How To Live Your Dream Lifestyle By Writing Powerful Marketing Copy
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The document outlines essential principles and techniques for writing effective marketing copy, emphasizing the importance of direct communication with prospects. It provides guidance on developing a unique marketing voice, using storytelling, and employing emotionally charged language to connect with customers and encourage action. Ultimately, the tips aim to improve copywriting skills for various business contexts, making marketing efforts more impactful and increasing customer conversion rates.
How To Live Your Dream Lifestyle By Writing Powerful Marketing Copy
- 1. How To Write Marketing Copy piedpiperpersuasion.com/how-to-write-marketing-copy by Jon Knowing how to write marketing copy is one of the most important skilss that home business owner should aim to master. Developing this skill often results in your customers to take action faster and buy your products instead of procrastinating and thinking of more and more sales objections. Would you like to learn how to become more influential with your sales communications and increase the ROI on your campaigns? If your answer is YES, you should get some significant value from reading this post. It’s not the prettiest post ever and there might even be a few spelling mistakes but I challenge you to read it from start to finish because I’m quite confident that you will get some value from the tips I have laid out herein. As you read this post… You Are About To Discover: The mindset principles needed to write effective copy How to increase your emotional intelligence to connect with your customers faster How to grab your customers attention Ho to create desire in the minds of your prospects How to eliminate risk in the minds of your products to sell more OK so, let’s get started! But first… Some Housekeeping! During the course of this tutorial post I will refer to prospects quite frequently but all of the tips you are about to read apply to existing customers too. For those of you who are completely new to marketing: A prospect – someone in the marketplace who is a good fit for your product or service. A customer – someone who has already bought a product from you that you might be trying to sell more products/services to(upselling).
- 2. So… It really doesn’t matter whether you are running a home-based business working as a hairdresser, carpet cleaner, selling skin care/weight-loss products or you are a corporate executive selling complex software solutions or photocopiers because the tips contained within this copywriting post will be incredibly valuable to you regardless of the nature of your business. The main point of this training is to help you become a proficient writer of marketing copy, enabling you to use carefully crafted words, phrases and sentences to sell your products and services 10x easier. If you’re totally new to marketing you can have a look at an introductory discussion about copywriting principles by clicking here. So, why did I write this post? Well… When I first started out in business, I had hardly any knowledge of sales and marketing. I placed a few adverts in local papers and created flyers that drew absolutely… No response! ..so I had a desperate need to improve my ability to attract customers before my cash ran out. But, luckily for me, I was able to achieve this by learning from 3 great mentors in the United States: Dan Kennedy Jay Abraham Ted Nicholas …and their philosophies changed my life. That’s why I have decided to post these copywriting tips for beginners together for people who are struggling to find customers, distributors or investors for their home-based, SME or large businesses. At that time, I was fortunate enough to have enough spare income to spend on books,seminars, trainings to get myself out of the hole that I was in, but not everyone starting out today is as lucky as I was. So… I want you to get hold of the idea that, you can sell practically any product using one of the oldest and most powerful methods of marketing communication known to man… The Sales Letter! Now… When you write a sales letter, it will normally consist of a number of sections: A headline An introduction A section designed to stimulate the user’s interest Your product’s introduction
- 3. A value proposition How to order There are variations to this rule but if you are a beginner or even a more experienced marketer, by the end of this post you should be able to write a sales letter that will be able to: Turn a higher % of prospects into paying customers Arrange appointments with customers Get customers to attend events Find distributors for a home business opportunity .. the possibilities are endless. All you need to do is to be crystal clear on the action that you would like your prospects to take. For simplicities sake, I am going to base this training on customers purchasing your products/services. I would also like to make the point that the skills that you are about to learn can be applied to video presentations, email messages and face-to-face selling too. So, I want you to take this into consideration… When your competitors are zigging…. You need to be zagging! Why? Just think about it for a second. Everyone is being bombarded with Facebook messages, tweets, pins, texts and 1000s of ads trying to sell them something…. Information Overload! According to the Harvard Business Review, information overload is an issue that many new business need to overcome when trying to establish relationships with their consumers. Marketers in this day and age are so heavily focused on trying to communicate online marketing strategies, many of them have totally forgotten that a well written letter that arrives on their prospect’s doorstep will often get more attention that online forms of communication. Fact! Now… I’m not saying that you should ignore online marketing by any stretch of the imagination but what I am saying is that you need to separate yourself from the crowd and I’m going to show you how to do this. I digress…
