{"id":21198,"date":"2011-05-19T15:09:45","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T19:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/fx\/?p=21198"},"modified":"2011-05-19T15:09:45","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T19:09:45","slug":"but-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/2011\/05\/19\/but-whats-next\/","title":{"rendered":"But What\u2019s Next?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Early To Rise<\/strong><\/p>\n

How many geniuses have you met?<\/p>\n

I met Charlie Chaplin (very briefly) in 1966 while working on publicity for the film Fahrenheit 451<\/em>. Then I was lucky enough to work with David Ogilvy for eight years.<\/p>\n

Ogilvy still exerts enormous influence in the marketing business, and if you haven\u2019t read Ogilvy on Advertising<\/em>, you should have your wrist slapped.<\/p>\n

But there is one remarkable person I never met but wish I had. I surely would have learned a lot from him. That\u2019s because he started not one but two<\/em> groundbreaking businesses \u2013 the Franklin Mint and QVC.<\/p>\n

That man is Joe Segel. With the Franklin Mint, he pretty much invented the mail-order collectibles business. It was for years pre-eminent in the field, though it has since been bought, sold, screwed up, and run into the ground.<\/p>\n

I worked for the Franklin Mint in London in 1976. At the time, many people thought I was the bee\u2019s knees at direct-response copy. But I learned a valuable lesson \u2013 one you should bear in mind whenever you write or review copy.<\/p>\n

A Near-Impossible Task<\/strong><\/p>\n

My first job at The Mint was a letter to sell some medallions celebrating the achievements of the Kings of Belgium. This was quite a challenge. At least one of them \u2013 Leopold II \u2013 was a mass murderer and slave trader, and few of the others were that impressive.<\/p>\n

After laboring on it for a week, I placed the carefully typed product of my consummate genius in front of my client.<\/p>\n

He started reading it out loud in sonorous tones. After the heading and first paragraph, he paused, gazed at me over his bifocals, and asked:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you suppose the reader would like to know next?\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, you know what? I was flummoxed<\/em>. I had been writing copy for, oh, nearly 20 years. I had been creative director of a big London agency. My copy had sold a bodybuilding machine called the Bullworker all over the world.<\/p>\n

Yet I had never given thought to one simple fact: The minute you have written something, you must ask yourself what is going through the reader\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

Good Copy Is Like a Conversation<\/strong><\/p>\n

The great novelist Evelyn Waugh put it very well. He was writing to his wife, complaining that her letters were dull. (Hardly surprising. Unlike him, she was not<\/em> a literary genius.)<\/p>\n

\u201cA good letter,\u201d he told her, \u201cshould be like a conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Same goes for a good sales letter.<\/p>\n

When you write good copy, you \u201csay\u201d something. Then you imagine the reaction in the reader\u2019s mind \u2013 and respond appropriately.<\/p>\n

That was what I failed to understand until my client at the Franklin Mint pointed it out to me.<\/p>\n

As my friend Joe Sugarman has said, the only purpose of each line of copy is to make the reader read the next one.<\/p>\n

This is immensely important, particularly when it comes to the MOST important sentence in your copy. That sentence is the first one. The headline in an ad. The teaser on an envelope. The start of the sales letter. The opening line in a commercial.<\/p>\n

Too many get the reader\u2019s attention \u2013 but they are \u201cstoppers,\u201d not \u201cstarters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

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Stop letting time slip by. Start your own info-marketing business today! <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Five Good Examples<\/strong><\/p>\n

What sort of lines force<\/em> you to read on? Take a look at these:<\/p>\n