Winning techniques for Achieving

Success through Direct Mail and

Emails,
by Christian H. Godefroy
with the help of Dominique Glocheux

To Andr Bideaud, my first master in copywriting, and to Gene

Schwartz, whose talent and creativity enlighten my copy and show
me The Way.
Christian H. Godefroy

Christian Godefroy 2001

mailto:webmaster@christian-godefroy.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publisher.

CHRISTIAN H.
GODEFROY is a specialist in positive thinking and auto-suggestion. He has
given training seminars to over 6,000 senior company personnel around the
world on self-confidence, communication and relaxation. Today he
concentrates on publishing books about personal and professional success and
about health and runs his own highly successful publishing companies in
France and Switzerland.

Contents
Foreword............................................................................................................ 5
Introduction ....................................................................................................... 6
CHAPTER 1 ...................................................................................................... 8
How a simple letter can make people open their wallets.................................. 8
CHAPTER 2 .................................................................................................... 18
An easy way to get large numbers of people to respond to 'your letter ......... 18
CHAPTER 3 .................................................................................................... 41
How to come up with promises that produce the greatest number of replies 41
CHAPTER 4 .................................................................................................... 55
Your greatest enemy- and how to eliminate it ................................................ 55
CHAPTER 5 .................................................................................................... 68
The tricks used by professionals to make your 'headlines' work................... 68
CHAPTER 6 .................................................................................................... 93
An infallible way to select your best headline ................................................ 93
CHAPTER 7 .................................................................................................. 111
Offers and postscripts: how to get higher sales from your very first letter! 111
CHAPTER 8 .................................................................................................. 121
How to find effective ideas and arguments that sell .................................... 121
CHAPTER 9 .................................................................................................. 147
How to keep your prospects intrigued right from the start .......................... 147
CHAPTER 10 ................................................................................................ 155
How to convince people who can't make up their minds-and increase your
sales ................................................................................................................ 155
CHAPTER 11 ................................................................................................ 166
How to keep your readers reading - from beginning to end ........................ 166
CHAPTER 12 ................................................................................................ 192
Order forms, envelopes and follow-ups - all the secrets you need to know. 192

CHAPTER 13 ................................................................................................ 211

Troubleshooting and testing.......................................................................... 211
CHAPTER 14 ................................................................................................ 219
Your future in copywriting and direct sales ................................................. 219
APPENDIX.................................................................................................... 222
About the word 'YOU'-what the experts advise............................................ 222

Foreword
What separates a 'great' writer from a 'good' writer?
Their focus.
'Good' writers get caught in the trap of focusing on what they're
selling. They fool themselves into thinking that if they can describe
the product or service in irresistible terms, the reader will want it.
'Great' writers go one step beyond. Instead of focusing on what's
being sold, they focus on the reader - or, more specifically - the
reader's heart. The reader's heart is the door to their wallet. Open
their heart and you'll open their wallet.
Are you going to be a 'good' writer and settle for describing
things well -or a 'great' writer and open the heart of your reader?
The shelves of the bookshops are flooded with books that teach
you how to be a 'good' writer. This book is different. It reveals the
secrets of how to be a 'great' writer.
The decision is yours.

Ted Kikoler
Mail order designer
and graphic consultant

Introduction
Generate thousands of dollars worth of sales right from
your own home
In the beginning, everyone made fun of me. Work for myself?
Too risky. No one believed I could do it.
'Well, I found THE WAY. I'm through with working for other
people. I do what I like.., when I like. And my bank account keeps
growing and growing.'
Last year, I marketed my products to more than 200,000 people
in over 18,000 towns and cities. You can do the same, I'll tell you
how
with no traveling or hotel expenses;
with no stress or fatigue;
with no salespeople and no waste of time.
I stay at home. I have a few employees. I live quietly in my
village. I can see the trees and the fields from my window. What a
life!
How did I do it? I used a new technique. I learned how to write
letters that are so attractive and so convincing, that someone 1,000
miles away wants to send me a check and get my merchandise.
And now here is a formula which will enable anyone- including
you- to do the same thing. Interested? Read on...
A former distributor of business correspondence told me his
secrets, all the 'tricks of the trade' I needed to push my sales figures
sky high. Since then, I've discovered my own techniques. I put them
all together and came up with an infallible 'formula'.
In the last seven years, I've written all kinds of letters: sales

letters; business letters; administrative memos; even legal letters.

Everything a salesperson can do, I now do by letter. And it always
works.
Why?
Because each letter is tried and tested. The impact of each
sentence has been planned. I don't have any theories, any opinions
or personal preferences. Sales figures and profits are my only judge.
Being very enthusiastic about my success, I revealed my
'formula' to a few friends. These are the astonishing results.
A publisher friend doubled his subscriptions.
Another multiplied his sales by seven.
A third, who was selling trucks for a large dealership, learned
how to write letters. He now has his own business, and earns
three times as much money as before.
Yet another, in the electronic equipment field, multiplied his
sales three times and is now showing a healthy profit.
Then the idea came to me: make my formula available to others,
by writing a 'method'.
Fait accompli. My method is called How to write letters that sell.
This book contains all the sample letters, checklists, secrets and
techniques that have worked for me. I've kept nothing back. It's all
here.
Why did I decide to give all this away? Because I want to give
you the same helping hand that someone gave me a few years ago.
Someone who put me on the road to success. It's only right to give,
after getting so much.
Whether you're a businessman or woman, a shopkeeper, a
salesperson, or just young and ambitious, with a desire to succeed if you write one letter a day or 100 a month - this method will lead
you to success.
Christian H Godefroy

CHAPTER 1
How a simple letter can make people
open their wallets
Think of a situation when you have to convince someone to do
something for you. It's important. You have to be at your most
persuasive. You may not get a second chance. For example:
You have to convince your bank manager to do you a favor or
allow you more credit.
You want to get a very good deal on a car.
You're the head of an organization, or an elected official, and you
have to raise funds for an important project.
You've got your eye on a fiat and you want the landlord to lower
the price.
You're trying to get the Inland Revenue to grant you a substantial
reduction.
You want your major supplier to agree to more favorable terms
of payment.
You want to convince your housing association to install a lift in
your building.
You want to gain the romantic affection of a man or woman.
You know you have a great product and you want to reach the
largest number of potential buyers.

There are many approaches and techniques at your disposal for

convincing all these people. But the one we're about to show you
has four incomparable advantages over all the others.
1. You can use it in practically any situation.
2. This method can be used as a complement to any other
technique. For example, it can serve as added leverage to any
ongoing negotiations, or in your campaign to persuade people.
3. It is effective over long distances: there is no need for you to
go anywhere. This makes it VERY economical and VERY easy to
do.
4. You don't need a charismatic personality, or nerves of steel, or
a poker player's ability to bluff opponents out. If you're a shy
person, or if you have trouble expressing yourself in front of other
people, you can still use this method as effectively as Lee Iacocca
or the president of the United States!
This method, which allows you to sell, negotiate, convince
people and obtain what you want, faster and more easily than you
thought possible (from family, friends, suppliers, tax inspectors,
judges, your boss, sales reps of all kinds etc.), was originally
developed by some of the great names in advertising: names like
Ogilvy, Hopkins and Caples. Add to these the knowledge and
expertise of specialists in human psychology and psycho-sociology,
and years of research, experiments and on-site testing costing
millions of pounds, and you have the most effective, sane and
gentle means of persuasion available to anyone, anywhere in the
world.
We're not going to try to teach you how to manipulate people and
get them to do things against their will. Not at all. On the contrary,
what we're trying to do is teach you how to understand people
better, and also how to like people more, so that you can offer them
a valuable service, be of use to them AND attain your own
objectives, all at the same time. You can do all this, even though
your personal objectives are very, very ambitious. So what's the
method called? It's called copywriting.
That's right - copywriting, which literally means writing a model

text that is subsequently copied. Because, very often, original texts

are brought up to date, improved, adjusted etc. Or if they don't need
to be updated, only the 'key' (discussed in detail later on) may have
to be changed.
Becoming a millionaire in 20 steps
Perhaps becoming a millionaire isn't one of your priorities for the
coming months and years. But surely you would be interested in
finding out about a way to earn more money, a lot more money,
starting today.
Imagine all the things you could do if you had more money at
your disposal: buy a bigger house or a new car; take exotic
holidays; go out more often; help your friends; give more to charity
etc. You'd be able to make all the things you've been dreaming
about come true. You'd experience that calm sense of assurance that
financially comfortable people feel: a sense of complete security
about the future and total confidence in themselves.
What can you do to earn all this money? Well, I'm going to show
you a simple process that can make you a millionaire. After that, it's
up to you to set your own limits: $50,000, $100,000, $750,000,
$l,000,000 - it's totally up to you! Later on we'll take a look at the
advantages and the risks of this method. And also at ways to limit
those risks and obtain maximum benefits.
Ready? Imagine that you've written a direct mail letter which
brings you a return of $2 for every $1 you invest. Starting with only
$1, you'd have to reinvest your earnings only 20 times in order to
make a million dollars. Sounds too good to be true? Well, here's the
proof:

1st time
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th

$
$
$
$
$
$

2
4
8
16
32
64

5
10
20
40
80
160

10

7th
8th
9th
10th
11th
12th
13th
14th
15th
16th
17th
18th
19th

$ 128
$ 256
$ 512
$ 1,024
$ 2,048
$ 4,096
$ 8,192
$16,384
$32,768
$65,536
$131,072
$262,144
$524,288
20th

320
640
1,280
2,560
5,120
10,240
20,480
40,960
81,920
163,840
327,680
655,360
1,310,720

$1,048,576 2,621,440

'But,' you may object, 'at the rate of one mailing a month, using
the same letter 20 times would take over a year and a half.'
Well, there's nothing to prevent you, commercially, legally or
financially speaking, from sending out a mailing once a week. At
that rate, it would only take you five months to make your first
million.
Also, you're not obliged to invest only $1 at the start. If your
initial investment is $5, you'd only need 19 mailings to reach your
goal.
It's always technically and financially better to send out the
largest number of letters you can: doing this substantially improves
the cost/ return ratio for each letter sent (we'll be talking more about
this later on).
Is there a limit to how large mailings should be?
The answer to this question is simple: make them as large as the
risk you wish to take. You can make a precise calculation of this
limit by:
using tests based on statistics and probability factors that help
you predict the results of your mailings in advance (described in

11

detail later on);

calculating the costs of the mailing (suppliers, printers, delivery
service etc.).

But there's more to it than that. What if some letters return three
or four or five or six times your initial investment, instead of just
twice as much? In many cases the returns are much higher and your
chances of multiplying your stake improve as you become more
proficient at writing copy.
What if you don't have any money to invest?
'I'm broke...'
No problem. Apart from the postal charges, which always have
to be paid up front, the other costs (delivery, paper, printing,
warehouse space etc.) do not have to be paid in advance. All these
costs can be billed on credit.
Here's a little secret.
Selling by direct mail is just a game, where you can earn colossal
sums.., mostly by investing other people's money!
The same goes for the stock market, except that stocks are more
risky. With direct mail, results are a lot easier to predict, and the
success or failure of a campaign depends, to a much greater extent,
on you and you alone.
The art of direct-mail sales is a game where hundreds of millions
of dollars are placed on the table each and every day.
Are you a player?
Maybe you like winning, like I do? In this book I'm going to tell
you about my techniques as a professional player and I'm even
going to let you in on a few handy tricks to make sure you come out
a winner (all perfectly honest, of course!).

12

If you're serious about making money from direct mail then

mastering the art of copywriting is essential. You'll have to sweat a
little, you may have doubts at some point, you may even get
discouraged. But, stick it out, and you'll be sure to experience the
exaltation and excitement of success, and the joys of being rich.
Basic principles for a successful mailing
What elements are necessary for a successful mailing?
Outer envelope
This is the single most important element. If it isn't opened,
nothing happens. There are, of course, the traditional techniques of
putting 'PERSONAL' or 'SPECIAL OFFER' or 'RESERVED FOR
ADDRESSEE ONLY' on the envelope. But you can also use the
envelope to state clearly what your offer is about, as long as you
arouse the reader's curiosity. (For more, see chapter 12.)
Sales letter
This is the second most important element. It is a personal
message which makes the reader want to buy (your product or
service), and strengthens their conviction to do so. We'll have a lot
more to say about it later on.
Brochure
Whatever the letter cannot do must be done by the enclosed
brochure: its design, pictures, diagrams, endorsements etc.
Order form
The simpler it is, and the easier to fill out, the better. Keep the
sales message clear: the idea is to be able to convince someone by
getting them to read only the order form.

13

Reply envelope
Always include one in your package. You mustn't expect a
potential client to find their own envelope - doing so could very
well lose you the sale, since the client will probably put off replying
(or forget about it completely) because they haven't got an envelope
handy.
In direct mail sales later means never.
Support letter
Included in this category are any documents that can help sales,
such as testimonials from satisfied clients. Adding them to your
mailing or not may depend on the weight of your package: post
offices usually set certain weight limits and surpassing them by
even a fraction of an ounce can double the cost of your mailing.
Provide a return guarantee
A study was conducted in Germany which showed that over 500
mail order firms in that country were 'fly by night' operations, i.e.
they accepted orders from clients but never delivered the goods. For
a while these kinds of despicable operators were threatening the
entire mail order industry's survival. Despite stringent laws and
constant surveillance by consumer protection groups, people still
need to be reassured that your mail order offer is 'on the level'.
Do anything you can do to reassure them. A return guarantee is
indispensable if you want to establish a positive and honest
relationship with your clients.
Because when you think about it, what do consumers really have
to base their decisions on? Promises, maybe a retouched photograph
or a pretty drawing. What they don't have in front of them is the
product itself. So, to avoid mistrust and resentment, promise people
a prompt and full refund if they are not satisfied. This will also
protect you against any legal problems with consumer associations
and protection groups.

14

Give your letter a personal look

Print it up in different colors, use a friendly 'typewritten' typeface
or type it on a typewriter instead of having it typeset. Sign the letter
and use a different color for the signature than for the rest of the
text. Choose a textured paper that looks more like paper you'd buy
to write a letter to someone or print a subtle grain on to the paper.
The more your letter looks handwritten, and destined for a single
person, the better your sales will be.
Pay special attention to the text of your letter
The major portion of this book is devoted to this subject, and this
subject alone. It is the most important part of making your mailing
campaign a success. Nothing will happen if your letter isn't well
written. You can have the best product in the world, you may be
offering a fantastic price, but if your message doesn't respect the
rules of direct mail copywriting, then you'll invariably lose money.
Good copywriting can double your sales and even multiply them
ten times over. Similarly, your profits will increase 100 per cent to
1,000 per cent. An added response of only 0.2 per cent can double
your profits in some cases. Therefore, anything you can do to
increase your responses, even things which may seem trivial, are
worth the effort. A leverage effect comes into play, which can
increase profits 10, 20, 50, 100 per cent and even more!
A good sales letter (and this is very important to understand) can
result in a considerable increase in profit. To prove the validity of
what I'm saying, take a look at this study, conducted by an
American company. The same target group was sent five different
mailings:

1. A 'self-mailer' (including sales letter, order form and return

envelope in the same document);
2. A brochure;
3. A brochure combined with a letter, printed on the first page of

15

the brochure;
4. A very extensive brochure, accompanied by a short letter;
5. A great sales letter accompanied by a very small brochure.

The results were as follows:

Too often, failure is attributed to factors other than the quality of

the writing. Of course, there are limits to what good writing can do.
A bad product which is well marketed won't last very long. But a
good product which is well marketed - well, that's exactly what
empires are built on!
How can you do a good job selling your proposals, your projects,
your services or products? The following pages contain all the basic
principles, all the fine points and professional tricks of this tried and
tested method of effective sales: copywriting.

16

SUMMARY
Whatever your situation, and whatever initial problems you have
to deal with, if you have something specific to ask, either of an
individual, or of a large number of individuals, you must know how
to make use of the technique of written persuasion: copywriting.
Good copywriting can produce amazing results, especially in the
field of mail order marketing, where its impact generates vastly
improved sales, to the point where the gross profits of an operation
can be doubled, tripled, even multiplied tenfold, because of the
leverage effect.

17

CHAPTER 2
An easy way to get large numbers of
people to respond to 'your letter

The entire future of your business depends on this

moment...
Whether you're looking for a sponsor, a job, clients or investors;
whether you sell books, insurance policies, machinery, clothes,
property, boats or even yourself.., any time you have to address
people you do not know with the aim of selling something, you
always have to establish some kind of 'business relationship'.
What do you think is the most important moment in a business
relationship?
The answer is the very first moment, i.e. the moment you
establish contact with a future client.
The entire future of your business depends on this initial contact:
either prospective clients let you speak and listen to you, thereby
giving you at least a chance to convince them; or they shut the door
very quickly and refuse even to consider your offer.
When that happens, even the best products, offered at the best of
prices, described in superb catalogues, with excellent samples-are
useless. Once a client decides not to listen, the game is over and
you might as well pack it up and try somewhere else.
Each time you establish contact with a prospective client, you
have a fraction of a second to capture that person's attention.

18

Read it or throw it away: the decision is made in a

fraction of a second
Above all, don't expect a second chance (or a third or fourth):
you have to arouse the reader's curiosity and capture his or her
attention the very first instant contact is made.
Why? Because people are in a hurry. They have a lot to do and
no time to waste. Also, there's a lot of competition out there. Selling
by direct mail has become very popular and people often find their
letter-boxes stuffed with various amazing offers, which they either
read or throw directly into the dustbin.
Result: the time you have to capture your reader's attention is
getting shorter and shorter.
It's exactly the same as when someone knocks unexpectedly at
your door. You immediately think, 'Is this some kind of scam? Is
the person going to try and sell me something? Or ask me to give
money to a charity? Is it a friend? Is it the postman with a registered
letter?'
If the person is a sales rep, they only have a fraction of a second
to get you to listen before you shut the door, saying something like,
'I'm really not interested...' or 'I don't need any, thanks...'.
The only way to get the odds on your side
Before going any further, I must ask for your complete attention.
The most effective letter, written by the best professional
copywriter around, will be useless and do absolutely nothing for
you (on the contrary, it will cost you time and money) if it is not
read!
In fact, every time an initial contact is made, the entire future of
your business (at least the future of your mail order business) is at
stake. If you hope to go any further, and eventually make a sale,
you have to convince people right from the start.
So, you have to concentrate all your efforts and all your energy
on this single and unique objective: capture your prospective

19

clients' attention and keep it so that they will read your message.
This is the only way to get the odds on your side and make your
mailing a success.
How to capture your prospects' attention
Why is it, do you think, that the most dynamic companies (and
coincidentally the ones that succeed best) invest millions of pounds
each year simply attracting people's attention?
The answer is that this is the most important step in marketing:
first capture people's attention and leave them with a positive
impression.
Only afterwards can you try to sell. Prospective clients must first
be made aware of your enterprise, and be ready to take the time and
make the effort to read what you have to say.
Furthermore,
concerned, first
follows. As the
usually right?
identification.

experience has shown that as far as sales are

impressions often set the tone for everything that
saying goes: 'Beware of first impressions- they're
Everything begins at the moment of initial

Try petting a dog without first giving it a chance to sniff you out.
You might get your hand bitten!
People aren't much different. No one will feel comfortable
engaging in a serious conversation with someone they don't know,
especially if the person isn't especially attractive.
How to gain the confidence of prospective clients
With this in mind, take the necessary measures to control the way
you look. In the case of direct mail sales, you don't have to dress
yourself up in a new suit, but you do have to dress up your mailing,
so that people notice you and feel confident about doing business
with you.
If you were to meet your prospects in person, you'd do
everything you could to look your best, wouldn't you?

20

There's nothing unusual about that - people don't buy things if

they don't have confidence in the salesperson. That's why a female
sales rep gets her hair done, and goes out and buys a smart outfit
before making an important presentation. A male rep would wear
his best suit and tie, make sure he's well groomed etc.
Ask yourself why some people brag about being able to judge
others based only on the way they look. It's because we are all
inclined, to varying degrees, to do the same thing.
So, to capture your clients' attention, you have to present them
with an outward appearance that they can identify immediately, and
which makes them want to know more about you, i.e. to listen to
you, or read your text, and find out what you expect from them...

How to get clients to identify you quickly and easily

This objective is so important, so crucial to the success of your
mailing, that we've devoted an entire section to it: 'The secrets of
high performance envelopes'.
However, although the envelope stage is extremely important, it
isn't enough: once your prospects have opened the envelope, they
still have to want to find out more about you. This is achieved by
carefully planning the following.
The contents and arrangement of all documents contained in
the envelope. The order in which you place your documents - and
therefore the order in which your prospects open them - is very
important: everything must be done to make reading your message
easy and everything must be calculated to make them want to find
out more. In this way, you lead them towards your final objective,
which of course is convincing them to buy. This topic is covered in
detail below.
The contents of your sales letter and especially its heading
(covered in detail later on), since this document is the most
important follow-up (in the process of leading your prospects
towards the act of buying) to the identification you have worked so

21

hard to establish, in terms of credibility, commercial viability or

your product, honesty of your operation etc.
The secret that makes people want to read your message
How can you arouse your prospects' interest, so that they want to
read your message and find out more about you? The answer is very
simple and 100 per cent effective: talk about them, and their
problems, their worries, their cares, their hopes and desires. This is
an infallible way to get people interested in what you have to say
and what you want them to do (buy your product or service).
I say 'talk' because before you write anything down, you start by
talking to the people you want to reach in your mind. Writing is just
a matter of transcribing what you would say to someone in person at least that's the way it is in copywriting.
This method has been used since ancient times, even by great
philosophers like Socrates and Plato, and it has always been
extremely effective. It is still the most effective way of attracting
someone's attention, sympathy and in some cases even love! Yet the
technique is really so simple. How can you make it work for you?
Three types of mail - and the one to avoid
Your prospective client has just emptied his or her letter-box and
is about to sort through the mail.
Imagine yourself, early in the morning, picking up your post.
Close your eyes for a moment and visualize the scene...
At first glance, there are three types of mail. This is sorted
according to the type of document contained in the envelope. See
opposite.
These categories can be further divided into two main types.
1. Impersonal mail, which is printed up in bulk, and sent to
thousands of households. This includes publicity, bank statements,
bills, public notices etc. Among these documents, some interest us
(tax returns, bank statements, publicity about a product we need

22

etc.), while most do not interest us.

2. Personal letters. What makes a letter personal? The way it is
written, of course. You take a pen and paper, or a typewriter, and
you start talking to the person to whom you are writing.

Even in the personal category, there are some letters which

contain news or valuable information, and which are
interesting, and others which contain nothing of interest.

23

Initial conclusions from this are:

1. make your letter look as personal as possible;
2. arouse the reader's interest as quickly as possible.
How to personalize your letter
It is almost as important to know what you should not do, as
what you should do to succeed. Think about it for a moment: if you
want your letter to look personal, what should you avoid?
Write down your answers here (give precise examples):

One of the most common faults is to have your letter boringly

typeset. The second is not to include a signature. (Do you ever write
letters and then not sign them?) The third is to start with 'Dear
Sir/Madam...' or 'Dear Client...' which is a bit better, but still bad.
Some letters are typed in colors that don't exist on normal
typewriters, some are badly printed or blurred, some use too many
different typefaces, or too much underlining or bold face, etc.
On the next few pages, you'll find some examples of things you
shouldn't do.
Now what about things that make your letter look more personal?
Try to come up with a few ideas yourself:

24

We'll be looking at these elements in detail later on, but here are
just a few which help:
clear typewritten characters;
a signature that looks real, in a color other than that of the text
itself;
personalized text (style);
recent date;
references at the beginning of the letter;
handwritten word or phrase;
a reference, right at the start of the letter, to some
characteristic of the reader, which involves him or her
personally.
The envelope is also important: does it look right? Whenever
possible, use a real stamp.
Capture your reader's interest immediately
Remember that you really have very, very little time to capture a
reader's interest. An average of five to ten per cent of people

25

immediately throw all the direct mail envelopes they receive away,
without even opening them, never mind reading them.
Eighty per cent of people allow an average of 20 seconds per
envelope, before making a decision either to throw it away, or adopt
what is called a 'pre-sales attitude', which means that they are
sufficiently interested to want to know more about the product, its
price, its capabilities etc.
(The final ten' per cent of people regularly read their direct mail.)
These figures are based on scientific research conducted by direct
marketing agencies, using high speed cameras, chronometers and
special tape recorders that enable them to accurately observe the
process which takes place when people receive direct mail.
If you could sit in on some of their working sessions, you'd be in
for a few surprises. For example, do you think people read your
documents line by line, in the order in which they're written? Not at
all. On the contrary, you'd think from observing the way people
open and read mail that there wasn't any order or rationale to their
reading at all! But this is only an initial impression - the reality is
quite different...
Researchers have discovered the following.
1. Depending on the type of message and the target audience, an
average of 90 per cent of people take eight to twelve seconds to
open the envelope and unfold the contents enough to begin reading.
2. The next phase (approach and discovery) also takes place
very rapidly: again an average of between eight to twelve seconds,
during which time prospects move from one document to another,
finally returning to the sales letter, where they select certain bits of
information. At the end of this phase (on average 20 seconds after
finding the envelope in their letter-box), your prospects reach a fork
in the road: either they throw the whole thing away (or put off
reading it for later) on they continue reading with growing interest.
This is called 'second phase' reading.
3. During second phase reading, prospects examine each
element in detail. And in 85 per cent of cases, this phase
automatically begins with the sales letter. The human eye usually

26

looks at the upper right-hand part of the page first. Then it moves
over to the left and makes a rapid scan of the page, picking out any
text you have emphasized (using bold type, underlining, capitals
etc.). Only after this scan is completed does the actual reading (or,
to be more accurate, surveying) begin.
So, to capture your reader's interest in the first few seconds, you
must make the most you can of the two main areas of the page,
marked numbers 1 and 2 on the diagram below.

Imagine your prospective clients receiving your letter. They open

the outer envelope, take everything out and are immediately
confronted with your sales letter (everything has been specially
folded so that this objective is achieved). More precisely, they find
themselves looking at the upper third part of the sales letter.
If that portion of the page triggers a positive response in your
clients' minds, they'll open the letter and start reading. Remember
that whenever people are presented with a sales letter, their
attention is automatically and unconsciously attracted to the upper
third portion of the page.
And research has shown, among other things, that the human eye
is first attracted to the upper right-hand comer of the page (why this
is so is open to conjecture: is it because we read from left to right,
so that for us the left signifies the past, and right the future? If this

27

is true, then people reading Arabic, from right to left, would do the
exact opposite...).
The same studies have also shown that the first thing 85 per cent
of people read is the letter's 'heading' or letterhead (if there is one).
This is where you'd place:
your company's logo;
your company's name, address, telephone, email and fax
numbers.
Four objectives of your letter heading
If you plan to add a heading to your sales letter, make sure it
achieves the following four objectives.
That it attracts your prospects' visual interest.
That it makes it easy for prospects to identify your company.
That it makes reading easy (which means the text should be
short, reduced to bare essentials, written in simple language
and devoid of any references to financial solvency, legalities,
etc.).
That it makes moving on to the next paragraph easy and
natural (ideally, the last character in your letterhead will be on
the same vertical plane as the first letter of the next
paragraph).
Should you use a letterhead or make your letter
anonymous?
Question: Should you use a letterhead at all?
If your company's letterhead serves to reinforce your message,
then the answer is yes. If not, then don't include one, and use the
privileged, upper right-hand position for something else (we'll tell
you what later on). Put your address somewhere else (see page 25).
This will give your letter a much better chance of being perceived

28

as personal.
Here are a few examples of letterheads and layouts:

29

30

31

32

33

Useful typefaces
Here are a few standard typefaces you can use for your
letterheads:

ARIAL/HELVETICA/SWISS
One of the most widely used typefaces. Its
clean lines inspire confidence (honesty) and
modernity (industry).

TIMES
The other, most common (and classic) typeface. It
has a more, traditional, old-style look and adds
weight to your text (often used in areas of finance,
banking, investment etc.).

Script
An elegant, rather feminine typeface, often used for
invitations, decoration etc.