- 4. Most marketing communications can normally be broken down into the following types: Branding Direct Response This course is focused on direct response not branding. Here’s why… Brand based marketing is where people will see your logo or trademarked images and become familiar with your business as a result of seeing your logo everywhere. The problem… Branding does not encourage the customer to get in contact with you immediately and purchase your product as a result of seeing your marketing message. It is more of a subliminal/subconscious method of communication. In my humble opinion…. Branding is ideal for large businesses such as Coca Cola, McDonalds etc ,that have deep pockets stuffed full of cash and don’t need to see an immediate return on their investments. So… If you want to keep on top of your cash-flow, I would stay away from sending branding messages into your marketplace and focus on… Direct Response Marketing! This form of marketing communication is focused on leading your prospect by the hand and telling them how, and when, to take the necessary action to buy your product. How do you do this? By learning how to write good direct-response marketing copy in the form of sales letters and utilising the power of direct mail. I honestly believe that if you can learn to write copy – your business will have no excuse to struggle. Disclaimer: I guarantee no financial results by reading this post ;). OK, now that I’ve got that out of the way – let’s proceed. Before we dive into the following tips and strategies needed to create a powerful sales letters and other marketing communications, we really should cover some mindset skills first. Tip 1: Fundamental Copywriting Principles That Your Competitors Often Forget
- 5. There are a number of foundational principles that you should start thinking about before you can start mastering the copywriting techniques you are about to learn. Here they are: Mindset 1: Talk to your prospect directly. Selling to people on a one-on-one, individual basis is a fundamental cornerstone to the success of your marketing communications. Here’s the reality, products are bought more than they are sold. In other words, you really can’t persuade someone to buy your product if they don’t want what you have to offer. Your focus shouldn’t be on using high pressure, hard selling strategies notoriously used by used car salesmen or timeshare salesmen in the 80s. Effective selling is just about understanding your customers needs and helping them to make the commitment to purchase. When you can get your prospect to think… I couldn’t imagine not buying this from this person I really like, respect and trust. .. you’re doing the right thing! This is your goal and this is how I’m going to be teach you to posture yourself by the time you’ve finished reading this post. Mindset 2 Marketing is selling on a mass scale. The main difference between marketing and selling is that marketing is focused on the why that you use a particular channel to get your sales message to your prospects/customers. To be successful, you need to combine the principles of marketing and selling in every communication. It is also important to be aware that marketing is not just simple 1 to 1 activity like sales. What you are doing with your marketing is applying the 1st mindset to a large group of people at the same time through a carefully selected method of communication (snail mail, webpages, newspaper ads etc) Your challenge here is to speak to tens, hundreds and thousands of people at the same time, with each one believing that you are talking to them as if they were sitting in your living room.
- 6. As you go through this post you are going to learn a number of power words that will help you to do this easily. Mindset 3 Your words convert customers to buyers. Copywriting is the most important element in any marketing communication especially when using the formats; print, webpage/blog,email, postcards and snail mail. So what is copywriting really? The words that you will be using to speak to your prospects…. Wordsmithing! Your goal will be to become a master-wordsmith and learn how to use words, sentences and paragraphs to become more persuasive and have more influence. Now… This has nothing to do with the English lessons that you studied at school. Some of the most successful copywriters didn’t even finish school. The good news is that you will be writing at a level that could easily understood by a 12 year old. The keep it simple school of communication. It’s much easier than it sounds and I’ll show you how to write simple but extremely influence-forming, persuasive sales letters this during this course. Mindset 4 Give more – earn more. Clever marketing is all about offering your prospects/customers much more value than your competitors. If you can go that little bit further with your level of service to your customer, you will find it much easier to turn prospects into customers and then into life-long clients and keep them for life. This is the ultimate goal of any business. Always over-deliver – it pays well! Mindset 5 Use proven techniques – don’t re-invent the wheel. Legendary marketers more experienced than myself, have been using certain techniques time-and-time again to achieve predictable results. As I mentioned previously, don’t reinvent the wheel until you have been able to use some of these techniques first.
