Our local family hustled to create a 24-hour care program for her. After all, why should a 98-year-old have to stay in the hospital by herself when she has children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and a great-great grandson?

I got the day shift – the scariest shift of all. Nine hours when I watched Mama Da struggle to breathe – and had to listen to the doctor explain the seriousness of her condition.

Mama Da told me that she wasn’t afraid to die, and she proceeded to tell me everything she wanted done – and not done – when her time came.

I was alone in the room with her, and I was scared. I needed some backup – some reinforcements – to help me cope with this situation. So I told her that I had notified our family, and they were trying to get there as soon as possible to see her. That didn’t seem to matter to her.

Then I said, “Mama Da, Moon and Pot are getting on a flight from Maryland as we speak to come to see you.” Then a funny thing happened:

Her eyes opened up and she said, “Really? Who else?”

So I went down the list, “Shorty and Sidney are driving through the night… Gigi is cutting her vacation short in Orlando… Daty and VaVa are flying in tomorrow from Philly… Carole, Kuky, and Marley are flying in from Miami… Bibi and MaMa will be here on Saturday… Joey and Angela got one-day round-trip tickets to come and spend a few hours with you… Ferg and Chrissy are hitting the road at 2:00 a.m. and will be here by noon… and the rest of the family are calling me non-stop to let me know when they’re planning to come.”

As I ran down the list, I saw a light in Mama Da’s eyes that I hadn’t seen in the past 24 hours. She was getting excited about seeing her family. And when the kids, grands, and great-grands came to her hospital room to kiss her and talk to her, I watched her draw energy from each one of them.

In fact, she started to look and feel so good that many of our family members jokingly said that Mama Da was making up the whole pneumonia thing as a way to create an impromptu family reunion!

For several days, Mama Da’s hospital room was so full of our loud family having fun that the nurses asked us to keep the noise down!

During the nights, we had more than enough willing aunts and cousins volunteering to sleep in the room with her and stand guard.

I was very glad for the extra help. But while I was waiting for the reinforcements to come, I re-learned two very important lessons:

For one thing, my family has some really crazy names! And, most important, specificity works!

When I told Mama Da that family was coming, it didn’t register with her. But when I told her exactly WHO was coming… WHEN they were arriving… WHAT they were doing to get to her… and WHERE they were coming from… man, it really boosted her curiosity – and possibly her will to live.

That got me thinking about writing sales copy – and the importance of reinforcing your copy with ultra-specifics so you can grab your prospect’s attention and keep it.

So I want to show you two quick and easy ways for you (or your copywriter) to reinforce your copy too:

#1. Name names.

As I said, specificity sells. So build credibility in your copy by using exact names and numbers. Here’s an example from my own copy…

BEFORE: “Numerous scientific studies have shown that this remarkable ‘brain food’ can help you restore memory loss and sharpen your thinking.”

“Numerous scientific studies” is pretty lame. That’s like when I told Mama Da “Family is coming.” It just didn’t get much of a rise out of her.

I needed some specific details to put MEAT on this baby! So here’s how I changed that line of my copy…

AFTER: “Scientific research from Stanford University… Vanderbilt University… the Memory Assessment Clinic’s facility in Bethesda, Maryland now prove this remarkable ‘brain food’ can help you restore up to 12 years of memory loss and sharpen your thinking.”

See the difference? Name names and give specifics. Referencing those prestigious institutions builds credibility in the prospect’s mind – and stating that the product can restore up to 12 years of memory loss is powerful.

#2. Don’t be afraid of long headlines.

One of the first copywriting “rules” I learned was that headlines should be no more than 7 words. That way they would POP and grab the prospect’s attention. Sure, I learned the rule – but, more important, I learned when to break the rule too.

The truth is, it’s a stupid rule. The goal of your headline is to stop your reader dead in his tracks. If you can do it with one or two words – GREAT! But I’ve had many successful promotions with 20… 30… or more words in the headline. Here’s an example of how one of my headlines “grew”…

BEFORE: “Why Your Vitamins Won’t Work”

When I was telling Mama Da about all the relatives who were coming to visit her, I had no idea which ones she really wanted to see. Was it the young grandkids who would bounce on her lap… the teenagers she’d helped raise… or her own children? So I decided not to take a chance. I’d just list them all and see which ones piqued her interest.

