The Law of Supply and Demand

I live in Los Angeles, and it’s June—NBA Playoff time. This year, it’s Lakers vs.Celtics…and it’s madness in LA LA Land.

For example, my neighbor who is a TV cameraman who’ll be at Staples for the first game, knows the people who have the four seats next to the Lakers bench.

They sold their tickets for tonight’s Game 1 for $18,000 per ticket! Crazy!

But that’s the Law of Supply and Demand. There are only so many tickets on the floor at Staples…and apparently, some people will pay top dollar to sit next to the Lakers and be seen on worldwide tv.

The same Law of Supply and Demand holds true in direct marketing.

If you have something truly unique to sell…that prospects can only get from you by purchasing direct…you control the supply.

Then, if you create a promotion that sells the “demand” for the product, you have a winner.

Take the case of a successful promotion I wrote to women for a breakthrough natural thyroid supplement.

The hook to attract readership was twofold:

First, a headline that revealed “The surprising truth why so many women can’t seem to lose weight…are tired for no reason…and always have cold hands and feet.”

Second, the cover included a cartoon illustration of a woman looking tired and beat as the BEFORE picture, then dancing with renewed vitality for the AFTER picture.

This painted a picture of how women felt when run down…and how they hope they could feel.

The truth? Many of these health problems are linked to a low or underactive thyroid.

The payoff: A unique, scientifically researched supplement that helped nourish and revitalize a woman’s thyroid.

When I first took on this assignment, I knew there were not many thyroid promotions like this in the mail. The market was wide open.

But by finding an area of great demand (as many as 40% of Americans have a balky thyroid and doctors miss 90% of low thyroid cases)…I was able to tell a story that hasn’t really been told…and supply a unique, doctor-approved solution.

The piece has been very successful both in the mail and online.

Make It Personal

I’ve been fortunate to write promotions that have been mailed, emailed or read or seen by millions and millions of prospects.

But I have always remembered, when I'm writing a promotion to sell a product or service, that it's really like I'm writing to ONE PERSON.

If you focus in on one person, then it forces you to think about that person: Who is he? What are his post urgent problems? What are his biggest needs? And how can the product or service you're selling help him, benefit him and make his business, his life--everything--better.

This is why, one of the first and most important questions I ask my clients is: "Who is your best prospect?"

Get this right, and you've taken a big step to creating a successful promotion.

Take the case of a very successful mailing I wrote for a company that specializes in creating personalized, signature line of hair and skincare poroducts for independent salon owners.

To prepare for writing this promotion, I did research on salon owners, picked the clients' minds, studied testimonials and even talked to a few salon owners.

The whole idea is, offer each salon owner an opportunity to sell top quality products in his/her salon with the salon's name on each bottle. No more selling somebody else's products--but your own.

To make an impact, I created an envelope with a bottle of shampoo with the salon's name "personalized" on the bottle--so the prospect would immediately get the idea that he could offer a line of products like this to his customers.
As you can see, "David Shitman Hair Shack" was imprinted on the bottle. This, of course, matched the same name personalized on the order card.

The promotion included a letter that made clear the challenges of salon owners, explained the many benefits of a private label and motivated prospects to order a sample kit.

It also included "Profit Tips for Salon Owners: 7 ways you can take control--and boost your retail profits."

By showing the possibilities of a private label brand of shampoos and skin care products, this piece generated a lot of attention--and many oders for a sample kit.

Layers of Proof, Part II - "Show Me the Dirt"

Earlier this week, my wife and I sat in on a demonstration of unique vacuum cleaner as a favor for a friend who had bought one. (The more friends who see the demonstration, the more of a discount she gets.)

I had heard only that this was a vacuum cleaner that also purifies the air in your home, but had no preconceived ideas about it.

The demonstrator, Leon, showed us this vacuum using the “demonstration” form of proof.

For instance, he showed us the suction and air flow of our current vacuum vs. his super vacuum. Very impressive. He told us that “suction” had nothing to do with a vacuum’s cleaning power. It was air flow that really mattered.

He took out an air flower meter (a harmonica) and compared the air flow of our vacuum vs. his. No comparison! His had way more power (sound volume coming out of the harmonica).

Then, he had me vacuum our area rug with our vacuum. I thought I did a good job. But then he had me vacuum the same area with his super vacuum.

Now the key this super vacuum is the dirt and dust goes into a container of water, not a typical vacuum bag. You should have seen how much MORE DIRT was in the water after I used the super vacuum. Yuck!!!! Leon “showed me the dirt”—and boy, did his vacuum clean better! Very impressive!

Leon sells a lot of these super vacuums because he understands the power of proof. The more proof, the more you sell. His proof was very convincing, and I probably would have bought this super vacuum, but it was too pricey for me.

Now, my task as a writer is to “demonstrate” the uniqueness and benefits of a product or service, usually in print—whether that be in direct mail, a space ad or online.

How can you show more “unquestionable proof” as I mentioned in my last entry?

For one, you can show proof of a big problem.

