I received this email recently from a regular reader, and I thought answering it here would be helpful to you…
Roy,
I’ve been reading your blog recently, and appreciate the valuable information you provide. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. But in a recent edition, you raised a subject that has baffled me for some time.
Countless articles, emails, and blogs by today’s top pros urge aspiring copywriters to “study the masters” – to devour the work of writers like Bob Bly, Clayton Makepeace, Mark Ford, Gary Bencivenga, yourself, and others who live at the top of the copywriting profession.
You gave us a block of copy written by Gary Bencivenga as practice writing material to study and copy by hand as an exercise. You recommended that “When you get your hands on one of the great advertisements, or a piece of copy from one of the great copywriters, you have an opportunity… get in their head and understand what it is they did in the copy…”
That’s a great idea. But there’s just one problem, and I haven’t been able to find the solution.
When I get my hands on one of those “great advertisements”, how can I tell who authored it?
In fact, how can I even tell that it’s “great”? (unless I’ve received it in the mail more than once. Then I know it’s working.)
You don’t generally see a copywriter’s signature on the materials they write. I have scoured many pieces of sales literature, trying to decipher who wrote it, and have had no success.
With this wheel, you can decode the secrets of the masters! Now if only I knew how to use it…
So how do we beginners know when the copy we are reading was written by one of the masters, and is worthy of our study?
Is there a secret code to figuring this out?
Thanks,
Jim Lawrence
Good question. And frankly, one I don’t have a perfect answer for.
Because, almost as a rule, clients don’t like to reveal who’s writing their copy… At least, not their best stuff… Because they don’t want their competitors coming in and snatching away their cash cow from under their noses…
But here’s another little secret…
It doesn’t matter!
I know, that’s not the answer you wanted. And I’ll give you a more direct answer in a moment, in line with what you’re asking…
But the truth is, great copy is great copy. And worth studying.
It doesn’t matter who wrote it.
We’re not worshiping idols here. We’re looking for good marketing.
And yes, your comment about seeing it run multiple times is helpful.
Here are some thoughts along those lines…
If it’s direct mail…
– And it’s “coded” meaning there’s a response code on the order form… Example, one recent piece I got has the code VAN1113T near the address block, on a form that rips off and is an order form… (They use this to track responses to specific mailings.)
– And you’ve gotten it more than one time (the more, the better)…
– And it appears pretty much identical inside and out from time to time…
You’re probably holding a “control” and a piece worth studying!
You don’t know how well it’s doing, but you know it’s working well enough for them to mail it over and over.
You also don’t know who wrote it. But like I said, that doesn’t matter that much…
Pretty much the same criteria works in space advertising…
– It’s “coded” with a special code on the response coupon, a unique website address (maybe one that redirects from website ABC to website EFG when you type it in), or has a special phone number extension to call that doesn’t seem to be “just” the sales line…
– And you see it running over and over…
– And again, each time it’s run, nothing of consequence changes…
Again, a control!
It’s tricky to come to these same conclusions online…
Because, in short, online is cheap. And cheap makes marketers lazy. And so you may see the same ad or sales letter on a website for years, even if it’s not really working. It doesn’t cost them anything to keep it up there. So they do.
Here’s how to find online controls…
– Look at off-site advertisements… These are the ads shown through Google’s Display Network, through one of the other ad networks, or through Pay-Per-Click advertising…
– Or, subscribe to a bunch of lists in your niche that send out “sponsored” email messages that send you to other business’ sites…
– When you see the same or similar ads or emails running all over the place, seemingly following you around the internet…
– And you notice they’re all taking you to the same online sales letter, video promotion, landing page, whatever…
That’s probably the best way to find an online control…
But wait, there’s more! Let me tell you how to find BIG WINNERS from the best copywriters out there…
Here’s a little secret… (And this is the closest thing you’re going to get to the “secret code” you asked about…)
With a lot of the top copywriters…
Particularly the “greats” who’ve been at this for decades…
They’ve developed little “fan clubs…”
And their fans have scoured the interwebs and offline archives far and wide…
And dug up pieces of their copy!
Not only that, in many cases they’ve SHARED THEM!
And the most common language they use when sharing them is “swipe file.” (I’m sure you’re familiar with the term.)
What this means is you simply have to go to Google, and if you want Gary Bencivenga copy to study, you type in “Gary Bencivenga swipe file.” And through the magic of the Google, in mere fractions of a second you’re returned a page listing many possible sources of Gary Bencivenga copy…
This is a rabbit hole! You’ll find TONS of what you’re looking for…
Also, there are books, ebooks, blogs, and more dedicated to this very subject… Amazon, the library, or some research online (through both paid and free resources) may shortcut your search dramatically (you can start at http://www.infomarketingblog.com/ — Lawrence Bernstein has dedicated the last few years to uncovering great ads from the masters and has an impressive collection.)
And here’s one more way, as you build your career…
Get to know WHO the great copywriters are working for…
For example, Clayton Makepeace does a lot of work for Weiss — he’s practically exclusive with them… Which means almost anything that comes out from Weiss — especially if it’s meant to sell their front-end, sub-$199 newsletters to acquire new customers — has Clayton’s mark on it (even if he didn’t write it, he probably copy chiefed it).
John Carlton has traditionally done a lot of work for a set of companies all owned, I think, by the same guy… OHP Direct, TRS Direct, FightFast, and more… Who all happen to use the address “606 Acequia Avenue, Visalia, CA 93292” — a little Google sleuthing will take you a long way.
Mike Palmer and his crew at Stansberry churn out some high-quality copy… As do many of the top Agora divisions… (Not the least of which is Money Map, where I have some good friends putting out some amazing copy.)
Boardroom, also known as Bottom Line Publications, always hires the top copywriters, and nearly anything you get from them twice was written by a hugely-successful and highly-skilled copywriter.
(I’m certainly missing many more than I’ve already included. Not a slight, just a function of speed and limited space.)
The longer you’re in this biz, the more you’ll know who the “players” are… And the more you’ll start to hear — through the grape vine — where they’re working now…
Pay attention, and you can get a steady source of gossip about where you might be able to go find some hot copy…
But also remember, that it doesn’t matter that much who wrote the copy…
THIS is the ultimate marker…
When you realize that you just bought something because of copy that you read…
Step back, pay attention…
Try to figure out what it was about the copy that made YOU get hooked in the first place…
Get excited about their message…
Feel like it was a good deal, and a compelling offer…
And finally overcome the huge inertia gap between consuming the sales message and placing the order…
Take some notes…
And save your notes with the copy, under “things that made me buy.”
I hope this is a helpful answer that gives you lots of ideas.
Maybe not a “secret code…”
But certainly a crumb trail toward some breakthrough copy!
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
Editor, Breakthrough Marketing Secrets
