5) Presenting Critical Components

Yanik Silver’s basement was cluttered when he came up with his best OUTRAGEOUS idea for a scratch-and-dent sale.

Actually, it was his wife who came up with the idea … inadvertently. His wife, Missy, told him that he needed to get rid of the clutter in his basement. Thus, an idea for an OUTRAGEOUS online campaign was born.

Yanik is a friend of mine who sells educational resources—manuals, CDs, and DVDs—that provide information to online marketers. And, well, he had a basement full of great manuals, CDs, and DVDs—except they weren’t in perfect condition. Some of them had a bent corner; others had a crooked label; and some had been taken to a seminar to show as a sample. Whatever the reason, they could no longer be sold as in 100 percent perfect condition.

But the information that was contained in them was still in perfect condition and still very valuable. Unfortunately, they had accumulated over time and had filled up an entire big closet in his basement. So Yanik decided to try a new kind of campaign to get rid of them … an OUTRAGEOUS campaign.

Yanik, you see, is a great marketer, and we often share ideas back and forth. But at this one point, he simply outdid himself. Again, it was an idea grounded in truth. And it was a sequential campaign (see chapter 9).

First, he sent an e-mail asking his readers to simply do one thing: “I need your help to put me back into good graces with my wife.”

Check out the e-mail below:

Yanik Silver’s e-mail promoting his “SAVE YANIK’S MARRIAGE” Sale. You can see this in full color when you claim your FREE CD of many of the exhibits in this book by using the form on page 312.

You can see this in full color when you claim your FREE CD of many of the exhibits in this book by using the form on page 312.

Yanik’s wife really did want his basement cleared of clutter. This is absolutely true. So Yanik, being an OUTRAGEOUS-thinking entrepreneur, sent out this e-mail, which linked to a Web page containing a sales letter. This now allowed him to tell his entire story.

Yanik Silver’s sales letter promoting his “SAVE YANIK’S MARRIAGE” Sale. You can see this in full color when you claim your FREE CD of the exhibits in this book by using the form on page 312.

I love how this was a wild and memorable campaign that got attention and was OUTRAGEOUS plus OUTRAGEOUSLY successful. In fact, the sales letter sold everything that was in Yanik’s basement. I also love how it illustrates essential direct-response elements.

Look at the online advertisement again.

It works because Yanik used a lot of really great direct-response tools, but it also has what I have identified as three essential direct-response elements:

• A HEADLINE

• AN OFFER

• A DEADLINE

There is obviously a headline—an OUTRAGEOUS headline.

Help “Save Yanik’s Marriage” Sale

That makes you interested, and the photo makes it believable, and then there is the offer:

“Instead of just trashing these products or sending them back to the supplier (and letting them profit), I’ve decided to offer them to you at a significant discount.”

And a deadline. In this case, the deadline is not a date but the limited quantity of the items he has available:

“I suggest you act fast… the deals are only around until we run out of each item.”

Yanik Silver is a master marketer who has learned many tricks of the trade including the various ways to present direct-response elements. But he knows that it is important to include—and NEVER leave out—any of the three essential direct-response elements because together they cause recipients of your ads to respond.

In fact, each of the three essential direct-response elements can’t really stand alone. They must always be present and used together.

In Yanik’s case, they very effectively helped Yanik do exactly what he needed to—clean out his clutter. Of course Yanik’s marriage wasn’t really in trouble, but that doesn’t matter because no one reading it would actually think that anyway. However, seeing the clutter gives you a sense of how Yanik’s wife might feel about all his accumulated stuff.

Yet it needed more than a photo to tell the story.

Now let’s take a more in-depth look at the three essential direct-response elements.

essential direct-response element #1: headlines

The headline is the most important part of any advertisement. It is often referred to as the advertisement to the advertisement. Think about it. When you are skimming a newspaper, magazine, Web site, direct mail piece, etc., what’s the first thing you look at? The headline, of course! It’s the thing that will either grab your attention and make you find out more about the ad or cause you to say to yourself, “Not interested,” and move on.

A great headline needs to answer one (or all) of the following:

• Who cares?

