How to turn a corpse sales letter into a breathing 10-year control
Published: Thu, 01/09/20
I used to believe without question the old adage "you can't turn chicken pewp into chicken salad" - but, she pulled it off by flipping a dead-on-arrival ad into a 10-year control, and it's quite the story.
Here goes...
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elBENBO: Who are you and what makes you qualified to talk about copywriting?
KIM KRAUSE SCWHALM: I’ve been a freelance copywriter for more than 20 years, most of that time racking up control after control in the highly competitive long-form copy arena working with the top direct response publishers, supplement companies, and health leaders.
Before I walked out of my $100k a year job back in 1998 to go freelance, I was a marketing executive with Phillips Publishing for six years during a time when this fast-growing company more than doubled its sales. During that time, I helped launch and run a nutritional supplement subsidiary called Healthy Directions (I came up with the name)—and with the help of my team grew it to more than $23 million in annual sales within the first 3 years.
While at Phillips, I also was a Publisher in a division that produced Jay Abraham’s and Dennis Waitley’s newsletters for small businesses and entrepreneurs, and I also worked with Toby Smith on the investment newsletter side. So I got great exposure to a number of key niches and earned a reputation as a “business builder”.
I also was a marketer who knew how to write copy, which was very much valued at Phillips. The company worked with now-legendary copywriters back then, like Gary Bencivenga, Jim Rutz, Clayton Makepeace (still going strong), and others.
As a marketer who wrote copy and also worked with copywriters like Parris Lampropoulus and David Deutsch back when they were up-and-comers (and I was the client), I gained a great deal of perspective of how to write successful copy in the most competitive markets.
It’s now been more than 20 years since I walked out of those hallowed doors of Phillips Publishing. I’ve written dozens of controls since then…have gone up against—and beat—some of the most respected copywriters in the business, such as the late Jim Rutz…and I became the first female copywriter to get a Boardroom control when I beat Parris Lampropoulus’ “unbeatable” 7-year control for Tax Hotline.
I continue to work with the top direct response companies but have also created some of my own training programs to share my hard-won knowledge and experience.
elBENBO: Tell us the story of how you broke in to the big mailers and what your first big control was.
KIM KRAUSE SCWHALM: Before I ever got a shot at writing an actual magalog, I wrote all kinds of shorter, flat-fee copy. I paid my dues. And it paid the bills. I had one client I was working with who was a small health publisher. He hired me to help him rework some of his direct mail letters that he'd written himself.
(His name was Dr. Batmanghelidj, or "Dr. B." for short. He had an extraordinary life story and mission; unfortunately, he passed away several years ago.)
After working on a few rounds of reworked sales letters and helping him improve his results, I suggested to Dr. B that he try testing a magalog. And that he hire me to write it.
Now, I'd never written a magalog before...but I'd been around them a lot when I worked at Phillips Publishing.
And at this early point in my freelance copywriting career, I was on every mailing list I could get on. I was reading and studying and analyzing and soaking up magalog swipes day after day... figuring out the techniques that were used and just dying to apply them myself--once I got my big break.
Amazingly, even though I had no samples under my belt, Dr. B decided to take a chance. Granted, I only charged him a small flat fee. I was determined to do a good job. And I was determined to get that sample I could use to get other clients.
I put my all into writing this promo. Now, of course, when I look at it, I see all kinds of things I'd improve. But honestly, it's not THAT bad. And if I recall correctly, Dr. B. was happy with the results...it may have even become his control for a while.
I didn't earn one single penny in royalties from this promo. But I did get my sample.
I now had an actual magalog sample that had mailed and been proven to work. THAT was worth a lot.
So when that next prospective client called and asked if I had any magalog samples, I was able to show him this.
That precious sample not only got me in the door, it allowed me to negotiate a copywriting fee that was three times what I had charged for my first magalog. Plus, it would pay me royalties if it became the control.
Finally, after more than two arduous years of freelancing, I was going to be a royalty copywriter.
But...wait. Damn...
Things don't always go as planned, do they?
The client loved the copy platform idea, so I ran with it.
I gathered all my research...interviewed the doctor behind the product...and wrote what I felt was sizzling sales copy.
The client printed it and sent it out.
Guess what happened next?
It tanked.
My client was still talking to me afterwards, thankfully. (Actually, he approved it and agreed to print and mail it, so he was partly on the hook.)
We put our heads together to try to figure out what went wrong. We even got on the phone with another copywriter I knew to get a second opinion.
It was then that this copywriter suggested we'd been way too general with what this supplement could do. It could do everything...but what was working then (and pretty much always works) is to focus on solving one specific problem.
I went back to the drawing board and came up with a big "A-ha!" This nutrient had several studies supporting joint health claims, and the doctor behind it had his own story about using it to cure his knee pain. Oh, and it helped that he was a sports MD and had worked with Olympic athletes.
So we would reposition the supplement as a joint health supplement!
My client was as excited about my new idea as I was...and even paid me an additional partial copy fee to do a complete reworking of the promo.
The result? A complete "do-over" and revamped positioning (even the product name changed) that led to a super-successful control promo...
This tabloid-sized magalog promo mailed to millions of names (I don't have a complete total). It ended up mailing as a control for 10+ years.
(We tested different formats and headlines over the years, but most of the original promo copy continued to be used during that time period).
So I was able to turn my "total flop" into a 10-year-control...and become a royalty copywriter at last. (And even though my royalty rate then was lower than what I charge now, it earned me at least a few hundred thousand dollars on top of my copywriting fee.)
