Unlock the Secrets to a $200,000 Control Package and Dominate Your Competition
Published: Mon, 05/01/23
Unlock the Secrets to a $200,000 Control
Package and Dominate Your Competition
When your clients pit
you in a royalty battle against other copywriters, your objective is to beat their control.
When you do, you get the money and they don't. Because the money can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, a victory is like winning the
Superbowl.
As a result…
You need to put your thinking cap on and dig deep into your direct response bag of tricks.
Here's how I created one $200,000 control
The year was 2007, and the biggest winning promotions were China-focused for the China Strategy newsletter. China was hot and virtually every promotion my client sent out had a China theme for a China newsletter.
In order to make
the big bucks, you need to not just beat the control for your publication but for all publications.
It was a meritocracy--and the best-performing email promo gets the bag of gold.
If I
could not beat the control for China Strategy for my franchise of Blue Chip Growth, well, I would never make the big bucks.
So I broke down all of the competitors’ emails. I sat there in front of the computer thinking, "OK, how can I crush what he is doing
while I am limited by NOT being able to sell anything on the China theme?"
Then it occurred to me.
I'm going to crush him with a better offer.
As you know, or may not, in the 40/40/20 rule of direct response marketing, 40% of your success has to do with the offer, 40% has to do with the list, and 20% has to do with the creative.
Since we were both going to the same list and I was every bit as good (and some would say better!) than the other copywriter, I was going to make my offer the difference.
That is what I did.
I constructed an offer that was so simple that I could not lose.
What was it?
"50% Richer in Six Months or FREE."
And I did it with a text ad!
Here's the best
part.
It was 100% factual.
You
see…
Not only could I prove that readers could achieve those
results, but I could also guarantee it -- or they would get their money back with a huge and believable guarantee.
This is how I beat him…
Not just once…but for months.
Because I was getting paid 1 cent an email, every 500,000 roll-out paid me an easy $5,000.
The best part?
They rolled it out once a week for nearly two months...and then would drop it monthly for nearly two years.
AND I wrote the whole thing in less than a day.
Over the years, I would say that I made $200,000 in the one email because when other
controls would fatigue, my publisher would roll it out again and it would continue to bring in the dough not just for them, but for me.
Here’s the best part:
As I wrote it I could feel the magic coming out of my fingers. I was not only a man on a
mission to steal the royalties from that other copywriter BUT I was also in the zone.
It was as
if everything I learned about copywriting over the years was coming out in a stream of persuasive consciousness that found its way onto the page.
It was one of the most powerful emails I had written at that time because it spoke directly to that one reader--combining greed and guarantee with a “godfather-like” appeal that readers could not say no
to.
It was, as I like to say, “the cookie to the dog” and the reader came running for it as if they had
not been fed for years.
When I was working, I never shared this promotion with anyone since I did not want them to use my techniques to beat my control.
Let me explain…
That is what the publishers would do. They would pit all the top copywriters against each other in a battle
for royalties and profits.
It then became my job to make them money, and not theirs.
Again, this is why I never shared this email with anyone, as it formed the foundation of many, many, many email controls over the years.
Now that I’ve retired, I’ve decided to share it with a
small circle of writers so that they can benefit from its incredible selling power.
So what was it about this e-letter that made it so powerful?
The blending of offer, credibility, proof, and guarantee that made readers do a swan dive into
the order form.
I used this same format, headline, transitions, and call to action in dozens of emails,
direct mail packages, and landing pages over 30 years.
Today, I am making this control email available to a small circle of copywriters who are looking for another winning example of a million-dollar email to steal ideas from.
Here’s what you’ll see in this control and video breakdown, including how I:
Challenged the reader
Established credibility
Prove beyond doubt investors would make money
Guaranteed incredible results or their money back.
That was something my competitors were not doing.
As a result, my average order size was crushing his!
As you’ll see, it’s a copywriting lesson in and of itself, one of my prized possessions, and possibly one of the highest-value swipes in my collection.
That’s why I’ve priced it at such a high premium and limited this release to just 20 copies.
If you would like to add one of the most powerful short-form emails I have ever written to your swipe file, this would be it.
As a seasoned direct response copywriter, Doug has created hundreds of profitable direct mail packages, emails, and video sales letters for the world's largest specialized information publishers—generating over $100 million in direct sales.