Take the case of a very successful magalog I wrote for people worth $3,000,000 or more.

In a nutshell, the magalog was to sell the services of Barry Kaye, who helped the rich create and preserve wealth with innovative life insurance and investment strategies.

I’m not sure of the current estate tax situation now, but when I wrote this piece, there was the risk that upon death, the good ol’ US government could take a lion’s share of your estate in taxes.

So I demonstrated this point by…


















Showing a photo of a Fabregé egg, cut in half. The point: more than ONE HALF of your estate will be gobbled up by Uncle Sam upon death.

Showing a chart of "Estate Taxes, the American Tragedy." This showed that at a high net worth, you could lose up to 60 percent of your estate to Uncle Sam.

Showing a photo of a once wealthy CPA who lost over $7 million of a $12 million to taxes.

Showing examples of famous people like John D. Rockefeller Sr. whose estate's value plummeted 64 percent after estate taxes and expenses were paid after death, and Marilyn Monroe whose estate lost 55 percent upon death.

This "demonstrated" to readers that the problems of estate taxes at death was a big problem, even if you had a will.

For example, I demonstrated why an irrevocable trsut is the "single best way to recover estate tax costs, get a 5-to-1 or better return, and legally transfers nearly all of your worth to heirs.

Of course this magalog didn't just prove the problem. It also was laden with proof of solutions by Barry Kaye.

This was shown in a chart that promise an "89 percent discount on estate tax costs.

The promotion included a number of other wealth creation and perservation strategies, each backed with solid proof.

Leon proved the power of his super vacuum by showing me the problem with my own vacuum and the superiority of his. this magalog proved the problem of estate taxes and the superiority of Barry Kaye's innovative tax and investment strategies.

Remember, the more proof you can demonstrate, the more you sell.

Layers of Proof

If I told you I once caught a lot of coho (silver) salmon in Alaska, you’d likely believe me. After all, you’ve probably heard the salmon fishing is good in Alaska.

But what if showed you a photo of the fish I caught (with my brother and best friend). See photo below. Now that’s proof.
Don’t just take my word we caught a slew of fish. See the photo. Yes, that’s me on the right with the Nike hat.

Even better, the photo shows us with our catch, so you can see how big the fish really were. They ranged from 8 to 14 pounds, and that day, we caught 30!

My point is that, in marketing we can make a statement trying to prove a point, but when we back it up with proof, we make a much stronger argument—and ultimately, more people buy. And when you can add layers of proof, you sell more.

This is why the great copywriter Gary Bencivenga says “Unquestionable Proof” is a key part of this Persuasion Equation. The more proof, the more sales.

I once had an assignment to sell a stock newsletter called Ground Floor Stocks.

Fortunately for me, the client had an outstanding track record picking stocks, ranking No. 1 by the independent Hulbert Financial Digest which tracked stock picking newsletters.

As you can see in the envelope below, I trumpeted this proof element right out of the gate, and drew even more attention to it by putting the layout on the side, not in the typical fashion.

Note the copy was flipped on its side to draw even more attention to the key proof element.

But I laid on the proof even further, showing the actual rankings of the top five stock picking newsletters.

Anytime you can show the proof in a chart or illustration or drawing, all the better. It’s another layer of proof.

The results? The promotion was so successful it won The Newsletter on Newsletter Gold Award in 1998!

Find proof elements to sell your products or services, then find more and add the proof on thick. Your sales will likely soar.

Are You Calling Out Your Best Propsects?

In order to write a hard-hitting, money-making “mega” promotion—one that will mail or run for years—you need to make sure you’re targeting your best prospects.

Your ideal prospect needs to know the direct mail piece, space ad, online promotion or TV spot is just for him or her—like a laser zooming in on one and only one customer.

Space ads pose the incredibly tough challenge of getting the prospect’s attention in literally seconds—that’s all the time you have to see if you can get that prospect to stop—read—read on and call to buy.

Combine the calling out of that prospect with a unique benefit, and you have a winning ad.

Eugene Schwartz is considered one of the greatest copywriters of all time, and time and time again, he had the knack of writing a space ad that did just that.

Take for example his famous ad for the book, How to Increase Your Money Making Power. His headline, seen in the ad below, magically reads:

DO YOU HAVE THE COURAGE TO EARN HALF A MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR?





















What man who was ambitious and wanted more money could resist this ad?

Then, this subhead made the ad even more targeted and exclusive: “This is a private advertisement. It is meant for the tremendously ambitious man only.”

Sheer genius.

For a successful ad I wrote that ran in Individual Investor magazine, my target prospect was a frustrated futures trader. In the ad below, the headline calls out:

For Futures Traders Who Hate Losing Money!






















Calling out the prospect’s main frustration was the key to this ad’s success.

