If you look back to the great ad men of this century you’ll find some incredible marketing strategies you can dust off and use for your own business. I hope you realize, human nature does not change. Human beings will continue being sold by the same appeals that have been used for centuries.
The same things that made people buy 10,000 years ago will continue to work 10,000 years from now. It just doesn’t change. That’s why I want to take you back to the old master’s teachings and let them “write” this special report for me (hey, I need a break anyway).
Well, let’s start with a guy who shares my birthday (exactly 83 years earlier) and my birthplace (Russia), his name is Maxwell Sackheim. Sackheim wrote a spectacular book on marketing called “My First 60 Years in Advertising”. Very out of print and I finally tracked it down after 3 years. For those of you interested in learning about the marketing strategies of Maxwell Sackheim there’s another book called “Billion Dollar Marketing” published by Jerry Buchanan which is excellent. You can get that through www.amazon.com.
Anyway, Max is best remembered for an ad that ran for 40 straight years. That is absolutely incredible. The famous ad has the headline “Do You Make These Mistakes In English?” It was done for the Sherwin Cody’s course on English. For an ad to run for 4 decades without a change to the copy is an incredible feat. And remember this was run by a savvy mail-order advertiser who counted coupons and tracked results. So you know this ad continued to make money.
One of Sackheim’s most effective techniques was making the advertiser a “character”.
He would typically write the ads coming from the client’s mouth (in their language) directly to the reader. A down home personal approach.
Here’s what I mean. One of Sackheim’s most famous clients was Frank E. Davis “The Gloucester Fisherman”. For him Sackheim wrote direct mail pieces and later ads that read like this:
“There’s no use trying. I’ve tried and tried to tell people about my fish, but I wasn’t rigged out to be an ad writer and I can’t do it. I can close-haul a sail with the best of them. I know how to pick out the best fish of the catch. I know just which fish will make the tastiest mouthfuls, but I’ll never learn the knack of writing an ad that will tell people why my kind of fish — fresh caught, prime-grades right off the fishing boats with the deep-sea tang still in it — is lots better than the ordinary store kind.
“But I can’t explain it, at least you can taste the difference. So you won’t mind, will you if I ship some of my fish direct to your home. It won’t cost you anything unless you feel like keeping it. All I ask is that you try some of my fish at my expense and judge for yourself whether it isn’t exactly what you have always wanted.”
This kind of copy sold tens of thousands of tubs of mackerel all across the country. And the reason this type of advertising succeeded was due to the character of an authentic Gloucester fisherman personified by Sackheim.
Does this technique still work?
You betcha’. Several years later a copywriter named G. Lynn Summer wrote an ad for a pair of pear growers. The ad with the headline “Imagine Harry and Me Advertising Our Pears in Fortune!”
And here’s how Summer wrote the copy:
“Out here on the ranch we don’t pretend to know much about advertising, and maybe we’re foolish spending the price of a tractor for this space; but my brother and I got an idea the other night, and we believe you folks who read Fortune are the kind of folks who’d like to know about it. So here’s our story:…”
The prospect believes the pear growers actually wrote this message. Notice the simple language, just like a farmer might use. And how about the headline? I don’t think that’s proper English but it sure sounds just like we talk. This ad launched an entire industry of selling fruit by mail. Maybe you’ve heard of a little mail order company called Harry and David’s.
Could this concept work again? Yes, yes and yes. Joseph Sugarman (the man responsible for the incredible success of Blu-Blocker sunglasses) tells about a 1977 seminar attendee, named Frank Schultz, who sold grapefruit by mail. He’d never been able to make space advertising work until he wrote an ad based on the “character” formula.
The headline is “A Fluke of Nature” and his copy opens like this:
“I’m a farmer. And the story I tell you is the absolute truth, as incredible as it may seem. It all started in a grove owned by Dr. Webb, our family doctor. One of the men who was picking fruit in the doctor’s orchard came up to the Webb house holding six of the strangest grapefruit anyone has ever seen…(he goes on to tell the story of how mother nature created this almost magical ruby red grapefruit)…
“…And when we pick the fruit, we’re just as fussy. Every one of us takes a ‘picking ring’ when we harvest. If the fruit is small enough to pass through the ring — we don’t pick it! It simply isn’t big enough to qualify as a Royal Ruby Red! Even after picking there are other careful inspections each fruit mush pass before I’ll accept it. I size the fruit. And I grade it fro beauty. Sometimes the fruit will be wind scarred. I won’t accept it. Or sometimes it will have a bulge on the stem and that we call “sheep nose.” I won’t accept it…”
Using words like “picking ring” and “sheep’s nose” really gives the impression of this grapefruit grower writing in his own language right to you.
Okay, so what do fish and fruit have to do with your business? Lots.
In fact, you can use the same “character” formula to attract more customers. Could you do something like this?
“I’m not a professional ad writer. I’m a __<your profession>___ but what I have to say is so important that I decided to sit down to write you this message in best way I know.
Lately I’ve had a lot of people asking me about __________.
Even though I tried and tried to write a good ad telling people all about _______, I just can’t do it.
