World Copywriting Blog

Video Copy That Sells: Here's a World-Class Example You Can See Two Days Before It Airs Nationwide - and, The Cost Is Real-World, Not Out of This World!

Most super-cool marketers sniff that the day of the infomercial has come and gone.  And in a way, they're right.  For most businesses and most products, the $100,000-plus launch budget just to test a new show is an unacceptably high risk.

But don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.  Video has always been a great way to sell, and still is.  You just need to find the right deal for what you're doing.

Bob Andrews is a graduate of the Tactic 7 seminar I recently gave with John Carlton and Harlan Kilstein.  Bob and his wife Nancy own The Golf Collection, a successful and profitable business.  They have and use a marketing budget, but a traditional infomercial just wouldn't be a good idea for them at this time, for many reasons.

However, they found a very good opportunity with America One, a broadcast network with stations in smaller U.S. markets.

Take a look at the infomercial segment Bob filmed with the America One host earlier this month.  It will start airing on September 1 and will replay in a number of markets across the U.S. for the month of September.

Not only is it affordable - I'll leave it to Bob or America One to tell you exact rates, if they choose to, but it's well within the range of a smaller business's marketing budget - but I think the 'copy' (dialogue) and production value are both excellent.  There's plenty in this spot that any business can learn from and adapt to their own marketing.

I believe that, unlike a lot of infomercials or traditional shorter TV commercials, this spot will sell a lot of product itself, and quickly.  My prediction is it will pay for itself in multiples -- and yet, it's fun to watch.

I'll follow up and let you know what Bob tells me it did after the month is over.

Here are three things in particular to note about the clip:

• Bob's personal story about the golf glove, when he reached into water to pick up a ball
• The "computer-illiterate father-in-law" story about the GPS unit
• The interaction between the host and Bob

There are many more good things about this video.  If you'd like to point out what you like -- or don't like -- just leave a comment below.

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter

Google World Domination, Late August Edition: If You're Living In The U.S., You Might Have Never Known About This

Yesterday Google extended its advertising reach one step further.  Online auction site eBay and the search engine giant announced a deal which will place Google text ads, exclusively, on eBay sites outside the U.S.  (Yahoo has the exclusive franchise for sites inside the U.S.)

Big deal, so what, right?

Well, here's the so what:  The Titans are collaborating.  Nothing new there.  But what they are collaborating on is of great significance.

Direct response ads.  Copywriting.  The kind of stuff you just usually can't get from those fancy folks on Madison Ave., the Miracle Mile in Chicago, or (gasp) Battery St. here in San Francisco.

Ads that have to pay their own way. By the immediate and measurable results they provide.

Readers of this blog and of our sister publication, the World Copywriting Newsletter, have pointed out they can't find a good resource on how to write those tiny little Google AdWords Ads (25 characters for the first line; 35 characters for lines 2 and 3; a URL; that's it).

I've heard you, and so has my friend and strategic alliance partner Mark Widawer.  We have plans in the works to put together a definitive guide to writing these little gems (which at present represent just about all of Google's revenue, and have helped from-scratch entrepreneurs build huge enterprises at lightning speed).

Stay tuned.

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter

When Does Short Copy Work Better Than Long Copy?

(Hey! For all you diehard long-copy purists, the answer is 'sometimes it does')

There's a lot here.  Stay with me.  It will be well worth your while.

---

I stand united with most direct response copywriters in supporting long copy over short copy.  As a general rule.

But some recent events have caused me to take a closer look at the issue.  And come out in favor of short (or at least, much shorter) copy.

Just for the record, when I say short copy, I'm not talking about uber-hip ad slogans like...

Caca-Cola: Burp!

... which many people in the advertising world consider a week's work for a copywriter.  (It took me about 3 seconds to come up with that bad-table-manners joke, but your average 8-year-old boy could have easily beat me to the punch.)

No, when I say short copy, I'm talking about a handful of paragraphs as opposed to a tree-killer's delight. 

(I'll be telling you further on down about a very successful piece of long Web copy -- $750,000 in sales in one DAY -- that printed out on paper to 53 pages... and that's what I mean by long copy.)

So.  Here's the deal:

If the purpose of your copy is to generate a meaningful business response (that is, to create a sale or move the prospect one measurable step closer to the next sale, which could be the first sale)...

... then there are 3 factors I have identified which will give you a pretty good idea on how long or how short your copy should be (with "short" being, say, 150-1,000 words... and "long" being longer than that, often thousands of words longer).

Now. Why do people need to read long copy before they buy something in the first place?

A friend of mine who is a brilliant entrepreneur and one of those natural-born, irresistible salesmen, boils the whole sales process down to a few words:

"It's all about education and relationship!"

Of course, once he starts talking, believe you me, it's more than a few words!!!

So, I would say that describes the basis of how long or how short the copy needs to be to generate a meaningful business response.

Namely:
- How much education does the prospect need to understand and want your product enough to buy it, and
- What is the level of trust and familiarity your prospect has in his or her relationship with you as a business?

