The Secret to “Informational Marketing"

The best way I've found to sell through the mail or online is to combine valuable, little-known information and
a unique product or service.

People don’t just want to be sold something.  They want good reasons to buy something.  So if you can give
them information and a product or service that will make them richer or healthier…protect their nest egg or
well being…and ensure them a more comfortable, safer life—they are more apt to buy.

Another way to look at this is with the Left Brain/Right Brain example.

The Left Brain is the logical, analytical, objective side that responds to new facts and information.

The Right Brain is the intuitive, thoughtful and objective side that responds to emotions and benefits.

Strike both sides of the brain and you can get more sales.

Take for example a successful online promotion I wrote for Louis Navellier’s Blue Chip Growth newsletter.
  

As you can see by the screenshot, this Special Investor Alert featured “My 4 Surprising Forecasts for 2014.”

For marketing investment products like this one, hardly anything beats forecasts.  In this case,
Louis Navellier revealed four forecasts about the stock market and in particular, how to grow richer in
blue chip growth stocks. 

The copy went on to promise…

*How you can beat the market 3-to-1 in 2014, like Louis Navellier has been doing for his subscribers
for years

*How to get in now on 21 Lock and Load Stocks Ready to Skyrocket in 2014

*And how to make sure you don’t get wiped out by a bubble bursting under some popular stocks

Whether it was the timing of the initial promotion (in mid December) or the bullish stock market,
interest in these forecasts was very high.

The online promotion tested very well and is currently being rolled out.

The question: What kind of important information can you include in your promotions to drive up sales? 

What Makes a Great Headline?

This is a million dollar question.

First, how important is a headline? In his classic book, Breakthrough Advertising, the great Gene Schwartz writes,

“The headline is the bridge between your prospect and your product. It touches your prospect at the point of awareness that he has arrived today.

“If he is aware of your product, and realizes that it can satisfy his desire, your headline starts with your product.

“If he is not aware of your product, but only of the desire itself, your headline starts with the desire. Just as important, he writes,

“Your headline has only one job—to stop your prospect and compel him to read the second sentence of your ad.” 

Pure genius!

For me, some of my most successful headlines have applied these marketing secrets…PLUS, I’ve refined my own time-tested formula.

The best headlines seem to have all or most of these elements: NEWS… BENEFIT…CURIOSITY…and a TWIST. Take for example the prehead and headline I wrote for a new marine superfood promotion: Now, you can conquer 55 common health problems with…
The superfood that Americans rarely eat

The prehead focused on a key benefit/promise.

The first part of the headline focused on a growing awareness of the prime prospects about the healing power of superfoods.

And the prospects’ curiosity was piqued by the fact that this remarkable superfood is little-known in to Americans.

Of course the payoff inside is, 1,000 studies prove this age-erasing superfood is the missing link in the Americans diet.

The missing link is a little-known compound found almost exclusively in brown seaweed and consumed in large quantities by the longest living people on earth, the people of Okinawa, Japan.

Another example of a strong headline is one I wrote that focused on NEWS.

The prehead and headline read:

On July 20, 2012, a Good Morning America host predicted, 

  “Beet juice is going to very, very popular” 

…and she was right.

The copy went on to support this newsworthy quote with other quotes such as…
       “Many Olympians in London were juiced…with beet root juice”—New York Times 
       “A daily glass of beet juice can lower your blood pressure”—DailyMail.com 
       “Beet juice can increase blood flow to the brain in older adults”—Wake Forest University researchers  
       “Evidence suggests beet juice improves heart health”—Today’s Dietitian

The cover went on to tease about a delicious new Superfood, Super Beet drink that delivers up to 10 times the “beet power” than ordinary beets.

As you can see, using NEWS…BENEFIT…CURIOSITY…and a TWIST can help create some very intriguing, very unique headlines that get read and that keep the prospect reading!

Can You Pick the Winning Cover?

Testing is the lifeblood of any successful direct marketing campaign.

Why? Because it proves what works best, not based your opinions or those of your marketing team—but on the most important factor of them all: What buyers want.

