Curiousity Didn’t Kill Just The Cat
 

Here it is again. An internet guru (a name you know) says about headlines:

“It’s essential that your headline promise one or more specific benefits. ‘Curiousity’ headlines don’t work.”

Wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve seen this. I always feel guilty when I read it.

I wonder what’s wrong with me?

Lots, no doubt, but let me plod on with my thought.

There’s probably no piece of marketing lore more universally accepted than “Curiousity headlines don’t work.”

Or more untrue, in my experience.

Some of my headlines that have built businesses:

“Tomato Warning!”
“Dead Doctors Don’t Lie!”
“The Strangest Nutritional Secret!”
“I REALLY Expected To Be Dead By Now!”

I’ve really tried. I’ve tested benefit-oriented heads. They didn’t pull as well as my “curiousity” heads.

I don’t know why. But I have a theory.

In researching press releases a few months ago, I came across a poll of media editors. The question was, what types of stories do they most want?

Their subjects:

1. human interest (stories that choke you up or make you smile)
2. personal relationships under pressure
3. bulletted tip lists
4. unique stuff: achievements or ideas, websites or products
5. stories with political or social impact
6. humor, wisdom, fun, tragedy
7. holiday/event stories

The reason they want these types of stories is, that’s what appeals to their readers. If you’re writing a press release, it’s easier to get it published if it focuses on one of these subjects. And if you carry the idea of the “advertorial” to its logical conclusion, then your ad copy would be best to include human interest stuff or … Tell a story.

And we know that stories sell. But I think ads with benefit-laden headlines are far less inclined to tell a story.

Much of today’s direct marketing orthodoxy has sprung from Jay Abraham … either directly from Jay … or through him, from those before … or from those were taught by Jay … or from others who saw how well Jay did selling his experience, and decided to compete with him.

I met Jay at his weeklong Protégé Seminar in 1989. He told us the reason he wrote long headlines was, he didn’t have enough confidence to write short ones. (If you know Jay, you probably don’t believe he’d ever say such a thing. But I swear on a stack of YMGAW!s and FYMEO!s, it’s true.)

False modesty on Jay’s part? Probably. But there is another possibility: it could be the truth.

I wonder if Jay really did extensive testing, or just tried a couple of curiousity heads that didn’t work … and since then, everyone he’s taught has spread the message.

There’s certainly a lot of logic to it.

Other than it isn’t true, of course.

Richard Dennis

PS - THIS may bring out the real Michael Ross.

Re: Curiousity Didn’t Kill Just The Cat
 

Richard wrote -

> “It’s essential that your headline promise
> one or more specific benefits. ‘Curiousity’
> headlines don’t work.”

I wonder why they would say that. If I remember right, Caples said in one of his books, (forgot which just now), that curiosity headlines *do* work. And your testing bears that out. I usually use benefit oriented headlines myself but maybe this is a good case for testing some curiosity headlines.

Rick Smith, "The Net Guerrilla"

Re: Curiousity Didn’t Kill Just The Cat
 

Hi Rick,

> I wonder why they would say that. If I
> remember right, Caples said in one of his
> books, (forgot which just now), that
> curiosity headlines *do* work.

Actually, I remember him saying that Curiosity by itself didn't work, but combined with something else (eg. like with a self-interest headline or a news-style headline) it did work....

I thought Richard's post was very interesting in the light of that....

However, I don't have my copy of John Caples' "Tested Advertising Methods" with me just now to look it up....

Thanks for reminding me to look it up, though Rick... :)

Cheers,

Dien

What TWO Master copywriters did....
 

Richard,

There's a lot of wisdom in your post if you read it carefully.... You pack a lot of great stuff into a small area... :)

> “It’s essential that your headline promise
> one or more specific benefits. ‘Curiousity’
> headlines don’t work.”

> Wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve seen
> this. I always feel guilty when I read it.

> I wonder what’s wrong with me?

> Lots, no doubt, but let me plod on with my
> thought.

> There’s probably no piece of marketing lore
> more universally accepted than “Curiousity
> headlines don’t work.”

> Or more untrue, in my experience.

