Power Words

Copywriters--perhaps more than other wordsmiths and marketing professionals--are on the constant lookout for formulas. As Bob Bly writes,

I confess: I love copywriting formulas! Why? For two reasons.
First, the best formulas are simple, easy to remember and rapidly mastered. Knowing them can enable you to create copy that's twice as effective—in half the time.
Second, the reason they became formulas in the first place is that they work.

Some copywriters talk about using "power words" -- emotion-packed words that set off visceral reactions. They often cite a study by Yale University Psychology Department. But was there ever such a study? The Language Log blog has run a series investigating this alleged study:Yale University Researchers Reveal 12 Powerful Words To Increase Your Profits

Whether or not there ever was a Yale study, practitioners of the art of persuasion know there are words that are innately more persuasive.

Use them.

As David Ogilvy wrote in Confessions of an Advertising Man:

....words and phrases which work wonders are HOW TO, SUDDENLY, NOW, ANNOUNCING, INTRODUCING, IT’S HERE, JUST ARRIVED, IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT, IMPROVEMENT, AMAZING, SENSATIONAL, REMARKABLE, REVOLUTIONARY, STARTLING, MIRACLE, MAGIC, OFFER, QUICK, EASY, WANTED, CHALLENGE, ADVICE TO, THE TRUTH ABOUT, COMPARE, BARGAIN, HURRY, LAST CHANCE.
   Don’t turn up your nose at these cliches. They may be shop-worn, but they work. That is why you see them turn up so often in the headlines of mail-order advertisers and others who can measure the results of their advertisements.
   Headlines can be strengthened by the inclusion of emotional words, like DARLING, LOVE, FEAR, PROUD, FRIEND, and BABY.

It's Official: Google Indexes Comments

A few years ago, I had an on-blog conversation with Bob Bly on the idea of marketing with blog comments. Bob was skeptical, but I had done it together with Steve O'Keefe.

Now it's official. Mequoda Daily reports that Google is indexing comments on blogs and Facebook posts. So add comments to your toolbox. And remember--Google is watching. So if you don't have something good to say, keep your comments to yourself.

Read the full story: Google Starts Indexing Comments – All of Them

Free vs. Fee

A friend of mine is a computer wizard. He is an uber geek who has switched over to Linux, but does other people's Windows. He asked my advice about marketing a software product--giving it away for free, but asking for an installation fee. My first questions were:

1. What is your business model? How do you make FREE pay?
2. A corollary of 1, but from the customer's point of view: What's the catch? If it's free, how do you make money on it? And is it available anywhere else for free?
3. If it's free, why do I need to pay to get it installed? (Once you wave the FREE flag, you need to cautiously segue from free to fee.)
4. Can you make a value-added version of the free one that you can sell as an upgrade?
5.  Can you add ancillary services or products for upselling or cross-selling? This sounds like a great introductory offer. But introductory offers are not where you make your money. You need to work the back end. As Bob Bly writes, "The bulk of your profits will be made on the back end (repeat sales to existing customers), not the front end (the first sale to a new customer). Therefore, creating and selling a single product with no back-end is almost never profitable."  Terry Dean offers similar advice.
6. Maybe start with classified ads with links to a landing page.

 What would you add?

The 10 Commandments of Copywriting

Bob Bly's newsletter offers this gem from G. Lynn Sumners, How I Learned the Secrets of Success in Advertising.

The 10 Commandments of Copywriting

Over half a century ago, G. Lynn Sumners, who created the classic Harry & David Fortune magazine ad ("Imagine Harry & Me Advertising Our Pears in Fortune!"), put forth these 10 rules for writing winning advertisements – all of which are still applicable today:

1. Learn all about your proposition before you write anything about it.
2. Organize your material from the viewpoint of the buyer's interests, not yours.
3. Decide to whom you are writing.
4. Keep it simple.
5. Use meaningful words and phrases—words that stir the emotions, make the mouth water, make the heart beat faster.
6. Don't try to be funny. Remember, the most serious of all operations is separating a man from his money.
7. Make your copy specific—names, places, what happens to whom.
8. Prove your points.
9. Make copy long enough to tell your story—and quit.
10. Give your reader something to do and make it easy for him to do it.

Bob Bly is giving it away

Bob Bly has been a friend and mentor of mine for over 20 years.

He's always been ready to help new and old writers and copywriters (and more "normal" people) succeed. For the past few years Bob has been focusing on Internet marketing of information products. Now he's putting his money where his mouse is with an open invitation to join his Internet Information Marketing Club for a FREE 10-day membership "test drive."

