Ben Settle

What would you say if I suggested there are certain cases where you should not use a headline on your sales letter?

Most copywriters I know would say I’m nuts.

I mean, not using a headline is the greatest “sin” of copywriting, isn’t it?

And 99.9% of the time I would agree.

Except…

There are many examples of successful letters — including a couple of my own — that pulled better without a headline.

The most obvious and well-known example would be Gary Halbert’s coat-of-arms letter — one of the most-mailed sales letters in history.

I’ve seen two different versions of that letter. One with typos and one without. And I didn’t see a headline on either of them.

Instead, it looks like a personal letter individually typed on a typewriter, written to one person — and not something mass mailed to everyone in the United States.

You can see it yourself here: Gary Halbert coat-of-arms letter

Do you think that letter, to that audience, selling that product, would have pulled better with a big, bold headline at the top of the page? If it didn’t have that “from the kitchen table of Aunt Martha” look?

Maybe, maybe not.

But that letter mailed to hundreds of millions of people without a headline for years.

Another example of a no-headline control letter is this pitch I get every few months from a company called “Biotech Research.”

And guess what?

No headline.

Here’s a scan of the first page so you can see yourself: Biotech air purifier sales letter

And if that’s not “contrarian” enough… this letter also has no subheads, no p.s. and looks like your garden variety piece of corporate “junk” mail.

Interestingly enough, I actually have several different direct mail letters from these guys. And they all have the exact same layout as the one on the link above — with the company’s corporate officers on the left hand side with no headline at the top.

Anyway, I have more than a few sales letters like this with no headlines in my files. All controls, and all proven money-makers.

Now, with all that said… I’m not saying to not use headlines.

But letting yourself get enslaved by a bunch of “rules” can sometimes be counterproductive.

And when you really, really, really want to hide the fact your letter is actually a “pitch” at first glance… you may want to at least think about testing not using a headline.

For example:

A couple years ago — when I first saw the above letters — my curiosity got the better of me. And I wrote two different versions of a joint venture letter to sell some people on running a product to their lists.

The only difference between the two was one had a headline and the other didn’t.

What happened?

Out of the 100 or so I sent out, all the responses (I think there were 6 or 7) came from the letter without the headline.

The letter with the headline didn’t do anything.

Why?

Who knows?

Could be any number of reasons.

All I know for sure is the headline letter didn’t work, while the headline-less letter did.

With the letter that worked, I carefully re-tooled the headline I used in the letter that didn’t pull any responses as the opening paragraph to make it look more personal (while still compelling) — as if it was written for just one person to read. And not something going to 100 other people.

Of course, this was not a “scientific” test by any means.

But I did find the results kind of interesting.

And I’m going to test a variation of this same “headline-less” JV letter in the near future just to see what happens.

Here’s another example:

The first time I offered my copywriting critiquing service to my list I decided, just for kicks, to try the headline-less approach again. Just to see if the JV letter thing was a fluke or not.

I didn’t expect much response.

In fact, I half expected a deluge of emails from people asking, “where’s the headline, jackass?”

But you know what?

I got twice as many orders than I wanted or could even handle. Something like a 3% response when I was overloaded with half that. It was crazy.

Of course, an argument could be made people were buying “me” and had already made their decision to buy without reading the letter — headline or no headline.

But the funny thing is, none of the versions of this critique letter I’ve used since (all of which had headlines) has pulled as well as that first one without the headline.

And that’s despite my list size growing with each offer… and despite word-of-mouth advertising helping fuel my response.

But, like the JV letter, this is not by any means a scientific analysis.

And I’m the first to admit both the JV letter and the critique letter could be flukes. If I could go back in time, I’d split-test everything.

One day I’ll do a real test of this with a completely different product, to a completely different market, and carefully analyze the results.

Anyway, let me “bottom line” this:

As I said before, I’m NOT saying to not use headlines.

The reality is doing a letter without a headline will probably murder your results just about every single time.

