1. Copywriting Secret of the Masters: Guilt Marketing A Vintners Secret Weaponby: John Fordewww.ProCopyWritingTactics.com

2. Guilt Marketing A Vintners Secret WeaponIve got wine on my mind. Not literally, mind you. As I write this, its noteven 10:00 a.m., for heavens sake. No. Im thinking about wine thanks toan article I just read, which will interest anyone serious about marketing orcopywriting success.See, here in the Paris office where I sometimes set up shop, there workswinemaking royalty the daughter of California vintner Manfred Esser.Recently, she brought each of us a bottle of her fathers wine. My wife and Idrank ours with dinner that night. Good stuff. After sampling the wine, Ilooked up the wine master on the Web.It turns out Essers talent is not just in making a good wine, which he does.Its also in applying "new" marketing principles that we could all benefit fromstudying as a copywriter and as an entrepreneur.Esser, whos a Harvard grad, took over the Cuvaison Winery in Napa Valley in1986. The vineyard was headed south faster than a goose in February.Yet, within two years, Esser had turned it around. Not only was Cuvaisonsuddenly breaking even, they had cornered 25 percent of the export market.And they were selling as many as 70,000 cases of their top-end wine everyyear.Twelve years later, Esser sold his partnership in Cuvaison and launched hisown label. Esser Vineyards is now one of Californias newest hot contenders,despite competition with, as Esser puts it, "about 80,000 differentcompetitors."How does he do it? Esser calls it "guilt marketing.""You treat your customers SO well," says Esser, "that you create asense of obligation to come back to your product or service. And,even more than that, to become ambassadors for your company.They actually feel guilty if they forget about you."Hes not recommending tricks or jingles or cleverness or high-pressureselling to turn a buck. Hes recommending a quality product. And qualityservice. At a good price. www.ProCopyWritingTactics.com 3. Its relationship building. In other words, the same marketing secret it tookso many new Web businesses a few years to "discover" sells wine, too.And it happens to work extremely well in selling other things as well likeyour copywriting services.Essers done this before. In his early career, he took a Chicago wine-importing firm from nothing to a multimillion-dollar business by providinghigh-quality products and exceptional, high-quality service.Is this strategy new or reckless or revolutionary? No, quite the opposite. Itsold school, time-tested, and one of the safest business plans anyone couldimagine.Whats this mean to you as a copywriter?Well, the starting place is producing a high-quality product which, in thiscase, is your copy. But unlike selling wine, the relationship building isnt justwith the client. The first and most important relationship you need to build iswith your reader.How do you do that? The same way Esser does. No hype. No high pressure.No tricks or jingles or cleverness. Just honest, specific copy that doesntmake unsubstantiated claims. Copy that gets to the point quickly thatbuilds excitement and that treats your reader with respect.Build this type of quality-based relationships with your reader and you willbe a great copywriter.The other side to this relationship building with your client is where "guiltmarketing" will take you from being a great copywriter to being a successful,great copywriter.Always give your client a little bit extra.During harvest, Esser goes into the vineyard, cuts bunches of grapes, andtissue-wraps them. He sends them to people important to his business byovernight FedEx overnight with a note saying, "We thought you might beinterested in the new vintage." Relationship building. Guilt marketing.www.ProCopyWritingTactics.com 4. Treat your clients the same way. If you run across news thats relevant totheir business especially when youre NOT writing for them send it tothem. By email or FedEx. Theyll appreciate your doing it. And theyllremember you.And when you are writing for them, throw in a few extra services, thingsyoud probably do anyway. But dont charge for them. Or charge aridiculously low fee. That lets them know you like working for them and thatits not just about the money.Because its never really "just about the money."Find out more about the secrets to becoming a successful freelance writerwith The Versatile Freelancerwww.ProCopyWritingTactics.com 5. John Forde:A Master at WritingMore Controls More Often"If you write copy how many chances to sell your talents to the businessesyou know and trust have you overlooked? Company websites local salesbrochures online ads and sales letters print ads in local papers evenP.R. pieces or ezine editorial.It might be the small gigs that get you started. It might be the bigopportunities that let you smack the cover off the ball at your first at bat.Either way, Ive met plenty of people who had no grasp about what rolecopywriters play.Mastersons [Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting] offers themost thorough and well-organized approach to the subject Ive seenanywhere. Theres not a technique or secret in there that I havent foundhelpful over the years. I owe a great deal of my own success to MikeMasterson. And I tell him so regularly. As for the program, Id recommend itto anybody not just direct-mail copywriters, but anyone whos trying to geta grip on what makes marketing work." John FordeJOHN FORDE has been writing winning controls for going on two decadesnow. Hes made untold millions for clients in the financial, health, and travelindustries. John also works as a copy coach, hosting intense seminars fortwo or three hundred marketers and copywriters at a time.John Forde also writes the successful and very useful eletter, TheCopywriters Roundtable. www.ProCopyWritingTactics.com