In response to my “Long-form copy is finally dead” email yesterday, a reader named David wrote in:
So Gary is the Greatest “Living” Copywriter rn. And that’s great. I agree with you.
But I couldn’t help but wonder, if he dies (and I’m not wishing that he does), who’s going to become the Greatest?
I’m thinking top contenders are Stefan, Evaldo, Ferrari and Haddad.
But I have no clue what the metrics are for choosing these kind of things. It’s just a thought that ran across my mind.
Anyhow thank you for your emails. I enjoy my time reading them.
Rather than who will be the next greatest, I can think of a more interesting and useful question:
Why would any person not named Brian Kurtz possibly think that Gary Bencivenga is the “greatest living copywriter?”
After all, it’s not there in the copy. There’s no way to rank “copywriting greatness” by staring at a bunch of sales letters.
It’s also not about results. Again, unless you are Brian Kurtz, who had a chance to compare the sales made by Gary’s copy to that of some other copywriters, you have no direct knowledge of Gary’s results.
So what is it?
Well, if you’re anything like me, and I imagine David above, you believe Gary is so great…
Because you’ve heard people like Brian Kurtz say so…
… because you’ve heard of Gary’s farewell seminar, which cost something $5k to attend and which brought together 100 successful DR marketers and copywriters, people like Gary Halbert and John Carlton, to sit and listen to Gary for three days…
… because thanks to email newsletters like this one, you’ve heard Gary’s name mentioned a million times, often with the attached tag line, “greatest living copywriter.”
And if I had to speculate on the rather fruitless question of who the next greatest copywriter will be, I think it will be something similar. Just as something similar applies to you.
Whether you’re a copywriter or a marketer who sells on authority and personality… whether you’re self-employed or under somebody else’s thumb… whether you’re new at the game or been at it for a while…
Your positioning and ultimately your success are much less about any metrics you can point to, and much more about the legend that emerges around you, or that you create for yourself.
That might be something that’s worth thinking about.
I’ve done some thinking about it myself. And I’ve concluded that, at least for the moment, I’m not in the “being a legend” business.
That’s why I’m happy to contribute to Gary’s legend instead of building up my own.
As befitting Gary’s legend as “greatest living copywriter,” I put him first in my 10 Commandments of A-list Copywriters book.
If by some chance managed to miss or resist my continued attempts to sell you that $4.99 book, here’s where you can find it, along with Gary’s irresistible commandment: