Event marketers have used tickets for centuries to give their events a special feel of exclusivity and as a way to know who to let in. Tickets are cost-effective attention-grabbers that (done right) can really add spice to your marketing. You can use tickets to fill events, seminars, webinars, teleseminars, even for pre-tradeshow marketing. However, as I’m going to show you in a moment, you don’t necessarily have to be hosting an event to be able to use this attention-grabbing marketing tactic. This means EVERYBODY reading this marketing how-to article, can use this tactic in their marketing.

One such company that used tickets in their marketing was a client of mine who was hosting a local seminar. We came up with the idea of including printed tickets to be sent in a direct mail package to a cold prospect (meaning we bought a list and they were not current clients of my client). We thought we did everything right, but the initial response was only around 1.1%, which we thought was low given the importance of the seminar topic and the fact it was free.

Then I had the idea of sending the package out again, but this time letting them know the tickets were in the envelope by adding a CopyDoodle® on the outside of the envelope. The result was a phenomenal bump in response (to 8.7%) and one of my first CopyDoodles success stories.

Recently, a number of other excellent examples of “ticket marketing” have come across my desk and I thought I would share them here. Probably one of the best examples of using tickets to fill an event (and fill it it did) comes from Mike Crow of Dallas, Texas. At the recent GKIC Info Summit(SM), Mike handed out these great0looking tickets inviting attendees to a special breakfast. They were printed on a high-quality metallic gold paper and they got attention. Notice the effective use of copy cosmetics and good “reason why” copywriting. Nice job Mike and his marketing guy, John!

Speaking of the GKIC Info Summit, GKIC sent out a great looking ticket to help fill that event.

James Malinchak, who spoke at the Info Summit created another great-looking, high-response ticket for his recent bootcamp that had over 600 people in the room.

And finally, to show one more example of using tickets to fill up events, here are the tickets Charlie McDermott and I are using to get business owners to attend our Business and Entrepreneurs Networking meetings (www.benphilly.com). We print these up and hand them out to members to allow them to invite their friends to our next meeting.

But what if you’re not hosting events, can you still use tickets in your marketing? Absolutely and one way to do this, would be to create a graphic that looks like a ticket and use it in your ezines, newsletters, sales letters, HTML emails, web site, etc. The idea is to use the ticket to get attention and get your recipients engaging with your marketing.

This month, I released a Ticket CopyTemplate for my CopyDoodles Access Club Platinum members and it contained a number of ticket templates and special ticket marketing CopyDoodles for our members. One such template was a ticket design just about any business owner could use (as you can see) as an attention-grabber.

So I hope I’ve triggered an idea or two on for you to consider how you can use tickets in your marketing. If you have any other ideas or ways you’ve used tickets in your marketing, leave me a comment below!

Starting a marketing campaign from scratch each and every time is tedious and not a great way to leverage time and creativity, which is why most successful marketers build and maintain a marketing swipe file.

A swipe file is your own personal collection of creative marketing examples that can include direct mail packages, sales letters, emails, advertisements, etc.

Personally, I have several large boxes in my office where I keep my creative marketing examples and my marketing radar is always on – looking for new things to add – which might help me in the future (I recently wrote about just such an example in this article (http://www.mikecapuzzi.com/marketing-ideas).

I also maintain a set of folders on my computer hard drive where I collect and store online creative marketing examples, like emails and web pages.

I use these swipe files to generate ideas and spark creativity. Sometimes I use the materials for to get ideas for my copy writing, but regardless of what I need to accomplish, by simply maintaining a healthy swipe file of both print and web materials, I can beat the blank page blues.

If you haven’t been keeping a swipe file of creative marketing examples, here’s several ideas to help you get started.

Offline Marketing (print) – study the mail you’re receiving each day and be on the look out for unique and creative ideas that grabbed your attention. Read magazines and newspapers and pay attention to the advertisements. Again, you’re looking for examples that catch your attention. Pay particular attention to headlines and eye-catching ads.

Recently I took home several ads, from the SkyMall catalog that you find on every airline flight, because the headlines were so good.

