1:46pm
Saint Paul
My high school history teacher used to tell us:
If you don’t know your history, you don’t know anything!
This is true in civics: what has worked, and what has repeatedly failed?
True in cooking.
And it’s certainly true in marketing.
Which is why successful marketers study what’s worked in the past, to learn from those successes and apply those lessons to their work today.
Lawrence Bernstein knows his history.
As the “world’s most obsessed ad archivist,” Lawrence has been collecting, analyzing, and applying the lessons from great direct response marketing and copywriting for over 25 years.
In this interview, Lawrence dips into the powers of direct mail, the importance of building your list, where to find secrets of great marketing, and more.
Listen to Lawrence Bernstein, episode 017 of the Persuasion Play Podcast, to discover:
• How Lawrence started his online archive and what’s changed in direct response marketing in the years that followed (1:27)
• Direct mail isn’t dead. But can you trust your list broker to target the right audience? (4:25)
• A surprising truth about marketing to the ”chronically online” Gen-Z (5:50)
• What you can learn from Marshall McLuhan’s 1964 book, Understanding Media –– and how its message applies to your own marketing (6:27)
• Timeless advice on keeping your brand in front of buyers (8:39)
• Should you plan your marketing to have Staying Power? (13:24)
• How “in the dark” marketing slows your competitors from stealing your winning campaigns (15:05)
• How to build a list of buyers for your million-dollar, signed Jimi Hendrix guitar (17:55)
• Gary Bencevenga’s advice to fortify your persuasion chops (21:20)
• How to make a mint during a once-in-a-lifetime event — like the one that’s coming in 2026! (23:30)
• Claude Hopkins was wrong: THIS is what buyers want (26:54)
• A secret weapon to uncover what angles your competitor has tried (34:01)
• AI is just another iteration of this 1980s innovation — but does that mean it’ll replace copywriters and designers? (35:15)
• Why it’s important to “show your warts” in the age of AI (41:10)
• Why most copywriters fail—and how Lawrence Bernstein’s archival work can help you overcome this common pitfall (43:24)
• Want your marketing to “stay in shape?” How tactile, real-world experiences develop your creativity and brainpower (48:05)
• Are the best advertising and copywriting insights already sitting on your shelf? (57:55)
• Should you really keep your copy at a 4th grade reading level? (1:03:29)
• Lawrence’s upcoming book… series?! (1:07:36)
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Persuasion Play Podcast, available on YouTube at:
And thanks to Lawrence for his time and insights. You can find Lawrence at AdMoneyMachine.com and InfoMarketingBlog.com.
Love you,
Your man Jeffrey