A Conversation with Million Dollar Copywriter Kent Komae

A Conversation with Million Dollar Copywriter Kent Komae A Conversation With Million-Dollar Copywriter Kent Komae Welcome, Business-Builder! Nothing does my heart more good than to see a young copywriter take root and blossom. And of all the copy cubs Iเน�โ�ฌย�ve worked with over the years, NOBODY has blossomed bigger or better than Kent Komae has! Kentเน�โ�ฌย�s hard-selling direct mail packages are legendary in the health supplement industry. His fabled controls for Sun Chlorella, Healthy Directions, Health Resources and many other major mailers have made Kent one of the top two or three choices for supplement companies looking to grow เน�โ�ฌโ�� FAST. I first hooked up with Kent back in the 1990s เน�โ�ฌโ�� when he was an eager younger writer, looking to make a name for himself (and, of course some truly obscene royalties). I hired him to help me on several health promotions for a favorite client เน�โ�ฌโ�� and on his very first draft, it was clear to me that this guy had what it takes! Since then, Kent has gone on to fame, fortune and a jamb-packed dance card as one of the half-dozen or so most in-demand copywriters in the alternative health industry. Iเน�โ�ฌย�m proud to count him as one of my closest friends. A few days ago, Kent took time out of his insane schedule to talk copy with me เน�โ�ฌโ�� here: Listen in เน�โ�ฌเธ� Clayton: Hey, buddy! Iเน�โ�ฌย�d like to begin by having you tell me a little bit about your background growing up, and school, and that kind of thing. Kent: Okay. Well, letเน�โ�ฌย�s see. I actually grew up in a small town called Gardena, California. I went to the public schools there. I have two brothers, and I had a pretty much normal, all-American childhood. (Laughing) Clayton: What did your dad do? Kent: He was a pharmacist. And he had his own drugstore for 30-something years. My mother was a homemaker. I was involved in athletics เน�โ�ฌโ�� baseball and basketball. And had a lot of fun as a kid, and a teen, and just, a good old normal childhood I would say. Clayton: When you were young, were you aware of advertising in marketing on a level that you feel might have been more elevated than your friends and other people? Were there any early clues that you might end up being one of the top copywriters in the country? Kent: Well, I wouldnเน�โ�ฌย�t say so much writing. But I loved to read. I remember when I was a kid, we had this hallway in my house, and I would curl up by the wall heater and read books. To this day I love to read, and as weเน�โ�ฌย�ll probably talk about later, this is one of the things that I really enjoy about what Iเน�โ�ฌย�m doing right now. I love reading, researching เน�โ�ฌโ�� just digging into the details. In fact, when I read books, I love books that have the rich details that really paint a picture in my mind. I read a lot of sports biographies. I like stories เน�โ�ฌโ�� one of my favorite books is Sea Biscuit. When you read that book, itเน�โ�ฌย�s a slice of life. Itเน�โ�ฌย�s a fantastic book. I just finished a book called The Perfect Mile, which is about the breaking of the 4-minute mile barrier in running. Just a great story about life in England and Australia, and the United States. Iเน�โ�ฌย�d say the reading part of it was probably more of a pull to me when I was younger than advertising in a sense of knowing about advertising. Clayton: Tell me a little bit about your education. Did you go to college? Kent: Yes. I went to college and I got a BA in English. And I actually taught English for six or seven years before I got into advertising. And so I've had a love for the English language, for words, for writing. And that passion has helped me and given me a good feeling for expressing myself. Clayton: Where did you teach? Kent: I taught in the public schools, at a junior high school, high school, and adult school. I taught just about every course related to English: From basic reading to remedial classes, and all the way up to the gifted program. Clayton: See? I've known you for years; I've never had any idea. Kent: (Laughing) Well, thatเน�โ�ฌย�s why I can stand up and speak in front of people, and give seminars and talk to people, and I donเน�โ�ฌย�t have a problem with that. Clayton: I see. Thatเน�โ�ฌย�s cool. Okay. Well, so why did you leave teaching? Kent: Well, I was actually just thinking about career choices. I think I was making something like $24,000 a year. And I got to thinking about how I might earn more money for my family. I got a job one summer as a proofreader, an editor, in a small direct-response agency here in Southern California. I worked that all summer, and then was offered a job as a copy editor, like an editor and proofreader just working with the copy. And that was my introduction into advertising. Clayton: And then that evolved in copywriting ultimately? Kent: Yes. I remember in the old days, typing my copy on a typewriter, and then having this word processor word process my copy for me. (Laughing) This goes back, just a few years. Clayton: When was this? Kent: This must have been like in the late เน�โ�ฌย�80s. Clayton: Okay, and what was your first copywriting assignment? Kent: Wow. I canเน�โ�ฌย�t exactly remember it since I've done so many pieces. I know back in