We’ve had really good responses for our Old Masters Series shows, where we look at one important copywriter from the past, and people were literally falling all over themselves when we brought on Sean Vosler a few weeks ago to talk about the founding fathers of copywriting. We had to send out the special writers unit of the Copy Patrol to pick those people up off the floor.

But my friend and client Jason Parker made a suggestion that kicks things up a notch even higher. The idea involves finding the best single idea from the greatest copywriters, that we can all use today.

I really appreciate Jason’s suggestion and want to give him a shout-out right here and right now. I should also say that I spent a lot of time mulling this over, and today’s show is what I came up with.

We’re going to look at five “keepers.” A keeper in this case is an idea you want to carry with you for the rest of your life, because it’s so good. Five keepers from five of copywriting’s greats. They range from the early 1900s to the last 20 years.

The way I chose these five keepers was by asking: What’s one thing that not only worked when the copywriter introduced it, but works just as well today?

Also, what’s something simple enough that we can talk about in just a few minutes, and everyone will understand it. With one exception. One of these concepts, from Gene Schwartz, really takes a while to make it your own. I included because it’s so important, and so rarely understood, that it was worth breaking the guidelines to get you started on it if you don’t already know it and use it.

Besides Gene Schwartz, the other four copywriters are: Claude Hopkins, John E. Kennedy, John Caples and Gary Halbert.

Links:

breakthroughadvertisingbook.combreakthroughadvertisingbook.com

thegaryhalbertletter.comthegaryhalbertletter.com

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