The ad promised the reader could STOP LOSING money and START MAKING futures profits, while limiting risk to the exact penny. What kind of profits and risks:

*$975 gain in 2 weeks. Maximum risk: $190
*$3,500 gain in 6 weeks. Maximum risk: $493
*$8,077 gain in 4 weeks. Maximum risk: $1,027

Another very successful ad I wrote that ran in Forbes dramatically outpulled the previous ad by calling out millionaires and a problem many of them faced. The headline:

The 4 Most Costly Estate Planning Mistakes Made By Those Worth $3 Million to $250 Million





















This ad was targeted to the rich—and many of them responded for the FREE Special Report.

The ad revealed four common estate planning mistakes the rich often make, and promised them a FREE Special Report that would help them avoid each one and reduce estate tax costs up to 90 percent. The result? They’d preserve the lion’s share of their hard earned wealth.

How well do you know your prospects? And how well are you calling them out in your promotions?

The Amish Do It Better

At the recent Natural Health Expo, a client and I were talking about successful marketing, and the topic came up about how important is it to “have a story.”

You can have the greatest product or service, but if you don’t have a “story” about it—a story that’s unique, quirky, controversial or attention-getting—nobody will care or buy.

Take the Amish people. You may have seen the full page ads in newspapers offering a “FREE Miracle Heater” if you buy a handmade Amish mantle made from real wood.

Miracle heater ads with handmade Amish mantles have been hugely successful.

The ad even shows a barn where these handmade mantles are made.

Hmmm… a “FREE” heater inside a beautiful Amish fireplace—sounds good right?

Well, I’ve heard from a very reliable source that these have sold like hotcakes—only these sell for about $300 a pop!

This company had a product and created a story to sell it—and people have responded like crazy.
But imagine if the fireplace mantles were built by craftsmen who lived…outside to Topeka, Kansas…or Carson, California…or Atlanta, Georgia. Not much of a story there.

Yet the idea of a handcrafted mantled created by Amish woodworkers …wow…that sounds so authentic, so solid, so beautiful, so long lasting.

Of course you need a great story to sell tons of a product.

Take for example a launch package I wrote for a new breakthrough CoEnzyme Q10 supplement.
The “story” that made this a blockbuster was two fold: One, most typical CoQ10 formulas were hard to digest and therefore worthless and two, a new, scientifically proven form of CoQ10 was three times more bioavailable and therefore three times more powerful.

It was a story based in science and technology, combined with the appeal of a safe, all-natural supplement for strengthening the heart, for keeping blood pressure and cholesterol healthy, for supporting a sound immune system and for flooding the body with natural energy.

The cover drew prospects in with “the truth” angle—like something was being covered-up.

The piece was a runaway success!

One of the greatest challenges as a copywriter and creative director is seeing if I have a “story” that grabs readers. If I do, it can shape the whole piece and make it a big, big winner.

Why People Buy or Don't Buy

One of the biggest challenges I face as a copywriter and creative director is how to tap the “emotional triggers” that cause a prospect to buy what you’re selling.

To be frank, I’m strong on seeking out the unique feature and benefits of a product or service. I love to dig deep into the research to find a story.

But when it comes to finding the “emotion” behind why people buy or don’t buy, I have to work a lot harder.

Yet without understanding and using emotion, sales will be limited.

In this excellent book, Triggers: 30 Sales Tools You Can Use to Control the Mind of Your Prospects to Motivate, Influence and Persuade, direct marketing guru Joseph Sugarman writes that an estimated 95% of the reasons a prospect buys involves a subconscious decision.

And to fire up a prospect’s subconscious mind, you have to hit his emotional buttons.

Two of the strongest emotions that can trigger responses—and a flood of orders—are fear and greed.

Fear is a huge motive, often tied to financial loss, but can also be linked to losing freedom and independence that comes with good health.

Take for example a highly successful piece I wrote for PS—The Ultimate Brain Food™.

The headline was:

The New Pill
For Memory Loss
that helps make sure you
don’t end up a mental “vegetable”

Anybody struggling with memory loss and loss of cognitive decline fears the worse—becoming a “vegetable” and losing freedom and independence.

The inside spread started off with the story of an Arizona woman who was saved from the nursing home with this remarkable natural breakthrough.

This cover and lead-in hit the emotion of fear—and made this piece a big, big winner.

Another dominant emotion that can drive people to read your promotion and order is greed.

The desire for gain can be anything that puts the prospect ahead: Money, health, relationships. To put it another way, people have something good and they want more.

Here’s a good example of a winning piece I wrote selling the book, The Complete Guide to Offshore Money Havens. The front cover featured promises such as…

*How to make, protect and keep MORE OF YOUR MONEY with your own 100% legal offshore wealth haven…

*Make all your dreams come true with profits, privacy, protection and pleasures found offshore…and enjoy tax-free living and secure retirement.

The back cover teased the reader with “greed” copy such as…

*The secret to paying little or no taxes

*A strategy that pays 5-to-1 returns

*“Safe money” yields that are three times higher

*Two ways to keep your assets untouchable from a lawsuit

The theme: How to make more money and keep it from the clutches of the government, lawyers and anybody else.

Both the front and back cover of this wining piece focused on the emotion of greed.

Fear and greed. Greed and fear. Both work like magic to stir up prospects, get them to read and most important, get them to buy.