What I am saying is look at your unique situation, consider who you’re writing to, figure out exactly what you want the reader to think and feel and do when they read it, and take it from there.

If, for example, you’re writing a “from Aunt Martha” sales letter (like the coat-of-arms pitch), then maybe kick around the idea of carefully testing it without a headline to a small portion of your list.

Who knows?

You may be surprised (as I was) at what happens.

A few days ago I saw something really interesting while analyzing one of my clients’ sales figures.

When I looked at the names of the buyers and compared them to when they bought in the auto-responder sequence, I noticed people were buying anywhere from the first or second follow-up message… to the 11th, 12th and even 25th follow-up messages.

Some of them didn’t buy until they were even deeper in the sequence than that.

And it occurred to me just how much money we would have lost if we did what the vast majority of marketers do… and stopped at 5 or 7 or 10 follow ups.

What’s my point?

Simply this:

If you’re not relentlessly following up with your leads 10, 15, 25, even 50 times or more — then you’re leaving money on the table.

Probably a lot of money.

In fact, if you don’t have at least 50 “evergreen” messages dripping on your leads regularly, you could be flushing hundreds — even thousands — of dollars down the toilet…and not even know it.

Does 50 follow-up messages sounds like a lot?

Maybe it is.

But think about it:

If you have only 50 messages in your sequence, with one going out each week, then that means you have almost a full year’s worth of follow-ups in the “hopper.”

Now I know what you’re thinking — easier said than done, right?

Who has the time, energy and discipline to write that many messages?

Hey, it’s not nearly as hard as you may think.

Just make it easy on yourself.

If you write just one per day, five days a week, you’re done in two months.

If you write two per day, five days per week, you’re done in a little over one month.

If you’re really on fire and write two per day, seven days per week, you’re done in just a few weeks.

See? No problem.

If you have trouble getting started, use the Ann Coulter writing secret and pretend you’re writing an email to a friend — informal, personal, easy-to-read.

Look at your product from every different “angle” you can, and talk about it.

Make things dramatic, fun and interesting.

Keep their enthusiasm for what you’re selling high and that fire stoked. Every week provide yet another “excuse” to look at what you have.

Give a few mini-lessons, tell a few stories about how you or a customer used your product, do some Q&A’s. Say things that make people say, “That’s incredible… I didn’t know that!”

The secret is to make them inherently valuable with a “soft sell” at the end.

You can do a few blatant sales pitches now and then. But don’t overdo it. And if you do send a blatant pitch, still say something interesting and useful — yet achingly incomplete (so they have to buy your product to get the full secret).

If you get stuck for ideas go through your product and look for interesting facts. Or use the stuff you had to cut out of your ad you really wanted to keep in, but couldn’t. You can also get ideas reading magazines, books, and Internet forums (they’re gold mines of ideas).

Soon you’ll start cranking ’em out left and right without batting an eye.

The key is to just start doing it.

One today, one tomorrow, one the next day.

Before you know it you’ll have 50, 60, 70 or more follow-ups. Instead of just fizzing away like everyone else… your marketing keeps working hard week after week after week to make the sale on your behalf.

Go ahead. Try it yourself.

What have you got to lose?

A little while back, a friend of mine asked me how to sell to his e-newsletter list without coming off as being pushy, obnoxious and caring only about extracting as much cash as possible from his customers.

I don’t blame him for being concerned, either.

People are unsubscribing left and right from e-newsletters and lists who do nothing but sell, sell, sell.

But here’s the thing…

All the “selling” isn’t the necessarily the problem.

The problem is usually what’s being sold and to who.

Let me explain what I mean:

Three days per week I like to make a brisk, ten mile bike ride.

Only problem is, I live in an area that, during the summer, is full of annoying little thorns that get lodged into your tires and cause slow leaks.

This happened a few times to me over the past summer.

The first time I changed the tube myself.

