"After Writing Sales, Marketing and Advertising Copy for 32 Years, This One Discovery I've Made About Getting Results Clearly Towers Above the Rest."
Dear Friend,
My name is Paul Talbot, and when I wrote my first piece of advertising copy back in 1979 I had a lot to learn.
But the ads I wrote for Mr. Malibu, a men’s clothing store in Las Vegas, worked pretty well. Response was strong. The client was happy. I was happy too, except that I didn’t understand exactly why the ads I wrote worked.
What happened next? I kept at it. I wrote more ads. I wrote sales presentations and marketing materials and advertising copy for all sorts of businesses in all sorts of categories. Night clubs and supermarkets, a shopping mall, car dealers, a pool supply dealer, about as wide a swath as you could cut across the real world of retail.
I read everything I could find and built a team of copywriting heroes to study. John Caples, David Ogilvy, Eugene Schwartz, Claude Hopkins, Gary Bencivenga, Gary Halbert and Richard Armstrong.
But all this studying, all this respectful mimicking of the copywriting masters didn’t help me discover the key ingredient in what has become my process for writing effective copy.
And Then, Curiously, One Day It Hit Me
Because I was a salesperson, a professional salesperson who knew his craft, I understood that advertising is simply “salesmanship in print.” John E. Kennedy was the copywriter who in 1904 first coined this wonderful term.
Every copywriter who takes our business seriously knows Kennedy’s words. And I had known them for years… my copywriting has always been sales-driven.
But one day I somehow connected Kennedy’s concept with another concept. I am not sure who first came up with this one, but the great salespeople live and breathe it.
This concept explains the single, infallible reason why people buy. This is not theory, but reality, and like many other business principles, it shines with a beautiful simplicity.
The concept is this. People buy for their reasons, not the seller’s reasons.
Have you ever experienced this, either as a buyer or a seller?
I immediately married this principle with the principle of “salesmanship in print” and started making sure that prospects reading my copy had plenty of reasons to buy.
Of course, that’s not all a copywriter has to do. Stringing together words that turn into a long list of features, turning these features into benefits, tossing them out and hoping the prospect will latch onto one and make a purchase… it’s a good start. And it’s more than most amateurs can do.
But to ignite maximum results you need more.
What Works and What Doesn’t?
When people ask me what makes the difference between copywriting that works and copywriting that doesn’t work, I usually mention five key factors.
1. Copy Must Be Written with a Specific Result in Mind
The purchasing manager for the medical lab who is watching a video about a new piece of equipment needs to be taken from a vague level of interest to a strong desire to learn more.
When my clients work with me to identify a specific action that the prospect needs to take, or a specific belief we need to create, we are working together to achieve results.
When a complex piece of selling is involved, where there are multiple decision makers and multiple influencers, this becomes even more essential.
2. Speak the Native Language
The marketing director of the four star resort who tells me she wants to use an existing brochure as the basis for a new website… she needs a little coaching.
I need to help her learn the benefits of speaking a new language. She soon knows that when prospective guests land on her site they are skimming and scanning, not reading. They are looking for specific chunks of information that will answer specific questions they have.
Social Media campaigns have a dialect and a tone all their own. The headline on a Google PPC ad may not live a useful life anyplace else. The subject line that creates a strong open rate for an email campaign may not exist in any other marketing environment.
3. Respect the Prospect’s Intelligence
When I wrote advertising copy for a storefront check cashing business the message was different in tone and vocabulary than the investor presentation I wrote which helped secured three and half million dollars in funding.
But the person who needs to cash a check doesn’t need to be spoken down to. That person needs to be given good reasons why my client’s business is unquestionably the best place to cash a check.
The investor needs much the same thing… straightforward, uncluttered, relevant information to help make an informed decision.
4. Find the Story
As you may imagine, some of the products I have worked with over the past 32 years were more interesting than others.
But unless the prospect is interested and at least somewhat engaged, unless some amount of curiosity is kindled, the copy simply won’t work.
I believe there is a special story locked up in your business that is waiting to be discovered and to be shared. A story that will bring you new customers. A story that has the potential to steer your business into a dramatic new phase of growth.
5. No One-Sided Conversations
Salesmanship must be present in all marketing copy. But salesmanship is often mistaken for barraging the defensive prospect with incessant screams of “Buy, buy, buy.”
Effective salespeople always ask questions. In this letter, so far, I have asked you three of them. There will be four more.
It is this strategy of talking with people, not at them, that helps you unleash the potential of your website, your email marketing and your social media. But if you look at a lot of sites, what do you find?
Lots of talk and little or no listening. Too many words. Too much information where people aren’t looking for it and not enough information where they think they should find it.
What Do You Need to Get Done?
Because you are looking for a copywriter, you may a have few ideas about what you want.
And you probably have a few questions. Let me try and answer a few.
- How much does this cost? I charge different fees for different projects. I charge by the project, rather than by the hour, which tends to be a better deal for you. You will definitely get more than you pay for.
- Will you have to spend a lot of time managing me? No. I’ve been at this awhile. But there is piece of the process that will take some of your time. Answering my questions as I do my homework. Nobody knows your business as well as you do. My job is to know it almost as well. I need to know the strongest cards in your deck and make sure they are properly played.
- How long does it take? Another one of those “it depends questions.” What I can tell you is this. I share your sense of urgency and I meet deadlines.
So now, I should ask you…
Can We Look at Working Together?
I would love to learn about your project, answer your questions, give you a chance to judge me for yourself, and earn your business.
Because marketing is so vital to your business, and because the right words, the right messages are so vital to marketing, I have no doubts about my ability to help your business grow.
It’s exciting to think about what this process may result in for you. So, thanks a lot for your time, and thanks for giving me your consideration.
Cordially,
Paul Talbot
PS: I mentioned that one of my copywriting mentors was Gene Schwartz. Schwartz was so good at what he did that his obituary was published in the New York Times. So, when I work on your project, I will remember his advice…
“It is the copy writer's job to force the prospect to read his client's full story—not just a skimmed version of it.”
You have read my story. The full story. And now, I’m looking forward to going to work on your story, and writing it so it will be read, listened to or watched all the way through to last word.