BODONI
Used by IBM as its standard typeface, it evokes a
sense of solidity and continuity (computers,
business texts etc.).

FUTURA
The same style as Helvetica, but a little

34

less intimidating (commercial).

AVANT-GARDE
Averys designed typeface, attractive and
modern (architecture - design).

GARAMOND
A very elegant, old-fashioned typeface, often used in
literature (publishing, printing etc.).

SOUVENIR
This typeface evokes the turn of the century (antiques,
furniture, interior decoration etc.).

OPTIMA
A modern and very simple typeface, used by
medical publications, and in laboratory and
technological information, etc.

Here are a few more specialized and imaginative typefaces:

STENCIL
Suggests a rustic atmosphere and materials like wood and
leather (construction, hardware, wood products etc.).

35

COPPERPLATE
Suggest authority. Good for doctors, lawyers, and related
subjects.

MACHINE
A heavy typeface which lives up to its name (garages, heavy
industries etc.).

TIFFANY
An elegant typeface with feminine touch (music,
arts, classical theatre, etc.).

KORINNA
An original typeface which is both square and
rounded (printing, arts and crafts, education).
Do letter headings always act as a reinforcement?
A letterhead can act as a reinforcement in two ways.
First, your prospect already knows about your company and the
kind of products you offer. Here your letterhead allows the prospect
to identify who you are immediately. If this is not the first time that
you've sent the prospect a letter, it means that they have shown an
interest in your products in the past, and are therefore likely to want
to know more about the product or service you are currently
offering. In such cases, a letterhead is absolutely essential.

36

Secondly, you have a high-end or expensive product which needs

to be sold by a company which fits into a certain tradition of
respectability (for example, luxury items, collectors' items,
antiques, cultural artifacts like Aboriginal paintings, and even
certain financial products like insurance policies and investment
portfolios - all these require the extra assurance of 'respectability'
and 'credibility' associated with tradition). In such cases:
use traditional or prestige typefaces;
the name of the company should evoke a sense of tradition or
history, a well-known region, an era, a country;
your logo and/or heading should be subtle and in good taste.
In all other cases, it is better to reduce the letterhead to its bare
minimum, so as not to interfere with the rest of the text. You can
even leave it out completely and make full use of the top part of the
page to capture your reader's interest.
In any case, if your prospects really want to know who you are,
i.e. who wrote the letter, all they have to do is:
look at the bottom of the first page, where you will have
printed your company's name, address, phone and fax number;
or
turn to the end of the letter, where they'll find your signature,
followed by your name and title, and the company's address.
How can you make optimum use of this very important part of
the page (upper right-hand corner)?
This part of the page corresponds to the hook on a fisherman's
line. And one of the major discoveries of copywriting is this: place
the most attractive bait you can find on your hook. Professional
copy writers call this bait simply: the HOOK or HEADLINE.

37

The doorway to your letter: how to make it open

automatically for prospective clients
The headline
The doorway to your letter is its headline. It is the key factor to
making your mailing a success.
'Day-to-day hassles (Did I remember to take my wallet? Did I
lock the back door . . .) Worries . . . holiday plans . . . children . . .
money problems.., a bit of good news.., bad news.., the car broke
down.., don't forget to call Mother... Hurry up or I'll be late... Where
did I leave my keys... ? etc. etc.'
Your prospective clients are almost continually thinking about
something. An endless stream of thoughts flows through their
minds, thoughts which concern and interest them in a very personal
way. And they never stop! There's always a backlog of other
thoughts trying to push their way in. People's minds are rarely
empty - there are always hundreds of thoughts and ideas just
waiting to jump in and fill any empty spaces.
What you need to do is stop this continuous flow of thoughts, so
that your prospects pay attention to you. All you need is a fraction
of a second, after which they'll stop following their own train of
thought and start listening to yours. And this stop has to be strong
enough to retain their interest right up to the moment of buying.
This is not an easy thing to do...
How to get your text read from beginning to end
This is far more difficult and ambitious than simply trying to
attract attention!
Not only do you want to attract attention, you also want to
capture and retain it, so that your prospects read your message right
through to the end, are convinced that they want your product or
service, and place their orders...
If you had a shop, you wouldn't just want to attract people to look

38

at your window. That would be easy - just put a couple of Belisha

beacons outside the shop, make some noise and you'll soon have a
crowd of people flocking to see what's going on. But the chances
are, as soon as they find out, they'll leave. What you want is for
these people to come into your shop - you want to 'hook' them with
your headline, so that they are interested enough in your product to
take the time and make the effort to find out more about it.
The headline is the hook, which stops their normal flow of
thoughts. To show you just how important a good headline is - in
fact it can make all the difference between success and failure - take
a look at another direct marketing technique: newspaper ads.
You've seen those advertising supplements which are often slipped
into your newspaper, especially the weekend editions . . . A few
years ago, a study was conducted which showed that close to 80 per
cent of such supplements, which were aimed specifically at women,
were not even noticed by men! Need I say more...
Start with a promise
What elements constitute a good headline?
The headline is:
a sentence or a phrase,
placed at the head of the text (like the title of a book, chapter
or article),
designed and laid out (using typefaces and colors of your
choice) in a way that makes prospects want to continue
reading and find out more...
a promise.
This last point is extremely important. Remember that word
PROMISE. As Samuel Johnson said, 'A promise - a great promise is the soul of all advertising'.
What are you actually saying when you make a promise?
According to the dictionary, a promise 'arouses a sense of
probability that a thing or event which is desired will come to pass'.

39

Desire is defined as 'the conscious tension directed at something

one wishes to possess'.
The process of making promises is as follows: you formulate
words which stimulate your reader's imagination. You promise that
one, or a number, of their needs will be satisfied, and they imagine
the pleasure they will experience when this takes place.
The basis of all this, as well as the basis of pleasure - and
therefore the desire for pleasure - is what are called needs.
Next, we will look at how to predict the motives and needs of
your target clients, so that you can make promises which result in
the greatest number of responses to your offer.
SUMMARY
The best sales letter in the world accomplishes nothing if it
isn't read.
There is only one way to get prospective clients to read your
letter: capture their attention and retain it until they start
reading.
You only have a few seconds to capture your prospect's
attention and only a single opportunity to succeed. No second
or third tries here! Therefore you must succeed the first time
around.
To improve your chances of success, you have to gain your
prospective clients' confidence the moment they identify who
you are (by carefully designing your envelope, logo and
letterhead), and arouse their interest as much as possible (by
personalizing your letter, making it easy to read and follow,
and above all by coming up with an effective headline).

40

CHAPTER 3
How to come up with promises that
produce the greatest number of replies

Predicting the motives and needs of your target clients

Psycho-sociologists have conclusively established that the source
of human behavior, its roots and motives, can be reduced to a
number of fundamental needs, which are specific to each
individual.
This means that two individuals, observed in isolation, will not
react in the same way to the same event, especially over a long
period of time.
This is what makes up each individual's personality. And this is
what makes us all unique.
However, these same psycho-sociologists have also been able to
identify certain basic tendencies in human beings and they have
developed a decoding system which enables them to pinpoint these
tendencies more easily.
For example, they have shown that it is possible clearly to distinguish a number of categories of needs. And one of these
researchers, Abraham Maslow, organized these categories into a
pyramidal structure, which has since become famous, and which
bears his name: Maslow's pyramid.
(See diagram next page.)

41

The basis of all action: five fundamental needs

Why a pyramid? Because Maslow realized that these needs are
progressive: we move from one category to another, from one level
to another, in a progressive way. And before superior needs appear,
the inferior needs (those at the base of the pyramid) must first be
satisfied.
1. Physiological needs
You leave for a month's holiday in South America. Great! A few
days after your arrival, you decide to take a domestic flight in order
to explore some of the interior of the country. The small plane takes
off. You're flying high over the Andes. It's a majestic sight.
Suddenly, there's a shout from the back of the plane. Passengers are
getting out of their seats, their faces filled with fear. One of the
plane's engines is on fire! Panic spreads. The plane loses altitude,
heading straight for the side of a mountain. A few interminable
seconds pass.., and then the crash! You regain consciousness and
find yourself among the debris of the aircraft. Miraculously, you are
not injured - just a few scratches. But you are the only survivor.
So you start waiting for help to arrive. One hour, two hours, three

42

hours pass, then six, twelve, twenty-four hours. Nothing. One day,
two days, three days - still nothing. You've eaten everything you
could find in the plane and you've also finished off everything there
was to drink. What do you do now?
One point of interest: a few seconds after the crash you found
yourself thinking about all kinds of things that are totally different
from the things you normally think about. But, 72 hours later, your
thoughts have changed once again, and you could say that you're
thinking more like a prehistoric cave dweller than like a civilized
human being who is rich, healthy and happy...
Actually, you're thinking about one thing and one thing only:
where to find something to drink. And soon you'll be concentrating
all your thoughts on eating, on finding food.
These are what are called physiological needs. They must be
satisfied, and the more difficult it becomes to do this, the more
ready you are to do 'anything and everything' to satisfy them.
The example above is real enough: it happened to the members
of an Argentinean rugby team and their story was even depicted in
the film Alive. The survivors were forced to turn to cannibalism to
survive. Clearly, since they had absolutely nothing else to eat, they
decided to consume human flesh rather than die...
The same goes for other physiological needs. If you think about
your primary, absolutely essential needs, you will come up with a
more or less complete list of human beings' physiological needs.
People who have been deprived of the opportunity to fulfill one
or another of these physiological needs may suffer for the rest of
their lives because of it. Someone who has experienced starvation
may build their entire life around this motivating factor: they'll do
everything they can to make absolutely certain they never have to
undergo the suffering of intense hunger again. It is said, for
example, that hunger was the motivating force behind Aristotle
Onassis's driving desire to become rich...
Now, what does all this have to do with copywriting, you may
well ask?

43

Base your promise on a physiological need

Many promises are partly, or totally, based on these motivating
factors. Think about it for a minute and try to make a list of any that
come to mind.
'Cold? Me? Never!' (ad for thermal clothes)
'The thirst-quencher' (Coca-Cola)
'My pain disappeared completely' (painkiller)
'Eat and drink to your heart's content' (Club Med)
'Sleep like a log - without medication' (book on insomnia)
'Breathing - so natural, so essential' (air purifier)
Open any magazine or newspaper and you'll find a host of other
references to physiological needs.
Now let's get back to our plane crash. You've found enough to
drink, and eat, so you aren't hungry or thirsty any more.
So, what new desires do you have now? Well, it's quite simple:
you need to feel that your future needs will also be satisfied.
2. Need for security
To return to our example of the plane crash survivor... If no help
arrives in a few days, you'd start looking for warm clothes, you'd
build yourself some kind of shelter to protect yourself from the
elements and any dangerous animals, you'd build up a stock of
food, you'd look for weapons to hunt and defend yourself, you may
even consider cultivating some land so that you will have
vegetables to eat later on.
Despite the fact that modern society is pretty well organized in
this area (with the availability of social security, unemployment
insurance, health care, the police force, and all the other official
organizations set up to control and reassure us), it is still possible to

44

observe that the need for security is extremely strong.

You only have to look at the promises made by politicians to
realize that the need for security is an extremely powerful
motivating factor.
Take a moment to think about all the ad campaigns and publicity
headlines which are based on this category of need, and make a list
of them.
'Our health insurance plan pays you x pounds for every day of
work you miss . . .'
'Prepare for the unexpected...'
'Protect your home against theft...'
'Total road safety and security...'
'Take charge of your future...'
A large part of the things that surround you are the result of your
need for security. From your refrigerator to the locks on your doors,
from your medicine cabinet to your smoke detectors - you acquire
all these things in order to assure your future security.
Some things satisfy both physiological needs and the need for
security at the same time.
Whenever emergency situations arise (war, economic depression,
crime waves, social upheavals, natural catastrophes etc.), these two
levels of need become all the more pressing and demand more than
their usual share of attention.
3. Need for love and belonging
You're alone again. Once you get organized so that you don't
have to spend too much time worrying about basic needs, you start
feeling bored. You have an intense desire for companionship.
After satisfying the first two levels of needs, most people
experience a great longing for relations with other people, for love,
affection, friendship and companionship. They try to find their

45

place within a group or family unit. Although these needs may have
been absent while they were still lacking essentials, they are
nevertheless deeply affected by feelings of solitude, rejection,
loneliness, rootless ness etc., as well as the lack of tenderness and
love.
In life-threatening situations, these feelings are intensified,
resulting in feelings of camaraderie among soldiers, the 'until death
do us part' sentiment central to marriage, the binding force found in
street gangs, police forces, terrorist groups etc.
The entire fashion industry, which exploits people's need to feel
they belong to a group, is based on the need for love and belonging.
Once again, try to find some examples in the ads you encounter:
'You too can find love...' (dating agency)
'The perfect relationship...' (dating agency)
'How to find someone to love...' (book)
'How to get rid of your shyness once and for all...'
(correspondence course)
'Public speaking made easy . . .' (book)
'How to Win Friends and Influence People...' (a book by Dale
Carnegie)
4. Need for recognition
Advertising in general, and direct mail sales in particular, fully
exploits the motivating factors resulting from this category of need.
We all need to feel that we are of value to ourselves, and we also
crave the esteem and recognition of others.
There's nothing harder to accept than being ignored, to the point
where people have even been known to commit murder just to get
their name in the newspapers so that others notice them!
Who do you think is the most important person in the world to
most individuals?

46

The answer is clear: the most important person in the world to

each and every individual is... him or herself!
An American telephone company did a study to discover the
word that is used most frequently in the English language. The
winner, by a wide margin, was the word I.
Remember this, because it's very important: the people you're
writing to, even though they may say they are devoted to the wellbeing of others, and even though they may abhor the word, are first
and foremost egoists, just like everybody else. They are primarily
interested in themselves.
Before going on to the higher levels of needs, attempt the
following exercise: sort the following common motivating factors
into their respective categories of need - P for physiological; S for
security; B for belonging; and R for recognition.
This list is used extensively by copywriters and covers a large
portion of the motivating factors used in mail order marketing (a
single, motivating factor may fall into more than one category):

Category
1. Earning money
2. Improving health
3. Saving time
4. Being appreciated by others
5. Improving appearance
6. Being fashionable
7. Avoiding criticism
8. Avoiding pain
9. Avoiding losing money
10. Owning beautiful objects

47

11. Leisure
12. Getting promoted
13. Improving social status
14. Getting compliments
15. Insuring your security and retirement
16. Being more comfortable
17. Attracting the opposite sex
18. Avoiding losing what you possess
19. Avoiding losing your job
20. Avoiding work and/or effort

1. S,R

6. B, R

11.?

16. S

2. P

7. B

12. R

17. P, B

3. ?

8. P

13. R

18. S

4. R

9. S

14. R

19. B

5. B, R

10. R

15. S

20. P

The answers listed below are not the final word- some factors are
obvious, others are open to discussion. Two of the factors do not fit
into any of the categories we have discussed so far.
This leaves us with four examples of physiological needs, five
examples of the need for security, five examples of the need for
love and belonging, and eight examples of the need for recognition!

48

5. Need for self-realization (fulfillment)

Even if all your desires have been satisfied and all your needs
fulfilled, you still feel a kind of 'motivational lack' deep in your
heart, which forces you to act: this is the need to realize your full
potential.
Maslow defined it this way: 'Whatever a person can be, he or she
must be.'
This is what makes artists strive to create their masterpieces, or
inventors to perfect their ideas, and it's also what makes ordinary
people want to improve their lives.
It's very difficult to imagine people who really do fulfill their
potential, as long as they are not liberated from the previous levels
of need that we all have to deal with.
People often reach this stage in their development only partially,
on holiday for example, or during their leisure hours. That's why I
would place the motivating factors of 'saving time' and 'having
more leisure' in this category.
These needs are not often exploited in direct mail sales because
they do not correspond to the needs of the mass market. And, in
fact, the higher you climb on the Maslow scale, the fewer people
there are at your level.
Other decoding systems
The Maslow scale doesn't explain everything: it's also a good
idea, when working on a sales letter, to modify your approach by
referring to other decoding systems.
For example, you can use the seven deadly sins.
How to get the most out of the seven deadly sins
Without looking at the list below, try to remember what the
seven deadly sins are. If you can't remember one, or more, you
might find it interesting to ask yourself why you forgot those sins in

49

particular.
Here is the list:
1. avarice
2. anger;
3. envy;
4. gluttony;
5. lust;
6. pride;
7. laziness.
The Church did not threaten its followers with fire and brimstone
for committing these cardinal sins by accident: the sins represent
very strong motivating factors in many men and women.
Today, however, psychologists have shown that by suppressing
these motivating factors, the Church caused people serious harm,
and even led many believers to develop mental, and especially
psychosomatic, illnesses. Suppressed anger is at the root of a
number of diseases; a healthy dose of laziness has led to many
advances in the human condition; sexuality can be a means of selffulfillment; pride is sometimes justified; gluttony should be treated
as an illness, rather than punished, etc.
Of course I'm not trying to say that lust is a virtue or that avarice
is a positive quality!
How to stimulate people's demons in order to sell
Let's be honest: a copywriter who is trying to be an effective
salesperson is certain to stimulate one, or a number, of these
demons, hidden in the minds of all consumers, and always ready to
show their ugly heads. If no one has talked about the seven deadly
sins in a book about copywriting before, it certainly isn't because
the authors weren't aware of them. We are all very well aware of the
following.

50

Gluttony forms the basis of the billions of pounds spent each

year on industries that produce things like sweets, cakes, desserts,
preserves and so on, as well as the billions spent, paradoxically
enough, on diet products and all kinds of methods purporting to
help people lose weight.
Avarice has made a fortune for banks, stockbrokers, investment
consultants etc.
Envy of what the neighbors own is the single, greatest
motivating factor of our consumer-oriented society.
Pride sells Cartier watches, flashy and expensive cars, perfumes,
clothes, dream homes and thousands of other items that people don't
really 'need'.
Laziness is the driving force behind mail order sales, and also
makes people buy all those gadgets, instant foods, handy tools etc.
that are supposed to make life so much easier.
Lust sells X-rated movies, videos, magazines and books, and
almost anything else you can imagine. 'Pretty girls make sales' as
the saying goes, and this is often quite true! Just look at the ads on
TV and in magazines - they're full of pretty girls wearing less and
less clothing. If they didn't sell, they wouldn't be there!
Anger works best in the area of politics, and can even result in
revolutions and social upheavals on a mass scale.
Are we, then, the instruments of Satan because we write sales
letters? It is up to you to answer this question for yourself. The only
advice I can offer is that if the product you're trying to sell is a good
one and can really help people, then don't hesitate to rely on the
motivating factors which deeply affect the people you're trying to
reach.
We live in a material world (as the song says), in a consumeroriented society, at the dawn of the 21st century, and even if you
want to change the world, you still have to accept the rules that
apply and play the cards you're dealt.
One thing is for certain, the more you know about human nature,
the more enthusiastic you'll become. You'll quickly realize, as you

51

progress in this field, that people are basically honest, sensitive,

enthusiastic, kind, fairly intelligent - and idealistic!
In conclusion, keep the seven deadly sins in mind when trying to
sell something, and see if there's some way you can make them
work for you. You can also make use of the host of less deadly sins
that all people succumb to at one time or another, but that would
take another book to explain!
Now, what about you and your product?
Now take a moment to think about the product or service you're
offering to people. To what motivating factors does it appeal?

Name of product or service:

My product (or service) will allow buyers to satisfy their needs for:

It corresponds to their desire (sin) of:

Are there any additional arguments you can make to help them

52

satisfy their needs?

Now, Stop! You already know too much to make the right kinds
of promises for the target group you've chosen. And if your promise
is a good one, the chances are very good that you can come up with
an excellent headline which, as we've said, is the key to success in
copywriting.
But if the heart of publicity is to make promises, then you still
have to promise something that people want!
And there will always be something, or someone, standing in
your way. We're going to find out exactly what that something or
someone is in the next chapter and how to get rid of it.

53

SUMMARY
Experts have developed systems for decoding the human
personality. These systems can become precious tools for
formulating effective promises and excellent advertising headlines.

1. Maslow's pyramid of five fundamental needs:

Physiological;
Security;
Love and belonging;
Recognition;
Self-realization.

2. The seven deadly sins:

avarice;
anger;
envy;
gluttony;
lust;
pride;
laziness.

54

CHAPTER 4
Your greatest enemy- and how to
eliminate it
As we said earlier, the best way to make your clients want to
know who you are, to make them read your message, and arouse
their interest in you and your offer, is to talk about them, their
problems, their desires, their needs etc. Because, in fact, when you
come fight down to it, nothing else really interests them.
What about you?
Are you any different?
The answer is NO!
Even if you think you're concerned more about other people than
yourself, even if you've taken great pains to discover other people's
preoccupations, spheres of interest and so on, rest assured that you
too possess a very developed ego. Ego means 'I' in Latin. Having a
healthy ego means that you like hearing people talk about you,
especially in flattering terms and that you don't mind being the
center of attention from time to time. And you also tend to think,
like everyone else, that the whole world is just like you, that
everyone thinks the way you do, lives the way you do and has the
same problems as you do...
THIS IS NOT TRUE!
To become a good copywriter, you have to eliminate your
greatest enemy: your own ego.
Doing this is easier said than done! This is because your ego is
like a many-headed beast - the Greeks called it a 'Hydra'. You think
you can get rid of it by cutting off one, two or three of its heads.
But, as soon as you do that, more heads grow and take their place...
So what you need is a powerful and radical technique. And, in

55

this chapter, I'm going to explain just such a technique, one that I've
developed and which you can use to track down, corner and flush
out all traces of your own ego...

The king of words in all languages - and how to make it

work for you!
Advertising writers have always asked themselves what the most
important word in their various languages is, i.e. which word
provokes the most interest in their readers.
John Caples, one of the most famous copywriters in direct
marketing, analyzed 100 of the top performing advertising
headlines to determine which word was used most often. Here are
the results:
the word you was used 31 times;
this word your was used 14 times.
Then came words like how, new etc., but with much less
frequency. This corresponds precisely to what Dr Flesch (author
and communications expert) calls 'human self-interest': personal
pronouns (first and second person), and their corresponding
adjectives and possessive pronouns, refer to the people you are
addressing.
The astonishing results of a study of 150 successful
direct mail campaigns
Using a computer program that I designed, I conducted a study of
150 'headlines' for direct mail campaigns that had produced
exceptional responses.
Result?
The word you appeared most often, with 44 instances.
Your followed, with 19 instances.

56

Then came words like how, who, it etc.

And what about the texts themselves? Are they governed by
different rules? Let's take a look.
I compiled the texts of eight ad writers, considered to be the best
in their field, by choosing some of the best examples of their work
(in terms of returns and benefits). Here's what I found: out of a total
of 8,930 words there were, in decreasing order:
405 instances of the word you;
158 instances of the word I;
143 instances of the word your;
followed by smaller groups like who (97 instances), I'm, I'd,
I'll (92 instances) and so on.
When is the word 'I' important?
This is one of the more subtle aspects of commercial ad writing
that few people understand. It is a well-guarded secret.
Professor Vogele (a German industrial psychologist specializing
in direct marketing), for example, states that:
Second person singular and plural pronouns (you) and their
derivatives (your, you're, yours etc.) are 'reinforcers' while first
person singular and plural pronouns (I - we) and their derivatives
(my, mine, our, ours etc.) are 'filters' Weigh the scale down on
the side of reinforcers. A correct proportion would be 75 per cent
you, yours etc. and 25 per cent I, we etc.
I - we and their derivatives are important when used as
testimonials. And, as all direct marketing professionals know, the
'testimonial' is one of the best leverage tools in sales.
I - we (and derivatives) are important when used in the context of
sincere and believable testimonials, where people express what they
feel in a way that allows the reader to identify with them.

57

On the other hand, the ! - we form can be used to express the

equivalent of 'Look at me, see how beautiful (or handsome) I am,
how intelligent, how superior I am, I . . . I ... I . . . etc.' This is even
worse than a filter - it's a total stop!
The secret of an extraordinary sales text
We will start by studying one of the most extraordinary texts
available to us: an ad for the Aubanel Company, which first
appeared in newspapers and magazines over 50 years ago, and has
been used since.
Since this is a direct mail marketing ad, its effectiveness can be
judged by the number of responses it produces: no responses, and
the ad is abandoned. Most ads of this type don't last longer than a
year. So 50 years is an all-time record!
Because the ad is written in the 'testimonial' style, the I pronouns
predominate. Here's how our Egometer (a simple bar chart to
illustrate the use of the words I/me and you/your) broke this ad
down (Is are represented by a light gray bar, and yous by a dark
gray bar):
1. Not a single paragraph scored zero on the Egometer. They all
have either I-testimonials or yous. Observe the pattern of increase
and decrease. The reader's interest cannot be kept at its maximum
level all the time. The aim is to create variety, and push the level of
interest gradually higher and higher.
2. Note the increase in the number of yous at the end of the text,
where the reader is encouraged to act. This is an immutable law: a
good text always has more yous towards the end.
Just how far can you extend the limits of your memory?

A strange experience on a high speed train in Sweden...

58

1. I went into the first empty compartment I could find. I didn't

know that there was already someone in there - an invisible
person, whose conversation would keep e awake all night long.
2. The train pulled out of the station. I looked at the lights of
Stockholm, getting dimmer in the distance. I wrapped a blanket
around my shoulders and was about to stretch out on my berth
and wait for sleep to come when I noticed a book, left behind by
another passenger, on the opposite berth.
3. I picked it up, opened it and read the first few lines. Five
minutes later, I was still reading, completely absorbed. It was like
the book had been written expressly for me, by an old friend who
wanted to reveal the secret of a fabulous treasure.
4. In effect, what I learned was that everyone is endowed with a
fantastic memory, capable of performing unbelievably complex
tasks, but that few people know how to use this amazing tool. The
book explained that even the least gifted person has the ability,
and cited the example of a man who, although intellectually
unskilled, was able to remember the names of the 100 largest
cities in the world, as well as their populations, after a single
reading!
5. I found it very hard to believe that, with my tired, 40-year-old
brain, I could recall all those interminable figures, dates, places
and names that had made my school and college years such a
nightmare, even though at that time my mind was young and
fresh. I decided to find out if what this book was saying had any
truth to it.
6. I pulled a timetable out of my briefcase, and started reading
attentively, in the way the book prescribed. The list included 100
train stations in Sweden.
7. To my astonishment, after only one reading I was able to
repeat the list in the order it was written, as well as in reverse! I
could even recall exactly where each town or city was in the list,
i.e. which town was number 27, which was number 84, or 36, so
deeply were the names engraved on my mind.
8. I was astounded to discover that I possessed such incredible
power, and I spent the rest of the night trying more experiments,
each one more difficult than the last, without feeling that rd

59

reached the limits of my ability.

