DIRECT MAIL UNIVERSITY
DMU
COPYWRITERS, REJOICE!
Hi! My name is Josh Manheimer, and if you google "direct mail copywriter," you'll see I come out #1 in the United States.
That's because I've crafted the most successful direct mail sales letters in the history of direct marketing.
Now I'd like to show you how I do it -- step-by-step -- so you can double, triple, and quadruple your response rates.
Soon you can have privileged access to 21 of the most successful sales letter leads (which positioned and powered) 21 of the greatest direct mail campaigns -- ever! May I send them to you?
“Wow!” Gross is 4 times and net is double!”
Cynthia Zhao, Circulation Director, The Asian Wall Street Journal
“Your direct mail package indexed 200 doubling response. That doesn’t happen too often in magazine history and is the first time it’s happened at Meredith.”
Ellen de Lathouder
V.P. Creative Services
Meredith Corporation
“You now top our winner’s list as the BEST-EVER direct mail package for Rodale books with results 2 to 1 over the standard! In fact, response was so high, we had to change the print run.”
Kathi Ramsdell
Promotion Manager
Rodale Press
“Your copy is making Oxmoor House direct mail history! It pulled an unbelievable response - so much so that we canceled our creative test for the next mailing, thinking that it would be wasted money!”
Julie Doll
Promotion Manager
Time, Inc.
With my 21 Proven Sales Letter Leads as your guide, someday you too can motivate your professional colleagues to send you love letters like these ...
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“I’ve never written a letter to a direct mail copywriter before. But your subscription package for Writer’s Digest was super.”
Bob Bly, Author, The Copywriter’s Handbook
“Dear Josh, I swim in your wake. I have long admired your work, and I often find myself recommending you when clients are looking to test something other than my stuff. I’m very good at selling clients on using me, but not quite as good at making the package! I steal shamelessly from you…”
Prefers to Remain Anonymous
“Damn you, Manheimer! I’m on a really tight deadline and unfortunately I just discovered your site. Not only did all the cool stuff on it cost me a good hour on my project, I’ll probably have to polish up my copy an extra half dozen to get it anywhere near where you’ve raised the bar. Thanks a bunch.”
D.D.
"Hi Josh ... I was shocked. I thought I knew about all of the copywriting greats, but you seem to have slipped under my radar. I've added some of your samples to my swipe folder. I'm a rookie copywriter, so it's great to see success stories. Thank you!
SAM
“I am not the greatest storytelling copywriter in America. I believe that title belongs to a copywriter by the name of Josh Manheimer . . . This guy doesn’t just beat controls, he bludgeons them to death with 100%, 200%, even 300% victories.
Richard Armstrong, A-List Copywriter
Master the Art of Written Persuasion
Now I've assembled 21 of my most successful direct mail sales letter leads into one handy volume so you can study and swipe them.
"Hi Josh (or J.C., if you prefer?), What a discovery you are! Your leads PDF is amazing. I love your story leads. Better than a lot of similar ones I've seen. I've been studying direct response copywriting for a while, but I don't often see your name and I'm not sure why. You're obviously one of the best out there.
K.H.
“After studying Gary Bencivenga, Clayton Makepeace, Parris Lampropoulos, and all of the old Masters, I consider myself very fortunate to have found your website. I’ll be studying your packages, and hopefully stealing your secrets, too ;-) It was an honor to read your work.”
A.C.
“Hi Josh, you don’t know me but I just wanted to say a great big WOW! from Canada. I’m also in marketing, you like ARE marketing. You’re an inspiration! Great, great stuff! Regards,”
DEB
“Finally got this year’s copy of Who’s Charging What! Had no idea it was you who did so many of my favorite packages. Your work reminds me why I got into direct in the first place. Thanks for showing the rest of us the way!”
T.B.
Dear Direct Response Copywriter Colleague:
Before I cause your mouth to drop open with astonishment, and your eyes to moisten with the marvels of human achievement …
… like listening to Pavarotti sing nine high Cs in Donizetti’s "Pour mon âme” …
… or watching Ronaldinho bend a soccer ball around a wall of 6 defenders …
Can I ask you to google “direct mail copywriter” and then grab hold of your armrests?
Out of two million search results ... you'll see … in the US … I come out …
NUMBER ONE!
That’s because I’ve created some of the most successful direct mail packages in the history of direct mail marketing.
And now I’m going to open my fire-proof file cabinet and show you how I do it — so you can, too.
Over the years I’ve had a 5-year control for POPULAR MECHANICS, an 8-year control for THE N.Y. REVIEW OF BOOKS, a 10-year control for WRITER’S DIGEST, and an 11-year control for THE NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION ASSOCIATION.
My launch for STORY MAGAZINE pulled 14%. My package for COOKING LIGHT grossed 10.55%. My winner for DOUBLETAKE doubled anything they'd ever stuck in a mail sack.
My acquisition effort for THE ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL quadrupled response, and it was written -- in Chinese!