those days, the one thing I was involved a lot in, either in editing or beginning to write copy, was newsletters. Especially at that time, I was involved in promoting investment newsletters. And those were the early days when the investment newsletter market was beginning to take off, and starting to grow into a real big industry. I donเน�โ�ฌย�t specifically remember individual projects, but working on projects for gold newsletters, mutual fund newsletters, stock newsletters. There was a huge demand for independent, nonbiased information in these areas. Clayton: What prepared you to begin writing copy? Was it just having the experience of working with copywriters? Kent: I think it was a combination of really working with copywriters, studying great copy เน�โ�ฌโ�� just learning the trade. I also read all the classics on copywriting by the masters The greatest thing about direct marketing is itเน�โ�ฌย�s based on so many principles that still apply today เน�โ�ฌโ�� that are still true maybe 50 years after they began to be developed. Itเน�โ�ฌย�s a very exciting field because these things work today across the board. No matter if youเน�โ�ฌย�re writing a space ad, a direct mail piece, or renewal series, or something on the Internet, these tried-and-true principles still work. So when you internalize them, they become your skills for the craft. Writing ads is like working on a puzzle: Carefully piecing together everything you need to piece together. And the end result hopefully is a masterpiece. So I learned by studying hot copy and reading the masters เน�โ�ฌโ�� and then my own trial and error. Thereเน�โ�ฌย�s really nothing better than learning from the real results that real copy produces in the real world. Clayton: Do you remember the first package you hit a grand-slam homerun in the mail? Kent: Well, one package that stands out in my mind in particular เน�โ�ฌโ�� it must have been back in the mid เน�โ�ฌย�80s when I wrote this, or maybe in the late เน�โ�ฌย�80s. It was a package I wrote for Sun Chlorella. It was probably the first promotion package that really brought up the problem of toxins, and the dangers they pose to oneเน�โ�ฌย�s health. Sun Chlorella is a fantastic product for detoxifying your body. This particular piece turned out to be the biggest winner that was ever mailed for that product. I remember specifically the client telling me that he had to hire six telemarketers to help handle all the orders that promotion produced! Clayton: Thatเน�โ�ฌย�s the best เน�โ�ฌโ�� isnเน�โ�ฌย�t it? How did you deal with the disappointment early on of working hard on a package, and then not having it work particularly well? Kent: Wow, thatเน�โ�ฌย�s a good question. I remember on occasion, we would have post-mortem meetings to try and figure out why our winners won and why our losers lost. That process really helped me win more consistently over the years. A lot of writers can write singles, maybe doubles. A few hit the occasional homerun. The key is to hone your craft until you can hit them out of the park with some consistency. And I think this has helped me shape some of the things that Iเน�โ�ฌย�m seeking from the client, and of my own research and developing the project. Do we have everything we need to make this package as strong as it can be? To give it a chance to be a homerun? Sometimes this is not easy, if you donเน�โ�ฌย�t have the right elements. Thereเน�โ�ฌย�s something missing from the project. You could be lacking some proof elements. You could be lacking a voice of authority, or maybe the offer is not as strong as it should be. You could be lacking something really unique about the product to really make it stand out. I think in some of my earlier days, I didn't push hard enough, or ask the right questions, or nag enough to get the information I needed. I think about a letter that I got from a client after I wrote a successful control piece for him for a product heเน�โ�ฌย�d been struggling with. My copy was a grand-slam and he told me that I made him do a LOT of work to provide what I needed for the piece, but it was well worth it in the long run. He gave me the ammunition I needed to write a winning control piece. Clayton: Iเน�โ�ฌย�m constantly amazed about the broad range of personalities among writers who have hit the big time. On the one hand you have writers like Jim Rutz เน�โ�ฌโ�� brilliant, unfettered and extremely creative. I've worked with you on quite a few projects, and I would put you at the other end of the scale. Youเน�โ�ฌย�re very meticulous. And in being meticulous, youเน�โ�ฌย�re one of the few writers who tends to include pretty much every possible selling element in every package that you do. Do you work from a checklist, or is this all internalized at this point? Kent: I think research is the key. I do extensive research before I write one word. I might do 50, 60, 70 pages of notes. Competitive packages. Former packages that the client has mailed. Interviews with the doctor or the investment guru or the expert. Research on my own out of books. Off the Internet. Getting as much information as I can. I love this part of it almost as much as I love the actual writing. Iเน�โ�ฌย�m looking for what I call the เน�โ�ฌย�WOWเน�โ�ฌย� factors. And in my notes I write เน�โ�ฌย�WOWเน�โ�ฌย� next