There’s a solid marketing reason for including the picture on the left of a hot, sexy woman.
Read on to discover the answer…
…but before that let’s look again at celebrities and marketing.
In a previous post we considered…
“Celebrity Perils In Marketing”.
Let’s now consider how, if at all, we can use celebrities in direct response marketing and copywriting.
First up a mistake to avoid…
“Oops! How NOT To Use Celebs Like Naomi Campbell In Your Marketing”.
Then, here’s how you can “piggy back” off of celebrities in the news…
“What I Learned From Barack Obama About Copywriting”.
But what about actually using celebrity endorsements in your promotions. Should “hard-core” direct marketers even bother?
Well…
…there was nobody more “hard-core” than the late, great, Gary Halbert.
And “Sir Gary” very helpfully wrote a great article (in fact it was a complete issue of his newsletter) called…
“How To Get Movie And TV Stars To Help You Sell Your Products And Services”.
Here’s part of what the great Gary had to say…
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There’s a ‘mindset’ you have to have if you are going to use a celebrity in a profitable way. For example, in my opinion, I doubt that many people switch from Pepsi to Coke (or vice versa) because Michael Jackson or Mike Tyson endorse one or the other.
On the other hand though, I do believe that using someone with some ‘marquee value’ can dramatically enhance a mail order / direct response type promotion because they tend to both glamorize and…
“CREDENTIAL” THE PROMOTION!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The #1 reason people do not buy from you is they are simply not interested in your offer. However, once you overcome that first hurdle, the #2 reason they don’t buy from you is that they are not completely convinced you are for real. And therefore, what a celebrity can do for you is, he can make you more credible.
Which translates to lots more sales.
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Pretty interesting stuff and well worth reading the whole thing…
…because Gary reveals that it costs a lot less than you might think to hire a celebrity…
…plus the big mistakes to avoid.
Now, that article was written many years ago, so some of the information may need updating.
But I suspect that the main points remain valid and apply to markets other than the USA as well.
Oh, and the picture at the beginning of this post?
Well, your first job as a marketer is to GET ATTENTION. And what is it that will always get attention? The answer is…
PICTURES OF HOT SEXY WOMEN!
One caveat. There is a fine line between using pictures of sexy women to attract attention and going too far and offending the people whose attention you have captured. Use wisely!