The second time (a couple weeks later) I took it to a local bike shop. The guy fixed it and we went our merry way.

The third time (just a few days later) it happened yet again…and I brought it to the shop again.

This time was actually a pain for me, because I had a lot of stuff to do that week, and didn’t want to mess around taking a bike to and from the shop.

Luckily, there was a different guy working that day.

And before he changed the tube he said, “We get a TON of tire repair jobs like this in the summer. Do you want me to put on a tube with a sealant inside? It’s a little more expensive, but when a thorn gets in there, the sealant fills up the hole and you won’t even know it happened.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” I asked. I had no idea this thing existed (shows how much I know about bikes).

“And if you really want to make sure this never happens again, we have special tires that are almost impossible for these little thorns to puncture…”

Long story short:

I bought both the tires and special sealant tubes on the spot, and have not had a problem since.

Now, here’s what’s important about this for you as an Internet marketer:

When I left the bike shop, I was actually mad the first guy didn’t try and sell me the special sealant tubes or puncture-proof tires.

If he had sold me on the tube and tires I wouldn’t have had the hole, and I wouldn’t have had to take another day to drop off and pick up my bike.

And that’s the point.

Are you selling your list things they want?

Things that will make their lives easier?

Things they may not even realize exist right now… but will be happy and thrilled to buy once you show them?

If not, then you should be worried people thinking you’re just another Internet marketing “hawk” only out for money.

Because you probably are annoying people, and you probably are one or two emails away from a bunch of potential buyers leaving you at any given time.

On the other hand…

If you simply discover what your list wants and aren’t getting… and if you simply offer those things to your list for now on… then you have nothing to worry about.

You’re not inconveniencing anyone and you’re not coming off as a greedy, money-hungry jerk, either.

Chances are you’re a bright spot in their day — even as they fork over their hard-earned money to you.

If you don’t believe me, think about the ads you buy from selling you things you really want that genuinely solve a problem in your life.

Don’t you feel almost a sense of… well… gratitude… towards the company that sells it to you?

I know I do.

I can’t help but think the guy who sold me the tires and tubes did me a huge favor. I’m always grateful whenever I see one of those stupid thorns on the bike path.

And if you simply sell your list the things they want like this… you won’t have to worry about mass number of people leaving.

People will be happy to hear from you…instead of being sick of hearing from you.

One of the most useful and important tips I ever heard about running an Internet marketing campaign is:

In other words…

… don’t assume the printer, the web designer, the merchant account service or any other aspect of your Internet marketing campaign will just automatically do as they are supposed to.

Don’t think someone won’t drop the ball or have a brain fart at the absolute worst time.

Inspect your Internet marketing system — every detail of it — before and during the launch.

Good advice isn’t it?

You’re dang right it is.

In fact, it’s so important… and so ultra critical… I completely ignored it recently and lost a bundle of money as a result.

Let me explain what I mean.

You see, so far just about all the ads I’ve written have paid out and are winners.

There have been a few flops here and there where I tried selling to a market I didn’t really understand.

But the majority have pulled and pulled well.

Except for this one ad my client and I had up for about three months.

Even though it was for a very rabid market that loves to buy… and even though I’m very familiar with that market… the ad didn’t pull even one single order in the three months it was up.

And I mean nothing.

Nada.

Zippo.

Of course, it could be I simply penned a crappy ad.

But even that didn’t explain zero sales.

Especially in this particular market, where even a crappy ad pulls at least some response.

But for some mysterious reason… no matter how much I tweaked the copy, no matter how low we cut the price… we couldn’t produce a single sale.

And this drove me absolutely crazy.

I became obsessed with making it work.

I revised it dozens of times.

Played around with it.

Let other copywriters and Internet marketing friends of mine read it and then revised it again.

And still no sales.

I was almost ready to write the entire thing off as a dud.

And then it happened.

A few weeks ago my client got an email from someone who wanted to buy the product.