- 7. I’m going to teach you a bunch of these techniques shortly. Mindset 6: Know why you are writing copy. Your goal will not be to feed people brain-candy, to entertain or distract them. You should only ever spend your valuable time writing marketing messages because you want to direct people to take immediate action that will solve their problems. In other words you are a marketer, not a magician ,an entertainer, a professional gossip or a scandal monger. If people think you are too funny, cute or outrageous, and they start to pay attention to how much you are making them a laugh or shocking them etc, they will miss the importance of the messages behind your words. Yes, personality is key important factor when differentiating yourself from the crowd but delivering your message in a simply and easily digestible way is crucial to your success! Mindset 7 Be a friend to your prospect and not a corporate robot. You should always write using a conversational style. Talk to your prospect in the same way you would talk to a friend or a family member. Us human beings like to communicate with people that indirectly let us know that we are liked by them and that they would like to develop some form of friendly relationship with us. So, try your best to keep your communicative voice as friendly/professional as possible with a view to making people feel as relaxed as possible. Mindset 8 Learn to become and educator. Marketing is all about finding a qualified prospect and then putting enough information in front of them to help them to make the right decision for themselves. Becoming an educator positions you as being a figure of authority and people generally respect people who can teach them new skills that will be beneficial to their lives. Respect is important but people ultimately do business with people who they … Know, like & Trust! So, it is critical for you to use the copy in your marketing messages to build relationships. Never forget this! Mindset 9
- 8. Be patient! It is highly unlikely that you will become a master copywriter, over-night. Fact! In my opinion… Copywriting is like a martial art! You will get better with time and practice. Now… I intend to give you enough easy-to-apply tips in this post course so that on completion, you will be able to go out into the market place and start successful selling. But.. You should set yourself a goal to always keep growing by trying to improve on the copy that you’ve written. Practice makes perfect! OK… That’s all of the mind-set stuff out of the way! So, let’s crack on with the techniques and strategies that could change your business and generate a hoard of rabid, starving prospects who are on the verge of biting off your hand to get hold of whatever you have to sell. Tip 2: “How To Find Such A Unique Marketing Voice That Renders Your CompetitionMute To The Ears Of Your Prospects.” Your average prospect is being bombarded with 1000s of marketing messages on a daily basis. It doesn’t matter whether it’s TV, online or in magazines, it’s getting increasingly more difficult to get your message heard. But… The vast majority of these marketing messages within a niche.. All sound the same! So… One way that you can rise above the noise and stand out from the crowd, is to develop your own marketing voice that attracts a bunch of rabid, loyal followers who are just like you.
- 9. So, how do you do this? Well… The first step is to communicate with your marketplace in a way that demonstrates your personality. You don’t want to communicate with people like a boring corporate marketing robot because they won’t pay attention if you’ve sent them to sleep. So, it would be a good idea for you to start speaking to your prospects like they are close friends or family members,using a conversational style of marketing. Why is this important? Because this approach will result in you developing an air of … Friendliness and Familiarity! Here’s the mistake that most people make… They start communicating with their customers using abstract facts, business speak and an almost academic writing style nature. One word… Boring! As I mentioned previously. The key here is that you want to start talking to your prospect like they are sitting in your living room having a chat with you. You see… Your prospect is probably in some sort of pain, with a desperate need to get met. That’s why you need to make sure that they feel that you are speaking to them directly and not just trying to communicate to a bunch of different people at the same time. Now, this concept confuses most people. Why? Because, they’re aware that they are often sending marketing messages to their prospects online, via video or sales letters which are being read by more than one person but it is so important you write all of your messages using words such as You and Your, so that they believe that you are talking to them directly. This is the key to developing… Empathy! … with your prospects. Writing the way that you would naturally speak is one of the best way to achieve this. Here’s a brilliant technique that marketers often use to achieve this.
