Your reader is often better at creating stories for themselves than you are at creating stories for them. Ugh… There’s a chewy sentence! Hardly the most engaging, right? So, thanks if did you chew through it and got to this one. Indeed, despite that sentence being a total mouthful, I do think it’s the most […]
The local shop in my village has finally figured out the perfect marriage of impulse purchase and value. There I am… Waiting for the assistant to pack my stuff and ring it through the register… And I notice them… Four Kit Kats for £1. I know I shouldn’t. But four… FOUR… for just £1. That’s […]
As I sit on the terrace of the Royal Festival Hall on London’s Southbank and watch the sun set on a very pleasant evening in the City… My thoughts turn to you. Yes, you, dear reader, my fellow copywriter in arms. I know, I know. I should be thinking about the cold beer on the […]
You can’t prove that your exciting new product works before you’ve proved that it’s exciting in the first place. Think about that. Because it’s a flaw with long direct response copy that I see over and over. Too soon a copywriter will start trying to prove a product works before they’ve proved to the reader that they should be […]
It’s been a while… But I’m glad to be back in touch today with a very exciting opportunity for you. As you may know, for many years now I’ve worked with a company called Agora. For those who don’t know about Agora – it’s an international publishing business that was built out of the direct mail days of old by […]
16
Oct
Oct
Hurrah! I’ve finally got a chance to relax and take the time to say hello. More than that, I want to share some thoughts that I’ve been having since I attended a writing retreat in France last month. But before I do anything… I should apologise: I’ve been out of action for a little while. […]
The North of England is a wonderful place… I write to you today from a pleasant pub on the Heaton Moor Road just outside of Manchester. The taxi from the station cost less than the minimum fare in a London cab… The beer is brought to my table with plenty of change from a fiver… And people […]
Imagine you’re living a roguish life as a bank robber in the Wild West… You drift from town to town ‘sticking-up’ the local bank… You’re damn good at it too. Just yesterday you moseyed on in, stuck your gun in the bank teller’s face and delivered your usual “this is a stick-up” line. The teller knew the […]
16
Aug
Aug
I was recently asked to do an interview by a young guy in Germany who’s looking to start his own online Internet marketing business. Me: Catching some sun on the Seine in Paris. As I’m grateful to the many people who accept my own interview requests, I happily agreed to spare an hour to take […]
If you work in copywriting, there’s probably a copy of The Copywriter’s Handbook somewhere near you… Maybe it’s in that drawer you’ve not checked for a while… or hidden on the shelf between the Ogilvy, Hopkins and Schwartz… heck, it might be right next to you, acting as a coaster. Point is: this book is everywhere. And so it should be. You see, its author […]