9. Of course, I didn't just keep on doing amusing experiments.
The very next day, I put my new-found faculty to work for me, and
was soon able to remember everything I read, heard and saw
(including musical scores, the names and faces of people I'd only
met once, their addresses, telephone numbers, all my
appointments etc.) with incredible accuracy. I even learned to
speak a foreign language (French) in four months!
10. If I've obtained some measure of success and happiness in
this life, I owe it all to this book, which revealed the secret of how
my brain works.
11. I'm sure you too would like to be able to exploit this amazing
mental power, which is your most precious possession, and use it
to make your life a success. As an introduction to his Complete
Method, the author, W. R. Borg, would be happy to send you a
copy of The Laws of Eternal Success, a booklet that tells you a lot
more about his discovery than I can in this short letter. The offer is
available to anyone who wishes to improve his or her memory.
Here's the address:
E. Dorlier

How to set up your own 'Egometer'

You can set up your own 'Egometer': use the above Aubanel
advertisement as an example. Start by underlining and counting up
all indications of your own ego in red, both in the headline and in
the text itself:
I
I'm
I'd
I've
Me

60

My
Mine
We
We'd
We've
We're
Our
Ours

Now look at the example of a mail order company letter (below)

and repeat the process: underline all words connected to your ego
(I-words) in red.
Dear Reader,
If only we could be talking face to face, seated in the comfortable armchairs in my
office!
We'd have a coffee together (I make excellent coffee!), you could smoke a cigarette,
and we'd talk about your business, and what I can do to make it grow.
What I am is an expert in sales, or to be more precise, a specialist in multiplying
sales. My work consists of giving companies advice on how to develop their sales and
their clientele.
What makes me qualified to do this?
First, the fact that I created and managed a business over a period of 20 years, a
business which I started from scratch, and which ended up employing over 200 people.
The business I'm talking about was a mail order company!
This means that my clients, the people who bought my products, only received a
letter and a catalogue, and it was this letter and this catalogue, as well as a simple
order form, that had to convince people to invest their hard-earned money in what I had
to offer.
And I sold over a million items each year (things like costume jewelry and other gifts,

61

at an average price of 8 per item, which translates into an average gross of more than
[8 million per year!).
I did this every year for 20 years, and almost always with the same clients, who were
always satisfied, and who kept on ordering year after year.
Always satisfied ... and even thrilled!
Why?
Because my business was founded on these two absolute principles:
A deal is only ONE DEAL.
A client is A LOT OF DEALS.
That's why I want you to become my client - because I know you'll be just as
satisfied as all the others.
But what I'm offering you is not an item of jewelry. No, I'm going to show you how to
go about finding your own clients - i.e. how to multiply your sales, and how to sell more,
a lot more. The fee I'm asking will only be a fraction of what you'll earn by applying my
techniques. The only condition is that you act quickly!
Get in touch with me as soon as possible. I can only accept a single client in any
given field, and only a few clients in all, and those few once and for all.
Because, obviously, my clients have to be very impressed with my service for them
to come back! And if they do come back, it means they're earning a lot of money.
Why not be one of the select few to take advantage of 'Lucrative Ideas', and prove
that you've got the right frame of mind and the talent to succeed.
Because that too is indispensable - I only work with people who succeed.
Think about it ... How much can a phone call cost? The first consultation is
absolutely FREE. I'll be waiting to hear from you.

If readers object to hearing about your ego, they love hearing

about themselves.
The second part of the analysis, therefore, consists of using
another color to underline all references to your readers' egos:

You

62

You'd
You've
You're
Your
Yours

Do this exercise for each letter you write. When you're finished,
carefully count up all the you references, paragraph by paragraph.
Then transfer your findings to the graph on page 49 below.
That's all there is to it. You now know how to create an
'Egometer'. Don't forget that there is a purpose to all this: writing
effective headlines and sales letters. The same rules apply to both
headline and text - talk about your readers, not about yourself.
You now know what motivates your readers. You know they're
interested in themselves and not in you. You know how to measure
the presence of your own ego in a letter. The less your ego intrudes,
the better. Ideally the you/I ratio would be heavily in favor of the
yous. In our second example, the ratio was very low, even though
the letter was written by a professional.
Establishing the right ratio in your heading is a lot easier, since
you only need to use a few words.
Egometer
14
13
12
11
10
9
8

63

7
6
5
4
3
2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Date________ Title________________ You/I Ratio__________
How to eliminate the enemy - once and for all
The word 'empathy' literally means to 'feel for someone else'.
One of the first qualities you must develop as a copywriter is
precisely that - empathy.
How can you develop empathy? Here are a few techniques that
have worked well for me.
1. Take any opportunity that arises to talk to all kinds of people
If you take a taxi, talk to the taxi driver. In fact, you should listen
more than you talk. Remember, we all have two ears and only one
mouth. So, you really ought to listen twice as much as you talk!
Talk to your cleaning lady, the security guard at your office or
apartment building, the postman, the shopkeepers you buy from.., in
short, with anyone you happen to come in contact with.
Listen to what they have to say and try to understand their points
of view, their preoccupations, their problems. Their mental universe
is different from yours: try to become familiar with the way they
think.
While doing this, you must stop the little voice in your head that
always criticizes others. Accept people as they are.
2. Vary your readings

64

Read magazines with large circulations, even if you consider

them below your level of appreciation.
3. Create a mental image of the people to whom you're writing
Think about their daily routines, the kind of work they do, the
kind of leisure activities they're likely to participate in. Try to
imagine yourself in their shoes.
4. Get a few other people, if possible from different social,
cultural and professional backgrounds, to read your text
Listen attentively to what they have to say and make sure you
don't reject their comments outright: on the contrary, let their
thoughts sink in before deciding whether to dismiss them or not.
5. Remember that when you exchange points of view with
another person, you both benefit
You don't lose anything by exchanging opinions with others. On
the contrary, you can maintain your own point of view if you wish
or you can modify it to include what other people have to say. In
addition, new ways of looking at a problem may arise during your
discussions, ways that you'd never have thought of yourself.
6. During conversations, summarize what the other person has
just told you and ask if your summary is accurate
This is an excellent technique for developing empathy.
7. Important! Take notes!
Whenever you come across an idea, or a frame of mind, a word
or expression that is unfamiliar to you, but which your prospective
clients are used to hearing, write it down/It's so easy to forget these
little things. And they fire very helpful when you're trying to come
up with a good headline-recalling such phrases and ideas gets you
right back into the minds of the people you're trying to reach.
Not talking about yourself does not mean forgetting who
you are!
Empathy, or the ability to place yourself in the minds of your

65

prospective clients, is one of the main qualities of a good

copywriter. But it's not enough: you also have to be able to express
your empathy with subtlety, in a way that reaches right to the heart
of your clients and that makes them act, convincing even the most
hesitant and reluctant buyers to take a chance on your product or
service. How can you do this?
Just because you don't talk about yourself doesn't mean you have
to forget about your personality. On the contrary, draw from your
own emotional experiences, use events and personal relationships
that have affected you strongly, to add impact to your text. Here are
some examples.
1. Let your personality express itself
Don't be afraid to get intimate. Remember, you're writing a
personal letter, not a circular.
2. Use a narrative style
In his book Fund Raising Letters, Jerry Huntsinger gives an
example. Instead of saying, 'Poverty is a real curse for the people
living in the countryside, because they can't buy the tools they need
for farming...', you could write, 'I woke up this morning thinking
about all those hungry villagers; I'd love to be able to give them the
rake and sprinkler from my own garden...'.
3. Share intimate feelings
Don't hesitate to talk about fears, love, suffering, generosity,
worry etc. if your product or service calls for it.
4. Find an image which corresponds to each important
point in your presentation
Sound
Sight

66

 Touch
Smell
Taste
Each image should act as a clear illustration of what you're trying
to say.
5. Present your opinions in a positive way
Don't say maybe, if, eventually, possible etc. Just say clearly
what you think: you have to show people that deep down inside you
are convinced that your product or service is good, that you'd buy it
yourself and therefore that your prospective clients should buy it as
well.
SUMMARY
You're no different from other people: you have a very strong
ego. But you must be able to silence it and put yourself in
other people's minds-you have to think, feel and react like
them.
By trying to see the world the way other people do, you can
learn to understand them, resolve their problems, fulfill their
desires and satisfy their needs.
Get into the habit of analyzing your texts with an Egometer.

67

CHAPTER 5
The tricks used by professionals to
make your 'headlines' work
If I were to sell you just the information contained in this single
chapter, and base my price on what it could earn for you, I would
have to charge you a small fortune.
The basic problem is simple: how to attract the attention of
people who don't know you, who have a thousand and one
preoccupations of their own - which they usually consider to be
extremely important - and, most importantly, who haven't asked
you for anything!
Clearly, these people do not even know you exist, so deeply
concerned are they with their own thoughts; and you want to come
along and get them to stop everything and listen to you, and finally
do what you want them to do... not an easy task.
How to get an exceptional response
If you invest a few minutes of careful scrutiny now, as soon as
you put down this book, the headlines you create and refine will
result in exceptional responses for you.
And I mean exceptional!
This is because the difference between a mediocre headline and
one that produces exceptional responses is often very subtle and
discreet, depending on the choice and placement of a single word.
It's a little like the way a catalyst acts in certain chemical
reactions: although present only in minute quantities, it precipitates
the relatively enormous reaction sought by the chemist. On the

68

other hand, if it is absent, you may use huge quantifies of energy,

machinery and materials and still not get the result you want.
How to put a catalyst in your headline
How can you learn to add a catalyst to your headline?
Keep reading on...
'Your first 15 words count for more than the 15,000 words that
follow!'
Bob Stone, one of the best-known copywriters in the world, made
that statement. And my experience in the field has always
confirmed his opinion: your headline, those first few words, often
chosen in haste, count for 50 per cent of the success of your entire
letter. It's astounding, incredible, very hard to admit - and yet the
facts speak for themselves:
50 per cent of a letter's success depends on the
headline!
My experience has also often demonstrated that copywriters who
are just starting out learn rapidly to appreciate the crucial
importance of a good headline. All right. They quickly understand
that without a good headline, a letter immediately loses 80 per cent
of its effectiveness. Perfect.
On the other hand, and quite paradoxically, they all (and I mean
all of them!) seem to make the same mistake:
All beginners forget to spend more than 50 per cent of their time
finding an excellent headline.
And this is a mistake which often has serious consequences: the
headlines they come up with are very often mediocre, not because
these people are not good copywriters, but simply because they
didn't take enough time to develop them.
If you're going to retain just one single message from this entire
book, please make it this one: work on your headline! Spend 80

69

per cent of your time developing an excellent headline and 20 per

cent on the rest of the mailing. Not the opposite!
Why 90 per cent of amateur copywriters never get their
projects off the ground
When I started writing this book, I thought I'd put this sentence at
the bottom of each page: work on your headline. I wanted to
devote 80 per cent of the book to writing effective headlines and
only 20 per cent to the rest. However, I changed my mind, because I
thought that a lot of readers wouldn't appreciate such relentless
emphasis on what seems like a simple subject. If they only knew...
The great copywriters of the world are under no illusions:
certainly they may be able to create an excellent headline in record
time, perfectly tuned to the product or service they are presenting;
but they also know that they may have to create, and then discard, a
host of other headlines first, slowly and painstakingly working
towards the one that is just right. And, above all, these great
copywriters spend an amount of time that any amateur copywriter
would consider completely disproportionate... Just to come up with
the perfect headline!
In my conferences and seminars on copywriting, I've trained
hundreds of amateurs, some of whom have since become excellent
professionals. But, despite my supplications, my repeated warnings
and entreaties, 90 per cent of my students failed on their first
attempt to create an effective headline!
The reason was always the same: they didn't spend enough time
working on it.
Here, for example, are some of the headlines presented to me by
these amateur copywriters:
How much do you think a robbery in yourhome costs you?
This sentence should have contained something 'shocking'; such
as a phrase from a newspaper headline. Also, no promise is made.
In addition, readers are obliged to think about a negative and very

70

unpleasant event. Result: they only want to do one thing - forget it.
All this despite the fact that the product, a new kind of alarm system
for the home, lends itself very well to a 'dramatic' headline.
Interestingly enough, the entire sales letter that followed this
header did not make a single promise and instead spent a lot of time
describing the technical characteristics of the product (certainly
very interesting to the manufacturer!), without ever citing any of the
advantages or benefits consumers could expect.

Some of your clients don't pay their bills...

A simple statement. No promise, no benefits...

Do all your gourmet shopping directly and effortlessly at our deli!

An extremely weak advantage: why do your shopping at the deli
at all?

Discover how to make your home environment even more

beautiful
A very, very weak promise. This is a wishy-washy headline that
does not attract people.

Now you, too, have the power to create...

No promise, with an extremely vague and weak benefit, based on
an unusual motivating factor (need for self-fulfillment).

You're one of the lucky ones!

No clear benefits, not to be taken seriously, even though the
product is serious enough - top of the range, made-to-measure
furniture...

71

From now on, let your neighbors worry about being robbed, not
you!
Too long, with the chance that people will understand exactly the
opposite of what you want them to understand. Avoid a negative
approach: arousing questions and negative attitudes in your readers
may very well make them feel uneasy (in this case guilty about
wishing harm to their neighbors) and disturb their pre-purchase
attitude (here the product is designed to help the buyer, but they
may prefer getting it somewhere else because of your callous
attitude towards neighbors). The first time I read it, I understood
that 'I want my neighbors to get robbed'!
No promises are made, no advantages are stated.

Let Jon G. and Louise M. prepare your astral horoscope without

the use of a computer...
No promise, practically no advantages and even a negative
approach (these days computers help astrologers make almost
infinite numbers of calculations with ease, and prepare very
accurate charts, which can then be interpreted by experts...).
Referring to the names of unknown persons accomplishes
absolutely nothing (except to flatter the egos of the persons
involved).

To all heads of business: If you want to remain anonymous, then

don't read this letter.
Once again, avoid the negative approach: this headline makes
readers want to do only one thing- throw the letter in the bin! Never
use a full stop at the end of a headline - a full stop is like a stop sign
on the road, while a good headline should read like a huge green
light{ No promise is made (there is an underlying promise, but it
must be guessed) and no explicit benefits are stated.
Note that the student used this headline as a sub-heading, the

72

heading itself being the logo of the company, including address and
phone number. This is a classic error which many amateur
copywriters unfortunately make. They consider their product, their
logo, their company, even their own name to be so important that
they're just dying to put it right up at the top of the page! They do
this despite the fact that it is very rare for a company name or logo
to include an implicit promise or advantage for prospective clients.
Moral of the story? If you are susceptible to this kind of egowaving, add a line to your 'Egometer' analysis which covers your
name, logo etc. as if they were simple I's...
Also, don't commit the opposite, but just as serious, error of
thinking that you can substitute your client's name, company or
logo for a headline. That's not what a headline is about!
Always keep the single and unique definition of a headline in
mind:
a sentence/phrase;
placed at the head of the text;
which makes a promise and arouses curiosity.

To resolve your recurring problems. Finally, a solution: DBI

What is the promise? If there is one, it isn't clear. In any case, I
don't have recurring problems and I'm in a hurry. Throw it in the
wastebasket!
Actually, the product was a computer program for daily planning,
designed for small businesses in the region. Once again, the name
of the company, DBI, was used in the headline. Not only does it
accomplish nothing, it complicates matters because people don't
know what the letters stand for!
Result? The student informed us that the client was in a hurry and
sent out an initial mailing of 1,000 letters. The responses were
devastating: one reply, non-committal; leading to zero orders!
And yet, the product was an excellent one. When it was later

73

reintroduced on to the market, once again through direct mail, but

with a much more rigorous approach to the copywriting, and with a
headline that had been well thought out, and which was the fruit of
long labor, it did very well.
Remember that your headline should really be one true sentence:
if yours can be broken down into two parts, like this one, then work
on it some more, until you end up with one single, short, logical,
fluid and simple headline!
I've been saving the best (actually the worst) for last: many of the
letters I received had no headline at all!!
It sounds absolutely incredible, until you've experienced it
yourself: I always insist on the importance of using an effective
headline throughout my seminars and conferences, even to the point
of boring my listeners... '
And still, every time without fail, at least 20 per cent of my
student copywriters go ahead and submit sales letters with no
headline whatsoever!
So I'm going to repeat it one more time: 50 per cent of a sales
letter's success depends solely on the headline. All tests conducted
on the subject have always and conclusively shown that this is true.
Therefore, if you deprive your text of an effective headline, you
must automatically expect to get only very mediocre responses.
Now let's take a look at the most effective techniques for
developing good headlines.
How to distract your prospects from their usual
preoccupations!
There are four ways in which you can break through the barrier
of your client's own worries, thoughts and other preoccupations.
1. Promise an advantage or benefit, the satisfaction of one of
their desires or needs, and whenever possible the strongest or most
urgent one you can think of. (And we've just given you a detailed
explanation of how to find that urgent need or desire in Chapter 4.)

74

2. Make a promise (this is actually the same thing, presented in

a different way) to help avoid an inconvenience, pain, a lack of
something or a problem.
3. Arouse curiosity (one of humanity's basic motivating forces).
4. Announce some important news (which is another way of
arousing curiosity).
Say, for example, that you're selling a remedy for insomnia, you
could try to hook your clients by emphasizing:
sleep, or
how to conquer insomnia.
Most often, the positive approach (sleep) will produce the best
results. But, sometimes, the negative approach works better, as for
example with corns on the feet, shyness, rheumatism and other
somewhat embarrassing disorders.
The techniques of arousing curiosity and breaking some
important news always work well, and can easily be made to
accompany a promise.
New! Now here's a way to get rid of fatigue once and for all!
Readers know right off that this is news - i.e. something new.
They ask themselves how they can stop being tired (curiosity) and
are given a promise (to get rid of fatigue). Another way of stating it
might be:
At last! A way to stay in top shape - and overflow with
energy.
What the professionals do to make their headlines
succeed
Every professional copywriter has his or her own personal
formula. When you acquire some experience, you'll be able to
recognize different styles:
you'll be able to say, 'This sales letter must have been written by

75

the X agency... '. A copywriter's formula is often a synthesis of all

the other formulas they learned from other professionals, as well as
their own experience in the field.
So, first use the most successful and proven formulae you can
find, and verify their effectiveness yourself.
The Reader's Digest formula
David Ogilvy, John Caples and other advertising greats often
refer to Reader's Digest and its approach. In fact, the Reader's
Digest approach is based on a number of formulae. Here are some
of their most frequently used headlines.
How to...
Seven steps to...
Ten ways to...
A New Scientific Discovery...
The secret of...
Why . . .?
What happens when... ?
Should you...?
Are you...?
How can you...?
An absolutely sure-fire way to...
Your guide to...
Use one formula. Adapt it to suit the personality of your product,
your business etc. Adjust it and refine it as much as you wish, but
stick to one formula at a time.
If we go on to study some of the Reader's Digest campaigns, we
find the following topics crop up frequently.

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Health
Health is a subject that recurs very frequently. Here are some
examples:
Stop smoking
Three little secrets to stay in great shape
Sexual impotence - what you should know about it
How to fight stress
Protecting yourself against the common cold
Seven steps for getting thin
Can you choose your child's sex?
Finally - an anti-cancer diet
Victory over virus
Self-improvement
Seven keys for thinking better
Get rid of your double chin
Awaken the child sleeping inside you
Say it in a letter
How to improve your voice
The winning secret
Nourish your brain
Children
How to succeed without a university degree
What have you got out of your studies?

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 Pros and cons of special schools

Are you sure you know your children?
When little kids become little brats
Education through the eyes of an adolescent
Couple
Love for ever
Spouses and lovers
Revelations on male sexuality
What makes a man sexy?
Twenty proposals on love
Should you tell the person you love everything?
What makes a woman attractive?
Why don't men talk to their wives?
Jobs
Strategies for finding a job
Why bosses work like slaves
Whatever happened to your pay rise?
Living with internet
Seven steps to finding a job
How to become a leader
Career: get a fast start and go farther

78

Money
Learn how to write your will
How to get your money back
The car insurance labyrinth
Reduce your income taxes
Reader's Digest has a monthly circulation of millions of copies,
in 15 different languages around the globe. This kind of success is
the mark of professionalism, and one which you should aspire to
emulate.
Each campaign is tested and tried out in different countries; each
successful campaign is noted and used as a model for other
campaigns.
But Reader's Digest isn't the only organization using formulae.
The favorite technique of the professionals
The technique most often used by professionals is very easy to
set up: all you need is the place, the organization (to correctly file
all your clients) and knowledge of a professional 'trick'...
Yes, you too can pick out the best headlines in the mailings,
newspapers and magazines you receive, because determining
whether a headline is effective or not is very simple:
If the headline appears a number of times, over a period of days,
weeks, even years, then you can safely assume that it is effective.
Why? It is very simple...
In direct marketing, whether in the form of a mailing or an ad in
a newspaper or magazine, the judgment is immediate. In the 15
days following distribution of the mailing, 45 per cent of the total
responses will be received: at the end of a month, about 80 per cent
of the campaign's total responses will have been received.
Therefore, if an ad appears a number of times, or if the same

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headline is used for a number of large-scale mailings, then you can

be sure that the headline in question is profitable and thus effective.
And I cannot over-emphasize the importance of opening a file, as
soon as possible, so that you can collect all the quality mailings you
receive.
Sort them by theme or by product, and do a short analysis for
each one, underlining the important points and ideas which you can
later use as inspiration for your own texts. When the time comes,
you'll have a precious tool at your disposal, not only for designing
your mailing, but also, and above all, for finding the most effective
headline for your product or service.
Although the best training to become a specialist in writing good
headlines is still to practice coming up with the right headline for
real products, professionals do have another way of training
themselves - a negative approach, if you will - which consists of
endlessly criticizing other writers' success.
Make no mistake about it, their criticism is constructive. All
they're trying to do is discover the mechanism which made a
particular headline so successful. In other words, they want to
understand why it worked so well. It may look like they are
spending hours and hours theorizing and making propositions,
when in actual fact what they're doing is refining their own talent
and ability to write effective headlines.
The secret of best-selling books
Here's an unexpected way to train yourself to write headlines:
study the titles of best-selling books. Editors who choose the titles
for books have to deal with the same problems as copywriters. They
must attract their prospective buyer's attention immediately and
they must make a promise. Great titles are therefore exactly like
effective headlines...
The moral of the story? Pay attention to the titles of books that
sell well and look for the key to their success in their titles.

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The best headlines in the world!

You should also know about certain headlines that have been
consistently successful for 30 years or more. You can find examples
in hundreds of variations, applied to different sectors and widely
differing products, which have usually also been successful, and
nothing attracts success like Success.
Of course, we're not suggesting you copy a successful headline
word for word, but neither do you have to go out and reinvent the
wheel every time you want to write a sales text. By basing your
approach on proven formulae, you will save time and reduce your
risks considerably.
And if, after reworking and adapting one, or a number of proven
formulae, you achieve success of your own, you will have earned it!
So, where can you find these proven formulae?
Here is a selection of some of the best headlines in the world,
which we've put together from the best sources we could find.
Don't forget that each one is the result of over 50 years'
experience and has had millions of pounds invested in it.
They all laughed when I sat down at the piano, but when I
started playing.. !
A little mistake which cost this farmer $20,000 a year...
Can you pick out the ten decorating mistakes in this picture?
So often a bridesmaid, but never a bride...
Advice to women whose husbands never seem to be able to save
money-from a married woman
Why certain foods 'explode' in your stomach
Is the life of a child worth $5 to you?
How I went from failure to success in sales
How to do your Christmas shopping in five minutes
How I started a new life with $25

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 How to be proud of your cooking

To people who want to write - but who can't get started...
To women who look older than their age...
53 reasons why you should have answered this ad last week
I didn't have time to go to the university, so I studied at home by
reading...
Play the guitar in seven days or your money back!
Seven ways to conquer the habit of over-eating
To all men who want to stop working one day
A warning to anyone who wants to be financially independent in
five years
When doctors don't feel well, here's what they do
Get rid of your money problems once and for all
How I improved my memory in one night
How I made a fortune with a crazy idea
How to make friends and influence people
Men who 'know it all' can skip this page
The best way to get rich - if you're lazy
Even deaf people can hear the whispers
The secret reason people like you
Who else wants to look like a movie star?
Free for wives - $20 for everyone else
Get twice your money back if this isn't the best onion soup
you've ever tasted!
Which of these five skin problems would you like to cure?

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 To men who are 35 or older and who still aren't satisfied

How a strange accident saved me from going bald
Don't buy a computer until you've seen the one that caused a
sensation at the last International Computer Convention
Pay less for car insurance if you're a careful driver
'Here, Carol, an extra $1000. Am I making good money now or
not?'
What makes a woman desirable?
And here are two very interesting tricks of the trade.
Out of the best 101 headlines in the United States, 23 start with
the word 'how' which seems to be a veritable key to success,
according to specialists in the field. Think about it!
The imperative form (Don't do this.., or Do that... Get rid of this
.. etc.) is often used because it incites readers to act, to move and
so on. This provocation (if put to good use, especially in sales
letters) is a very precious tool.
OK, you now know about the importance of an effective headline
and about all the errors to avoid when working on your first
attempts to write a good one. We've looked at the best professional
formulae for building effective headlines and we've reviewed some
of the best headlines in the world. Now it's time to put all this
theory into practice!
Copywriters who are starting out have the same problem as
novelists who want to start a new book: a haunting fear of the blank
page in front of them...
How to create a successful headline with ease
So, how can you automatically create excellent headlines? Is
there a sure and tested way to come up with dozens of effective
headlines with ease?

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Yes, there is, and we're going to take a look at it now. It may not
have been invented by a genius, but it works, and it works well.
Some writers have their little ticks and tricks, their phobias and
manias, their special little habits (for example, a writer I know
spends his morning sharpening all his pencils, drinking five or six
cups of strong coffee and reading three newspapers from cover to
cover). These habits are usually excuses to procrastinate - to put off
getting down to some real work for as long as possible.
On the other hand, I know an author whose books are practically
always bestsellers, who has these simple but infallible tricks for
getting started.
1. Every time he has to do some work, he sets a limit on the
amount of time he has to spend at his desk (usually between ten
minutes and an hour). If he puts in the time required, he gives
himself a reward.
2. As soon as he sits down at his desk, he takes a sheet of paper
and, practically without thinking about it, starts writing the
continuation of wherever he left off last time. Important: note that
he keeps writing, whatever the quality happens to be. The important
thing is to keep the pen moving across the paper (or to keep
punching the keys on the computer).
And, like working in the clutch on a new car, the quality comes
soon enough, as his faculties get sharper, so that in a very short time
he's working at top capacity. He then looks over the first couple of
paragraphs and corrects them, or even throws them away and starts
again.
As I said, this 'trick' for getting started is simple, easy and
infallible. Try it and you'll quickly see how well it works.
Indeed, there's no secret way to write great headlines. You have
to work on them and continually practice finding the one that's best.
For beginners, a headline may be nothing more than a few wellchosen words. For professionals, a great headline is more like a
masterpiece: creating it takes years of study, practice, mistakes,
improving and refining the techniques of their writing, developing

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their art to its highest degree...

If you become an artist, an expert at creating great headlines,
then you will automatically be an excellent copywriter.
A springboard for creating more successful headlines
Here's a final technique for coming up with great headlines. I got
it from one of the truly great professional copywriters, who told me
he considered it the 'crux of his creativity' - without it, he'd
collapse...
Here it is. It's based on the mental process associated with
creativity, which we'll be looking at later on in this book. Our brain
is like a machine, designed to produce answers. The only problem
lies in asking the right questions! In other words, 'A well-phrased
question is half the answer!' And this is especially true for
headlines.
On the following pages, you'll find a guide for finding the factors
which can motivate your readers to buy. You'll also find the
beginnings of a few headlines which you then have to complete.
The question you will be asked is: 'How should the following
sentence be completed?'
Fill out at least two 'creation forms', as set out below, for each
product you have, writing down anything that comes to mind. Don't
criticize yourself. You'll select the best of your headlines later on.
Here is some advice on using this technique.
1. If a suggested formula doesn't inspire you - just skip it.
2. Give yourself a fair amount of time to really consider what
the motivating factors of your target clients are.
3. Wait at least a day between writing all your potential
headlines, and going back and selecting the best ones (in other
words, sleep on it).
4. Paste the best headlines on squares of cardboard and show
them to people you know, asking which ones they find most

85

effective.

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Creation Form
Product:
What will this product/service do for me?

How will it help me satisfy my physiological needs?

How will it help me satisfy my need for security?

How will it help me satisfy my need for love and belonging?

How will it help me satisfy my need for recognition?

How will it help satisfy my need for self-fulfillment?

What does this have to do with my gluttony?

With my greed?

87

With my pride?

With my laziness?

With my desire and lust?

With my anger?

How will this help me fight loneliness?

How can it help me protect my rights?

How will it help me conquer my fears?

How will it help me to assert myself, become a stronger person?

How will it help me overcome my feelings of guilt?

How will it give me more confidence and help me overcome my

inner conviction of not living up to my full potential?

In short, what am I going to be able to save - earn - accomplish by

using this product or service?

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How can it help me eliminate or reduce risks, worries, losses,

mistakes and all kinds of other negative factors?

What is it that will make me so curious I'll just have to read your
text? Make me curious enough to want to know more!

How...
How I became . . .
How l have...
Why...
What
Who else...
Which . . .
What is it
In which way
When...
Where...
How much . .
Yes, you too...
You...
Free:
New:
Here...

