Facts every branding person should know about copywriting

As David Ogilvy suggested in the video speech I’ve posted here, I’ve been spending much time researching direct response marketing. It’s been an eye opener, to say the least. It seems to me that although David Ogilvy never said so, he had that unique ability to bring the very different worlds of direct response and general advertising or branding together. That’s where his brilliance lay and that may be why he was so successful.




Amongst other things, I learned that Direct “responsers” loath advertising agencies and branding people with a passion. They claim ad agencies have a hundred and one reasons for producing ads, other than trying to make the most money for their clients. Direct responsers hate creativity, ingenuity and good graphics. They don’t care for branding or awareness. What they do care about, actually the only thing they care about, are results. They are madly driven to elicit an immediate purchase from their prospects and they are experts at doing that. They have a science and formula for doing it. It behooves you to learn it. Your branding and advertising would be much stronger if you understood it and incorporated at least some of their ideas into your marketing.



One of the major differences between branding or marketing and direct response is that direct response ads are “salesmanship in print”. In fact, “salesmanship in print” is their mantra. What this means is, that whereas advertising agencies are involved with attention grabbing creativity, branding, awareness, mindshare, credibility, personality etc- direct responsers are instead focused on make compelling sales pitches. These sales pitches are not very different than a car or furniture salesman except it is in print instead of being verbal.



Selling or “sales”, is the process of taking a potential customer from zero or little interest, to a burning desire for your product or service. That process has many steps because it is simply impossible to get somebody to go from zero to a hundred in a second. That’s why direct responsers and David Ogilvy talk about “long copy”. The longer the copy, the more time you have to make your case and convince someone to purchase from you. When making their case, “direct responsers” actually move their prospect in a linear path through very specific steps which are designed to build that desire very quickly. Below are the nine steps any good direct response copywriter generally takes to compel their audience to buy. Study it and memorize it.



1. Tell your prospect you understand their need,

2. Tell your prospect why your product is the best solution they can buy,

3. Offers proof through testimonials etc.,

4. Explain all the ways the product will benefit the customer,

5. Present the price in a way that makes it sound like a great deal and promote your money-back guarantee so it looks better than it really is,

6. Add bonus material to really motivate the customer to buy,

7. Make it a limited time offer

8. Ask for the sale.

9. Gain their trust again by reiterating your money back guarantee –



It would probably take a book to explain each step thoroughly but this outline is enough to get you going. With internet copywriting everything is exactly the same, except you “ask for the sale” multiple times, beginning with step 4 and in between each step thereafter. Try it out. See how it works.