In a World Where Hollywood Puts Butts in Seats

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Been to the movies lately?

I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite things about the movies is the previews (or “trailers” as they are technically called).

And I’m not the only one who likes movie trailers either.  Did you know of some 10-billion videos watched online annually, movie trailers rank #3, after news and user-created video?

Part of what makes GOOD trailers so entertaining is they give you just enough to make you want more. In fact, a good trailer is even able to sell a bad movie…

But a BAD movie trailer, on the other hand, shows too much.

If a trailer reveals all the plot twists…all the best gags…all the crazy action scenes…why would you pay money when you already saw the best parts?

All of this got me thinking today about copywriting for emails and auto-responders.

Your emails and autoresponders should be written like great movie trailers.

Great movie trailers tantalize and tease…

They show just enough to leave the viewer with a burning desire for more…

They focus on one benefit of the film…action, romance, comedy…to reach out to specific prospects.

Most of all, they get people to the theater, ready to plunk down money to see the whole picture.

And you know what?

Once you get your prospect to the point of sale and ready to spend money, then you’ll know your email has done its job.

 

PS: Is your email doing the job? If you need help with your email or autoresponder copy, contact me today. As I’m writing this, I can make room for one more client to write specifically email/autoresponder copy.  Be advised that once I fill this spot, it might be a 3-month wait until I’m able to take another client. If you’ve got an information product (book, newsletter, course) I’ll put you higher up on the waiting list.

Sell The Story

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This is a guest post from Stephen Dean. Thanks Stephen!

How do you make a normal product special?

Simple, sell the story.  And if you don’t have a story to sell, find one.

If you’ve ever read Claude Hopkins’ book, “My Life In Advertising,” then you know what I mean.

Let me share a story from the book.

Ever heard of a carpet sweeper?  The carpet sweeper was invented in the late 1870’s, and were used quiet frequently until vacuums largely replaced them.

They were popular, but boring.  Like baking soda, many homes owned one but only needed to replace it every 10 years.

Still, the Bissell Carpet Sweeper Company needed to sell more sweepers if the business was to grow.  Their plan, like many businesses today, was to simply create a better sweeper. And hopefully consumers would drop their old sweeper for a new and improved one.

Claude Hopkins was their ad man. And he had a different idea entirely.

After learning about an exotic wood from India, harvested in Government camps by convicts and hauled out by Elephants… he demanded the new sweepers be constructed from this wood.

The businessmen laughed at Claude.  Carpet Sweeper’s could be made from any wood, why import wood from India?

Because Claude understood the power of a story.  Where a better carpet sweep had failed, a tale of convicts working with elephants to cut down trees in a foreign land won.

Claude got his way and new carpet sweeps were made of vermilion wood.  The subsequent advertising campaign featured pictures of the Indian Rajah, elephants, exotic forests and told tales of the foreign wood.

It worked.  In Claude’s words:

“The response was overwhelming. The Bissell Carpet Sweeper Company made more money in the next six weeks than they had made in any year before. They had vastly increased the number of dealers handling carpet sweepers. And they had multiplied the interest of women in a device which was then in but limited use.”

The lesson again: if you have a normal product, sell the story. And if you don’t have a story, find one.

Claude Hopkins did it by changing the way the sweepers were manufactured.  You may be able to do the same.

Or you could find a customer of yours with an interesting story and borrow it.

Or you could find an interesting person and associate them with your product. (One-Legged-Golfer anyone?)

All it takes is some imagination combined with curiosity to find a story to sell.

Once you find it, writing a winning ad will come as easy breathing.

Copywriter Stephen Dean writes sales copy that demands champagne celebrations – specializing in health, wealth and product launch copy. He regularly reveals his secrets at his blog, Copywriting Dean.

Before You Email Your Next Press Release, Read This…

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The following is a guest post by Jeffrey Dobkin…and before you even think of emailing your next press release, you simply must read what Jeff has to say below. Thanks for reading, and let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. ~ Ryan McGrath

Email Press Releases? By Jeff Dobkin

“Hey, it’s easy to send press releases by email!  Let’s send them all this way!”  Anything else?  “Yea!  Look here – on the web, we can send 10,000 of them for just 10¢ each!”