I've created the most successful direct mail package in the history of the Meredith Corporation and the most successful sales letter in the history of Rodale's Book Division.
(You’ll find them both featured in THE WORLD’S GREATEST DIRECT MAIL SALES LETTERS.)
As you can see, I don’t break a sweat when working with prestigious national brands.
My creative effort for Better Homes & Gardens was mailed to every household in the country, and my control for Consumer Reports rolled out to 40 million.
Did I mention I like to launch things?
I’ve helped AIR & SPACE SMITHSONIAN launch their magazine. GEOGRAPHIC DATA TECHNOLOGY launch the entire digital mapping industry. And D.R. POWER launch a new-fangled barrel to burn your trash.
When The New England Journal of Medicine needed assistance promoting their CME program to physicians ... when Unitedhealthcare wanted help selling Medicare insurance to seniors … when Intuit was looking for a copywriter to market Quicken and Quickbooks ...
They called me.
Now you can, too. :)
Just shout, “COME ON OVER, JOSH” and I’ll bring with me 21 of my most successful, proven sales letter leads ...
... leads that powered and positioned 21 of the most successful direct mail packages in history.
And in a moment they can all be yours — for less than it costs to watch the Toledo Mud Hens play the Buffalo Bisons.
Letter leads.
They can make or break your marketing campaign.
Their job is to stick like old chewing gum.
Slide down like Jell-O.
And introduce you to the offer like a Southern hostess at Christmas time.
For three decades, I’ve had the fun challenge of writing letter leads that grab readers by each eyeball and then …
... yank them right out of their sockets!
Now you can hold in your hands 21 of my most successful sales letter leads and wonder …
Which legendary lead will inspire you to create your own record-shattering controls?
Here is my historic letter lead for EVERYDAY HEALTH HINTS which helped it become the most successful package in the history of Rodale’s book division.
“Should be in a vacuumed sealed museum somewhere,” muttered Richard Armstrong -- an A-List copywriter with a client pedigree as long as my driveway.
Here is my earth-shattering lead for MORE magazine that resulted in the most successful package in the history of the Meredith Corporation.
“Even the CEO came down to congratulate me,” gushed Ellen de Lathouder, Meredith’s VP of Marketing at the time.
“The copy is the best I’ve ever seen in a direct mail package,” sputtered veteran Meredith Artistic Director, Jeff Thompson, with mouth-agape.
Here is my throat-grabbing lead for WRITER’S DIGEST which could not be beaten for over ten years by some of the greatest copywriters in the English Language.
“I’ve never written a fan letter to a fellow DM copywriter before,” lauded copy guru Bob Bly. “But your new subscription letter for WRITER’S DIGEST is super.”
Here is the jaw-dropping lead for COOKING LIGHT which pulled 10.55% and humbled the late, great Bill Jayme.
(Bill graciously called to congratulate me and ask if I would consider changing careers.)
Indeed, for the historian of direct marketing, these monumental letter leads loom over the landscape like Mount Rushmore -- they are the best of the best -- and provide road maps to sales nirvana ...
... having transformed penny-pinching publishers into Gulfstream-owning oligarchs and shy, nervous mail clerks into Vice Presidents of Marketing with desks the size of aircraft carriers.
Shouldn’t you be one of them?
For the hard-working direct marketing copywriter these documents will, of course, be instantly recognizable as the blueprints you need to unlock the doors marked PRIVATE -- doors which have hitherto been closed for decades.
Indeed, if you were to attend a DMA seminar on “How to Write a Sales Letter,” you might expect to pay $1,500 for the dinner scraps they feed you.
And yet, one glance inside this extraordinary document, and you’ll understand with a seer’s clarity how I craft letter leads other copywriters brazenly steal from … and would sell their mothers to write.
Within an hour, you will instinctively recognize the underlying structure behind an award-winning promotional letter and either how to write them yourself or inspire others to creative genius.
So why not give yourself this rocket-booster of an advantage and request your personal volume be shot out of a cyber canon and sent to you immediately?
If you don’t, your competitors surely will.
These 21 grand old ladies have had their day in the sun.
You can now safely listen to the secrets they'll whisper to you.
Unleash Josh's Legendary Letter Leads Now!
Cordially,
Josh C. Manheimer
P.S. To be sure, it's harder and harder to add to your swipe file the brilliant direct mail packages from yesteryear.
Gone are the days when you can climb into the dumpster behind your post office and come out with a PhD in direct marketing -- holding in your hands brilliant controls by such great copywriters as Bill Jayme, Judy Weiss, Linda Wells, Hank Burnett ...
I’ve had the good fortune to go up against many of these legendary copywriters -- and beat them at their own game!
As I enter my third decade as a professional copywriter, now is my chance to look back over my long career and assemble my best of the best for you -- priced so copywriters at every level can afford to study and swipe.
P.P.S. Each page of your personal volume will be stamped with your name and is destined to become the foundation of your professional direct marketing library.
I look forward to helping you widen the columns on your clients spreadsheets.
Unleash Josh's Legendary Letter Leads Now!