The less education necessary... the higher the trust and familiarity level... the fewer words you need, the easier the sale will close.

"Relationship" is what branding is all about.  Yes, you have a relationship with FedEx and IBM and H&R Block and KFC, whether you like or use their products... or not.

In that you know about these companies (at least if you're in the US and you don't live under a rock).  So, for the purposes of this rant, you have a relationship with them.

In the model I'm about to present to you, I'm going to focus more on the education aspect, since that's what determines the length of the copy more than the need to build familiarity and trust.

Here's a nifty little chart with the three "education" factors spelled out:

Now this is more a "guess-timate" device than a scientific tool.  But I believe that it is the first method to give

The Surprising Link Between California's Prisons and Embarrassingly Ineffective Advertising

This is a call for responses:
What do you want to learn about Profitable Advertising that will help your business grow? 
Answer in the "comments" section

California - For a state that prides itself on being the biggest, the best, the first and the trendiest, California is in a heap of trouble.  Its prison system is one of the worst in the U.S.  Nearly 70% of prisoners return for another sentence.  The prisons are now filled at double the capacity they were designed for.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is up for re-election, and he wants to show he is doing something about this sordid mess.  He has turned eastward to Illinois, which has a very different model, and is sending its prisoners back to society with a much better chance of success in life.

Here's why I'm telling you this.  I was reading about the Illinois program in Monday's San Francisco Chronicle, and this paragraph, about a former prisoner, jumped out at me with flashing neon lights all around it:

"He and the others are taught skills that no one ever thought to provide them before: how to read a restauarant menu, order a meal and tip the server; how to ride a bus; how to take a cab; how to dress for a job interview and what to say."

Sounds pretty basic, right?

It is, if you had experiences growing up where you learned those things.

Here's the point: Not everyone did.  And if someone doesn't know those basic skills, well, it might just be easier to get a gun and hold up a convenience store than go through the frustration and humiliation of not being able to make it in the "straight world."

So what.

So what, indeed.

Let's forget the world of crime and punishment and rehabilitation and re-entry into society, and focus on advertising and promotion in a business.

There are basic skills most business people... most entrepreneurs... most marketers... most advertising agency employees... even most copywriters... were never taught.

What are these skills?

And even more to the point...

Whose fault is it?

But when you get right down to it...

Who cares?

I mean, really.  We could spend all year figuring out who to blame.  Maybe we could found a nonprofit or file a class-action lawsuit.  We could rail and rant and get riled up and raise a ruckus.

Just like the California prisons.  Bursting to capacity.  And, what a noise they're making about it in this state.  As well they should.

But... in our case, as far as our own advertising and marketing is concerned, instead of making a fuss...

We could simply do something about it.

Just like they're doing now in Illinois (which is, you should realize, the home of effective, results-oriented advertising.  Where it all began.  In Chicago. In 1905 or 1906).

So, I will let the sociologists and the activists and the pissers and moaners complain about this state of affairs with businesses that can't get customers and don't know where to turn.

Me, I'm going to do something about.

This fall, with a gifted team of partners, I am going to start a resource center that teaches basic skills to get customers and make money with your advertising.  On the Internet.  Off the Internet.  Anywhere you want to go where it's legal and it could help your business.

But I need your help.

I need know what you need to know.

That is: What are the basic skills, or tools, or shortcuts you are looking for?

What would make your life easier when it comes to marketing, advertising and writing copy?

What, if you had it or you knew it, would make your business more profitable?

I'll take any suggestions.

The only thing I ask is, don't be embarrassed if it's too basic.  If you think you "should" know it.

You have no basis for shame.

The school system... the people who sell advertising space... even many of the people who claim to teach advertising and copywriting... they have a reason to be ashamed when they look in the mirror.

But not you.

So please, give me a comment here.  Help me design this new resource so it gives you what you need and what you want.

Everything you need and want.

I really want to know.

Thank you,

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter

Watch Out! BGB, The World Copywriting Watchdog, Now Has An Assistant And He's Stepping Up His Patrol Duties

It may look like summer slump to you, but World Copywriting Watchdog Bailey Garfinkel Barnes is actually on full alert, prowling the Web and the world at large for copywriting mistakes that bruise businesses and pilfer profits.

BGB, as he is known to insiders, only makes rare appearances on this blog, so I asked him to review the 10 Most Wanted Copywriting Violations he is currently pursuing.

Here is what I found out:

1. Copy without a strong headline

2. Pitches lacking emotional appeal

3. Sentences that don't make sense

4. Big words where small ones would do.

5. Impressive Flash videos that open a Web site, that add nothing to the sales process

6. Fire hydrants with barbed-wire fences around them (he admitted this was a "dog thing")

7. Copy that focuses more on the business than the customers and their needs

8. Non-conversational copy

9. Truly boring copy

10. Copy without a call to action

By the way, BGB's assistant is a Siamese cat named Jasper.

Thanks to Jeanette Barnes of oldfashionedoffice.com for the photo!

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter