Copywriting 101– Old Masters Series

[MUSIC PLAYING] Unvailing the secrets, a list copywriters use to make themselves and their clients millions. This is the Copywriters Podcast. With your host, the world's greatest copywriting coach, David Garfinkle. The big secret of success, whether it's in investing in professional sports or in copywriting, is one and the same, a focus on and mastery of the fundamentals. The legendary basketball star, Michael Jordan, put it this way, get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise. I don't think we've done a show that's just focused on copywriting fundamentals. So what better time than now? And one of the best sources of an expert list of the fundamentals is John Capel's, in his book, Tested Advertising Methods. There was nothing fancy or intellectual about what Capel said or did, yet he was one of the greatest direct response copywriters of all time. So our old master of series turns again to the late John Capel's for source material. Based on his book, we've put together a list of fundamentals that everyone should remember in practice. It's easy to forget or get distracted by the latest shiny object, but ultimately to win, you have to go back to the fundamentals. And that's what we're going to do today. Right after I remind you that Capel is powerful. You're responsible for how you use what you hear on this podcast and most of the time, common sense is all you need. But if you make extreme claims, and/or if you're writing a copy for offers in highly regulated industries like health, finance, and business opportunity, you may want to get a legal review after you write and before you start using your copy. My larger clients do this all the time. OK, so we're going to take our time with this series. And today we're going to cover the first six fundamentals, taken directly from Capel's book, Tested Advertising Methods. Let's get started. Sounds good. All right, first fundamental. The headline is the most important part of your ad. If you've studied any kind of copywriting at all, you've certainly heard this. But let's really get into what Capel's had to say. Imagine you're flipping through a magazine. You remember magazines, right? When you're flipping through, you don't read the ads. You don't read the articles. You're just scanning. You're just looking around. What do you see? Headlines. In Tested Advertising Methods, Capel's assumed you knew how people look at magazines and newspapers. He wrote, what do people see of advertising? Headlines. What decides whether or not you stop a moment and look at an advertisement or even read a little of it? The headline. Of course, the same is just as true on the internet and maybe more so, because people can scroll much more rapidly than they can flip through magazine pages. Capel's had numbers to prove his point. In the same book he wrote, inquiry results show that the headline is 50% to 75% of the advertisement. Think about that. Half to three quarters of your results. Determined before anyone reads a single line of body copy, and yet what do most people do? They spend all of their time polishing the body copy, tweaking transitions, rewriting bullets, perfecting the clothes. And then at the end they come up with something for the headline. I know that sounds extreme, but you'd be surprised how many people do it that way. And it's wrong. Capel said it clearly. If the headline of an advertisement is poor, the best copy writers in the world can't write copy that will sell the goods. They haven't a chance. Because if the headline is poor, the copy will not be read. And copy that is not read does not sell goods. It's worth beating this one to death. No one reads the copy if the headline fails. And copy that is not read does not sell well. Of course, what gets in the way of writing a headline that works? Branding or someone's arbitrary decision that ignores what the market is saying or the need for applause over results. People want their copy to be seen as clever, witty, award winning. The industry even has its own Academy Awards for ads. They're called the Cleos. But Capel's tested this proposition about clever versus benefit over and over. And what he found without fail, clear benefit-driven headlines beat the clever ones. Consistently, the best headlines he wrote appeal to the reader's self-interest. They offer readers something they want and can get from you. Worth noting, he said something they want. Not something you want to say. Another way we screw this up, being short for the sake of short. Three words, two words, one bold noun to be cool, catchy, clever. Now, that might work if those were, say, something, but a short headline that says nothing is just a waste of space. Capel's proved that longer headlines have communicated real benefit, often outperformed, short punchy ones that are attention-getting and clever, but don't really speak to the prospect's desires. Finally, putting time and care into creating a winning headline. David Oglevie wrote 104 headlines before choosing this one. At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock. 104 tries before he found the one that worked. Think about that. Gene Schwartz, another legendary copywriter we've talked about often here, sometimes spent a full week on his first 50 words, the headline in the first paragraph of copy. Most people rush to write three variations, then they pick their favorite. Capel's once said, "I have seen one advertisement sell 19 and a half times as much goods as another. Same product, same copy, different headline." So how do you take this lesson and turn it into something valuable? First, treat the headline as its own project. Take your time, maybe write 10 versions, maybe 50, maybe 100. But give it the energy and effort it deserves. Second, ask this question, does this headline offer a clear benefit? And don't go easy on yourself. Make sure you can plainly explain what the benefit is. If you can't rewrite it. Third, make it specific. Get better results is vague. Add five qualified leads per day is concrete specific. Remember, your headline is your first impression. Your only impression for most people and your make or break moment. If it doesn't stop them, it's game over. So make sure they're scrolling, get stopped, and the headline makes them want to read more. OK. I think my favorite headline writer of all time is John Carlton. And sometimes he has very long headlines, but every single word earns its place. And when you were talking about longer headlines, a bunch of his flooded to my mind. And I was like, yeah, John is one of those guys that never is shy on the headline. But like I said, every word earns its place. Absolutely. And it doesn't mean your headline has to be long. But don't make it short for the sake of being short. A long headline can really work when it fits. And Carlton's, they definitely fit. Yeah. All right. Second fundamental. Test everything, especially the high leverage things. Headlines, prices, offers, calls to action. So imagine a marketing meeting where one of the following three phrases is what makes the decision. I like this one better. This feels stronger. Our competitors are doing it this way. Unfortunately, too many people and too many businesses do this all the time. And then when they complain that their ads aren't working, of course, they have no idea what they might have done to contribute to that problem. Capel's made decisions one way by testing. He knew that no one person and no executive committee was smarter than the market when it came to what worked and what was most profitable. He ran experiments and he borrowed a term from Claude Hopkins. Capel's called the experimentation scientific advertising. In the preface to the Capel's book, everything is coming from today, tested advertising methods. Capel's collaborator Fred Hahn wrote, except nothing as true about what works best in advertising until it has been objectively what Capel's called scientifically tested. It is here where a lot of marketers quietly drift away from discipline. For example, instead of testing, they assume what work for their competitor will work for their own company. That's faulty thinking. There are so many factors. that might make response different. The niche timing, traffic sources, other things too. Audience is different. Testing is how you find out what's true for you. Another thing, testing isn't a box you check off on a list. It's an ongoing process. Cables tested continuously. Over months over years, here is his three step system for testing. One, except nothing as true about what works in advertising until it has been objectively, what Cables called scientifically tested. Two, build everything you learn from testing to create an ever stronger system that you return to with each new project. Three, treat every ad as an ongoing test of what has been learned before. When something new works better or something old stops working, be ready to admit that you were wrong about what you thought you "new." But don't just accept it. Find out why and apply it the next time. The first step is important to build everything you learn from testing, to build upon everything you learn from testing, to create an ever stronger system that you return to with each new project. You're going to reduce the chance of error in every future project this way. You're doing it based on solid test results. Here are a few common mistakes that set the power of our testing. First, is testing too many variables at once. Say you change the headline, the image, the call to action, and the offer all at once. Sales go up. Great. Why? You don't know. Could be any one of the four or any number of combinations. So you can't test further. Another mistake is stopping too soon. 100 visitors does not give you a verdict. You need enough data over time to smooth out the random swings. And then there's the problem of being swayed by opinions instead of relying on data. A clever headline gets a pause in the conference room or on a Zoom meeting with the team. So it runs. But that's a mistake because when it comes to direct response copy, profitability, opinions don't really matter. And marketers who treat it like a science simply outperform the ones who treat it like theater. I one time read Gary Helbert was talking about how he would test pieces of copy. And he would go to a bar and read it to somebody. And if they said, "Oh, that's very clever. That's very interesting. I love that." He knew it was a failure. But if they said, "Dude, where can I get that?" That's when he knew it was a piece that would succeed. Yeah. I mean, that's great story. And that sums it up. The testing is not for a pause. It's for results. It's to show that someone wants to buy something. Absolutely. Cool. All right. Our third fundamental, their self-interest is why they buy. Everyone who writes copy says they know this. But when you read a lot of copy, you would swear they don't. When people read your ad, they're not thinking about you. They're thinking about themselves. They're problems. They're deadlines, their relationship. Any number of things all involving themselves. Which means you need to see things from their point of view if you want to hope in a prayer of getting their business. Now, Capel's understood this at a level. Most marketers still miss. Intested advertising methods he got right to the heart of it. He said, "The best headlines are those that appeal to the reader's self-interest. They offer readers something they want and can get from you." It's that simple. And you would think everyone would grasp that and follow this basic principle. But then you see stuff like this and ask, "Our software has 47 features. We've been in business since 1998. Our mission is to deliver excellence." Those kind of statements are all about the company and not about their prospects. So you got to ask yourself, "Do you force your prospect to ask this sales-killing question so what?" Which is a shame because it's so easy to fix if you're willing. Let's look at three versions of the same thing. Advertise your focused version. Our software has task management. Customer-focused version. Manage your tasks more efficiently. Super customer-focused version. How to never miss a deadline again. See, the first task management, that's