| (Me and my silly leopard hat) Not long ago Akshat Gupta wrote pointing out a typo in my $1 sales page for AskDrayton, which was kind of him. But he also wrote “Your copy is so personal it looks like talking to me only. How do you make it so personal? And it’s not hypey.” I replied: 1. I don’t normally write the draft. I dictate, and have done for at least 40 years. 2. Then my PA transcribes – and I am told I edit at least 3 times, usually five. 3. Dictating makes it seem like speaking when it is read. Many people “read” your copy in their minds; with some you can see their lips moving. When I was younger I was a bit of a clown – somebody wrote a while ago reminding me I used to walk around our Soho office in a silly leopard hat muttering into a Dictaphone. (They existed before portable phones). I get nearly all my ideas when walking, which I do almost every day. I am told that exercise increases the circulation of the blood to the brain, which helps ideas to come. I try to use “simple words everyone knows” as Churchill put it. But I also like to pop in an unexpected one every now and then. This is on the principle explained by Haydn, the great composer. “Every now and then I make a loud noise, to wake the audience up.” If you are having trouble having good ideas, get in touch (db@draytonbird.com). They are our business, and the reason we exist. Best, Drayton P.S. Know anyone who’d appreciate my Bird Droppings? Tell them to sign up to my mailing list here (dg250.infusionsoft.com/app/form/signup). |
How do you make your copy personal?
About the Author
In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.
He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.
Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.
He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.