The Golden Thread – The Week in Review
June 8–14, 2008
Welcome to The Golden Thread Online, your free e-letter from American Writers & Artists Inc. Every Saturday, you will receive this recap of all the strategies, insights and opportunities we send to you and your fellow AWAIers each week. Whether it’s a message from a fellow writer about how he landed a new client … a technique from a Master copywriter for writing a control … an insight into how to succeed in a new market … news of a brand new writing job or business opportunity for you … you’ll find it here in this easy-to-access and always available “Week in Review.”
In This Issue:
- Idea Starters: 52 Headline Archetypes to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing from the Best of the Golden Thread
52 headline structures you can use right away to drastically improve what is, without a doubt, the most critical part of any sales letter. - Getting to Know the Financial Industry
Three cheap ways to get the financial education you need to break into the lucrative financial copywriting niche. - Build On What Is Already Working
Target Marketing’s Hallie Mummert demonstrates how an ING Direct envelope campaign successfully uses graphic elements to help their prospect figure out the offer more quickly. - Do you have a personal catchphrase?
John Wood suggests that having a personal catchphrase can help keep you motivated and focused on achieving your goals.
Idea Starters: 52 Headline Archetypes to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing
This article was first published on November 14, 2002.
Read the original article »
Getting to Know the Financial Industry
Every industry has its own lingo. Learn the lingo and educate yourself about your target audience and you will not only have an easier time breaking in, it will make every project you write for that audience stronger.
This month, our focus is on the financial industry. So, here’s how to get a financial education fast and cheap …
Step One: Build Your Swipe File
Save the promotions you receive in the mail and online for financial products and services. Ask your friends and relatives to give you the ones they receive. Order a product or two to get your name on some mailing lists. (Remember, you can return anything you order after reviewing it, if you need to.)
Spend time each day reading through a package or two in your swipe file. This will help you in a number of ways. You will begin to recognize the approaches financial copywriters commonly use … you will get a feel for the visual elements of a financial package … and you will start to get familiar with financial lingo.
Step Two: Sign Up for Free Newsletters
Many financial publishers offer a free daily or weekly newsletter delivered right to your email inbox. By reading a few of them on a regular basis, you will start to get a handle on how the stock market and investments work. Some e-newsletters to check out include The Daily Reckoning (http://www.dailyreckoning.com), The Motley Fool (http://www.fool.com), Daily Wealth (http://www.dailywealth.com), and Investor’s Daily Edge (http://www.investorsdailyedge.com)
Step Three: Use the Resources Available to You
Online trading sites like TD Ameritrade (http://www.tdameritrade.com) and Charles Schwab (http://www.schwab.com) provide a host of free research tools and resources. There’s enough there for any financial copywriter to build a solid foundation of investment knowledge.
And because it’s always a good idea to participate in the industry you write for, buy shares in a mutual fund or invest in an individual stock. Doing this will give you a bit of practical, hands-on experience. It will also help you understand the emotional side of investing. Remember, a copywriter needs to have both book learning and street smarts!
Build On What Is Already Working
When financial services marketer ING Direct wanted to launch a new checking account product – called Electric Orange – last year, it looked no further than its three-year direct-mail control for its Orange Savings Account.
Stealing smart from itself, the online bank developed a #10 envelope campaign for Electric Orange that leverages its branded color platform as well as several successful elements from its Orange Savings Account control. These include a bar chart that helps prospects immediately visualize ING Direct’s value proposition and a series of FAQs that address the typical concerns prospects have when considering doing business with an online bank.
The mailing incorporates graphics on both the letter and a buckslip. “I think consumers process information much easier when it comes to images as opposed to text,” says Todd Sandler, ING Direct’s head of deposit services. “We wanted to make it easy for consumers to understand how simple it actually is to start earning more.”
Of course, ING Direct doesn’t skimp on the text either, knowing that a new product requires more explanation. And it’s important not to overlook the percentage of the population that prefers text to images.
The overall message for financial services firms is that consumers don’t have time to wade around in your packages figuring out how your deal adds up. Do the math for them in the form of charts to help them get to “Yes, I want this” more quickly.
Do you have a personal catchphrase?
Do you have a personal catchphrase?
A snappy line that you use to motivate and guide you through life.
Nike’s “Just Do It” is one of the more famous catchphrases of recent years.
Recently I was watching the DVDs of “The Furey Formula for Making a Fortune with Email” where Matthew Furey talked about the one he uses.
Matthew’s catch phrase?
“Figure it Out”
I like it so much; I adopted it as my own. Perhaps you may want to use it too.
It seems pretty simplistic, but it’s really not. For three words, there’s a lot going on. I like it because it does the following:
- It’s encourages you to take action – It’s proactive. It forces you to think out a solution to the problem you face or the obstacle in your way – and then take action.
- It implies there’s a solution – Despite what we may think, very few problems are unsolvable.
So if you have a problem that needs solving …figure it out.
Do you need to mend a broken relationship with a friend or relative?
Figure it out. Maybe an apology is in order …or maybe it’s simply time to let bygones be bygones. But one thing is for sure, if you don’t figure out how to repair your relationship, nothing will change.
Do you need to make more money?
Figure it out. Put together a game plan. Maybe it involves taking a course or going back to school …or starting up something part-time during evenings and on the weekend. Whatever it may be – figure it out.
Do you need to lose weight?
If you could afford to shed a few pounds, figure out how to do it. Find out what works for others …look into the best foods to eat that encourage weight loss …avoid fatty foods …put together an exercise program. In other words, figure it out.
For most of life’s problems there are solutions. But all too often we either choose to ignore them or stress out about them – instead of finding how to conquer them.
So if one of your problems is you don’t have a snappy catch phrase.
Why not “figure it out”?
Of course, you can have more than one snappy catchphrase in your arsenal. As a copywriter, you might also want to pin this Voltaire quote up beside your desk:
“Perfect is the enemy of the good.”
You’ll write more copy if you keep it in mind.
I love catchphrases that remind you that you’re responsible for your own destiny, such as “If it is to be, it is up to me” and “If you can believe it, you can achieve it”.
After last year’s Bootcamp, many of the attendees adopted Joe Vitale’s catchphrase – “Money loves speed.”
And, of course, there’s Michael Masterson’s: Ready, Fire, Aim.
In the song “My Way” Frank Sinatra sings “Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again too few to mention. I did, what I had to do, and saw it through, without exemption.”
Two memorable lines.
They remind me of the catchphrase “I’d rather regret doing something, than regret doing nothing.”
Winston Churchill once said “Never, never, never give up.” Not a bad line to remember when the going gets tough. Because we all know “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
So remember “Who Dares Wins” and always “Aspire to Inspire” – and if you’re not sure how to “Aspire to Inspire …
…figure it out.
John Wood, AWAI Copywriter
For The Golden Thread
P.S. Do you have a catchphrase? Share it with you fellow members on the AWAI Forum.
