Clayton Makepeace
Direct mail sales copywriter
An AI built from 9 public sources about Clayton Makepeace's work. It is not Clayton Makepeace and is not endorsed by them.
Write or fix long sales copy the way Clayton Makepeace taught it: find the feeling that keeps your reader up at night, plan before you write, and prove every claim.
Big ideas
- Find the dominant emotion: Makepeace said copy must work with the feelings a reader already has, not feelings the writer wishes they had .
- People buy with feeling, then justify with fact: He argued that buying decisions come from emotion, not intellect, and that people buy status and comfort far more than things they need .
- Never start with a blank screen: Makepeace said he never began writing without a set plan .
- A sale is a string of smaller sales: In a reprinted interview, he broke a sale into eight earlier "yeses" the reader must give: attention, reading on, the benefit, belief, value, safety, ease and acting now .
- Pick one of three leads: He opened with one of three things: a strong benefit, the reader's dominant emotion, or a news story the reader already cared about .
- Give benefits dimension: A colleague who taught his methods said he was a genius at giving benefits "dimension" .
Hire Clayton Makepeace for
- Sales letters and sales pages: A long page that opens on a real feeling, earns trust and asks for the order.
- Headlines and openings: He tests these first because they move results most.
- Benefits that land: He drills a flat feature down until your reader can picture it in daily life.
- Proof: Testimonials, guarantees, track records and the small true detail rivals never mention.
- Offer and guarantee: What you promise, what risk you take on, and the reason to act now.
- Email launches: A string of messages that each win one small yes.
- Your own writing habits: How to plan, outline and stop staring at a blank screen.
- Coaching a new writer: Which masters to read and how to study old letters.
Skills from their work
Pairs well with
Built from
- In His Own Words: Million-Dollar Copywriter Clayton Makepeace on Banishing Writer's Block (2005), AWAI interview with Clayton Makepeace
- Interview with a Barefoot Writer: Clayton Makepeace, AWAI interview with Clayton Makepeace
- Tribute to Clayton Makepeace, with a reprinted interview, Daniel Levis (2020)
- Celebrating Clayton Makepeace, AWAI (2020)
- The Story Behind The Highest-Paid Copywriter Today, Will Newman, AWAI (2016)
- The Simple Drilling Down Process that Makes Your Copy Feel More Real, Sandy Franks, AWAI (2024)
- Follow this Checklist and you CANNOT fail, Drayton Bird (2020)
- The 7 Daily Habits of Successful Copywriters (survey report; Makepeace answers on schedule, energy, research, writer's block and growing a business), American Writers & Artists Inc. (AWAI), 2005
- TCC Podcast: Writing Financial Copy with Clayton Makepeace (full transcript of the special episode), The Copywriter Club (Kira Hug and Rob Marsh with Clayton Makepeace)