Louis Engel wrote this ad for Merrill Lynch (Investment management division of Bank of America).
It is a long ad, and the CTA is unclear but it still proved very effective and generated over 10,000 responses.
Like previous ads, I copied this piece in my own handwriting to feel what it’s like to write great copy.
Here are 5 things I learned from this ad:
1/ It doesn’t have to be “short and sweet”
This ad is long. 6,540 words & 7 columns.
This is the first version of the ad, published in 1948:
The popular advice is to keep things short. “People have short attention spans.”
But, every time I see a successful article, video, or podcast that doesn’t follow this advice, I realize that it’s a “nice to have” aspect of creating content.
Joe Rogan’s podcast is my favorite example. It’s 3 hours long with no timestamps or extra information, and it’s the most successful podcast in the world.
It’s a good rule of thumb, but it doesn’t have to be this way.
2/ Letting the reader choose what to read
Copy can be long, but formatting still matters.
If this ad was a huge block of text with no subheaders and longer paragraphs, it would not perform as well as it did.
But this ad smartly uses subheaders and sections to make it skimmable.
For example, If you want to know the backstory, there is a separate section for it.
The subheaders make it easier to find what is relevant for you and read about it.
Maybe you already know what stocks are but don’t understand how stocks are traded. You can easily jump into the relevant section.
Lastly, after the basics, the ad highlights the section on buying and selling.
It’s also where they make their offer.
3/ It’s all about what people want
After reading the intro for this ad, I understood that the author did his research.
He talked to a “well-informed” man and realized that even he doesn’t know how to invest.
He felt comfortable going deep into the stock business because he knew people would want to know these details because it could make them money.
If we find what people truly want, we can miss or ignore some of the best practices of copywriting.
4/ Test and tweak
Even the greatest ads tried different things to maximize their performance.
This ad had different variations:
The first had had 7 columns
The second had 5 columns and different questions as subheaders.
The third ad was much shorter and with different CTAs.
That’s it!
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