When you attend tradeshows or marketing events, don’t just walk through the vendor area – look for marketing ideas you can use in your business.

Online Marketing (web) – watch for email headlines and emails that grab your attention. Either print them off or store them in a folder on your computer. I like to use SnagIt from TechSmith to capture web sites, optin pages and sales letters. SnagIt take a picture of the entire site – no matter how long it is – and I use it many times throughout the day to build my digital swipe file.

And speaking of swipe files… we just put together a HUGE collection of creative marketing examples from over 160 CopyDoodles members. It’s our brand new CopyDoodles Swipe File book and you can learn more about it by visiting:
http://www.copydoodlesbook.com

The CopyDoodles Swipe File book is the ultimate companion for anybody who uses CopyDoodles to improve their marketing and is the short-cut for smart marketing ideas and strategies for boosting response with over 180 real-world examples from real-world business owners around the world. It’s over 5 lbs. and 700 pages of idea-generating examples covering just about every type of media possible, including...

• Advertisements
• Books
• Business cards
• Emails
• Envelopes
• Faxes
• Flyers
• Greeting cards
• Newsletters
• Order forms
• Postcards
• Sales letters
• Special reports
• Websites

There’s even a CD-ROM containing the full-color versions of each example in the CopyDoodles Swipe File book and a special interview video with a number of individuals who submitted examples describing their marketing and results generated. For example you will see…

• The business card from the dentist in Texas that’s stopping people in their tracks…
• The postcard from the restaurant owner in California that brought in the biggest turnout he’s ever seen in one of his locations…
• The advertisements from the magician in New Jersey that took his marketing to another level…
• The email from the insurance agent in Ohio that brought in 632 more sales…
• And the list goes on.

You can grab your copy of the CopyDoodles Swipe File book and CD at a very special introductory price by visiting:

http://www.copydoodlesbook.com

Finally, one last point I feel it’s important to make – swipe files should be used for inspiration and to spark creative ideas. I do not recommend simply copying these creative marketing examples verbatim.

The bottom line is to always have your marketing radar set to on and keep your eye open for creative marketing examples you can use add to your swipe files!

Starting a marketing campaign from scratch each and every time is tedious and not a great way to leverage time and creativity, which is why most successful marketers build and maintain a marketing swipe file.

Personally, I have several large boxes in my office where I keep my print swipe files and my marketing radar is always on – looking for new things to add - which might help me in the future (just yesterday I received a cool piece of mail from a credit card company and it’s an idea I’m definitely going to swipe for my marketing).

I also maintain a set of folders on my computer hard drive where I collect and store online marketing examples, like emails and web pages.

I use these swipe files to generate ideas and spark creativity. Sometimes I use the materials for to get ideas for my copy writing, but regardless of what I need to accomplish, by simply maintaining a healthy swipe file of both print and web materials, I can beat the blank page blues.

If you haven’t been keeping a swipe file, here are several ideas to help you get them started.

Offline Marketing (print) – study the mail you’re receiving each day and be on the look out for unique and creative ideas that grabbed your attention. Read magazines and newspapers and pay attention to the advertisements. Again, you’re looking for examples that catch your attention. Pay particular attention to headlines and eye-catching ads.

Recently I took home several ads, from the SkyMall catalog that you find on every airline flight, because the headlines were so good.

When you attend tradeshows or marketing events, don’t just walk through the vendor area – look for marketing ideas you can use in your business.

Online Marketing (web) – watch for email headlines and emails that grab your attention. Either print them off or store them in a folder on your computer. I like to use SnagIt from TechSmith to capture web sites, optin pages and sales letters. SnagIt take a picture of the entire site – no matter how long it is – and I use it many times throughout the day to build my digital swipe file.

The bottom line is to ALWAYS HAVE YOUR MARKETING RADER SET TO ON!

And speaking of swipe files… I’m putting together a brand new swipe file book of smart, effective and successful marketing examples and campaigns that used CopyDoodles, CopyComics or any of the other content found on the CopyDoodles Access Club.

All CopyDoodles customers and members are eligible to be included in this book absolutely free (plus I’m going to give you several gifts). It’s a great chance for exposure and free publicity for your business.