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Now . . .
Finally...
The secret
Warning to . . .
We are looking for ...
Have you ever...
Do you
Have you ever seen . . .
Is your . . .
Discover
Get
Get rid of...
You should know that...
Accept . . .
Dare
Learn
Regain . . .
Master
Have
Be...
Make money...
Change...
Become

90

Ask...
Use...
Listen
Do...
Own...
Improve...
Reveal...
Let yourself...
Choose...
Try
Win/earn...
Save...
Live
Take...
Don't let
Imagine
Seven steps for...
Ten ways to...
Your guide to...
The latest about/on...

91

SUMMARY
Fifty per cent of a sales letter's success depends entirely on its
headline. You should therefore set aside 50 per cent of your
time for developing the best possible headline.
Experience has shown that amateur copywriters usually spend
a lot less time than that on their headlines and that is the main
reason they don't achieve the success they expect. Make sure
you don't make the same mistake. Force yourself to spend the
necessary time working on your headlines, develop an
efficient and professional attitude, and practice regularly.
Use tested formulae to write successful headlines: you'll waste
less time and be more effective.
Get into the habit of using a creation form to collect and then
select your best headlines.

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CHAPTER 6
An infallible way to select your best
headline

Why are some headlines so successful, while others

seem to fall flat?
The best way to answer this question is to analyze some excellent
headlines. Look at this one, for example:

Which of these languages would you like to speak?

This excellent headline includes a promise (speaking a foreign
language) and a question. It appeals to the following motivating
factors:
curiosity;
self-fulfillment;
pride.

How I got rid of my money problems.

The 'how' promises a solution. A lot of people have to deal with
money problems. 'Got rid of' suggests action, which is also a kind
of promise. This headline was used to sell a book on starting your
own lucrative business at home. It added 15 per cent in
supplementary sales when compared with the headline 'How to start
your own small and profitable business in the comfort of your own
home'.

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 curiosity;
security;
envy;
gain.

Who else wants a free copy of our little book on hypnosis?

This headline contains one of the magic words: free. Saying 'who
else' implies that other people have already taken advantage of the
offer, and arouses the new reader's natural tendency to envy, or
even to be jealous of what other people have.
The motivations here are:
belonging;
envy;
self-fulfillment;
self-affirmation.

To all of you out there who are suffering...

Readers who are suffering stop there because they are personally
concerned. The trick lies in the fact that a lot of people suffer from
one kind of disorder or another, and that suffering (actually getting
rid of suffering) is a very basic motivating factor.
The motivations here are:
physiological;
belonging.

The amazing potential of memory

The key word here is 'amazing'. It arouses curiosity. The word

94

'memory' qualifies readers, i.e. it eliminates anyone who isn't

interested in the subject of memory. The word potential implies a
promise.
The motivations are:
curiosity;
self-fulfillment.

How I stopped smoking for good

Here again we find the magic word 'how'; the word 'smoking'
qualifies the kind of reader interested and the phrase 'for good'
strengthens the promise made in 'how I stopped'.
The motivations are:
curiosity;
guilt;
avoiding negative things;
envy.

Bachelors: change the way you date

The word 'bachelors' qualifies the clientele; 'change the way you
date' is an implicit promise - the rest of the text will explain how to
go about accomplishing this.
One of the advantages of this headline is that it's very short and
therefore dynamic. A disadvantage is that the promise is not very
explicit. Fortunately, it was accompanied by a visual (a picture of a
smiling man and woman).
As John Caples comments: 'The best headlines are composed of
ideas that sell, expressed in the simplest possible way.'
The motivations here are:

95

 a need for love and belonging;

a desire for pleasure.

Do not buy any...

Everybody's telling people to buy more! This approach is
intriguing because it runs counter to our expectations.
What do you think the motivations are here?

Cheaper car insurance - if you're a careful driver

'Car insurance' qualifies interested readers; 'cheaper' makes a
promise; if you are 'careful' it makes the promise credible.
What do you think the motivations are here?

'Here's an extra $xx . . . now do you think I make a good living?'

The word 'now' implies that some change has taken place and
arouses curiosity; the extra '$xx' fulfils the need for giving pleasure,
for succeeding, for being admired; 'make a good living' responds to
the need for security in the form of money and remains very
credible.
What are the motivations?

96

How I improved my memory in a single night

The promise comes through loud and clear ('improve your
memory') and the phrase 'in a single night' adds an element of
surprise which arouses readers' curiosity (so that they continue
reading) and also reinforces the original promise.

Play the guitar in seven days or get your money back

'Play the guitar' qualifies interested readers; 'in seven days'
reinforces the promise; 'your money back' makes the promise
credible.

A warning to anyone who wants to achieve financial

independence in the next five years
The phrase 'to anyone who' qualifies your readers; 'a warning'
makes readers want to find out more and implies a promise (to
avoid a problem).
Phrases like 'Careful!' or 'Your attention please!' are usually
followed by some 'important advice' - something that should be
read in case it does really happen to be important. Using this

97

approach in a headline lets you take advantage of people's powerful

reading habits.

What makes a woman desirable?

A bone of contention among copywriters is whether or not a
headline can be phrased in the form of a question.
The answer, as far as we are concerned, is yes!
You'll find a lot of excellent headlines that pose questions. But and there is a big but - the question must imply a promise. That is
the case here. Readers expect to discover what makes women
desirable.

What can we learn from these headlines?

As you can see, we have proposed a few basic ideas on how to
write good headlines. Here they are in summary.

1. Qualify your readers (not too much - you want to reach the
greatest number of people possible) sufficiently so that they feel
they have a personal interest in finding out more about your product
or service.

98

2. Make a promise (see Chapter 5).

3. Reinforce the promise (with words like fast, for good, once
and for all etc.)
4. Arouse your readers' curiosity.
5. Make your promise credible (by offering a guarantee, a
reason, a qualifying statement, for example 'If you're a careful
driver...').
A professional technique: 'internal promotion'
If you do a good job writing your sales letter, you'll find a
number of phrases or sentences that can easily be transformed into
excellent headlines. This is what is meant by the term 'internal
promotion'.
Read the letter set out below and try to pick out sentences that
could be used as headlines. Underline them. Next, select three or
four from those you've underlined. Which in your opinion seems to
be the best?
Two very important people are waiting to meet you. They want to talk to you
... about yourself.
One's name is W. Clement Stone. Starting from scratch, he now controls one
of the largest fortunes in the world.
The other is the celebrated Napoleon Hill. His book on personal development
Think and Grow Rich has sold over 14 million copies.
Both these men possess the secret of transforming ideas into reality. They
know:

How to awaken the potential for success that is lying dormant inside you.

How you can get other people to act according to your desires.

How to help you fight fatigue and multiply your energy.

99

 All the recipes and all the tricks to transform the world around you by
changing your mental attitude.
Because that's where the secret lies: change your way of thinking and your
health will improve. Change your way of seeing and the doors of opportunity will
open wide for you. Change your state of mind and others will Rock to you like
moths attracted to light.
W. Clement Stone and Napoleon Hill have pooled all their knowledge and all
their experience into a single volume. This book is a masterpiece! Two pounds of
paper and ink that are simply dynamite:
Success Through Positive Thinking
305 fascinating pages which reveal the real you to yourself. 120,000 wordtools, 120,000 word-images that will have a profound effect on you.
When you put this book down, you'll never be the same again.

You'll know exactly where you are vulnerable. You'll know what to do to
succeed, and how to lead a fuller, richer and more satisfying life.

Our answers
'Transform the world around you by changing your mental
attitude' provided the best results, followed by, 'Learn the secret of
transforming ideas into reality' and a distant third was, 'After
reading this book, you'll never be the same again'.
The 'internal promotion' technique is supported by one of the two
schools of writing headlines and headings. One school insists the
headline should be written before the rest of the text, while the
other school says it's better to write the text first. The first approach
usually produces more brilliant ideas, while the second is more
reliable. Try both and see which works best for you!
How to double the impact of your headline
This last technique is not concerned with sales letters as such (at

100

least those which try to use a personalized approach), but with

brochures, so-called 'lift letters', flyers, booklets etc., in short any
document that accompanies the sales letter and which is likely to
include illustrations.
'A picture is worth a thousand words...' says the proverb. All the
professionals I know have experienced this fact for themselves,
especially when working on newspaper and magazine ads, where
space is so expensive. A visual can spark a product's sales, even
where the headline and text are already good.
The combination of an effective visual + headline + text results
in explosive selling power.
Why? Because no matter how good a headline is, an ad without a
visual has a lot more trouble attracting attention than an ad which
has a visual.
How to create visuals that pay off
Here are some rules on creating visuals, culled from years of
experience.
1. Photographs work better than drawings.

2. One large photograph is more effective than a number of

smaller ones.
3. A photograph that suggests some action or movement is
preferable to one that has no movement in it at all.
4. In decreasing order, here are the kinds of pictures that
consistently show the highest returns: pictures of children;
portraits;
groups of people;
animals;
landscapes.

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5. Show your product in action (clients will be more attracted to

a picture of a pile of clean, folded laundry than to a box of
detergent).
6. Always place the headline under the visual.
7. Always add a caption to the picture: as soon as your
prospective client's attention is caught by the visual, he or she will
read the caption (if there is one) with growing curiosity...
Why you have to test your headlines
Creating your headlines, improving them, giving them maximum
impact, finding the right headline and the right visual - all that isn't
enough. You still have to learn how to select your best headline.
It's very easy to miss out on a golden opportunity by a couple of
minutes. In copywriting, all it takes is a single word!
Think about this story. An estate agent had to recruit some
salespeople and placed an ad in the local newspaper. He mentioned
a fairly high commission potential, around $30,000 per year. No
one responded to the ad. So he lowered the commission figure to
$15,000 and received a flood of applications. He then chose the best
of the candidates and they all ended up earning over $30,000 a year.
In this particular instance, the estate agent was lucky - he hit on a
figure than won the jackpot.
But how many copywriters are satisfied with only one per cent
responses, or even less, while in fact, forgetting about the 99 per
cent of cases where their approach failed?
Technique for selecting the best of your headlines
It's not enough to write a lot of headlines and make them as good
as possible. You still have to determine which one is the best.
Doing a mailing is like sending out sales reps to meet your
clients personally. So, who are you going to choose to represent
you?

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The best, of course.

You can certainly rely, to some extent, on your instinct and
intelligence to select what you think are your top ten headlines. But
the final decision as to which is the best must always be based on
tests which are as reliable as possible and as extensive as you can
afford.
If you don't have any money, you'll have to rely on the opinions
of the people around you and, if possible, on the advice of any
professionals you can get in touch with (they should be at least
partially familiar with your target clientele).
On the other hand, if you can make even a minimum investment
in some kind of market study testing, then you should do so. This
will enable you to:
select your best headline (the larger your sample clientele is,
the more confident you can be of the accuracy of the results);
calculate (we'll tell you how later on) the total amount of sales
you can statistically hope to achieve by sending the same
message to the rest of the target group.
Between these two extremes (an investment of between zero
pounds and a few thousand, or even a few hundred thousand
pounds), you should be able to locate your optimum level, taking
into account the reduction of risks and costs, and the increase in
profits, as opposed to the amount you invest.
How to test a headline
Market studies that test headlines are a luxury that only large or
mid-size companies can afford. But you can conduct a test yourself,
by using the tables below. The results should be within a one per
cent margin of accuracy, if your sample group is composed of 2,000
addresses or more.
Sending 2,000 letters represents an investment of close to 380,
at current postal rates. This figure should be multiplied by the
number of headlines you wish to test.

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The principle of testing a headline is the same as that of a horse

race. You give every one the same opportunity - i.e. the same price,
the same letter, the same supporting documents - everything must
be identical except the headline! Then... may the best headline win!
Even if you're promoting a product for a company that is just
starting out, or if you're starting out yourself, you can still test your
headlines.

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Take a good look at the table above. You'll see that if you're
looking for very significant differences, then you can use a
relatively small sample group.
Here is an example in which you test the following headlines:
1. Detect people's most secret thoughts
2. Discover the benefits of 'biofeedback' free of charge, in your
own home
3. How to achieve perfect mastery of yourself

105

4. Communicate with plants and have fun with your lie detector!
5. Do your own fascinating experiments in parapsychology!
When each of these headlines was sent to only 100 addresses the
results were as follows:
1

= 0 orders

= 9 orders

= 10 orders

= 2 orders

= 3 orders

We can now eliminate headlines 1, 4, and 5, and concentrate on 2

and 3. Let's start with number 3.
If you examine the table, you'll see that with a sample mailing of
only 100 addresses, you need at least 10 responses to be certain of
an overall response of between 4 and 16 per cent.
This kind of test is therefore impossible to carry out on such a
small sample group, unless your sales letter is very good and
produces, at least in conjunction with one of the headlines, a
minimum of ten responses.
Next you have to take the profit margin into account. If you have
50 per cent fewer responses, and are still able to turn a profit, then
you might want to send the same message to the same group again,
this time with a different headline (in this case number 2).
This strategy usually results in a little more than 50 per cent take
up the second time around.
Here's another example.
You sent out 5,000 letters and receive 380 orders. If you'd only
received 190 orders (i.e. 50 per cent), but still showed a profit (after
deducting all your costs including mailing, product, shipping etc.),
then do a second mailing. You'll get orders from people who
hesitated the first time around or who were too busy to pay
attention, who forgot etc. This should bring you another 160 orders.

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And if you use a different headline (as we suggested earlier), your

second mailing could result in as many as 170 or 180 orders.
Of course, ideally you'd be testing much larger sample groups.
You can then be sure of the results.
What percentage of responses signifies an effective letter?
It's impossible to answer that question. It depends on the price of
your product, the quality of the mailing list etc. We can tell you that
it's rare to go above 25 per cent, and that if your responses are less
than 0.8 per cent you'd better write another letter. I always try to
achieve at least 10 per cent (and if possible a little better) with any
mailing list.
Other ways to select your best headline
There are a number of ways to test your headlines against each
other and select the best one. Here are four methods which provide
excellent results.
1. The 'split-run'
Certain magazines will agree to run half an issue with one of
your ads and the other half with another. You keep the same text,
the same visuals, and change only the headline and the code on the
order form (so that you can tell which orders came from which
headlines). This technique is called a 'split-run'.
If you want to test more than two headlines, choose one as your
constant and test it in different magazines against the other
headlines.
For example, say you want to test these three headlines:
How to protect and sell your ideas
How to make money with your ideas
I'm looking for people who want to make money
You'd use 'How to make money with your ideas' as your

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constant; you do a split-run test in a magazine, against 'How to

protect and sell your ideas'.
In another, similar magazine, you do another split-run test, this
time against the headline 'I'm looking for people who want to make
money'.
Result: 'How to protect...' yielded a lower response than 'How to
make money...' while 'I'm looking for people...' yielded a better
response than 'How to make money...'. You would therefore stick
with 'I'm looking for people who want to make money' as your best
headline.
If you have a new headline you want to test, you'd use 'I'm
looking for people who...' as your constant (in other words, always
use your top performing headline as your constant).
2. The telescope test
It's possible to test a number of headlines in the same print
medium (magazine, newspaper, bulletin, newsletter etc.) all at
the same time. To do this, the circulation must be large. You print
up an insert (a leaflet inserted in a magazine) advertising your
product, using your various headlines in equal numbers. For a fee,
the magazine or newspaper will include the insert in one of its
issues. You select the best headline based on the results of this
single, 'telescopic' test.
3. Classified ads
In the classified ads section of a magazine or newspaper, run the
same text twice, changing only the headline. You'll need some way
of identifying which headline produced which orders - a simple way
of doing this would be to add a letter to your address, for example:
1. Write today to Godefroy Publications, 56a, tallevast road,
23789 Tampa
2. Write today to Godefroy Publications, 56b, tallevast road,
23789 Tampa

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4. The list
You can offer a list of free booklets or articles, and use the most
selected title as your eventual headline.
Here's an example:
Free! As part of our market information campaign, we're offering
the following booklets absolutely free of charge:
How I got rid of my money problems
How to run a lucrative small business in your own home
How to earn more money in your spare time
My 35 secrets for making a fortune
Tick the booklet you want (only one book per order please!) and
return the coupon to:

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SUMMARY
Consider using an illustration to double the impact of your
headline. If possible, make it:
a photograph
picturing some kind of action,
showing your product in action,
with your headline directly below it.
To find new headlines, use the 'internal promotion' method.
Testing your headlines is the fastest way to success.
There are four methods available:
split-run;
telescope test;
classified ads;
free offer list.

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CHAPTER 7
Offers and postscripts: how to get
higher sales from your very first letter!

A 'trick' used by direct mail agencies

Direct mail agencies all suffer from one important defect: the
fees they charge (and, because of the fierce competition, those fees
are often stretched to the limit) prevent them from spending a lot of
time on creating headlines and usually even on writing copy.
Result: they rarely produce excellent copy. Their copywriters
simply don't have enough time to rework what they write, so that
they can come up with the best texts and headlines possible.
Agencies, however, have a trick which enables them to produce
consistently high responses, easily and effortlessly...
Think what you could do with such a trick, especially if you were
an excellent copywriter to boot.
The trick that direct mail agencies use is this:
VARY YOUR OFFER!
Experience has proven, absolutely conclusively, that making a
minor alteration in an offer can easily affect sales by 15, 30, 50 or
even 100 per cent! For better.., but also for worse!
How to change the offer in your headline
Experts like Jim Kobs (co-founder of one of the most successful
direct mail advertising agencies) have managed to come up with
over 100 variations on a single offer. We will look at just a few
here.

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 Free trial period

Often with the added stipulation - 'Above all, do not send any
money now!' This has become a pillar of direct mail sales.
Free gift if you write for more information
If the gift is really related to the product you want to sell, then
not only do you avoid encouraging people who just want to get
something for nothing and who will never buy your product, you
also narrow down (qualify) your target group: the quality
(customers who are already mail order buyers) of the addresses you
receive will be more valuable you will also receive more demands
for information than if you didn't offer a free gift.
Discount for cash payment (or payment in full)
This is the most traditional kind of offer, even though it may not
be the best. Would you eat discount food or buy slightly inferior
medication? Of course, it all depends on what kind of product or
service you're offering, but as a general rule people associate
discounted prices with inferior quality.
Special price due to...
Offer a special price to launch a new product, to do an annual
clearing of inventory or slightly defective stock etc. Whenever you
have a problem, share it with your clients - use the problem to
explain why you're offering a reduced price. Never offer a reduction
without providing a real - or at least plausible - reason for doing so.
People like getting a great deal, but are also wary of offers that look
too good.
And while we're on the subject of special offers, I should tell you
that it isn't unusual for direct mail companies to damage their own
products slightly, so that they can fill the demand for 'slightly
damaged X's' which they offered in a 'Special offer due to...'
campaign.
Special offer with time limit
A classic approach that often produces excellent sales, but which
entails a good deal of risk: return your coupon within 48 hours, 10

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days etc. It is a lot less effective when a set date (11 February, 25
June etc.) is used instead of a period of time (48 hours).
Sweepstakes
To organize a sweepstake, pick the winning numbers at random
before any mailing or distribution is carried out. Then send your
mailing with the winning numbers included, to your target
prospects or clients, along with your sales offer. When prospects
receive their numbers, they may already be winners of the prizes
you are offering. To find out (if they're winners or not) they have to
return their number. Most people believe that if they don't order,
they will not receive a prize. So most of them send their order
together with their claim for a prize.
Here's the official definition. Sweepstakes work well when a lot
of little prizes of insignificant value are offered alongside a limited
number of 'major prizes'. The text should say 'You Have Won!' or
'Rub the box to find out if your number is a winner!'
Reader's Digest are the masters of the sweepstakes method.
Front-end load-up
This is another classic approach. You offer 'four books for only
$9.95' or 'Buy two DVD for $15 and get a third free' The only
condition is that clients buy another four books or another ten
cassettes over the course of the following year.
Naturally, you can also combine approaches and make a number
of offers at the same time.
Note that two offers combined produce better results than one,
and three produce better results than two, four than three etc.
So, you should not only test the offers that seem best suited to
your product or service, but also various combinations of offers:
you're sure to come up with some pleasant surprises.
Depending on how it is formulated, an offer can produce
mediocre returns.., or it can go through the roof!

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The famous story about the American book club that offered four
books for a dollar is a clear demonstration of this phenomenon.
Since this initially fabulous offer lost some of its effectiveness over
time, a number of different headlines were tried to revive it. The
one that worked best read: 'A book for only $1 PLUS 3 more free!
Actually, the offer was exactly the same - it was simply
formulated differently.
How to find offers that produce high sales
Use the same procedure as you would for headlines.
Try to 'infiltrate' the competition - make a conscious effort to
read as much publicity as you can: buy things by
correspondence instead of in shops; subscribe to a variety of
magazines and newspapers; send in coupons for 'free trials'
and 'special gifts'. Your name and address will quickly find its
way on to a number of mailing lists, and the amount of socalled junk mail you receive will increase dramatically,
providing you with even more food for thought.
Collect examples of offers. Use a drawer in a filing cabinet to
store all the direct mail offers you receive, and all the
interesting ads you've cut out of newspapers and magazines.
From time to time, study your collection. Criticize the various
approaches, and take special notice of the changes made to a
campaign between its first mailing and one sent out a few
months- or even years-later. This can be very instructive.
Next, sort your collection into categories, for example into
different kinds of offers;
pay later;
free gift;
other 'free' offer;
discount;
special prices;

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 samples;
limited duration;
guarantee;
increasing the total value of the order;
sweepstakes;
'clubs' for privileged clients;
special campaign.
Assign a number to each new offer in each of these 12
categories and then write down any ideas a new offer inspires
you with.
In short, always be on the lookout for new, clever offers. And
remember: 'A good offer is half the sale!'
Increase your returns by 20 to 30 per cent or morel
This offer merits an entire volume of analysis. It is one of the
most powerful tools available in direct mail sales, namely 'THE
FREE GIFT'.
On a symbolic level, receiving a gift means being recognized and
is therefore an affirmation of the value of your existence.
On a psychological level, a gift represents much more than its
market value: to a large extent it is perceived, by the beneficiary, as
a personal sacrifice made by the generous donor.
Conclusion: a gift that costs you $3, but which allows your
prospect to dream a little, will paradoxically be more important to
that person than other gifts which cost $15, or $35 or even $75, and
in some cases a lot more than that. So remember: a free gift can
work magic!
In some cases, a copywriter can even transform a free gift into
the main product, while the product that was originally offered
becomes the supplementary item...

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Make sure to indicate the words 'Free Gift' on the package. Direct
mail prospects are often hesitant about accepting anything, fearing
some kind of scam, or that they'll have to pay charges even though
they didn't order anything etc. So do anything you can to reassure
them, right from the start.
Also, as we've seen earlier, the words 'new' and 'free' are the two
workhorses of direct mail advertising. So saying 'free gift...' is a lot
better than just saying 'gift...'.
You should also respect a number of rules which will ensure that
your 'free gift' is perceived as such (think of the times you gave
someone a present they didn't like - what was supposed to be a
joyous occasion became a painful experience). Your free gift
should:
be attractive and promising;
have some relation to the main product;
cost as little as possible, while retaining the greatest possible
impact;
be exclusive;
be so interesting that it could be a product to sell by itself.
A professional secret - and how to get the most out of it!
I've saved the best for last.
This isn't an offer, although you could use it to make one.
You know that the first thing prospective clients read when they
get your message is the headline. All right, now what do you think
they read next?
If you don't know already, you're probably in for a surprise. The
story below will give you a hint.
The director of the US Marines Officers Academy asked Rene
Gnam, a seasoned old copywriter, to come up with a text that would
get more people to subscribe to the Academy's magazine.

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A superb text, quite obviously the work of Mr Gnam, was

submitted to the Admiral's office for approval.
The Admiral replied:
'We cannot agree with the postscript included in your letter. An
admiral would never go back on his word - or refuse to uphold a
promise he has put in writing.'
Since the rest of the letter was approved, and the real objective
was to recruit as many subscribers as possible, Mr Gnam insisted on
keeping the postscript. He challenged the Admiral to a little test:
half the mailing list would receive the letter without the indication
P.S., but with the paragraph originally intended to follow the P.S.
moved up to become the last paragraph of the letter, just above the
signature; the other half would receive the original letter, including
the P.S.
The Admiral's office accepted the challenge and the test was
carried out. Note that the original version (the one with the
postscript) produced three times more subscriptions than the second
version (the one without the postscript). And this occurred despite
the fact that the rest of the letter was exactly identical! The only
difference was the indication P. S. !
In his book Secrets of Direct Mail Sales (E.M.E., 2nd Edition,
1988) John P. Lehnish describes how researchers at Columbia
University in New York conducted a study on visual behavior.
They used hidden television cameras to observe what people look at
when they open an envelope which contains a message.
The subjects did not know that they were being observed. The
results showed the following: a large majority of readers started by
looking at the letter's headline, in order to find out the general
subject; they then looked for the sender's name, company etc.; next,
they read a couple of lines of the letter, after which they went
directly to the signature, which leads into the postscript. The
paragraph following the P.S. was therefore usually read before the
rest of the letter.
That is why so many direct mail letters have a postscript. If the
P.S. is interesting and well-written, readers will read the rest of the

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letter. Even if the letter is more than a page long, readers will turn
to the end and read the
P.S. before turning back to read the rest.
Surprised?
What this means, in practical terms, is that following your
headline, you should devote the most time in writing an effective
postscript. You should also ensure you have an attractive signature,
but that is a lot easier to do -we'll discuss it in more detail below.
How to write a high impact P.S.
As we've said, free gifts are one of the most powerful tools in
direct mail sales. The P.S. formula most often used consists of
describing the the free gift to best advantage and outlining the
conditions required to receive it.
Here are some examples.
P.S. You can also get this FREE GIFT!
The Lucky Luke card deck, 54 brightly illustrated cards,
available nowhere else. Spend hours playing with your kids - they'll
love the colors and fun pictures drawn specially for you by Morris.
Lucky Luke is the King, the Dalton gang are the Jacks, Ma Dalton
is the Queen of Spades, Ran-Tan-Plan and Jolly Jumper are jokers!
This is a good example of how to 'sell' the gift to increase its
value.
P.S. This is just a reminder that your company will not have to
pay the usual registration fee of 190, which I am pleased to offer
as a FREE GIFT!
You can also set a time limit or deadline. This encourages
prospects to respond quickly and therefore to read the rest of the
letter right away.
P.S. To get your name on the waiting list, I suggest you send us
your return coupon as soon as possible.

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You can also use the postscript to develop a 'last minute'

argument -yet another reason for buying your product, which acts
as the finishing touch and leads to a definitive decision on the part
of your prospects to 'go for it!':
P.S. Don't be a winner who throws away 25 or even 50 thousand
pounds!
Finally, it is always advantageous to associate, or combine,
different forms of postscripts. If you think this makes your
postscript too long, just split it up into a P.S. and a P.P.S. You can
even use N.B.:

P.S.

N.B.

P.P.S.

A last bit of advice concerning your P.S: whenever possible,

write the postscript out in longhand, or find a typeface that
resembles longhand.
This will add a lot more power of conviction, give it a kind of
urgency and immediacy; also consciously, or unconsciously,
prospects will be flattered - they'll perceive your P.S. as a personal
note...
How do you get your P.S. to look handwritten? Well, write it out
by hand, using a black pen (even if you want it to appear in blue on
the finished letter) and don't be too neat! Then just give the original
to your printer and they will do the rest!
How to increase sales - with just your signature!
Let's get back to your signature.
Does it look real?
Is it printed in a normal color?

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 Does it contain imperfections?

Study the signatures on sales letters. Some can be immediately

identified as fake. Others look more real. Others look so real you
want to wet your finger and see if it smudges.
This is so important that I advise you to sign any mailings of
under 3,000 copies by hand!
You may say, 'That's too much! Sign 3,000 letters by hand?'
Don't get excited- you can do it while talking on the phone,
listening to music, or the radio or while watching TV. You can
think about something else... The only danger is developing writer's
cramp!
Signing letters by hand gives them an authentic, personal look
which obliges prospects to read them, and to answer you. You'll see
the difference in your sales! So keep in mind that 'the reward is
worth the effort' and sign your letters by hand, whenever possible.

