On the 26th of June 2006, Clayton Makepeace published a post on his blog titled,
"The Single Most Powerful Response Boosting Tool I’ve Ever Shared With Anyone"
I printed the post and recently found it when I was searching for a copy product from Clayton Makepeace.
I copy and pasted his words which leads into his...
"My 37-Point Acid Test for Direct Response Copy
Seems like it doesn’t matter whether I’m talking to the owner of a home-based business or a small business, a marketing exec or a copywriter, just about everybody in this biz deals with the same, burning question about every direct response promotion they create:
“How can I know just how strong the sales copy in my promotion is before I show it to prospects?”
If you can relate, you’re gonna love this. Next time you’re tempted to let go of a draft – submit it to a client or send it to a layout artist or web programmer, do this:
Set aside one hour. Lock yourself in a quiet room. Yank the phone jack out of the wall. Mentally insert your dogs into a prospect’s Nikes and then read your copy just as he or she would.
DO NOT allow yourself to get drawn into editing or changing anything. Instead, notice every fleeting thought that crosses your mind and every feeling – excitement or boredom, conviction or skepticism, clarity or confusion – that arises within you as you read the copy.
Then, the second you’re finished, take out this test. Rate how well your copy accomplishes each of these 37 objectives on a scale of one to five as follows:
- Non-Existent or Pathetically Weak
- Room for Major Improvement
- I’ve seen worse
- Pretty darned strong
- Golly geeze, this is perfect – I must be a freakin’ genius
Ready? Here goes…
