There’s a hidden benefit in taking the high road, to tackling the real problems instead of the imaginary ones, to selling real solutions instead of handy fantasies:
Copywriting trick #1:
When you tell the truth, It makes everything you say more believable!
(Imagine that.)
The other day I was doing a fast-start consultation with Platinum Member Christopher Austin, and I said “Maybe it’s the culture in the marketing biz, for some reason a lot of marketers don’t feel legitimate until they’ve said something illegitimate – like they have to make something up, or stretch the truth, or come up with some kind of gimmick. The best gimmick is no gimmick at all.”
The point is that usually the best reason to give a customer is simply the real, actual reason.
Some of my members run IT service companies and they give away a free 1-hour visit, system audit, or on-site consultation. It’s really important to give the customer a good reason why you’re doing this. Let’s talk about some reasons you could offer for giving away this consultation for free.
Here are some WRONG reasons why:
Why do I do this for free? Because I have so little business, I’m desperate and willing to do anything just to bend your ear for an hour. (That’s a little too truthful)
Why do I do this for free? Because I’m on a personal mission to stamp out viruses and I’m willing to do anything I can to protect you from intruders. (Nobody’s in business for some purely philanthropic reason, all customers know that.)
Why do I do this for free? Because it’s really just the first hour that’s free, but I’m going to stay for three more and stick you with a big bill. (Look, they need to want you there for hours two through four!)
One guy used this wording in a letter he sent for critique:
Why do I do this for free? Because the vast majority of businesses who take advantage of our assessment do business with us!
That’s not bad, and it’s certainly true, but a reason that involves the customer’s self interest would be much better:
Why would I do $110 of checks and security audits for free? Because the odds are 10:1 that you’ve got lethal viruses lurking in your computers, undetected, right this moment… “back doors” that are giving hackers easy access to private information like bank and credit card numbers. Security cracks that will allow dishonest people to steal your identity and wreak havoc in your business.
In one brief hour I will identify these problems and make them vanish. It’s the best way I know to prove my value to you, without you risking a penny.
If I do a good job for you, next time you have a problem you’ll know who to call, right? It’s good for both of us. And I promise not to twist your arm or stay for two more hours and send you a big bill. Unless you ask me to stay longer, in which case my rates are competitive and the results are completely guaranteed. You’ll never pay me to fix the same problem twice.
So please, don’t set this letter aside–-pick up the phone right now and call me at 555-1234 and we’ll schedule a time to protect your information from prying eyes.
What’s good about the ‘reason why’ above? It clearly states the reason they need the audit, not why you need to do it. The letter scares them a bit, as it should. It emphasizes how quick and easy the cure is going to be, and it explains a very logical and persuasive reason why you would give away $110 worth of service. The guarantee (‘never pay me to fix the same problem twice’) is embedded in there, and the call to action is very clear and simple.
There’s nothing smarmy or slippery or deceptive about this. It just states the plain facts. When a person reads this, he doesn’t detect a hidden agenda. The cards are all out on the table. The customer still feels like he’s in control. That straightforward tone increases response. It’s believable and it’s not intimidating.
Copywriting Trick #2:
It’s Gotta Have Rhythm
I’m far from the first person to ever talk about this, but it doesn’t get the attention it deserves: Good copy has rhythm. Cadence. A bit of a lilt. I’d like to call out some specific examples of rhythm in copy:
“How an Inexperienced 29 Year Old Punk Ignored all the Usual Marketing ‘Wisdom,’ Grew a Hi-Tech Business 2000% in 4 Years, and Sold it for 18 Million Dollars”
…And How YOU Can Transform Your Business by Replacing Advertising with Free Publicity,
Charging Money for Information That Everyone Else is Giving Away Free, and Replacing Cold Calls with Guerilla Marketing.
What you see here is probably my favorite single formula – the zero / one / two / three punch.
The carriage returns of the headline are specifically chosen so that the first phrase promises a story and the next three line deliver three rhythmic punch lines. Say this headline out loud and you hear a definite cadence.
The sub-head follows the exact same formula, but now shifts the focus from me to the reader right away – very important. All sales letters are about your reader, not you!
I don’t use this formula only in sales letters. I use it all over the place, including this newsletter. I use it everywhere. It makes my writing more hypnotic, more persuasive, easier to read.
(There, I just used the zero / one / two / three punch again!)
7 Big Lies About Money That Can Rob You Of All Your Retirement Dreams And Lock You In Financial Prison
If we were writing a song or rap tune, we could chant this to a beat. The power in this headline lies in the fact that the first line is the cause, the second is the effect, the third is the end result.
Are You Thinking About Going Public But Worried About the Process?
