Marketing Examples

Marketing Examples grew from a belief: teach marketing through examples, not theory. Harry Dry started it because he was fed up with marketing taught as two pages of theory when he just wanted examples. The newsletter now has over 100,000 subscribers and about 50% open it.

He argues the second piece of copywriting is having something to say, which is easier when you build for a belief rather than only for money. "You need to be building things because of something you believe."

How I Write▶ 25:29

Score each line: can I visualize it, falsify it, can nobody else say it. Three no's mean rubbish and three yes's mean you are onto something. New Balance's "Worn by supermodels in London and dads in Ohio" passes all three, while a recruiter's "Don't just get a job, change an entire industry" fails all three.

Dry applies the three rules to every sentence he writes or reviews, as a way to write copy that is honest and specific instead of gaming psychology with tricks.

How I Write

Rewrite abstract words until they become objects you can picture. Dry draws a line from abstract at the top to concrete at the bottom and keeps asking what he means. "Regain fitness" becomes off the couch, then running, then 5K: Couch to 5K, the most downloaded fitness program ever, made by a Boston TV producer rather than Nike or Adidas.

He quotes Lisa Cron: "if I can't see it, it's not there yet." You can't drop "a better way" on your foot, but a muscular Irishman would hurt.

How I Write

Make claims that can be proved wrong, and point at evidence. A falsifiable sentence puts the writer's head on the chopping block, which earns attention. Galileo was sentenced to house arrest for saying the earth spins around the sun; a vague "harmonious connection with a celestial object" would have been ignored.

His exercise: imagine you can't talk, you can only point. To sell gold, point at its 50-year chart, what it did in the last crash, or how much Warren Buffett holds. Pointing takes research, which is why it beats adjectives.

How I Write

Never write an ad a competitor could sign. Following Jim Durkey's rule, Dry holds up Volkswagen's ad noting other speedometers have five numbers while its own has six, and the Corvette's "They don't write songs about Volvos," which only that car can claim.

He also uses a two-second "one Mississippi" test: if you don't get an ad in two seconds, it fails. Athletic Greens' "You're going to need a smaller cabinet" works by naming what the product replaces, where "One drink to replace them all" has been said before.

How I Write

Simple copy comes from many rewrites, not a simple first draft. Dry's "throw money and pray" ad took about 2 days and 25 rewrites, built piece by piece from a tweet and a Volkswagen layout.

He cites Kaplan's Law of Words: any words that aren't working for you are working against you. He argues AI can't write great copy because it lacks taste, conviction and experience, noting Ogilvy's Rolls-Royce clock headline came from a writer who actually drove the car and lifted sales by 50%. "You can't write simply. You can only rewrite simply really."

How I Write

Words decide which of two near-identical products wins. Snickers is the best-selling bar in the world while the near-identical Fuse bar was discontinued in 2006, and 17 out of 20 American teenagers choose Apple over Samsung.

Footballer Dave Kitson outsold Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard and Owen combined by signing his book as "the secret footballer," offering an undercover look nobody else could. Dry's foundational question: what can you do that no one else is doing and people care about.

How I Write

Keep every paragraph to two lines or fewer. Dry has not written a paragraph over two lines since March 2021, noticing the pattern only after reading back through old issues. Short paragraphs are "like monkey bars," easy for distracted train readers to swing across.

A three-line paragraph often signals he isn't explaining himself well, and short lines get room to breathe.

How I Write▶ 54:05

Open each issue with time, place and what's happening. Taking Ann Handley's point that a newsletter is more about the letter than the news, Dry looks out the window and writes where he is and what's going on. One issue opened at 3:47 a.m. with green tea and a whiteboard.

He took the idea from J.K. Rowling opening Chamber of Secrets with an argument at breakfast.

How I Write▶ 51:25