World Copywriting Blog

Copywriters, Take Note: Best Picket Sign Yet From The Hollywood Writers' Strike

San Francisco Chronicle's Leah Garchik reports today one of her readers spotted the following picket sign from a member of the Writers Guild of America (movie & TV writers on strike) in San Francisco's Union Square over the weekend:

"Without us, there's just reality."

Call it: San Francisco mindwarp meets pleading Hollywood screenwriter.

But at this holiday time of the year, it's time for every results-producing copywriter to take a moment and appreciate ourselves. For it is we who create extremely pleasant new realities for our clients.

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter

Writing of a Different Stripe: My Maiden Voyage as a Columnist

Ever get in touch with an old friend after many years of having no idea where that person was or what they were doing?

That's what happened to me a few weeks ago.

I ran across my old boss, mentor and friend Mike Johnson on the Web. In the early 80s, Mike shepherded my career for six years, recommending me into a job on a New York-based McGraw-Hill Magazine, Housing. 

A year and a half later, he hired me out of the job and into the company's World News bureau in Chicago.  Later on, after he left World News and moved to England to edit International Management magazine, and after I had moved to San Francisco and left McGraw-Hill, he hired me as a freelancer for his magazine.

Then we lost touch for about 20 years.

A few weeks ago, I happend to find something Mike had written recently. I re-established contact.

It turns out Mike now writes some uniquely fascinating columns for a site called The Columnists. After a few emails back and forth, and a look at what I had written over the years (including, most notably, what's on this very blog), he invited me to try my hand at a column myself.

My first one is up and running, as of this morning.  It's called: "The Love Child of Welfare and Entrepreneurism." 

Is it Diana Ross meets FDR meets Donald Trump? 

See what you think:

http://www.thecolumnists.com/guestcols/garfinkel1.html

It's nice to be writing a little general-interest, mass-media type stuff again.

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter

In Case You Were Wondering What Your Advertising Is Supposed to Do (or in case you forgot), Here It Is In One Tidy Little Package:

The chart you're looking at shows how branding works when it works best. It does not represent the be-all and end-all of what your advertising is supposed to do, but it does show how your customer would relate to your brand name when your marketing has worked as it should:

1. The customer recognizes your brand.

2. The customer becomes aware of your brand.

3. The customer remembers your brand.

4. Your customer prefers your brand.

But here's a quick quiz for you:

Does "prefer" mean the exact same thing as "buy?"

BZZZT!

Time's up.

No, Johnny, that's right! "Prefer" does not mean the same thing as "buy!"

Here, actually, is exactly what your advertising is supposed to do:

"1. acquire new customers

"2. lock them into a buying cycle - each repeat purchase is then free from the crippling initial cost of acquiring a customer."

This all from Geoff Ayling's excellent but out-of-print book Rapid Response Advertising. He points out that when your advertising is working right, over the course of time customers become aware of your offering and get to stage four, brand preference.

But meanwhile, every step the way, and continuing once you reach brand nirvana and everyone knows your name and wants what you got (stage 4), your ads need to do 1. and 2., above.

Side note: I was fortunate to find out about this book in 1999 and buy it while it was still easily available in the U.S. (Ayling is from Australia, and that's where the book was published.)

On Amazon.com, I found a few copies available at much higher prices than what I paid.  If you are serious about improving advertising effectiveness, consider making the investment.  It's worth it.

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter

Licensing: Completely New Way to Generate Wealth (for most marketers)

For a long time, I have looked at copywriters and other creative marketers in the same light as inventors.

One thing that has always bothered me is: Since inventors can license their inventions to big companies and get ongoing royalties, why can't copywriters?

Well, of course they can. But until very recently I hadn't heard of a reliable way of doing so that would work for most copywriters.

That all changed when I got an email the other day from my friend and teacher Bob Serling.  Bob has developed some terrific licensing ideas that he has used himself for marketing materials -- and he has mentored others to use these ideas as well.

I invited Bob to present a teleseminar with me, and he accepted. It was very content-rich and included quite a bit of information about Bob's techniques, and how and why most marketers can use them.

We also dealt with the painful and delicate question of why so many marketers fail when they try to license materials, and how to avoid these problems.

We recorded the teleseminar.  You can listen to it or download it, free of charge, at http://www.davidgarfinkel.com/licensing-teleseminar

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter

By the way, Bob has also put together a series of video interviews on licensing with mega-marketer Mike Long (the man behind the $14 million Stompernet launch.)  If you'd like to see the videos, they are also available at no cost from http://www.davidgarfinkel.com/video