I help you write emails people love to read & buy from. Read by 1,800+ Copywriters. Delivered daily at 5:15AM.
Who the crap is Ron Popeil?
|
Rewind back to 2001. I was a wee little lad, just eight years old. (Unc, AmIRight!?) 🤣 I used to sit in the living room while my mom folded clothes and watched her favorite TV show. Except it wasn’t a TV show at all. IT WAS AN INFOMERCIAL!You’ve been bamboozled, mom! Quite possibly one of the greatest infomercials in the world. It was this 28 minute segment that did a live demonstration of the Ronco Rotisserie oven. Led by this legend named Ron Popeil. He’d put a whole dayum chicken in the rotisserie behind him and then yell to the audience… “All you gotta do is… SET IT AND FORGET IT!”Every time he said that the audience would scream it with him. Including my mom. Who was this tiny little Romanian lady with a thick accent slowly saying Zet it and porget ittttt. 🤣 It was brilliant. They’d bring on celebrity guest chefs to whip up side dishes like butter basted mashed potatoes, garlic & olive oil asparagus or pig fat green beans. All so simple and easy to make cause you didn’t have to worry about the chicken behind you. After watching this infomercial everyday... My mom ended up buying her own Ronco Rotisserie. Actually… SHE BOUGHT TWO!And apparently so did 8 million other people. Cause after 12 years of airing that infomercial (12 freaking years!) they finally pulled it off the air in 2010. Where the host, Ron Popeil, admitted in an interview that they generated $1.4B in sales. Thassss alot of dough! (Or meat???) Well for kicks and giggles… I watched the whole dang thing again last night. (It messed with me a bit cause I lost my mom in 2020 to COVID and I have countless memories watching this with her.) But as a direct response copywriter (who is no longer 8 years old)… I could finally appreciate this… MASTERCLASS IN SALES!He’d start the infomercial attacking the PAIN. *By showing examples of their competitors with messy, greasy conventional ovens *Then he’d do a live demonstration of just how easy it was to cook chicken in the Ronco *Then he’d stick the chicken in and hit ‘em with the sticky phrase: “Set it and Forget it!” *Which reminds you of the BIGGEST BENEFIT in a memorable way *Then he’d go off cooking fresh sides while the chicken was cooking saying things like “now you have more time to do this without rushing” increasing the DESIRE of the PROMISE *Then he’d price anchor against his competitors — $300-400 for their mess! *Then crush their price with an insanely good offer of just four payments of $39.99 (God I miss 2001 prices) *Then he’d add urgency by saying you can also get certain upgrades (like injection marinators, carving knives, etc) only if you called within the next hour. *Then when you did call — The call center would be sitting fat & happy on their gluteus assimusses waiting to offer you a slew of upsells! THUS RACKED UP $1.4B TRUMP BUCKS.But the biggest fattest most freaking important part that almost no one gets right is that… THE AD DIDN’T FEEL LIKE AN AD. It felt like a cooking show. Thus creating the opportunity to get (and stay) in front of millions of people by entertaining them instead of blatantly, directly and obnoxiously just trying to sell them something they don't want. Yet most people have no freaking clue how to merge entertainment and storytelling with value and sales. But if you want the 119 page playbook on how to do that with email… 👆👆👆 Enjoy =) Your Friend, Alin “The Ron Popeil of Email” Dragu
|
Email Copywriting
I help you write emails people love to read & buy from. Read by 1,800+ Copywriters. Delivered daily at 5:15AM.