Bob's Bio
Bob has written copy for over 100 clients including Network Solutions, ITT Fluid Technology, Medical Economics, Intuit, Business & Legal Reports, and Brooklyn Union Gas. Awards include a Gold Echo from the Direct Marketing Association, an IMMY from the Information Industry Association, two Southstar Awards, an American Corporate Identity Award of Excellence, the Standard of Excellence award from the Web Marketing Association, and AWAI's Copywriter of the Year.
Bob is the author of more than 70 books including The Complete Idiot's Guide To Direct Marketing (Alpha Books) and The Copywriter's Handbook (Henry Holt & Co.). His articles have appeared in numerous publications such as DM News, Writer's Digest, mtrak Express, Cosmopolitan, Inside Direct Mail,and Bits & Pieces for Salespeople.
Bob has presented marketing, sales, and writing seminars for such groups as the U.S. Army, Independent Laboratory Distributors Association, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the American Marketing Association. He also taught business-to-business copywriting and technical writing at New York University.
Bob writes sales letters, direct mail packages, ads, e-mail marketing campaigns, brochures, articles, press releases, white papers, Web sites, newsletters, scripts, and other marketing materials clients need to sell their products and services to businesses. He also consults with clients on marketing strategy, mail order selling, and lead generation programs.
Prior to becoming an independent copywriter and consultant, Bob was advertising manager for Koch Engineering, a manufacturer of process equipment. He has also worked as a marketing communications writer for Westinghouse Defense. Bob Bly holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Rochester and has been trained as a Certified Novell Administrator (CNA). He is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Business Marketing Association.
Bob has appeared as a guest on dozens of TV and radio shows including MoneyTalk 1350, The Advertising Show, Bernard Meltzer, Bill Bresnan, CNBC, Winning in Business, The Small Business Advocate and CBS Hard Copy. He has been featured in major media ranging from the LA Times and Nation's Business to the New York Post and the National Enquirer.
Write and Grow Rich
Make $100,000 a Year or More as a Freelance Writer Working at Home ... and Have the Time of Your Life Doing It! In Bob Bly's new writer's manual, Write and Grow Rich, he shares dozens of his best strategies -- proven, utterly pragmatic methods you can use to quickly and easily start and run your own $100,000-a-year freelance writing business.
This writer's "coaching service" valued at over $2000, can be yours now for only $29.
For more information, Click here
This writer's "coaching service" valued at over $2000, can be yours now for only $29.
For more information, Click here
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Bob vs. Bob - You Decide
Bob Bly Interviewed by Randy Gilbert on <i>The Inside Success Show</i>: Bob Bly shares the secret of how to become "the expert" in any field by Bob Bly, Randy Gilbert
It is a known fact that people who are recognized more...0 points
Business Lunchatations: How an Everyday Guy Became One of America's Most Colorful CEOs...andHow You Can, Too! by Bo Dietl, Bob Bly
How one tough cop became one tough businessman. &l more...0 points
Bob Bly's Guide to Freelance Writing Success: How to Make $100,000 a Year As a Freelance Writer and Have the Time of Your Life Doing It by Robert, W Bly
While many freelance writers struggle to earn a li more...0 points
Careers for Writers & Others Who Have a Way With Words (Vgm Careers for You Series (Paper)) by Robert W. Bly, Bob Bly
<p><b>The only career series designed more...0 points
Bob Bly's new book makes presenting as easy as copywriting.: An article from: The Newsletter on Newsletters by Roger C. Parker
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Ultimate Secrets of Direct Marketing Success -- Online and Offline
with his buddy, Fred Gleeck
In this just-released program "Ultimate Direct Response Secrets," a top Internet marketer and a veteran direct mail copywriter -- Fred Gleeck and Bob Bly -- share their combined 4 decades of marketing experience to enable you to increase your marketing response rates as never before.
