Otis Regrets... or not

Thinking outside the “Johnson Box”

The Johnson box is named for Frank Johnson, who popularized it as a promotional writer for Time-Life books in the 1950s. In an era where most direct mail letters had the appearance of being typewritten, it would be above the salutation, usually centered, and surrounded by a row of asterisks at top and bottom and a line of asterisks down each side—in other words, a box.

Johnson box and intro of sub letter for Great American Recipes

The Johnson box has its equivalent in almost every HTML email today which, in addition to body text, usually has a graphic at the top and some kind of sidebar which is visible in the preview window. In print, it’s morphed into the “superscript”—a statement above the salutation in an attention-getting font that might be next to the address in a personalized letter, or even in the middle of the page with copy wrapped around it. The purpose in every case is to give the reader multiple entry points to increase the odds they will engage with the message.

The classic use of the Johnson box is to summarize the content of the letter—including the key marketing message, the offer and the call to action—in a paragraph. That way a busy reader needs read no further.

But I like to use Johnson boxes as a counterpoint—since your letter has two openings, they can be as different as you want them to be and the reader can decide which to read first. A good example is a letter in a package I did with Carol Worthington Levy for Great American Recipes, a continuity program that starts by sending a “gift” of several sample cards and a box to put them in. The Johnson box is all about the offer… but then I am able to squander the first three paragraphs of the letter without even mentioning the product. This was very useful because what we were really selling was the nostalgic experience of using the recipes. The package became Great American Recipes’ first non-sweepstakes control.

These days letters tend to have multiple calls to action (a URL and a phone number, plus maybe fax and mail-back instructions) which can swamp a Johnson box. So I’ll concentrate on one key element of the offer and then provide an abbreviated CTA. My control letter for Online Trading Academy does this. We tell readers they’re going to “learn the secrets of professional traders” and that this an exclusive, invitation-only event, and we’re done.

Herschell Gordon Lewis in one of his books provides an example of another use of the Johnson box: to incite curiosity. A subscription offer for Cat Fancy magazine starts with a quiz about cats. If the purpose of the letter is to engage the reader in a dialog, why not start at the top? A similar application is any letter or email that’s going to offer a series of numbered “rules” or “questions”. Pull out one example (always from the middle, never item #1) and use that to tease the reader into wondering what other secrets you have for them. E.g. “Rule #6: never drink water on an airplane unless you see the can it was poured from.”

You can tell I’m a big fan of superscripts/Johnson boxes, but they aren’t appropriate for every letter. Don’t use them for a very short letter which is meant to be consumed as one gulp. And since these devices immediately brand your message as advertising, they aren’t appropriate if you want to make the letter look very personal or formal. (Although there are exceptions, as always: the Online Trading Academy letter is supposed to be very exclusive, but it gets away with its superscript by using the fancy typeface of an engraved invitation.)

Excerpted from my new book, Copywriting that Gets RESULTS! Get your copy here.

Just die, Borders

Remember Borders? Several months ago they were a nationwide chain of bookstores where you could browse, cozy up with a cup of coffee, and discover a new author while listening to music or even a live reading.

My own Borders was one of the first scheduled for closing, and they’ve been gone for maybe four months. Like a zombie or a hand from the grave, my Borders Rewards membership kept reminding me of new offers which were no longer relevant until finally I clicked the CAN-SPAM link and killed it.

But today the corpse is risen anew. Some special set of rules allows the liquidators to send my email address a message that says:

Borders Rewards Perks has partnered with OO.com to ensure that you have access to your account, including your WOWPoints…

Your WOWPoints will be honored. They will be moved to OO.com over the next 30 days. Once there, you can use them just as you do now.

Um, no. I had a relationship with Borders, but I am not interested in you new guys whoever you are. Why is it so difficult to take a national brand with huge loyalty and do something for the customers which is also profitable when things go bad?

Just askin….

