Copywriting and creativity lessons from a B.S. photographer

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I took a 6-hour bus ride today, and sitting in front of me was a very alert Argentinian male.

He had a little digital camera with him — my guess is it was 15 years old — and he took dozens or possibly hundreds of pictures during our trip together.

Most of these photos were of the side of the highway — a blur of bushes and trees.

Occasionally, he would hold the camera above his head and take a picture of the inside of the bus.

And at one point, a rival bus pulled up to us, and he took multiple shots of the sleeping Chinese tourists inside it.

The entire ride was hot and long and I was irritated.

So each time the Argentinian man took another B.S. photo, I wondered what he will do with all these uninteresting, blurry, low-resolution photos.

But what do I know?

Perhaps he is a designer or a movie editor or a cartoonist.

And maybe when he needs graphical inspiration, he opens up a random blurry photo he took while traveling through eastern Europe, and this stimulates a creative new idea for him.

After all, I do something very similar, only with words and ideas. I keep lots of lists:

Of marketing lessons (“Put your strongest proof first”)…

Of entertaining stories (“Man-tax cafe set to close”)…

Of unique phrases (“Hit the sawdust trail”)…

Of memorable characters from books, movies, and TV shows (“Majikthise and Vroomfondel”)…

And of interesting facts (“Color blindness was only noticed in 1794”).

Then, when I sit down to write one of these emails — or any other piece of copy — I have a ton of material to jog my lazy creative mechanism.

This process also naturally makes my own voice and opinions come through — because these are my own bizarre stories and observations, or facts that caught my own jaded attention.

It might work for you as well if you start collecting your own lists today. And if you’re looking for more ways to come up with good sales copy — specifically emails — check out the following:

Last chance to send $1

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Legend says that, once upon a time, in various Midwestern states, an enterprising carny pitchman took out ads in local newspapers that read:

LAST CHANCE TO SEND $1
to PO Box 210, 60611 Chicago, IL

There was no reason given why the reader should send in $1 or whether he would get anything for it.

And yet, the ad supposedly drew in many dollar bills before the postal service guys caught on and put a stop to it.

The great 20th-century copywriter Vic Schwab called this ad an example of how effrontery can be successful in advertising. Other people claim it simply shows how gullible and sheep-like the masses are.

I personally like this little ad because it’s got so much going on in it. In just a few words, it conveys:

1. Urgency
2. Specificity
3. A clear call to action

And these three ingredients were enough to draw money in. A success that many other ads don’t achieve.

Which makes me think that, often, all the stuff copywriters agonize over is only giving people reasons not to buy.

And it reminds me of an important truth I read today, from another great 20th-century copywriter, Robert Collier:

“It is not the copy that counts so much as the scheme back of it.”

Speaking of the scheme back of this post:

I am officially done with my 3-week trip around the US and I’m back to work.

Only, what with continuing projects, with work that built up while I was traveling, and with a few new clients coming in, I’m almost booked up for the month of June.

Which means that, if you want me to write sales copy for you in June, now is your last chance to get in touch and see if I would indeed be good to write for you (I most likely won’t be).

To find out, simply send me a postcard to PO Box 210, 60611 Chicago, IL. Or alternately, write me an email at john@bejakovic.com.

Memorial Day master lessons with Tony Robbins

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“Instead of your spirit animal, what is your spirit plant?”
“Rhododendron. Requires very specific conditions, but even when those conditions are met, it is unlikely to thrive.”
– Reddit user fhost344

As I was riding through the streets of New York today, I noticed how calm the city looked.

It’s Memorial Day, and most people have the day off and are taking it easy.

And since it’s such a calm and reflective day, I wanted to share some deep and reflective stuff with you.

It’s a fraction of a 13-year-old Ted talk given by Tony Robbins.

Says Tony, there are two master lessons in life.

One is the science of achievement.

That’s what most of us focus on all the time: “How do you make your dreams happen? Your business, your contribution to society, money — whatever, your body, your family.”

The second is the art of fulfillment.

That, according to Tony, is about appreciation and contribution.

And like the rhododendron fail-to-thriver above, many of us don’t do too much about this second master lesson, even if we have all the resources we might want or need.

The point being, its never too early to start thinking about how to appreciate, enjoy yourself, and give back. These aren’t things you should wait to do until you achieve some massive level of success.

Of course, if you are like me, then mastering the art of fulfillment won’t come too easy…

And it might take time.

That’s why you might as well get started on it now.

So no pitch from me for today.

