Do The Old Direct Mail Copywriting Techniques Work Anymore?
I’ve seen more than a few people who start to learn copywriting and wonder if it all still works. After all, the best examples are from decades ago and the world is very different now. So they ask themselves, “Does copywriting still work?”
This is a pretty straightforward question to answer.
First of all, think in terms of the principles. There’s only one conclusion: They obviously work.
In any format, the following will be true:
- Building rapport with a reader will help the sale
- Creating a strong headline will get a person’s attention
- Using personal anecdotes will help build rapport
- Facts, figures and science are supporting evidence that’ll persuade a sale
- A strong call to action will cause more people to buy than a weakly worded call to action
- In addendum to that; asking for the sale will bring more sales than not doing
Then the techniques:
- Creating limited time offers to give the idea of scarcity
- Crafting funnels that target a specific person through the journey from interested to buyer
- Listing features as benefits that speak to certain problems
- Targeting and retargeting to appear omnipresent to potential buyers
- Filtering buyers by triggers
- Using specific triggers to cause an impulse to buy
Most marketers would agree that all of those things are common sense. So what’s the problem?
When it comes to looking at old Gary Halbert letters or adverts from the “glory days” of advertising (even though we’re living in them right now,) there’s a pretty superficial element that even so-called experts can’t seem to look past.
Let’s talk about that now.
Finally, and this is what gets people… the wording and language of old ads.
Should You Use The Same Language And Wording As A Copywriter From The 1970’s?
The answer in almost all cases is “no.”
The hilarious thing about a lot of direct response naysayers and even marketing professionals in general is that they’ll say things like, “Sales doesn’t work anymore! You can’t trick people into buying stuff anymore!”
That was never the case. People back in 1950 weren’t any more stupid than people today are. Anyone who says, “That copywriting stuff won’t work today because people are wiser” is an idiot. I honestly don’t care if they work for an agency in New York or they have thirty years of marketing experience.
The reason that old copywriting looks old is because it is old. The triggers and conventions are different now.
Sending a handwritten letter in 1970 was a sure-fire way to differentiate and build rapport. Sending a handwritten letter today works if it still builds rapport but if it doesn’t do that, then it won’t work.
The words are the same. Back in 1970, the way to get to a person through direct response was to start a letter with, “Hello friend” or “Dear private investor…”
The whole point was to fake familiarity.
When people criticise the words from old copywriting examples, they miss the fundamental point: It’s not about the words per se. so much as it’s about what the words do.
No, in most cases you can’t take an advert from 1965 and run it today and have it be as effective as it was in the past. But you can say, “This advert achieved this by saying that” and do the same thing with today’s language.
You wouldn’t get a time machine, go back to 1950 and use today’s language to sell there. It’d be dumb. The same is true with today.
Look at the meaning and rewrite it in today’s terminology.
Final Thoughts
The key takeaway from this is that you must write to your audience, but the techniques still work. The principles behind the techniques will always work. They tap into human nature and if we’re totally authentic, it’s a science.
Scarcity always works because if it’s real, then scarcity is a scary thing. You don’t buy, you miss out. There’s nothing about that that’ll ever ring false, save for if humans manage to create some Star Trek replicator.
Getting real value always works. Solving problems always works. It doesn’t matter if you’re online or writing a handwritten letter, if you demonstrate value, promise more value and deliver even more than both of those things, then copywriting will always work.