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Fine restaurants in the Pacific Northwest had been serving cedar plank salmon for years. But Harry Aldrich and David Maddocks wanted to sell a home version.
Their idea was simple. They would manufacture a 6″ x 12″ piece of cedar wood. You put your salmon on the wood plank and put the wood plank into your home barbecue. Voilà! Cedar plank salmon.
Aldrich made an appointment with the seafood buyer for the Fred Meyer stores in Portland, Oregon. On the morning of his appointment, he bought a filet of salmon from the local Fred Meyer, went home, and cooked it on one of his cedar planks. Then he wrapped it in foil and rushed off to his meeting.
When he arrived, he didn’t bother with the usual sales patter. He simply placed the salmon on the buyer’s desk and handed him a fork. “I’m here to help you sell more salmon,” Aldrich said.
The buyer took a bite. “WOW! Where did you get this fish? It’s wonderful!” When Aldrich told him he bought the fish that very morning in a Fred Meyer store, the buyer couldn’t believe it.
Aldrich sat back and smiled as the buyer called other staff members to taste the fish. The reaction was unanimous. It tasted divine. Aldrich provided some facts and benefits, but the buyer was sold with the first taste.
Within a week, Harry Aldrich and David Maddocks had lucrative orders from more than 100 Fred Meyer stores. And they sold truckloads of those little cedar planks.
So what’s the lesson here?
Use command language to get the response you want!
When you write direct response copy, your goal is to provoke a response. That’s why it’s called direct response copy.
To do this you can’t be subtle or wishy-washy. You must tell people what to do.
This is what I call “command language.” Or in grammar class terms, you must use the imperative mood. The word “imperative” comes from the Latin imperare, meaning to command.
Why must you tell people what to do? Simple. Experience (and basic psychology) show that people are more likely to do something if you prompt them.
Is this considered rude? Some people think so. They are wrong.
The Elements of Style: the ad writer’s best friend
The best book ever written on the art of effective writing is The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White.
There is much good advice in this classic text, especially in the last 20 pages, titled “An Approach to Style.” Nowhere have I seen more helpful advice in so few words with such precision. This is why I always keep this book within reach.
I will leave it to you to explore this book on your own. But I would like to provide my own version of select advice from this essential reference. This applies to all writing, of course, but it is particularly important for advertising copy.
Why smart copywriters write about people
There’s a saying: Dumb people talk about people. Smart people talk about ideas.
It’s a saying usually recited by those who think they’re smart and enjoy rattling on about obscure trivia. However, these people aren’t as bright as they think they are.
The saying is wrong. In fact, I’m going to show you why talking, or rather, writing about people is very smart indeed and how this can help you dramatically improve your copywriting .
And I’ll prove it by taking you on a tour of my local grocery store, the experimental lab of evolutionary biologists, and my own direct mail swipe file.
Read more
Is your direct mail copy headed for the trash?
Direct mail is always a plum assignment for any copywriter. It’s the supreme test of your skills, but not for the reason you think.
Sure, you get to write envelope teaser copy, a letter, order form, brochure, and maybe a lift letter and other inserts. Lots of copy. Lots of space to strut your stuff.
But the real challenge is just keeping your work from landing in the trash can.
Despite all the time and effort you put in to crafting and polishing your copy to perfection, people don’t sit down and lovingly take in every word of your masterpiece. In fact, the way people “read” your direct mail copy is downright brutal.
Beware. If you’re squeamish, don’t read this. It’s not pretty.
Credible copywriting: Who ya’ gonna trust?
If you asked me what was wrong with most copywriting, I’d say two things:
1. Much of it is trite and lifeless. Like a bowl of limp noodles.
2. Too much of it is outlandish B.S. Over-the-top hard sell.
Both extremes can kill your copy, but the second is a bigger problem. Lifeless copy might still sell if the product and offer are appealing. But outlandish, unbelievable copy creates distrust and leads people to think, “Yeah, right.”
I’m talking about credibility. This is an essential but often ignored part of good copywriting. If people don’t believe you, they won’t respond to your copy.
3 “must-have” elements of direct response copywriting
A couple days ago, I got an interesting email from Neil Mattingley, a fellow copywriter and blogger from down under.
Hi, Dean.
My question is a tough one.
Assuming you have all the key element of a sales letter and you had to eliminate them one-by-one until you got to the bare minimum for a space ad, in what order would you do it?
I guess I want to have a clear understanding of what is essential in a space ad versus what is not.
And is there a relationship between a sales letter and space ad, or are they two separate beasts.
Neil Mattingley
Perth, Australia
That is a tough one. Neil is asking a highly sophisticated question about technique priority. How do you rank the importance of the various copywriting techniques and which techniques are absolutely required to get response?
I’m starting to sweat under my guru robes a bit. But let’s think about this for a moment.
7 well-traveled roads to copywriting success
Copywriting is a lot like taking a road trip. Along the way, you have to make choices about which direction you will go.
Turn this way, and you end up one place. Turn that way, and you end up in another.
There are an infinite number of paths you might take, but it’s nice to know a few standard, well-worn paths that improve your odds of getting to where you want to go.
Here are 7 ways to structure your ad copy that provide a “road map” for your copy. Each is proven and gives you great creative flexibility.
The Straight Offer — This is especially good for a familiar product, a strong offer, and business-to-business marketing. With this approach, you simply state your offer, benefits, and premiums up front without any creative frills. You see this approach used with many magazines: Renew your People subscription today and get 53 weekly issues for just $2.19 per issue. Save 42%!
Blab and blather your way to great copywriting ideas
Blah! Blah! Blah!
That’s how you get great copywriting ideas.
Stay with me on this. It sounds silly, but this could be one of the single most powerful copywriting techniques you’ll ever use.
I discovered this some years ago while having trouble coming up with copy ideas for an important direct mail package. Others may do it, but I’ve never read about it anywhere.
What is it? It’s basically a way to brainstorm ideas by yourself by talking to an imaginary person.
P.S. Don’t forget to include a sales letter postscript
Did you ever wonder why professional copywriters add a P.S. to their sales letters?
For the answer to that question, let’s take a quick look at what a P.S. is, then I’ll give you some simple but effective ways to use a P.S. in your own sales letters.
So what exactly is a P.S.? Here’s what Wikipedia says:
The term comes from the Latin post scriptum, an expression meaning “written after” … (which may be interpreted in the sense of “that which comes after the writing”).
A postscript may be a sentence, a paragraph, or occasionally many paragraphs added, often hastily and incidentally, after the signature of a letter …
Basically, a post script is a letter-writing technique that says, “Oh, I forgot to tell you something,” or “By the way, here’s one more thing you should know.”
