Why is this 1925 US School of Music advert regarded as one of the best all-time advertisements?
The creator, John Caples understood that words mattered when determining whether a mailer was opened or not, and ultimately whether the direct mail campaign was successful or not.
His approach, and his thinking changed the power of words in advertising forever.
Nearly one hundred years later the email subject line of today largely determines whether an email is opened or not.
But Caples also understood that the copy inside would make all the difference in getting a response from the householder, just like the call to action button.
Words matter.
Caples also tested copy & went with the version that sold more. Just like we do now with split testing.
The nearly one-hundred-year-old advice by John Caples is still relevant:
- Study past success & go in that direction
- Write the headline first
- Get emotion into the copy —they laughed!
- Find a good copywriter to challenge & inspire you.
In our #emailgeeks world, do we consider the words we put together to form a subject line as much as we should? My inbox says “room for improvement”.
There is a thriving & vibrant copywriting community we can learn from, much like our own. Here’s how to get to know them & learn their craft.
Jobs to be done.
- Copyschool with Jeremy Moser https://gumroad.com/l/lpcopy
- Follow this list of 85 active wordsmiths on Twitter https://bit.ly/-wordsmiths
- Follow the advice of Jeremy Moser https://bit.ly/10tips-by-
Jeremy-Mose - Join the 39k Copy community on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/
copywriting - Read Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples https://amzn.com/0130957011
- Read The Elements of Style by Strunk & White https://amzn.com/B07NPN5HTP
- Use https://readwise.io to keep track of great copy you can use later.
- Try AI copy tools https://copy.ai & https://copysmith.ai/
- Hire a copywriter on https://getacopywriter.com
- Use these tools (you need both): https://www.grammarly.com/ https://hemingwayapp.com/
- & repeating Caples advice: Find a good copywriter to challenge & inspire you.
PS: Perhaps the title of this post should have been: They laughed when I hired a copywriter but then the click through rates!
Chris Byrne is co-founder with Sensorpro, an EU-made email marketing platform based in Ireland. Chris is a daily sea-swimmer & lives at the very edge of Europe in Dingle, Ireland. Get to know Chris on LinkedIn or Twitter & his latest work: https://sensorpro.net/shopify