a feature. Totally advertiser-focused. The second is a benefit. It's customer-focused, but it's a little mechanical. The third is a transformation. Never miss a deadline again. It's heavily customer-focused and it comes across as almost magical. Because a transformational statement is ultimately about who your prospects become. Capel's even explained why self-interest beats curiosity. He said, "If you see a headline that makes you curious, you'll read it and the copy below it, but really only if you have time. But if you see a headline that offers you something you want, you'll make time." That's an interesting distinction. Curiosity is optional. Self-interest is urgent. In a world of infinite scroll and banner blindness, vague messaging has the option of being ignored. But when your headline whispers, "This is about you," people lean in. And when they lean in, that's when you have the best odds of getting a new customer. Okay, I'm going to say when it comes to curiosity versus self-interest, I have a "why not both" attitude. It doesn't have to be one or the other. And I find when I mix curiosity with self-interest, "Hey, this is about you. You don't want to miss this." And tease it a little bit with curiosity. That's when I get the best results. The other thing, the main point of this whole rant right now. I like to say, is your wee wee showing? If your copy says, "We've been in business since this. We believe in this. We haven't a long track record of this." Your wee wee is showing, and you should probably cover it up. I love it. Okay, that's good. I don't know if I've heard that before. I'm not sure everyone here to come, but I like it. Okay, that's good. Thanks. All right. Fourth fundamental. When you want to sell, get specific. Compare these two statements. Nearly 100,000 people bought this, or 97,482 people bought this. Which one sounds more believable? Now, this may be obvious to you, and Claude Hopkins certainly introduced the idea, but it may have been cables who confirmed scientifically that specifics sell better than generalities. He tested this kind of thing over and over in his conclusion whether the specifics are more believable than generalities. Okay, but so what? Here's what? If they don't believe you, they'll never buy from you. But so many advertisers blow it because they think they're brand or an e-moo with a detective badge. Or a clever slogan is going to push the sales curve up. 31 years ago, when magazines were still popular, cables did a study of 700 large space ads. 700 ads in 14 of America's most popular magazine. Of those 700, only five, fewer than 1% of the 700 stood out for their factual approach. Things have gotten better since then, but not much. A lot of ads still failed the specificity test. But think what hype sounds like. Industry leading best in class, revolutionary. These are vague terms. Specific numbers are proof. This is where so many marketers sabotage themselves without even realizing it. They use soft phrases. Many people. How many? Significant improvement. Significant by how much? They're afraid, specificity sounds small. We've helped 127 clients feel modest. We've helped hundreds feel impressive. But 127 sounds real. Hundreds sounds like you didn't bother to check. Now, you don't have to go overboard. Your ad doesn't need to sound like an engineering manual, or the statistical abstract of the United States, which is a book full of every number imaginable the government used to publish and is now published by ProQuest. But you need to include facts that move the needle. Capel's tells the story about a building materials ad that tested the phrase over 50% higher quality against the phrase 52.7% higher than the US government standard. The 52.7% version pulled better. So much better, the industry association asked them to tone it down. They were afraid of getting too much attention, especially from regulators, even though the claim was true and provable. And once they went back to saying 50% sales dropped off, why did 52.7% perform better? Because it sounded measured. Measured sounds scientific, scientific sounds true, and what sounds true sells better. In a world full of exaggerated promises, specificity is your credibility. Capals proved it decades ago, and it's even more true now, because prospects are more skeptical than ever. And while specific numbers don't eliminate doubt entirely, they lower it. And sometimes lowering doubt is just what you need to make the sale. I think that nowadays especially, if you're selling to an unsophisticated market, you can probably get away with some of the things that we listed as bad examples. But with the ability to compare and look up people's testimonials or reviews, or just the fact that we've been exposed to so much marketing, these vague terms, these 50% examples, they just don't work the way that they used to. Yeah, I agree. All right, let's go to the fifth fundamental, long copy sales when you have something to say. So you've heard people say it, maybe you're client, maybe a team member, maybe yourself. Nobody reads anymore. Attention spans are short, keep it tight. Three lines, maybe five. Well, guess what? They've been using the same argument against long copy for more than 100 years from before the time Capals started writing copy himself. But I'm going to quote directly from tested advertising methods. Here's what he said. Advertisers who can trace the direct sales results from their ads use long copy because it pulls better than short copy. For example, the book club advertisers, the record clubs, and the correspondent school advertisers use ads containing 500 to 1500 words of copy. Also, you will find that real estate advertisers, patent medicine advertisers and classified advertisers put as much selling copy into their ads as the space will allow. These people cannot afford to run so-called reminder copy. They have to get immediate sales from every ad. So that's the question you have to wrestle with. Can you afford not to get immediate sales from every ad? And here's the misunderstanding underneath the argument. People confuse reading with buying. They assume if someone won't