They Laughed When I Said I Was Going to Build a Website-But Stopped When They Saw the Traffic I Was Getting

The title of this piece mimics one of the most famous advertisements in copywriting history written for the US Music School.

It was written by a copywriting genius called John Caples and the title of the original ad went:

“They Laughed When I Sat Down At the Piano-But When I Started to Play..”

The title of Caples’s ad works on many levels but the key task it accomplished was to get readers to read the body of the advertisement. The ad worked spectacularly well with some describing the ad as “arguably, the 20^th century’s most successful” results-oriented mail order copy.

Before the internet-direct response copywriting

Suffice to say that before the internet there was mail order and the goal was to move the recipients of the direct mailing to purchase a product or call a toll free number or cut out and send in a coupon to the sender who would then follow up.

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To ensure that the mailings were not just cost effective but showed massive returns on investment top copywriters were paid massive sums of money to write great “direct response copy” that produced results.

Direct response copywriting and the internet

One critical parallel between direct response copywriting and marketing on the internet is the necessity of getting your message read.

The most important part of ensuring that your message gets read is the headline or title of your piece. With a great and/or effective title or headline you have a chance. Without one your message will be lost in a sea of noise, distractions, and more effective competing headlines.

Whether you are sharing your story on your website, blog, LinkedIn, Twitter or anywhere else for that matter your title or headline must draw the reader in.

If you read the first paragraph of this piece the title did it’s job..
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