Which brings me to my headline. “Why Your Vitamins Won’t Work” wasn’t bad – but it was too general. I wanted the prospect to stop and say, “Hey, I’m taking that stuff – so I’d better read this!” – and the best way to achieve that was to give ‘em a long list. So here’s how I reinforced the copy – and the results went through the roof…

AFTER:

Why

CoQ10

Garlic

Lutein

Ginkgo

Calcium

Bilberry

Probiotics

Vitamin C

Magnesium

Chondroitin

Glucosamine

Low-fat diets

Omega 3 fish oil

Grape seed extract

Blood pressure drugs

Weight-loss supplements

Cholesterol-lowering drugs

Won’t Work

Yep! That was the actual headline! Well over the 7 word “limit,” but who the heck cares? It worked!

So don’t be afraid of long headlines. Just make sure every word you use counts.

The Lessons Go Both Ways

It’s all about communicating your message as clearly as possible. And this just goes to show how you can apply what you learn about that in your personal life to your work… and how you can apply what you learn through your work to your personal life.

PS: In case you’re wondering how Mama Da is doing, here’s an update. We brought her home from the hospital after a 6-day stay. The pneumonia damaged her heart and lungs – and she already had diminished kidney function. So with the help of hospice, we’re just going to keep enjoying her – and listening to her thousands of stories – for as long as she’s still with us.

Mama Da always told us that she doesn’t plan to leave us with a dime, but that we will be rich with her memories. She’s definitely lived up to that promise. I am so thankful to be blessed to have had her in my life for 48 years.

[Ed. Note: Carline Anglade-Cole has 20 years of direct-mail experience in mailing-list strategies, new-product development, and creating kick-butt controls. She is the author of How to Write Kick-Butt Copy: Straight Talk From a Million-Dollar Copywriter, Anatomy of a Kick-Butt Control: How to Create a Winning Promo From Start to Finish, and Which One Won? How to Write Kick-Butt Headlines and Boost Response! Contact Carline directly by visiting her website at www.CarlineCole.com.

For more moneymaking and sales secrets, check out ETR's comprehensive Internet Cash Generator program here.]

I can tell you for a fact, I’ve never had an experience where I didn’t get the assignment because of my race or sex. But… I have had the reverse happen: being chosen for a project because I am a minority. 

In my humble opinion, choosing to hire or not select a copywriter based on those standards is just plain ole stupid. Here’s why… 

You know the magazine Essence? It’s the epitome of today’s Black Woman. Guess who had the control for that promo for decades? If you said a 50+-year-old white guy named Bill Hebden – you’d be right! 

What about one of the most successful promos for Health Wisdom for Women – a health newsletter for menopausal women? Would you ever in your right mind think that Clayton Makepeace could be so in tune with his feminine side? 

Or what about another successful promotion that helps men over 50 "get busy" in bed? Would you guess it was yours truly? 

In fact, most of the health copy I write is targeted at 50-something white guys. Last time I looked, I was neither! But you know what? I may not be the market – but I sure as heck know the market! 

And that’s what you need for a successful promotional package: a copywriter who understands the market and can pull the heart and purse strings of your prospects to rake in the sales. 

So whether white, black, red, blue, or anything in between – a smart marketer doesn’t care. He just needs to hire a writer who can get the job done!

[Ed. Note: Master the skill of marketing, and you'll never again want for money. It's easy to learn - especially when you get the inside scoop from two guys who know more about marketing than anyone on the planet. Get the details here.

And to hone your copywriting skills, pick up Which One Won? How to Write Kick-Butt Headlines and Boost Response! by Carline Anglade-Cole, a copywriter with 20 years of direct-mail experience in mailing-list strategies, new-product development, and creating kick-butt controls.  Contact Carline directly by visiting her website at CarlineCole.com.]

Cover tests allow you to change the entire look and feel of your sales promotion just by making changes to the cover. That means you can test different headlines and cover designs for pennies on the dollar. But the better news is:

Cover tests give you – and your copywriter – more chances to get a winner in the mail!

Why put all your creative eggs in one basket, hoping you picked the right headline and cover design? Let your market decide which is best. Here’s an example of how one of my smart clients got a big bang for his creative buck with a health promotion I worked on for him…

The promotion was for a chelation product. We cover-tested four different headlines:

#1: The Ultimate Pac Man for Your Arteries

#2: Now you can REMOVE and SEE the plaque that was clogging your arteries!

