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Lately I have been having fun reading through the mails of Internet marketers.
“Do you really read them?” you ask. I hear you.
Normally I reach for the delete button. But now that the economy is bad and I have some time on hand, I thought I might as well read and do them a favor.
Few years ago, it would be enough just to insert someone’s first name at the beginning of a message using the mail merge feature of a word processing program and follow it up with a stock letter. The letter is deemed to have been personalized.
But not anymore.
I noticed how increasingly sophisticated these messages have become in persuading the reader to take actions such as:
- Giving your credit card number online
- Taking a survey
- Voicing your opinion
- Becoming a community member etc.
Some of them are quietly persuasive, others are outrageous in their claims attracting my attention, and yet others while under the garb of informing and educating me subtly convert me in to a buyer for their cause.
I wondered if there is a specific category under which these messages fall – written and fine-tuned with a target audience in mind.
It appears there is.
The book “Catalog copy that sizzles” by Herschell Gordon Lewis says there are as many as 14 different styles in which a product or service can be promoted given the target audience and context in mind.
Here ( at the end of this post) I have given details for only 4 of them (with the author’s own examples of promoting an imaginary hot sauce) followed by the real life promotions I have observed that fall in this category.
As for the rest, I recommend you read the book.
We have been pitched at by the governments, corporations, election candidates, charities ( some good, but many self serving), educational institutions, religious organizations while promoting their products, services or themselves. It is good to know which style their pitch fall in and raise our sheild to protect ourselves.
A sense of awareness helps avoid becoming a victim.
When someone is pitching like a pro, hit it like a pro.
| Category or style – with Author’s comments | Author’s examples | Real life promotions I have come across in my mail box |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Down Home: Author’s comments: Down Home can include straight talk without seeming preachy. The benefit of “Down-Home” copy: The readers feel the copy is aimed at them. |
My aunt Maria vacationed in Mexico and was so excited she phoned me. “I’ve found the hottest ‘Tex-Mex’ salsa ever tasted,” she said.”It’s wonderful. I bought a case, and I think you ought to have it in the catalog.” Aunt Maria isn’t often wrong, so we made an exclusive arrangement with the small Mexican company that makes “Hell-Fire Sauce.” If you’re brave…. or if you love real Mexican sauce … you have to get some. | I had an opportunity to sit down with Dr. Mike Woo- Ming, who I have known for several years. Dr. Mike was telling me about a software product that was the absolute coolest lead generation tool he had ever seen. My first inclination was to be skeptical.. VERY skeptical. Then he showed me the software. It is totally white hat. It does not use any gimmicks. And it can generate THOUSANDS of qualified leads each day! …. I think you will be very excited about it, as I am. |
| 2. Quietly Upscale Description: Author’s comments: The benefit of this style: copy technique itself suggests the advantage of buying and owning what’s being described and can sell when yells and screams can’t. |
For your next party, this unusually hot name can be the evening’s hottest topic of conversation. Hell-Fire isn’t for everybody. In fact, we don’t recommend its daily use because it makes every other sauce seem so tame… |
So, if the doors slammed shut last week before you could grab that spot you just know was meant for you… you have here one last brief, shining invitation from me to get involved. We’ll be closing the doors for good on this one-of-a-kind mentoring program at midnight tonight (Eastern Time, 9pm Pacific). Sooner, if the available spots get snatched early. |
| 3. Image All the Way: Author’s comments: “Image all the way” differs from “Quietly Upscale Descriptive” in its less subtle approach to exclusivity. |
If J.P.Morgan and John D. Rockfeller came to your home, they’d know whether to stay for the authentic Mexican dinner you’ve prepared. Hell-Fire on the table means genuine Tex-Mex on the palate. |
Here are some questions to ask yourself: • If, for one year, you were given the extraordinary privilege of being a “Fly-on- the-Wall,” in the office of Warren Buffet, how much would your wealth increase? • Could you become a multi- millionaire in that one-year period? • Are you generating less than 15% returns on your current investments? The secret of any successful enterprise is to be duplicate-able and repeat- able. The idea is to buy and sell property for a profit like McDonalds buys and sells hamburgers. There is your bumper harvest right there. First we will discuss developing a proper system that will do this for you. |
| 4. Narrative: Author’s comments: Narrative copy tells a story. Depending on the narrator’s storytelling expertise the reader is intrigued or turned off. |
In 1912 the Mexican bandit and folk hero Pancho Villa escaped to the United States. After his triumphant return in 1913 he formed the famous Division del Norte. One of prizes he brought across the border was a recipe for a salsa unlike any tasted before: “Hell-Fire” When Villa became the Governor of the state of Chihuahua, he served this unique hot sauce to his special guests at the dinner table. Now you can serve it to your special guests. |
After a few days, Hanson woke up with the phrase “Chicken Soup” in his mind. He didn’t understand until he remembered that his mom had always made him chicken soup when he was sick. After more contemplation, the final title was born: “Chicken Soup for the Soul”. Everybody he shared this title with got goose bumps almost instantly. ….. Hansen received over 33 rejection letters even though he was not an unknown in his field. In the following weeks, he was turned down by 134 more publishers. Finally, a small printing company agreed to take on the project if the authors agreed to buy the first 20,000 copies! |
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