- 10. Grab a piece of paper and jot down (using bullet points) the information that you would like to get across in your marketing message and then…. Record yourself discussing these topics using a dictaphone. That’s it. No rocket science needed. By doing this you will be able to capture the conversational nuances of your speech and if you transcribe this into writing, you will have the foundation upon which to build your empathetic marketing messages. So… Now that you’ve understood the importance of speaking directly to the reader of your marketing material, the next thing that you should think about is, communicating specific ideas and not making general statements. Here’s what I mean…. Let’s say you run a direct-sales business and you’re looking to recruit new distributors. Don’t advise potential reps that they will need to invest some time on a daily basis to their business. Tell them how much time they should invest at a minimum… Example: Sally, when you are working with me I will need you to invest 2 hrs daily ! Be precise! The point I am trying to make here is that wishy-washy statements don’t achieve anything apart from putting the reader into a state of … Confusion! Now… Confusion can be used as a valuable tool for bypassing the mind’s critical factor(covert hypnosis technique) but in the hands of newbies, it will often make their prospects/customers switch off. Make sense? Here’s what I’m confident about. Your competition are probably using very ambiguous statements such as: This product will make you lose weight – how much? You can earn an additional income – how much? This will boost your self esteem – what does that really mean? … etc. Once again, be as specific as you possibly can.
- 11. The next thing you need to do, is to focus on using words that are emotionally charged,( look at my other blog posts that discusses this further). You need to use language that really plays on emotion. An example of what I mean is that instead of telling someone that a weight loss product will boost their self-esteem, say something along the lines of… All of your female colleagues will start to feel physically sick as they begin to envy your new slim and sexy figure. Apologies for the crude example but I hope you understand the point that I’m trying to make. Using the above example, the word envy conjures up the human need that some people, on a sub- conscious level, desire. It’s a human need related to acceptance and its a very powerful motivator! OK, let’s proceed with another crucial element that you need to incorporate into your marketing messages to define a unique marketing voice… Tell Stories! This is powerful. Some of the greatest communicators throughout history have used stories as a method of communicating ideas. The real power of stories is that they are an excellent way of overcoming objections before they are raised in the mind of your prospect. An objection, for those of you who don’t know already, is an excuse/reason that a prospect will make up for not being able to buy your product. Examples include: No money No time No energy No self confidence ..etc. Here’s what I mean. Let’s say you have a product that you are worried that people say is too expensive. You can tell a story about someone that they can related to, who used to feel that the same way that they do now. You can talk about how your existing customer was originally afraid of the financial risk but what they found was that it was the best decision that they had ever made and couldn’t believe that they were silly enough to have missed out on the opportunity.
- 12. If you tell a story based around a testimonial in this way you will improve the chances of the reader of your material thinking… “Well it worked for Suzie and I’ don’t see myself as a silly person so it should work well for me too.” This is powerful! The art of storytelling for marketing purposes is something that I could write 5-10 blog posts about, but if you can start to incorporate this concept into your marketing, you’ll dramatically change the way that you are perceived in your marketplace. Assignment: Start recording your voice into a dictaphone and think about how you would like your personality to come across in your writing. Tip 3: How To Increase Your Emotional Intelligence –The Most Effective Way To Bond With Your Prospects For Life. Before you can embark on any form of successful marketing campaign, it is important gain a full understanding of the needs of your customers and the emotional connections surrounding them. I agree with Helen Keller when reading her quote: The best and most beautiful things in the world can’t be seen or touched they must be felt by the heart This applies to developing the trust needed to grow a successful business. Here’s what I mean… According to the scientist Maslow, people have two different types of needs such as: 1. Deficiency needs( lower needs) – Survival, security, approval, affection, self expression etc. 2. Being needs(higher needs) – Self actualisation/expression, transcendence So, what’s the difference between them and why are they important? Well… As far as deficiency needs are concerned, when one need is met another need automatically takes its place.