In Part I of "Ultimate Direct Response Secrets," Bob Bly, who has been paid millions of dollars during his career to write promotions for Phillips Publishing, Boardroom, Nightingale-Conant, Institutional Investor, and dozens of other companies, shares with you the "best of the best" of his arsenal of proven direct response techniques.
Next, in Part II of "Ultimate Direct Response Secrets," Fred Gleeck - known to tens of thousands of marketers as "The King of Content" and "The Product Guru" -- shows how the Web can drastically reduce your marketing costs while multiplying your sales.
In all, you'll get dozens of powerful marketing tactics and tips - professionally recorded on 5 long-playing CDs, plus 3 bonus CD's for a total of 8 in all.
For more information, click here
In Part I of "Ultimate Direct Response Secrets," Bob Bly, who has been paid millions of dollars during his career to write promotions for Phillips Publishing, Boardroom, Nightingale-Conant, Institutional Investor, and dozens of other companies, shares with you the "best of the best" of his arsenal of proven direct response techniques.
Next, in Part II of "Ultimate Direct Response Secrets," Fred Gleeck - known to tens of thousands of marketers as "The King of Content" and "The Product Guru" -- shows how the Web can drastically reduce your marketing costs while multiplying your sales.
In all, you'll get dozens of powerful marketing tactics and tips - professionally recorded on 5 long-playing CDs, plus 3 bonus CD's for a total of 8 in all.
For more information, click here
Become an Instant Guru
Become much more famous in your niche or industry than you are right now. Move to the top of your profession - in demand for your product or service, status, prestige, and income.
In Bob Bly's new program, "Become an Instant Guru," he shares with you proven, utterly pragmatic methods you can use to quickly and easily become the recognized authority in your field ... starting in as little as 90 days!
"Become an Instant Guru" has been completely updated and professionally recorded on 5 long-playing CDs (and look for a sixth FREE bonus CD inside when your package arrives!). There's no lengthy manual to read or boring workbook to complete. You can master the entire "instant guru" process ... in about a week ... while listening in your car as you drive to and from work each day. It's that easy!
For more information, click here
In Bob Bly's new program, "Become an Instant Guru," he shares with you proven, utterly pragmatic methods you can use to quickly and easily become the recognized authority in your field ... starting in as little as 90 days!
"Become an Instant Guru" has been completely updated and professionally recorded on 5 long-playing CDs (and look for a sixth FREE bonus CD inside when your package arrives!). There's no lengthy manual to read or boring workbook to complete. You can master the entire "instant guru" process ... in about a week ... while listening in your car as you drive to and from work each day. It's that easy!
For more information, click here
Selling Your Services
We all know that business is incredibly competitive today. It's important to be good at your craft and deliver superior service, but these things alone are no longer enough to ensure your continued success.
Those who make the most money in any field, industry, or profession are not necessarily those who have the most knowledge, are most experienced in their craft, or sell the highest quality service. No, those who make the most money, charge the top fees, and are constantly in demand are those who are best at selling and marketing themselves!
It doesn't matter what you are selling - professional, creative, trade, or technical services - or what your profession is. Bob Bly's 5-step Selling Your Services process is packed with business-building selling techniques that will enable you to gain the selling skills you need to be more confident in selling, enjoy it more, generate a flood of leads and inquiries for your services, stand out from your competition, and get more and better clients to hire you, more often, for bigger fees.
Now YOU can increase your personal income $100,000 to $200,000 a year or more - simply by becoming much more effective at selling your services to potential clients, at the fees you want to charge.
For more information, on this audio program, combined with 2 FREE BONUS CD's, click here
Those who make the most money in any field, industry, or profession are not necessarily those who have the most knowledge, are most experienced in their craft, or sell the highest quality service. No, those who make the most money, charge the top fees, and are constantly in demand are those who are best at selling and marketing themselves!
It doesn't matter what you are selling - professional, creative, trade, or technical services - or what your profession is. Bob Bly's 5-step Selling Your Services process is packed with business-building selling techniques that will enable you to gain the selling skills you need to be more confident in selling, enjoy it more, generate a flood of leads and inquiries for your services, stand out from your competition, and get more and better clients to hire you, more often, for bigger fees.
