Chris Marlow Biography
Direct response copywriting has been Chris Marlow’s passion since discovering industry icons Dick Benson, Herschell Gordon Lewis and Bob Stone in the advertising section of Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, Oregon.
She began self-study in 1979 while still in college and was one of eight people to start the Oregon Direct Marketing Association in 1990.
Now, more than two decades after graduating from Portland State University, she’s a highly accomplished, award-winning direct response copywriter with an extensive portfolio of successful direct response campaigns and controls. She’s also been an industry-leading business coach since 2003 and an Internet entrepreneur with her own products, mailing list, and courses.
Her copywriting successes have been shaped in part by her work with some of the nation’s leading direct response agencies: Rosen/Brown Direct in Portland, Oregon, Direct Response Solutions (also Portland), The Kern Organization in Woodland Hills, California, and Creative Direct Marketing Solutions (Torrance, California), four respected direct marketing agencies noted for generating consistently high response rates.
– Richard Rosen, President/CEO
Since 1996, Chris has offered her talents, skills, and experience to such national business leaders as IBM, Blue Cross, Nike, Reebok, Toyota, TRW, Willamette Industries, and many leading technology firms including Qualcomm, Dell Computer, and Novell.
Today Chris is one of the nation’s top copywriters for software, having written direct mail and online promotions for more than 40 enterprise-level, mid-size, and small software and technology companies. Some notable clients include Microsoft, Intuit, Network Associates, Best Software, VeriSign, Symantec, MetaCreations, and Epicor.
Unlike many copywriters, Chris has worked with nearly every category of business in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer, and a broad array of formats, from classic packages to magalogs to 3-dimensional campaigns and all forms of online. Since 2003 Chris has taught hundreds of copywriters how to write effective White Papers and Special Reports that bring in the leads and the ROI.
“Chris Marlow is truly a direct response expert. From concept to copy to finish, Chris has helped us to create a number of fresh, innovative, and successful campaigns. Her strong background writing for a variety of IT industry clients has enabled her to understand the needs of our highly-educated target audience of computing professionals.”
– Brian Hebert, Association for Computing Professionals Marketing & Communications Manager, New York, NY
Some of her copywriting categories include technology, health publishers (Women’s Health Advocate, FC&A Publishing), business publishers (American Business Journals), banks (U.S. National Bank), utilities (Portland General Electric, Northwest Natural Gas), and education (Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology).
As the original copywriter’s coach Chris also teaches corporate copywriters (Wal-Mart, Intuit) and business owners how to improve their business, copywriting and strategic skills. Her marketing acumen allows her to help copywriters create “controls” for their clients: marketing campaigns that cannot be beat.
Her acclaimed course, The Marlow Marketing Method™ for Copywriters, has been the copywriting industry’s premier course for landing clients since 2003.
Today Chris also offers The Marlow Marketing Method for Service Providers™, which brings the same step-by-step formula for client acquisition success to businesses and independent contractors who seek to attract and convert high quality leads in the business-to-business space.
In 1994 Chris received her first award for copywriting, the Pioneer Award, which recognizes exceptional creative. That same year she received two ECHO Awards — the highest award in direct marketing — from the International Direct Marketing Association, for exceptional results in marketing campaigns.
– Eric Robi, VP, Creative Director, Lassoo Interactive, Los Angeles, CA
Yet another ECHO Award followed, and then one more in 1995 — a regional MAXI Award — again for exceptional results. Chris is publisher of the world’s only statistical study of copywriter fees and business economics. She also sells other information products that she’s created and has earned over $130,000 from their sales to date.
Chris has been published in marketing related media such as DM News, SoftwareCEO, and many of her marketing-oriented articles can be found online at her blog, http://blog.chrismarlow.com/.
She’s an accomplished speaker and presenter and has spoken to audiences with as many as 300 participants, most notably at the American Writers & Artists Institute Bootcamp in Del Ray, Florida in 2008 and 2009. To view a clip, visit http://www.chrismarlow.com/speaking
In October of 2009 Chris was diagnosed with breast cancer. For the next year she continued her work with coaching clients throughout her 24 sessions of chemo, five surgeries (including a double mastectomy), and 33 rounds of radiation. Now cancer free, she’s back to building her business and eager to bring her powerful marketing solutions to a wider marketplace.
Chris has a pattern of recognizing opportunity before the general mass market catches on. She was one of only three copywriters to have a website in the early years of the Internet (which allowed her to quit marketing for several years due to the lack of competition).
Recognizing that the copywriting community did not have any teachers, Chris became the industry’s first coach and is now know as the “original copywriter’s coach” in a market now flooded with other coaches.
She’s also become known as the industry’s leading marketing coach thanks to her innovative and powerful course for landing elite clients, the Marlow Marketing Method. Today she focuses on teaching small medium and large businesses how to land lucrative clients through use of effective white papers, dimensional direct mail, and marketing strategy.
In another innovation, Chris created a proprietary system for helping other copywriters “find the niche that’s right for them.” Its unveiling to the market at large yielded a standing ovation from 300 copywriters at the 2008 American Writers & Artists Bootcamp in Del Ray, Florida. An expanded version of Chris’ Niche Detective School is available to other service providers seeking their ideal positioning in the marketplace.
Chris has many testimonials of the successful copywriters and service providers she’s helped, and a reputation as a “guru maker.” She’s also noted for her integrity as a person and caring as a coach.
In addition, Chris regularly publishes to her mailing list of loyal readers and customers from more than 30 countries. She also has more than 4,000 contacts and followers in the three leading social media sites: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Chris has served as a director of the Oregon Direct Marketing Association and twice as a Judge for the International ECHO Awards. She lives in Palm Desert, California, near Palm Springs, where she spends her free time painting, hiking, and sailing on weekends in the San Diego bay with her 9-pound Yorkie, “Sailor.”
Now that you know more about Chris Marlow, be sure to ask for her FREE White Paper, Secrets of Successfully Selling Business to Business: How to Win Quality Clients Fast in a Tough, Slow Economy, simply click here.