pulling
inquiries such as: Write
for further information. Send $3, get two for the price
of one. Dealers
wanted, send for product info and a real money-makers
kit!
3.) WHAT ARE THE BEST MONTHS OF
THE YEAR TO ADVERTISE?
All twelve months of the
year! Responses to your ads during some months will be
slower in accumulating, but by keying your ads according
to the month they
appear, and a careful tabulation of your returns from
each keyed ad, you'll see
that steady year round advertising will continue to pull
orders for you, regardless of the month it's published. I've personally
received inquiries and
orders from ads placed as long as 2 years previous to the
date of the response.
4.) ARE
MAIL ORDER PUBLICATIONS GOOD ADVERTISING BuyS?
The least effective are
the ad sheets. Most of the ads in these publications
are "exchange ads," meaning that the publisher
of ad sheet "A" runs the ads of
publisher "B" without charge, because publisher
"B" is running the ads of
publisher "A" without charge. The
"claimed" circulation figures of these
publications are almost always based on "wishes,
hopes and wants" while the
"true" circulation goes out to similar small,
part-time mail order dealers.
Very poor medium for investing advertising dollars
because everybody receiving a
copy is a "seller" and nobody is Buying. When
an ad sheet is received by
someone not involved in mail order, it's usually given a
cursory glance and then
discarded as "junk mail."
Tabloid newspapers are
slightly better than the ad sheets, but not by much!
The important difference with the tabloids is in the
"helpful information" articles
they try to carry for the mail order beginner. A
"fair media" for No Support
dealers or independent sales reps for mail order
products, and for renting
mailing lists, but still circulated amongst
"sellers" with very few Buyers.
Besides that, the life of a mail order tab sheet is about
the same as that of
your daily newspaper.
With mail order
magazines, it depends on the quality of the publication
and its
business concepts. Some mail order magazines are nothing
more than expanded ad sheets, while others strive to help
the opportunity seekers with on-going advice
and tips they can use in the development and growth of
their own wealth-building
projects.
5.) HOW CAN I DECIDE WHERE TO
ADVERTISE MY PRODUCT?
First of all, you have to determine
who your prospective Buyers are. Then
you do a little bit of market research. Talk to
your friends, neighbors and
people at random who might fit this profile. Ask them if
they would be interested
in a product such as yours, and then ask them which
publications they read.
Next, go to your public library for a listing of the
publications of this type from the
Standard Rate & Data Service catalogs.
Make a list of the
addresses, circulation figures, reader demographics and
advertising rates. To determine the true costs of your
advertising and decide
which is the better Buy, divide the total audited
circulation figure into the cost for
a one inch ad: $10 per inch with a publication showing
10,000 circulation would
be 10,000 into $10 or $.10 per thousand.
Write and ask for
sample copies of the magazines or ezines you've
tentatively chosen to place your advertising in. Look
over their advertising be sure that they don't or won't
put your ad in the "gutter" which is the inside
column next to the binding. How many other mail order
type ads are they carrying - you want to go with a
publication that's busy, not one that has only a few ads.
The
more ads in the publication, the better the response the
advertisers are getting,
or else they wouldn't be investing their money in that
publication.
To "properly"
test your ad, you should let it run through at least
three consecutive issues of any publication. If your
responses are small, try a
different publication. Then, if your responses are still
small, look at your ad and think about rewriting it for
greater appeal, and pulling power. In a great many
instances, it's the ad and not the publication's pulling
power that's at fault!