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SUMMARY
You can easily increase sales by finding variations of your
offer.
Combine successful offers to come up with the best one.
A free gift is one of the strongest offers: offer at least one, and
if possible two or three?'
Make sure your readers realize that your free gift has a much
greater symbolic value than it's really worth.
Take care to write a good P. S: this is what prospects read
immediately after the headline.
Pay attention to your signature: this is what readers look at
right before the P.S.

CHAPTER 8
How to find effective ideas and
arguments that sell

Put your most powerful idea-bank to work

Do you know where to find the largest interconnected network in
the world? A network with so many connections, that if you had to
write out the number using the same size characters as this book,
you'd have to add a string of zeros more than ten miles long!

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This network is also an amazing laboratory, which registers

between 10,000 and 100,000 chemical reactions per minute.
I'll give you a hint: the network is enclosed in a kind of box and
contains an average of ten billion cells . . .
The box, of course, is your skull and the fantastic
laboratory/network is your own brain! And it's in this immense
living laboratory that ideas are born. In fact, creativity is nothing
more than the faculty of giving birth to ideas. And, once in a while,
you'll come up with an idea that borders on genius, an idea with
enormous commercial potential. In a laboratory as sophisticated as
the one you have, this should be easy to do - as long as you know
how to use it!
The human brain is composed of two parts, connected by an
extremely complex system of nerves:
the left side of the brain handles functions like language,
logic, reasoning, analysis, space-time perception etc.;
the right side of the brain is more intuitive and controls
functions like rhythm, music, images, imagination, colors,
dimensions etc.
Keep the difference between left and right brain functions in
mind.
Coincidentally, there are also two types of creativity: one is
based on reorganizing bits of known information, thus creating new
and different information which, however, is only an original way
of combining known facts. This type of creativity is called
synthesis.
Then there's the other kind, where ideas seem to surge up out of
nowhere. This type of creativity is called intuition.
This is certainly the more noble of the two types of creativity,
because it seems to materialize from nothing, bringing into being
something that was not there before.
Intuitive creativity also usually precedes logical reasoning: you
'have a feeling about something' which isn't based on anything

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tangible or precise, on no discernible reasoning process - it's just

your intuition...
All right, but how do you get these flashes of intuition?
A secret for discovering effective ideas and arguments
that sell
When we look at how some copywriters have achieved brilliant
success, how they got started and how they used their intuition to
come up with great ideas, we can see that there's a lot less magic
involved than we originally thought: somehow, these people are
capable of seeing a little farther ahead and on a slightly larger scale.
In other words, their vision is not as limited as most people's.
Do the following experiment: walk around a room, pick out all
the objects that are red and try to memorize them. Ready?
Now try to visualize all the black or dark objects in the same
room. Make a list of those you can recall. Now go back and check.
You've probably forgotten quite a few. Why?
You were concentrating so much on the red objects that you
didn't pay any attention to the others. The same thing happens with
ideas: you are limiting your vision (actually you are being
conditioned to limit your ideas - in other words, you are being
manipulated).
You're like the frog who hops eagerly along, following a beam of
light in the night, only to find himself in a sack full of other frogs
who have followed the same light and who are all heading for the
dinner table!
Is this just a question of luck? In your little experiment, a good
copywriter, whose intuition has sometimes resulted in millions of
pounds worth of sales, will recall at least some of the dark colored
objects. Why? Because a trained copywriter's intellect is aggressive
and curious enough not to look only at what is obvious (i.e. the red
objects), but also at what lies behind the obvious. And this is
because copywriters train themselves to make use of both the right
and left side of their brains at the same time.

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You won't get any of them to admit this fact - it is, after all, a
secret -but consciously or unconsciously, voluntarily or simply
through habit, all the best copywriters use this technique. How can
you make it work for you as well?
How to develop your creative copywriting to its fullest
The first thing you have to do is stimulate your 'natural'
spontaneous creativity as much as possible. 'If I weren't as naive as
a child, I wouldn't be an inventor, states Roland Moreno, inventor
of the well-known microchip for credit cards (and holder of 45
patents for this microchip, that brings Moreno over $350000 in
royalties every month, from all over the world!).
In fact, children have limitless imaginations. Unlike adults, they
depend primarily on the right side of their brains, which is the seat
of creativity.
How can you become as creative as possible? Well, it's a little
like a child's game: the most inventive people are those who have
retained a childlike curiosity which allows them to free their
imaginations, to drift off and to escape into the world of dreams...
To help you regain this sense of childlike curiosity about the
world around you, start by developing a conscious and confident
relationship with your own subconscious mind.
Make a conscious effort to recall all the occasions (at least
three, whatever they may be) where you exhibited any kind of
creativity (if possible, occasions where you 'amazed' yourself
or the people around you). Try to relive the experiences in
vivid detail, reviving the feelings of pleasure and
accomplishment you felt, so that you build up a sense of
confidence in your own creativity.
Never force yourself to be creative. On the contrary, you have
to be very relaxed for your imagination to function.
Don't criticize yourself, don't judge yourself and, above all,
don't judge the quality of the initial ideas that come to your
mind.

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 Next, get into the habit, a few times a day, of stopping your
thoughts, interrupting the continuous process of analysis that
occupies your mind. Instead, just try to feel things and let your
mind wander in complete freedom.
Make an effort not to react like an adult, imprisoned by your
past, by your education, by your obligations and responsibilities. On
the contrary-liberate yourself from all these restricting factors. Let
your mind fly, and look at the people and objects around you from a
new, fresh perspective...
Flow top copywriters find their best ideas and sales
arguments
Now that conditions are favorable for tapping into your natural
creativity, the time has come to learn how to make regular use of
both the right and left sides of the brain simultaneously.
One of the basic principles involves developing your curiosity as
much as possible: be curious about everything, interested in
everything, let your mind wander freely and explore anything that
occurs to you, while making use of both your left and right brain at
the same time...
Lee Iacocca, the man who got the Chrysler Corporation back on
its feet, declared:
'Business rarely works like mathematics - you can rarely apply
a formula to come up with one solution. There are usually a
number of solutions. And very often, there are a number of
excellent solutions. Having good business sense means being
able to find these solutions. But only a business genius is able to
pick the best one.'
Exactly the same can be said about copywriting.
Here are some hints to help you to develop your curiosity to its
fullest.
Be aware that you have a natural tendency to prefer and pick

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out things you already know, approaches that have worked for
you in the past etc. Make a conscious effort to 'break new
ground' - to 'get off the beaten track', for example by:
o making drastic changes to your home or office
environment; going out to different places; reading
different publications; looking for new sources of
information; changing your habits; etc.
o playing the 'devil's advocate' and thinking exactly
the opposite of what you usually think about your
problems, putting yourself in your competitors'
shoes etc.
Accept the fact that the most far-fetched ideas may contain a
seed of genius, and always merit further analysis and testing.
'Circle' the problem you're trying to solve by making optimum
use of your right brain. For example, don't write the problem
and its possible solutions down. Instead, 'draw' the problem,
express it in images, illustrations, allegories, graphs, tables etc.
Practice a technique called 'mental cinema' (visualize various
solutions in as much detail as possible, using the approach: 'If
I do this . . . then . . .').
Try to make use of all five senses: feeling, hearing, seeing,
touching and tasting every aspect of the subject under scrutiny,
taking your time to experience it from as many different
perspectives as possible.
Finally, take Lee Iacocca's advice and always look for a
second, third, even a fourth 'excellent' solution. This is
extremely important! If you retain and apply only one
technique from this entire chapter, make this the one!
Why so few people have great ideas
Why are so few people able to come up with great ideas? The
answer is probably because they can't see the treasures hidden all
around them, which they could easily discover if they would just

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dig a little deeper. When you are convinced that you can do
something, then your mind really starts looking for answers as to
how it can be done - in other words it actively seeks ways to attain
the objectives you've set for yourself.
This is the only way - and I mean the only way - to get your mind
really occupied with finding a solution, an idea or an effective
argument: you must believe that it is possible!
Of course, you have to be realistic if you don't want to run the
risk of total failure. But to come up with an excellent idea, never
listen to people who say things like, 'Don't be a dreamer...' or 'That
will never work...' On the contrary...
With just a little practice, you'll be able to transform your right
brain into an amazing 'idea machine'. How? Simply by using your
subconscious mind like a computer:
where you store information;
which you program to do what you want;
which you then ask questions;
and which provides you with answers - at any time - as soon
as it is finished.
Try it out for yourself- you'll be amazed at how well it works. It's
almost magic!
Put your right brain to work!
Here's a concrete method, in four steps:
1. Enter information
When you prepare a sales letter or an ad for a given product, you
should refer to a number of sources of information.
The first of these is your files.
Every time you see an interesting ad, cut it out. Every time you

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receive a sales letter, file it away. Classify all these documents

according to subject.
For example, I keep seven files, each with a different color,
which corresponds to the following categories;

White

Personal development

Yellow

Money

Orange

Book clubs

Red

Sexuality

Blue

Weight loss

Green

Health

Purple

Miscellaneous

This is good enough to start, but you should update your files as
you gradually collect more and more material.
Each ad or letter is read and analyzed, and any ideas they may
inspire are noted and filed under the appropriate category.
Of course, to fill your files with information, you should
subscribe to as many publications as possible and respond to all the
direct mail offers you receive, including those from other countries.
The product itself
Study it. Use it. If it's a book, read it. You should know
everything about the product. Talk to people who've used it or sold
it before. Visit the factory or lab where it is made.
If the product is new- and you therefore don't have access to this
kind of information - then test a similar product made by a
competitor.

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Other documents about the product

If the product has already been advertised elsewhere, study the
publicity. Read any letters or testimonials submitted by satisfied or dissatisfied -clients. Find out if any market studies were done, if
there are any reports by consumer groups etc.
How to 'brainstorm'
Invite a group of interested people together and get them to
brainstorm for you. Brainstorming was invented by one of the great
names in advertising: Alex F. Osborn.
This method is based on the principle of 'differential judgment',
which suggests that looking for solutions to a problem occurs in
two separate phases:
first, looking for possible solutions without any criticism at
all, i.e. collecting ideas with a completely open mind;
secondly, noting and evaluating all these ideas, the fruit of the
collective minds of six to ten people (ideally) who are as
different from each other as possible (in terms of education,
cultural background, age, professional standing etc.).
Here are a few rules to follow.
1. All critical judgment is withheld- criticizing the ideas is
reserved for later.
2. The craziest flights of imagination are welcome - the more
'far out' or absurd an idea seems, the better; it's easier to bring a
crazy idea 'down to earth' than to make an ordinary one 'fly'.
3. Quantity is more important than quality - the more
potential ideas you have, the better your chances are of finding a
'great one'.
4. Combining and improving ideas is highly recommended As well as submitting original ideas, participants are asked to
express their opinions on how to combine and/or improve ideas
suggested by others. In this way, someone's original idea may go

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through a number of transformations or variations. Ideas can also be

combined, associated or fragmented to build new approaches.

Of course, during a brainstorming session everything must be

taped or taken down by a shorthand secretary.
How else to channel creativity
You can also use other effective techniques for channelling
creativity, such as 'If this, then...'.
The principle of this technique is based on the game approach:
For example, if I reduce the weight of my product, then I can
send out twice as many for the same price. You play with all kinds
of ideas and try to visualize all kinds of possibilities in the hope of
coming up with new approaches. You can also get a few people
together for an 'If this, then...' session and apply the same rules as
you would for a brainstorming session.

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The discovery matrix

Developed by Abraham Moles, a specialist in communication,
this technique consists of applying the approach of combining ideas
in a systematic way. Using a graph, you can relate different
elements which, at first glance, seem to have nothing to do with
each other.
For example, say you're looking for ideas about new products
because you want to expand your company's operations. The first
step is to analyze the needs, expectations and dissatisfactions
expressed by consumers. Then you analyze the capacity and
technical expertise of your company, and try to put the two
together. This will give you a 'need-possibilities' matrix.
In the following example the graph has been drawn up to think
about the design of a beauty product:

Needs

Odorless

Bottle

Liquid

Design

Decoration

Possibilities
Financial
Technical
Marketing
Sales
Personnel

Once the table is complete, each box is analysed and you ask the
following questions:
Is there a solution here?
Are there any other more original or effective solutions?

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An empty box means that no problems have been perceived. This

is an innovative way to come up with great product ideas. Draw up
your own discovery matrix and use it.
Scenarios
The principle here is to write as imaginative a description as
possible of a situation that involves various problems.
In your ideal scenario, the problems are magically solved.
You'd also do a 'worst-case scenario' to help you avoid negative
repercussions and prepare alternative plans to improve a bad
situation.
Once the theme of a scenario is well defined, present it to a group
(three or four people maximum) and ask for their comments, using
sketches and tables as support documents. The challenge here is to
transform the scenario into concrete suggestions for action.
2. Write a program
Creativity is something that has to be practiced and cultivated:
first, through experience, namely the more you write letters, the
easier it gets; secondly, through games.

a. For example, complete this series of letters:

OXXOXXOXXOX?
That was easy!

b. Here's one that's a little harder:

1 7 3 6 5 5 7 4 9?

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c. Here's another classic creativity puzzle. Using a maximum of

four straight lines, and without lifting your pen off the paper, join
all the dots.
o

If you couldn't find the solution, it was because you were limited
in thinking that your lines had to remain within the boundaries of
the dots. And it often happens that the limits we impose on
ourselves prevent us from finding solutions.

d. Here's a final creativity game: try to guess which sign is the

logical progression of the following.

The answer is:

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What comes next?

The answer is:

What's next?
The answer is:

134

And the next one?

Answer:

And the next is

And the one after that

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and then

Were you able to guess? I'll give you another hint. The next sign
is:

Then:

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Then one more, the last one:

Solutions
a. X
b. 3

c.
d. They are all symmetrical, composed of two mirror images of
the other.

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We'll stop there, since this was not meant to be a book about
games~ But what conclusions can be drawn from these games and
the difficulties you had finding the solutions?
You have to be intellectually stimulated, at least to some
extent, in order to find the solutions.
You have to believe that there is a solution in order to find
one. If you think the puzzle is a trap and has no solution, then
you'll give up.
You have to break out of the limits of conformity.
The simplest things are not always obvious.
Getting discouraged extinguishes creativity.
Psychological factors
These games suggest that one important factor for developing
creativity is simply not to inhibit it by saying things like:
'I'll do better tomorrow . . .'
'I'm tired...'
'What are people going to think about me... '
'It's better if I don't take the risk... '
'I have to . . .'
'I shouldn't...'
'Anyway, I'm the kind of person who . . .'
Im content with what I've got...'

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Tm afraid of what I don't know...'

'I already know . . .'
'I've got a mental block . . .'
Get into the habit of replacing these kinds of discouraging
thoughts with other, more positive ones. The trick is to 'empower'
yourself- to authorize yourself to try something new. This isn't
something that comes from outside. Creativity is something you
already have inside you- all you have to do is free it.
Jean Cocteau (a famous French author/artist) said:
'Inspiration isn't something that falls from the sky. Rather, it is
the result of a kind of profound indolence, and of our inability to
reach certain forces deep within ourselves. These forces are always
active, but it takes some exceptional event to awaken us from our
state of somnolence and make us use them.'
Here are a few positive thoughts which you can use to stimulate
your creativity:
'I am breathing...' 'I am vibrant...' 'I love myself...' 'I love you...'
'I sing...'
'I'm having fun . . .'
'I'm amusing myself...' (Think about the connection between
'amusing myself' and 'a muse', i.e. being your own muse!)
'I play (recreate) . . .'
'I let myself go . . .'
'I'm confident . . .'
'I dare to.. '
'I'm opening up . . .'
'I'm playing...'

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You have to relax to be creative.

3. Ask a question
In order for your subconscious to work on its own and come up
with solutions, you must give it a precise objective.
For example, 'Find the best title for the book I've just written on
repairing home computers'.
Or better still, 'Find a catchy and convincing title'.
At the same time as you ask the question, set yourself a time
limit. 'Now that I have all the information I need, I'll write the text
of this ad next Friday morning at 9 o'clock'.
Choose the right time to program your subconscious. Ideally, this
would be when your subconscious and conscious minds are close to
merging:
just before going to sleep;
while relaxing;
when driving;
traveling (on an airplane, boat, train etc.).
You'll get much better results if you choose the time carefully.
One of the most fascinating mental processes is called creative
expectation. If you believe in what you're doing, if you have
confidence that your creativity will produce results, then it will
happen.
First program yourself, then be confident.
4. Listen for the results
Even though you've set a date, your mental computer may start
providing you with answers as soon as its work on the problem is

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completed, without waiting for the prescribed time. So you have to

be in a state of readiness, pen and notebook at hand, and write down
whatever thoughts you have. Keep a notebook in your bathroom, in
the lavatory, next to your bed, in your car, on your person at all
times etc.
Do not put off writing things down until later! As soon as a
possible solution comes to mind, stop everything and write it down!
If you don't, the chances are you'll forget it.
The power of the 'tree' technique
All right, you start getting more and more ideas. Some are
interesting, some are even pure genius!
All this bubbling creativity is very nice, but you still feel that
you're not doing the best you can. And you're right!
What you need is a method which you can use to channel your
creative energy - to concentrate it and control it.
A young creative writing professor, Gabrielle Lusser Rico,
teaching in San Diego University, found a way of applying recent
clinical discoveries concerning the right brain to help make the
process of finding ideas easier. Here's what he has to say:
'Right brain thinking is not organized in a linear way: it is
random. So making a list is a kind of an aberration. To stimulate the
right brain, ideas have to be represented as floating in space,
somewhat like the way they appear in our brain. This led to the
development of the tree diagram.'
You start by writing the central idea in the middle of the tree.
You then write any subsequent ideas, stemming from the central
idea, around it. You continue the process by adding smaller circles
of ideas around those secondary ones and so on.
On the next page, you'll find an example of a tree diagram that
starts with the central idea of 'memory'. You'll have to admit that
the tree technique is a lot more productive than making an ordinary
list. I found I got almost 30 per cent more ideas. Try it and see for

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yourself.
Note: if you run out of space and want to extend a 'branch', just

use another sheet of paper. Use the secondary idea as a starting

point and continue from there.

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The most powerful method of transforming a good idea

into a real success
I spent years training sales people, explaining to them that you
always have to transform the characteristics of a given product into
advantages. But it wasn't until I began working in direct mail sales
that I realized:
1. just how important this is;
2. to what extent it improves sales.
To reformulate ideas and transform them into advantages, all you
have to do is follow the rules governing creativity: 'This reminds
me of...'.
For example, say I'm selling a book on How to do Better in Your
Exams and Improve Your Study Habits. It deals with things like
memory, stage fright, learning exercises etc.
If I exchange places with one of my potential readers, I would
ask myself the following question: 'What is this book going to do
for me personally?'
Answer: the book can help me:
learn another language;
start using computers;
prepare for written or oral exams;
write a thesis;
control my fear of speaking in public.
If I then take the process a step further, and reformulate these
advantages once more, we come up with something completely
different:
Would you like to:
Speak another language?

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 Learn all about computers?

Get a university degree - and a better job - with ease?
Remain perfectly in control, even in the most stressful
situations (meetings, oral exams, interviews, speeches etc.).
The main difference between the two versions is that the first
talks about the effort required to achieve these things (which is not
a great way to motivate people), while the second talks about
results, i.e. what occurs after the effort is made.
People are much more highly motivated by thinking about the
end result rather than about all the effort it takes to get there!
You have to become a master at reformulating your ideas in a
positive way, so that they come across as advantages. Not only will
this process provide you with a lot of new ideas and pertinent sales
arguments (which was your original objective), you'll also find you
get better at it as you practice. Your work will go more smoothly
and provide ever greater sales.
The reformulation technique
I've saved the best for last. The code name is reformulation.
In fact, reformulating your ideas can completely change your
perception of the product you're handling!
Every product has its characteristics. Some may even be
remarkable. But the technical description of even the most
remarkable product in the world is uninteresting (except to a
technician).
On the other hand, if you can turn each of these characteristics
into an advantage, then you have something people are interested in
hearing about. This is the secret of reformulation.
Let's take a product, say an inflatable balloon that plugs into your
car's exhaust pipe to inflate, and which you can then use to lift the
car when you have to change a tire. If you describe the product's
characteristics to an average motorist, you'd probably get a response

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somewhere between 'You must be kidding...' and some vague

interest, followed by doubts as to whether or not the thing really
works.
Now, forget about characteristics, and start thinking about advantages, and you come up with a whole new set of ideas!
For example, you could say the following.
The balloon inflates in just a few seconds and makes changing
a tire easier than ever. No wasted time, no missed
appointments.
It lifts the entire right or left side of the car - change a flat tire,
or replace summer or winter tires in half the time}
If you get stuck in mud or snow, just use the balloon to lift
your car, and then slide a piece of wood, or some gravel, or
branches under your tires. You'll be out in no time!
Because the balloon's surface is so large, it can be used to lift
your car in places where a jack would be dangerous (soft
ground, steep hill etc.).
Keep a balloon in your boot and feel secure, wherever you go.
No more worries about getting stuck or fixing a flat tyre. It's
so easy -lifting the car requires no physical effort whatsoever.
Conclusion? If you select, concentrate and combine advantages,
you end up with a product that appears to be indispensable to the
average motorist - the same motorist who just a few minutes ago
was completely indifferent!
Also, you'll notice that in addition to stimulating and sharpening
your creativity, the 'reformulating' technique helps you discover a
host of excellent ideas that you'd probably never have thought of
without it.

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SUMMARY
The left brain is the seat of logic and reason. The right brain is
the seat of imagination and intuition.
To establish a direct line of communication with your
subconscious, you first have to develop a conscious - and
confident- relationship with it. A number of exercises have
been designed to help you do just that. Practise them!
Develop your curiosity as much as possible, in order to
stimulate and improve creativity.
One of the keys to success and coming up with great ideas is
really believing that a solution exists.
To get your right brain to work for you:
1. store as much information as possible;
2. program your subconscious to perform a task (such as
solving a problem, or finding new ideas...);
3. ask your subconscious a precise question.
Transform all your product's characteristics into advantages,
by using the 'reformulation' technique.

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CHAPTER 9
How to keep your prospects intrigued
right from the start

How to avoid the wastepaper basket in the first 20

seconds
I don't mean to give you nightmares, but I need to remind you of
a horrible vision: your letter, your beautiful mailing, in which
you've invested so much money, time and effort, which you've put
all your heart and soul into writing, using everything you know
about copy-writing ... this beautiful document is being irresistibly
drawn to the rubbish bin.
From the mailbox to the bin - this fatal voyage can be short very short indeed!
The only way to save your mailing: attract your readers'
attention, of course (we've explained how earlier on), but above all
hold their attention as long as possible. How?
Well, let's look at the first step: arousing and attracting your
readers' interest. We've already seen how a headline includes a
'promise' which makes prospects want to keep reading, in order to
find out how you're going to solve their problems, fulfill their
desires, calm their fears etc. So your headline not only attracts
attention, it also arouses an initial interest on the part of your
clients.
Now your task is to maintain this interest, while getting your
readers to move from the large, bold type of the headline to the
smaller type of your sales letter itself. And not only do you want to
maintain interest, you want to arouse it even more.

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So, how do you keep readers excited, after they read the
headline? How can you get them to read the rest of your text?
Before showing you the weapons you have at your disposal (and
very effective weapons they are!), I'd like to introduce an extremely
subtle but powerful ally...
Some people call it 'human nature', others refer to it as 'laziness'
or 'natural inertia', but it doesn't matter what term you use.
Put a child, or even an adult, in front of a television set end play a
video-tape of some successful adventure film (like Indiana Jones or
Romancing the Stone). Let five minutes go by, then turn off the
sound and the picture, and watch what happens...
You won't have to wait long for your viewer to protest most
vociferously! Why? Simply because all human beings enjoy a good
story. Tell someone an interesting story and they'll listen to the end.
Time seems to pass very quickly when you're listening to a good
story.
The objective is the same when writing a sales letter: capture
your readers' attention, arouse their interest and hold it, if possible
until they finish reading your letter...
You can rest assured that if your headline was good enough to
attract their attention in the first place, then you've already won half
the battle! This is because people naturally enjoy a good story and
are always curious to find out what happens in the end.
So, once your headline has worked, you have a natural ally
working for you - the force of inertia.
Now you can also equip this ally with certain weapons that will
make it more effective. Here are the weapons at your disposal.
How to tell a thrilling story
Tell a story, pure and simple. It's the simplest and most natural
way to get your message across, although it may not be the easiest.
But if you're a good storyteller, and know how to arouse your
listeners' curiosity and sustain it, you will score high marks.

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Here's an example:
Sunday, 28 December 1902. Three o'clock in the morning. A
woman, her face full of anguish, awakens next to her sleeping
husband. She lifts herself painfully out of the huge Renaissance
bed, almost doubled over with nausea, and drags herself along
the floor towards the lavatory. Her husband wakes up soon after,
covered in sweat, breathing heavily. He struggles to get up, takes
a few steps towards a closed window, but falls to the floor before
he can reach it. In a last desperate attempt, the woman reaches for
a bell cord that would summon the servants. But she's too weak,
she falls to the floor and loses consciousness.
In the shadows, a coal fire casts an eerie glow, still dispensing
a breath of meager warmth into the room.
The bodies were found the next morning...
If the subject identified in the headline held an interest for you at
all, it would be very hard, because of the tremendous force of
inertia at work on your mind, to stop reading at this point.
Objective attained!
Ask your prospective clients a good question
This is the technique most often used by copywriters, with classic
openings like: 'Did you know that?'
'Did you know that a homoeopathic consultation generally
lasts two or three times as long as an ordinary medical checkup?'
'Why do you think this is so?'
This statement makes readers extremely curious. It's almost as if
you're challenging them to find the answer.
'If you could [insert one or a number of advantages],
would you be interested?'

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This is called the Bettger technique, after the person who

invented it. It leads automatically to a positive response in readers
('Yes, of course I would...') and therefore immediately arouses their
interest. It should then be relatively easy to sustain their interest, at
least for a few paragraphs.
'Do you remember... ?'
Appealing to people's memories is also a good way to arouse
interest, because it adds the emotional impact of the memory to
their rational thinking process, emotions which are sometimes very
strong and which serve to reinforce their interest.
Break some kind of news to your clients
No matter what we're interested in, we're always looking for
news -information, hidden documents, revelations, results,
discoveries etc. We don't sit around waiting for them, but when they
do happen, we stop everything and listen. People are naturally
curious.
So, if people stop to listen to almost any news, then imagine how
strong the effect is when the news you break is about their
particular sphere of interest and concerns them directly!
For example, say you've already bought a couple of books on
health from a mail order company, or some products they offered
for skin or hair problems; you then get a letter whose first paragraph
is:
Here's some great news for men and women who suffer
from dandruff, itchy scalp, very dry hair and so on. This new
product actually...
The chances are pretty good, unless you have to leave
immediately to catch a plane or a train, that you'll read the rest of
the letter.
Objective attained!

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Get rid of your clients' bad memories for them

Maybe you have a way to soothe a certain kind of pain or get rid
of a particular problem your clients have. Use this to formulate your
headline.
The best way to do this is to recreate the unpleasant situation and
then offer a solution. Doing so solicits an emotional response,
which reinforces the analytical process of deciding whether or not
the product is worth buying (very like providing positive
memories).
For example:
You have to speak in front of a group of people. Suddenly
your throat goes dry, your vocal chords start tightening up,
your thoughts wander all over the place.
Someone compliments you on the way you look - all you
can do is stammer some incomprehensible reply.
People are looking at you - you blush and turn away.
We've all felt this way at some time or other...
And if you, the reader, have felt this way, what do you think
you're going to do after a psychological slap in the face like thisread the letter or throw it away? Read it, of course.
Objective attained!
Sum it all up!
Sum it all up for your readers: concentrate all your arguments in
one paragraph and make their mouths water!
Example:
Magic rituals unearthed after centuries... How to attract
money love... How to completely neutralize any kind of
hate and protect yourself against any kind of aggression...