To see all the details, visit http://www.copydoodlesbook.com

Finally, one last point I feel it’s important to make – swipe files should be used for inspiration and to spark creative ideas. I do not recommend simply copying large chunks of a sales letter or squeeze page and using them verbatim in your own business.

I’d love to hear your ideas and thoughts on using swipe files in your business. What sort of thing do you store in your swipe files? I’d love to hear from you below!

Fortunately there are number of excellent books and courses for direct response marketers to improve their copy writing skills – unfortunately for the day-to-day business owner, these often take a lot of time and energy to complete.

If this sounds like you, I have good news for you, because in this article I am going to share two very important direct response copy writing techniques that won’t cost you a dime and which will help you to become master direct response marketers in minutes! Trust me, if you implement just these two ideas in your future copy, you should see an immediate improvement in response!

Direct response marketer copy writing tip #1 - Write to only one person

One of the most profound copy writing strategies is to write “me to you.”

In all of our marketing campaigns, we are not writing to just one person and unfortunately our copy sounds vague and impersonal. When you sit down to write an email for your 2,000 person list, your mind is not focused and your writing style suffers. Rather than writing “me to you” you’re writing “me to many” and the difference is obvious.

Here’s a very cool strategy that many successful direct response marketers I know use to help get a crystal clear picture of who you’re writing to.

What you do is you get a photo of your best customer or prospect; the one person who, if you had hundreds more, would take your business to the next level.

Now put this picture in a picture frame and set it right next to your computer monitor and the next time you sit down to write an email, sales letter or some other form of direct response marketing copy, look at the picture and write to this one person!

Great direct response marketers don’t write to the masses – they write to this one person. By doing this, your style and tone will instantly change and will result in a more personal message.

For a recent workshop with direct response marketers, I actually had picture frames made up and on the frame, I had the acronym W.I.I.F.M. imprinted on it, which stands for "What's In It For Me?"

The idea behind this was to remind every attendee to write to their best customer or prospect and to always be thinking “what’s in it for them.”

I use this technique when I sit down to write copy and I suggest you do the same.

Here’s an example of how I use it in my business. Let’s say I want to write an email to my entire list about a webinar I am hosting. I think about certain folks who I believe would benefit the most from the webinar and then I pick one. In this case, Kathee and I write my email to Kathee.

If I have her picture, I literally put that picture in front of me before I write and I will even put her name in the salutation. I type my emails in Word and then we bring them over to Infusionsoft, take out "Kathee," put the merge field in and send it out.

Why do I do this?

Because mentally and physically, I don't want to be writing to the thousands of folks who are on my list, because when I do that, I write in a very impersonal manner and it comes across as impersonal.

But if I'm picturing Kathee and I literally have a picture of Kathee on my desk to remind me of what she looks like and who she is, my writing style is going to be different. And that's the writing style you want to have when you're communicating with your customers and prospects.

Think about this for a second. If you're sending an email to a good friend of yours, odds are, your subject and the way you write the email is extremely different than if you were writing an email to your whole list.

And yet, when we write e-mails, auto-responders and follow-up sequences, you can tell the writer was not thinking of one person but instead shouting out to the masses.

Many direct response marketers simply picture their best target market and writing to that one person. Hence why all their copy will sounds great (and yours will sound better).

Direct response marketers copywriting tip #2 – Write like you talk!

The second tip I want to share is as beneficial as the first and just as simple to implement in your next direct response marketing piece. It also helps reinforce the “me to you” feel of your copy.

The technique, widely used by direct response marketers, is to write like you talk – which is quite different than what we all learned in school.

I don’t know about you, but I grew up in corporate America with a lot of MBA types around me. Trying to digest their written correspondence was like taking a college course and often left me confused and bewildered.

Successful direct response marketers realize, one of the most effective copy writing strategies is to write like you talk, which for some of you may be profoundly different. Forget all the jargon and impressive sounding words. Your marketing copy is not the place for all that.

For me and other successful direct response marketers this means tweaking my copy and removing formal sounding words and phrases – like changing “you are going to benefit” to “you’re going to benefit.”

