Illustration © 2008 by Bobby Ocean
This is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever heard: the perfect blueprint for writing the kind of pop love ballad that radio stations love to play.
It’s the creation of Da Vinci’s Notebook. Thanks to Paul and Storm for giving me permission to share this with you.
My favorite moment is at 3:31, on the word “modulation.”
May, 1994: My first visit to Wisconsin, and my first visit to Minnesota when it wasn’t winter!
First stop was Madison, Wisconsin, where PD Greg Schnirring arranged for me to conduct an air talent seminar for the staff of Wisconsin Public Radio. (Yes, believe it or not, public radio stations occasionally allow a philistine such as I to work directly with their on-air performers.)
Now, I’ve been in more than my share of college towns, but I was surprised at how beautiful Madison was. I found myself fantasizing about renting a cabin by the lake during the summer…and this was just during the ride in from the airport.
Joy Cardin acted as my chauffeur and also handled the numerous details of the seminar itself. We all ate lunch outside the Student Union building, overlooking the lake…Just gorgeous. I wish I could have stayed longer to explore the area.
As soon as the seminar ended, I was whisked back to the airport for a flight to St. Paul, where on the following day I conducted an air talent seminar for Minnesota Public Radio, thanks to Arthur Cohen and Loren Omoto. (If you work in commercial radio, you might not know that Minnesota and Wisconsin have the two of the most successful public radio operations in the country.)
Our seminar was held in a very impressive museum building (the name of which I failed to make note). Our luncheon was held in the building’s cafeteria, where I had the most obvious dish to order when in Minnesota: Chicken Gumbo. (I can’t wait for my next visit to New Orleans, where I’ll be sure to order Minnesota Wild Rice Soup.)
MPR housed me at the Saint Paul Hotel, which is a pretty fancy place with a very good restaurant called “The Grill.” (I dined there that evening with Arthur and his wife, and the food was very good.)
I made a quick trip the following week to Atlanta, where I conducted an air talent seminar for WNNX. GM Mark Renier and PD Brian Phillips had a very successful, high-charged operation there.
I changed planes in Chicago, where I had a disconcerting experience that reminded me of the old Twilight Zone episode about the woman who drove cross-country and kept seeing a strange hitch-hiker (who turned out to be Death).
The restrooms at O’Hare Airport have sinks without faucet handles. They are equipped somehow to sense when you put your hands near the faucet, and the water automatically turns on. At least, that’s how it worked for everyone else. But no matter how hard I tried, how quickly or slowly I moved my hands over the sink basin, the water would not come.
I tried another sink; no luck. I tried EVERY other sink; nothing. But everyone else seemed to have no trouble getting water with which to wash their hands.
My taxi ride back to the airport in Atlanta introduced me to a cab driver who had a speech pattern that I simply could not understand. This, however, did not stop him from talking to me for the entire ride. He would speak a couple of paragraphs and then say, “Y’know what I mean?” (That was the only phrase I could make out entirely.)
Whenever he’d say, “Y’know what I mean,” I would reply, “Yes.” Then he would say — nodding emphatically — “Uh-huh.” And then he’d speak for a few more paragraphs.
We had a wonderful 20-minute conversation….I guess. I have no idea what we talked about, but he seemed pleased that I agreed with him.
Today was a good day.
I have a copywriting client for whom I’ve just completed a second seasonal radio advertising campaign.
The campaign goal: To sell event tickets online.
The commercials run in two different markets — one to the west of the event location, the other to the south.
For the first campaign, I created a commercial that they loved — but that made the Powers That Be a little nervous. They worried that the key reference was a little too “edgy.”
They wanted me to change the reference, to replace it with something similar but less provocative. They even suggested what we could replace it with.
I told them they’d be better off with the “edgy” version. I understood their concerns but knew they were being overly cautious.
Still, the Biggest Power That Be was nervous about my approach, wanted to use the watered-down replacement, and asked me to rewrite the spot to accommodate it.
Okay. I rewrote it so the replacement fit the entire copy. The client was happy. I was disappointed; we had replaced a great spot with a pretty good spot. But that’s the way it goes.
I didn’t hear from them for a while and had made a note to call to find out when the campaign would begin. Before I could call, however, I received an excited e-mail.
After one week of the new campaign airing in Market A, their online sales had doubled. A 100% increase.
“That’s good,” I thought.
Then I looked at the results for Market B: Online sales had tripled.
And oh, by the way, in Market B they had decided to go with my “edgier” commercial.
A 100% increase feels very good. A 300% increase feels exceptionally good.
That was the first campaign.
For the second campaign, once again one of the spots I gave them was — not “edgy,” exactly. But the payoff definitely didn’t fit the kind of advertising usually associated with this particular client.
They loved that spot, just wanted me to replace that one “edgy” word with… anything else. But this time, I couldn’t make the change and still make it work. That one word was key to the entire story. I told them I didn’t know how to make the change without killing the spot.
The next day, another e-mail arrived. “The Biggest Power That Be has decided to go with the (edgy word) commercial!”
They won’t regret it.
Today was a good day.
As you’ve probably noticed, this is a “radio”-oriented blog. But I’m writing this post both for my regular readers and for a number of Internet marketing folks whom I suspect will be dropping by to hear about my screw-ups.
If you’re a radio or advertising person, stick with me through this story and you’ll find a $399 gift awaiting you. (Yeah, with strings attached. But if you’re the right person, you’ll love it.)
Background: In 2006, I launched my 3-day Radio Copywriting Masters class (held in January, 2007). Limited to just 12 people, with me doing every minute of the teaching.
It hardly seemed worth the effort to put up a Web page where prospects could read the “sales pitch” (uh, “valuable information to help them make an informed decision”) and also could register.