In direct mail, one of the most important tests for any launch is a Front Cover Test. Ideally, you want to covers to take two completely different approaches.

Here are to sets of Front Cover Tests I recently conducted.

The first set is for a natural blood sugar balancing product, Gluco Harmony.
Here's Front Cover A:

Here’s Front Cover B: 

Which one do you think did better?

The second set is for a new natural sleep product, Vital Sleep.
Here’s Front Cover A: 

Here’s Front Cover B:

Which one do you think did better?

Results: In both cases, the B covers worked substantially better.

So when you test, make sure the variables are different enough to give you different and hopefully better results.

How to crank up your sales by making your promotions look more newsworthy

As I was flying back from one of my rare trips back East, I ran across an article in The Washington Post that really caught my attention.

Its headline: “Native ads” on Web can blur line between news and advertising.

It turns out that the newest wave in online marketing are “native ads” that mimic the look and feel of a website’s editorial content.

Take for example this screen shot from BuzzFeed.com, the politics-and-pop-culture site.

(Note how the headline and photo of the baby in the sink make this ad look like a regular article.)

Note the photo of the baby in a sink and the “ad” headlined: 14 People Making the Best of Situations. Looks like any of the other editorial articles, such as 19 of the Most Fashionable Kids You’ve Ever Seen.

But this article is actually ad by Volkswagen which ties to its marketing message, “Get in, Get happy.” The ad shows photos of people overcoming everyday obstacles. The only tipoff to its funding and intent is Volkswagen’s logo and a small notation under the headline, indentifying the car maker as a BuzzFeed “featured partner.”

This got me thinking…hmmmm, how can I make my promotions look more editorial and less like advertising?

For direct mail, can I make a magalog or slim jim cover look more like a magazine, a “white paper” or a special report than a sales piece? Can I make a letter look more like an actual letter than a sales pieces (remember the old courier type font)?

For online promotions, can I find websites than will be more creative in developing banner ads so they look more like “news”? Or how can I write landing pages that look like important, life-saving (or wealth-building) information than a sales piece?

How can you make your ads stand out of a crowd? Make them look like an article. “Native” ads like the one above generate far higher viewing rates and engagement than banner ads, but a premium price.

The Greatest Headlines I Ever Wrote

How important is a great headline?

Legendary copywriter Eugene Schwartz writes in his classic book, Breakthrough Advertising, that “your headline as only one job—to stop your prospect and compel him to read the second sentence of your ad.” Some of his memorable headlines include…
*At last, a plastic surgeon’s diet
*How to make up to 13% on your savings or more—all fully insured
*Turn up your “digestive furnace” and burns fat right off your body
*Break all the rules and win a 35-year-old body at 50-60-70 and beyond

And who can forget David Ogilvy’s memorable headline for a Rolls Royce ad:
“At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls Royce comes from the electric clock.”

Or what may well be the most famous headline in advertising, John Caples’ unforgettable headline:
“They laughed when I sat down to play the piano. But when I started to play!”

This got me thinking about some of the greatest headlines I ever wrote, all that proved to be very, very successful. These include…

[ ] Beyond Glucosamine and Chondroitin: The Next Breakthrough for Joint Discomfort
Many vitamin buyers with joint discomfort were buying Glucosamine and Chondroitin, yet finding these solutions were not working for them. This headline got their attention and promised something new.

[ ] The Surprising Truth About Co-Enzyme Q10
Most prospects had heard about CoQ10, but few knew that in its most common form it was very hard to digest and absorb. This piece promised three times more CoQ10.

[ ] A Rare Sea Plant That’s Better than Green Tea?
Green tea was hot as a super antioxidant. But doctors and scientists found something even better 200 feet below the ocean.

[ ] “62-cent Green Energizer Keeps You OUT of the Doctor’s Office”
This headline brought a mundane, green drink alive with big promises of money savings and super health.

[ ] How Annie, age 74 of Arizona, WOKE UP!
Age-related memory loss can make the brain fall asleep. But this headline promised a wake up call!

[ ] A Doctor’s Shock!
What would shock a leading natural doctor?   The fact that the vitamins he was taking were falling short in his quest for self healing.