These simple little changes make your copy sound much less formal and wordy and convey a much friendlier tone.

So there you have it. Two easy-to-implement, copy writing strategies for direct response marketers who want to improve the response of their marketing.

I would love to hear what you think of these strategies and your own techniques for creating a more personal, me to you sound in your copy. If you’re a direct response marketer and writing your own copy, leave a comment below!

One of the critical mistakes made by copywriters and marketers who don’t understand the importance of what I call “copy cosmetics” is creating copy that is hard to read. Not because what it says, but because it’s physically hard to read.

Think about this for a moment. You either spend your time or hard-earned dollars on a professional copywriter to craft a unique and compelling direct marketing message. When the last period is added, you breathe a sigh of relief, and consider your job done.

Not so fast….

Now comes the important task of making your direct marketing copy:

- attention-grabbing
- personal-looking
- and easy-to-read

If you can accomplish these three goals, you’ve definitely increased the chances for a higher response rate versus not spending the time on the look of your copy and direct marketing.

Let’s look at a few direct marketing examples that came across my desk recently and study where they fall short in the copy cosmetics department.

This first example is an ad for a local restaurant in Philadelphia Magazine. Sure, there’s a classy-looking black and white photo to grab your attention, but can you read the copy? Not only is the font too small it’s also “reverse copy” meaning light colored type on a dark background. Knowing the demographic for this high-end restaurant probably doesn’t have the best eyesight, does it make sense to make the ad so unreadable?

Imagine spending the money on creating this direct marketing advertisement and running it in a high-priced magazine, only to fall short on readability.

This is a classic advertising blunder made by advertising agencies who don’t understand copy cosmetics. Their big goal is a nice-looking ad, not response (if you don’t believe me, look at this ad closer and tell how this ad could be measured).

Reverse copy is a definite response-killer and should be used only in certain ways and sparingly at most.

Here’s another example of a nice-looking “special report”, complete with the buff gym owner, but because of the heavy use of reverse copy, it makes the copy very hard to read, even for a younger target market.

Using full background photographs in marketing sure does look nice, but be very careful when placing copy on top of them and if you’re going to try to make somebody read the copy, keep it short and simple and as readable as possible.

Finally, here’s another classic, “let’s make hard it for the reader to read” mistake. This time it’s a direct marketing postcard I received in the mail from a local printing company (you’d think they would understand how to make a postcard easy to read, wouldn’t you?).

Besides not following proven direct marketing principles, check out how the font choice for their five “fresh ways.” Can you read them? Even with the actual postcard in front of you, you would have a very hard time. I have no idea why they decided to use a red, script font for these very important items for their postcard, but their selection of font definitely kills response. Make sure your font choices are readable to your target market and based on the media you’re using.

Not wanting to end this article on a negative note, this postcard does use one or two direct marketing techniques correctly. The black on white paper contrast helps make the overall piece much more readable and their use of a serif font for the body copy is a smart choice, since serif fonts (like Times New Roman, Courier, etc.) make offline direct marketing much easier to read.
The bottom line is the right use of copy cosmetics can make or break your direct marketing piece. Online or offline, it doesn’t matter. You must understand what increase readability and response and what decreases it.

If you want to know the right way to improve the response of your copy and direct marketing, check out my CopyBoosting Profit Secrets home study course. This is the recording of a one-day workshop where I focused on showing the right way to use more than 20 copy cosmetic techniques to improve the attention-grabbing power, readability and response of your direct marketing and copy. Grab your copy at http://www.mikecapuzzi.tv/special

If you’re like me and enjoy food, you naturally understand the value and importance of enhancing the taste of your food with various spices, accents and flavorings. Personally, I am a huge fan of hot and spicy food and I have a new-found passion for the Bhut Jolokia pepper or ghost chili as it’s sometimes known.

For my two daughters, it’s not ice cream if it’s not covered in chocolate syrup and rainbow jimmies.

My point is, when applied correctly, spices and flavorings make something that is good, taste even better. Add too much salt, hot pepper, or even chocolate syrup for that matter and you can ruin a perfectly good dish.