> Some of my headlines that have built
> businesses:

> “Tomato Warning!”
> “Dead Doctors Don’t Lie!”
> “The Strangest Nutritional Secret!”
> “I REALLY Expected To Be Dead By Now!”

> I’ve really tried. I’ve tested
> benefit-oriented heads. They didn’t pull as
> well as my “curiousity” heads.

I find that VERY interesting.... I think I prefer reading curiosity headlines myself. Guess I'm a curious fellow. :)

I have TWO favorite copywriters (though it's expanding to three).... One of them is, guess who, Gordon Alexander. The other is Joseph Sugarman. And as for the third.... I'm really beginning to admire Richard Dennis!

Joe Sugarman writes a lot of curiosity headlines.... Here are a few from the back of his book "Success Forces".... (All these ads are from the 1970s)

the End (for a new type of calculator)
Checkbook with a brain (for a "checkbook holder" with a "built-in computer")
Miracle Fuzz (for a negative ion generator)
Soviet Challenge (for a chess computer)
Bone Fone (for some sort of portable stereo radio system)

I don't have my copy of Sugarman's "Advertising Secrets of the Written Word" with me just now, but I think one of Joe Sugarman's headlines from that is

Pickle Power (for a new type of rechargeable battery)

> I don’t know why. But I have a theory.

> In researching press releases a few months
> ago, I came across a poll of media editors.
> The question was, what types of stories do
> they most want?

> Their subjects:

> 1. human interest (stories that choke you up
> or make you smile)
> 2. personal relationships under pressure
> 3. bulletted tip lists
> 4. unique stuff: achievements or ideas,
> websites or products
> 5. stories with political or social impact
> 6. humor, wisdom, fun, tragedy
> 7. holiday/event stories

Richard, that's a golden list! Thanks for sharing it.... :)

As I said, Gordon Alexander is my other favorite copywriter.... And Gordon uses a lot of interesting stories in several of his promotions.... I can't help but enjoy reading them! :) In Remote Hypnosis he also shares some of his other successful techniques....

> The reason they want these types of stories
> is, that’s what appeals to their readers. If
> you’re writing a press release, it’s easier
> to get it published if it focuses on one of
> these subjects. And if you carry the idea of
> the “advertorial” to its logical conclusion,
> then your ad copy would be best to include
> human interest stuff or … Tell a story.

> And we know that stories sell. But I think
> ads with benefit-laden headlines are far
> less inclined to tell a story.

It makes a lot of sense to me....

Thanks Richard, for that dose of wisdom....

By the way, if you've liked Richard Dennis's posts, you'll love his web site.... I've linked to it below.... (Hope that's okay Richard. :)

Be sure to check it out!

Dien


Say Big dot com

Guess what I'm doing...
 

>

Did curiosity get you to look at this post?

Here's what I guessed!
 

Sandy, you got me! :)

I guess you know what I did, to answer the question in your post.... :)

Dien

P.S. I think curiosity headlines DO work!

I mentioned Joe Sugarman earlier... His technique (in a nutshell) is this....

What's the purpose of the headline? To get you to read the first line of body copy....

What's the purpose of the picture, and the caption on the picture? It's also to get you to read the first line of body copy....

And what's the purpose of the first line of body copy? To get you to read the SECOND line of body copy....

And so on.... Of course, the sales pitch must come in there somewhere. But he uses your CURIOSITY to get you to read further, then he EDUCATES you about the product....

And the sales pitch often comes right at the very end....

It's a fascinating technique. :)

I think there are many techniques which work.... It's good to learn about them all (in my view).... :)

Gordon Alexander also often uses curiosity, sometimes within a story context.... And this can also be combined with building rapport....

I think THAT can be a powerful technique! I'm amazed how many people don't realize how powerful the "story" approach can be....

As you can tell, I try to study ALL the geniuses! :)

Some of them charge ridiculously large amounts for just a little bit of knowledge (I won't name any names here), while others are practically giving it away (like Gordon is -- Remote Hypnosis is, in my opinion, quite a give-away)....

But, if they clearly know what they're talking about, get their product. That's what I do.... :)

Learning new things is the best kind of fun you can have with the lights on.... :)

Stray Cat Eats 747
 

Sydney - The owners of a cat in Sydney's western suburbs have discovered that over the last twelve months their little precious has eaten 747 mice.