Yea, right.  Let’s write that into our media plan and go home and sleep well knowing how thorough we were.

While it may be much more convenient for you to send email press releases, it’s much more effective mailing traditional releases through the good old U.S. Postal Service.  Remember them?

Are you sending press releases because: “A. they are convenient for you” or “B. to get the maximum coverage in print magazines, newspapers, internet, and broadcast exposure?”  If you answered “A” Congratulations! You’ll get your wish – e-mailing them will be convenient for you.

As for great media exposure, well, you need to go back and select option “B”.  It’s a little more work but… well, your choice.

Email releases are fine for emergency issues and truly breaking news. But for new product releases, announcements, business personnel changes and so forth: regular, old fashioned traditionally-mailed press releases blows email releases away. Here’s why:

The first reason, and I don’t want to bore you with this but: How many documents can you have up on your screen at once?  One, maybe two.  Now, while you’re on your computer, how many other documents are waiting in Queue to be viewed by you?

So the email release gets very briefly noted, and with the click of a mouse it’s out of site.  And in this business of crowded, fast-paced and short-lived news stories, out of sight is out of mind.

As the mouse hand of the very very busy, busy editor (and I’ve NEVER known one who isn’t) waves and pauses over the delete button you’ve got to ask yourself, “Do I feel lucky today?”

Because if yours isn’t the most absolutely positively compelling release in the stack of 100 other releases the editor received this week, Poof – it’s gone faster than you can say spam, and has just transitioned from one more email clogging-up her inbox to one that she won’t have to deal with ever again.  There, that was easy.

Now let’s take a better look: A traditionally printed and mailed press release – and accompanying cover letter – arrives in a nice package and let’s face it – who doesn’t like to get this kind of mail.  Real mail.  She opens it and your brochure – brightly printed in four colors – pops out at her.

She feels the drape of your highest quality 24 lb linen stationary, the letterhead brilliantly designed, and your crisply printed press release almost sparkles with the words “Read Me – not necessary now, but at your convenience…”

OK, so I got a little carried away there.  But you get the idea.  A traditionally mailed paper release can sit on an editor’s desk for days, get passed around; and can be waiting, patiently waiting for a later review – over a quick lunch or while flipping through “things to do while you’re not at your computer.”  Yes, it’s a special time – shrinking in today’s over-computer-related junk environment.

Remember, while a busy editor can look at just one image at a time on her computer, she can have multiple sheets of paper displayed on her desk.  I don’t know about you, but my computer time is now very valuable and heavily guarded.  Email PR = computer intrusion.  Mailed PR = welcome.  Hello? Am I getting through to you?

OK, one last thought.  Yes, everyone has a computer now-a-days.  So penetration is good.  But, everyone, everything, every company, every catalog, every magazine – all are aiming right at your CRT.  It just doesn’t all fit on-screen.  And, no time to look at anything for too long – while you took that quick cat nap, your computer just downloaded 600 more emails.

No matter how you cut it, the editor just can’t leisurely leaf through your whole press package package on-screen.  And no, clicking through pages on her laptop isn’t the same as flipping through them at lunch at her desk. For maximum coverage – I say press releases should be sent by traditional mail.  Any questions?

About Jeff: Jeffrey Dobkin is a traditional DM copywriter, and a fun speaker. His humorous presentations are filled with practical direct marketing tips.  He has written four books on direct marketing.  Call him for a FREE analysis of your written PR, ads, direct marketing packages or programs: 610-642-1000 rings on his desk.  Or visit him at www.DanielleAdams.com.

Special Note From Ryan: Not only do I fully endorse sending your press releases via postal mail, for larger impact, you might consider sending your releases using Priority Mail, or even FedEx.  Think about it, have you ever NOT opened something you received in a FedEx package?  Yes, it costs a few bucks more per release…but you’ll have a guaranteed 99% open rate for your message.

One last thing to mention.  For a limited time, I’m offering my subscribers a special rate for PR services — $100/hour for PR consulting, and $400 for a press release. Note this special offer can be rescinded at any time, so if you are interested, contact me right away. ~ Ryan McGrath

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