to points that jump out at me. I also write เน�โ�ฌย�Big Ideaเน�โ�ฌย� when I find something that could be a theme, headline or USP. After I do the research, I work on extensive outlines. I probably write more detailed outlines than most writers. My outlines are usually eight or nine pages. I identify the objectives of the piece. I want to make sure Iเน�โ�ฌย�m clear, what exactly does the client want to do here? Is he seeking the highest percentage response? Is he seeking the highest average order? Is he seeking the best qualified leads for his project? You canเน�โ�ฌย�t assume that everybody is seeking the same thing. It depends on what the product is. What the price is. What the audience is. Next on the outline, I focus on the audience. I think itเน�โ�ฌย�s critical that I know exactly who Iเน�โ�ฌย�m writing to. And this is a challenge because the audience might be a different audience per project. And even if Iเน�โ�ฌย�m writing to the same people, they are a moving target. By that I mean where they were mentally and emotionally two years ago or last year compared to where they are now. You have to understand where your audience is. If itเน�โ�ฌย�s an investor, heเน�โ�ฌย�s changed in his mentality since a year ago. If itเน�โ�ฌย�s a nutritional buyer, a vitamin buyer, he knows a lot more than he did two years ago. Clayton: How do you do that? Do you get data cards? Do you find out what lists theyเน�โ�ฌย�re going to be mailing to? Kent: One, I read testimonials. This is a valuable, valuable way to understand the biggest pains, the biggest needs, of the buyers. What are they thinking? Why did they buy the product? Why do they like it? I think doing surveys is fantastic. In fact, one of the things now Iเน�โ�ฌย�m doing is email surveys to current buyers of products. Letเน�โ�ฌย�s say Iเน�โ�ฌย�m writing for a project where there already are customers online, or they have email addresses. Iเน�โ�ฌย�m writing a couple of surveys right now to try to see if I can gain some new insights into customersเน�โ�ฌย� frustrations, worries, problems, and pain. Why did they buy my clientเน�โ�ฌย�s product? How is it helping them? Another idea is to sit in on focus groups. Itเน�โ�ฌย�s an excellent way to hear what they have to say. If I may talk about the audience here, one of the keys to writing successful homerun-hitting packages is you want to enter the conversation the client is already having with himself. By that, I mean itเน�โ�ฌย�s very difficult to be a Missionary, to try to convert somebody to something that maybe they donเน�โ�ฌย�t believe in or haven't heard about, or know nothing about. If you can enter the conversation your client is already having with himself, youเน�โ�ฌย�ve got a big jump on reaching the audience. Because youเน�โ�ฌย�re connecting with him where heเน�โ�ฌย�s at. For example, if it happens to be a health product, and you can connect with the pains the person is having on an everyday basis, frustrations heเน�โ�ฌย�s having, then you have a very good chance of winning. If you write to a prospect with a health product and he or she doesnเน�โ�ฌย�t have any of these problems, youเน�โ�ฌย�re not going to reach this person. A particular example comes to mind: In 1999, I wrote a package for Coenzyme Q, a product called Q-Gel: An advanced scientific formula that was more bio-available than Co-Q-10 in tablet or dry capsule form. I tell people that if I had written that package five years earlier, it probably wouldnเน�โ�ฌย�t have worked because most people in 1995 did not know about Co-Q-10, or it wasnเน�โ�ฌย�t that well known. But since then, more and more vitamin takers had been reading a lot about Co-Q-10 in health newsletters and magazines. So they were aware that this is a very, very vital nutrient you need to add to your vitamin supply for your heart, for your energy, or your immunity. So I wasnเน�โ�ฌย�t just selling the benefits of the nutrient เน�โ�ฌโ�� I was selling a solution to the problem of bio-availability เน�โ�ฌโ�� a solution that made the nutrient more effective. Clayton: I've found that myself. You really do want to enter a conversation that the prospectเน�โ�ฌย�s already having with himself. I've seen so many instances over the years where, for example, an investment advisor spots something scary thatเน�โ�ฌย�s about to happen in the economy or the markets. But a promotional package about that future event fails because it presents the prospect with a problem he didn't know he had. I quite often tell clients, เน�โ�ฌย�Imagine that you just had a hard day at work. Youเน�โ�ฌย�ve been dealing with problems all day long. You go home, you check your mailbox เน�โ�ฌโ�� and hereเน�โ�ฌย�s some guy trying to give you a NEW problem you didn't know you had. Do that, and your promotion will probably go straight into the nearest trash can. Kent: Thatเน�โ�ฌย�s a good example. And hereเน�โ�ฌย�s another thing: If you can tell the prospect something he thinks he already knows เน�โ�ฌโ�� but you give it an intriguing little twist เน�โ�ฌโ�� youเน�โ�ฌย�re miles ahead of the game.And of course, if you tell him something heเน�โ�ฌย�s already suspecting in his mind, then you confirm that, youเน�โ�ฌย�re in too. Let me give you another example about this on a successful piece that I wrote for the Bob Livingston letter. It was a challenge: A newsletter that covers both health and wealth. How do you promote something that unfocused? Well, the main theme behind this piece was telling the other side of the story. A story youเน�โ�ฌย�re not hearing from the rich drug companies or big government, or the rich people who are running everything. So the promotion wasnเน�โ�ฌย�t about money or nutrition เน�โ�ฌโ�� it was about getting the truth that the fat cats are trying to hide from you. I think for the first headline that I wrote for that piece was something like เน�โ�ฌย�44% of all coronary bypass surgeries are unnecessary and useless.