[Direct Response Series] Improving the ROI of Your Marketing with Don Hauptman, Author of The Versatile Freelancer

Don Hauptman is one of the legends of copywriting and direct mail marketing. He is an award-winning direct-response copywriter with a 30+ year career during which time he created many successful direct mail packages and renewal campaigns. Don retired a few years ago but still speaks and writes on marketing. 

Don may be best known for his headline “Speak Spanish [French, German, etc.] Like a Diplomat!” This familiar series of ads has sold spectacular numbers of recorded foreign language lessons and generated revenues in the tens of millions of dollars.

His work is mentioned in three major college advertising textbooks and examples of his promotions are cited in the books Million Dollar Mailings (1992) and World’s Greatest Direct Mail Sales Letters (1996). He is also the author of The Versatile Freelancer, which shows self-employed professionals how they can diversify into public speaking, training, consulting, and critiquing.

The successes of your marketing campaigns are as good as the market research behind them. But many businesses are often remiss in their focus on their market research and this causes them to make poorly written and mistargeted copy in their campaigns. It’s a waste of time and resources which is why Don Hauptman, copywriting extraordinaire, says that putting in the effort to get your market research right is crucial to getting the ROI on your ad spend.

In this episode of Inspired Insider, Don retells the story of some of his biggest copywriting successes, some of the best copies he’s ever written and the mistakes he has made which became incredible learning experiences. Don also discusses with Jeremy his classic “Speak Spanish like a Diplomat” ad series and his inspirational personal stories that aspiring copywriters can definitely learn from. Stay Tuned.