I found out something very interesting when I took a deep dive into the full quote referenced by today’s subject line.
It goes like this:
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear; when the student is truly ready, the teacher will disappear.”
However, if you believe as I do—that the student is never “truly ready” (because the best students are students for life)—the teacher(s) never disappear.
And that is decidedly true when it comes to Clayton Makepeace.
It’s been six years since we lost one of the greatest copywriters of all time, and today I will celebrate him (fondly)…with a recounting of our relationship and how he touched so many in this industry, even if you never knew him or heard of him before.
This is my way of enabling younger copywriters and marketers (well, younger than me) to know about the contributions he made to their careers.
And while I can’t officially announce it yet, the best is yet to come (as far as bringing Clayton back to life)…more on that in the coming months.
While he will no longer write a new magalog (much more on that below) …or create a groundbreaking VSL…or develop a kick ass email series that would knock anyone’s socks off (and getting people to order barefoot) …there is an archive of his copy and educational materials to last a few more lifetimes.
We’ve seen so much of it shared over the past six years…specifically by his star student turned mentor herself, Carline Anglade-Cole…from his wife Wendy…from “the Halberts” (Kevin and Bond) …and AWAI (American Writers and Artists, Inc.).
And there are surprises every day about a new swipe, seminar or course being released by Clayton as if he was still alive…with much more to come.
Clayton Makepeace didn’t leave us just random “swipes.”
He was world class in executing copy and world class in teaching others to execute just like him.
And then there’s his bigger than life personality which anyone who has ever met him will never forget.
It was always a party when you were hangin’ with Clayton…work or play…it didn’t matter…because his work was his play.
You know how there are some people, even if you have never met them in person, still seem to end up being your friend, mentor, or coach from afar?
It’s because of what they stand for throughout their life, specifically what they did, how they did it and how they taught what they did.
That is Clayton Makepeace in a nutshell.
Many people tell me today that Gene Schwartz is their mentor (despite Gene having passed away before some of them were even born) …and the same is true for folks who never heard of Clayton.
See the P.S. for a Gene/Clayton-inspired-mini-course I’m teaching beginning the week of May 11th.
Clayton is remembered as much for his body of work, his courses, and his teaching as for the comforting, supportive (and often extroverted) ways he expressed himself.
The “partial” Buddhist proverb goes:
“When the student is ready the teacher will appear.”
With Clayton we can rewrite that proverb:
“When the marketer is ready the world-class copywriter will appear…probably on a Harley.”
He loved his motorcycles. 🙂
Clayton was an “easy rider” who made copywriting look like easy writing.
If you didn’t know anything about Clayton until today, believe me when I tell you that he is more influential on your career than you are aware of, whether you are a copywriter or a marketer, and whether you work offline or online (or both).
If you didn’t know him, or work with him directly (but have followed his work), and you can somehow chalk him up as an influential teacher or coach, you know how fortunate you are.
If you knew Clayton, worked with him, or simply observed him, I know you loved him as I did.
We were the very fortunate.
He was my friend, mentor, coach, and collaborator on so many projects over almost three decades.
I was one of those students (i.e., marketers) who was ready when the teacher (i.e., world class copywriter) appeared.
And we had so much fun in the process.
Let me add a little more color to this special man:
Clayton as “Professor Makepeace”
As I mentioned already, he was a larger-than-life personality, always cheering you on and supporting you with wisdom and encouragement; and the priceless stories and humor were like the premiums (i.e., bonuses) from one of his direct mail masterpieces.
Here’s a picture from an AWAI Boot Camp–-some bad asses in this photo (not including me)—can you name them all?
Clayton is the second from the left…
Clayton not only wrote some of the greatest promotions ever, offline and online (over forty years), but he is a “professor” in the craft we call “copywriting.”
He wasn’t Tony Robbins on stage–far from it—no dancing and prancing for Clayton.
He was the anti-Robbins speaker…always seated at a desk or a podium on the stage, dishing out one priceless nugget after another, always professorial, always serving his audience in the best way he knew how.
Dancing and prancing is overrated. 🙂
Clayton as the ultimate “doubler”
It is also important to mention that he was no slouch in direct response marketing either.
He is what I call a “doubler” because he studied marketing as much as he studied copywriting.
He read ALL the books by the masters.
He is also one of those “A Listers” who is extraordinary in all seven characteristics I have identified that are present in every topflight copywriter (and marketer)—and there are only a handful who excel in all seven (which are discussed in this post).
Over the years, Clayton and I hatched evil plans of all kinds, which usually started with a creative idea from him…blossomed into a new promotion…and even new products.
That only happens when your copywriter is a marketer and your marketer is a copywriter.
My virgin magalog
This story relates to one of the most pivotal moments in the history of Boardroom Inc, the company I helped build over 3+ decades…and Clayton was at my side while I was building.
