Direct-response copywriting is killer.
Long before online marketing, there were direct-response copywriters who were absolutely nailing it with explosive copy. They were churning up huge interest in their products and scaring up droves of customers to buy their products.
The impact of these marketers is enormous. You use toothpaste? You can thank Claude C. Hopkins, the man who popularized it through direct-response copywriting.
These pioneers were masters. If you’re writing ads, headlines, blogs, page titles, articles, tweets, Facebook posts, or any other form of digital marketing, you’ve got a few things to learn from these direct response-copywriting heroes.
1. Direct response copywriting tests without mercy
Why is direct response copywriting so awesome?
In one word: testing.
We marketing data heads love data — powerful, actionable, crystal-clear numbers.
David Ogilvy, the demigod of direct-response copywriting wrote this: “Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.”
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Phrases like “always be testing” are common parlance in today’s digital marketing milieu. But who came up with this idea? It was born in direct-response copywriting.
Claude C. Hopkins, another grandfather of the direct-response marketing movement, wrote, “Tests are important and help us to understand our customers. Good selling is based on good testing.”
Testing is the holy grail of conversion optimization, growth hacking, and success.
2. Direct-response copywriting demands a powerful call to action
There’s no such thing as effective marketing without a call to action.
You and I tend to take the call for action for granted. We put CTAs everywhere. We test CTAs. We tweak CTAs. We realize that CTAs are where conversions happen.
Derek Halpern wrote this:
“For the past 100 years, direct response copywriters have made fun of main street marketing because they didn’t include a call to action in their ads. But times have changed. They [main street marketing] now include calls to action for twitter and facebook. And people who study direct response can laugh for another 100 years.”
It’s just that simple.
3. Direct-response copywriting uses long-form copy
People do read copy. In fact, they love it. And long copy is just as effective if not more effective than short copy.
The website TodayMade explains, “long copy is good,” and points to the early direct-response copywriters for evidence. Here is one of their examples.
Want more prehistoric proof? In the early days of direct-response copywriting, fear of long-form copy was unheard of. Ogilvy proves the point with this magnum opus. Yes, that’s an advertisement you’re looking at.
The fact is, people are interested in reading long copy because they are interested in making the best choice for their particular purpose.
If long copy engages them, helps them, and informs them, they will read it. TWEET
My own experience confirms this. After rigorous testing, I determined that my long-form landing pages were scoring far more conversions than short-form variables. Long copy allows you to persuade more, answer more objections, and explain more advantages of your product or service.
Even search engines tend to favor pages that have more content. Take a look at the word count on blog posts, and where they appear in the SERPs.
Don’t be afraid of long-form content. It could be your secret weapon to improved copywriting.
4. Direct-response copywriting focuses on the customer
One of the biggest differentiators between branding as a marketing strategy and direct marketing is this:
That’s a critical difference, and it is one of the primary reasons why direct marketing is more effective than typical formS of indirect marketing or branded information. Direct marketing obsesses over the customer.
Here’s what David Ogilvy said: “A consumer is not a moron. She’s your wife. Don’t insult her intelligence, and don’t shock her.”
Here’s how he applied his knowledge:
I could have positioned Dove as a detergent bar for men with dirty hands, but chose instead to position it as a toilet bar for women with dry skin. This is still working 25 years later.
The best way to become an outstanding marketer is to understand your customer. Marketing does not exist without the customer. If you want to reach your customer, you have to first know them.
When Ogilvy helped to market the Rolls Royce, he knew he was targeting people who wanted a luxurious experience. He knew the customer, and he catered directly to them with this stellar ad.
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By contrast, the VW Beetle was an economic car, not catering to the luxury consumer, but to the value-minded consumer. Ogilvy responded accordingly, focusing on the customer’s main desires in this VW ad. (Correction: Doyle Dane Bernbach created the ad, but Ogilvy talks about it in his book.)
Once you figure out who it is you’re trying to reach, you need to understand what it is that will effectively compel that person to buy your product.
5. Headlines are all-important
You’ve probably read all the worn-out data about how many people read headlines, and how effective they are.
Believe it or not, the first data point on headlines came from the mouth of one of the first direct-response copywriters, David Ogilvy.
On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.
Ogilvy was the master of headlines. He believed in writing value-defined and customer-focused headlines. They were absolutely stellar.
The reason why he was able to popularize products was because he crafted the kinds of headlines that exploded in the customer’s mind, forcing them to pay attention and compelling them to buy.