[ ] The 4 Most Costly Estate Planning Mistakes Made by Those Worth $3 Million to $250 Million
This headline did two things well: Teased readers to the fear of expensive estate planning mistakes and called out the readers.

[ ] For Futures Traders Who Hate Losing Money
Fear and greed are two of the biggest emotional triggers to get the attention of investors. This headline focused on fear.

[ ] Secret formula beats the market 3-to-1
This headline focused on greed—and learning something the big “fat cats” on Wall Street knew—now revealed.

[ ] XXFIRST NAME LAST NAMEXX, you stand a 55% chance of being misdiagnosed in a hospital
This personalized headline was so effective, we had people calling and writing us with comments such as, “How did you know about my health problems?” What does a review of these great headlines teach me?

Each project is unique and every headline needs to be looked at fresh—based on the uniqueness of the product/service…and needs and wants of the prospects…and the emotional triggers to get them to respond.

The truth is, there is no easy or magic formula for writing a great headline. It takes a lot of hard work and tons of research. Sometimes I get a great headline idea from a testimonial…from an interview with the expert behind the product/service…or from a nugget of research. Lots of blood, sweat and tears. But the end result is worth it.

The Importance of the “Straw Man”

In direct marketing, have a “straw man” or bad guy in the picture can dramatically boost response and sales.

Whether it’s greedy Wall Street stockbrokers…bumbling bureaucrats on Capitol Hill…rich drug companies…or anyone trying to pull a fast one on consumers, identifying the “enemy” sets the stage for successfully making your sale.

How? By exposing the “straw man” and showing why your solution is better.

Take for example the successful promotion I wrote for a natural health newsletter, Chinese Medicine Healing Miracles.

The cover headline, Why the Chinese Don’t Get Sick Like We Do… “17 times les heart disease and 5 times less breast cancer” sets the stage for a eye-opening comparison between the shocking failure of Western Medicine and the amazing success of Traditional Chinese Medicine.



This promotion exposes why Western’s medicine’s cut, burn and medicate philosophy means over 770,000 Americans are injured or die each year from drug side effects…and less than HALF of surgeries, drugs and tests that doctors recommend have been proven effective.

But the promotion gives hope to the reader with once forbidden healing secrets used for over 4,000 years by Chinese healers such as…

*How to reduce high cholesterol 44% without statin drugs…with food that mimics the drugs, yet with no deadly side effects

*The risk of stroke is CUT in half…with an easy, ancient stretching secret

*Pain vanishes in knees…using nothing more than the palms of your hands

*"I laughed, when the doctor rubbed by ears—but then my allergies vanished!"

By exposing the flaws of Western Medicine and reveal Chinese healing miracles now proven by the Mayo Clinic, the American Association of Cancer Research, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and by doctors worldwide….

…I was able to prove the power of Chinese healing miracles and substantially increase subscription orders by 20%.

Who is the “straw man” in your next promotion?

Secret of 1,000 Pounds of Sumo Wrestlers

I saw a funny but effective TV commercial last week. It sold sofa “lifters”—flat boards that you put under sagging sofas cushions to make them like new again. Firm, solid and higher up.

The proof? Two big sumo wrestlers, together weighing 1,000 pounds, sat on a couch that was “lifted” and guess what? The restored couch held them. Very powerful proof.

Reminds me of what Gary Bencivenga, hailed as “America’s Best Copywriters,” says about the importance of proof.

He says, “Without belief, nobody buys.” And “Make compelling proof the alpha and omega of your advertising.”

If you can demonstrate how your product or service works, like this sofa ad, great. But there are other ways to show proof.

I put proof into action in an ad I wrote to women for a natural supplement to help them with urinary urgency.

The ad explained the little known reasons that cause urinary problems in the first place. Then it when on to describe the unique nutrients scientifically researched for healthy urination. And continued on with proof of successful results with testimonials of grateful users.

The ad also highlighted the problem with a cartoon of a woman driving a car, looking like she really needs to find a bathroom, only to see a sign that reads, “Rest Stop 20 miles."


By harnessing the power of proof, this ad has been successful and is now being rolled out