Clayton wrote our first “magalog control package” which created a chain reaction with our marketing that couldn’t be stopped.
A magalog is a 20–32-page, self-mailer format that three other top copywriters tried and couldn’t create a control for us–but it was a successful format already for many of our competitors.
This caused lots of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and more importantly, FOLP (Fear of Lost Profits).
I remember going to visit my direct mail guru in 1993, Dick Benson, armed with our lackluster results with magalogs, and asking:
What are we doing wrong?
Should we give up on this format?
Benson read me the riot act big time, cementing the concept of being a student of marketing and media to create the best copy:
The magalog format is perfect for your products…it is long form, enabling you to tell a compelling story and a sales message about an unknown brand properly and completely.
[Note: Boardroom’s books and newsletters were not household names]
It’s exactly what you need, Brian. You can’t give up.
Magalogs will eventually beat the pants off any envelope package, even one with a 12-to-16-page sales letter, with multiple components, if executed with precision.
You know my Rule of Thumb that states “self-mailers almost never work?”
That doesn’t apply to you.
And since you have so much valuable content in your books and newsletters, the magalog allows you to “give away some steak and not be all sizzle.”
[More on that in a minute]
Also, since you pride yourself as being the best list guy in the world, [said to me by Benson with a note of sarcasm] it’s clear your problem is NOT with this dynamic new format…you have a problem with your choice of a copywriter.
Now that was a lecture worth acting on.
And the right copywriter to solve the magalog puzzle for us was Clayton Makepeace.
First mailed in mid-1994, his magalog for The Big Black Book (an encyclopedic, consumer tome we affectionately called BBB) mailed over 16 million pieces over its mailing life…and gave us the confidence to launch dozens more magalogs with similar success, over many more years.
Here is the cover of that masterpiece:
As my gift to you, click on the “play button” on Marty Edelston’s face above and get a PDF of the entire promotion, 28 pages of glorious (and winning) copy.
It’s a swipe that many of you might have in your archives– and I know you definitely have it if you attended the Titans of Direct Response event in 2014 (Clayton was invited but couldn’t make it) as it was given away among the most successful promotions Boardroom ever did.
And whether you have it or not, I suggest you study it now.
I don’t want to influence your opinion (well maybe I do), that it is an incomparable masterpiece of copy and design.
I dare you to click here and disagree with me. 🙂
And based on the results we received, you can’t disagree with me.
Notice the sizzle AND steak in the piece:
- Fascination bullet points on the cover referencing pages inside the magalog (sizzle).
- Then once you’re inside the maglog, a little steak (“pieces of the secrets” that are contained inside The Big Black Book) …with page numbers directing you to the “full version of the secrets.”
- That’s the “can’t live without sizzle,” leading you to the main course of all steak which you can only get by buying the book.
If you like this approach, there is a lot more where this came from…past and present…from Clayton and many others.
I also believe this magalog for BBB is a precursor of the tenet of some of the best online marketing today.
It’s imitated every day and in every way.
That is, “Give away your best content up front because there is always ‘more best content’ where that came from.”
While you can’t give away the entire store in direct mail like you can online, I believe we created a (delightful) monster with Clayton’s promotion and others like it (under the restrictions of paying for paper and postage).
This was clearly the beginning of a new approach of content marketing in 1994, well before online and email marketing took hold.
Can’t you see the roots of everything we do today online from this long copy, fascination driven, magalog approach from the stone age of the 1990’s?
It’s where all those babies (i.e. promotions) of the new millennium came from.
Clayton as prosecuting attorney
I have so many other memories of how Clayton pioneered his craft…and to close, let me share one of those that shows how detailed he could be with his methodology of writing…combined with his insatiable curiosity to go deep with research and creativity:
I recall visiting Martin Weiss, a wonderful entrepreneur and publisher of financial newsletters, in the 1990’s–and lucky for me on that day Clayton (who was Martin’s top copywriter) was visiting as well.
Well, I was visiting.
Clayton was “working” (i.e. “playing”). 😊
He wanted to develop a new promotion for Martin.
Martin was the “guru” behind the newsletter…and since Martin had previously, and was planning on again, testifying before Congress on financial issues of interest, Clayton had a lightbulb moment.
Clayton set the stage for that in Martin’s conference room.
With Martin on one end of a long table and Clayton at the other, Clayton asked questions of Martin that only he could answer (with incredible candor and competence) related to the newsletter they were promoting (along with current events and related subjects).
Of course, they recorded it, added some pictures of Martin “presenting before Congress” (i.e., Clayton playing a “prosecuting” Senator in this scenario), and the result was a brand-new control package, full of gems that Clayton plucked from Martin’s brain.
