Eight Copy Glitches that Dry-Gulch Results

5. FAILING TO SELL PROSPECTS ON READING THE ADVERTISING. Copywriters have two missions. The major one is to generate response. The second one is to convince prospects about the value of the advertising itself. In other words, provide an answer to the question: “Why should I bother reading this? What’s in it for me?” Failure to accomplish this mission is not a failure to attract attention. This glitch occurs after gaining attention, and is a much deeper problem. In classic direct mail, if the envelope serves as the attention-getter, it is the content of the Johnson box or first paragraph that tells prospects why they should be interested enough to read on.