เน�โ�ฌย� And it got people thinking about this whole idea that, maybe I shouldnเน�โ�ฌย�t be going under the knife as soon as I am. Or maybe I should get a second opinion. And so I had a fantastic tie-in in this particular promotion about a natural bypass. I also think you want to help prospects by giving them information of value. That way, you're really not selling them directly. As Gary Bencivenga says, เน�โ�ฌย�The best kind of selling is no selling at all.เน�โ�ฌย� And that really is a mantra that I like to use and keep in my mind. My job is to do the research, connect with the prospect and give him or her some valuable, valuable information. If I do that, theyเน�โ�ฌย�re going to read my sales message and as they do, theyเน�โ�ฌย�re going to begin nodding their heads เน�โ�ฌโ�� thinking, เน�โ�ฌย�Yeah, this is what I thought. Yes. I understand what youเน�โ�ฌย�re saying here. Oh, no wonder. Now I get it!เน�โ�ฌย� Clayton: Gary and I were talking about just this the other day. When you provide valuable information and confirm a belief that the prospect already has, it transforms you from being a sales person to being an ally. Kent: Thatเน�โ�ฌย�s critical. Everything that I do is เน�โ�ฌย�informational marketing.เน�โ�ฌย� And by that I mean putting in value เน�โ�ฌโ��added information that can help people with their problems. Whenever I write a piece, itเน�โ�ฌย�s always filled with information, with news, with some breakthrough, with something thatเน�โ�ฌย�s going to help them. I think thatเน�โ�ฌย�s critical. Itเน�โ�ฌย�s been a BIG key to my success. Clayton: Youเน�โ�ฌย�re talking about the เน�โ�ฌย�advertorialเน�โ�ฌย� approach: Bribing prospects to read your promotion เน�โ�ฌโ�� and it works great. And itเน�โ�ฌย�s not just for information marketers. Throughout the years, great advertorials have been used to sell everything from lawn tillers to diet plans. Bringing value to someoneเน�โ�ฌย�s life in your promotion by giving them information they can use is a great device, even if youเน�โ�ฌย�re selling a three-dimensional product. I want to talk a little bit more about your preparation for a project. You talked about how you connect with your audience. How you find out what theyเน�โ�ฌย�re thinking. And I think your approach in terms of using testimonials as a resource, as a way to get clues, is a great one. I never really thought about it that way. I've always done more mechanical things like checking data cards, and things like that. Youเน�โ�ฌย�ve also talked about the time that you spend in research and how you do extensive outlines of the package. How do you select your main themes? Kent: Thatเน�โ�ฌย�s really a good question. Because that leads me to the next point in my outline. Picking the big theme, obviously is a million-dollar question. What I typically do is go through my notes, and as I mentioned earlier เน�โ�ฌโ�� I write เน�โ�ฌย�big ideaเน�โ�ฌย� or เน�โ�ฌย�main ideaเน�โ�ฌย� or a เน�โ�ฌย�wow ideaเน�โ�ฌย� in my notes. Then, I go through my notes, trying to pick out some theme I think is going to carry the piece, or could be a foundation or framework for the whole piece. This is probably the most challenging, toughest thing that I do as a writer. How do you come up with a new theme? Believe me, itเน�โ�ฌย�s not easy. You have to do a lot of sweating. I might typically write six, or seven, or eight, or nine, ten big ideas. And try to whittle them down to one or two. This is even before I write a word of the actual copy. Iเน�โ�ฌย�m still working on main themes and ideas, so this is part of my outline. Often Iเน�โ�ฌย�ll boil it down to three or four big ideas, send those to the client, and we will talk about those. But I try to write maybe a rough headline or a big idea, thought, and as you know, Clayton, this is one of the toughest things to do. Clayton: A lot of the other things that are involved in writing a package are fairly easy to do: Making sure that you have adequate credibility elements เน�โ�ฌเธ� making sure that youเน�โ�ฌย�re speaking to the prospect about things that he already believes or agrees with เน�โ�ฌเธ� having เน�โ�ฌย�readership sellsเน�โ�ฌย� on the outside เน�โ�ฌเธ� dimensionalizing the offer, the premiums, and so forth. All of those are almost mechanical. The one wild card in everything that we do is that major theme. Because thereเน�โ�ฌย�s no way to know in advance how well any particular theme will resonate with the market. Kent: Let me give you a couple of examples if I may. Going back to the piece I talked earlier about, CoEnzyme Q-10. The headline for that particular piece, which was a big, big, big super winner was เน�โ�ฌย�The surprising truth about CoEnzyme Q-10.