So I finally figured, why not just tell you exactly what I would tell you if we sat down for a cup of coffee…”
This could a very persuasive ad or letter. And I’d bet it would do well. Another concept that goes along with this is using an ‘Open Letter’ technique in the
advertisement. This gives you the opportunity to have a heart-to-heart with the reader.
Norman Cousins used this same powerful technique to launch his new magazine “World Review Magazine” after he resigned from the “Saturday Review”. He ran his ad with the headline “An Open Letter to the Readers of The New York Times” and signed it himself. For 3 insertions in the NY Times he paid $15,711 and he brought back a healthy $54,923.00 worth of subscriptions. Not too shabby.
Here’s more…
Max Sackheim is also known for originating the Book-of-the-Month club. But, he points out that he really wasn’t the first to offer a subscription library. Way back in 1731 Benjamin Franklin had started a subscription library in the colonies. After he started his famous “Book-of-the-month” club many hundreds of others were started, some successful, some not. (My favorite is the ‘Kosher Salami-of-the-Month Club’.)
And here’s what Sackheim has to say about using ideas from other places,
“Every advertising man is familiar with the phrase ‘my business is different.’ Nearly every time I have tried to convince an advertiser that a plan which has worked successfully in another business might work successful in his, he has at least thought, if he did not say it, that his business is different. But old and used ideas can be adapted to any business.”
The underline is my own. Now, what can you learn from Sackheim’s book-of-the-month business? A whole lot. One of your hardest jobs is getting people to
do something…pick up the phone, call you, buy from you. People are like big lazy sloths. No disrespect intended, but why do you think successful ads must use deadlines, one-day sales, and other limited offers to get people to do something.
You know in my own company – sometime when we put out a mailing we we’ll use a deadline date stamped in red – and we get a lot of sales on the last day. These people wait and wait until the last day finally rolls around and they decide to buy.
Well, Sackheim discovered how use this common human characteristic to his advantage by employing a ‘negative option plan’. Every month members of the book club would be notified of the selection of the month and then it would be sent automatically to them unless they sent back the BRE (business reply envelope) provided. This way if they had to say “no” to buying the book and unless the company received back a “no” reply is was assumed they wanted the book.
This concept is so successful that almost every “of-the-month” club today operates in this fashion.
Let me give a modern example. I recently saw a print ad for “Proactiv solution”. Maybe you’ve seen the infomercial for this product. It’s an acne product designed by two dermatologists and endorsed by Judith Light (“Who’s the Boss” star).
The print ad use a great coupon order form – here is the copy:
“YES! I would love to have clear, smooth, blemish-free skin! Please send me Proactiv Solution, the advanced Dermatologists’ system that heals and prevents acne, with a risk-free 60 day guarantee!”
“YES! I would love to have clear, smooth, blemish-free skin! Please send me Proactiv Solution, the advanced Dermatologists’ system that heals and prevents acne, with a risk-free 60 day guarantee!”
So, now as a member I get a zit kit sent to me and the company keeps charging my credit card every two months. Pretty good deal for the company…let’s do a quick calculation: 5,000 members (very, very conservative) at $39.95 every 2 months = $99,750.00. And I’m sure a majority of that is profit. I can’t imagine this goop costing them too much.
I hope that gives you an idea. And if you start whining about how “it won’t work for me” or “my business is different” then you’re just thinking creatively enough. Nearly any business can put their customers on some continuity program.
It’s worthwhile to study how Sackheim built the book-of-the month and other ontinuity, TFN, automatic shipment plans, or till forbid plans. Initially he would give people one book free if they agreed to buy 3 more or 4 more over the course of the year.
Then they tried using “Any Two Books Free Provided You Purchase Your First Subscription volume for $2.00.” However, he discovered his best results (about a 40% increase) came from this simple change. “Any 3 of these Fine Books for Only $2.00.” It means the same thing, people in both offers were getting 3 books for $2.00 but somehow the way this was worded had greater appeal. This goes to show you the importance of testing.
So taking this proven information into account it would make sense when starting your automatic shipment plan that you should consider doing a low priced introductory offer. Remember, you are actually doing most people a favor because nearly everyone is too busy to remember to come to your office or reorder. Think in your own life, I’m sure you’ve meant to get around to doing or buying something but you just kept putting it off.
How about if you have a dog or cat? Wouldn’t you appreciate it if your veterinary hospital sent you Fluffy’s flea and tick treatment every 3 months instead of schlepping down to the smelly animal hospital. I’d bet you would. And what if they offered a preferential deal and then a discount on treatments?
Same thing here. It is your responsibility to make sure customers continue using the products you recommend because that way they will get the optimum results they were looking for. Using a membership plan is the best way to make sure this occurs.
“In Only 2 ½ Minutes You Can Quickly and Easily Create A Sales Letter Guaranteed To Sell Your Product Or Service…Without Writing!”
Looking To Increase Your Business? Just Fill In A Few Blanks And PRESTO… You’ve Just Created A Powerful, Money-Making Sales Letter!
Click here to see more information and a bonus.
Keyword Related posts:
