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Hank Burnett.
Stu Maltin.
Dick Archer.
A Final Tip
■ I think I always start with a pretty clear notion of who I'm writing to. But there's
only one way I know of to verify it, and that is by finding out which lists have — and
just as important, haven't — worked. I can recall no instance in which my original
notion wasn't reshaped by its collision with the facts.
■ You mail to millions. I write to one person. The person I'm convinced is the best
prospect, the most likely respondent to your offer Of the hundreds, even thousands,
of direct mail packages that I've done, I can't think of one that I wrote without having
an actual person in mind.
I know his name. His income. His interests. His desires. If I'm writing to the right person
and he's on your mailing lists, we've got a winner. But the time to find out, to
review the lists, is right at the start.
■ To bang out a mail order offer without knowing your lists is like the Blind Man of
Banares sizing up an elephant by feeling its leg! Tell me more about your list — its
demographics, buying habits, and history — and you give me an extra edge, a better
handle on structuring my offer, and positioning my product for sale.
Probably the most often quoted advice on advertising copywriting is in the form of a poem written
many years ago by Victor Schwab:
I see that you've spent quite a big wad of dough
To tell me the things you think I should know.
How your plant is so big, so fine and strong;
And your founder has whiskers so handsomely long.
So he started the business in old '92?
How tremendously int'resting that is — to you.
He built up the thing with the blood of his life?
(I'll run home like mad, tell that to my wife!)
Your machinery's modern and, oh, so complete!
Your "rep" is so flawless; your workers so neat.
Your motto is "Quality" — capital "Q".
No wonder I'm tired of "your" and "you"!
So tell me quick and tell me true
(Or else, my love, to hell with you!)
Less — "how this product came to be";
More — what the damn thing does for me!
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