เน�โ�ฌย� And the เน�โ�ฌย�truthเน�โ�ฌย� was that most of the CoEnzyme Q-10 you take in capsule or dry form is useless or is a big waste, and you really need to know why and the new solution for that. Another piece Iเน�โ�ฌย�d like to talk briefly about is one that I wrote for Joint Advantage in early 2000 เน�โ�ฌโ�� one of the most mailed promotions in the history of the health supplement industry. The subhead and headline were เน�โ�ฌย�Beyond glucosamine and chondroitin, the next breakthrough for joint discomfort.เน�โ�ฌย� We found in the research that glucosamine เน�โ�ฌโ�� probably one of the best-known cutting edge joint nutrients เน�โ�ฌโ�� didnเน�โ�ฌย�t work for about 50% of the people who tried it. So we offered a solution for that problem for the reader. เน�โ�ฌย�Beyond glucosamine and chondroitin เน�โ�ฌเธ�เน�โ�ฌย� really was a great theme because we were offering readers something better than the best natural joint remedy on the market: The next advancement ... the new thing. That message resonated extremely well with the audience เน�โ�ฌโ�� and if I may say, really launched the specialty supplement market. Clayton: I remember that piece. I liked it on a couple of levels. I liked the lead because you were going to a very mature market. This is another example of a package that would have probably bombed if youเน�โ�ฌย�d mailed it ten years earlier. But you timed the market just exactly right. You were mailing into a mature, increasingly skeptical marketplace filled with people who had tried a lot of things that hadnเน�โ�ฌย�t worked over the years. I can see that kind of lead working for just about any supplement product that people hadnเน�โ�ฌย�t seen before. Like: เน�โ�ฌย�Beyond saw palmetto for prostate problems เน�โ�ฌเธ�เน�โ�ฌย� I often talk about how both Carline Anglade-Cole and Arthur Johnson have harnessed the growing skepticism in the vitamin marketplace with their skeptical themes, headlines and leads. Carlineเน�โ�ฌย�s เน�โ�ฌย�Why lutein and bilberry donเน�โ�ฌย�t work for eyesight. And Arthur Johnson, of course, has his classic lead for Dr. Douglas where he asks, เน�โ�ฌย�Have you had enough of eating food that you hate? And depriving yourself and still getting sick. And choking down fistfuls of vitamins and still getting sick. All three of you found ways to really break through that skepticism and reinvigorate a maturing market. What else do you look for when selecting a main theme? Kent: Well, you want to have some controversy sometimes. I think that you want to have some conflict. Something that flies in the face of what people are reading or hearing. One of the challenges these days is thereเน�โ�ฌย�s so much more competition now than maybe there was some years ago. You have to set yourself apart with something that really gets peopleเน�โ�ฌย�s attention. Iเน�โ�ฌย�m thinking about a theme that I wrote on for a Sun Chlorella piece that was very, very successful. The headline was เน�โ�ฌย�Doctorเน�โ�ฌย�s Shock.เน�โ�ฌย� In the lead, I talked about how this doctor was shocked to find out that he wasnเน�โ�ฌย�t getting all the nutrients he needed from vitamins, minerals, or herbs. That he was missing something critical. Of course, the answer inside the piece was Sun Chlorella, which is beyond vitamins, minerals, and herbs เน�โ�ฌโ�� a whole food supplement that brings you a tremendous array of nutrients that you canเน�โ�ฌย�t get from just any vitamin, mineral, or herb, or anything synthetic. เน�โ�ฌย�Doctorเน�โ�ฌย�s Shockเน�โ�ฌย� really got peopleเน�โ�ฌย�s attention. Hereเน�โ�ฌย�s a doctor, authority, a guru, saying, เน�โ�ฌย�You know what? Iเน�โ�ฌย�m missing something. I was missing something in my vitamin regime that I needed. I needed this.เน�โ�ฌย� That surprised people. I think, headlines that start off with เน�โ�ฌย�The Case Against (fill in the blank)เน�โ�ฌย� can be very powerful and attention-getting. If you take on something that people think is right or perfect or the best, and you knock it down a little bit and give them some surprising information, it can differentiate your product or service in a powerful way. Clayton: Thatเน�โ�ฌย�s great. I like that a lot. I think there are a lot of people that shy away from that because it is controversial. But thatเน�โ�ฌย�s what it takes to get read today. Kent: Exactly. Clayton: What do you enjoy most about writing, Kent? Kent: Helping people. Iเน�โ�ฌย�ve never told you this, but before I got into direct marketing of newsletters, books and supplements, I had ambitions to get into fund raising copywriting. I have written packages for fund raising organizations เน�โ�ฌโ�� for humanitarian causes. Itเน�โ�ฌย�s a great joy. I try to do some of this now, even today. I just wrote a letter for an organization called Free Wheelchair Mission. They have designed a cheap wheelchair เน�โ�ฌโ�� it costs just $41 เน�โ�ฌโ�� and they deliver them to needy people with mobility problems. I just wrote a letter to help them raise some funds. If I can help people, or help organizations with my writing, thatเน�โ�ฌย�s a great blessing to me. Clayton: Thatเน�โ�ฌย�s great. You know, itเน�โ�ฌย�s good to be reminded that thereเน�โ�ฌย�s more than one kind of compensation in life. And to be able to use your writing for a good cause is fantastic. Iเน�โ�ฌย�ve done