You remember Sherlock Holmes, right? Holmes was the fictional consulting detective invented by the Scottish physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes, as you know, is famous for opening difficult cases and solving them with almost magical abilities.
So grab your detective hat and let’s play Sherlock Holmes for a moment. let’s do a little espionage today and see if the “Sherlock” in you can find some winning clues lurking everywhere.
This is the shortest way to the land of profit in this crazy fun business. The direct marketing business, or “mail order” as we affectionately call it, has a “secret” way of “spying” on the competition. Is named “sowing.”
Very simply, seeding is where you get on the mailing list of other companies.
…for the sole purpose of snooping around and finding out what’s going on in the selected market.
This does several things for you.
First, you will start receiving offers from the company you asked about more competing companies. And these offers can be golden for you by seeing exactly who is sending what.
You’ll see firsthand what your winners are, how the copy is read, what offers are interesting, and the ideas will start to spark.
And if you go the extra mile and actually buy something, you’ll experience firsthand how they treated you, what upsells they offer, and how they manage the customer service side of the business.
Simply put, this is some of the best direct marketing training you can receive. And best of all… it won’t cost you a fortune.
Basically, you get a master’s level marketing education for the mere cost of a postage stamp and the time it takes to “sign up”.
Pretty cool, right? As my late marketing mentor Melvin Powers once told me, “There are no secrets in the mail-order business.”
You will be attuned to ‘real world real time’ marketing methods and strategies. This is one of the best ways to keep up with powerful trends and cutting-edge effective marketing.
Planting gives you another great benefit…
… A slip file at your fingertips.
What is that, you say? Slide file? YES! Slide file!
What is a slip file? Hey, I’m glad you asked.
A swipe file is a collection of marketing pieces that have a proven track record of positive results. These ads generate a lot of profit, leads, store visits, or whatever action the ad asks the customer to take.
But how do you know if these ads are profitable or not? It’s really not that hard to figure this out… and you don’t have to guess.
If you see a marketing promotion (ad, sales letter, landing page, etc.) that is repeated over and over again or mailed out over and over again, then you know for a fact that it is a winner.
Most marketers, especially direct response type businesses, hate wasting money. Again, if you see an ad repeated over and over again, you can be sure that you are making money for the advertiser.
Once you start creating your swipe file, you’ll want to see how your marketing stacks up against the competition. The ideas that came out of your swipe file could be used to improve your marketing.
There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. In direct marketing (or mail order), you’ve learned that there are no secrets. Everything is ugly out there for you.
And by the way, did I mention that swiping is legit? It cuts a lot of the learning curve sharply!
Let me tell you a quick story about one of the most successful, profitable, and effective direct marketing promotions of the 20th century.
It was 1974 and Martin Conroy was commissioned to write a sales letter to sell subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal.
It’s not a big deal, is it? After all, it was only two printed pages from front to back…a simple 780-word letter.
But here’s the thing. Did you know that one of the most successful and profitable sales letters ever written…
This super successful sales letter mailed for 28 years with almost no change from the original copy. It grossed over TWO BILLION DOLLARS in gross receipts!
Take one of the most famous writing checks, The Wall Street Letter written by the late Martin Conroy. In fact, he stole it from a sales letter written many years earlier.
So what was the secret to this mega-hit letter?
The secret, according to industry insiders, is that Conroy relied on a little-known “trick” to to cheat his way of writing the pitch.
It’s helpful to know that Conroy’s card wasn’t beaten until 2002. It was beaten in two consecutive tests…the first test was beaten by less than 10%. The second by a whopping 24%.
The second letter was written by copywriting legend Mal Decker.
So the question is how did Mal Decker come up with a card to beat the ‘unbeatable’ controller?
The answer…again…is surprisingly simple…and you, my friend, can use this ethical “trick” to produce blockbuster ads, web pages, sales letters, and just about any marketing piece you need. to write.
I’m not saying it’s okay for you to directly copy the ad word for word. No problem…I’m saying it’s okay to borrow or slip compelling ideas, concepts and bits that intrigue you and adapt them into your marketing.
Swiping is a great way to breathe new life into old copy, and can often lead to more sales and leads.
So start your slip file today and let the ideas flow.