How to write a white paper

White papers, properly executed, are the gold standard for a specific type of marketing in which you convince prospects that they should do business with you because you know so much. Professional white paper writers abound in Silicon Valley and other tech-heavy territories and they typically charge $10,000 and up to write a document that ends up as 10 or more dense 8 ½ x 11 inch pages. But the rest of us may be called upon to write a white paper as part of a larger assignment for a client, and today’s tips are for the writer in that scenario. These tips are also for you if you are a marketer who would like to produce a white paper internally.

1. A white paper is not a selling document. If your insights are really just a bunch of sales points, that’s not a white paper and positioning them as such will do you more harm than good. Save the product benefits for the product brochures. Your white paper should describe a problem that people in your prospect’s situation might face, or a new business or technological development they need to know about, that just happens to be relevant to your product. It’s ok to put a tie-in summary section at the end but not really necessary; your reader will connect the dots.

A good example is a white paper I wrote for EMC called “When Content Matters”. Content is structured information inside a database, which is managed by EMC’s Documentum product. Microsoft had just come out with a light version of content management in its latest version of Office, and our job was to convince the reader that their content was so important it should never be trusted to such a “basic” solution. Documentum was hardly mentioned until the end. Instead, the paper built a case for the complexity and diversity of content so that the reader became concerned and disoriented and was yearning for an escape from Microsoft—which we eventually provided.

2. A white paper is not an academic document. Some of my readers may be old enough to remember “white papers” that used to be trotted out by American presidents and politicians to support a war or other untenable proposition. They were supposed to be authoritative because they appeared scholarly, and the same goes for marketing-driven white papers today. But never forget that you are actually selling something, behind the scenes. In fact, some of the most effective papers I’ve seen are documents that take actual research (complete with the footnotes and raw interviews or statistics) and summarize it in a way that is understandable to a lay reader; along the way, you can politely steer them into the appropriate point of view.

3. A white paper is written for a specific audience. Academic studies often begin with the desire of the researcher to solve a specific problem which can be of very narrow interest. You, the marketer, need to begin with the audience and figure out what is important to them. Often the same information can be presented in different ways to different audiences. For example, I did two papers to educate physicians about electronic health records (EHR). One was sponsored by a peer association and focused on how EHR was going to help them practice better medicine. The other was for a medical billing company and focused on how EHR was going to increase profitability and help them get paid faster by Medicare.

4. A white paper should capitalize on the expert knowledge within your client’s organization. Every company is full of subject matter experts, and this is your/their opportunity to turn that knowledge base into something fungible. Product managers, for example, spend their lives explaining technical features in a non-technical way. Sales managers understand the pain points that move prospects to a buying decision. Customer service people know the problems that cause the most headaches in the daily lives of your customers. Interview a few of these subject matter experts and the white paper may start to write itself.

5. You can create a sort of “poor man’s white paper” by mining existing resources. These might include third party analysis or reprints which you have permission to use, combined with a few sales documents which are meaty instead of full of fluff. You might even consider including a product quick-start guide if it’s well written. The combination of resources becomes your “fact kit” or “info kit” which, appropriately presented, can become much more than the sum of its parts.

And if you don’t have the budget to pay for reprints, an alternative is to put the info kit on a web page (the fulfillment page after the prospect has registered on a landing page) with brief descriptions and links to the source documents. Presto, now you’ve created a white paper without actually writing for one and without paying anybody. Wait, don’t do that. Hire a starving copywriter instead.

Excerpted from my new book, Copywriting that Gets RESULTS! Get your copy here.

Dear Netflix: nut up or shut up!

Like many Netflix subscribers, I had a notice of a 60% subscription price increase slipped under my door last week in the form of an impersonal email that states the bare facts with zero attempt to placate me or to win me over if I am considering canceling after the increase. (The email concludes with “We realize you have many choices for home entertainment, and we thank you for your business. As always, if you have questions, please feel free to call us at 1-888-357-1516.” Hardly the best choice for a closing or conversion message.)