"Get Almost Everything I've Ever Written or Said About Making Money with Internet Marketing Absolutely FREE for The Next 10 Days"

Get it while it's hot.

Is Print Dead?

Yes, I know. Prophets of doom (and those who stand to profit from doom) have predicted the end of print for decades. Two years ago Bob Bly proclaimed print alive and well.

Today, though, BtoB Magazine (online!) announces: Ziff Davis Media to shutter print version of ‘PC Magazine’

Is this an omen?

I doubt it. It's only natural for PC wonks to go online for their info fix. The premature print funeral reminds me of the famous "death" quote from Mark Twain. According to some sources, the original version went like this:

"James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London, but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness; the report of my death was an exaggeration."

Is blogging a waste of time?

Hoo boy! Now I'm really going to get in trouble with the blogerati! But you have to read this one.

Is it a waste of time to try promoting yourself by blogging?

Seth Godin sees blogs as the Electronic Grail. But usability expert Jakob Nielsen is also an Internet force to be reckoned with. And here's his advice to those who want to be recognized as experts and thought leaders:

To demonstrate world-class expertise, avoid quickly written, shallow postings. Instead, invest your time in thorough, value-added content that attracts paying customers.

Read Nielsen's whole article: Write Articles, Not Blog Postings Then let me know what you think. (I can just see Bob Bly nodding his head!)

I have my own ideas about the value of blogging. But I'm saving them for an article ;)

Bob Bly wonders, "Does blog marketing make sense?"

Copywriting maestro Bob Bly has long been skeptical about the marketing value of blogs. Even on his own blog! Now he brings Bad News for Blogging Evangelists that...

According to an article in Internet Marketing Report (5/25/07), 52% of U.S. adults never read a blog, and 16% don’t even know what a blog is.
The article concludes that investing a lot of your marketing budget in blogging “doesn't make a whole lot of sense.”

But to me, going by the numbers alone is like choosing a book by how many pages it has. I care about what is inside, not how much. J.K. Rowling's books sell in spite of how much they weigh... not because of it.

Can the value of blogging be measured purely in numbers of readers? I would say it makes a lot of sense to reach 100 readers who are likely to buy and then tell their friends about your product. Especially when the cost of reaching them is minute compared to other media.

Not only that. The real reach of blogs is far wider than the reported "readership." Google immortalizes the information on blogs. Searchers (read "buyers") for your product will find you. Get tagged and you're it!

Get a ringside seat at the slugfest on Bob's blog.

Book Review: "Turning Clicks into Leads," by Dianna Huff

When I first heard of SEO copywriting it sounded like a hodgepodge of New Age cyber-sorcery and subliminal advertising.

Vance Packard meets The Alchemist.

Like copy maestro Bob Bly, frankly, I was skeptical. Then I saw that Bob softened his stand and I decided to take another look. Which brought me to Dianna Huff's e-book, "Turning Clicks into Leads"

Huff manages to make sense of the world of SEO copywriting without confusing jargon (or forced humor). The book walks you through the basic concepts and gives you enough tools to try some basic SEO yourself. At least you'll never make such dumb mistakes again as using a slick graphic home page that looks good, but effectively blocks search engines from bringing you new customers!

Give me that old time copywriting

Thanks to By Will McInnes for pointing me to 5 Sure-Fire Social Media Headline Formulas That Work

Sounds very much like something Don Dunnington pointed out in a comment on IAOCblog.com

The top SEO trick is no trick at all. It's called good copy writing. I've seen content taken from an old, tired-looking website that had zero search visibility, freshened up with a little copy editing, a good headline and a few subheads, and suddenly the page ranks first in Google and second in Yahoo. I asked a friend who makes a living optimizing websites for search engines what made the difference. He took one look at the page and said, "the headline."

Now where have I heard that advice before? Could it be John Caples, David Ogilvy and Claude Hopkins? Hmmmm. The more things change.....

As Bob Bly points out:

Remember, you are writing for human beings first, and computer algorithms second. The key phrases must smoothly flow within the writing.

Call it SEO. Call it Social Media. Call it Web 2.0... or whatever this week's flavor is. It all boils down to this:
YES--the Net is different.
NO--—people are not different. You still have to appeal to their needs and offer them benefits. Or else they won'’t buy....

There's no point in attracting thousands of people to your store... if they don't find anything they want to buy! You still have to write copy (or content, if you prefer) that attracts, interests, creates desire... and gets action. You have to write to motivate people... not search engines.