the same kind of thing เน�โ�ฌโ�� mostly for political organizations Iเน�โ�ฌย�m sympathetic with. How did copywriting change your life, Kent? You left the agency for some reason. Kent: Copywriting has given me a fantastic career which I love, and I try to tell my own kids or young people, what you really want to find is something that you have a passion about. Then you donเน�โ�ฌย�t really feel like you're going to work. It wasnเน�โ�ฌย�t like I hated teaching. But what I really enjoy now is coming down to my office, doing research, thinking about the challenge of trying to put together a promotion or a campaign to help the client to present the product in the best way. And of course, direct marketing is เน�โ�ฌโ�� letเน�โ�ฌย�s put it this way: You canเน�โ�ฌย�t hide behind anything. Itเน�โ�ฌย�s like being a professional athlete. Everybody can look in the paper and see your batting average, or your scoring average, and how many turnovers or assists you have. You do a direct marketing project, 30 days later you get an email with the initial responses. Canเน�โ�ฌย�t hide behind anything. And in one sense thatเน�โ�ฌย�s good. Because you know exactly how the piece did. Clayton: As youเน�โ�ฌย�re writing, are there thoughts or mental images that you hold in your mind, as youเน�โ�ฌย�re actually doing the work? In other words, one thing that I constantly kind of hold in my mind, and I didn't teach myself to do this, it just kind of happened naturally, but as Iเน�โ�ฌย�m creating a package, Iเน�โ�ฌย�m constantly thinking about how the client is going to react when he sees this incredible first draft copy. Are there images like that that you hold in your mind? Kent: Iเน�โ�ฌย�m not sure that thereเน�โ�ฌย�s anything quite like that. I think the key here is thinking about the benefit of the product. If you have a full understanding of the benefits of the product or service, it helps you connect with the reader. At the same time, though, I try to avoid falling too much in love with the product Iเน�โ�ฌย�m selling. I could get so excited about all the technical details of the product and how itเน�โ�ฌย�s so cool เน�โ�ฌโ�� that sometimes I can forget the end benefits to the reader. I try to write benefits in two columns after I do all my research. I have a list of logistical benefits, and then I have a list of emotional benefits. Essentially logic and emotion. I have to confess that Iเน�โ�ฌย�m very strong in writing the logistical benefits. This is something that I was trained to do in reason-why advertising. Where I have to work harder on is the emotional benefits: Define how each benefit makes the prospect feel. I wrote a project, a successful launch, for a probiotic supplement. Some logistical, logical benefits would be that it protects your GI tract and bowels from harmful and unhealthy bacteria. It coats your intestinal wall with good bacteria. Et cetera, et cetera. Iเน�โ�ฌย�m good at writing all those. Now what are the emotional benefits? Here we go: No more embarrassment or inconvenience of gas, constipation, unpredictable bathroom stops. No more cramping, bloating, or indigestion. Indulge without paying the price. Eat all the foods you love. Maintain freedom and independence. Feel more energetic, alive. Live without worry or embarrassment. Travel, dance, cook, enjoy life without worry. This has forced me, in a very good way, to try to get both sides of the coin. And what Iเน�โ�ฌย�m finding now, Clayton, in writing successful pieces, is I need to have a good balance of these things to draw people in. Iเน�โ�ฌย�m not just hitting the logical benefits, but Iเน�โ�ฌย�m hitting the emotional benefits as well. I think thatเน�โ�ฌย�s very important. Hereเน�โ�ฌย�s why: People buy based on emotions. People justify their buying with logic. Clayton: On the emotional side, too, itเน�โ�ฌย�s a challenge because there are several layers to it. Letเน�โ�ฌย�s take arthritis for example เน�โ�ฌเธ� First, there are all kinds of emotions wrapped up in fear of developing the disease. If you have it, there are emotions wrapped up in your experience with arthritis. You have frustrations that youเน�โ�ฌย�re not able to do the things you want to do. You have guilt that youเน�โ�ฌย�re not able to do the things for other people or with other people that you care about. And of course, there are many other emotions you can identify that are wrapped up in actually having the disease. And there are also emotions tied to the prospect of relief: How it would feel to suddenly be freed from this pain and stiffness and all the negative emotions I have about having arthritis.And when you begin thinking about that, a product that has eight or ten major logical benefits could spin off forty or fifty emotional benefits. Kent: I think thatเน�โ�ฌย�s a very good point. I do though, struggle when trying to use anger in my copy เน�โ�ฌโ�� whether itเน�โ�ฌย�s anger at the big government or, if itเน�โ�ฌย�s a health package, anger at big drug companies. To bring that into the piece is a challenge. And youเน�โ�ฌย�re right. Not only do I have to try to get into the shoes of the prospect as a writer. I have to also get into the shoes and the voice of the piece, too. See, we are ghostwriters for the publisher, or the doctor, or the เน�โ�ฌโ�� whoever weเน�โ�ฌย�re the voice of. And I think to be able to feel that emotion that that person feels is so critical, and this is really the craft of writing. Being able to almost be there when you see the scene. Before I wrote the letter I mentioned earlier for the Free Wheelchair Mission, I heard the story of when they showed up in a shantytown in Peru with 100 free wheelchairs. 