How to Raise Money, Create an Exit Strategy for Your Investors, Attract Talented Employees and Build Your Net Worth
The real punch line is the subhead, which promises four benefits that all owners of growing businesses are desperately concerned about.
This is the USP of the advertiser, who takes companies public for these four specific reasons.
As I mentioned in the inset, I use this one-two-three punch constantly. When I’m writing a sales letter, in the back of my mind I hear a rhythmic voice pacing out a persuasive, metered sales message that stimulates and soothes at the same time.
Bullets should have rhythm, too. For example here’s a snippet from a sales letter John Carlton wrote for a set of motocross videos:
And don’t be intimidated by the fact these are pro-level tactics. The bottom line is, you can learn these secret skills and techniques almost immediately…
• No matter how out-of-shape you are now…
• No matter what your current skill-level is (in fact, it’s almost better if you’re a raw rookie beginner, because you won’t have to un-learn any of your bad habits)…
• And no matter what kind of bike you’re now riding, or what sort of courses or terrain you’re tackling.
It’s astonishingly easy… the secrets are simple to “get”… and, best of all…
You Can See Everything For FREE If You Choose!
Notice how those bullets are arranged in a one-two-three punch? Then the “astonishingly easy”
line packs another one-two-three punch.
Rhythm is also a key element in successful Google Ads. Since you have so little space, and since they’re broken into three lines, they almost demand that you write them almost like you write poetry.
Poetry doesn’t get a lot of airtime in 21st century American culture, but it’s very powerful. Words set to
music or poetry have a persuasive power that seeps into your brain, unlike any other words.
Here are some examples of Google ads with rhythm:
Popular Ethernet Terms
Complex Words – Simple Definitions
3 Page Guide – Free PDF Download
www.bb-elec.com
Simple Self Defense
For Ordinary People
Fast Personal Protection Training
www.tftgroup.com
Beat the AdWords System
Be Up Running in 30 Minutes or Less
Fast Results Guaranteed, Risk-Free
AdWordsVideo.com
The power of rhythm is, in my opinion, one of the major factors that separate hypnotic, persuasive copy from ordinary copy. The exact same message without this quality is far less compelling, but the difference resides far below the radar of almost every reader. They can’t explain why it’s so persuasive, it just is. I just showed you why.
Copywriting Trick #3:
Set Your Mind On Fire
If you’re going to sit down and write some really blazing copy, your mind’s got to be ablaze, too.
This does not just happen by itself. You have to force it to happen. The creative side has to get energized, turned on, activated. It takes boiling water to cook pasta. You have to exceed “escape velocity” to put a satellite in orbit. You have to apply an electrical charge before you can anodize aluminum with that shiny colored coating.
And your brain has to be ready before they can write world class copy.
Here’s how I do it: I write my best copy at night. I go to Starbucks at 8:30pm and slurp down some jet fuel. Then I come home and turn on some heavy metal. I circle the project for an hour or so and then the writing starts in earnest. If it’s a 10 page sales letter, it’s gonna take five hours. So that means the heavy metal is pounding well into the wee hours of the morning.
Why heavy metal, you say?
I like the angst. I like the grit of jagged power cords and the visceral growl of a six string bass. I crave the staccato and the intense, driving beat. It heats my neurons past the boiling point so the juices really start flowing. That’s when I get nasty persuasive.
Rush, Dream Theater, Joe Satriani, or if I’m feeling really frosty, Rammstein (picked that up in Dubai). I’ve got two screens on my PC, and just the other night I stuck in my Live At Budokan DVD. On the left screen, Microsoft Word. On the right screen, Mike Portnoy and the boys thrashing away for three hours straight. A lead guitarist, high priest of the post-modern religious experience. Man, it was good.
Sales letter turned out good, too.
I know what you’re thinking: “What, you write copy while you watch a metal concert?” Yep. That’s me. Makes me loosen up. Makes the words flow. Flips on the Power Switch to the right side of my brain. For me, it’s not distracting, it’s energizing.
I actually shop for DVD’s that I think will be good for writing copy now, because nothing matches the energy of a live rock concert. Who knows, maybe I should write my sales letters at rock concerts.
I’m in good company, doing this. Stephen King listens to AC/DC when he writes his novels. Jeff Paul jams to The Grateful Dead. And for me, Jazz don’t do the trick. Folk or pop or World music won’t do the trick either, even though I like all that other stuff just fine. Only metal gets me to that sweet spot.
I know, I’m deranged, kinda like Jeff Paul and Stephen King. Not everyone is. I was talking to John Carlton about this the other day, and he insists on total peace and quiet. So does my brother Bryan.
Different strokes for different folks. But the point is this: You’ve gotta get your brain cells revved.