Search engines don't buy products.... People buy products.

If this ain't copywriting, what is?!

Bob Bly asks if a copywriter can be "too enthusiastic." In my comment, I recalled John Caples's all time classic ad:

"They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano"

I'm not sure if it's the greatest ad ever written. I haven't read every ad ever written....

(Disclosure: I changed the title of this post. It originally said "If this ain't advertising...." Then I realized I should have written "copywriting" instead. Hope this satisfies the Transparency authorities. I have already gotten blacklisted for saying there was nothing wrong with a simulated blog.)

Caught by a spam filter

I just wrote a comment to a post on Bob Bly's blog: What, Me Worry About Spam Filters?

Bob asked about what copywriters are doing to deal with spam filters. My answer is below. You won't see it on Bob's blog, though.... It got stopped as spam!

Bob--A few years ago, Chris Pirillo (Lockergnome) declared email dead. And it's partially true. But the solutions out there are part of the problem. They are set to kill anything that moves. My email program (Thunderbird) has flagged my own messages as "email scams." And I was only writing to a friend! Outlook Express routinely zaps email attachments (especially zip files--innocent or not). And some of my mail has gotten blocked because of my web host!
There are filters you can use to test your emails before sending. (Anyone know a good one?) But I think Diana Huff has the right approach. Carefully proofread your copy for likely trigger words and substitute more polite ones. Until those get flagged....
This problem has helped the growth of marketing through blogs and RSS. But the nasties have already muddied those waters with comment and trackback spam. Oh what a world!

Top 10 Blogs for Writers

Thanks to Brian Clark’s CopyBlogger for pointing me to
Michael Stelzner’s list of Top 10 Blogs for Writers - 2006

I would add an 11th: Bob Bly's blog. (And the special section on his website "For Writers Only.")

Can a computer write?

Bob Bly recently wrote about computers and writers. I commented there about a poem on spell checkers. It's been around the Net for years. In case you missed it, here it is in full:

Spell Checker Blues

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rarely ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect in it's weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

What Writing Style is Best?

Bob Bly tackles the question What Writing Style is Best?

Do You Make This Mistake in Copywriting?

I started to send an email to a friend the other week and saw it got flagged:

"Thunderbird thinks this message might be an email scam."

My own program thinks I'm a scam artist! How sharper than a serpent's tooth! Email has become a minefield for copywriters. Especially old mail order copywriters like me.

Seems I'm not the only one, though. Tonight I just got this follow-up email from Chris Marlow's Freelancer's Business Bulletin:

"Dear Subscriber,

A few days ago I sent you the email letter below, but what a mistake I made in the subject line!

My subject line was 'A time sensitive message from Chris' and many of my subscribers' ISPs rejected the email as spam!

My newsletter email blasts have a very low 'spam rating' but not with this one...even my OWN ISP didn't let my email through. (I was wondering how I dropped off my own database :)

So if you DID receive my announcement of Clayton Makepeace's and Bob Bly's upcoming teleseminar, I apologize for sending this email message again...

But at least you learned, as I did, to never put the words 'time sensitive' in a subject line!"

P.S., I Love You

I sent an email to Steve O'Keefe and, out of direct mail copywriter habit, I saved a main point for the closing "P.S."

Then I added (in a P.P.S.!) that to DM copywriters, the P.S. is the second most important part of a letter. (I even added a P.P.P.S.! But my spell checker balked at that one.)

Steve wrote back, raising an interesting question:

The problem with P.S.'s is that they don't work as well in email as they do in snail mail. Due to "quoting" and "signatures" most folks stop reading when they see the sig. A fascinating study would be into subject lines. Email, voicemail, newsreaders, blogs... the science of headlines has never been so important.

I started to look for an answer and went right to the books: The Online Copywriter's Handbook : Everything You Need to Know to Write Electronic Copy That Sells, by Bob Bly
and Net Words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy, by Nick Usborne

Bob Bly didn't seem to discuss the question, except to include "P.S." in a list of "mechanical techniques you can use to call attention to key words and phrases online." Nick Usborne mentioned the technique in connection with that trusty old tool, the "Johnson Box," adding that its inventor--copywriting pioneer Frank Johnson--"was also the first person to take the P.S. on a direct-mail letter seriously" because readers often read the P.S. first. "So he started writing the P.S. as if it were a headline. And so has everyone else ever since."

Ivan Levinson writes gives tips on using a Johnson Box in emails including a suggestion to:

Use a box at the top of a seminar or Webinar invitation. The top of the letter or e-mail is the perfect place for a box that tells the reader What/When/Where/Why they should attend.

