Clayton Makepeace’s latest ‘Total Package’ article is titled “Turning Research into Gold”. [‘Copywriting’ Article]


Clayton Makepeace’s latest ‘Total Package’ article:

Turning Research into Gold

by Clayton Makepeace

Dear Business Builder,

Not a very sexy subject this week ““ just one that can make you tons of money.

Yep, I’m talking about research ““ the one thing that most copywriters dread. Because after all: We’re writers, so we make money when we’re writing ““ not researching … right? So the time you have to spend reading instead of writing costs you money. Right?

Actually, no. Not at all.

The fact is, the success of your direct mail piece, print ad, online sales page is determined to a tremendous extent by the quality of the research you do before you write a single word.

You need to know what competing companies are doing. What prospects are thinking and feeling. Most of all, you need to know what your product does.

And no, I’m not talking about how the financial newsletter you’re writing for provides recommendations … or about how the nutritional supplement you’re promoting gives users tons of vitamin C … or about any of the other things you think your product does.

I’m talking about digging much deeper; all the way to the bone. Because chances are, that’s where you’ll find the facts that will turn your “OK” promotion into a barn-burner with many times the response rates you’re seeing now.

So let’s take a quick look at some pointers that will help you get better research done and to get it done in a fraction of the time it takes you now …

How to know what’s working
Whatever you’re promoting, someone else ““ in most cases, a LOT of someone elses ““ are promoting similar products right now. Monitoring what they’re saying to prospects is the best way I know to get a big head start on creating a promotion that will rake in big bucks.

Every time you look at a successful promotion, you’re looking at more than simply the product of months, sometimes years of trial and error and exhaustive testing ““ you’re getting an insight into the fears, frustrations and desires that are moving prospects to action.

So your first step is a simple one: Get your name on every competitor’s online and offline list as soon as is humanly possible.

Create a rule in your e-mail client that automatically moves promos for each niche into a sub-folder in your inbox. Then, study those e-mails and the sales pages they link to for valuable clues as to what’s working best now.

If you’re writing direct mail, buy a product from each industry leader to get your name on its customer file. Then, monitor your mail carefully, writing the date you received each promotion on it. As a rule, the more often you receive a promotion, the better it’s working ““ so be sure to study the promos you see most often.

When you put your name on these lists, use a middle initial that represents the name of the list. You might subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, for instance by using your real first and last names, but using the middle initial “W.”

Then, when you receive a promotion from another company that’s addressed to John “W” Smith, you know you got the promotion because you’re on the Wall Street Journal’s list (handy especially if you’re looking for the lists that are working best).

Your next step? Get thee to a library. Or better yet, sign up for the Standard Rate and Data (SRDS) directories of direct mail and e-mail lists at SRDS.com. SRDS can give you tons of useful information about each company in your niche.

You can, for instance, study the number of hotline names (new buyers) to see how quickly each company is growing its customer file. You can see how many of their customers are male or female. You can see their price points and average sale. And more.

Chances are, your company or your client’s company rents its list to these companies ““ and before the rental can take place, the company has to submit a sample of its promotion for approval. So at this point, I often call my client’s list department and ask to see copies of promotions that the fastest-growing companies are using right now.

Product research pointers
Doing these things gives you a tremendous advantage because you know what’s working now and you can spot the headlines, benefits and offers that are working best now.

But there’s a whole other area of research that still needs to be done: Researching all the benefits your product provides.

Now, in some cases, this kind of research is easy. Sometimes, not so much.

Recently for example, I had to create an online promotion for a health product that bolsters the immune system. The key active ingredient is gluten ““ a nutrient I had never written about before.

So, we used PubMed.com, WebMD.com and other medical databases to research gluten like it was going out of style. Know what we found? We found scores of studies showing that gluten does a heck of a lot MORE than just improve your immune system!

We found that it protects your heart by eliminating free radicals from your body, by inhibiting the process that turns cholesterol into artery-goo and by reducing inflammation in your arteries.

We found that gluten has actually caused cancerous tumors to shrink in major studies at world-renowned research centers like The Mayo Clinic and Tulane. We found that it also helps balance blood sugar and reduces inflammation in arthritic joints ““ and, believe it or not, much more.

Then, armed with this documented information from many of the world’s most highly respected medical institutions, I wrote a promotion that is very different and far more effective than I could have written if I had focused exclusively on the benefits my client had unearthed for the product.

Want to see the research document and the sales copy?
OK …

Click here to see some of the research we dug up online and how the raw research was presented. And then, click here to see what I did with it.

So let’s talk about research in the blog below this week. What sites do you use to learn about your competitors, your prospects and to research your products?

Let’s build a list that will help all of us turn research into gold!

Yours for Bigger Winners, More Often,

Clayton Makepeace

Publisher & Editor

THE TOTAL PACKAGE

Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto, Canada and publisher of the world famous copywriting anthology Masters of Copywriting featuring the selling wisdom of 44 of the “Top Money” marketing minds of all time, including Clayton Makepeace, Dan Kennedy, Joe Sugarman, John Carlton, Joe Vitale, Michel Fortin, Richard Armstrong and dozens more! For a FREE excerpt visit http://www.SellingtoHumanNature.com.

He is also one of the leading Web conversion experts operating online today, and originator of the 5R System (TM), a strategic process for engineering enhanced Internet profits. For a free overview of Daniel’s system, click here.

Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

The Total Package

*IMNewsWatch would like to thank Clayton Makepeace for granting permission to reprint this article.

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