The Golden Thread – The Week in Review
April 6–12, 2008
Welcome to The Golden Thread Online, your free e-letter from American Writers & Artists Inc. Every Saturday, you will receive this recap of all the strategies, insights and opportunities we send to you and your fellow AWAIers each week. Whether it’s a message from a fellow writer about how he landed a new client … a technique from a Master copywriter for writing a control … an insight into how to succeed in a new market … news of a brand new writing job or business opportunity for you … you’ll find it here in this easy-to-access and always available “Week in Review.”
In This Issue:
- Words of Copywriting Wisdom … Private Conversations with Your Prospect
Katie Yeakle passes on an explanation from Jeff Laurie about how a sales letter is like a private conversation between you and your prospect. - Improve Your Copywriting Skills … How Long Should a Sales Letter Be?
Michael Masterson explains why direct-response marketing is not about fitting your sales pitch into a certain amount of space. It’s about finding the one person in a hundred who will give you the time you need to sell him. - Industry Spotlight: Business-to-Business
Find out about trends and statistics in the business-to-business writing market. - B2B Insights from the Blogosphere
Discover what B2B copywriters from around the web have to say about B2B success. - Top 20 Mailers in the B2B Market
Discover the names and websites of twenty top mailers in the B2B (B-to-B) industry.
Words of Copywriting Wisdom … Private Conversations with Your Prospect
I was looking through the Monthly Copywriting Genius archives the other day and came across this quote from Master Copywriter, Jeff Laurie. Jeff is the genius behind Easton Press’s blockbuster promo for their Classic Books.
“ … keep in mind that direct marketing is a reading experience and a reading experience is a very private experience. You can propose benefits or talk about problems that people wouldn’t necessarily talk about if you were in conversation with them. You can talk about things such as personal deficits or address competitive instincts like making your lawn the best lawn in the neighborhood. You can talk about things that people would never admit … you can talk very intimately and address these deep needs in a direct mail letter in a way you can’t do probably in any other sales medium.”
I like the way Jeff expresses this idea. A sales letter gives you a very special medium to have a conversation with your prospect that he wants to have … but may not be comfortable having “face-to-face.”
Which leads me to an important question – just how long should that “conversation” be?
To get the answer we went to the expert himself …
Improve Your Copywriting Skills … How Long Should a Sales Letter Be?
Sales letters – how long should they be? In this age of multitasking and the Internet, isn’t it more sensible for marketers to send short ones to prospective customers?
That’s the question posed by Connie Prin, an AWAIer from Grand Rapids, MI.
“As a decently educated busy parent and community volunteer trying to build a new career, I cannot, do not, and would not invest the amount of time in reading sales letters that often come to resemble written ‘infomercials,’ whether via Internet or direct mail. Only for this copywriting program do I suffer through as many as I do. MORE and more people must share this same perspective in dealing with increasing competition for our attention in this era of the ‘information availability’ explosion.
“Even Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, whose writing you featured a while back in ETR, advocates nixing newspapers and uninvited e-mail completely in order to take control of productively scheduling your time.
“Wouldn’t a more effective style of copywriting concise the sales message to a page or two? Unless your intention is that more people base a letter’s credibility (and thus, their order) on the amount of content rather than actually having to read the whole thing.
“My gut tells me in order for people to read through them, effective letters will have to be shortened in the overall picture. You and your successful team know far more than I - but I can’t be that wrong about this … or can I?”
The answer, dear Connie, in a word, is yes, you are wrong. At least when it comes to want-to-know information products.
Let me explain.
There are two kinds of information products that can be sold by mail (posted mail or e-mail): need-to-know products and want-to-know products. The need-to-know products would include information about food, clothing, fertilizer (for gardeners), auto parts (for mechanics), labor law case analyses (for labor law lawyers), etc. The want-to-know products would include just about everything Early to Rise sells: how-to information on becoming healthier, wealthier and wiser.
Do you see the difference?
Need-to-know products don’t need long copy because the customer needs them. In order to sell a need-to-know product, the copywriter has to do two things: establish the product’s USP and make the offer irresistible. You can do those two things relatively quickly – usually in two pages or less. That’s why need-to-know products are so often sold by catalog and by space ads – two direct-marketing methods that don’t give the copywriter much room.