This increase is not for traditional Netflix subscribers who get a disk in the mail; it’s for the potentially far greater universe of prospects who came in via streaming. I signed up for streaming Netflix after my family got a Roku last holiday season. We quickly discovered that the “20,000 streaming movies” was actually not that big a number when looking for a specific title so we added the option of getting a disk when we can’t get instant satisfaction for $2 more a month. Nothing about our behavior, therefore, suggests we will be good candidates for conversion to a standard $7.99 a month disk in the mail plan (that’s the basis of the cost increase) and we are indeed cancelling our non-streaming subscription.

But meanwhile, Netflix is paring its streaming offerings presumably so it can get more disk orders. I know this because my teenager wanted to watch Zombieland for the umpteenth time last night and it’s gone! Not fair, Netflix! This is the company that always contacts me to ask about the video quality of the streaming show I watched or the delivery date of my DVD and a back door change in our agreement definitely doesn’t cut it. It feels like Netflix has made a corporate decision to move away from streaming and toward DVD delivery when everything we read about broadband consumption patterns should point them in the opposite direction.

Maybe, with negotiations going on behind the scenes with entertainment content providers, the streaming model isn’t making sense financially with unlimited viewings for one price. I would be willing to pay a small upcharge (NOT the full cost of renting a single DVD in the mall) for streaming access to new releases. I would also consider a “premium” level (let’s say $12.99 a month which is $5 more than the current streaming plan) for unlimited access for many more titles. But please, Netflix, don’t ask me to change my viewing habits to accommodate your new business model… even if it’s the old business model for many of your customers. I don’t think I’m alone in this. When I want to see it, I want it now… waiting for a disk in the mail seems forever.

A big fat lie

I’ve previously written on the topic of lying with statistics, an easy though dishonest way to manipulate your marketing message because consumers assume if it has lots of specific numbers attached to it, it must be true.

This week we had a great example of statistical manipulation in the new report “F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2011” which was jointly issued by the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the noble-sounding Trust for America’s Health. Here’s the meat of it:

“Twenty years ago, no state had an obesity rate above 15 percent. Today, more than two out of three states, 38 total, have obesity rates over 25 percent, and just one has a rate lower than 20 percent. “

My god, that’s shocking. No wonder newspapers and TV reporters coast to coast have picked it up more or less verbatim. But stop and think about it.

Suppose we went from zero obese states (which we’ll define as a state with an obesity rate over 20%) to 10 or 15 in that twenty-year period. That would be front page news. But this report said we went from zero to 49 states. From not a single state having a high obesity rate, to every state except one in this category.

Or, let’s look at super-obesity states (which we’ll define as a state with an obesity rate over 25%). Twenty years ago that definition would not have even registered, since every state but one was under 15%. Now two out of three states are in the mega-colossal, super-obese category.

Sure there are a bunch of fatties around. But don’t these statements seem simply incredible on the face of it? Could it be that in those 20 years…..

…. Somebody had changed the definition of obesity?

And in fact, yes, that’s exactly what happened. In 1998 the National Institutes of Health introduced the Body Mass Index and 25 million Americans went from fit to fat overnight. They didn’t binge on salty snacks from dusk till dawn; their condition was simply the consequence of a change in the way overweight was defined.

I’m not saying obesity is not a problem. Of course it is. But look how easily the statistics can be manipulated and how hungrily the mass media will gobble them up.

Does your copy have a “voice”? Should it?

One of my favorite direct mail letters of all time came from someone called the “Scripps Center for Executive Health”. The first few paragraphs go like this:

Dear Mr. Maxwell:

In the next 30 seconds, someone will die of a heart attack. In the next 53 seconds, someone will have a stroke. In the next 60 seconds, someone will die of cancer. All in the U.S.A. And have I mentioned that about one-third of all deaths from cardiovascular disease occur prematurely, before age 75.

Hello, Mr. Maxwell… I’m still trying to get your attention.

Let’s face it. We men tend to resist health advice rather stubbornly. If you agree, remember that the difference between my male stubbornness and yours is what I’ve seen as a physician. So if you think you don’t need what I’ve been writing you about, here’s one more wakeup call:

You need a wholeperson picture of your health.