- 13. Picture the scene… You’re walking with safari group through a savannah and you get lost. Its 2pm, and you’re starving because you haven’t eaten since 8am in the morning. All of a sudden you see a pride of lions running towards you. Let’s examine the needs shift here. You were hungry but once you saw the lions your need to survive would kick in, resulting in you running and looking for cover. Your need for food would not resurface until you had managed to reach a place of safety. Once you had eventually eaten, another need would have popped up that needs to be satisfied. These deficiency needs are stacked in a pyramidal form known as a hierarchy and this structure of needs varies depending on the person in question. But… The needs that motivate most people to take any given action, most powerfully, are basic needs such as survival, security and safety. So, if survival is your main need at any moment in time, you really won’t be thinking about things like expressing your self creatively. If your safety is in question because something or someone is threatening you the same applies. If security is a concern, but you are surviving at the moment and you feel safe, you will probably wan’t that safety to remain for a long time. Now… Once these basic needs are met, emotional needs become the next on the agenda. I’m talking about needs such as: Love Sex Acceptance Now.. These needs are almost like experiencing something similar to physical pain. Once these emotional needs are met, we next start to start trying to prioritise these higher-needs such as self expression, self-actualisation etc. So, once you’ve managed to take away fears of love, sex, security and safety, people often tend to focus on goals such as self-expression. When people have serious needs that arise, they recoil into a more primitive mental state where their lower-level needs have to be met and addressed.
- 14. Examples of this can been seen when you’ve read news stories about a mother who has been able to physically move a small car that has left her child trapped. This is the primal nature that I’m referring to. OK, Jon, I get your point. So what’s all got to so with my customers? I thought you would never ask Well.. If your customer is searching on Google for a product or service, you can pretty much guarantee that there has been a new need that has surfaced in their life as a priority. So, it could be argued that their emotions are the driving force behind getting their needs met. If you, as a business person, know what that need is and can gauge the emotional connection between getting that need met and resolved, you can tailor your communication with them to ensure that they understand and believe that you are determined to help them to get this need met rather than just waffling on about the features of your product or your service. So, please don’t forget this. When a significant life-change has happened to make your customer feel the need to search online to find a product or service and you’ve taken this onboard, the next thing you should think about is a concept that’s taking academia by storm, within the field of psychology which is known as… Cognitive bias! Cognitive bias is a way of understanding the wiring of any human’s brain. Here’s what I mean… When we are born, all human beings pre-wired with certain preferences. Here’s an example… We humans are twice as motivated to avoid loss , as we are to have something that we desire. We’ll do twice as much to avoid losing £100, as we will to gain £100. So, what does this mean for you and your business. Well… If you really start to talking to your prospects about the losses that thy could experience by not using your product/service rather than what they will gain by using your product, you will find that they will become more.. Responsive! Make sense? Some whose life’s focus revolves around them maintaining a ‘positive mental attitude’ will probably think
- 15. that this isn’t the most positive way to market to customers. But.. You need to talk to your customer’s pain if they are every going to take action in the fastest way possible. For those of you who have issues with this mindset. I understand! However, you can’t fight realities surrounding the human mind. It’s just how the cookie crumbles. Now.. Here’s another cognitive bias that you need to be aware of when you are trying to communicate with your customer… Instant Gratification! Here’s what I mean… Your prospect’s want their needs met and guess what.. They want them met now! Here’s the reality when it comes to most of us humans. We tend to have a… Microwave Mentality Mindset You see…. Most people will not go to their local health store and buy products such as Moringa, Wheat grass and bio- available sources of vitamins which could easily help them to prevent things such as heart disease and
- 16. cancer, but if they end up with an illness such as cancer, they will often go through uncomfortable treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy to solve their problems. So… When a new need pops up in a person’s life which forces them to go out into the marketplace and look for a product or service, there’s a chance that they will most likely purchase a product which clearly states the short term/instant benefits that will come about as a result of purchasing the product or service. This is what you need to take into consideration when writing any marketing communications for your products. Marketing books and seminars often talk about everyone favourite radio station… WIIFM! But, I genuinely believe that answering the question ‘what’s in it for me’ isn’t enough. You, as a marketer, need to become skilled at answering the question… What’s in it for me, if I act NOW! – (Tweet this!) Here’s an example of what I mean. Imagine, a 20 year old boy who is at college/university and has never had any luck meeting girls. He walks into his library and sees two books. One entitled… How To Become The Man Any Woman Would Love to Marry OR… 7 Secret Ninja Chat Up Lines, That Will Make Any Girl Ditch Her Friends and Leave The Club With You Immediately, For A Night Of Passion -(Tweet this!) Which one do you think he is likely to choose? My sentiments exactly… Instant Gratification! Now, let’s be honest…. We all like to think that we are rational creatures who make buying decisions logically but we don’t. Yea I said it! We make buying decisions emotionally and justify our choices with an irrational form of logic that often doesn’t make much sense.