• What’s in it for ME?

• Why are you bothering me?

• So what?

For example, here’s an example of a bad headline:

“50% OFF SALE”

The above headline doesn’t really answer any of the four questions on our list above, plus it’s boring and overused. Now here’s an example of how I took the message of the headline above and turned it into a very good headline for a furniture store:

“Who Else Wants to QUICKLY & EASILY Discover How You Can Save HALF OFF On All Your Furniture Purchases Before April 27th?”

Of course there’s nothing wrong with getting OUTRAGEOUS with your headlines and having a little fun with them. Here’s an example of how I took the same message and created an OUTRAGEOUSLY successful headline:

“Oh Momma – get out the smelling salts!! When you find out you can buy all of your furniture at HALF PRICE from now until April 27th, the shock will probably send you right into a dead faint.”

Which one of the above three headlines do you think earned the best response?

Of course, the third one got the best response. After all, it’s OUTRAGEOUS!!!

Therefore, the headline is your first impression and maybe your only impression unless you get it right. So get it right. Getting someone to say, “Gee, I want to read the rest” is the goal of the headline.

headlines for all kinds of advertising

If it’s an advertisement of any kind, it needs a headline. It doesn’t just have to be a direct mail piece, magazine ad, newspaper ad, or a Web page. It can be a billboard, a sign in your business, a radio ad, or any kind of media for that matter.

Let’s look at a radio advertisement for example. The headline needs to be the very first thing that you hear. Although it’s not in print so you can see it, it’s the headline. It’s the thing that makes you stop and say to yourself, “I have to listen to the rest of this,” the same way that a headline in print has to make you want to read the rest of it.

essential direct-response element #2: the offer

People will only respond to your advertisement for one of two reasons: either fear of loss or personal gain. What does this mean?

Well, either they will lose out by not responding or they will gain something by responding. When crafting your offer, you always want to ask yourself the following question:

“What will my prospects or customers lose if they don’t respond or gain if they respond to my offer?”

This is a critical concept that will help you immensely when crafting an offer. Now don’t think that you always have to sell at a discount when crafting your offer as Yanik did with his “SAVE YANIK’S MARRIAGE” Sale.

While most people tend to offer a discount when conducting a sale, this is not always necessary. For example, think about when Nike introduces a new shoe. Nobody sells them initially at a discount. All they have to do is advertise that a new supply will be arriving on Tuesday, and people will stand in line all night for the chance to buy a pair at whatever price.

This is a great example of a “fear-of-loss” offer.

essential direct-response element #3: deadlines

I’m going to reveal to you something about myself. I’m a procrastinator. I will ALWAYS put off until tomorrow what I don’t have to do today.

Guess what else? So are you. Yes, YOU’RE a procrastinator.

How do I know?

I know because just about every person is a procrastinator. That’s human nature. And that, quite simply, is why deadlines were invented.

In fact, my friend and professional copywriter John Carlton says that if it weren’t for deadlines, nothing would ever get done.

So every ad that you send out must always have a deadline in order to get people to take action. While there are many ways to have deadlines, there are two that are most commonly used.

The first one is a deadline by a specific date or time. In order to take advantage of the offer, you must respond by a certain date.

The other one is a deadline by limited quantity. For example, as I mentioned above, this is the kind of deadline that Yanik used in his “SAVE YANIK’S MARRIAGE” Sale. There were only a limited number of items in the closet in his basement.

I like to use both of these deadlines in my OUTRAGEOUS advertising, and I’ve been even known to combine both of them to put added pressure on “us” procrastinators.

Here are two more important points about deadlines:

• When using a deadline by date, you have to be very careful not to give people too long to respond.

• When using a deadline by limited quantity, be careful not to appear to have too large of quantity available.

Remember, if the procrastinators—that’s everyone—think there’s no hurry in responding, they won’t hurry. They will probably just figure they have a lot of time or there’s plenty there … and probably never take advantage of your offer.

For example, years ago I did some consulting with a menswear chain that was owned by a father and his two sons.

