My clients had roasted the self-defense magazines for years using what we called “down and dirty” print ads — no photos, no graphics, just 3 solid pages of hard-charging copy. Worked like gangbusters, hauling in cash by the barrel load. Then the competition started...
John Carlton’s Best Ads: Hyper-Effective Cover Letter #8: An Urgent Note
THIS IS THE EIGHTH IN THE SERIES OF HYPER-EFFECTIVE COVER LETTERS...THIS INTRODUCTORY POST REFERS TO ALL OF THEM. WE ARE REPRINTING THE SAME POST FOR EACH LETTER. One of the biggest mistakes marketers make... is to get tired of their own advertising before the ads are...
John Carlton’s Best Ads: Hyper-Effective Cover Letter #7: Bargain Alert
THIS IS THE SEVENTH IN THE SERIES OF HYPER-EFFECTIVE COVER LETTERS...THIS IS AN INTRODUCTORY POST THAT REFERS TO ALL OF THE LETTERS. WE ARE REPRINTING THE SAME POST FOR EACH OF THEM. One of the biggest mistakes marketers make... is to get tired of their own...
John Carlton’s Best Ads: The Most Important Letter You’ll Ever Read
Finally, here is a great example of a completely "blind" letter. Nowhere in the entire four pages of copy is there a hint of what, exactly, you will find in the product. It's all tease. Like the little strumpet at the local watering hole giving you a big come-on......
The 4 Best Ways to Multiply Your Copywriting Success
by David L. Deutsch You can read all the best books ever written about flying. But that doesn’t mean you can pilot an airplane. Similarly, if you want to soar to your fullest potential as a copywriter, it takes more than knowledge of copywriting. I have found four...
John Carlton’s Best Ads: Everything And The Kitchen Sink – #1 – Give Any Man Exactly What He Really Wants
Another Rodale piece-- this time, they got impatient selling individual books about the various parts of men's lives... and decided to just lump everything together in one gargantuan volume. So I have to cover better sex... weight loss... earning more money......
John Carlton’s Best Ads: Hey Guys, Watch This!
This letter was purposely written to cover a glaring oversight I'd missed in all my other golf ads. Namely... identifying where the reader is now in his game. The audience is full of young guys... old guys... and rookie duffers of all stripes. One of the main...
John Carlton’s Best Ads: Butt-Ugly Golf
I've written something like 4,000 direct mail letters and direct response ads for golf products now. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but not much. Sometimes, the best ads come from sheer desperation. I was hitting the very bottom of my bag of tricks last year,...
John Carlton’s Best Ads: Everything And The Kitchen Sink #2 – Entire Library Of Fighting Videos
There are two ads referenced in this commentary. This is the second one (last couple of paragraphs). Another Rodale piece-- this time, they got impatient selling individual books about the various parts of men's lives... and decided to just lump everything together...
John Carlton’s Best Ads: The Financial Bloodbath Caused By Criminal Scum
Gary Halbert gets credit for the headline and concept on this one. I was working with him at the time, in the last days of the Reagan presidency, when the financial markets -- and especially the precious metals markets -- were causing investors migraines. Banks were...