The reason the smart marketer and copywriter uses CopyDoodles (and other copy cosmetic techniques) is to take something that is good and make it better by knowing when and where to add these powerful copy enhancements.

Keeping with the food analogy (remember, I’m Italian) CopyDoodles add S.P.I.C.E. to your marketing or “Super Personal Instant Copy Enhancements.”

The KEY to unlocking the power of CopyDoodles is in knowing which “spice” to add, where to add it and how much to add.

Unfortunately, this is where a lot of marketers make fundamental, but preventable mistakes.

When I am working with private clients or mastermind members, I constantly start with three basic questions:

• Who’s your “who?”

• What’s the context of your relationship with your “who?”

• What’s the one thing you want your “who” to do?

The beauty of CopyDoodles is how fast and simple they are to use, but before I even consider adding a single CopyDoodle to any marketing piece, I give careful consideration to the three questions above.

The answers to these questions tell me what spice to add, where to add it and how much I can add.

Over the years, I’ve seen sales letters that looked like a wall of graffiti. I’ve seen advertisements where CopyDoodles were haphazardly thrown on. And I’ve seen newsletters, emails and other marketing materials where CopyDoodles were incorrectly used, resized, or looked terrible when printed because the person using them didn’t understand the fundamental concepts, techniques and psychology behind the proper use of CopyDoodles.

Truly, there is an art and science behind using CopyDoodles and copy cosmetics in general, which is why for the first time in 3.5 years, I am hosting a four-part, six hour CopyDoodles Best Practices Webinar Series for individuals interested in understanding the best ways to maximize the use of CopyDoodles.

Never before have I covered the A to Z theories, strategies, technical tips and short-cuts in such a concise, easy-to-attend and easy-to-understand way as with this series of webinars that you can attend from the comfort of your home or office.

This will be the most complete, advanced, with “insider secrets” training I have ever done on the power and use of CopyDoodles in both offline and online marketing. Even if you’re an experience CopyDoodles user, you will learn new ways to improve the look and response of your marketing.

The fee to attend the live webinars (and get access to the video replays) is downright cheap. I hate to use that word, but it’s a fact. For the level of training and insights I am going to deliver on these webinars, you’ll be kicking yourself for missing it. Just one, simple idea or strategy taken from the six hours of training could provide a phenomenal return on your investment.

Check out http://www.copydoodles.com/training for all the details, including my risk-free guarantee.

Today, more than ever, creating marketing that gets the attention of your target market and gets them to respond is critical.  We all know what it’s like out there and the challenges we all face in getting our message heard and acted on.

And while there are many “shiny objects” that promise to solve this, in my opinion you should never discount the tried and true strategies successful marketers have used in the past.  This is why CopyDoodles® have proven to be so successful.  I did not invent the concept of handwritten margin notes and doodles for adding attention-grabbing, response-boosting power.  I simply made it drop-dead easy for ANYBODY to do in their marketing.

With the opening of the brand new CopyDoodles Access Club later this month, I am taking the power of CopyDoodles to a whole new level.  One simply unmatched by any other site or product out there – bar none, but also deeply rooted to proven, emotional direct response marketing.  This site has the power to transform your marketing and I am going to show you exactly how in this series of videos.

If you haven’t already, check out http://www.copydoodles.com to see my overview videos under "Demos."

Today’s video shows you the power of my enhanced CopyGenerators.  CopyGenerators allow you to create customized and personalized marketing graphics that stand out and get the attention of your readers online or offline.

There’s truly nothing like my CopyGenerators out there.  Check out this short video to see for yourself.

http://www.copydoodles.com

Here’s a quick list of the improvements we’ve made:

•    Improved CopyBubble Generator allows you to create “bubble text” on-the-fly

•    Enhanced CopyButton Generator features more Web button styles and the ability to easily customize every feature of the buttons, including the ability to have handwriting on your buttons!

•    Our new CopyDoodle Generator allows you to create your own CopyDoodles instantly via a brand new "what you see is what you get" feature.

