If you had to recommend one book...

I wouldn't say I'm a pro, but I wouldn't say I'm a complete beginner either. I'm familiar with how to make a headline, bullets, and how to structure a sales letter (state problem, hint at solution, tell them how you discovered solution, etc.).

But, my sales letters don't convert as well as I would like them too. That's why I wanted to see which out of the two books (if I had to read one) would help me.

I'm kind of shying away from Breakthrough Advertising because I've heard it's veryyyyy heavy and dry.

Also, I want to freshen up on the basics, while still learning new things to improve my copy overall.

Hellor Steve,

"Advertising is salesmanship in print. Therefore, above everything else, advertising is the literature of desire" -pg 77 Sentence 1&2

Hellor Steve,

I'm with you about wishing I had this book back in 93' when I first started writing copy.

It wasn't until years later Brian Kurtz sent me a copy. Come to think of it, about 2 years ago is when he sent it to me. The moment I got it, I dove right in. Cover to cover.

"A-Ha" moments and shaking my head "Yep, yep, that's right" pummeled my thoughts.

Since then I've read it multiple times. Each time curled up in a blanket with hot, burn the top of your mouth, cocoa. With each new read, I always come away learning something new or reinforcing a practice and a blister.

But honestly, having a sales background myself and owning multiple service businesses, it has never been a hard or deep read for me.

When I read the words and explanations about:

Identification, Gradualization, Intensification, Character Roles, Achievement Roles & etc...

I'm reading with eyes of an existing business owner/salesman and seeing basic sales 101 training being broken down and explained to it's lowest common denominator.

Beliefisms twisted and turned to sell the reader on how to look at selling in print, the market, the reader, desires, wants, needs and understand the mechanics behind it.

Sales jargon from an advertising/copy writing point of view, if you will.

But as mentioned, that's how it comes across to me. What I read makes complete and practical sales sense.

But the deep academic read is just not there for me.

Or maybe I'm just a loon... Who knows?

But my recommendation for the OP is still "Breakthrough Advertising"

Chinchilla

I recall Carline Anglade Cole's headline for an eyesight remedy
tackling the customer scepticism about 2 ingredients head on....

The ingredients in the product she was writing for
were the same as in the headline.

She turned the negative into a positive by giving evidence all others
were of such low dose that they wouldn't work.

Of course, it went on to become a control.

And yes the theme played to the reader's dominant emotion
about those ingredients for eyesight remedies.

That's one of many examples I could come up with, including
ones I've written.

Best,
Ewen

P.S. Great subject btw.

Hellor Steve,

Stage 5 - My Firsthand Encounter - Years Later Confirmed Through Breakthrough Advertising

In 1995 this stage took North America by storm in the auto industry. Primarily Ford Motors. Some might argue GM back in 84 on the Corvette but they had a visual in place. (Security Diode Shown Here)



Two years earlier I had opened a little automotive/truck locksmith business. I wrote sales letters and ads promoting my services.

In those days generating a lost or duplicating vehicle keys, from Bugatti to Ford, Bentley to Dodge, Rolls to Datsun (For Nissan Haters) always the same process. Pure mechanical.

Those fledgling copy writing efforts paid off handsomely the first 2 years with my market...

until...

Well out rolls the 1995 Ford Taurus SHO and Ford Mustang GT models. Unbeknownst to the public and kept hidden from the after market service businesses, these vehicles came equipped, from the factory, with Transponder (computer chip) key technology.

This system could not be removed, disabled or bypassed. It controlled the fuel pump, injectors, relays, starter and security alarm system. When the correct programmed key turned in the ignition, the computer authorized all these features to fully function.

When turning a non-programmed key in the ignition, nothing happened. Vehicle appeared to have a dead battery.

What looked like a regular key, with a large black head, but mounted in that bow (part of key you hold) the end user doesn't get to see the glass chip. (Shown here).

And if the public can't see it, it doesn't exist.



Here's where Stage 5 bit my business in the ass.

Customers did not, would not, short of calling me a heretic, believe their new Ford vehicle had computer chip keys, which first had to be mechanically made, to turn in the locks, but now had to be programmed into the vehicle's on board computer with a Hickok made NGS programmer (Shown Here), to start the car.



Side Bar: The Hickok NGS programmer/diagnostic tool was created for and only sold to authorized Ford Motor Company service departments in those days. Eventually a class action lawsuit found Ford guilty of knowingly preventing aftermarket service centers from assisting their customers, forcing the public to go back to the dealer. End Side Bar.

No amount of sales letters I wrote, advertising diagrams I created - the market just didn't believe me. Car dealers were dropping me as a service provider.

There were many times these business owners would argue with me about this - thinking I was trying to blow them off. Sadly I couldn't help them because only the dealer could generate these keys and no aftermarket service provider could get their hands on this programmer.

It was like rolling a concrete boulder up a muddy steep incline. Eventually I got away from the vehicle market and went straight to commercial and department of defense contract hardware servicing and electronic access control system installation and troubleshooting.

I said all that to reinforce the truth of Stage 5. It is a business killer.

Chincilla

Yep, I dined with her and her kids at my niece's husband's
restaurant when they were in Auckland.

She went gaga for our lamb and beef.

Best,
Ewen

Stage 5 can ruin a business for sure. But its also where the brands live. I heard Joe Sugarman say once in an interview, that the ultimate aim of marketing is to build a brand.

Really clever positioning can, I think, massage a stage 5 market. Avis did this with its "We Try Harder" campaign.

The way I think about it, a stage 5 market still has problems and still wants them solved. In promo's scenario people still needed new keys to get their vehicles going. The proprietary nature of the new system was what really killed his business in the end. Short of having the programmer on hand there was no point in even advertising... The writing was on the wall the moment the new keys came into play. (I hope I understood your scenario correctly, Promo).

Eugene Schwartz really got into the bowels of marketing and understanding the consumer. As practicioners, we are all better for it.


Hav

That would be my pick too. I don't understand why you'd only read one though.

Hellor Jared,

Google the titles...

...results will reveal

Cinchilla

Sugarman is great, read that one, liked it a lot

i'm not a copy writer, can i become one if i read:

The Brilliance Breakthough - Eugene Schwartz

Advertising Magic - Brian Keith Voiles

heard these are the some of the best, except of course
Halbert, Settle and Ted Nicholas