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If these things concern you (and since you've been targeted to

receive this letter the chances are good that they do), it would be
very difficult for you to refuse an offer like this one and throw the
letter away instead of reading it.
Objective attained!
Use testimonials
This technique is subtle in the sense that readers start to identify
with the hero of the testimonial, through a psychological process of
projection, and start feeling their reactions, motivations etc., as if
they were their own...
Example:
I have a confession to make. I love eating. I can't resist a
delicious little snack now and then. The problem is, I have to
watch my weight.
Imagine all the trouble I went through trying not to eat too
much . . resisting temptation day after day...
That's right, I said went through, because that's all behind
me now - since I found the solution to my problem!

And there it is! If you are in any way concerned about

overeating, then you're hooked - there's no way you're not going to
keep on reading!
Objective attained!
How to develop your own technique
There's no reason why you cannot combine two or three of these
techniques, or even invent one of your own! There really are no
limits.
There is, however, one golden rule and that is TEST and TEST
SOME MORE!

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The only way to become a great copywriter and get consistent

results is to experiment, and then test your approach to see how
well it works.

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SUMMARY
Keep this image constantly in mind: your letter, irresistibly
drawn towards the wastebasket. The only way to save your
letter from being discarded is to attract the attention of your
readers immediately and hold their interest throughout.
The most effective techniques for keeping readers on the edge
of their seats right from the start are:
- telling a story that has some suspense; - asking the right
question; - breaking some 'news';
- erasing unpleasant memories;
- offering testimonials.
Constantly test your techniques in order to make steady and
lasting progress.

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CHAPTER 10
How to convince people who can't make
up their minds-and increase your sales

The truth is not always appropriate

Say you're selling a 'Stairmaster' fitness machine and you have a
client who was able to improve his performance from five flights to
127 flights of stairs in just five days. You checked him out and what
he says is absolutely true. However, if you tell people this in your
sales letter, they won't believe it! On the other hand, if you say he
went from five flights to 25 flights, then people will believe you...
Why? Simply because it sounds more realistic.
Also, pay special attention to a close relative of realism:
coherence. Be careful about putting too many different documents
in a single mailing, especially if they were written by different
people! A discrepancy, no matter how tiny (a number, a date etc.)
may seem very insignificant to you, but it can actually destroy an
entire mailing! So be very, very careful what you include...
Always prove what you say - and do it more than once!
Use whatever proofs you want, but make sure they respond to the
following questions.
How do I know this proof is true?
Where did this take place?
Who says this is true?

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 That right does this person have to make this statement?

How did this happen?
Always look for new ways to prove what you say.
A guarantee can be your proof. An offer can also be your proof:
This product works, and here's the proof: if you don't get results,
not only will I reimburse you in full, I'll also send you a check for
$200 to compensate you for the time and effort you spent trying our
machine.
Use expert opinions
For example, get a well-known personality or an expert to state
why they liked your product, and how it can help others. If possible,
get a photograph of the person and put it above the statement.
You can also ask other users to give you testimonials about why
they liked your product.
Finally, you can make a testimonial yourself. If what you say
sounds credible, it can be just as effective as an impartial opinion.
What if you are targeting another business?
It's now time to look at a special branch of mail order marketing,
called 'business to business' sales.
Heads of businesses - people who are used to making decisions do not react the same way that other members of the public do.
They are not motivated by the same things (the proof being that
mail order professionals have quickly realized that they get far
better results when addressing someone with a particular position or
function, rather than just a name). Also, you wouldn't offer such
people the same kinds of products, since they are often more
technically oriented, more professional and better able to
understand complicated, detailed descriptions.
Therefore, as a copywriter, you have to adapt your style to the
product and to the target clientele. Your text should be much more

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informative, more rational and provide more detailed descriptions.

Also, and above all, it should offer more proof to support the
validity of what you say. The opinions of reputed professionals,
institutions and well-known experts are of capital importance. Make
sure you include them if you ever decide to get involved in this type
of specialized mail order sales.
The power of the 'lift letter'
How do you convince the maximum number of hold-outs and
increase your returns by 20 to 40 per cent? (Or how do you
convince people who can't make up their minds and increase your
sales by 20 to 40 per cent?)
A technique called the 'lift-letter' was long kept a well-guarded
secret by its inventor, Paul Greystone, founder of Greystone Press.
But as soon as it became known, it spread like wildfire. Thanks to a
single eight by ten piece of paper, printed in two colors, and added
to the contents of a mailing, direct mail entrepreneurs were able to
generate 30 per cent more revenue!
And what's more, the letter was so easy to write: the basic
principle being that a person, either known or unknown to the
reader, but who holds a position which is hierarchically superior to
the person who wrote and signed the original sales letter, adds his
or her guarantee - a kind of seal of approval - to the product and the
terms being offered.
This is why a lift-letter often has a picture of the signatory on it.
What should a lift-letter say? It's very simple. A lift-letter often
starts something like this:
Dear
Frankly, I am puzzled. I can't for the life of me understand why
you decided not to try XXX.
This is followed by:

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1. answers to the main objections (too expensive, I have no time

for it, etc.); 2. reasons for trying the product immediately;
3. a reminder of the free gift;
4. reassurances of the validity of the guarantee.
In short, the aim of a lift-letter is to remove any objections or
doubts readers may have even before they arise and reassure them
with a personal guarantee from a second signatory, who holds a
superior position to the first.
This is a classic. And there's more. Lift-letters are effective, not
so much because of their text (in fact, they're usually folded in half,
or even in four), but because of a single sentence printed on the
exposed side, which reads something like:
Don't read this unless you've decided not to respond to our
offer...
Read this only if you've decided not to respond to our
offer...
Please read this letter only if you've decided not to try XXX
immediately...
What happens when you read this message? There are two
possibilities:
1. either you already want to buy the product, but you are so
intrigued that you read the letter anyway, in which case your
decision to buy the product is reinforced even more; or
2. you don't really feel like buying the product, but you're
finally won over by the additional arguments in the lift-letter.
Result? In both cases, you recover a percentage of 'solid orders'
that you would otherwise have lost, probably without even realizing
it. And when these tenths of a percentage point of sales accumulate,
they can make all the difference between mediocre and extremely
profitable returns.

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How to prepare your readers for action

Sacha Guitry, a French writer and actor who was renowned for
being provocative, wrote: 'The women you haven't had are probably
the ones you didn't ask!'
What Mr Guitry jokingly suggests really does apply to most
situations in life: you have to know how to ask for things. In fact,
knowing how to ask is often the key to success: ask any top
salesperson or head of business!
The same thing applies to copywriters: never hesitate to ask your
clients to act. Don't be afraid of sounding too forward, aggressive or
impolite: experience has shown that people rarely perceive a
straightforward demand that way. And you'll also be finding out
about very subtle ways to ask your readers to act, so subtle that
they'll find it difficult to refuse your offer...
On the other hand, if you don't tell your readers what they should
do, the chances are they won't do it!
Golden rule number one: before making an explicit appeal to
action, set the groundwork for your attack.
1. Summarize the advantages of your offer
This is the most traditional way of going about getting your
clients to act. It corresponds to the equation:
ADVANTAGE /PRICE = VALUE
The greater the value, the easier it is, because price is no longer
an obstacle. This is also the moment where you might want to add
yet another argument in favor of buying your product.
2. Reassure your clients
If you're going to offer a guarantee, this is the time to do it,
because this is the moment when your prospective clients are afraid.
You can also resort to one, or a number, of the techniques we
described earlier for reassuring your clients and convincing people

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who can't make up their minds. Your objective is clear: before

going any further, you are asking your clients to make some kind of
sacrifice and you must reassure them strongly that they will not lose
out.
Only then can you get them to act.
Getting your clients to act
Here's a classic plan for concluding a deal:

Price
!
Don't miss out on an opportunity like this one
!
1. Do this 2. Do that 3. Fill out.., put in envelope.., mail it today
!
Every day that goes by you lose...
!
Act now
!
If not, you may forget
!
P.S. Free gift if you send your reply before . . .

The words used in this conclusive phase all point in one

direction: action. Because if your clients do not act immediately,
they never will. Keep that firmly in mind: in direct mail sales, it's
now.., or never!

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We all know how it works: you put off filling out the order form
for later and then you forget about it. You put the offer in a drawer
and that's where it stays. You may want to buy the product after
reading the sales letter, but if you don't do it right away, you'll find
all kinds of reasons why you shouldn't buy it later on.
Words that trigger an immediate action
To incite readers to act, copywriters use a very specific
vocabulary. Here are the results of a study of 75 sales letters and
their conclusions. Words and phrases that scored the highest were:
Today 26 times
Don't miss out (on an opportunity like this) 16 times
Quickly 12 times
Return (your order form) as fast as possible 9 times
Hurry 8 times
Take advantage of this special price (of this special offer) 7 times
The faster you respond, the faster... 4 times
As quickly as possible 4 times
Post your order form quickly 4 times
Do it now 4 times
Answer right away 4 times
Can I expect your answer tomorrow? 4 times
Don't wait any longer 3 times
Take advantage.., while it lasts 3 times
Do it quickly 3 times
To be sure you qualify... 3 times
Don't put off making your decision 3 times

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I want to thank you for responding so quickly 3 times

These are some of the most common phrases, but there are other
ways of inciting your clients to act.
Five more effective techniques for inciting clients to act
1. Set an expiry date
Don't put off making a decision. Unfortunately, I can't guarantee
delivery of this jewel of a product if your order form is dated after
midnight, 28 March 2005. So don't wait! This is really a unique and
rare opportunity!
2. Set a time period
I tried to spread this offer out over a period of time, so that we
could serve you better, and so that Catherine, my secretary, would
not get too overloaded trying to fill too many orders all at once. If
you would be so kind as to mail your order within the next five
days, I'd be happy to send you a little gift, as a token of my
appreciation and friendship - a 'high performance' CD. So take
advantage of this limited offer by sending us your order form today!
3. An imminent event...
Which may cancel out all or many of the advantages you've just
offered, such as:
a limited number of clients;
running out of stock or an imminent increase in price;
a special introductory price (launching the product,
subscription drive etc.).

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4. Offer a free gift if the client responds quickly

5. A list of everything the client has to lose...

By not responding quickly, or by passing up your extremely
attractive offer.
Which technique is best?
Try to associate and combine a number of techniques, so that
together they are perfectly suited to the type of product you're
offering. In this way, the advantages of each single technique are
multiplied (the whole is greater than the sum of the parts!).
Finally, tell your clients exactly what they have to do and do
everything you can to make it easy for them.
For example, tell them explicitly to fill out the order form, to put
it in the return envelope along with their check or credit card details
and to drop it in the post-box. You must do this even though it may
seem infantile and unnecessary, a little like talking to a child.
Telling them exactly what they have to do saves time since
clients don't have to ask themselves all kinds of questions and it
reinforces your original point: 'This really is easy!' In fact, you kill
two birds with one stone: clients don't make any mistakes and you
administer what is called 'The Lancaster Touch . . .'
Summarize the advantages
Lancaster was an American insurance salesman who discovered a
pretty astute technique for making a lot more sales than any of his
colleagues.
Towards the end of his presentation, after explaining and making
sure the prospect understood everything, he would summarize all
the advantages of his offer ('I believe I already told you that...') and
made sure he got the prospect to respond with a 'Yes' answer to two

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or three very minor questions. He would then start filling out the
contract as if it were the only natural thing left to do...
After completing the contract, he would offer his pen to the
prospect and point to the place where the prospect was to sign.
And that's all there was to it! By some seemingly miraculous
process, the number of prospects who actually signed was
astounding.
Why? Because Lancaster did everything he could to make it easy
for them: signing became the logical next step! Prospects
understood this logic, and consequently asked themselves fewer
questions and had fewer doubts. The transition from passive listener
to active buyer became completely natural...
You, too, can use the 'Lancaster Touch': prepare the groundwork,
make things as easy as you can for your clients and lead them
through a logical progression towards your objective - buying your
product and sending you a check in the mail!

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SUMMARY
You have three ways to convince people who can't make up their
minds; - formal, believable and coherent proof; - expert opinion; the lift-letter.
To get your prospective clients to act immediately:
prepare the necessary groundwork so that action is easy;
reassure them (with a guarantee if possible);
use 'trigger' words and phrases;
set an expiration date or time limit;
announce some imminent event (raise in price etc.);
offer a gift for responding quickly;
list all the ways they would lose out by not responding;
tell them exactly what they have to do.

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CHAPTER 11
How to keep your readers reading from beginning to end
It's a bit like football: after the kick-off (writing your headline)
and the kick-off return (your letter's first paragraph) the objective is
to score points!
How to make all of your letter exciting
Here's what you want to do: get your message across and hold
your readers' attention, keeping them on the edge of their seats
(panting for more).
Remember the comic books you read as a child? If you take a
close look at the end of each page, and especially at the box in the
bottom right-hand corner, you'll see that the writer/artist almost
always breaks off at a point of suspense, which, of course, makes
you want to turn the page and keep reading.
This technique has a very practical origin: comics were first
published in newspapers and appeared a page at a time. Artists are
still using the technique today, simply because it's a great way to
capture and maintain the interest of their avid fans.
Take a look at a thriller or murder mystery. At the end of each
chapter, you'll almost always find a question, a point of suspense, a
crisis. For example:
'She hung up first. I stepped out of the phone booth, and
that's when it all started.'
'I had absolutely no doubts about what really went on in

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Arizona while I was away.'

'Four hours later, I was on a plane heading for Europe.
Heading for-and there's really no other way to put it - the
biggest mistake I ever made. '
'She was gone for 11 days in all. Now she's back. And now
it starts...'
But what about a sales letter? Well, it's very simple. You can use
exactly the same technique to boost your readers' attention.
In the body of the letter itself, use any of the techniques we've
already described to attract attention:
ask a question;
break some exciting news;
summarize what you've already said.
You can also use the following techniques.
Puzzles/riddles Any unusual or striking idea, anything
intriguing which makes people want to know more...
A strong promise Readers will ask themselves how you're
going to keep it... and will continue reading to find out!
A new piece of information It's up to you to develop ways to
introduce some breathtaking news, but here are some lead-ins
you can use to start:
-

And that's not all...

And it gets even better than that...

Wait a minute, the best is still to come...

But first, you should know about a few facts . . .

Now I'm going to show you why...

Now- and this is the most important part...

Now you will understand why...

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But there's still one thing you have to do...

You may be asking yourself...

As you no doubt already know...

But boosting interest on its own isn't enough! You still have to
make your readers want to move on to the next paragraph!
How to get your text read and understood, and obtain
maximum results
An organization called Chilton Research conducted a study of
100 magazines in order to find out how advertising text is read.
On average, the results showed that:
64.4 per cent of people saw the header and headline, and read
them;
only 24.4 per cent started to read the text; and
only 13.7 per cent read more than half the text.
This means that more than 80 per cent of potential readers were
lost.
How to multiply the numbers of your readers
Unfortunately, the same statistics apply to your texts. Whether
you're trying to sell one of your products, or convince people to act,
you lose most of your chances for success along the way. If your
arguments are not read, it doesn't matter how good they are, they'll
still have no effect.
To make your sales texts, business letters or information manuals
work for you, it is essential that you master the rules of readability.
The opposite of what you learned in school
Mastering the rules of readability becomes all the more crucial in
light of the fact that they are more or less exactly the opposite of the

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way you learned to write in school. And the further you got in your
studies, the more handicapped you are!
But don't be alarmed- you're not the only one to suffer from this
problem, and numerous researchers have already identified the
causes, and their solutions. They noticed that texts that sell, books
that are successful and magazines with large circulations, have
certain factors in common.
Apply these common factors when writing your own texts and
you'll be three, four or five times more effective than you are now.
Let's look at what stops people reading and what makes them want
to read to the very end.
What factors stop people from reading on?
To understand what turns your readers off, you must accept the
following idea:
It's not up to them to make any effort whatsoever to render
your text as easy as possible to read.
People read in what are called 'spans'. A span is that part of a
word or sentence which can be absorbed at a single glance and
retained for a few moments.
If the reader is cultivated and highly educated, their span is large.
If they are less educated, the span will be smaller. Some people's
spans are so small that they practically have to decipher a text letter
by letter.
The longer a sentence is, the harder it is to read
Your reader is like someone trying to guess what is inside a room
by looking through a keyhole. It becomes all the harder to guess if:
1. the room is very large and complex (equivalent to long,
complex sentences using difficult words);
2. the keyhole is very small (equivalent to a reader's limited
intellectual capacity, resulting in very short spans).

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Present your text so that it is inviting to read

Look at the piece of text below, labeled A. Would you say that
the text is inviting? Is it easy to get into? No, of course not. It looks
like a compact mass of words, which repels rather than attracts a
reader's attention.
Now look at the next piece of text, labeled B. The short
paragraphs make it much more inviting. It's always easier to digest
small bits of information, one after the other, than an enormous
amount all at once.
The arrangement of paragraphs can also affect the same sales
letter. Version A uses long paragraphs:
Version A
When we examined 12 men suffering from urethritis (a painful
disorder of the urethra) we discovered that there was no aggravation
of the infection, or any damage likely to cause pain, during and
after micturation. We then treated each patient with a combination
of ordinary vitamins, administered orally, for four days. Result?
Total remission of all symptoms.
The patient, a brilliant business woman, had already undergone
three operations to soothe her back pains. When we were called in,
she was already in the hospital again, on the point of having
another, even more serious operation' an incision in her spinal cord
which was supposed to isolate the painful set of nerves. But before
resorting to this Draconian procedure, her doctors wanted to try
something different (the natural healing method described below).
And, luckily, it worked! Today, she is in excellent health. She has
no trouble walking or standing, takes no medication, doesn't suffer
from insomnia or back pains, and has fully resumed her
professional activities.
Read about all these actual cases before making up your mind to
buy this work - an indispensable book! How can it help you? In
countless ways! See for yourself! The first case of multiple sclerosis
treated by Dr Kaslow concerned a patient who was incapacitated to
the point of not being able to get up, dress or even feed herself.

170

After a period of natural treatment (described below), using no

medication, she was able to take care of herself once again, walk
without a cane and this without recourse to any special remedy.
He cured cases of cystitis with an 85 to 90 per cent success rate,
in three weeks to a month (sometimes a little more, sometimes
less). And that's only the beginning! You still haven't heard about
these amazing cases: a woman had such severe dizzy spells she was
hardly able to stand up. The level of triglycerides in her blood was
also very high. After three weeks on a diet designed specifically for
her condition, her triglyceride level dropped 50 per cent and she
experienced no dizziness whatsoever.
According to Dr Gorney, a more natural diet and lifestyle (see
below) can produce astonishing results in cases of cardiac disease.
Patients were...
When the writer realized how dense and unappealing his text
was, he shortened the paragraphs. Obviously this required more
space, but isn't it better to print another page and have your text
read, than save a little paper.., only to have it thrown straight into
the wastebasket?
Version B
When we examined 12 men suffering from urethritis (a painful
disorder of the urethra) we discovered that there was no aggravation
of the infection, or any damage likely to cause pain, during and
after micturation. We then treated each patient with a combination
of ordinary vitamins, administered orally, for four days.
Result? Total remission of all symptoms.
The patient, a brilliant business woman, had already undergone
three operations to soothe her back pains. When we were called in,
she was already in the hospital again, on the point of having
another, even more serious operation: an incision in her spinal cord
which was supposed to isolate the painful set of nerves.
But before resorting to this Draconian procedure, her doctors
wanted to try something different (the natural healing method

171

described below). And, luckily, it worked!

Today, she is in excellent health. She has no trouble walking or
standing, takes no medication, doesn't suffer from insomnia or back
pains, and has fully resumed her professional activities.
Read about all these actual cases before making up your mind to
buy this work.
It is an indispensable book! How can it help you? In countless
ways! See for yourself!
The first case of multiple sclerosis treated by Dr Kaslow concerned a patient who was incapacitated to the point of not being
able to get up, dress or even feed herself. After a period of natural
treatment (described below), using no medication, she was able to
take care of herself once again, walk without a cane and this without recourse to any special remedy.
He cured cases of cystitis with an 85 to 90 per cent success rate,
in three weeks to a month (sometimes a little more, sometimes
less).
And that's only the beginning!
You still haven't heard about these amazing cases:
A woman had such severe dizzy spells she was hardly able to
stand up. The level of triglycerides in her blood was also very high.
After three weeks on a diet designed specifically for her condition,
her triglyceride level dropped 50 per cent and she experienced no
dizziness whatsoever.
Apart from being more attractive, the second text can also be
read much more quickly. A study conducted by Miles A. Tinker
and Donald G. Patterson showed that a text with six times as many
par-graphs is read 7.3 per cent faster.
And since your readers are probably in a hurry...
How long should your lines be?
Remember that each person has a particular reading span. If a

172

line is too long, it becomes difficult to follow and comprehend.

Inversely, ifa line is too short - shorter than the reader's span - the
fact of having to move to the next line breaks the train of thought.
A French researcher, Francois Richaudeau, demonstrated that
lines which are too short (40 characters, including spaces) are
actually more difficult to read than longer lines.
Miles A. Tinker and Donald G. Patterson found that lines of less
than 22 characters, or more than 112 characters, slow reading down
by five per cent.
Conclusion:
1. Avoid paragraphs that are too long. In a sales letter, for
example, paragraphs which are longer than six lines - or more than
80 words -are considered too long.
2. Write your text (or get it typeset) in lines of between 50 and
80 characters (counting spaces). This is a good average.
How to cut a paragraph
Normally a paragraph contains a single, unified thought, so
cutting it means destroying its unity. But every idea is built on a
collection of smaller thoughts and you can use these as transition
points from one paragraph to the next.
For example, here is a paragraph written by Professor Siegfried
Vogele which contains more than 14 lines. Can you cut it?
The people who receive our promotional material read
compulsively. They will only read a text if they see an advantage
in it for themselves. To make this advantage obvious to them, the
language we use has to be simple and comprehensible. And this
is especially true if our target audience is a general cross-section
of the population, which of course represents the largest segment
of the market. If we send these people offers which are too
difficult for them to read and understand, we considerably reduce
our chances for success. Anyone who is aware of this and still
makes no effort to make it as easy as possible for readers to

173

understand a text, should not be surprised if their endeavors

result in failure.
Where should you cut?
Ideally, you'd cut somewhere in the middle of the text, so that the
remaining paragraphs still have some substance.
What do you think? Should we cut after the word
comprehensible? Or after the word market?
I think it would be hard to cut the paragraph after comprehensible
because the next sentence -And this is especially true if our target
audience... - is directly related to the previous one. On the other
hand, the link between the following two sentences is more
artificial.
Since each paragraph should be able to stand alone, you may
have to modify the text to some extent. In our example, the phrase
'If we send these people...' links the sentence to the previous one.
But if you change 'these people' to your prospective clients...' the
link is less apparent. This would give us:
.. represents the largest segment of the market.
If we send our prospective clients offers that are difficult to
read and understand, we considerably reduce our chances for
success.
As you can see, the second sentence now contains a complete
thought and can therefore be isolated, while in the first version it
was linked to the previous sentence.
Let's try another one. This text by Francois Richaudeau has more
than 22 lines. Can you cut it into three paragraphs?
Slow readers who analyze word by word rather than letter by
letter, decipher an average of two words (11 characters) per
glance, which corresponds to an average of about 100,000
characters per hour. As we have seen, fast readers can double or
even quintuple this figure, and still usually retain more than slow
readers. But in terms of instant vision, measured with the aid of a

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tachistoscope set at 1/1000, 1/50 or 1/25 of a second, we

observed that fast readers did not decipher any more characters
than slow readers- an average of between 15 and 20. This seems
to confirm what we have stated about the mental nature of the
reading process. To improve performance and help people read
more quickly, we can use two 'black box' methods to mask the
process.
Answer
We could cut the paragraph after '... retain more than slow
readers...', which would give us:
.. retain more than slow readers
But in terms of instant vision, measured with the aid of a
tachistoscope set at 1/1000, 1/50 or 1/25 of a second, we
observed that...
We could cut again after '... the mental nature of the reading
process.. ' This would make the last sentence an independent
paragraph.
Don't be afraid of paragraphs that contain only one
sentence
Henry Cowen, one of the highest-paid advertising writers in the
world, and the originator of the 'Sweepstakes' concept, told me that
he always got his best results from letters which started with very
short paragraphs- one or two lines at most.
Writing very short sentences at the start of a text is a little like
serving hors-d'oeuvres before a meal - they're easy to read and
absorb, and stimulate the reader's 'appetite' for the main course - the
longer paragraphs that follow.
It's also a good idea to use a one-sentence paragraph in the
middle of a text, in order to recapture the reader's attention. If you
ask a question, for example, 'Are you wondering about the price?',
isolate it by making it a whole paragraph.
John Caples, one of the greatest copywriters of our time, offers

175

this advice, 'If you have an important sentence that you want to
emphasize, you can get it to stand out by making it a whole
paragraph, sandwiched between two longer paragraphs.'
But everything we've just learned only serves to whet your
reader's appetite. How can you make your entire text as easy to read
as possible? That's what we're going to discuss now.
The longer your sentences, the less readers retain what
they need
Long sentences are not only difficult to read, they're also difficult
to retain.
In his book Readability (published by Retz) Francois Richaudeau
provides the following results of a study of fairly slow (and
therefore average) readers:

Number of words per message

Number of words retained

12

100%

13

90%

17

70%

24

50%

40

30%

This means that a sentence of 24 words loses 50 per cent of its

effectiveness!
The length of sentences can provide us with a pretty good idea of
the kind of material we're looking at, as well as its target audience:

Cartoons

8 words per sentence

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Romance novels

12 words per sentence

Women's magazines

14.5 words per sentence

Reader's Digest

16 words per sentence

Newspapers

18.5 words per sentence

Highbrow magazines

22.5 words per sentence

Scientific reports

29 words per sentence

How to shorten long sentences

If you think a sentence is too long, how can you make it more
'digestible'? Well, it's really very simple. Read the following
example:
Doctor Javal, who in 1879 became the first person in France
to study the physiology of reading and writing, and who
discovered the jerky way the human eye moves across a page,
came to the following conclusions about the readability of
printed material.
1. Start by making sure you grasp the meaning of the
sentence - read it over a few times.
2. Look for conjunctions - those famous little words like
but, and, or, thus, neither, since, because etc. You can cut a
sentence wherever the word 'and' appears, 90 per cent of the
time.
Simply replace the 'and' with a full stop.
In this example, the word 'and' appears twice: the first in '...
reading and writing...' and the second in '... and discovered...'. The
first would be difficult to replace with a full stop, while the second
is not.
But, this isn't enough. If you replace the second 'and' with a full
stop, the sentence that follows becomes incomprehensible.

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Doctor Javal, who in 1879 became the first person in

France to study the physiology of reading and writing. He
discovered the jerky way the human eye moves across a
page, came to the following conclusions about the readability
of printed material.
Why is it incomprehensible? Because there is an unnecessary
word (who) in the first sentence, and because the subject of the last
verb in the second sentence (came to) is at the beginning of the first
sentence (Dr Javal). So, we have to make another cut, transforming
our initial sentence into three shorter sentences:
Doctor Javal, in 1879, became the first person in France to
study the physiology of reading and writing. He discovered
the jerky way the human eye moves across a page. He came
to the following conclusions about the readability of printed
material.
Not bad, but not very pretty either. The two 'he's' are clumsy.
You could improve it somewhat by saying: '... and writing. He was
the one who discovered.., and came to the following conclusions
about...'.
Your turn!
Try to cut the following sentence:
You are one of the lucky winners, that much is already
certain, and the VIP card you received today, as well as your
entry form for the many prizes we have to offer, are proof of
that.
Your answer:
That's right, the easiest thing to do is replace the 'and' with a full
stop.
You are one of the lucky winners, that much is already
certain. The VIP card you received today, as well as your
entry form for the many prizes we have to offer, are proof of
that.