To sell want-to-know products, you need more length. That’s because you have to do something you don’t have to do with need-to-know products: you have to stir up a desire for the product where none existed. People don’t actually need another book, newsletter, or CD collection on negotiating or investing. But when a good copywriter gets finished talking to them (via a long sales letter) they think they do.
It’s counterintuitive, but it’s true: When it comes to want-to-know products, longer letters usually work better than shorter ones. That has always been true and it’s still true today – even with e-mail sales letters.
The feeling you have is based on logic and your own experience as a consumer. You are very busy. You don’t have time to read long letters. You throw most of them in the trash or delete them. Like Tim Ferris, you are annoyed by all this long copy. So if you hate long copy so much, doesn’t everybody?
Well, yes! Everybody hates long copy. At least that’s what everybody says. But the truth is that though we think we don’t like long copy, we respond to it. If you have bought any want-to-know products in the past, Connie, you probably responded to a long sales letter – even though you don’t like them. (AWAI’s Retire This Year promo is 32 pages!)
I used to do focus groups with my clients’ customers. I would ask those people which they preferred: short sales letters or longer ones. They all said they preferred shorter sales letters. Yet they had all become our customers by responding to the longer ones my clients were sending out!
I have personally overseen at least a hundred long copy vs. shorter copy tests. When the leads were the same, the long copy always did better.
I had Jason Holland, my research assistant, contact three of the top copywriters working today and ask them, “How long was your best-selling sales letter?”
John Forde said: “My most successful promo this year, measured in subscriptions sold, clocked in at 32 pages. And this, by the way, is a promo I actually wrote seven years ago and have been revising and updating ever since. It’s added thousands of readers to a resource-investing newsletter, and it’s made me a pile of cash. I have a 24-pager that’s done about $1.3 million since the start of 2008. This one, I probably could have written shorter, but not by much.”
Mike Palmer said: “The best package I wrote in the past year was a 52-page bookalog, which translates to at least a 25-page letter. You know, I hear this all the time from new copywriters - ‘Why can’t we write shorter copy?’ One important reason, I tell them, is because good copy must ‘startle’ your reader with an idea he’s never heard before. That’s the only way to have a breakthrough promotion. And an idea that truly startles your reader takes a lot of explaining … proof … answering objections. You simply need a lot of space to get your point across.”
Paul Hollingshead said: “My best mailing recently was a financial package that ran about 22 pages. In fact, when I look back at most of the financial packages I’ve written, they typically fall within the 20- to 24-page range. The main reason, I think, is because that’s how long it takes to get in all the needed elements of a strong financial sales letter - your promise, your credibility, the track record, the offer, bonuses, and whatnot. Also, I tend to write in a more conversational ‘chatty’ tone, which can lengthen a letter. And I make an effort to keep paragraphs very short so there’s a lot of ‘white space’ in my copy for easier reading.”
You see, direct-response marketing is not about fitting your sales pitch into the small amount of space most people will read. It’s about finding the one person in a hundred who will give you the time you need to sell him.
Have you ever walked down a city street and seen people canvassing for some charitable, political, or religious cause? What do they do? They say something – a short, catchy sentence - to get you to stop and listen to their pitch. In most cases – perhaps 99 out of a hundred – passersby won’t give them the time they need to make the sale. They listen for a few seconds and then shake their heads and go on. But those canvassers are pros. They don’t worry about the people who don’t have time for them. They focus on the ones who do stop and listen, because those are their prime prospects.
Imagine if, instead, they tried to fit their entire sales pitch into the 10 or 15 seconds they could get by following a prospect partway down the block. What chance would that strategy have?
It all boils down to this fact: the Internet has changed the world, but it has not changed human psychology. If you are going to convince someone that he needs something that he really doesn’t need – you need time to do it.
So, Connie, don’t resist this part of the copywriting program. Go with it. Later, after you’ve proven yourself as a master of long copy, you can try shorter copy and see if it works.
By the way, you should know that copywriters who can write long copy (i.e., want-to-know copywriters) make about twice or three times the money that need-to-know copywriters make. Keep that in mind as you go through the AWAI program.
Industry Spotlight: Business-to-Business
The business-to-business industry is alive and well … and in need of good copywriting. Marketing trends suggest that companies are expanding into new media. That means more writing work for you.