When I first looked at their advertisements, I noticed that their deadlines were approximately two months long and were hidden in their ads with what I call four-point invisible type. This is type that’s so small that you can easily miss it, and if you do notice it, you’d have to have a magnifying glass to read it.

On my insistence, they reluctantly agreed to test a two-week deadline for their offers and put the deadlines in their headlines. This made all of the difference in the world. We made the exact same offer as before, but now their customers had to respond quickly or would lose out.

Conversely, a furniture store owner who has been to several of my seminars uses deadlines of only four hours in his stores, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in response. Talk about creating a sense of urgency. Once the word got out, the people showed up ready to buy.

Some of the very best promotions that I ran in my menswear stores were only for four days. Forcing a procrastinator to take action is always a good idea.

Now, let me show you a couple of examples of how these three essential direct-response elements work together.

the gage million-dollar-bill mailer

One thing that gets interest is money—especially the image of a “million bucks.”

So one year at my menswear store, we sent out a letter with a headline asking, “Who Else Wants to Look Like a MILLION BUCKS? … And slash their wardrobe costs IN HALF!”

Plus we printed a million-dollar bill at the top of the letter.

You can see this in full color when you claim your FREE CD of the exhibits in this book by using the form on page 312.

Obviously, the combination of a HEADLINE with a big promise and the visual of a million-dollar bill will cause you to stop and see what this is all about. So, the headline—the ad for the ad—did its job.

Now the OFFER is an additional 10 percent OFF YOUR ENTIRE PURCHASE, and you are first introduced to it right up in the subhead. This is important. It’s best when it’s easy to find and you don’t have to search for it.

Finally the DEADLINE is in handwritten font right below the offer. Once again, you don’t want to hide the deadline and make people have to search for it.

canfield’s sporting goods advertorial

My favorite type of newspaper ad to run is an advertorial. This is an ad deliberately designed to look like news or something from the editorial department.

In fact, here’s a dirty little secret that the newspapers don’t want you to know. Advertorials, when properly and cleverly written, will typically receive triple the readership of newspaper and magazine display ads.

The reason advertorials receive triple readership is that people buy newspapers and magazines for news, and advertorials look just like news.

The best marketers understand this. Jack Canfield, who owns a sporting goods store in Omaha, Nebraska, certainly understands. Jack is a serious student of OUTRAGEOUS advertising, having studied both Dan Kennedy and myself for many years. He creates great OUTRAGEOUS advertising.

So when Angie Michaels, who designs her own exclusive line of fishing gear—FISHHER—for women, was on a tour bringing her line of gear to a sporting goods store in Omaha, Nebraska, Jack’s store ran an OUTRAGEOUS advertorial promoting her appearance.

You can see this in full color when you claim your FREE CD of the exhibits in this book by using the form on page 312.

Immediately, you see what appears to be an actual newspaper story—especially from the layout and the appearance of the headline and photo.

Examining the ad closer, you see that the HEADLINE really mimics a real newspaper’s headline, so it will grab your attention.

It reads:

Frustrated Female Angler Lands Big Idea by Offering Fishing Products and Accessories Just for Women

Let’s face it; if you’re a female who likes to fish, you have to read on. This ad does a great job of “flagging” the ideal person to read this right away.

So what’s the OFFER? After all, there’s no discount of her products, is there?

No!

Her offer is the opportunity to see ALL of her thirty products that she manufactures—all at one time. This is a great example of making an offer without discounting.

Of course the DEADLINE should be obvious. She will only be appearing in person one day (April 28th) and for only five hours (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.).

the automotive training institute advertorial

The Automotive Training Institute (ATI) is the largest provider of business coaching services in the U.S. for independently owned auto repair shops. They use several methods to get new clients including direct mail, telemarketing, tele-seminars, and magazine ads. They also use advertorials.

When I first began working with them, they were buying quite a few full-page ads in their industry trade magazines. None of them were generating any appreciable kind of response, and they certainly weren’t paying for themselves.

After I looked at them, the answer of why they weren’t working was obvious. Their ads looked like all of the other ads in magazines. In other words, brand-building ads … Ughh!!!

So, I wrote several ads for them. Of course they were my favorite kind of magazine ads—advertorials.