This should be in every copywriter’s toolkit…because if you are a top gun copywriter, you have mastered the art of the interview.
I thought this was a unique way to “get the full story” and it led to fresh, new, and relevant content.
That was one of hundreds of tools Clayton had in his toolkit…tools that are being borrowed by copywriters and marketers today whether they realize it or not.
Long live Clayton Makepeace.
Warmly,
Brian
P.S. Let’s address the artificial elephant (ilephant?) in the room.
Is it even worth learning how to put an advertisement together or…
…improve your copywriting skills or…
…study the classics like Breakthrough Advertising anymore if AI can do everything for you?
I had a version of this question come in from someone who’s thinking about signing up for the upcoming Breakthrough Advertising Bootcamp that kicks off the week of May 11th.
Regarding the question of AI replacing copywriters, it’s a fair one…but one that has both Clayton and Gene Schwartz very upset.
They have both channeled me recently. 🙂
And it’s a question you may be asking yourself.
Here’s my answer:
Direct response marketing is more than just words on a page.
I have vivid memories, sitting with Gene Schwartz on his couch in the living room of his New York City penthouse, surrounded by his impressive art collection.
During many of those sessions, he was working on promotions for his small health publishing company, Instant Improvement.
I was helping him choose the right mailing lists for his front-end offers.
This is something I did many times for Gene.
And during these meetings we never once talked about hooks or copywriting angles (or AI or Bots which conveniently didn’t exist at that time).
He was entirely focused on understanding the psychological makeup of the person who would best respond to his offer.
- What were their secret desires?
- Had they made past purchases that indicated they would be open to the kind of solution that Gene wanted to offer?
- And what other types of offers were they receiving from other publishing companies?
This was the process that Gene used to figure out what his copy needed to do.
It’s a process he developed over many decades and documented in Breakthrough Advertising, written in 1966 and 100% relevant to today’s most sophisticated marketing strategies and tactics…including AI.
Compared to the time and effort he put into understanding his reader, writing the copy was the easy part.
I guess Gene was an “easy writer” like Clayton although there were no motorcycles involved in his case. 🙂
And this is what I think a lot of people miss today when the topic of AI comes up.
Words are words.
And tools like ChatGPT and Claude can spit out a lot of them for you.
But words in the hands of an amateur who doesn’t have a process for getting inside the minds of their prospect is like handing a surgeon’s scalpel to a butcher and asking them to perform open heart surgery.
You must know how to find and apply the right words that will move your reader toward a buying decision.
My friend and A-List copywriter David Deutsch calls this process “Copythinking.”
And this is the secret of Breakthrough Advertising that I don’t think many people realize.
Breakthrough Advertising is not a book about writing copy.
It describes a process that you can use to quietly assess your market and see the marketing opportunities that others are missing.
It shows you how to make your offer stand out from all the cookie cutter and formulaic copy that everyone else is using.
And the great gift of AI tools is that we can use them to gain a better understanding of our market’s desires, states of awareness and market sophistication.
That’s why inside the Breakthrough Advertising Bootcamp, we walk you slowly through Gene’s process and show you how you can supercharge it with AI.
Not replace it with AI.
“Will AI replace copywriters?” is the wrong question.
The better question is:
“As a student of direct response, how can AI help me understand my market and find the right words that will make my offer stand out faster?”
I believe that if both Gene and Clayton were alive today, they would embrace AI…for good and not evil…and never as a crutch.
You can figure out your own process for this if you want…but why not do it with Gene (and Clayton and others) as your guide?
You can follow the proven process that Gene developed and that students of Breakthrough Advertising have been using with great success for nearly 60 years.
And Clayton Makepeace was one of those students.
The week of May 11th, I’m kicking off the 11th “Breakthrough Advertising Bootcamp” for anyone who wants to learn and apply Gene’s system to their business.
It’s a two-week live experience including six 90-minute calls (3 each week) with me and my co-author of the official companion study guide to Breakthrough Advertising (Breakthrough Advertising Mastery), Chris Mason.
It’s a fast track to embed the core principles of Breakthrough Advertising into your brain…and then into your business…with a success path that is extraordinary.
Chris has done the heavy lifting with the agenda…and even with this P.S. 😊
Click here to hear from past Bootcampers…and look at the topics we will cover.
It’s only $197 or approximately $33 per call.
And if you don’t own a copy of Breakthrough Advertising, I have a special offer for you…a 20% discount on the book when you register for the Bootcamp.
Understanding how the Breakthrough Advertising “System” works will give you better results and an unfair advantage from any AI tool you use because your inputs into that tool will improve dramatically.
All the calls from the Bootcamp are recorded so even if you miss a live call, you’ll be able to catch up quickly.
I know without a doubt this is going to be the best Breakthrough Advertising Bootcamp we’ve ever done.