"Fatso", the cat, "seems to think of them as chocolate bars", said the pet's owners.

Do Gooder groups are outraged. They've taken a petition up on behalf of the mice to have Fatso put to sleep.

"It's just not right" says Do Gooder Smith. "Who's going to look after those poor defensless church mice? If someone doesn't do something then Fatso could cause an environmental imbalance. And besides, what if a child saw the dead mouse. We can't have our children seeing dead rodents. It will effect them and they'll all turn into rampaging homocidal maniacs later in life"

Richard,

All the rules of writing sales letters are wrong, Wrong, WRONG!

AIDA, ACIBASWAN, USP-IN-YOUR-FACE, etc., etc., are all wrong.

I mean, really, look at AIDA.

Attention. Grab your reader's attention. Oh gee how do I do that? I know, I'll use an attention grabbing headline. And what is an attention grabbing headline? Oh... it's words, just words. Any words. But BIG and BOLD>. Nothing more.

It could say anything at all and someone will read it. You'll have their attention for a split second. Mission Accomplished. Next.

Interest. Generate interest.

Desire.

Yawn.

If you want to go through all that, fine. Be my guest. But it'll all amounts to ZIP unless you send it to the right person first.

Oh... you're going to send it to them? Then they're already interested, aren't they? They already have desire, don't they?

Send it to the right person and it'd have to be pretty bad for them not to read it.

But then all the hype isn't needed, is it?

Nope. All that's needed then is info. Provide enough info. and the reader will fill in all the blanks for you.

Succeed In Life.

Pretty non-specific. Succeeding means different things to different people. They fill in the needed blanks.

Get What You Want In Life.

Same here.

I Ate My Neighbors Dog And He Thanked Me For It.

Wow. That's interesting. I might read a bit more of that one. Even if I never have the intention of eating my neighbors dog.

Eyes on text is what it's all about. How you do that is,

NIKE STYLE.

Just do it. WHATEVER works. Nothing more, nothing less.

Confused?

So am I. But I've found something to help me when I am confused. It's called the Confuse-o-matic. With it I can...

Who cares?

Not me.

The BEST sales letters are not sales letters.

I believe people are like cats. Push them and they push back. Pull them and they pull away.

Time to name names.

Bill Myers wrote two letters. One sold a Watch Video and Book package. The other sold subscription to a video newsletter. BOTH of those sales letters are brilliant.

Both make an offer on the last page. All the previous pages are full of info. only. Info. about the market and not the product.

In the watch package he talks about watches and finding them and making money from them and what others pay for them.

In the video letter he talks about the industry as a whole.

By then end of both you have SOLD YOURSELF.

He recently stopped writing his online newsletter. A newsletter which was, in essence, a never-ending sales letter.

He talks about Newsletters in his newsletter. Then bingo-boingo, he releases a "How to start your own newsletter" product.

He talks about webcams. Bingo-boingo. Webcam product.

And so on and so forth.

All the while just talking about something and letting YOU get yourself excited about it. So much so, that in the end all he does is mention that he's made a product about the thing he's been talking about for the last few months and people lap it up.

No hype. No headlines.

Just what works.

He came to Australia and did an internet seminar in the north. A seminar or an education process that allowed you to talk yourself into how wonderful the net was so you'd be eager to invest in the thing he just happened to have (webpages) that would allow you to get your online business going?

What was this thread about again?

Whatever. I've gone off track if there was one. :o)

Headlines... Sales letters... Ads... the only thing that matters is what works, for you.

No rules.

Some Will Say I'm Wrong For Writing This. I Say...

I've covered all bases. WHATEVER WORKS is what matters.

Letters that are more education then hype, hype, benefit headlines, curiosity headlines, non of it matters. All that matters is,

does it work?

If yes, then keep doing it. If no, then stop and do something else.

So that's three rules.

1: Whatever works.
2: If is works keep doing it.
3: If it doesn't work, stop and do something else.

Well, go to get back to the All Knowing Eye... the Olympics are on you know. :o)

Michael Ross.