Instead, I used one of the techniques I teach my copywriting students: I simply wrote a letter. I explained what I was doing, why I was doing it, who should sign up — all the details. And the last page was the Registration Form, which people were to fill in and fax to me.
I sent an e-mail to my customers and subscribers, along with a link to download the PDF letter.
Pretty low-tech, huh?
But it sold out quickly. In fact, it sold out so fast that most of the world never even heard about the class.
2007: Same thing. No Web page. Just one e-mail to my customers and subscribers, and we sold out.
But Things Changed In 2008.
One Change: I started to hang around (or simply swap a few e-mails) with a number of really smart, super-successful Internet marketing gurus. I mean, some really big names. I listened, I watched, I read…and I realized how much good stuff I wasn’t doing that I should be doing.
Another Change: I added Web Guy #2 (Gustavo) to my staff.
Since going online in 1997, I’ve relied on one extremely good part-time webmaster (Web Guy #1). Part-time because he gets paid big bucks in his Day Job, working for a well-known Internet solutions company. (How we came together is another long story.) In fact, now I’m his only freelance client.
Web Guy #1 is a terrific person, and he’s really good at making things work with limited resources. (And what he doesn’t know, he researches — and refuses to charge me for the time spent researching, because he feels whatever new things he learns will be marketable to others in the future.)
But Web Guy #1 simply doesn’t have time to implement my every online whim immediately. Usually he does stuff for me on weekends. That’s given me a great excuse to keep my site looking really, really good…for 1997.
Web Guy #2, however, is a full-time freelancer. He loves to work, he works fast, and he knows how to do a whole bunch of stuff. I’ve been keeping him busy virtually full-time for several months now.
Here’s Some Of What I Learned About What I Should Have Been Doing.
1. From observing my Internet marketing friends, I realized it was lame to promote my Radio Copywriting Masters class with a PDF letter that people had to download. It made more sense for me to do the work for them, to put it all up there online.
They could click on a link, read the sales page, and if this event was right for them they could register instantly. No more printing out a Registration Page and faxing it to me.
2. Rather than keeping the registration period open-ended, as I did the first two years (it stayed open until 12 people registered), combining scarcity of seats (only 12) with scarcity of time to register would force people to jump off the fence and take action.
As one guy I met this year likes to say, “Acting is easy. Deciding is hard.” Adding the time limit makes it easier for people to decide, because they must decide now.
So I held the registration period open for only 3 days.
3. I was announcing the event too far in advance. Who can commit to traveling to L.A. for 3 days when it’s 3 months away? (I did include a 100% refund for anyone who needed to cancel at least 2 weeks prior to the event, to help ease that worry.) I know people who sell out very high-priced seminars with just 4 weeks’ notice. Plus —
— I fell way behind in my schedule of Stuff I Absolutely Have To Get Done Right Now. That combined with Lesson #3 to result in my waiting until December 10 to announce the Radio Copywriting Masters class for January 16 – 18, 2009.
But at last I was working smarter.
What was the response from my customers and subscribers?
1. “I need something to print out, so I can read it when & where it’s convenient for me. Like…a PDF file!”
2. “I need something to print out — like a PDF file — to show my boss, whom I’ll need to convince to send me to the class. No way can I get him to sit in front of my computer and read your fascinating-but-longish class description.”
3. “I need more than 3 days to decide! Have you forgotten how crazed it is inside a radio station or ad agency in December?”
The Result?
A number of people did rush to sign up as soon as the registration period began. That was good.
But at the end of the 3 days, I still had a few seats left unsold. That was not so good (and a little embarrassing).
So Here Is What I’ve Done.
A) Re-opened Registration. And I’ll keep it open until all 12 seats are sold. (Hopefully that won’t be long, but still…)
B) PDF file for you to download, read, print, distribute to the neighbors…Go nuts!
C) Extended cancellation date to January 2 — two full weeks before the Radio Copywriting Masters Class begins. So if you register now and an emergency arises before January 2, you can cancel with a 100% refund.
D) In addition to the PDF letter, you still can register online.
And The Biggie:
E) Everyone who attends the class also will receive their own copy of How To Create Maximum Impact Radio Advertising — my 7-hour, 6-CD audio package that sells for $399. So after you’ve returned home, overflowing with ideas for producing much greater results for your advertisers and eager to “convert” the rest of your staff —
— Rather than saying, “Gee, I wish you could’ve heard this one example Dan played” or “Dan explained this concept so well, I wish you’d been there…”
…You’ll say, “Here. Listen. Learn. And return these to me, ’cause they’re worth 400 bucks!”
What Lessons Did I Learn?
1. For online registrations, give people a choice of response mechanisms. (This, of course, contradicts what I teach for radio advertising. A good radio commercial has only one Call To Action.)
2. Give my constituency more time to consider making such a big investment of time & money. I know that the “limited availability + limited time to decide” has worked marvelously for other markets. I’m not knocking the concept. It just didn’t work for me in this instance.
3. Try Not To Be So Stupid, Dan. I had January 16 – 18 reserved months ago. I should’ve “opened the doors” 30 or even 60 days earlier. But I was, y’know, busy with other stuff. Kept procrastinating. Not smart of me.
If You’re An Internet Marketer, How Can You Profit From All This?
Try new methods, but don’t assume everything that works for Very Successful, Smart People will work for you.
If You Create Radio Advertising or Imaging, How Can You Profit From All This?
Join us in January. You can download the oh-so-easy-to-read PDF letter here, or you can go right to the Radio Copywriting Masters Web page. (There’s another very cool bonus offered, both in the PDF and on the website.)