6,000 people had dragged themselves through the dirt in the hope of getting one of the 100 wheelchairs the mission had brought. Whatเน�โ�ฌย�s it like to be that euphoric because you're going to help 100 people เน�โ�ฌโ�� but have to turn away 5,900? What does that do to your heart? How do you infuse that into your copy as to say we need your help? Clayton: So true. I told a writer the other day, because we were writing something on COX-2 inhibitors and I said what you have to do is just sit in a darkened room and slip into character. You have to imagine that your sweet, sainted mother has just had a fatal heart attack taking a drug that the company knew caused heart attacks. But they sold it anyway, just to make a fast buck. Now go into a room, and put yourself into that position. See yourself getting the phone call. See yourself rushing to the hospital late at night only to get the bad news. See yourself consoling your children. See yourself going to the funeral. See yourself consoling your father. See yourself dealing with the grief yourself. And all the time realizing that the men who marketed that drug, and urged doctors to prescribe it, were hiding the fact that they had a study proving that the thing quadrupled your motherเน�โ�ฌย�s risk of a heart attack. While you grieve, theyเน�โ�ฌย�re laughing all the way to the bank. And once youเน�โ�ฌย�re fully in touch with those emotions and you feel like you've personally experienced this, then go to your computer and sit down and just let it flow. Kent: Thatเน�โ�ฌย�s very good. I think Iเน�โ�ฌย�d like to use this definition by Larry Johnson whoเน�โ�ฌย�s a fund raising consultant. And hereเน�โ�ฌย�s what he says. A good direct mail writer needs the sensitivities of a poet, and the instincts of an assassin. I love that. Because that gets back to my love for writing and words. You have to understand how to put words together in a way that the copy just flows. You get them on that slippery slope, where they just keep reading one nugget after another. Theyเน�โ�ฌย�re just on the big slide going down. They canเน�โ�ฌย�t stop reading. And yet, you have to weave in the power of words. And the beauty of the language. Yet you have to be an assassin. You have to know your goal, your objectives, and really make that sale. And get them to not only say yes, but answer the question, why now? And get them to buy right now. Clayton: Thatเน�โ�ฌย�s great. Itเน�โ�ฌย�s just a challenge all the way around isnเน�โ�ฌย�t it? Kent: Yeah. (Laughing) Itเน�โ�ฌย�s also a challenge to try to beat your own control packages. You know about that. Clayton: Yep. (Laughing) Kent: Oh, wait a second. I thought I gave you my best ideas. No, you need some more. Okay, let me see what I can do. Clayton: (Laughing) Kent: I think another thing that really helped me เน�โ�ฌโ�� especially when I went to the Bencivenga seminar - is how critical it is to have those proof elements. I love the example he gave of the founder of the Franklin Mint who went looking not for great products, but for great proof elements. And I think that this has helped me because itเน�โ�ฌย�s helped me push my clients to say youเน�โ�ฌย�ve got to give me the proof I need to make the claims we need to make to make this a winner. More and more, advertising is going to be successful if itเน�โ�ฌย�s going to be based on proof elements. And this is so critical. Especially in writing nutritional sales copy. It canเน�โ�ฌย�t just be a doctor saying it. Give me the proof. Give me the background. Scientific reports. Clinical studies. Double blind, placebo controlled clinical studies. Tell me what the proof shows. It really helps shape and make the sale. Clayton: Absolutely. And the more specific the better. Kent: Right. Thatเน�โ�ฌย�s so true. Clayton: Especially in the health market when youเน�โ�ฌย�re presenting proof, you have a three-layer thing going on. The first one is, there was a double blind placebo controlled study on this. The second layer is the credibility of the institution that conducted the study. Was it Harvard University? And the third layer is, where were the study results published? Was it in JAMA or the New England Journal of Medicine? When you can tell somebody that a double blind placebo controlled study conducted at Harvard and reported in the New England Journal of Medicine said that the substance in your product cut risk of heart attacks by 50%, youเน�โ�ฌย�ve done a lot more than simply create credibility. Youเน�โ�ฌย�ve just created a tacit endorsement of your company and your product by Harvard the New England Journal of Medicine! And I also like to show photographs of the actual publications. Because it takes it out of the realm of just black ink on white paper, and just somehow makes it more real when I can see the actual journal in which the report was published. Or show a picture of the National Institute of Health or Harvard University, or some