The only reported test results I found came from online strategist Larry Chase who says,

Use a P.S.: After the salutation, the P.S. is typically the most read element of a sales letter. I notice the most amount of clicks from the Johnson box at the top of the sales letter, and the line in the P.S. at the bottom. The P.S. usually restates the entire offer and maybe throws in some added incentive to take action now.

Have you used a P.S. or Johnson Box in your email marketing? Would you like to share your results?

Thanks!
Morty

P.S.: You can email me or comment below.
P.P.S. Thanks to Lee Marc Stein for the title.

Is Advertising Dishonest?

Steve O'Keefe, dean of online PR, had an interesting reaction to my post on "Schwartz's Law of Advertising."

Steve wrote:

With marketing, I increasingly believe the key is to be genuine; that is, it is more important to tell the truth than to increase sales. If sales happen, that's great, because marketing needs funding. But if sales don't happen, that's okay too -- as long as you told the truth. It is better to be honestly rejected than accepted due to false pretense.

Is strategic advertising--relating your product to the needs of the customer--inherently dishonest? Is it dishonest to position a product or a person as the solution to someone's problem?

Should all advertising be like the old parody ads in Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion? Remember those?

"Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery.... If you can't get it at Ralph's you can probably get along without it!"

Am I just being defensive?

Bob Bly took out after Madison Ave. on his blog. Are direct marketers and online marketers more ethical? Or just more effective?

Truth, Lies and PR

Bob Bly tossed this Molotov cocktail into his blog and asked PR practitioners to comment:

In her new book Bait and Switch, Barbara Ehrenreich writes: "PR is really journalism's evil twin.... Whereas a journalist seeks the truth, a PR person may be called upon to disguise it or even to advance an untruth," says Ehrenreich. "If your employer, a pharmaceutical company, claims its new drug cures both cancer and erectile dysfunction, your job is to promote it, not to investigate the ground for these claims."

I suppose Ms. Ehrenreich never heard of Yellow journalism or its PC descendant, "media bias." I already commented about truth in journalism, so I'll leave it at that.

As for PR, direct marketing and lies, read Malcolm Gladwell's article on Spin.

Then read Seth Godin's book All Marketers Are Liars : The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World. But start with the back cover:

"Marketers aren't really liars. I was lying when I named this book.... They are just storytellers. It's the consumers who are liars. As consumers, we lie to ourselves every day.... Successful marketers are just the providers of stories that consumers choose to believe."

Here's the but... and it's a big one: If the storyteller doesn't deliver... if the product doesn't satisfy... then the spell is broken. And then the story really is just a lie.

Cutting Edge Marketer

It's not nice to brag.

Self-promotion doesn't come naturally to those of us who listened to their mothers.

Writers and musicians shy away from marketing themselves. And I think a lot of people look at self-promotion as somehow too crass for professionals. Today it's hard to believe, but until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1977 (Bates v. State Bar of Arizona) to remove the ban, lawyers were not allowed to advertise because

"Once the client perceives that the lawyer is motivated by profit, his confidence that the attorney is acting out of a commitment to the client's welfare is jeopardized. And advertising is said to tarnish the dignified public image of the profession."

So what does that say about copywriters?!

In that kind of atmosphere, you wouldn't expect a religious figure--a respected rabbi and mohel (ritual circumcisor)--to be a sharp self-promoter. Somehow, a "marketing mohel" sounds like a premise for a bad joke.

Enter Rabbi Paysach Krohn.

I had the pleasure of meeting him at a bris (circumcision) recently. The family wasn't religious and they asked my wife to find a mohel for them. A friend recommended Rabbi Krohn. And he was the perfect man for the job. Not only is he highly professional, but he is a master communicator. Guiding the family through the process, he combined instruction, explanation and stories... all with a running patter of jokes!

And that's not all. Rabbi Krohn gives every family a free copy of his book Bris Milah: Circumcision which outlines the whole ceremony. But the marketing mohel doesn't stop there! He just launched a new website dedicated to explaining and promoting traditional circumcision. So what's so cutting edge about that?

He called the website BrisQuest.com!

A few books worth checking out:
Bris Milah: Circumcision (Artscroll Mesorah Series) by Rabbi Paysach Krohn
Become A Recognized Authority In Your Field - In 60 Days Or Less by Bob Bly
Self Promotion Online: Marketing Your Creative Services Using Web Sites, E-Mail and Digital Portfolios by Ilise Benun