But in case you want a whirlwind overview of the magical world of success and fulfillment, courtesy of Tony Robbins, here’s the link to that Ted talk:

The Red Shoe Diaries advertorial structure

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A man, his heart broken after a tragic love affair, is searching for answers.

So he puts out an ad in the newspaper:

“Looking for women who keep a secret diary. I want to know your stories of love, passion, and betrayal. Write me at PO Box 903, New York, NY, 10276.”

For some reason, week after week, a new letter arrives in response to this ad.

The man goes to the postal box, picks up the letter, and then, walking along desolate train tracks with his dog, he starts to read a new story of love, passion, and betrayal.

So opens each episode of the 90s erotic TV show Red Shoe Diaries. (The forlorn man was played by a young David Duchovny, before he starred in the X-Files and Californication.)

I bring this up not because I am reminiscing about my adolescent days and the significance that an occasional TV nipple had in my life.

Instead, I want to tell you about a successful advertorial I wrote recently.

This advertorial is for a pet safety product (I won’t say exactly what as a courtesy to my clients, because the campaign is still running profitably).

While I was doing research for this advertorial, I came across lots of horror stories that all tied into the product.

Any one of these stories would have made a good lead for the advertorial.

And I was sorry to let any of the stories go.

So what I did was a kind of Red Shoe Diaries structure.

I opened with one horror story, told in the first person by the purported author of the advertorial.

But then, rather than moving into other sales arguments, I told other horror stories, one after the other.

And to do this, I brought in a kind of David Duchovny narrator (in this case, a police officer who showed up to the scene of the original horror story).

This narrator reeled off 2 or 3 more horror stories.

Now, I can’t say for certain, but I believe this multi-story structure is one of the main reasons this advertorial has been so successful to cold Facebook traffic.

In case you are selling something that lends itself to lots of good — i.e. chilling — stories, maybe you’ll find this approach valuable.

And if you want to get me to research and write up such an advertorial for your product, then hit reply, write me a sultry yet short email, and we can take it from there.

You’re okay, I’m about to stew in Old Bay

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I got myself in a bit of a pickle today.

That’s because yesterday, I wrote about smart and effective ways that marketers can use reciprocity to get their prospects’ trust.

I didn’t spell out what those ways were, so I invited people to write in if they wanted to know what I had in mind.

And a few people did exactly that.

Only one problem.

While I had vague ideas of effective reciprocity that I’ve seen in marketing, I hadn’t really thought deeply about this issue.

And I certainly didn’t have a list of such strategies prepared and ready to share.

This was weighing on me earlier today.

I was starting to get more nervous than a crab next to a pot of boiling water and a can of Old Bay Seasoning.

So to take my mind off this troubling situation, I put on a lesson from a course by negotiation expert Jim Camp.

This lesson talked about one of the pillars of Jim Camp’s negotiation philosophy:

The idea that everybody wants to “be okay.”

This means feeling comfortable.

And the main way we humans do this is by being a little more okay than the other person.

So if you want to make people feel okay, you can do so by being “unokay” — by revealing your mistakes, uncertainties, or foibles.

Once you trust your adversaries — or prospects — in this way, they will begin to let their guard down…

Start to trust you a little more in turn…

And look for ways to help you out.

This is powerful stuff. And in my experience, it works very well.

Unfortunately, it’s also something I have to constantly remind myself of.

Because my first instinct is to try to impress everyone with my smarts, my preparedness, or my skills.

Anyways, perhaps you can see where I’m going with this. And maybe you will get some use out of it.

For now, if you want to get some copy written, and you’re not too bothered by my occasional unpreparedness, then write me an email and we can talk.

Are you Joe Hepp to the real con game?

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Yesterday, a friend and I spent a lot of time tracking down the phrase “Joe Hepp.”

It appears in A House of Games, a David Mamet film about con men.

“Are you Joe Hepp?” is apparently an old circus saying that means, “Are you a know-it-all?” It later morphed into, “Are you hep?” — meaning “are you in the know?” — and later hip, hippy, hipster, etc.

But here’s something you might find more interesting.

It’s the etymology of another phrase from A House of Games. It comes up when the main con man, Mike, talks about what a con game really is.

It’s short for confidence game, says Mike.

You might have already known that.

But do you know why it’s called a confidence game?

Not because the con man gains your confidence in order to cheat you. Instead, it’s because he gives you his confidence. And this makes you trust him, and makes you susceptible for manipulation and persuasion.