#3: The New Chelation Miracle

#4: Meet the folks who said "Bye Bye Bypass!"

So, which one won?

If you picked #3, you’re a pretty smart cookie. That was the strongest headline and became the official new control – the headline my client "rolled out" to his entire list of prospective customers. However, #2 and #4 were also strong – coming in less than a percentage point behind the winner. Which gave my client three sales packages he could rotate in the mail.

That meant he could fight response fatigue and mail the package longer. And, in fact, that original package has been mailing for over two years – and is still going strong. So you can see why the client is happy. (And I’m happy, because it’s meant a long and steady flow of royalty income for me.)

This client lets me do up to five test covers for every new package I create for him. And, many times, if I had to pick only one of those five covers to go with, I would’ve picked the WRONG one. Here’s a perfect example:

For the launch of a probiotic product, we mailed the following five test covers:

#1: When you poop, do you need a…

[photo of a plunger] to unstop clogged bowels…
[photo of a vice] to tighten up loose bowels…
[photo of a gas mask] to keep from passing out afterwards

#2: The Big, Huge Yogurt Hoax

#3: Unclog your colon! [with a before and after graphic shot of what a filthy colon and a clean colon look like]

#4: Why suffer? Now you can put an end to embarrassing gas… bloating… constipation… heartburn… diarrhea… irritable bowels… and other digestive problems [photos of folks experiencing digestive problems]

#5: When your intestines go from: [photo of the Sahara desert] To this: [photo of Ireland's green pasture] You can put an end to your worst digestion problems in record time.

Let me tell you this first: I absolutely LOVED the "poop" and "unclog your colon" covers. I felt they nailed the product’s USP (unique selling proposition) right on the head. I thought the yogurt cover was a solid test too, since most people think yogurt contains a lot of stuff that’s good for the digestion. We almost didn’t test #5. Both my client and I worried that the message was too vague. "Why suffer" was okay, but no one was shouting its praises.

The winner?

Well, let me say this: If I only had two cover tests, using #1 and #3, my package would’ve lost money in the mail.

If I had put all my chips on the yogurt cover – that would’ve lost even MORE money!

The undisputed winner was boring #5 – the one we almost didn’t test. And the close runner-up was #4 – the one that no one was thrilled with.

See what I mean? Sometimes, there’s just no method to the madness when it comes to the right cover for a sales promotion. So why take chances? Ask your copywriters to give you several headlines to test.

One important thing to remember: Make sure your test covers look very different from each other. But don’t waste the opportunity by testing insignificant things or ideas. For example, you don’t need to test whether a red border will be stronger than a blue border … or whether a single word change on the headline will make a difference. What you want to do is test ideas and headlines that have the potential to give you a 20 percent or better lift in your response rate.

I try to test covers that range from safe to scary. So I always include a safe cover – one that nails the USP of the product right on the head. I call that my workhorse cover. Then I go to the other extreme with a crazy idea that will either bomb or blow the roof off.

My clients and I have gotten some great successes by taking this approach – and so can you.

As a business owner, you can get more leverage from every sales package if you do this: Ask your copywriter to create two… three… even five different cover tests with the final copy submission. And make room in your mailing schedule to test as many of them as possible.

Why request five covers when you plan to test only one or two?

Because the best time to get the best ideas from your copywriter is while she’s hot and heavy working on your project. If you wait till two or three months later, she will have purged all the info about your product from her brain and will have to start cold. So strike while she’s sizzlin’ hot. You can always test the unused covers at a later date.

By testing aggressively, you’ll soon discover you have several controls for the same package. Not only does this make "cents" – it can deliver a hefty profit to your bottom line.

[Ed. Note: Carline Anglade-Cole has 20 years of direct-mail experience in mailing-list strategies, new-product development, and creating kick-butt controls. She is the author of How to Write Kick-Butt Copy: Straight Talk From a Million-Dollar Copywriter, Anatomy of a Kick-Butt Control: How to Create a Winning Promo From Start to Finish,and Which One Won? How to Write Kick-Butt Headlines and Boost Response! Contact Carline directly by visiting her website at CarlineCole.com.

For more money-making secrets, check out ETR's comprehensive direct-marketing program here.]