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But you can go even further and make the second sentence more
dynamic. Go ahead, give it a try!
Answer:
Do you want proof?. Take a look at the VIP card you
received today, and at your entry form for the many prizes
we have to offer.
Or:
You are one of the lucky winners, that much is already
certain. Do you want proof?. Look at what you received today:
A VIP card
An entry form for the many prizes we have to offer.
Changing the order of words in a sentence
When a sentence is too long and hard to understand, you can
simply change the order of the words to make it easier to read - and
more dynamic.
By showing you how to evaluate each- of the functions of
your business (from managing after-sales service, to
production and administration) Audit and Control Business
Management helps you strengthen the weakest links in your
chain of command immediately, and avoid hazardous
operations.
Cut this sentence as much as possible.
Sample response:
Audit and Control Business Management helps you
strengthen the weakest links in your chain of command
immediately, and avoid
hazardous operations.
How?
By showing you how to evaluate each of the functions of

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your business, from production and administration to

managing after-sales service.
Ready for another try?
According to the law, it is not permissible for all three
legally protected organisms to be identical, since the
controlling organism can be neither a member of the
administrative body, nor employed by the company.
Go ahead.
Sample response:
According to the law, it is not permissible for all three
legally prescribed organisms to be identical. In fact, the
controlling organism can be neither a member of the
administrative body, nor employed by the company.
You can even cut the second sentence:
In fact, the controlling organism can not be a member of
the administrative body. Nor can it be employed by the
company.
Ready for another one?
He summarizes various theories about the typographical
readability of the initial text for readers, and reviews the most
significant studies which support and lend credibility to these
theories.
Take your time...
Sample response:
He summarizes various theories about the typographical
readability of the initial text for new readers. Certain studies
support and lend credibility to these theories. He reviews the
most significant of these.
As you can see, it is fairly easy to cut sentences down to more
readable size. It's just a question of practice. The more you do it, the
easier and faster it becomes.

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Influence of the spoken word

Listen to people around you talking- the sentences they use are
very short. The same goes for radio and television. Our civilization
is in the process of making sentences shorter and shorter. And
effective written language is getting closer and closer to the spoken
word.
This is even more true when you're trying to convince people.
The shorter your sentences are, the easier they are to understand.
And the better people understand your arguments, the more they
will tend to think like you and be persuaded to do what you want.
To sum up: paragraphs should be short, lines of average length
and sentences short (unless you happen to be addressing a group of
college lecturers). Are there any other factors which will help get
your text read, understood and retained from beginning to end?
Yes. In fact, we still haven't talked about the two most important
ones . . .
The shorter a word, the stronger it is: why?
Take a moment to think about the words that describe parts of
your body: head, foot, leg, hand, eye, ear etc. They are all short
words. Now think about the following words:
oto-rhino-laryngologist;
phenomenology;
proportionality;
incriminatory etc.
According to Rudolph Flesch, a pioneer in the study of
readability and effective language, 'The more abstract the idea being
expressed, the longer the word.'
Some readers have trouble deciphering long words because their
'span' is too short. In addition, it's as if a little alarm bell goes off in
people's minds: 'Watch out! Difficult word ahead!'

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Long words slow reading down

Francois Richaudeau measured the difference in reading speed of
words with an average of 5.2 letters and a text composed of words
with an average of 7.4 letters.
Result?
Average reading speed for the first text was 27,400 words per
hour; for the second, 21,400 words per hour.
The law of least effort
That's a difference of 22 per cent! And, according to the law of
least effort, if your text is in any way hard to read, people will tend
to throw it away altogether or at best take a quick look at it.
If you examine the words used most often, for example the 1,300
most common words in the English language, you'll find they
average between five and six letters per word. Not more!
Eliminate 'filter' words
A German researcher, Professor Siegfried Vogele, conducted a
lengthy study of this phenomenon, especially related to commercial
correspondence. In his experiments, he used cameras with
extremely fast shutter speeds to examine the movements of the
human eye.
According to Professor Vogele, words of one or two syllables
(between five and six letters) reinforce reading, while longer words
inhibit reading, acting as a kind of filter. Filter words eliminate a
percentage of readers.
Completely getting rid of filter words produces the best results.
However, at times the clarity of the text may suffer, since there may
be no adequate shorter substitute for a long word. In such cases, a
commercial text may have to use a word of four syllables or more.
But there is a limit to how many of these exceptions readers will
tolerate. The figure is between five and ten per cent, maximum. If
there are between five and ten filter words in a 100-word text, the

182

material is still readable, but only just so:

1. all long words (four syllables or more) above the ten per cent
cut-off point must be replaced;
2. words of two and three syllables can sometimes be simplified.
How to shorten words
There are two techniques you can use to replace long words
with shorter
ones.
1. Find a synonym
Many word-processing programs come with a built-in dictionary
of synonyms. All you have to do is select a word that is too long,
enter a command and, hey presto, you are presented with a list of
possible replacements. All you have to do is choose one and enter
another command to carry out the substitution.
If you don't have a word-processor, you can use a printed
dictionary of synonyms, such as Roger's Thesaurus.
Here are some examples. Try to find shorter words for the
following:
construct

incapacitate

however

apprehension

unaesthetic

sufficiently

additional

recreation

These words can be replaced by:

construct

build

incapacitate

hurt

183

however

but

apprehension

fear

unaesthetic

ugly

sufficiently

enough

additional

more

recreation

play

2. Replace one long word with a number of small words

If you can't find a shorter synonym, you can paraphrase.
Instead of oto-rhino-laryngologist write 'ear, nose and throat
doctor'.
Instead of proportionally write 'spread out fairly'.
Instead of temporarily write 'for a short time'.
Instead of located at, just write 'at'.
This applies especially to commercial texts.
As Professor Vogele remarked: 'This requirement applies only to
advertising texts, sent to readers without their having asked for
them.'
Obviously, people will make more of an effort to read texts
they've bought and paid for, like books or magazines.
All the tricks you need to know to make a letter, word,
sentence or paragraph stand out
Underline important words or passages:
by using continuous underlining;
or by underlining separate words to create a staccato effect which

184

creates an impression of urgency!

However, be careful not to abuse underlining: if you don't
underline more than ten words per page (say five blocks of one to
three words each), then a reader's eye will be unconsciously guided
to these 'attention-grabbers' and use them as focusing points.
Result? You can direct your reader's eyes through the entire
letter! This is a scientific fact, supported by all kinds of testing. So
it's up to you to make judicious use of the technique . . .
You can also use other kinds of focus points:

" # $ % & ' ( )*

points, asterisks, blobs and colons of various sizes arrows
(resembling hand-written ones if possible).
Place these in the margins to indicate an important line or
paragraph, or to list a number of advantages.
Juggle your formats
Think about the way you begin your most important paragraphs
(two per page maximum): you can indent or not, have them flush
right instead of flush left, enclose them in a box etc.
Note: do not use unusual colors! Tests have shown that you will
always obtain the best results by having your text printed in black,
and any underlining, footnotes, signatures etc. in blue.
You can use red, but only for a very few paragraphs (if you can
afford to print in three colors!).
Transitions
Make regular use of transition phrases or words that keep people
reading. For example:

In effect

Since

185

Thus

Immediately

For example

Next

Whoever

Another

Therefore

On the contrary

Now that

Finally

In addition

A second point

Of course

On the other hand

Finally

The same applies to

In fact

Here

Here

Despite

And

In the same way

Once again

In other words

And there you are

Or

Which typefaces should you use?

Don't change typefaces more than twice in your letter itself.
Characters with a serif (for example Times or Plantin) are easier to
read than characters without a serif (for example Arial or
Helvetica). Keep 'sans serif' typefaces for headings, or when your
copy is very short.
If you really want something to stand out, use italics or a bold
face. Use 'attention-grabbers'.
Make regular use of words and phrases that intensify your
readers' interest. For example:
To be honest, really, just between you and me, etc... Such
phrases have the advantage of adding a personal, intimate,
sincere and honest touch to your text, improving your
relationship with your prospective clients.

186

 And that's not all... People want to know what more you could
possibly add to your offer. A surprise? A free gift? They'll
keep on reading to find out.
One more trick: avoid starting a paragraph with an article (a, the,
these, those etc.). You're always better off trying to capture your
readers' attention and interest right from the start, so don't use
colorless, uninteresting words to start a new paragraph.
How to keep your readers turning the pages
Here again there is a very simple, yet effective way to keep
readers turning the pages of your letter. The technique can also be
used at the bottom of a column, to get readers to move ot~ to the
next column. Here are some examples:
You can expect a surprise. In fact ...
And above all ...

PTO

PTO

And there's a lot more than that ...

PTO

Now I'm going to Drove that this is true ...

PTO
By using this appliance over the next couple of month, you'll be saving up to
...
PTO

You get the idea? It's really so simple, isn't it? When you get to
the bottom of a page, cut your text at a critical point, always leaving
out some important information, which readers can only discover
by turning the page. If you arouse your readers' curiosity, they will
turn the page and keep on reading!
How do you judge the quality of your letter?
All right, your letter is finished. It looks good, it reads well, it
sounds enthusiastic. You're sure it's going to be successful. But
before sending it to the printer, don't you think it would be a good
idea to verify each point?

187

(circle one between 0 and 500)

75

Excellent
30

Captivating

40

Good

Very strong

20

Interesting

Very readable

500

Strong

Very well

Works well

Very
imaginative

Enthusiastic
10
Very positive

Attract
attention
20
Good

25

100% You

Easy

20

Very easy

Average

Easy enough
10

15

You
dominates
15

More yous

25
Well
developed

Average

10

Well
designed

Positive

10

Difficult to
read

20
Needs more

50
Average

10

20
Average

30

More I

30
Average

10

Should be
reworked

400

Readable

20

Arouse
doubts

20

Average

10

Few

100% I

5
None

-15

Readability

Egometer

15

250

Unclear

Incomplete

Positive
language

Emphasis
important

2
Not
believable

Weak

None

Slightly
readable

passages

Works a little

10

No offer

logo

Boring

Letterhead/

100

Very weak

-50

Unreadable

-30

Doesnt work

Advantages
Headline
design

Offer

Opening
paragraph
Headline

188

Total
score
Comments
Score
Date:

Very frequent
5

Perfext

Good

50

Excellent

35

Strong

50

Very strong

15

Good

15

Good

20

Excellent

15

6 to 8

20

Less than 6

15

Moves along

Very
dynamic

Very personal
10

Good

35

Very well
exploited

Very easy
15
Good

Average

Average

Too few

20

Average

Insufficient

15

Average

None

Average, not
sold

10

Average, sold

-10

None

Weak

10

Average

More than 12

10 to 12

10

8 to 10

Very heavy

Heavy

10

Average

25

20

Commercial

Too few

None

20

Easy

Almost
personal

All right
8

Lacking

None

-20

15

8
Circular

None

-50

12

Lacks
structure

None

P.S.

Number
of lines
per
paragrap
h

Dynamism

Gift(s)

Printed
(anonymous)

Conclusion

4
Needs
restructuring

Proof

Personal
Aspect

Page breaks

Interest
boosters

Structure

189

Conclusion

1.000
The sales letter checklist on the previous pages can help you do
just that, both for your own letters and for letters written by other
people. Just fill it in and add up the score.
One of the best techniques I know consists of exchanging
corrections with a colleague. Let me explain.
When you have a new text, send it to your colleague, along with
an analysis form which he or she fills out and sends back to you. In
return, you do the same whenever your colleague has a new text
that needs correcting.
By doing it this way, correcting your text doesn't have to cost you
anything.
In the checklist, each element is listed in order of importance and
given a label. This makes it easy to compare different versions of a
text on the same subject.
One last piece of advice: rewrite your texts! Keep trying to
improve your score. It's almost always possible. And the more
experience you have, the faster you'll get great results!
A final piece of advice
Your texts are worth their weight in gold, so it would be a pity
not to protect them. Especially since it's so easy. All you have to do
is include a copyright symbol: followed by your name, the name
of the place where you work or reside, and the year the text was
written, to warn people that you are protecting your property, and
that anyone who plagiarizes, or simply copies it risks being sued for
copyright infringement.

190

SUMMARY
To hold your readers' interest from the beginning to the end of
your letter:
include regular 'attention-boosters'
summaries, riddles, promises etc.).

(questions,

news,

Improve your text's readability:

short opening paragraph;
short sentences;
paragraphs of not more than six lines;
lines of text composed of between 50 and 80 characters;
short (one or two syllables) and simple words;
underline important words or phrases;
different formatting (flush right or left) for important
paragraphs;
transition - springboard words;
different typefaces (preferably with serif);
Protect your texts.

191

CHAPTER 12
Order forms, envelopes and follow-ups
- all the secrets you need to know
Your presentation so far is perfect. You've come up with:
an excellent headline;
a strong postscript (P.S.);
a captivating first paragraph;
a letter that holds your readers' interest and keeps them
turning pages;
a conclusion that incites them to act.
Now comes the last link in the chain and it is tremendously
important!
How to make your order form a success
Golden Rule number 1:
Never call your order form an 'Order Form'
Instead, try to find a kind of headline that creates the impression
of a 'soft sell' approach, and of a friendly relationship between you
and the prospective buyer.
Here are some examples:
Free trial period coupon;
Application for a free 90-day trial period;

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 Reservation certificate;
Check for your free gift;
Coupon for success;
Subscription coupon for free trial;
Instant action card;
Urgent order - send this coupon today.

Golden Rule number 2:

Make your order form a separate document.
This document should include:
a summary of the offer (listing all the advantages readers can
expect to gain); the price;
the conditions of the sale:
(A)

exactly what the reader should do; (B) exactly what you
will do;

the expiration date;

the guarantee;
the free gift;
the name and address of the prospective client.
Do not leave anything out!
The order form, on its own, should hook prospective clients and
convince them to buy. And, most importantly, with just the order
form in hand, they should be able to order the product, i.e. they
should have all the information they need to do so.
However, be careful of making the opposite mistake: don't ask
for too much information. Your aim is to make it as easy as possible

193

for prospects to buy the product. So don't ask for any unnecessary
information (which may or may not be useful in future), such as
date of birth, telephone number, national insurance number, number
of children etc.

Golden Rule number 3

Leave enough space! Be clear!
Design the order form so that there is enough space for the client
to write in! There's nothing more annoying than an order form
which is very complete and very motivating, which does everything
it should, right up to the very last (and most important) moment,
where the prospect hesitates because there isn't enough room to fill
in his or her name! Writing in tiny letters takes an extra effort and
this is precisely what you want to avoid. Remember, make it as easy
as possible to fill in the order form! See the following page for an
example of a good order form.

Golden Rule number 4

Put yourself in the client's shoes.
Write the text from the client's point of view, as if they were
doing the talking.
For example:
'Yes, I'd like to take advantage of your 30-day free trial offer...',
or
'Please send me

at absolutely no risk...' etc.

Golden Rule number 5

Make ordering as easy as possible.
Ideally, all your clients have to do is tick off a couple of boxes:
everything is planned in advance. The client's name and address are

194

already on the coupon - there's practically nothing to do!

Extremely important note: Always include a return envelope in
your mailing, either:
postage paid, or
postage to be paid.
It doesn't matter, as long as it's there! If your clients have to start
looking around for an envelope or, worse, if they have to go out and
buy one, then your chances of making the sale become almost nil.
And, if possible, use a typeface that makes it look like it's
typewritten, to give it that personal touch.

Golden Rule number 6

Prepare the groundwork.
Use the conclusion of your sales letter to direct clients' attention
to the order form. Ideally, clients will then move directly from the
sales letter to the order form...

Golden Rule number 7

Pay attention to the order form's design.
Finally, and above all, make the order form look official and
important.
Also, make sure the information it contains is perfectly consistent
with the rest of your mailing (even the most seasoned professional
can sometimes overlook some detail, especially if the work of
preparing the mailing is spread out over a period of time. How can
anyone be expected to recall exactly what they said two weeks
before?) and with the type of product you're selling.
If clients notice an inconsistency, they will suspect a trap and
decide not to take any chances.

195

196

The great secret of an exceptional response - the

envelope
Once you know this secret you can increase your returns by 50
per cent. How? Simply by paying special attention to your outer
envelope!
If you were a shopkeeper, your outer envelope would be your
window display. This is the first means at your disposal to attract
the attention of prospective buyers, to identify yourself, and to
make people want to come into your shop and look around. There's
one factor that works in your favor: it's much easier to open an
envelope than the door of a shop. Nevertheless, so many direct mail
envelopes are thrown directly into the bin, without even being
opened!
So, the primary objective of the outer envelope is to incite the
recipient to open it! This is a lot harder than it sounds. However,
you have a number of tools at your disposal...

Golden Rule number 1

Use messages that work best.

Attract your prospective buyers' attention!

Some of the classic approaches are to flash a message like this:
Personal!
Confidential!
Free!
Important!
Urgent!
R.S.V.P.

197

 Please open immediately!

For the addressee only!
Last chancel
The favor of a reply is requested
You've seen them all before, but tests show that they are
effective!
You can also combine two or more. For example:
Personal and confidential!
Urgent, please open immediately!

Golden Rule number 2

Arouse curiosity!

Once again, you have a number of tools at your disposal to help

you attain this objective.
1. Hook people with a promise of gain
'This envelope contains a check for 450!' 'How to make money
with your scribbling...'
2. Write the beginning of an important piece of information
on the front of the outer envelope; cut it right in the middle, at
the most critical moment and say:
'Continued on the back...'
Then do the same thing on the back, saying:
'Continued inside...'
3. Ask an intriguing question (or a number of
questions) and provide the answers inside...

198

'How much are you worth on today's job market?'

If you use this technique, make sure, whenever possible, that
99.5 per cent of your target clients cannot answer the question (or
questions) with any precision, otherwise why should they open the
envelope?
4. Intrigue people in a more general way
'Discover how 1,000 people found a way to get rid of all their
money problems...'
The outer envelope is your showcase, but you can also use it to
prepare and condition your prospects. Always put a headline on
your envelope!
Of course, it's better not to have a headline at all than to have a
bad one. Also, it's a good idea to test an envelope that has a
headline against one that doesn't. But all the tests I've carried out
have shown that an envelope with a headline is better than a blank
one.
If you're doing a 'business to business' mailing, confine yourself
to a more traditional headline ('Important' or 'Personal' etc.) or print
the headline using a typeface that resembles that of a typewriter.
Windows: how to make them work for you
I compared your outer envelope to the window display of a shop.
This comparison is so true that some mailings use envelopes with
more than one window.
One is for the address, and includes the family and first
names, and the complete address of the recipient.
Another window beside it, either round, triangular or square,
is used to frame a picture of a golden coin, for example, or a
car or a palm tree etc. Or it can be used as a scratch-to-win
box. Some envelopes even have several boxes instead of one.
One - or a few more - windows on the back of the envelope:
these are usually covered with cellophane, and contain a

199

complete promotional message. Why not use this space to best

advantage? Ninety per cent of the time people turn the
envelope around before opening it - after all, that's where the
flap is.
Some agencies have gone to great lengths to develop this
technique and have come up with envelopes that are practically
transparent. They have produced excellent results.
One such mailing I saw had:
17 cut-out tokens (stickers);
5 scratch boxes;
3 coupons which had to be filled out completely if the person
was to be 'eligible' to participate in the games, lotteries,
sweepstakes etc., and, of course, order the product!
It may seem amazing to want to make people work so hard for a
chance to order a product, but in fact experience has shown that
people who do decide to participate voluntarily in this series of
games, cut-outs, scratchings etc. stop behaving in a normal, rational
way- instead, they treat the whole thing as a game, so that,
paradoxically, the harder and more exciting it is, the better! In other
words, they suspend their disbelief and give themselves over
completely to 'the game'.
The game can become a real 'hide and seek' contest between the
sender and the recipient, who first reads the front of the envelope,
then has to turn to the back, then back to the front and finally back
to the back... But not really 'finally' because to get the answer, or a
piece of the puzzle, or a clue to the riddle, the prospect has to open
the envelope! And so it goes . . .
To sum up, your envelope should have:
a Window on the front;
a window on the back.
Some copywriters have even found a way to add a third window!
Imagine that you're a prospect and that you've just opened your

200

mailing. To your astonishment, there's nothing in the envelope!

Nothing! Really? Most people will make sure by taking a closer
look or feeling around inside. And what do they find? Another
window, inside the envelope!
Some mailings' envelopes are stuffed full of advertising
messages and information. Others just restate the headline directly
behind the address window. But more and more mailings use this
third window. Remember this when designing your envelope and, if
you have the means, do a test!
While we're on the subject, I cannot advise you strongly enough
to get your envelopes (both the outer envelope and the return
envelope) printed up, and even manufactured completely, if you
have the means. This will soon start costing a lot less than working
with normal envelopes and your image as a company will benefit
enormously. Anything printed is important!
As for the return envelope, having it printed up reassures your
prospects and facilitates the transition from passive reader to active
buyer. The return envelope should be 'ready to go' - prospects have
nothing to do but seal it and drop it in the postbox. Your address is
clearly (and correctly) printed and, if possible, the postage is
prepaid. All this helps prevent clients from 'putting it off for later...'
which, as you know, is a sure way to kill a sale.
You can also add things to the return envelope like:
Urgent!
First class post
For the personal attention of:
Even the stamps you use can increase your sales!
Let's talk about stamps.
Franking machines have the advantage of being very fast. Also,
you can add your company logo, or a short message, to the space
just beside the machine stamp.

201

But machines have one major fault: they look too official, too
impersonal, too cold and unfeeling. The stamps sometimes come
out looking dirty - if the machine is not clean it can smudge the
ink...
That's why many marketing agencies tell their clients to use real
stamps and, if possible, a collector's series of stamps (when it isn't
too expensive), and especially for luxury or costly products.
Some even recommend using more than one stamp. Why?
Because stamps are pretty and attractive, brightly colored, clean and
friendly. They clearly add a more personal aspect and, above all, a
more important look to your mailing.
Result? Well, depending to some extent on the product, you can
expect an average of between 5 and 15 per cent in sales, just
because you use a real stamp on your envelope! Pretty amazing,
isn't it? Well, let this be a lesson to you: success in direct mail
marketing is often due to the know-how and the attention paid to
tiny details. They may seem totally insignificant at first glance, but
testing has shown that they are extremely effective, and can make
all the difference between the success and failure of a campaign.
One last point: if possible, do a test where you send all or part of
a mailing from a foreign country. Not only do stamps from other
countries add an exotic touch to your mailing, they also make the
product more interesting- everything that comes from somewhere
else is somehow more appealing and seems more important.
Finally, make sure you respect Post Office rules concerning
placement of the address, stamp, return address etc. (See page 162.)
How to double your profits with ease!
Everyone knows about this technique, yet few people make
optimum use of it. It really is very simple, once the initial costs
(which can be quite high) have been absorbed by the first round of
orders. It consists of following up your first mailing with a second
offer, and it can double your returns. Here's how it works:

202

Say your first mailing costs you $5000 and resulted in sales of
$20000.
Profit: $20000 - $5000 -- $15000
You follow up with a second offer, which costs you $1000. This
brings in 70 per cent of the original sales, or $14000.
Profit: $14000 - $1000 = $13000
You do a second follow up. Once again, it costs $1000, but this
time it only brings in 50 per cent of the original figure, or $10000.
Profit: $10000 - $1000 = $9000
Note that after reissuing the product twice, you have already
collected $44000 in total sales, which means a net profit of
$37000, or 2.47 times your initial profit!
You offer the product a third time and get only 40 per cent of
your initial sales or $8000.
Profit: $8000 - $1000 = $7000
Your total profit has risen to $37000 + $7000 = $44000, which
means that you've more than doubled your initial sales!
These figures demonstrate that it is a good idea to follow up the
same product a number of times, instead of making a single offer
and then immediately launching a new product, considering all the
cost and effort that organizing a new mailing involves.
So, the advice is, keep following up the product as long as you
keep making money with it!
And, above all, don't worry about annoying your prospective
clients. In fact, experience has shown absolutely conclusively that
people perceive second, third and fourth offers as proof that the
product or service is a good one - in other words, if you take the
time and effort to keep writing about it, it must be worth while! So
people who were reticent the first time around, and may not have
even opened the envelope, will be more curious and more likely to

203

respond to a second or third offer.

Therefore, do not hesitate to follow up your product, two, three,
four or even five times!
How to write a follow-up letter
Of course, all follow-up letters should be consistent with what
you said before; they should form a 'family' - a cohesive unit.
Nevertheless, it's a good idea to vary the style, content and format a
little.
For the first follow up, tests have shown that it's best to take
exactly the same text that you used for your first mailing, but
printed to look like a facsimile (a carbon copy or photocopy for
example), to which you add a handwritten note.
For each subsequent follow up, concentrate on a single argument
and develop it further, as follows.
Second offer Justify the price you're asking.
Third offer Demonstrate that the product is an investment,
which will soon prove to be profitable.
Fourth offer Emphasize the pride involved in owning the
product.
If the product is expensive, offer easier terms of payment in the
third or fourth offer. Offer a reduction in price at around the sixth or
seventh offer. Be sure to justify the reduction and offer proof: use
reasons like minor defects, discontinuing the line, the product
minus one of its elements etc.
You should also explain why you're writing to the same person
again. You could say, for example, that you don't understand the
prospect's silence, that you're afraid your first presentation was too
short, not clear enough etc.
Another copywriter, Regis Hauser, says in his book,
Conceptualizing and Writing Effective Mailings, that the 'carbon
paper follow up' technique has allowed him consistently to add 25

204

to 55 per cent to his original volume of sales.., which is far from

insignificant? Some companies say that they can generate 75 to 85
per cent more responses by using these follow ups.
He goes on to explain that, on average, sending out:
the same mailing as the original version results in 20 per cent
of the initial responses;
the same mailing as the original version plus an insert for a
'special last-minute discount' results in between 20 and 45 per
cent of the initial responses;
a different sales letter, which however refers to the first one,
and makes the same offer, results in widely varying returns of
between 15 and 55 per cent of the initial responses;
a different sales letter, which makes no reference to the first
one, but which offers a discount, also results in widely varying
returns of between 35 to 60 per cent of the initial responses;
a different letter which does not refer to the original, but
which offers easier terms, results in about 30 per cent of the
initial responses.
Other relevant statistics are as follows.
Carbon copy follow ups produce 25 to 55 per cent of the
initial volume of orders, if expressly written for this purpose.
Sending out the same mailing a second time: 20 per cent.
Last-minute discount offer: 20 to 45 per cent.
A different letter which does not refer to the original: 25 to 55
per cent.
A different letter plus a discount offer: 35 to 60 per cent.
Finally... a few more secrets
Here are a few more secret techniques that have been
accumulated over years of experience in the field.

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Firstly, here are some things that people too often tend to forget
when sitting down to write a sales letter.
It takes people a long time to accept a new product. Remember
that at first people did not at all take to:
cars;
planes (there's even a brilliant quote by a First World War
general who claimed: 'There is absolutely no future in airplanes,
militarily speaking...');
typewriters;
computers; and so on.
We could extend this list to cover a few pages.
Also, absurd rumors and false beliefs can sometimes hinder an
already difficult learning process:
the glue on new stamps was rumored to contain a poison
which caused cancer of the tongue;
computer screens were said to emit rays which can damage
and even destroy the retina...
Can you get people to change their habits?
Habits become so embedded in people's minds that they seem to
become an integral part of their personalities.
Result: if you ask people to change their habits, you'll find
yourself fighting a very powerful force, even if the new habit you're
proposing is very advantageous.
So don't try it! It's too risky, and you'll waste too much time and
money. Don't even talk about people's 'old habits'. Avoid the subject
completely and talk about other things, while always keeping your
objective in mind.
On the other hand, make it easy for people to learn new habits
that will benefit them (and you!).

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There's a subtle line between attacking old habits and creating

new ones. The technique, based on applied psychology, has been
perfected over years of testing, trial and error - and failure, before
being adopted by professional copywriters.
It isn't enough to convince someone that your product is a good
one, that it makes sense and is likely to be profitable for that person
to buy. Human nature is more complex than that!
In fact, most decisions about whether or not to buy a new product
are not based on logic (as you would expect), but on emotion. Why?
Quite simply, because people are afraid of making decisions.
A few rules about human psychology
If your product is aimed as much at men as it is at women (which
is the case with most products), then knowing a few basic rules of
human psychology, and especially about the differences between
the sexes, can be of enormous help.
Of course, there are exceptions to these rules, but statistically
speaking, you will fare a lot better by respecting them.
Women move more quickly from one idea to another, while
men grasp the overall meaning of a sales letter more quickly.
Men are attracted to verbs, and words which suggest action
and dynamism, while women are more impressed by
adjectives.
Women are more interested in people, in others' lives, in
social events and in human relations in general than men are
(therefore, testimonials work better on women, while men
need concrete facts and proof).
Women are more attracted to colors than men. They're also
more sensitive to shades, nuances and subtle tones, while men
prefer bright, bold, solid colors.

