Sell benefits, not features Your reader doesn't care how many teeth are on your machine's gears. He only cares that your machine will...

No surprise, sales prospects have grown increasingly distrustful of advertising. The big surprise is that their skepticism — in an age...

The Small Business Administration says that a small business should devote 5% of its gross sales to advertising. Using the SBA formula, a...

Structure your copy Bob Stone, who wrote the classic book, “Successful Direct Marketing Methods,” says that this architecture makes for...

“Good copywriters are not usually the most imaginative people,” writes nationally respected marketing consultant Terry Dean. “They don’t...

If your advertising’s readers do not believe what you say, you have wasted your marketing dollars — plus reinforcing your audience’s...

Legendary ad man Frank H. Johnson 60 years ago tested if he could boost response to his sales letters by a device known today as...

Herschell Gordon Lewis, the famous marketing sage of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the author of 27 books, once published an article in...

K*I*S*S — “Keep It Simple, Stupid” — long have been watchwords in direct mail. Now, research by Daniel M. Oppenheimer, a Princeton...

Noted British wordsmith Joe Robson and his colleagues offer us Yanks these tips on what makes headlines work: Make Your Headlines Crystal...

Individual Americans now give more than $100 billion a year to nonprofit organizations. Most of their donations come from letters they...

When you are hungry for sales (and who isn’t, these days?), sharpen your sales letter. It is the heart of your direct-mail package — and...

Show your product Your readers—especially those most likely to buy your product—want to know what it looks like. Remember Jay Leno’s quip...

Here are eight questions to ask when you want to evaluate copy without watering down its magic

Almost every direct-mail authority urges advertisers to close letters with a postscript — after its headline, the most-read element in...

Legendary mail-order copywriter Joseph Sugarman thinks that psychological triggers can “increase sales and response beyond what you would...

“If your position requires you to do any formal writing – and nearly every position does – you’ve felt the terror of the blank page.”...

Make your claims specific “Platitudes and generalities roll off the human understanding like water from a duck,” famous advertising man...

Contrary to the common notion that Americans more than 65 years old mainly eke out lives on stingy Social Security pensions, experts...

Marketing consultant Robert Bly has isolated 8 factors that can help keep you from making costly mistakes that could destroy the selling...