•    Improved CopyNotes Generator allows you to create handwritten notes on a variety of new background images and even easier to use!

•    Enhanced CopyStamps Generator allows you to create simulated rubber stamps in seconds!  You can now see your CopyStamp before downloading and even add a "worn" look to your stamp.

•    With our famous CopyComic Generator, you can create customized, attention-grabbing (and fun) comics with just a few clicks!

I invite you to take a few minutes and check out my latest video to see each of these in action and leave me a note about your thoughts on our new CopyGenerators.  One lucky person, who leaves a comment, will win a full-blown version of my Copy Booster Profit Secrets course valued at $497.  Check it out now at:

http://www.copydoodles.com

My fax back was short and to the point… HELL YEAH!!!

I own the very first edition (1990) of The Ultimate Sales Letter and it was the book that introduced me to Dan Kennedy and his powerful marketing strategies.  To be asked personally by Dan to contribute to the 2011 edition of this book is an honor and shows how important Dan considers the topic of “copy cosmetics.”

As a matter of fact, back in May, I was the guest of Dan at his Business of Copywriting Academy where I discussed the topic of copy cosmetics and the critical relationship between HOW your copy looks and the response it gets.

Over the past few years, I’ve immersed myself in the study of copy cosmetic techniques and strategies.  One of these techniques includes the use of handwritten margin notes and doodles, which triggered the idea for CopyDoodles® first for my own client work and most recently for thousands of business owners around the world.

Copy cosmetics are an often overlooked, but critically important topic for any direct response marketer or copywriter.  Their proper use allows you to create attention-grabbing marketing that is easy (and fun) to read and makes an emotional connection with the reader.  Plus they set you apart from the 97% of marketers who don’t use them.

Plain Vanilla Letter

Letter Using Several Copy Cosmetic Strategies!

I’ve already started working on the chapter outline and I’ve identified 27 unique copy cosmetic strategies everybody should be using when crafting their copy (online or offline – it doesn’t matter).

Just today I was interviewed by restaurant marketing expert Rory Fatt, on how independent restaurant owners can use these techniques (if you would like a copy of this interview along with a cheat sheet of 27 techniques I will be writing about in the next edition of The Ultimate Sales Letter, simply share your copy cosmetic thoughts below and I will make sure we email it to you when it’s ready).

We’ve just released 20 fun new CopyComics, including 10 restaurant-themed specific comics on our membership site. CopyComics are copyright free comics for marketers and they may be customized via our CopyComic Generator.

Also just released is a brand new CopyTemplate. CopyTemplates are templates you can customize for your specific marketing needs.

This month, it’s a single-sheet, double-sided self-mailer CopyTemplate which is sure to get the attention of your reader! On the outside you can place any one of a number of check or certificate images and on the inside there is room for a single page letter.

Included in this CopyTemplate are graphics you can customize for your specific needs, including a “stimulus check”, gift certificate, raffle ticket and service certificate. We’ve also included a number of unique CopyDoodles related to each graphic.

This is a great template to use for direct mail or a flyer and you can easily create it right in your own office!

Current CopyDoodles.com members may log in and begin using immediately. If you’re not a CopyDoodles.com member, please visit http://www.copydoodles.com.

The Carly Edition is a set of over 790 new CopyDoodles in a unique handwriting style.  As part of the release, we’ve included the matching Carly Edition CopyFont.

This month we’ve also added our “While You Were Out” CopyTemplate-of-the-Month.  This fun, attention-grabbing piece is perfect for postcards, flyers or large self-mailers.  It resembles the pink notes we are all familiar with and it’s sure to grab the attention of your readers.

And finally, we added 20 new CopyComics, bringing the total number of CopyComics to 335.  CopyComics are fun, attention-grabbing cartoons designed for marketers.  You can even customize their captions with our CopyComic Generator!

If your not yet a CopyDoodles.com member, please visit:

http://www.copydoodles.com

And don’t forget about our CopyDoodles Challenge!  We’ve been getting some neat submittals so don’t miss your chance to win a one-day mastermind experience with me and a great group of entrepreneurs in Philadelphia and join us to watch a Phillies game in my private suite!