- 17. Don’t believe me? Let’s take fast food s a example. Going to your local fried chicken or burger establishment and stuffing your face with 1200 calories of synthesised, non-electric/nutrient deficient-food is never the most logical choice. But, that is a decision that so many people make. Why? Because, the combination of salt, sugar and carbohydrates satisfies a need in us that makes us feel ‘happier’ because of the serotonin that is released during consumption. So, to re-iterate what I said earlier. Human beings are generally irrational creatures and if you can understand this when writing your marketing messages, you’ll place yourself in a batter position that your competition, especially when you focus on connecting with people’s irrational motives. Here’s a little marketing nugget, and if you start incorporating it into your messages, it will dramatically improve your chances of converting prospects to customers. You need to interact with a persons… Reticular Activating System! … to improve your chances of success. So, what is this system all about? Well.. It’s a part of the brain that keeps us alerted to important aspects in our environment that are relevant to us. Let’s say you have seen a red car that you like in a magazine. You would be amazed at how you start to notice red cars in the street on a daily basis that you would never have paid attention to before. People who are looking to buy houses/apartments, start subconsciously paying more attention to ‘for-sale’ signs as they walk around their neighbourhood on a daily basis. Spooky? Not really, it’s simply the work of the reticular activating system. So, this is beneficial to you because if you can find out through surveys, or phone calls, your customer’s interests during the course of a conversation, you can tailor your product’s most instant benefits so that their radars pick up on them at a later stage. So, how do you do this? Well, let’s recap. Let’s that you are selling a skin care product. and…
- 18. Your customer was called a gremlin by an abusive colleague at her office Christmas party. She has a lower emotional need to change the appearance of her skin. Her reticular activating system is going to be paying close attention to anything associated with good clear skin. She might me looking at women with flawless complexion and paying closer attention to skin-care billboards/ TV adverts etc. Your job via advertising, or using your general copywriting marketing communications is going to be to use words that… Stimulate emotions! Words are symbolic in nature. What I mean by this is that some words have the ability to stimulate the creation of mental pictures in the brain of the reader. In marketing philosophy these words are often known as ‘Power Words’. Here are some example of replacing normal words that you might have used with power words highlighted in black: Reptile – SNAKE Fish – SHARK Both snake and shark have normal meaning relating to their species BUT they also have characteristics associated with them such as ruthlessness, power, size etc. Make sense? So, what you need to do with your product or service is to use words that will trigger emotions of people reading your marketing communications. Let me give you another example. Let’s say you run a small home based MLM business and your core product is weight- loss. You might have written a few sentences in an advert or a letter that says something like… “Our product will help you to lose weight around our stomach. There’s nothing wrong with that BUT… Imagine replacing the word weight with FAT. You see… Not only does fat describe the build up of fatty acids resulting in people becoming overweight but it also has psychological connections with:
- 19. Negative self-image Stigma Low self esteem Bullying Being unattractive … the list goes on. So, here’s what you can start doing today. Look at any words you have been using in your sales/marketing materials and see if you can replace any of them with words that have more of a psychological impact on your reader. This is a valuable exercise and if you can include motivating factors such as a desire for gain, fear of loss and instant gratification, you should see an improvement in your prospect’s desire to take action. Tip 4: How To Grab Your Prospect’s Attention Like A Vice – The Boa-Brain Principle” Whilst reading the last couple of tips, you would have noticed that I’ve given you some rock-solid theoretical and mindset tips on how to approach your marketing. In this post we are going to get down to some strategies and tactics. I’m going to teach you how to start writing your sales letters Traditionally, sales letters used in marketing throughout the western-world have been based upon a model called… AIDA! …which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire & Action. So, following the above model your goal in every marketing communication is to… Get your prospects attention Stimulate interest in your product or service Create desire for their issue to be resolved Tell them the action to take to order your product/service or to send for more information etc. So, today we are going to focus on the Attention part of the attention formula, with a twist that isn’t often discussed.