Now YOU can increase your personal income $100,000 to $200,000 a year or more - simply by becoming much more effective at selling your services to potential clients, at the fees you want to charge.
For more information, on this audio program, combined with 2 FREE BONUS CD's, click here
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Fetching RSS feed... please stand byHow to Sell With Statistics
"The habit of looking on the bright side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a year."
By Bob Bly
Whenever I am writing copy, I like to gather lots of statistics on my topic.
The great thing about statistics is that you can use them to support almost any sales point you want to make in your promotion.
For example, marketers often cite the number of units that've been sold to prove that their product is popular and, therefore, must be good.
In the good old days, McDonald's restaurant signs would proclaim "Over 1 Billion Sold." Of course, that really wasn't proof that McDonald's burgers are good. Many restaurants make hamburgers that are better. But it gave customers the impression that McDonald's burgers were exceptional.
Ironically, a statistic that says the exact opposite - a number showing the product does not sell well - can also be used to make a case for superior quality.
Perhaps you have received a catalog for Harry & David, the mail-order company that sells, among other things, Royal Riviera Pears. The copy for the pears says, "Not one person in a thousand has ever tasted them." It makes the product sound exclusive, special, rare, and desirable. But what it really means is that very few people buy them!
Here's another example of how statistics can be skewed in your favor...
I was asked to write a brochure for a company that did research for manufacturers. I asked the client about his competition and where his firm stood among them.
"That's a negative," he said. "There are hundreds of small mom-and-pop operators doing this kind of research out of their homes. But there are only five real companies - and of those five, we are, unfortunately, the smallest."
So in the brochure copy, I wrote: "XYZ Research Associates is one of the 5 largest industrial research companies in North America" - turning a potential negative into a bragging point.
A few additional guidelines for using numbers in your marketing copy to make a case for your product or service:
* Write your numbers using the largest unit of measurement. "A quarter of a century" sounds longer than "25 years."
* Round off to make a number sound bigger. If the client tells me his newsletter has 2,015 subscribers, I talk about "thousands of satisfied subscribers."
* Use "negative statistics," saying what the product doesn't do or have, rather than what it does do or have. For instance, club soda has "no sodium, no artificial flavors, no calories."
* Prove statistical points with pictures. Compare two quantities with a bar chart, or show a price chart illustrating how shares of the stock you recommended went up.
* Use a persuasive statistic at least three times: in the body copy, in the chart or graph, and in a caption for the chart or graph.
* Make unexpected comparisons to dramatize numbers. You might, for example, say "More people have died from malaria over the past century than are now living in the United States" - much more memorable than just stating the number of malaria victims.
[Ed. Note: Using statistics to your advantage is a simple way to capture your prospect's attention and get him to buy. Many direct-marketing techniques are just as easy to learn - and just as effective at helping you get new customers. Master direct marketing, and you'll never want for money again.
Learn more about direct marketing from Bob Bly's free e-letter. Sign up today and get more than $100 in free bonuses.]
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.
Whenever I am writing copy, I like to gather lots of statistics on my topic.
The great thing about statistics is that you can use them to support almost any sales point you want to make in your promotion.
For example, marketers often cite the number of units that've been sold to prove that their product is popular and, therefore, must be good.
In the good old days, McDonald's restaurant signs would proclaim "Over 1 Billion Sold." Of course, that really wasn't proof that McDonald's burgers are good. Many restaurants make hamburgers that are better. But it gave customers the impression that McDonald's burgers were exceptional.
Ironically, a statistic that says the exact opposite - a number showing the product does not sell well - can also be used to make a case for superior quality.
Perhaps you have received a catalog for Harry & David, the mail-order company that sells, among other things, Royal Riviera Pears. The copy for the pears says, "Not one person in a thousand has ever tasted them." It makes the product sound exclusive, special, rare, and desirable. But what it really means is that very few people buy them!
