smarter than that. Frank Perdue of Perdue Farms stated that over
80 percent of all advertised products fail because the ads treat the
consumers like fools.
People want factsand benefitsand solid ideas.Joe Karbo wrote
a book titled The Lazy Man’s Guide to Riches. The book sold well
and people still talk about Karbo’s advertising. Karbo’s long,
wordy, personal ads were riveting. They motivated many people
to buy his book.
But over 40% of his customers asked for a refund! Why?
Because Karbo didn’t deliver. He created a powerful letter based
on fluff. People fell for it. But nearly half asked for their money
back. And nearly allof his customers never bought from him again.
Yet people still think Karbo (his name reminds me of karb-age)
was a success. They are dazzled by the glittery writing and blind to
the fact that the ad didn’t get what it set out to get: results.
This happens even today. Major advertising firms are given
awards even for their creative ads. Even when those ads didn’t
make a dent in sales. For example, people really love the Isuzu
advertising. It’s been rated as clever and creative. Yet the cars
don’t sell. Which means the ads don’t work! So why are we ap-
plauding them?
A friend of mine told me my copywriting and letter-writing
skills are so good he felt I ought to take some rocks out of my
driveway and sell them as “lucky stones.” He said people would buy
them if I write strong enough copy to sell them.
That’s a belief I am objecting to. Not only is it unethical to do
what my friend suggested, I also think it is cruel. And from a realis-
tic business stance, the idea is a dud. You may fool a reader once,
but ultimately you’ll lose him for life.
Robert Collier, the legendary copywriter who wrote The Robert
Collier Letter Book, blew it once, too. He wrote up a powerful sales
letter to market a series of books he hadn’t even written yet. He
wanted to test the product before he created it.
Collier made history. His letter brought in nearly a 100% re-
sponse. People wanted his books! Collier had to write night and
day in order to write those books and fulfill all the orders.HYPNOTIC WRITING