- According to Marketing Sherpa, 64 percent of businesses searching for a B2B product or service go to the Internet first. This creates high demand for B2B copywriters who can write good online content.
- A survey conducted by Noll Research found that custom publishing (e-letters and newsletters) is the fastest-growing form of B2B marketing. Many companies combine custom publishing with their direct-mail campaigns – whichmeans more writing is needed for every campaign.
- According to CNET News, B2B companies are increasingly willing to work with outside service providers, like freelance copywriters.
- A survey by BtoB, an industry magazine, found that in 2008, 60 percent of B2B companies intend to spend more on marketing, with half of the survey respondents planning to boost spending on direct-mail campaigns.
- The Who’s Mailing What Archive tracked 27,842 B2B mailings from 684 top mailers.
B2B Insights from the Blogosphere
There are many, many great blogs that focus on B2B copywriting and marketing. Make it a point to visit a few of them when you are preparing to write a new piece or when writer’s block looms. You’ll find lots of great information, learn about what’s working and what’s not, and uncover new insights sure to get your creative juices flowing.
For example, doing a quick search, I found posts on what B2B companies should include in their marketing kits, what search engine optimization (SEO) strategies they depend on, and why a lower price isn’t always better. Take a look at some of the following ideas for how you can put this information to work to land bigger projects and boost your income.
Offer to Write Marketing Kits: A marketing kit is a packet that B2B companies send out to hot prospects. It usually includes materials detailing their products/services, as well as customer testimonials and case studies. It may also contain something that tells the prospect how the company’s products/services can solve their problem. As a copywriter, proposing to write the entire marketing kit for a B2B client is a great way to increase the size of your project … and your paycheck.
Get Web Savvy: When it comes to a B2B website, size does matter. Sites with more pages usually rank higher on search engines than sites with just a handful of content. B2B sites need articles, reviews, case studies, white papers, product descriptions, mission statements, and more. Learn how to write these pages and (here’s the crucial part) how to interlink them, and you will become a golden resource for your B2B clients.
Encourage Your B2B Clients to Price Test: Some products and services sell better at a higher price. The higher dollar figure increases the perceived value of what’s being offered, and can boost the credibility of the company making the offer. This doesn’t always work, but it’s worth testing … especially in B2B markets.
The Internet gives you so many opportunities to enhance your professional skills. Reading tips from other copywriters in your field is a worthwhile habit, particularly in a field as dynamic as B2B copywriting. If you visit http://blog.futurelab.net/2007/02/big_list_of_b2b_marketing_blog.html you’ll find a host of useful B2B blogs. Check them out.
Top 20 Mailers in the B2B Market
- American Express Company
Credit card issuer/financial services
www.americanexpress.com - Dell Computer Corporation
Consumer and business computers, software, and accessories
www.dell.com - Capital One
Visa and Mastercard issuer
www.capitalone.com - Amsterdam Printing
Imprinted promotional products
www.amsterdamprinting.com - Chase Manhattan Bank
Financial services and credit card issuer
www.jpmorganchase.com - Hewlett-Packard
Computers and electronic equipment
www.hp.com - Advanta
Small-business credit card issuer
www.advanta.com - Pitney Bowes Inc.
Postage meters and document management
www.pb.com - Positive Promotions
Imprinted promotional items
www.positivepromotions.com - Staples Inc.
Office supplies
www.staples.com - Xerox Corporation
Document imaging products
www.xerox.com - Paper Direct
Desktop publishing products, specialty paper and supplies
www.paperdirect.com - Quill Corporation
Office supplies and furniture
www.quill.com - Sage Software
Accounting and budgeting software
www.bestsoftware.com - Global Industrial
Industrial equipment and supplies
www.globalindustrial.com - The Economist
Weekly news magazine
www.economist.com - Forbes
Business magazine
www.forbes.com - Uline Inc.
Industrial shipping and packaging
www.uline.com - Deluxe Corporation
Business forms, checks, and office supplies
www.deluxe.com - Adweek
Trade publication for advertisers and marketers
www.adweek.com
[Ed. Note: Top mailers are determined by the number of mailing offers received by the Who’s Mailing What! Archive – the world’s largest swipe file, with access to over 10,000 controls in nearly 200 categories. To learn more about the Archive, and exclusive AWAI member access, click here: http://www.awaionline.com/whosmailing/]