As it turns out, there's a bit of a pattern here. That wasn't the only time early in my copywriting career that I flopped right out of the gate.
Luckily, my client--just like the one I told you about earlier--gave me a second chance.
And that second chance is what helped put me on the map as a copywriter...and I never had to worry about getting booked up with clients again.
I mentioned before that when I was first starting out 20 years ago, I took all kinds of copywriting jobs. Mostly short-form, like 4-page inserts, subscription renewal and back-end mailings, and emails (yes, emails! We actually had those back then, too...)
I knew I had to work my way up the "copywriting ladder" if I wanted to write long-form promos with royalty potential and play in the big leagues.
So when one of my former Phillips Publishing colleagues referred me to a financial publishing company, I eagerly accepted any and all projects that came my way.
(Note: Even though I had primarily established myself in the health and supplement niche, it was way too early to niche myself. Had I done so, I would have severely and needlessly limited my options...and I've found getting experience writing for a wide variety of products invaluable.)
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And so ends part one of my interview with the great Kim Krause Schwalm.
I’ve also made a special deal with her to offer her intense new Copywriting Velocity program at a discount for my eager-to-learn Horde. The deadline to get this discount is Sunday at midnight EST.
Here is the link:
http://www.EmailPlayers.com/kim
Ben Settle
P.S. If you nab her Copywriting Velocity program by the deadline using my affiliate link, she will also send you (no need to send me your receipt, Chuckles) access to one of my new copywriting trainings:
“The Swiperoscope Saga: Part 2”
These videos contain over 2 hours of Yours Crotchety’s favorite private swipe file ads & sales letters analyzed & examined line-by-line under the proverbial “microscope.”
Some the tips & secrets in these videos include:
* The criminally underrated copywriting technique used by the late copywriting genius Jim Rutz to write copy so predictably responsive he worked on pure commission. (I once read an obscure interview with Jim Rutz — that is all but impossible to find, but good luck searching for it — where he admitted this is what allowed him to win controls so handily, even against the “best of the best” writers.)
* How to “sexy-up” ordinary 30-day guarantees and other standard offers so they sound exciting & urgent.
* A 2-minute seminar on how to structure your sales copy for maximum sales I learned directly (at a bar during an event I spoke at) from one of the greatest magalog copywriters who ever lived.
* An ingenious product design secret Steve Jobs applied to iPhones… that can be directly applied to your order forms & checkout pages to dramatically goose up sales.
* Why writing to fat people is a waste of time when selling weight loss offers… and who the exact “sweet spot” of the market actually is! (In a weight loss biz I once owned, we converted over 40% of the list into paying customers — and a big part of that was following this 100% ethical & legitimate tip I learned from a doctor shilling MLM.)
* And speaking of weight loss: A sneaky way of using your prospect’s bra size to ratchet up weight loss offer sales! (This is one of those “social engineering” type ideas guys like Gary Halbert used to talk, about that lesser copywriters would not have the courage to even write much less test.)
* A bizarre way to use your chin to “pre-test” sales copy. (It’s not only something the great John Carlton once taught, but I can tell you from experience, it can make all your sales copy exponentially more powerful, more persuasive, and more responsive.)
* A sleepy-sounding word that triggers people to reflexively & automatically “lean in” to read your copy more closely.
* Mysteriously effective ways to use the Bible to ramp up the sales & response of all your advertising. (Works for sinners and saints alike — and have been proven time & time again to work by multiple A-list copywriters and other high level marketing minds.)
* A real life example of how to “tweak” even sucky ad copy into being extremely profitable & responsive. (Yes, even if the copy doesn’t deserve it!)
* The case for 1-word headlines — and the outrageous copywriter who was the best in the game at writing them to study, model, and learn from.
* An “almost magic” word virtually guaranteed to instantly boost you and your product’s credibility. (Obviously, you don’t want to overuse this word — but slip it in to your next ad or email and watch what happens!)
* A clever way the Weekly World News used to help their advertisers be more successful and generate more advertising revenue. (If you sell ad space — on your website, in solo ads, via your podcast, or anywhere else — this can not only keep ad revenue flowing in for you from happy advertisers, but make those same advertisers a lot more successful, too.)
* A gloriously entertaining example of how the great Gary Halbert used trolling in his sales copy to make his competition irrelevant.
* How clients can tell if a copywriter sucks or not without even looking at their copy!
* Why being honest is not enough to protect you from government false advertising accusations… and how to protect your client (or yourself) from being shut down overnight even when your claims are 100% honest!
* Psychological insights into selecting the best testimonials to feature in your advertising.
* The burglar alarm secret for adding instant credibility to your offers — especially if you are new to your market and nobody knows who you are. (You might not always be able to use this… but when you do, it can potentially make your lack of experience, brand, or presence in the market far less an issue than it would be otherwise.)
* How to use “B-roll” copy to make your ads much more persuasive and credible.
* An FBI-approved negotiator’s secret for getting far more sales & response than you normally would by *lowering* the emotional state of your prospects.
* A Hollywood screenwriting method that can make direct mail sales letters that run 10, 20, 30 pages hard-to-put-down even if the prospect is busy or distracted.
* 3 heavy duty words you can use in your ads to make even your most outrageous sounding offers & claims more believable.
* The Donald Trump secret to “benevolently shaming” someone into buying from your sales copy immediately.
* And a ho’ bunch more…
The deadline to get these bonus videos, and Kim’s Copywriting Velocity program at a special “Ben Settle discount” ends Sunday at midnight EST.
Here’s where to get you some:
http://www.EmailPlayers.com/kim