Joe Parker's Five Email Blunders

Blunder #1: Hostile Unfriendly SubjectLine/Salutation.
I did not recognize the name, JoeParker. He caught my attention with his subject line/salutation: “Re: You’rea tough nut to crack!”

Huh? Do Iknow this guy? Have zero memory of any prior contact with him where he tried tocrack my nuts. I queried my Dropbox and subscriber list for “Joe Parker” andcame up with 0/0 everywhere. This total stranger contacted me and his veryfirst words accused me of being an uppity son of a bitch. I stayed on to seewhat made him tick.

Blunder #2: Textbook-stupid Lede:
“I’mnot sure it’s relevant, but...”

Joe Parker is confessing he’s anamateur who has no idea who I am, what I do or if his idea is relevant to me. Hisbusiness model is throwing AI excrement against the wall to see if any of itsticks. My immediate thought: “If  youdon’t know whether you’re relevant to my needs or wants, you’re a world classjerk who wastes people’s time.

Blunder #3: Gobbledygook AI Message

A smug, confusing-as-all-helllecture about an indecipherable product or service filled with smarty-pantsconcepts and high-techie terms: e.g., “online advertising for SMBs. Leveragingadvanced machine learning and AI, the platform enables rapid ad creation anddistribution across multiple digital channels, including search, display,OTT/CTV, social, mobile, and unique channels like Yelp review ads.... yada,yada, yada.”  Huh?

Blunder #4. It's Total Ego trip by Joe Parker All about Himself.
JoeParker did not mention a single benefit to me, his target.

Blunder#5: No offer. Ergo, No reason torespond.

Two Quickie Asides 

Bob Hacker’s Inviolable Direct Marketing Dictum.
“The prospect doesn’t give a damnabout you, your product or your service. All that matters is: WHAT’S IN IT FORME?”
aka...  “Always listen to W-I-I–FM.”)

 Elmer "Sizzle Wheeler's Wisdom.
“The first Hundred words are more important than the next ten thousand.” 

For Your Private Swipe File.
Here are the lede paragraphs of three world class direct mail letters that mesmerized readers to keep reading... and reading... until they ordered. And boy-oh-boy, did they order!

#1. Ed McLean's Intuitive Copy Wizardry for Newsweek
Below arethe first four paragraphs of copywriter Ed McLean’s 1959 Newsweek subscriptionoffer. It was mailed for 17 straight years, outperformed many dozens oftests against it and brought in millions of dollars in subscription revenue.
 

One possible secret for Ed's success: the number of times “you” and “your” were used — more than 20 times on the first page alone.McLean’s letter was so successful it changed the struggling second banana,Newsweek, into a powerful competitor of Henry Luce’s cash cow, TIME. 

 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

Below is the lede ofa “dry test” 8-page direct mail letter sent in 1979. It offereda one-year subscription to a newsletter — International Living. Thenewsletter did not exist. 44 years later it's a $1 billion-dollar-a-year corporation.

It was the brainstorm of Bill Bonner, a rail-thin, six-foot-two30-year-old advertising copywriter immediately after he underwent threecatastrophic failures that left him $70,000 in debt.

    Bonner sent this"dry test" letter to a rented list of several thousand
homeowners tosee if anyone would read it and respond. His letter —
International Living — entirely fiction and in Bonner's head — was300%
profitable on day one of returns. Wow!

    Bill immediatelyborrowed start-up capital, published the newsletter,
and mailed that veryletter for the next 23 years. 

    Today Bill Bonner’s non-existent newsletter business — 44 years later —
is called The Agora. It’s a mighty conglomerate of 36 global
entrepreneurial publishing companies in 15 countries around the world withrevenues of over $1 billion a year!

=  = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =   

The Most Successful Advertisement
In the History of the World. No Kidding.

Click on the Blue Headlines Below for the Complete Letters.   

 #1: Ed McLean's Newsweek Letter (Mailed for 17 Years.)
    https://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2022/05/156-blog-post-mclean-letter.html
                  

 #2: Bill Bonner's Letter for International Living
         https://drive.google.com/file/d/16S8lGX0_1DaVg3jbO0EcpfgPrgxFj2Lb/view

  #3: Martin Conroy's Wall Street Journal Letter:
    "The Most Successful Advertisement in World History."
https://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2019/01/37-most-successful-advertisement-in.html
           

                  Takeaways to Consider

              — Elmer "Sizzle Wheeler's Wisdom.
            “The first 100 words are more important than the next ten thousand.\

 A Riveting Rave Review of Denny Hatch's Masterpiece.

By Oluchi Samuel
10 December 2024

An official OnlineBookClub.org review of Method Marketing by Denny Hatch.]

               5 out of 5 Stars

Tomake a lot of profit, business owners need to understand and employ marketing. As the name implies, Method Marketing by Denny Hatch is a book that educates readers on method marketing. The author also shares the stories of some people who employed method marketing.

Marketingis the business of acquiring customers and continually thrilling them. Method marketing, on the other hand, is the ability to get inside the heads and under the skin of the people you are marketing your product to. Direct mail is the largest advertising medium, and it is the medium alot of method marketers build their businesses on. The author shared the stories of some marketers with huge businesses. These marketers wereFather Bruce Ritter, Martin Edelston, John Peterman, Bill Bonner, Bob Shnayerson, Curt Strohacker, David Oreck, and William Kennedy. They owned businesses like The Boardroom, J. Peterman Company, Agora Publishing, The Eastwood Company, The Oreck Corporation, and Western Monetary Consultants. He shared their stories, how they started their businesses, and he also dropped points for marketers to pick up from their experiences.

This is a wonderful book with lots of great lessons in marketing. I loved that the author shared some successful marketers' experiences. He used these stories to educate us. He discussed how they started their businesses and some of the mistakes they made along the way. These real-life stories made me understand his lessons quite well. I appreciated them. Readers who are planning on venturing into these businesses could learn a great deal from these stories. The author also exposed me to some businesses I hadn't heard ofbefore, like The Teaching Company, Agora Publishing, Quest/77, and The Oreck Company.

Copywriting is a business venture I have been meaning to start. Luckily for me, I got the opportunity to read this book. The author showed the significance of copywriting and also shared tips on how to write a great copy. It gave me insights and taught me howgood a copy should be written. The story of the First Bank of Troy was one of the stories I loved. The president of the bank, Frank O. Brock, operated a customer-friendly business. He paid personal attention to allhis customers. He would go over lists of customers and call or give personal notes to them at least once a month. As a novice in marketing, Iappreciated the appendix the author added at the end of the book. It saved me a lot of trips to the dictionary.

For all these reasons, I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.It is an amazing book that all marketers should read. There was absolutely nothing to dislike. I found one error, showing that it was professionally edited. I recommend it to marketers and people planning on venturing into marketing, as it contains a lot of tips to flourish inmarketing.
                                     
Method Marketing by Denny Hatch
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Click for a Sample; read the first 31 pages FREE.
No Risk, No Cost, No Obligation.

 

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