If you read these serpentine ramblings you know I greatly admire the Venerable Denny Hatch.
Denny, with almost demented dedication, has over the last 26 years created the world’s largest organised direct mail library – over 200,000 samples.
But what is more important, he knows what worked – and what didn’t, and can tell you why, because he knows more than anyone about the subject.
18 years ago I rang his wife, Peggy (who is as able as he is!) to ask how many mailings he read a month.
“Between one and two thousand,” she replied. “Mind you, he doesn’t read all of them all through.”
“I should bloody well hope not,” I thought. “The poor man would end up in a loony bin if he did.”
Anyhow, since that time, Denny’s mammoth compendium of the best mailings ever - Million $$$ Mailings, created with Axel Andersson - has been my secret weapon.
I use it to cheat.
I thumb through it for inspiration – and for ideas to steal, adapt and use in seminars. It contains 71 of the most successful mailings ever written. Only last month I wrote something that pulled like an express train based on one line I spotted and “improved”.
I refer to it more than Caples, more than Hopkins, more than Ogilvy.
The only problem is, it is a WHACKING GREAT TOME, 477 pages long – I yearn to beat up recalcitrant clients with it. I can’t find the ideas I want quickly. And it is 18 years old, so some important new stuff is not in it.
Now, praise the Lord, Denny has come up with something that’s bang up-to-date, and a lot shorter. So I can find tested ideas to steal in minutes.
It’s a report called The Secrets of Emotional Hot-ButtonCopywriting. You can get it at http://hotbuttoncopywriting.com/.
But to call it a report does it too little justice. It is atreasure trove. I flipped it open just now and immediately saw an extraordinary opening line “I’m sitting in my wheelchair today, mad as hell” … imagine what that could do for your e-mail opening rates!
(Do not think for a second that what applies in direct mail does not apply online. It is pretty much all relevant – and the examples you see are from the best of the best in a business that has been around for centuries, not decades).
As the title says, the report is based on the turbulent, gnawing human emotions – the hot buttons – that make your customers buy. And it features the best mailings of the last 20 years. Only Denny could have put it together, because only Denny has this astonishing archive of material.
And Denny does something so many fail to do: he tells you WHY things work. You will never get this from some of the hyped-up piffle that sails into your inbox every day.
A friend just forwarded me (as a joke) one of those emails that say “all you need is this set of DVDs and booklets and your copy will “write itself” automatically.
What drivel!
Here, for $89, you can get what you really need – theCopy Thieves’ Almanac. I may use one of the mailings in a speech I make in a week’s time. I will certainly adapt another for some work I have to do for an investment client.
Here again is where to order: http://hotbuttoncopywriting.com/.
Why not make it the next thing you do? Just one idea could double the response from your next effort. I have seen it happen. I know.
Best,
Drayton
http://directmarketingcourse.com/
www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com
Filed under advertising, copywriting, Dedication, Denny Hatch, direct mail, Drayton Bird, E Mail, Inspiration, marketing, Ogilvy, Secret Weapon, Seminars by on Jun 29th, 2010. Comment. 
“You know what marketing is like? It’s like teenage sex. Everyone says they’re doing it. Not many are. The ones that do, do it very badly…”
In October 2008 I went to my first ever seminar.
It was Ken McCarthy’s System Intensive which he’d brought over to the U.K. for the first time.
I remember before Ken brought the System Intensive here I kept chasing him about it. I’m not saying it’s because of me he finally acquiesced, but I like to think it is.
There is one thing I do know I definitely had a hand in, however, and that was to introduce Ken McCarthy and Drayton Bird to each other.
As a result of that introduction, Ken asked Drayton to speak at this seminar.
Now picture this:
I never wanted to go to any seminars because I always figured they’d be a waste of time and money.
With Ken’s being the exception at the time.
Now I had the opportunity to attend his System Intensive, and meet my marketing mentor (he didn’t know he was at the time) for the first time.
You see, I’d studied Drayton’s work for the past couple of decades and never thought I’d get to meet him.
But here I was, communicating with him almost daily, via email, and introducing him to the pioneer of internet marketing.
And meeting both in person.
Anyway, after that long intro. I hope I haven’t put you to sleep, because the best is in the videos.
This is the seminar I was at. Check them out and get a small taste of why he’s been called “one of the top 50 individuals who’ve shaped today’s marketing”
Oh, and he’s a really funny guy. You’ll see what I mean.
Once you’ve finished watching them, zoom over to http://directanddigitalmarketing.com/draytonbirdcommonsense/ and get a load more free videos and articles
Best,
Rezbi
Filed under internet business, internet marketing, Ken McCarthy, marketing, Mentor, Opportunity, Seminars, Time And Money, videos by on Apr 15th, 2010. Comment.