He was a customer who kept trying to order… but said the order form wasn’t working. It wasn’t taking his credit card numbers. And the only price that appeared was the cost of shipping.

Doh!

Turns out there was a small glitch with the shopping cart software my client uses. And it wasn’t working properly.

Now, we’ll never know exactly how many sales that stupid little mistake cost us. But judging from the response we’re getting now — about 3% — I’m guessing we flushed at least $10,000 in sales down the toilet.

Obviously, if we’d simply followed the “inspect what you expect” mantra — this never would have happened. We would have noticed the software glitch and nipped it in the bud.

But you know what the real irony is?

Other than the fact nobody phoned their order in (which is another topic for another time)…this is actually a classic Internet marketing blunder routinely committed by seasoned gurus and amateurs alike all the time.

I’d heard about this sort of thing happening hundreds of times. It’s in almost every good marketing and copywriting book I’ve ever read. It’s happened to just about every serious marketer I’ve ever met.

In fact, our situation is a joke compared to the hair-raising screw ups involving multi-millions of dollars being flushed down the toilet because the marketer’s secretary gave the ad rep the wrong 800 number or something to that effect.

Now, you may be tempted to think, “no way will I ever make such a stupid mistake.”

And I hope you’re right.

But it’s a lot like not regularly backing up your computer’s hard drive.

If you get lazy and refuse to sweat the details (as I did in this case) you’ll eventually get nailed.

Anyway, the moral of the story is make sure you inspect what you expect every time.

It only takes a few minutes to check your order form, see what your ad looks like on multiple browsers, verify your third party merchant account service (if you use one) is standing by and not performing “routine maintenance”, and all the other boring, mundane things we love to let other people handle.

And yet… those few minutes can make all the difference at the end of the day.

A little while back I was doing a three-way call with a client and his web designer about how we should position the email opt-in form on one of his sales letters.

He didn’t want to go with a pop-up window, a hover ad or anything like that.

Nor did he really like the idea of having the page refresh or the “thank you for subscribing” page pop up over the sales letter, either.

Instead, he was looking to eliminate any and all potential distractions from the sales letter.

Long story short… the web guy asked why didn’t we just use what’s called an “iframe”?

“An ‘eye’ what?” I asked.

“An iframe”, he explained, “is basically a frame within the web page. A small ‘window’ on the page where you get a glimpse of a whole different page.”

And he suggested we simply put the sign-up form in an iframe.

That way, when someone fills out the opt-in email form and pushes “submit”… the page doesn’t refresh, shunt them off somewhere else or even so much as budge.

Only the iframe — the table your opt-in form is in — changes.

The rest of your page and copy stays exactly as is.

For more information on how this works, talk to your web designer or do a quick Internet search.

It’s a very simple and easy way to eliminate a potential distraction in your online sales letters.

If you would like to learn an almost fool proof way to get people anxiously and eagerly reading your ads, then this article will show you how.

It’s really no mystery anymore that people hate being sold.

We all love to buy, but none of us really likes to be sold.

I mean, think about it.

How many times do you see someone walking around bragging:

“There was no way I was going to let that salesman sell me the cheap model. I demanded he sell me the expensive one, that costs ten times as much!”

No, that doesn’t happen.

At least not very often.

And this is especially true in written sales pitches like in an email, on a website, or direct mail piece.

Which is why if you want to increase readership of your ads… you should try to disguise the fact you are “selling” anything at all in the first part of your ad.

There are a lot of ways to do this.

But one of the best ways is to start out by giving away something free in your ad and saying it right in the beginning.

For example, let’s say you sell health supplements for cats.

You can start your ad by saying something like this:

And then you start talking about how this free book will extend your cat’s life.

Then, after you’ve gotten the reader’s complete interest, and his sales shields are down, you segue into how the book is free…but only if they get a free “trial” bottle of your cat health vitamins.

Here’s a fictitious example of how this could be done:

Free Book Reveals How To Extend Your Cat’s
Life By 5-10 Years

Dear Friend,

My name is Bob Jones and I am a vet here in town. In the next few days I am, with your permission, going to send you a free book I have written called: “How To Extend Your Cat’s Life By 5-10 Years.”

Did you know there is actually a way to add up to a decade of healthy and natural life to your beloved cat?

It’s true.

There’s no magic to it, either.

You just need to add a certain herb (you can get at your local grocery store) to your cat’s food and you will extend his life and improve his health.

And in this book I am sending you I reveal exactly what this herb is, where to get it and how to get it for less than five cents a day.

However, there is one small catch.

I will only send you this book if you also let me send you a free trial bottle of my patented cat health supplement…

See how that works?

Try it with your next promotion.

Create a short report or small booklet and lead with giving it away in the beginning, segue into your actual pitch and then watch your response soar.

QUESTION: Ben, do you have any tips on preventing burnout? I tend to work a whole bunch of projects at once and am getting burned out fast.

BEN: At any given time I am working on several dozen ezine articles for my stuff and other people, a seemingly endless number of sales letters, reports and ads, and a host of other little projects and business copywriting related tasks.

And yet, I haven’t suffered “burnout” in years.

In fact, I am always on fire to get to work and rarin’ to go.

What’s my secret?

Well, what I do is I have a stack of 3X5 note cards and every week I jot down the next week’s schedule.

And what I do is purposely alternate each week with a heavy workload and a light workload.

For example, on week one of any given month, I may pack in the work every day. Then, on week two, I do maybe 2 or 3 things (urgent stuff with a deadline) each day and get done before noon. Sometimes even earlier.

And by doing this hard/easy alternation each week, I totally avoid burnout.

Reason why is because during an easy week I get things done early and have a bunch of time on my hands. By Sunday I’m chomping at the bit to get back to work. Usually I can’t wait to get back to work.

On the other hand, during a heavy week I get very tired by Friday. But tired in a good way. Because while I know there will still be work the next week, I know it is going to be a virtual vacation compared to what I just did. So I look forward to it. I look forward to the stress-free week ahead.

Anyway, I know this sounds simple. But it works like crazy.

Try it and see for yourself.

Break out a couple 3X5 cards and make one a heavy week schedule, the other a light week schedule.

I think you’ll find yourself getting a lot more work done while totally eliminating burnout forever.

QUESTION: I took your advise and subscribe to the NEWSPAPERARCHIVES site. But when I tried to search ads by Dan Kennedy, only his SUCCESS speaking ads came up. Is there a better way to search these copywriting gurus ads other than type in their names?

BEN: Yes, there is a way. It takes a bit of research, but here’s what I do. Besides looking for a specific copywriter or marketer’s name or ad headline, you can also look for the names of the companies they wrote for.

For example, when looking for Eugene Schwartz ads, I found most of them by typing in the names of two companies he wrote ads for: “Executive Research Institute” and “Information Incorporated.”

When searching for Gary Halbert ads, I found some from searching “Good News Publishing” Company (although I am not sure if they are all Halbert ads — be careful).

If you want to find a certain copywriter’s newspaper ads, find out who their clients were and then search those names. Chances are you will have a lot more luck getting an exact match. If you are looking for Dan Kennedy, look at his ads and the names of the people who give him testimonials. Start with those business names and see what happens.

And don’t forget to use the newspaperarchive.com help desk. Sometimes they can be a lot of help when searching for something specific.

QUESTION: Ben I am aspiring copywriter. Are there any ways for me to get freelance copywriting jobs and making money? I don’t mind hard work I just don’t know where to begin.

BEN: As much as I’d love to take credit for the following idea, I can’t. I actually heard this from Michael Senoff on his site and it’s so good I may even do this myself if I find some time in the near future.

What he says is to go to ebay and look for completed auctions for stuff that sells for ten, fifteen, twenty even a hundred thousand dollars or more.