- 20. Using sales letter, or websites as an example, one of the best ways to get attention is to use a …. Headline! Now.. The art of writing headlines is a science/art in itself but I’m going to give you a few valuable tips that you can take away and get running with. So, what is a headline? Well.. We see them every day in newspapers. A headline is a statement that grabs your reader’s attention when they first come across your message. The reality is that you only have a few seconds to grab your prospect’s attention. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the key here is to spend more time talking to the customer about their: Dreams Fears Problems …etc. So, here is an example of a headline.. How To Lose Weight & Keep It Off Forever Your headline should always contain the benefit associated with buying your product or service. Here are a few headline templates that you can use to come up with headlines for your product or service: Example 1: “What everybody ought to know about giving up smoking , without any side-effects!” “Discover how to lose weight,keep it off and look younger – Guaranteed!” “Why is this small business in London giving away, over £1000, worth of its products, to people like YOU for FREE!” Here’s another headline that I picked up from the good folks at GKIC: “Corns gone in 5 days or money Back” – Now… Here are few ways of making your headlines even more effective: Put Quotes Around Your Headline Example:
- 21. “How To Pay Less Tax” compared with How To Pay Less Tax – using quotes draws attention to your headline. Use ‘FREE’ In Your Headlines Example: “Free Report Reveals How You Can Pay Off Your Mortgage in 10 Years instead of 25” – using the word Free is effective because it reduces/negates perceived risk and reduces resistance to your offer! Use Specific Numbers In Your Headline: Example: “77% Of Women Surveyed Revealed That Their Most Pressing Concern Is Burning Off Fat Around Thier Stomach – Here’s How To Do It Easily – For Free” – the use of numbers gives your headline a very specific edge which give the reader the impression that your content is both factual and accurate. This is an incredibly valuable tip. Ask Your Reader a Question Example: “How Would An Extra £500 /month income change your life?” Include A Powerful Guarantee Example: “Lose at least 15 lbs within 90 days or get your money back“ Use A Customer Testimonial Example: “Within 6 months of working with Jon, I was earning £1000/month part time” – Ms Jane Moore, Surrey, UK Use ‘How To’ In Your Headlines Example: “How To Tell Your Mean Husband To Stick His Allowance Where The Sun Doesn’t Shine” Conjure Pain In Your Headline Example: “What Will You Do When You Reach 65 Years Old With No Savings?” OK great , I think you get the point. A poor headline is the reason why the vast majority of sales letters, videos and radio ads are never acknowledged by the reader/listener.
