copy writing

The standard AIDA Formula is still one of the most useful things in copywriting a person can learn, look at this result:

It’s probably the lowest effort to learn, yet highest impact concept:

Just remember “A.I.D.A” and you’ve got it memorized!

On one hand, this seems like a bad billboard….
❌ No description.
❌ Not obvious what the product is.

On the other hand, it got me to Google “Really . com” while pumping gas and looking at this thing….so maybe it worked!

Turns out it’s some sort of privacy-based phone service.

However if I was just driving by in my car and couldn’t Google this right away I doubt I’d care enough to look it up.

I loved this cool hover-over “Problem Explainer” on this site Retention.com

In a few hover-overs a reader will likely recognize a problem they have and think “oh I have that issue too.” 🧐

Just stating the problems your product solves in Plain English is very powerful.

This 1950’s Schweppes Ad is still one of my favorite old-school ads, there’s something very captivating about this to me:

I think there’s just several elements that draw you into this ad:

Love it!

Here’s a tough lesson I learned on our last email:

It got a 4% email open rate (that’s absurdly low), and we investigated what happened and it turns out:

I put a screenshot of our email intake form and linked it to a form, so Gmail viewed this as a fake form and phishing attempt.

Big lesson learned 🙄

One of my favorite marketing concepts is “The Slippery Slope” where you capture people’s attention, give them great content, then get them to take an action:

The absolute best way to get people down the Slippery Slope is by using the AIDA Formula:

It can step-by-step slide people down that Slippery Slope for you!

Checkout our post on the AIDA Formula you can see how to sell stuff, even stuff like a helicopter 😎

This is the exact letter that made Gary Halbert a millionaire in 1971.

It was one page, sealed in an envelope, selling them a “Coat of Arms” picture and report based on their last name, and it peaked at making 20,000 sales per day (and these were physical mail orders) 😮

This particular letter was sent to every “Macdonald” in the phone book across the United States:

For $2.00 (in 1971) this is what was sent back to you:

1.) A coat of arms picture of your family last name, you could then frame it if you liked. Like this (without the frame, it was just sent to you on paper):

2.) A small report explaining the coat of arms: (h/t to @eston_esau for taking this pic of this in his grandpa’s house)!