‘The Book’ on copywriting and marketing in general was written in 1966. It is the only book I know of that the author was told repeatedly, “I made a million dollars because of your book.” Many times the reader had made several million and almost all of them weren’t copywriters.

I can’t find a single genuine ‘A grade’ copywriter who doesn’t believe this book to beone of the most important books ever written on copywriting.

Sometimes you know when you are reading something profound. When I first read Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War,’ I knew that I had peered into the game behind the game. I had the same experience again with Musashi’s ‘Book of Five Rings’ and again with Eli Goldratt’s ‘The Goal.’

The Million Dollar Book’ addressed how to write a headline followed by an ad or sales letter that could shape a new market and get it to buy. Using this formula created advertising breakthroughs. I read it and my head swam. Like the real game of copywriting had been revealed.

You could see the author’s process from beginning to end to create a great promotion. I admit this is not the book for the lazy or those who want to ‘cookie cutter’ ideas and accept mediocre results. It is a book for those people who are willing to work hard to create exceptional results.

This book went out of print and eBay resellers swooped. Used copies sold for $900. I was astounded that people were willing to sell their copy. Thankfully some sanity was restored and the book reissued and entirely worth the (relatively) bargain price on Amazon of $94.95 plus postage and handling.

In case you haven’t guessed, ‘The Book’ is Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz. I would go as far as to divide the entire marketing and copywriting world up this way: People who have read Breakthrough Advertising and people who haven’t.

Breakthrough Advertising flies in the face of conventional copywriting wisdom. Schwartz said “Every new market – every new product – every new advertisement is a fresh new problem that never existed before on the face of the Earth. Past advertising successes – no matter how brilliant – can provide no answers for this new problem. They can only furnish jump-off points, yardstick questions, approximate solutions to lead you in the right direction. The correct solution, the right headline, the perfect ad lies buried in the problem itself. It has never been written before. It cannot be produced by rote, carbon copying or mutations. But it can be sprung to the surface – automatically – by asking the right questions.”

How many copywriters do you know that tell you that everything old is new again and copy writing is all about copying what worked in the past. Get Breakthrough Advertising and deepen your understanding of your
market and how to write a more powerful ad.

Schwartz also wrote a book called The Brilliance Breakthrough. It is so rare that the copy was stolen out of the US Congressional Library. Good luck getting a copy of that one.

It was just yesterday that I was sitting down with a potential client discussing how he could launch his new business. He was talking about his business card and said he wanted his logo on the front and his
contact details on the back.

Being me, I started to explain the importance of highlighting your core message and benefits in all your marketing (especially business cards). I mentioned the idea of having a headline and perhaps a few sentences or a guarantee on the back. Then showed him about 10 sample cards that were designed in the way I was proposing. He wasn’t open to the idea at all.

His argument was this:
“There’s too much writing on these card. When I get a card, I just want to know who they are, so I need to easily be able to see the business name. I wouldn’t read these”

This Is Just One Example Of A Business Falling Into The “I” Trap.

The “I” Trap is essentially when you assume that everyone else thinks, feels and acts the same way you do. It’s essentially a term I use for temporary “Arrogance” or “Narrow-mindedness” about marketing.

Let me explain why this “I” Trap often limits business success. Straight up “you are not your client”. By assuming your clients have the same buying habits, reading habits, beliefs and opinions, you are ruling out pretty much anyone that is not like you.

An example I still find hard to believe is the use of a coupon in a newspaper advert. If faced with the options of phoning a pre-recorded message, going to a website or filling in a coupon to request information from a business. Never in a million years would I fill out a coupon, get a stamp, address an envelope then walk all the way to the post office and post it…

But results speak for themselves – about 30% of people respond to our ads that with a coupon. If I’d fallen into the “I” trap and thought: “I would never respond to a coupon” and left it off, we would have left potentially thousands of dollars un-banked.

Here Are A Few Tips To Help Your Avoid The “I” Trap

Avoid using the word “I” when planning your marketing. Instead ask would a ‘potential client’ be likely to… By replacing the word “I” with “potential client” or ‘ideal customer” it will help you open your mind and you’ll be less likely to fall into the “I” trap.

Get feedback / advice from many different sources. Too often I see business owners turning to their family members or close friends for business advice. “What do you think of this ad?” they ask. The problem with this is that they often think the same way you do. Unless they are your absolute ideal client, their ‘thoughts’ really don’t matter and are likely to cement you in your little self-induced, success-limiting trap.

Survey existing clients and potential clients – It’s really quite simple. Ask your clients questions about various topics and what motivates them. Often I find it’s good to write down your assumptions before hand and then compare the responses afterwards. You’ll be surprised how many assumptions you actually make and don’t realise!

This will hopefully give you some suggestions into how to communicate effectively with your market. I hope these tips will help you from falling into the self-cannibalising “I” traps that we set for ourselves. Just keep an open mind and test and measure everything! Results are the only thing to go by.

5 Simple Tricks Anyone Can Use To Make Your Articles More Readable.

Every time you sit down to write an article for your newsletter, or any other marketing materials for that matter. Then you might want to consider the following ways to improve your content’s readability. Cos if we are all honest here, when you send out a newsletter then you want it to be read.

Use Specifics To Create Believability. The more real you can make something in the mind of your reader, the more likely they are to believe it. “Waves breaking over 200km of pristine coastline, untouched by man…” is more real in than “there is a beach…” Just leave some work for the reader’s imagination and you’ll have them hooked.

Make Your Paragraphs Shorter. Big long paragraphs, one after the other is really intimidating to read – which increases resistance from the reader to actually starting to read. Stephen King said in his book ‘On Writing’ that “the paragraph is the basic building block of a story.” So each time you write a paragraph, make sure that it is nothing more than a single building block in an article.

Doing more than that makes paragraphs way too long, makes your articles look too dense and it discourages readership. So keep them short – not looking like something a high school student churned out the night before their homework was due.

Break Up Pages With Subheads. Subheads are an easy way to make pages of bland boring text come to life. With the addition of a subhead or two on each page, you can simply break up large runs of text into multiple entry points into the article. Even a skimmer can pick up the points you are making quickly and easily.

Stick to One idea Per Article. If you look at the best sales letters of all time there is a bias towards a single idea. “Burn disease out of your body using nothing but the palm of your hand” or “The Black Plague of Debt” or “The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches.” Those three headlines are from ‘Hall of Fame’ letters that were used successfully for many years. And if one idea is good enough for those letters then it is good enough for your articles.

Measure The Article’s Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease. Most adults read at between an 8th and 10th grade level. If what you are writing to is too complex, then they will just put it down. Nobody likes to be made to feel stupid. So avoid using big words the way you were taught to in school and keep your sentences shorter. Before you go decide the article is done – run it through the reading ease function in your word processor. Microsoft word has one, search ‘readability’ in the help centre for how to turn it on.

For those of you who are curious, this article has a reading ease 71.2% and is a 7.2 grade level.

The next time you wonder if what you have written is good enough go through and see how you can apply each of these tricks to your writing. Good Luck.