This letter is wrong on so many levels, but most of all it’s the voice. The writer starts by throwing cold water in the reader’s face although he can’t resist being a wise guy with the “have I mentioned”. After shouting at me in the indented subhead, he puts his arm around my shoulder but I am going to push it away because I don’t feel like being friendly with this person who was so recently pummeling me. Too late, he reveals something that I would have no way of knowing—he’s a doctor. Then he morphs into a new age healer with the deadly invented word “wholeperson”. At this point I threw the letter in the trash—though fortunately I retrieved it so I could share it with you.

A letter is always “from” someone and if you don’t keep your voice consistent you will give your audience one more excuse to head for the exits while your play is still in its first act. The most common error (you see this in television infomercials, too) is to build rapport with a personal and emotional tone, then break the spell with a hard sell call to action. Or, to speak to the reader in a human, personal way and suddenly switch to jargon or legalese.

On the other hand, you can help your cause by adopting an appropriate persona such as the subject matter expert, the fellow enthusiast, or the kindly mentor (this is the character that often sells product to a senior audience, and it may be what my wholeperson writer had in mind before the letter went off the tracks.)

Other media can have a voice too, even if it’s a catalog or informational website. The writer is the friendly, approachable tour guide, anticipating the reader’s needs and questions. And an occasional aside can make it more interesting: I once did a catalog of repetitive sports fan merchandise (the same bobblehead or jersey, repeated with a description for every team you could imagine) and it helped keep the interest of the reader to invent a copywriter who was the owner’s assistant, making his own comments on the items.

Excerpted from my new book, Copywriting that Gets RESULTS! Get your copy here.

Should marketers give away their “secret sauce”?

Most marketers I have met have a terror of giving away too much information in their lead generation contacts. As a result they are constantly trying to get me to write “info copy” which is really a thinly disguised sales pitch. They’re afraid that once the reader has their perspective on their business or industry, the marketer becomes irrelevant and the customer will just go out and do it themselves.

Not going to happen. Properly written information will overwhelm and impress the reader. Rather than taking the nuggets and running with them, they will think, “these people sure are smart. Why would I want to do this myself, when I can just hire them?”

The secret sauce of my youth — Brockles... the secret sauce of my youth.

Think about how hard it is to get anybody to pay attention to anything these days. People poring over what is after all marketing copy is a very nice problem to have. In writing my BMA talk, as usual I went to the web and found all kinds of useful research and insight which people are giving away for free such as this great post on how to put on a webinar (something else I will be talking about). Maybe they don’t care about money, maybe they have some kind of hidden agenda. But they can’t all be going out of business because they are giving information away instead of selling it.

Nobody wants to give away their “secret sauce”…. or do they? Sure the recipe should remain a secret. But as far as free samples, the more the better.

How to look at a copywriter’s samples

This article is written for the people who hire and critique copywriters… the hallowed “client”.

You’ve got an ad, website or direct mail package to be written and you’ve got a slew of samples, emails and letters from copywriters in response to your LinkedIn or Craigslist post. How do you separate the real candidates from the posers? Here are a few tips:

1. Realize that the samples in front of you are the best work you’re ever going to see from these writers. If they care about the job at all, they will have hand-selected an assortment of work for your eyes. If a writer doesn’t show you anything that knocks your socks off, pass.

2. Look for work that’s a good fit with your own project. Legitimate experience with your major competitor is ideal. At the very least, the copywriter should provide work that has a parallel to your own project, pointed out by the writer. For example, an insurance writer can probably make the transition to selling financial products since both are about security and money. And a writer in one highly regulated industry, such as banking, can probably make the transition to another, such as pharma. Once again, if the copywriter doesn’t provide anything that is a match then they are disinterested or else they truly have no relevant experience.