In other words, it’s the old reciprocity principle from Robert Cialdini’s book Influence.

Except, not as it’s applied in the lame and ineffective way of most marketers (“If I bombard my prospects with free pdfs and hard-teaching emails, then they will feel obliged to eventually buy from me”).

No.

There are much better, more subtle, and more effective ways to apply reciprocity — AKA the con game — to copywriting and marketing.

I won’t lay them out here.

But if you’d like to know what I have in mind, you might find some answers here:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

7 reasons NOT to date your copywriting clients

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I saw the following thread today in the Ask Men subreddit:

“If you really like a girl, what are some reasons you wouldn’t date her?”

Reading through the top responses, I realized many of these reasons apply, in slightly modified form, to dating your copywriting clients as well:

#1. “Not willing to discuss issues we’ve had”

Some clients I’ve had never shared the results of campaigns I worked on for them. Was a time, when I happily kept working for these clients, just for the money.

Not so any more.

Today, a big part of what I get from any new copywriting project is the opportunity to learn and improve — and getting feedback in the form of sales results is a major part of that.

#2. “Different stages in life”

I’m in a kind of settled, “middle age” period in my little copywriting career.

This means I prefer to work with boring, established, successful businesses that are already making sales.

I would be unlikely to get involved with the uncertainty and stress — or if you prefer, excitement — that comes with most young, hungry, no-name startups.

#3. “Deep debt, unwillingness to work”

If a client is not doing well financially, and if they are hoping my copywriting will save the day, I silently pivot on my heel and run in the opposite direction.

#4. “She lives 8 hours away. By airplane”

I’ve had long-term clients from all over the world, from New Zealand to Thailand to the UK to California.

So physical distance in a client relationship doesn’t bother me.

But I do still need a bit of love and regular interaction, at least in the form of timely replies to questions I send and requests for info I make.

#5. “She doesn’t want to date me”

Why chase clients who don’t want to work with me — when there’s so much demand for good copywriting out there?

#6. “My wife would be pissed”

There were times when I was working with several clients at the same time who could be considered competition to each other.

None of them has ever been jealous or tried to keep me all to themselves.

That said, if I did date a copywriting client long-term, and they asked me not to work with a specific competitor of theirs, it’s something I would consider doing.

#7. “Mismatch of core values: religion, etc.”

Some businesses out there are outright scams, selling shoddy or harmful products.

Others prey on segments of the population — gambling addicts, for example — who cannot make anything close to a rational decision.

I don’t work with these kinds of clients, because I feel that there are plenty of ways to get rich by selling something that gives value to the buyer instead of making them worse off.

And there you have it:

7 reasons NOT to date an otherwise attractive girl…

And 7 reasons I choose NOT to write copy for some otherwise attractive clients.

Now, if you have a business and you found yourself on the list above, then odds are slim we will work together.

And if you did not recognize yourself on the list above, but you are looking for sales copy and you think you might want to work with me, then write me an email and we can schedule a lightning-fast first date to get to know each other a bit better.

Why you should ignore your competition

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True story:

Two entrepreneurs started two similar businesses, selling cubic zirconia (aka synthetic diamonds) by mail.

The first guy ran a well-written ad in the LA Times and sold a bunch of one-karat fake diamonds.

After all expenses were covered, he made a profit of around $3,000.

Disgusted with this small payout, guy number one folded shop and moved on to a new opportunity.

Guy two also ran an ad in the LA Times.

His ad was not as well written, and though it pulled some sales, the end result was about a $10,000 loss once all the expenses were counted.

However, guy two did not exit the market.

Instead, he mailed out his fake diamonds in a fancy wooden box with a letter that said (I’m paraphrasing),

“Look at your beautiful one-karat diamond in its beautiful box. Doesn’t it have a fiery brilliance? Oh and by the way, in case it’s smaller than you expected, we do also offer five- and ten-karat stones. And if you like, just return this beautiful but tiny diamond and we will credit its value to your purchase of a bigger rock.”

Guy two rode this fancy-wooden-box-plus-upsell-letter approach to a $25 million business — in the first year alone.

I heard this story in a talk given by Jay Abraham. And I was reminded of it today, when I read an article written by marketer Sean D’Souza.

I think Sean’s article is valuable reading for anybody who’s interested in building a successful and lasting building online — rather than just looking for a one-time opportunity with a quick payout. It might also be valuable reading for copywriters who put a lot of stock in swipe files.