Here's another example of how statistics can be skewed in your favor...
I was asked to write a brochure for a company that did research for manufacturers. I asked the client about his competition and where his firm stood among them.
"That's a negative," he said. "There are hundreds of small mom-and-pop operators doing this kind of research out of their homes. But there are only five real companies - and of those five, we are, unfortunately, the smallest."
So in the brochure copy, I wrote: "XYZ Research Associates is one of the 5 largest industrial research companies in North America" - turning a potential negative into a bragging point.
A few additional guidelines for using numbers in your marketing copy to make a case for your product or service:
* Write your numbers using the largest unit of measurement. "A quarter of a century" sounds longer than "25 years."
* Round off to make a number sound bigger. If the client tells me his newsletter has 2,015 subscribers, I talk about "thousands of satisfied subscribers."
* Use "negative statistics," saying what the product doesn't do or have, rather than what it does do or have. For instance, club soda has "no sodium, no artificial flavors, no calories."
* Prove statistical points with pictures. Compare two quantities with a bar chart, or show a price chart illustrating how shares of the stock you recommended went up.
* Use a persuasive statistic at least three times: in the body copy, in the chart or graph, and in a caption for the chart or graph.
* Make unexpected comparisons to dramatize numbers. You might, for example, say "More people have died from malaria over the past century than are now living in the United States" - much more memorable than just stating the number of malaria victims.
[Ed. Note: Using statistics to your advantage is a simple way to capture your prospect's attention and get him to buy. Many direct-marketing techniques are just as easy to learn - and just as effective at helping you get new customers. Master direct marketing, and you'll never want for money again.
Learn more about direct marketing from Bob Bly's free e-letter. Sign up today and get more than $100 in free bonuses.]
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.
Bob's Everywhere! Check out these links.
- Bob's E-Book Empire
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"Bob, your stuff is always so good that even though I'm retired now, I have to read it!"
--Gary Bencivenga
"You are someone I've grown to admire greatly. You share your knowledge with and encourage people in achieving their dreams, trying new things, and learning tricks of the trade. It's a rare 'guru' in our world today who is thoughtful and kind enough to help up and comers find the path to success. In my opinion, you are the very best. I'm grateful to you."
--Linda Capriotti
"During the past 20 years, Bob Bly has become one of America's leading direct response copywriters. He has probably done more to teach other writers the craft of effective and persuasive writing than anyone else."
--Roger C. Parker
"After considering a number of high-level marketing professionals and reflecting on the matter for several weeks, I made the decision to ask Bob Bly to share the stage with me for my Twin Keys to Wealth-Building Conference. The reason I chose Bob is because I am convinced that he can deliver more tangible value to conference attendees than any other marketing or Internet expert on the planet."
--Robert Ringer, best-selling author
"I love your e-mails. Read every single one of them as they come in."
--Dr. Paul Hartunian
"I have huge admiration for your work. You're one of the few guys out there selling real information -- and selling it at a reasonable price! I think what you're doing is head and shoulders above others."
--Mark Joyner
"I receive so many e-mail offers -- too many -- but Bob always delivers a product worth having. The marketplace for writing and marketing products has become over-hyped; in that environment it's reaffirming to see that Bob continues to stand for a level of quality that matters -- and happily, at a price that works. "
--Peg Prideaux
"Watch Bob Bly very closely. He's a very intelligent marketer who knows how to get results and bring in the money!"
--John Kidd
"I have enjoyed all of the books that I have read of yours. I appreciate your no nonsense, take-it-to-the-bank advice that you deliver."
--Nicholas J. Loise, RSVP Chicago - Are You Suffering from "RSS Feed Overload"?
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- Get 4 FREE Special Reports from Bob BlyWorth Over $100! Email: Sign up for a free, no-commitment subscription to my monthly e-newsletter on direct marketing -- The Direct Response Letter - and get 4 FREE Bonus Reports ... over 167 pages of valuable marketing advice that can double your profitability!