other prestigious university or medical center. Kent: I've done that. I've shown some magazine covers where thereเน�โ�ฌย�s great quotes about the product or the generic product as necessary, if you donเน�โ�ฌย�t have it specific. But thatเน�โ�ฌย�s also a good credibility builder. Clayton: I think the use of credibility devices is one of the most often ignored components of direct mail packages and Internet promotions I see now. In skeptical, mature markets like these, going the extra mile like you do, and drilling down to the real credibility elements is absolutely essential. Let me ask you, Kent, what could your clients do to help you produce better copy faster? Kent: Itเน�โ�ฌย�s interesting you ask that. I've worked for some of the biggest companies in America, direct marketers, and sometimes they send me a whole notebook of great background information. But others hardly send anything at all. I think the key is providing me with quality information and research, where Iเน�โ�ฌย�m not going to sit there and have to dig through and find it. I donเน�โ�ฌย�t mind going through it, but it takes a lot of time just for me to do what I do. I even have some of my clients doing their own clinical studies to try to show that their products are so much better. Itเน�โ�ฌย�s not cheap or easy to do, but it produces proof elements that make the copy sing! I think that providing me with some testing opportunities is important, too. I appreciate clients who are open to testing. And another area that I think is very underutilized has to do with offers. I think that if clients are open to my suggestions in offers, and if we think outside the box, we can create some really big winners. But sometimes I hear things like, เน�โ�ฌย�The offerเน�โ�ฌย�s already set.เน�โ�ฌย� Or, เน�โ�ฌย�This is how weเน�โ�ฌย�ve always done it, and this is all our budget allows us to do.เน�โ�ฌย� The best kind of clients are open-minded and want to test. Clayton, one of the things that I like to think about is what I call the four greats. When I decide to take on a new client, I try to think about if these four things match up, because thereเน�โ�ฌย�s a good chance weเน�โ�ฌย�re going to get a winner. First of all, the client has to be great. I think itเน�โ�ฌย�s very important that I work with people who I can trust. Who I can believe their word. Who are good people. Who have a solid company. Beyond that, the clients I want have great products. Itเน�โ�ฌย�s very hard to sell generic stuff that you can buy at any corner store. Third, you need great copy -- which is what I bring to the table. And fourth, I want clients who are willing to เน�โ�ฌย�incentivizeเน�โ�ฌย� me with a great compensation package. They have to be willing to compensate me as a salesman in print or on the Internet. If Iเน�โ�ฌย�m going to bring them an extra million dollars in sales, they canเน�โ�ฌย�t be afraid to pay me a small percentage of that. If those four great things line up, chances are good เน�โ�ฌโ�� chances are great. We can have a winner. Clayton: I think thatเน�โ�ฌย�s fantastic advice. What are the things that a client does that really get in the way of producing a great copy for them? Kent: Wow. Thatเน�โ�ฌย�s a very good question. Iเน�โ�ฌย�ll give you a specific example, which is a challenge right now. And that is I do a lot of supplement marketing, nutritional marketing, as you know. Between ten years ago and now, thereเน�โ�ฌย�s much more legal scrutiny in this area. And this is why obviously some writers donเน�โ�ฌย�t want to write for these promotions. I have to write a piece and depending on where the clientเน�โ�ฌย�s at, I may have to adjust, tone down, a piece, depending on the legal risk or where the client is on the legal scale. This is challenging because different clients are on different levels, and letเน�โ�ฌย�s face it เน�โ�ฌโ�� it does factor into how aggressive you can be in the copy. I always tell my clients, I donเน�โ�ฌย�t want to do anything that gets them in trouble, and I think this is why they hire me. Where I tell them I want to write a piece where they can sleep well at night and not worry about being in trouble. I've had lots of battles with lawyers เน�โ�ฌโ�� not necessarily directly, but through the clients เน�โ�ฌโ�� where I've got to tone down the copy, and itเน�โ�ฌย�s frustrating at times. Because a lot of great ideas end up on the cutting room floor. Obviously, if Iเน�โ�ฌย�m writing a promotion for a book or a newsletter, or some other product thatเน�โ�ฌย�s not a nutrient, I have more freedom. And I donเน�โ�ฌย�t have to worry about that. Clayton: Alright well, we need to wrap up here. Is there anything else youเน�โ�ฌย�d like to cover before we close? Kent: No, I think thatเน�โ�ฌย�s it. I just want to say that this is a fantastic field, and business, and market, and I love it. And itเน�โ�ฌย�s just something thatเน�โ�ฌย�s a joy and a challenge and great. Clayton: Thank you very much, Kent. Take care, buddy. Kent: Youเน�โ�ฌย�re welcome, Clayton. Bye. See you next time! Yours for Bigger Winners, More Often, Clayton MakepeacePublisher & EditorTHE TOTAL PACKAGEเน�ย�เธ� Related Articles - Kent Komae, Clayton Makepeace, Copywriter, Email this Article to a Friend! Receive Articles like this one direct to your email box!Subscribe for free today!