First I interviewed several of their clients and received some great information about how each of their own auto repair businesses grew from the coaching they were receiving from ATI.

The ads actually were a long-form testimonial, which you’ll be learning a lot more about in chapter 7.

When I delivered my first advertorial to Chris “Chubby” Frederick, the owner of ATI, he showed it to many of the key people in his organization, and they all hated it.

He later told me that when he heard they hated it, he knew it was a winner.

On the following page is the advertorial that I wrote for ATI.

Clearly the first thing that jumps at you in this ad is the HEADLINE.

EXPOSED.

Now I didn’t create this headline; I first saw it used nearly ten years ago in an ad that Dan Kennedy wrote. I’m not sure if he first created it; it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that it works.

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you first see this headline and the subhead beneath it that reads:

Auto Repair Shop Owner Speaks Out and Reveals the Raw Truth About That

You can see this in full color when you claim your FREE CD of the exhibits in this book by using the form on page 312.

“Management Consultant,” Chubby Frederick, Who Advertises in This Magazine All the Time

You’re probably thinking 60 Minutes or 20/20—where a company is being exposed for some wrongdoing.

Then you find out a client of the owner, Steve Craven—whose picture we see—is “exposing” Frederick as a consultant who really can help auto repair shop owners increase car count by 33 percent. This headline is effective in raising curiosity, especially in a newspaper or magazine format.

What’s the OFFER? It’s a free report entitled “WHAT 99% OF ALL OWNERS DON’T KNOW ABOUT AND WILL NEVER FIND OUT ABOUT MAKING 20-30% CASH PROFIT IN THEIR AUTO REPAIR SHOP.”

Does this sound familiar? It should! The title of the free report is just another headline that’s written in a way that answers one of the four headline questions that I revealed earlier in this chapter.

Next, let’s move to the DEADLINE.

The deadline? Um, uh … Where is it?

In the interest of full disclosure, I goofed. The truth is that sometimes you, like me, may not get everything perfect. And in this ad, I forgot to put in a deadline. Even though this ad was hugely successful, I’m sure it would have earned an even better response with a deadline.

In hindsight, I would have probably made the free report available to the first eighty-seven people who called, stating that ATI only printed up a very limited quantity.

the gage menswear placemat letter

Remember the placemat mailing I showed you in chapter 4? Well now I want to show you what was written on the back of the placemat that brought hundreds of customers into my stores.

When I held a sale at my retail stores, Gage Menswear, I would write headlines that tried to always go one step further. So while most stores conducted a similar type of sale like, “Rock-Bottom Prices,” I wrote my HEADLINE so it really grabbed attention:

Announcing the GAGE MENSWEAR ROCK-BOTTOM PRICES FINAL REDUCTIONS SALE You DON’T want to miss and That OTHER men’s stores won’t want you to Find out about!!

That’s a headline that answers the questions I posed to you earlier in this chapter. And it does one more thing. It creates huge curiosity.

You can see this in full color when you claim your FREE CD of the exhibits in this book by using the form on page 312.

Think about it. You just received a placemat in the mail with a coffee stain on it, and when you open it up, you see this letter from the owner with this curiosity-provoking headline on it.

You’ve just got to find out what this is all about. No wonder this was OUTRAGEOUSLY successful.

But of course we can’t just stop here. It still needs to contain all three of the essential direct-response elements we’ve talked about in this chapter.

So, let’s tackle the OFFER first. In this case, the offer is up to 70 percent OFF all current-season inventory—and then I illustrated it with five different examples.

Why did I illustrate it? Because people are very skeptical of sales, and they are suspicious of percentage discounts. They like to see what the prices are in dollars and cents.

The DEADLINE is front and center in the subhead: (but only until February 17th). The deadline is there to be seen—immediately.

Sizzling Outrageous Summation

1) The three crucial elements of all ads are a headline, an offer, and a deadline.

2) All ads, no matter the media, have headlines.

3) Use winning headlines as templates to create your own (see appendix for 100 best headlines list).

4) People only respond because of fear of loss or personal gain.

5) Deadlines force action…keep them as short as possible.