Let’s say you find someone selling a yacht, for example. And let’s say he has great pictures, but he has no copy, no benefits, no descriptions. You can simply say, “Did you ever sell the yacht?”

Chances are he’ll say something like, “Nah, I never sold it. It’s still sitting here.”
You could negotiate and say, “Let me help you sell it. I’ll write an ad to sell the boat, and if we sell the boat, you pay me X percent.”

Now obviously, you are taking a chance. But what does it really “cost” you? A few bucks for an ebay ad (and any other advertising you want to do) and your time. So if you lose, you lose small. But if you win…you win BIG.

Anyway, just something to think about. Like I said, I may even do something like this myself in the near future.

That’s it for today. Send me your questions about copywriting, advertising, marketing or business by clicking here.

If you have an ad with several pages of bullet points, and want to make those bullets easier to follow and less mundane to look at — as well as get people who’d normally skim over them to perk up and pay attention — then try this.

Let’s say you are selling an ebook on copywriting and have three, four even five pages (or more) of extremely compelling bullet points.

And you’re looking for ways to bring in some much needed “eye-relief” — as well as make the pages easier and more “inviting” to read.

And let’s pretend one of your bullets says:

• How to let copywriters who get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year do all the dirty work for you.

All you do is strategically space this bullet (and any others with especially dramatic promises) about 10 or 15 bullets apart and do one of the following three things.

1.) Turn the last six or seven words of it into a dramatic sub-headline. Like this:

• How to let copywriters who get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year…

Do All The Dirty Work For You.

The idea here being to take an already dramatic sentence — that may otherwise have just been lost in a sea of bullets to anyone not reading it all the way through — and drag it into the spotlight.

2.) Expand on the idea in the bullet underneath it, before going to the next one. Like this:

• How to let copywriters who get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year do all the dirty work for you.

This may sound almost unbelievable but it’s absolutely true. Believe it or not, there is a way to get a monthly “report” of all the best, most cutting edge copywriting techniques working right now…sent right to your home on a regular basis…and for under $100.

And guess what? This ebook is the ONLY place in the entire world where you can read about it.

3.) Do both — turn the end of the bullet into a dramatic subheadline AND expand on it. Like this:

• How to let copywriters who get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year…

Do All The Dirty Work For You.

This may sound almost unbelievable but it’s absolutely true. Believe it or not, there is a way to get a monthly “report” of all the best, most cutting edge copywriting techniques working right now…sent right to your home on a regular basis…and for under $100.

And guess what? This ebook is the ONLY place in the entire world where you can read about it.

Anyway, I have found this to be a really useful copywriting device.

Not only does it break up the “sameness” that several pages of bullets can bring to the look of an ad, but you are also more likely to force the skimmers and skippers to notice your hottest selling points, instead of blowing by them.

I’m a big fan of studying other kinds of writers besides just “copy” writers – especially political writers.

Which is why I’m always urging people to read political authors, books and blogs.

The farther right or left the better, the more radical the better.

Case in point…

Right now you almost can’t turn on the radio or TV without hearing about Ann Coulter and her book “Godless: The Church Of Liberalism.”

And love her or hate her (very few “luke warm” reactions to Ann Coulter), she recently dropped an incredible “copywriting” tactic in a radio interview you can start using immediately if you want.

She said when she sits down to write a newspaper column or book chapter — especially if it involves a complex topic — she simply pretends she’s writing an email to one of her friends.

She says this forces her to keep even the most entangling legal and policy details simple and easy to digest.

I don’t know about you, but I find this extremely useful copywriting advice.

Especially since the ability to make the complex simple is one of THE most important selling skills you can have.

Anyway, I’ve already started using this email tactic with my own stuff and I can honestly say it’s made writing copy ten times easier for me.

And you know what?

If you ever find yourself stuck trying to make something complex simple in your ads, I can practically guarantee it will make things a lot easier on you, too.