Maybe that means you go to an art gallery. Maybe you watch the Blue Angels fly across your horizon.
Maybe you watch your favorite movie. Maybe you take your motorcycle out on the highway and rev it up to 90. Maybe you indulge in wild, raucous, head-banging, exhausting sex. (Hey, maybe I could try that.)
But you gotta get your head in a different zone to write really great copy.
Copywriting Trick #4:
Read Fiction and Let it Spill Into Your Writing
Three months ago, from a remote cybercafé outside of Nairobi, Kenya, I typed this message. I’ve highlighted some phrases I want to call your attention to:
September 14, 2004
South of Nairobi, Kenya
Dear Friend & Subscriber,
A cool rain is falling in the hills south of Nairobi today. In the air, the scent of lush vegetation, red soil and distant smoke that is uniquely African. The sounds of vendors selling, roosters crowing, tribal music and Alicia Keyes (!) blend together here in the village market of Kukoyu. There is an enchantment here that is found nowhere else.
Many ‘touristy’ things are available to the visitor in Kenya – game preserves, safaris, restaurants featuring exotic game – but that’s not why I’m here today.
I’m here to see what an obscure former schoolteacher named George Karanga is doing to help orphans.
George is an ordinary African guy who is doing something about the HIV crisis that is ravaging Africa. A long dark shadow of AIDS is cast over the entire continent. It is a savage and remorseless angel of death. Every day in Africa, six thousand people die of AIDS. Six thousand.
Imagine not two but four world trade center towers going down not once, but every single day. And not in a blaze of media glory, but in silence.
In my travel bag, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings trilogy. Loved the movies, finally read the books on the trip. The books are better than the movies, of course. Tolkien’s storytelling voice, the very mood of the LOTR tale, was in my head.
The power of this email message was that it instantly created a mood and transported you to a different continent. And I wrote this email in Tolkien’s voice – especially the parts that I highlighted. I told the story the way he would tell it. Lord Of The Rings was in my head, in Africa, it was coloring my perception of reality, the way my eyes narrated what they saw to my mind.
When you’re into a really good fiction book, the book gets into you. The author is inside of your mind, pulling you along, pulling you back into the story, compelling you to pick up the book and read another page. That voice colors your writing, gives it flavor, makes it richer. Even if you don’t study the writing for writing’s sake, it still alters your state of mind. Powerful words and images seep into your words, too. They come alive.
Just finished reading Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. Same thing all over again – the book is in the back of my mind, coloring my perceptions, Stephen King is narrating his version of the world to me. It comes out in my written words.
Copywriting Trick #5:
Talk To People The Way They Talk To Each Other And Themselves
This is really not a trick at all, it’s a fundamental principle. I talk about this in Guerilla Marketing for Hi-Tech Sales People but nobody can really appreciate the importance of this on the first listen.
This principle tells you exactly how and when to use every other copywriting “trick” in the book. It tells you whether your letters or website or emails should be ballsy and bombastic or polite and genteel.
It tells you whether they should have circles and underlines and highlighter all over the place or not. It tells you whether you can use crude language or not, how much slang is appropriate.
If you’re talking to Navy Seals about knife-fighting techniques, then you need to sound like a Navy Seal. If you’re talking to grey-haired accountants, then you need to use their language, their mannerisms, their buzzwords (but add a little extra personality, please). If you’re talking to Fortune 1000 CEO’s, you say to them what you’d say to one if you were one, and you met him at a CEO meeting.
The most useful application of this for me has been in applying copywriting techniques, which are mostly taught with consumer marketing examples, to Business-to-Business and corporate situations.
When a person says “Oh, that would never work with business people” or “That would never work on a corporate client,” or “That would be totally inappropriate for anyone who has real money” they’re confusing principles with techniques. A sales letter can work on anyone, as long as they can read. A direct response approach will work on anyone. It’s not a question of whether copy can sell, it’s a question of the style of the copy. If it matches the audience, it will work.
I was talking to Dan Kennedy the other day about “the difference between B2B and B2C copywriting” and he insisted that there is no difference. At first I disagreed, specifically on this point. But he clarified:
Soccer moms in Cambridge, Massachusetts or San Francisco talk to each other about slightly different things than Soccer moms in Iowa City or Sioux Falls, South Dakota. To really get maximum response, a good copywriter is going to write a different letter to different kinds of soccer moms.
It’s the same thing with Business To Business. You’re going to talk to telecom department managers in one kind of language, dental office managers in a slightly different language. But you’re not going to talk to accountants the same way you talk to martial arts enthusiasts.
The difference between B2B and B2C simply lies in correct application of this principle. And it’s the only real difference. Talk to them the same way they talk to each other and themselves.
