What Harry Potter can teach you about writing great copy

By Robert W. Bly

J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, is the richest woman in Britain. With a net worth of more than a billion dollars, she has more money than the queen!

Hard at work on the seventh and final installment of the series, Rowling revealed in a recent interview a fact that shocked me: she had written the final chapter to book seven more than 15 years ago, before she had a publisher for the first Harry Potter book.

That way, she explained, she knew how the series was going to end before she wrote it – and by extension, all the action is a preamble to that conclusion.

When you think about it, direct response copywriting works the same way: every word you write is designed to drive the reader inexorably toward the response device and motivate him to complete and return the order form.

Therefore, if we follow Rowling’s approach, we should write the order form – not the envelope teaser, letter headline, or lead – first.

The more irresistible the offer in the order form copy, the easier it will be to drive your reader toward it.

Here are 5 tips for creating stronger order form copy:

1. Make the most enticing offer possible.

Of course, you don’t know which offer will pull best.

All you can do is use your experience and intelligence to create offers that seem test-worthy, and then go ahead and test them.

Your tests determine which offer is the winner – the strongest and most enticing. Then you roll out with that offer.

If you have a particularly strong offer, don’t just relegate it to the order element. Feature it up front.

Years ago, the McGraw-Hill Chemical Engineer’s Book Club made a spectacular offer: join us and get a Perry’s Handbook – a massive, expensive, and essential reference manual for chemical engineers – for essentially just shipping and handling.

Their successful control put this powerful offer right on the outer envelope. Teaser: “Why is the McGraw-Hill Chemical Engineers’ Book Club giving away -- practically for FREE – this special 50^th Anniversary Edition of Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook?” The mailing became the control.

2. Make the product affordable – or create the impression that it is.

Make the price seem like a bargain. One way to do this is to state the price in language that makes it seem small. For instance, a one-year newsletter subscription for $100 costs “just 27 cents a day … less than the price of a cup of coffee.”

I recently published an e-book compendium of copywriting tips from top copywriters and marketers, for which I wanted to charge $39.

When my freelance editor gave me the first draft, it contained 34 copywriting tips from 34 different experts.

I told him to add at least half a dozen more chapters so that we would have at least 40 chapters.

When he asked why, I explained that, with a $39 price tag and 40 chapters, I could in my copy say that we were offering these powerful copywriting secrets from the masters “for less than a dollar per secret.”

3. Stress the guarantee.

A 30-day or 60-day money-back guarantee is, in essence, a risk-free home trial. If the product is shipped on a bill-me basis, it is a free home trial. Even stronger: you pay for the return shipping and even send UPS to pick up the product if the customer wants to send it back.

Especially if your competitors do not offer it, a free home trial can be a powerful offer. You can tell the reader: “Send no money now. We’ll rush you our gizmo for inspection. Use it for a full month. If you don’t love it, we’ll come to your house and pick it up at our expense. That way, trying our gizmo has cost you nothing. There’s no risk. You can’t lose.”

4. Sell the premium, not the product.

A strong premium has three characteristics. First, it is highly desirable, meaning when prospects read about it, they want it.

Second, it has a high perceived value in relation to its actual cost. An e-book makes a good premium because it has a perceived value of at least $29, but costs you practically nothing to deliver.

Third, it’s unusual. Example: a publisher selling a newsletter on offshore investing offered to open a Swiss bank account for anyone who subscribed.

5. Show that the price is a drop in the bucket when compared to the value.

Here’s an example: you are selling a software package. The “list price” is $400. Your direct mail promotion offers it for $300, a 25 percent discount off the regular rate. The prospect saves $100.

Or you are selling an investment newsletter for $100. When the prospect subscribes, he gets 6 special reports with a cover price of $19 each. At that rate, the value of the premiums exceeds the entire cost of the product. Another way to look at it is that for $100, he gets $114 worth of reports, and so the newsletter is in essence free.

The imperative to drive the reader toward action – either an order or an inquiry – is what sets direct response apart from all other marketing.

By writing the most dramatic (appealing) order form (ending) first, you – like J.K. Rowling – can make your entire promotion (story) more powerful, appealing, and compelling to your readers … and perhaps, like Rowling, get rich in the process.

About the author:

Robert W. Bly is a freelance copywriter and the author of more than 60 books including The Copywriter’s Handbook (Henry Holt & Co.). His e-mail address is rwbly@bly.com and his Web site address is www.bly.com.

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