3. Look for work that shows how they can handle a project from beginning to end. Copywriting isn’t just about a great headline or “I wish I’d thought of that” entry point. It’s also unfolding a product’s benefits in a clear and methodical way. It’s about a call to action that is specific and motivating. The best samples to demonstrate this are a classic “long form” direct mail package or else a digital campaign that includes landing pages. In these examples you’re not looking for brilliance, but follow-through.

4. Look for a broad fit to your corporate personality. If you’re a stolid B-to-B marketer and all the writer can show you is edgy gen-y work, there’s something wrong. Not with them, but with the matchup. If they had more relevant examples, you’d be seeing them.

5. Evaluate the query letter or email as its own example of copywriting. Selling is selling, and if they don’t make a persuasive argument that is relevant to your needs then you should be suspicious. And especially if their are typos, grammatical errors or misspellings in the document, pass.

6. After you’ve reviewed the samples, if they are in physical vs. electronic form, RETURN THEM TO THE WRITER. This holds true even if it’s a stack of color copies; the writer spent time and money to prepare them. Keep in mind that there is a special circle in hell, right next to Leona Helmsley’s dog Trouble, reserved for marketing managers who “misplace” a copywriter’s last sample of a prized work.

Regional differences, revisited

In an earlier post I talked about regional differences as demonstrated by the way people talk about food on social media. Here is another example. These two gas station price signs are directly opposite each other on Route 50 in Ballston Spa NY, just north of the Highway 67 intersection. Hess is selling regular for $3.729 a gallon and Sunoco for $3.859 a gallon. Down the road past the stoplight, an independent has regular for $3.709. Seven miles up the road in Saratoga, the going rate is $3.899.

You wouldn’t see this where I moved from in California, where gas stations in the same area are universally with in a penny or two of each other. If one station undercuts another by as much as 10 cents, cars would line up around the block. But in upstate New York, you get gas where you get gas, and a few cents a gallon isn’t going to change that.

The conventional wisdom is that urban areas, where most copywriters live, are more open to new experiences while exurban folks are more cautious and conservative. After two years in Saratoga I’m inclined to say this is true. Certainly it’s true that business is conducted more on the basis of whom you know than what you can do. In California we had lots of brilliant tech folks who were a disaster at social interaction. They wouldn’t do well here.

Regional differences are why, as copywriters, we often pull back from the edge a bit in the edginess of our copy and are sure to stress that even though our product or service is “new” it’s also “proven” with absolutely no negatives for trying it. When every customer counts, you can’t afford to ignore the conservatives in Saratoga County or the flyover states even though they may not be the coolest kids on the block.

The end of “edgy”

One of the side benefits of tough economic times is that fewer clients are asking for “edgy” work. Edgy we’ll define as “different for the sake of different” but it is also has an element of cool. It’s a special request of marketing managers who want to be able to show around their work and get the compliment, “ooh, that’s edgy!”

So what’s the problem with edgy? Good creative grows from a solid understanding of product and audience and a calculated plan to put the two together, which may or may not produce something never seen before. If you’re selling an insurance product it’s not likely that it will meet the edgy test without being irrelevant and ridiculous. But maybe you could sell a new movie in an edgy way… or maybe not.

In the great article on Pixar in the May 16 issue of the New Yorker, John Lassiter remembers the first time he pitched the movie “Toy Story” to executives at Disney. “They said, first, ‘You absolutely can’t have “Toy” in the title, because no teenager or young adult will come see the movie.’ And second, we had to make the characters ‘edgy.’” Can you imagine Woody as a bleary has-been with a Nixonian 5 o’clock shadow? That’s Disney’s “edgy” version which was ultimately tanked in favor of the thoroughly traditional cowboy who is now part of movie iconography.

Anthony Lane, the writer of the Pixar article, advises dramatists to “avoid anyone who talks about edgy, apart from a practicing mountaineer.” Same goes for those mini-dramas we call advertising. Most creative briefs have a section about the voice of the copy, and it’s fine to request a fresh and unexpected tone and the copywriter will do their best as long as it doesn’t compromise the core marketing message. But please, no “edgy”.