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Back to basics - is your letter logical?

Have you left anything out?
Have you taken care of everything?
I don't want to sound repetitious, but just for the record, are you
sure that your letter has:
a beginning;
a middle (development phase); and
a conclusion?
As surprising as it may seem, I often receive sales letters that
don't!
Why? Because you can be almost certain that such letters are
pasted together, with excerpts taken from other letters, ads,
publications etc., instead of being written from scratch. Although
laborious enough, this technique is never very effective.
Reading letters like these, you sometimes wonder if there really
is any logic to the reasons and arguments being presented in such a
seemingly random and disjointed way.
Therefore, it is extremely useful - in fact necessary- when
approaching the final phase of writing your own letters, to make
sure you get them read and criticized by other people. Always:
ask other people to read your letters and offer constructive
criticism;
put a letter on the shelf for at least 24 hours, before deciding
to use it.
Then read it again from a fresh perspective and ask yourself these
questions:
Is this letter easy to read and to understand?
Are my thoughts organized into a logical progression?

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 Does the letter's style help it flow from one idea to another,
and from one argument to the next?
If you have to answer no to any of these questions, rewrite your
letter! Would you like to improve your style or develop it further?
Just read some of the masters - you can get collected writings and
biographies of people like David Ogilvy, Lee Iacocca etc (see
bibliography). You don't have to imitate them. Just let their style
and logical approach impregnate your mind, and your own writing
will soon become clearer, simpler and more easily understood.
A final 'trick'
Some of the great copywriters are so proud of their 'creations'
that they have no qualms about reading them out loud to people and
discussing them as much as possible.
Why?
First, because reading a text out loud helps you determine
very quickly exactly what 'works' and what doesn't.
Secondly, because it's the best way to verify that a text has
been written in a conversational tone- as if you were talking to
your prospective clients face to face.
This is one test that never fails...

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SUMMARY
Never call your order form an order form.
Your order form should be a sales document which incites
prospects to buy the product all on its own.
Your outer envelope is both a business card and a display
window. Plan it carefully and you'll reap the benefits in higher
sales.
Follow-up mailings can double your profits: always look for
ways to exploit this resource to its fullest.
Don't fight people's habits: it's too risky, and may cost you a
lot of wasted time and money. Always lead into something
new by referring to something old and familiar.
Take a step back- let some time go by - and then read your
letter again to make sure it's logical and well constructed.
Read your letter out loud to people and make any necessary
changes based on what you detect, and what they say.

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CHAPTER 13
Troubleshooting and testing

How to give your mailing a sense of unity

When writing your letter, you may find that the information
you've pieced together, and the ideas and arguments that have
occurred to you, do not come together to form a cohesive whole. In
other words, they lack unity. What can you do?
The trick is to decide on one dominant idea. Often linked to the
headline, this dominant idea becomes the 'spine' or 'skeleton' that
holds all the pieces of your text together.
Of course, you should choose a forceful, original and, if possible,
irresistible idea as your central theme. Start by reading over all your
arguments and asking yourself this question: 'If there were only
one, single reason why a prospect should or should not buy (my
product), what would it be? What is my strongest argument?'
Once you've decided what the central idea is, make sure it
appears in the different parts of your message, i.e. in all the various
elements of your mailing:
outer envelope;
sales letter;
brochure;
lift-letter;
order form.

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Then use a tree diagram to list all the other ideas that are
connected to this skeletal, central idea:

The simpler the message, the better it will be understood

When you write, you may refer to information that you assume
everyone has access to. But this is not the case. We're all different.
Your way of thinking may not be the same as your neighbors.
Also, when you're trying to get people to accept some kind of
new idea, you must simplify it as much as possible and repeat it a
number of times.
Someone may read your letter and object. 'But you already said
this earlier on!'
Maybe so. But don't forget that a lot of readers 'scan' the pages
instead of reading though the text. Contrary to what you may
assume, your text will most probably not be read from beginning to
end.
Say you have to go out for a while, but you have to get an
important message to your wife. How are you going to make sure
she gets the message?

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It's easy - just put little notes all over the place. She'll be sure to
find at least one of them!
If you want to be sure your prospects understand certain ideas,
certain key advantages your product has to offer, do the same thing
- repeat your message by posting it in different places!
Checklist: important points covered so far
Before starting to write your next letter, make sure the following
points are firmly embedded in your mind.
Advantages
Always speak in terms of advantages instead of characteristics.
Make promises and show your readers how they are going to
benefit from your product or service.
Curiosity
Curiosity is one of the strongest forces that motivate people to
act. If you can arouse your readers' curiosity, they'll continue
reading your letter. Learn how to use suspense and other attentiongrabbing techniques.
Unity
Tie all your bits of information, your arguments and ideas to a
central idea - or theme. Creating unity means concentrating your
energy. In the same way, light, when concentrated, can set objects
on fire - and even become a weapon.
Assurance
People are skeptical. Readers are afraid of being tricked. You
know that your offer is serious. Your readers don't know that.
Reassure them. Give them proof, references, examples and a
foolproof guarantee.
The offer
Work on your offer. Make it irresistible. Offer one, or a number
of gifts, a rebate, any extra advantages you can think of. Support

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your offer with good reasons for accepting it. A good offer can
make all the difference between failure and a tremendous success.
Conclusion
Maybe you think that your prospects are adults, so there's no
need to spell out what they have to do to accept your offer and order
the product? Well, you're wrong. By listing exactly what they have
to do, step by step, you're actually helping them create action images in their minds which they need in order to direct their
conduct: 1. fill out the coupon; 2. slip it in the envelope, along with
your payment or credit card number; 3. drop it in the postbox etc.
Hurry
We all have so many things to do and so little time! If you don't
give people a reason to act quickly by reminding them of what
they stand to lose if they don't act quickly, and what they can gain if
they do then they might not act at all and you lose sales.
Remember later means never.
Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm is the engine that drives all sales. It gives people the
conviction to act and can convince even the most skeptical among
us. Of course, you have to curb and control your enthusiasm,
depending on the type of clientele you're dealing with. But always
try to cultivate this essential quality in your writing and use it at
least to some degree. Your own enthusiasm will, in turn, provide
you with the energy you need to convince others.
After sales service
Making one sale isn't enough. You want to create an ongoing
relationship with your clients, you want them to read about your
forthcoming products and even wait impatiently for them to appear.
To do this, servicing your clients is vital. Acknowledge receipt of
orders, wrap parcels carefully, add a note of thanks, a little extra
gift and always respond to complaints; take care of your clients so
that they feel comfortable doing business with you.
Don't forget the most important thing and one that should be
reflected in your entire mailing:

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THE HEADLINE!
Use your headline on:
the outer envelope;
the top of your sales letter;
your order form;
your brochure;
and everywhere you can!
If your letter is long, sprinkle it with various headlines. An
effective headline is the one, single element that can assure your
success by:
stopping readers and capturing their attention; maintaining
and boosting their interest;
motivating them to ACT!
The crime you must not commit
Forgetting this element has caused the most loss of revenue in the
mail order business that I can think of. It is a hidden treasure, and
one that must not be ignored:
TESTING
When I say 'test' you may think I'm referring to market studies
done on a new product or on a limited segment of the population
etc. In fact, I believe testing consists of changing, adding or
removing a single and different element, each time you do a
mailing.
In other words, you should never send out only a single message
during a mailing campaign!

215

'That's easy to say', you may be thinking, 'but what if I don't have
the money to test two or even more messages?'
However, I'm not telling you to change the whole thing - just
one, single element.
How to test a single element
You can, for example, test two different headlines on your outer
envelope. Or, if you're using an ordinary envelope, with just 'Confidential' or 'Personal' printed on it, then change the headline on your
sales letter.
How should you proceed? It's very simple.
You print up two documents, one with the headline you're
already using (which you think is the best one) and another with a
second headline. You send the headline you're already using to 80
to 85 per cent of your clients, and the new headline to the remaining
15 to 20 per cent.
The ideas is to learn something new every time you do a mailing.
Are you getting fewer orders with your second headline? Great!
You've just learned what not to do!
Is the response better with the second headline? Great! You're
making progress and you'll be sure to earn more money next time
around.
How to identify orders
I use two techniques for recognizing which orders correspond to
which tests.
1. Order form codes
Ask your printer to add two or three codes to your order form.
For example:

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All order forms with these two codes will be classified as AX28
returns.
Stop the printing when you have enough of these forms and ask
the printer to erase the AX28 code from the plate. The remaining
order forms will only have the code AX27 on them.
2. The marker
Take a pile of order forms and spread them very slightly to
expose the edges, like a pack of cards:

Then use a brightly colored marker to put a stripe down one side
or edge. Use different colors for different tests - it's as easy as that!

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SUMMARY
Before printing up the various elements of your mailing, make
sure:
they form a coherent unit;
you've covered the following nine important points:
advantages;
curiosity;
concentrating your ideas;
assurance; offer;
conclusion;
hurry;
enthusiasm;
follow up;
and, of course, most important of all, that each element (outer
envelope, sales letter, order form, brochure etc.) displays an
effective headline. TEST - TEST - TEST! This is the easiest
and surest way to success.

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CHAPTER 14
Your future in copywriting and direct
sales
Well, that's it! You now know all our little secrets, our tricks and
techniques. And now you may be asking yourself the question:
'How is all this going to help me?'
Here are some hints. A direct marketing agency did a study on
the number of newspaper ads that had headlines.
The results were surprising: 60 per cent of ads directed at
businesses had no headline, no offer, nothing!
And for ads directed at the general public, the figure was even
higher -an astounding 80 per cent!
Conclusion: There's still a great future out there for good
copywriters!
Whether you're hoping to make big money with a few items that
really 'take off', or thinking more about a longer term, smaller profit
operation, the difference between success and failure depends on
two basic, and closely linked, factors:
management;
profits.
Direct marketing has one major advantage over all other types of
sales and service sectors: you can start small, with very little
money, and by making efficient use of testing and statistics, easily
control both your growth rate and your management requirements.
The second big advantage of direct marketing is that it's also
possible to develop and increase your profits substantially.

219

Let me explain: an ordinary business that does not sell by direct

mail may show a profit margin of eight per cent. In simple terms,
this means 'that every time the company puts a hundred pounds in
the bank, eight of those pounds is profit. To improve this figure, the
company could try to reduce production costs, administrative
salaries or financial arrangements etc.
These things aren't easy to do. They take a lot of time and a
traditional business could only hope to gain one or two per cent
added profit anyway. So the best thing they can do is try to increase
sales:
If they were to deposit $150 in sales, their profit would increase
to $150 x 8% = $12 profit. However, with only $100, and a profit
ratio of, say, 10%, they'd earn $l0 profit on every $100.
Result? The head of the company proudly announces higher and
higher sales figures, the company expands, new people are hired,
new machines are ordered, new offices are decorated etc.
Everything gets more and more complicated, cumbersome and
difficult to manage.
How to make your profit margin 'take off'
In direct sales, on the other hand, you can easily and rapidly
improve your profit margin, without getting bogged down in costly
expansion programs. How? Thanks to good copywriting, of course!
Let's say an initial sales letter resulted in only 0.5 per cent of
your addresses actually ordering the product. Still, this covered all
your costs (printing, suppliers, postage etc.). For 100 invested, you
paid out 99 in costs. Profit ratio: one per cent.
Meanwhile, you've discovered copywriting! You come up with a
great headline and an excellent promise; you write a dynamic and
captivating letter; a postscript that makes readers want to act; your
outer envelope arouses curiosity; the order form is very complete
and makes ordering so easy...
In short, your mailing becomes professional and your returns
increase test after test: from 0.5 per cent to two, three, five, seven

220

and even ten per cent.

Let's be conservative and limit ourselves to five per cent: for the
same $100 invested, your sales have multiplied ten times!
Result? Your profit margin also multiplies. Say your new
approach attains a sales figure of $l000. This means your new
profit margin has jumped from $1000 minus $99 (costs) = $901.
This means you've multiplied your profit 901 times! And that's
exactly what the magic of copywriting can do!
How to become a sought-after copywriter
Sales letters that produce high responses do not happen by
accident. Only good copywriters can consistently produce excellent
scores. And just reading a book like this one isn't enough to make
you a good copywriter.
You are now much more aware of what copywriting is all about.
You've been given a host of techniques, professional secrets and
basic principles to uphold. That's already a lot! But even today, not
many people realize the potential of copywriting and just how
powerful a tool it can be. But, as in all fields, you also have to sweat
a little. Fortunately, the results are well worth the effort!
We know of no other career in the whole world that can give you
so much satisfaction (of all kinds) in so short a time . . .
There you have it! A door stands before you. It may lead directly
to your personal and professional success. You now know where to
find the key. It's up to you to open that door...
Good luck!

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APPENDIX
About the word 'YOU'-what the experts
advise
'How do you go about changing someone's opinion? The most
important rule is to start by talking about that person's opinion, and
not your own. '
Alain, French Philosopher

'Count the number of times the word "YOU" appears in your text.
Talk about your prospects, and not about yourself.'
Drayton Bird

'Make sure that your letter has a logical progression, that it's
written in a conversational tone, and that its approach is constantly
oriented towards "YOU" rather than "I"...'
Nat G. Bodian

'I knew from experience that the word most often used in
publicity is "YOU", but I didn't quite realize the extent of its
effectiveness...'
John Caples

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'YOU instead of WE. "We, at the Royal Bank..." is an outdated

and pedantic turn of phrase, dating back to Victorian times. Rewrite
your texts so that they are oriented towards "YOU" instead of
"WE".'
Rene Gnam

'Here's one of the great secrets of writing advertising copy: the

word YOU. Prospects enjoy being talked about. In fact, they like
nothing betted'
Regis Hauser

'Your egotism is what kills your texts and your marketing. More
than 90 per cent of the marketing texts I analyzed spoke more about
the seller than the buyer. To sum up, NEVER, NEVER talk about
yourself again. About your interests, your company, your products,
your services. From now on, stop being so egotistical!'
Dr Jeffrey Lant

"YOU - YOUR": every mail order ad absolutely must talk about

the reader, and involve him or her directly.'
J.P. Lehnish

'The rule of YOU first" tells readers, listeners and watchers what
you can do for THEM, and not what concerns you.'
Herschell Gordon Lewis

'Continue using the word "YOU" and show your prospects what
benefits they will get.'
James E.A. Lumley

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'I force myself to write like one person talking to another, in a

style that's as direct as possible, using the word YOU...'
David Ogilvy

'Make your headline personal by using the magic words "YOU"

and "YOURS".'
Kathryn Retzler

'Does your letter have a YOU approach throughout? You can do

it. It's easier than you think. All you have to do is put yourself in
your client's shoes. As the saying goes, "If you want to sell
something to John Jones, you have to see John Jones as if you were
John Jones yourself".'
Max Ross

'Use "I' and "YOU" with a majority of You's.'

Joan Throckmorton

'The primordial point of view: the point of YOU... We can't

emphasize the importance of this point often enough. Forty-three of
the best headlines we could find contain at least one of these words:
YOU, YOUR, YOURSELF.'
Victor O. Schwab

'Frankly speaking, who do you find the most interesting person in

the world? When you pray - if you pray - who are you asking to be
blessed? When you judge or criticize someone, are you likely to get
more upset if that person offended one of your friends, or if they
offended you? If you're with a group of friends, and a fortune teller

224

is predicting the future, whose future are you interested in the most?
Are you interested in an analysis of someone else's handwriting, or
your own?
'The word "YOU" provokes a universal response in people. Tell
me, what word do you think affects us most? What is the most
important word we can hear or read? What word makes us respond
most quickly?
The incontestable answer is the word YOU.'
Professor W.D. Scott

'Personal pronouns take the prize for effectiveness. They are a

substitute for names. We use them in conversation, when we've
forgotten the name of the person we're talking to. In such situations,
the words "YOU -YOUR - YOURSELF" are constantly being
used.'
Professor S. Vogele

225

Table of Contents
Contents ______________________________________________________ 3
Foreword______________________________________________________ 5
Introduction ___________________________________________________ 6
Generate thousands of dollars worth of sales right from your own home
____________________________________________________________ 6
CHAPTER 1 ___________________________________________________ 8
How a simple letter can make people open their wallets_________________ 8
Becoming a millionaire in 20 steps______________________________ 10
Is there a limit to how large mailings should be? __________________ 11
What if you don't have any money to invest? _____________________ 12
Are you a player? ___________________________________________ 12
Basic principles for a successful mailing _________________________ 13
Outer envelope ______________________________________________ 13
Sales letter _________________________________________________ 13
Brochure___________________________________________________ 13
Order form_________________________________________________ 13
Reply envelope ______________________________________________ 14
Support letter _______________________________________________ 14
Provide a return guarantee ___________________________________ 14
Give your letter a personal look________________________________ 15
Pay special attention to the text of your letter ____________________ 15
SUMMARY ________________________________________________ 17
CHAPTER 2 __________________________________________________ 18
An easy way to get large numbers of people to respond to 'your letter ____ 18
The entire future of your business depends on this moment... _______ 18
Read it or throw it away: the decision is made in a fraction of a second
___________________________________________________________ 19
The only way to get the odds on your side _______________________ 19
How to capture your prospects' attention ________________________ 20

226

How to gain the confidence of prospective clients _________________ 20

How to get clients to identify you quickly and easily _______________ 21
The secret that makes people want to read your message ___________ 22
Three types of mail - and the one to avoid _______________________ 22
How to personalize your letter _________________________________ 24
Capture your reader's interest immediately______________________ 25
Four objectives of your letter heading___________________________ 28
Should you use a letterhead or make your letter anonymous? _______ 28
Useful typefaces _____________________________________________ 34
Do letter headings always act as a reinforcement? ________________ 36
The doorway to your letter: how to make it open automatically for
prospective clients ___________________________________________ 38
The headline________________________________________________ 38
How to get your text read from beginning to end _________________ 38
Start with a promise _________________________________________ 39
SUMMARY ________________________________________________ 40
CHAPTER 3 __________________________________________________ 41
How to come up with promises that produce the greatest number of replies 41
Predicting the motives and needs of your target clients ____________ 41
The basis of all action: five fundamental needs ___________________ 42
1. Physiological needs ________________________________________ 42
2. Need for security __________________________________________ 44
3. Need for love and belonging _________________________________ 45
4. Need for recognition _______________________________________ 46
5. Need for self-realization (fulfillment) _________________________ 49
Other decoding systems ______________________________________ 49
How to get the most out of the seven deadly sins __________________ 49
How to stimulate people's demons in order to sell _________________ 50
Now, what about you and your product? ________________________ 52
SUMMARY ________________________________________________ 54
CHAPTER 4 __________________________________________________ 55
Your greatest enemy- and how to eliminate it ________________________ 55

227

The king of words in all languages - and how to make it work for you!56
The astonishing results of a study of 150 successful direct mail
campaigns__________________________________________________ 56
When is the word 'I' important? _______________________________ 57
The secret of an extraordinary sales text ________________________ 58
Just how far can you extend the limits of your memory? ___________ 58
How to set up your own 'Egometer'_____________________________ 60
How to eliminate the enemy - once and for all ____________________ 64
Not talking about yourself does not mean forgetting who you are! ___ 65
1. Let your personality express itself ____________________________ 66
2. Use a narrative style _______________________________________ 66
3. Share intimate feelings _____________________________________ 66
4. Find an image which corresponds to each important point in your
presentation ________________________________________________ 66
5. Present your opinions in a positive way _______________________ 67
SUMMARY ________________________________________________ 67
CHAPTER 5 __________________________________________________ 68
The tricks used by professionals to make your 'headlines' work _________ 68
How to get an exceptional response _____________________________ 68
How to put a catalyst in your headline __________________________ 69
50 per cent of a letter's success depends on the headline! ___________ 69
Why 90 per cent of amateur copywriters never get their projects off the
ground_____________________________________________________ 70
How much do you think a robbery in yourhome costs you?___________ 70
How to distract your prospects from their usual preoccupations! ____ 74
What the professionals do to make their headlines succeed _________ 75
The Reader's Digest formula __________________________________ 76
Health _____________________________________________________ 77
Self-improvement ___________________________________________ 77
Children ___________________________________________________ 77
Couple_____________________________________________________ 78
Jobs _______________________________________________________ 78

228

Money _____________________________________________________ 79
The favorite technique of the professionals ______________________ 79
The secret of best-selling books ________________________________ 80
The best headlines in the world! _______________________________ 81
How to create a successful headline with ease ____________________ 83
A springboard for creating more successful headlines _____________ 85
Creation Form ______________________________________________ 87
SUMMARY ________________________________________________ 92
CHAPTER 6 __________________________________________________ 93
An infallible way to select your best headline ________________________ 93
Why are some headlines so successful, while others seem to fall flat? _ 93
What can we learn from these headlines?________________________ 98
A professional technique: 'internal promotion' ___________________ 99
Our answers _______________________________________________ 100
How to double the impact of your headline _____________________ 100
How to create visuals that pay off _____________________________ 101
Why you have to test your headlines ___________________________ 102
Technique for selecting the best of your headlines________________ 102
How to test a headline _______________________________________ 103
Other ways to select your best headline ________________________ 107
1. The 'split-run' ___________________________________________ 107
2. The telescope test _________________________________________ 108
3. Classified ads ____________________________________________ 108
4. The list _________________________________________________ 109
SUMMARY _______________________________________________ 110
CHAPTER 7 _________________________________________________ 111
Offers and postscripts: how to get higher sales from your very first letter! 111
A 'trick' used by direct mail agencies __________________________ 111
How to change the offer in your headline _______________________ 111
How to find offers that produce high sales ______________________ 114
Increase your returns by 20 to 30 per cent or morel ______________ 115
A professional secret - and how to get the most out of it! __________ 116

229

How to write a high impact P.S._______________________________ 118

How to increase sales - with just your signature! _________________ 119
SUMMARY _______________________________________________ 121
CHAPTER 8 _________________________________________________ 121
How to find effective ideas and arguments that sell __________________ 121
Put your most powerful idea-bank to work _____________________ 121
A secret for discovering effective ideas and arguments that sell ____ 123
How to develop your creative copywriting to its fullest____________ 124
Flow top copywriters find their best ideas and sales arguments ____ 125
Why so few people have great ideas____________________________ 126
Put your right brain to work!_________________________________ 127
1. Enter information ________________________________________ 127
The product itself___________________________________________ 128
Other documents about the product ___________________________ 129
How to 'brainstorm' ________________________________________ 129
How else to channel creativity ________________________________ 130
The discovery matrix________________________________________ 131
Scenarios__________________________________________________ 132
2. Write a program _________________________________________ 132
Solutions __________________________________________________ 137
Psychological factors ________________________________________ 138
3. Ask a question ___________________________________________ 140
4. Listen for the results ______________________________________ 140
The power of the 'tree' technique _____________________________ 141
The most powerful method of transforming a good idea into a real
success____________________________________________________ 143
The reformulation technique _________________________________ 144
SUMMARY _______________________________________________ 146
CHAPTER 9 _________________________________________________ 147
How to keep your prospects intrigued right from the start _____________ 147
How to avoid the wastepaper basket in the first 20 seconds ________ 147
How to tell a thrilling story___________________________________ 148

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Ask your prospective clients a good question ____________________ 149

Break some kind of news to your clients ________________________ 150
Get rid of your clients' bad memories for them __________________ 151
Sum it all up! ______________________________________________ 151
Use testimonials ____________________________________________ 152
How to develop your own technique ___________________________ 152
SUMMARY _______________________________________________ 154
CHAPTER 10 ________________________________________________ 155
How to convince people who can't make up their minds-and increase your
sales ________________________________________________________ 155
The truth is not always appropriate ___________________________ 155
Always prove what you say - and do it more than once! ___________ 155
Use expert opinions _________________________________________ 156
What if you are targeting another business? ____________________ 156
The power of the 'lift letter' __________________________________ 157
How to prepare your readers for action ________________________ 159
1. Summarize the advantages of your offer _____________________ 159
2. Reassure your clients______________________________________ 159
Getting your clients to act____________________________________ 160
Words that trigger an immediate action ________________________ 161
Five more effective techniques for inciting clients to act ___________ 162
1. Set an expiry date ________________________________________ 162
2. Set a time period _________________________________________ 162
3. An imminent event... ______________________________________ 162
4. Offer a free gift if the client responds quickly _________________ 163
5. A list of everything the client has to lose... ____________________ 163
Which technique is best? ____________________________________ 163
Summarize the advantages ___________________________________ 163
SUMMARY _______________________________________________ 165
CHAPTER 11 ________________________________________________ 166
How to keep your readers reading - from beginning to end ____________ 166
How to make all of your letter exciting _________________________ 166

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How to get your text read and understood, and obtain maximum results
__________________________________________________________ 168
How to multiply the numbers of your readers ___________________ 168
The opposite of what you learned in school _____________________ 168
What factors stop people from reading on? _____________________ 169
The longer a sentence is, the harder it is to read _________________ 169
Present your text so that it is inviting to read ____________________ 170
Version A _________________________________________________ 170
Version B _________________________________________________ 171
How long should your lines be? _______________________________ 172
How to cut a paragraph _____________________________________ 173
Where should you cut? ______________________________________ 174
Don't be afraid of paragraphs that contain only one sentence ______ 175
The longer your sentences, the less readers retain what they need __ 176
How to shorten long sentences ________________________________ 177
Your turn! ________________________________________________ 178
Changing the order of words in a sentence ______________________ 179
Influence of the spoken word _________________________________ 181
The shorter a word, the stronger it is: why?_____________________ 181
Long words slow reading down _______________________________ 182
The law of least effort _______________________________________ 182
Eliminate 'filter' words ______________________________________ 182
How to shorten words _______________________________________ 183
1. Find a synonym __________________________________________ 183
2. Replace one long word with a number of small words __________ 184
All the tricks you need to know to make a letter, word, sentence or
paragraph stand out ________________________________________ 184
Juggle your formats_________________________________________ 185
Transitions ________________________________________________ 185
Which typefaces should you use?______________________________ 186
How to keep your readers turning the pages ____________________ 187
How do you judge the quality of your letter? ____________________ 187

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A final piece of advice _______________________________________ 190

SUMMARY _______________________________________________ 191
CHAPTER 12 ________________________________________________ 192
Order forms, envelopes and follow-ups - all the secrets you need to know 192
How to make your order form a success ________________________ 192
Do not leave anything out! ___________________________________ 193
The great secret of an exceptional response - the envelope _________ 197
Windows: how to make them work for you _____________________ 199
Even the stamps you use can increase your sales! ________________ 201
How to double your profits with ease!__________________________ 202
How to write a follow-up letter________________________________ 204
Finally... a few more secrets __________________________________ 205
Can you get people to change their habits? _____________________ 206
A few rules about human psychology __________________________ 207
Back to basics - is your letter logical? __________________________ 208
A final 'trick' ______________________________________________ 209
SUMMARY _______________________________________________ 210
CHAPTER 13 ________________________________________________ 211
Troubleshooting and testing_____________________________________ 211
How to give your mailing a sense of unity_______________________ 211
The simpler the message, the better it will be understood__________ 212
Checklist: important points covered so far ______________________ 213
The crime you must not commit ______________________________ 215
TESTING _________________________________________________ 215
How to test a single element __________________________________ 216
How to identify orders ______________________________________ 216
2. The marker _____________________________________________ 217
SUMMARY _______________________________________________ 218
CHAPTER 14 ________________________________________________ 219
Your future in copywriting and direct sales ________________________ 219
How to make your profit margin 'take off'______________________ 220
How to become a sought-after copywriter ______________________ 221

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APPENDIX__________________________________________________ 222
About the word 'YOU'-what the experts advise______________________ 222

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