The most important thing I learned from David Ogilvy

I never met David Ogilvy. But he had a great impact on my career.

Kenneth Roman reveals the most important thing we can all learn from David Ogilvy:

Being edited by Ogilvy was like being operated on by a great surgeon who could put his hand on the only tender organ in your body. You could feel him put his finger on the wrong word, the soft phrase, the incomplete thought. But he had no pride of authorship, and he could be quite self-critical. Someone found a personally annotated copy of one of his books in which he had written cross comments about his own writing: “Rubbish. Rot! Nonsense.” He would send his major documents around for comment, with a note: “Please improve.”

Mel Martin's Copywriting Fascinations

Lawrence Bernstein's Info Marketing Blog is an archive of copywriting classics. See how the masters did it--from Eugene Schwartz  to Gary Halbert and more.

One of my favorites is the "greatest copywriter you’ve never heard of"--Mel Martin. Mel was also known as the "secret weapon" of Boardroom Publications. He and Gene Schwartz were the masters of "Fascinations"--the teaser bullets that forced you to open the envelope, and keep reading... right to the order form. Gems like "What never to eat on an airplane...."

Here, Bernstein analyzes the technique and includes source material: a free PDF of sample Mel Martin ads.

Targeting Your Ideal Prospects… Lessons from Mel Martin