In case either of these sounds like you, then here’s the link to read the full story:

https://www.psychotactics.com/ignore-your-competition/

Silent stories run deep

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Yesterday, I walked into an unfamiliar room and got naked.

I took a warm shower, tiptoed over to a large, clam-like apparatus, and climbed in.

I closed the clam shell behind myself.

All around me was warm, salty water and complete darkness and silence.

I was in an isolation (or sensory deprivation) tank.

For the next hour or so, I lay there in the darkness, waiting for the visions to start.

At least, that’s what I’d read would happen. I got this idea from Paddy Chayefsky’s novel Altered States, in which a scientist starts experimenting with sensory deprivation and psychedelic drugs, and winds up transforming into an ape-like creature who runs amok in Central Park.

The story in the book is less kooky than this quick summary makes it sound.

And kooky or not, this story was enough to make “sensory deprivation” something I very much wanted to try.

Which is a lesson to keep in mind if you are trying to convince people of anything — particularly anything unusual, or something they might not know they want.

Just consider:

Had I read a sales letter, an advertorial, or a blog post with a headline like, “How to induce safe, drug-free hallucinations,” odds are the message would have just bounced off me.

In the best case, it might have gotten me interested, but it would have caused all sorts of objections and doubts to pop up as well.

But a story, in an obscure novel from 40 years ago, was enough to get me to seek out a “float” halfway around the world, without inquiring about the price, safety, or effectiveness of this experience.

And this all happened without even a call to action. Speaking of which:

If you are selling something to an “unaware” audience, and you want to try a story-based approach in your sales emails, then you might find some valuable pointers here:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

How to outguess “America’s greatest copywriter” for $100

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During his famous farewell seminar in 2006, Gary Bencivenga ran a “Pick The Winner” contest.

He’d show two different headlines or magalog covers and ask the audience to choose which one did better in a direct test. (Example: “HE PROVED IT to millions on PBS television…” vs. “Deadly artery plaque dissolved!”)

The interesting thing was that Gary himself admitted he wasn’t good at picking among these competing headlines.

Let me repeat this:

Gary Bencivenga, who has been called “America’s greatest copywriter,” admitted he can’t pick a winning headline from two solid but very different appeals.

​​So what hope do you have?

And if you can’t even hope to pick out a winning headline, how can you write a good ad?

After all, the headline often determines whether the rest of your ad will get a reading at all.

Before I answer this, let me switch gears for a second. And let me tell you about an interesting bit of research I came across in psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow.

Kahneman and another psychologist, Gary Klein, had very different attitudes about expert intuitions (such as the ability of a top copywriter to pick a winning headline).

Gary Klein was all for expert intuition.

He studied decision making among firefighters, and he had many reports of how firefighters would make gut calls that turned out to be the right call.

Kahneman, on the other hand, didn’t believe much in the power of expert intuition.

That’s because he spent his time looking at decision making in fields such as finance, where he found that expert intuition was often negatively correlated to the actual outcome. (In other words, once you hear what an expert stock broker advises, you should do the exact opposite.)

So Kahneman and Klein decided to collaborate and answer the following:

When can you trust experts? And how can you develop expert intuition that you can rely on?

It turns out there are two conditions.

First, the domain needs to be predictable enough. Emergency room cases are predictable — but the stock market is not.

Second, you need an opportunity to get feedback, and preferably a lot of feedback, relatively quickly.

So let’s get back to writing copy.

Looking at the two criteria above, you can see why even a top copywriter like Gary B. might not have great intuition when it comes to picking headline winners.

Even if you think an individual market (say, the market for weight loss advice in 2019) is more or less predictable…

It’s hard to get enough feedback on what the market would respond to if all you’ve got is one direct mailing every six months, like Gary used to have.

Fortunately, that’s not the situation we’re in any longer.

With $100, you can promote an offer on a PPC network like Google display, and perform dozens of different (and statistically valid) copy tests.

This way, you can get almost immediate feedback.

You can learn which appeals work.

Plus you will start to develop a world-class copy intuition, which will soon outstrip even great copy masters from earlier generations.

Which goes back to something I read from another top copywriter, Dan Ferrari:

“Winning at direct response is mostly a matter of taking as many swings as possible. The C-level marketers that test 50 promos per year will beat the A-list marketers that test 5. Over longer periods of time, as variability compounds, this will become even more pronounced.”

Anyways, maybe this is valuable if you’re looking to write good copy.

And if you want to see some “Pick The Winner” contests I’ve run with several email lists I manage, you might like the following:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/