read 500 words, they won't read 1500. But the same people will read 5000 words about their favorite hobby. Or 20 reviews before buying a $97 product. So length isn't really the issue. It's how motivated your prospect is. How interested they are. How strong their desire is. How intense their need is. People have short attention spans for things they don't care about. But they have a much longer attention span for things they want. Capals also said long copy works because you can crowd in as many sales arguments as possible. You never know which particular sales argument is going to make the reader buy your product. Finally, here's a trick from Capals. I know works. If you have space for- and this is Capals speaking, I'm reading his words from the book. If you have space for 500 words of copy, don't just write 500 words. Write 1000 words and then boil it down to 500 words. A piece of copy is like a pot of broth. The more you boil it down, the stronger the flavor gets. Finally, why long copy? Because when someone is about to spend money, they want reassurance. They want detail. They want proof. Short copy might get more people to glance at it. But long copy converts readers at a higher rate. The people who won't read it weren't ready to buy anyway. Write for the buyers. I like that point about, don't just write 500 words, write 1000 and then boil it down to 500 words. I saw recently a quote about sculpting. And it said, sculpting is not about adding clay. Sculpting is about chiseling down what doesn't belong until you have your masterpiece. Not right there, hits. That's a great comparison. Alright. Sixth fundamental. What you say is more important than how you say it. Capals knew from testing and his innate wisdom that no matter how good an ad looked, it would fail if there was a weak message hiding behind the ad. Intested advertising method, he points out just how important your message is. Just as the headline of a mail order advertisement decides whether or not the prospect will read the copy. So the first sentence of a direct mail letter usually decides whether or not the prospect will read the letter. What he's really talking about is the substance of your copy, the promise. Capals saw this happen over and over. Same product, same space, same budget, different message, passive, massive swing and results. This tells you what you need to know about where the leverage is. And yet, companies get all worked up over color schemes and logo placement and then squeeze copy into whatever space is left. Now that's fine if you're not depending on your advertising to make your sales for you. If you're not, then you'd better have a clear, active, capable way you can point to and describe what you use instead of advertising to make your sales. But if you're listening to or watching this podcast, you probably believe in the power of copy to sell and you depend on it. And so you know the message is the engine design is the paint job. It makes for an attractive space for people to look at the message and good design can enhance a good message. But if the message is weak, a strong design can't make up for it to help your sales. Capel's built his entire career on measurable response. As such, he believed advertising had one job to move the prospect to action. The way he looked at it, if your advertising didn't convert prospects into customers, then it had failed. Here's the discipline. Capel's would demand before you touch design, state your value proposition in one sentence. Can you explain what the customer gets? Can you explain why it matters? If you can't, then no layout will save you. Then test different versions of the core message, different promises, different angles, different benefits, measure sales. Not compliments, not likes. Remember, design can amplify your message. If the message is strong, design can enhance it. But if the message is weak, design just makes the weakness more expensive. Capel's proof that advertising that produces sales is primarily not about aesthetics. It's about persuasion. And persuasion begins with what you say, not how artfully you decorate it. So from now on, when my girlfriend says, it's not what you said. It's how you said it. I can retort with a quote from John Capel's. Yeah, good luck with that. Let me know how it works out. David told me. All right. So let's recap. Yeah, okay. First fundamental, the headline is the most important part of your ad. Second fundamental, test everything, especially high leverage things like headlines, prices, offers, and call to action. Third fundamental, their self interest is why they buy. Fourth fundamental, when you want to sell, get specific. Fifth fundamental, long copy sales, when you have something to say. And sixth fundamental, except for Nathan's girlfriend, what you say is more important than how you say it. Okay. All right. David, man, you just dropped a whole bunch of jewels in today's episode. If people want to catch more like this, head on over to copyriderspodcast.com. We'll also include a link to tested advertising methods in the show notes. So people can get the book if they want to do a more deeper dive. And did you say we're going to be doing more in this series soon? Oh, yeah. This is just part one. We've got a few more ahead. Okay. I cannot wait. And thank you for putting this awesome show together today. Oh, great. You're welcome. Thanks. All right. Until next time, we will catch you later. Catch you later. Stop using the hero's journey and your sales copy. My book, The Persuasion Storycode, will help you put together stories that convince your prospects and resolve their objections. If you are a copywriter, you'll appreciate that every single one of the 25 kinds of stories in this book have been proven time and time again in profitable sales copy. But I've also used these kinds of stories to close five and six figure deals for my own business and so have many of my clients. These stories are easy to create and easy to tell. They sound like ordinary conversation, but they are all designed and proven to lead to a yes. you can get the persuasion story code on Amazon. on.com. So get your copy today.