- 22. So… Using sales letters as an example. What should you do after you have come up with a great headline… Write a powerful first paragraph! The point of your first paragraph is to get your reader to read your entire sales letter/message. Why, because human beings are skimmers by nature. So, you need to use language that emotionally connects with your reader. One of the best way to do this is to use a technique called salting. Here’s what I mean. Read the following first paragraph: There’s one technique, that you can use daily to burn off fat around your belly and if you use this technique, everyone around you will be amazed by your results. This technique is…. So let’s analyse this. If you want to burn of fat around your belly, you’ll probably be thinking to yourself… Bloody hell Jon, just tell me what this technique is!!!! This is one of the best techniques I’ve ever come across for maintaining interest and generating curiosity about what you’re about to say next. Now… Don’t abuse this throughout your sales copy but if you have a powerful headline and use this technique in your first paragraph, you will have no problem in grabbing your prospect’s attention and maintaining their interest. You have just learned some effective techniques that you can start applying to the beginning of your marketing messages, today. This is just the beginning and I’ll cover the other critical elements of your marketing message in other posts. Assignment: Write a headline and a first paragraph for your product or service before you start the next module. Tip 5: How To Stimulate Interest In Everything You Have To Say – The Power Of Exclusive
- 23. Focus. We’ve covered important facts about getting and keeping your customers attention. The next thing that you need to focus on is to… Keep your prospect interested in your marketing message! You see… After you have managed to hook your prospect with an amazing headline and first paragraph, you prospect is likely to be having an internal conversation with themselves asking the following questions: Who are you? Why should I listen to you? Does this person/company know what they are talking about? So… This section of your sales letter is going to answer these questions by telling … Your(personal/business) Story! Here’s what I mean… The key to developing any new personal or business relationship is to.. Develop Rapport! Telling the story behind your product or service will have a positive effect on your ability to develop rapport. It will tell your prospect that you know what you are talking about and also help them to get to know you better resulting in a subconscious build up of … Trust! Now let me make something very clear… Being able to maintain someone’s interest when writing marketing copy is incredibly difficult and it is a skill that you will have to perfect over time. I’ll let you into a secret that might scare some of you.
- 24. The best sales letters are often longer than 4 pages! But… When you’re starting, it is definitely feasible for you to sell low-ticket products (priced under £100) using sales-letters that are under 5 pages in length. Use this as a rule of thumb… The more expensive and complicated the product is, the more you should write in this section of the sales letter. Now… People often say to me… Sales letters longer than 8 pages? You’re having a tin-bath mate (East London slang for my US subscribers). Honesty Jon, can people really be bothered to read long-copy sales letters with lots of writing? My response… People will read a sales-letter the size of War and Peace, if you can keep them interested! (Tweet this!) So, here’s an interesting fact about rapport. The more people can relate to you, the more influence you can have in your interactions with them. This is powerful stuff! Once again let me re-iterate this point. The more that your prospect feels that they are like you and vice-versa, the more likely they are to be influenced by you. So… If you can share parts of your story which are a match with their stories, you will have no problem keeping them interested. Answering the questions such as ‘who are you’ and ‘why should I trust you’ need to be answered in a way that makes either you or your product/service seem as credible as possible. Here’s another fact that so-called sales/marketing trainings don’t often tell you… People buy people and not products! So… If you can focus your story on yourself, more than your product or service, you will set yourself apart from the vast majority of marketers out there who like to focus too heavily on their product features! So, what I’m trying to get at here, in my usual long-winded way, is that people rarely take action until a
- 25. certain degree of trust has been established. Now… One of the best ways that I can think of to build trust is to help your prospect to really understand how you figured out to solve their problem and get the result that they want. Here’s another key tip which may repeat itself throughout this training. People have a natural tendency to give respect to authoritative figures and an excellent way that you can position yourself as an authoritative figure is by having an educational slant to your story communicated in a friendly way. If people start reading about you and your product and they start to feel like they are learning some brand new information and concepts, they will ultimate feel more enlightened and want to form a bond with you as a source of knowledge. Ask yourself this? Why do you think I’ve have spent all of this time writing these blog posts and giving you this training for free when other marketers go to seminars and pay over £2000 to learn this stuff? Apologies, I digress. Let’s talk about the importance of stories for a second. Here’s the reality when it comes to stories… Human beings think using word-pictures! It doesn’t matter how left-brained someone believes that they are, the vast majority of words that they read are turned into little mini-movies by their brains. Now… Stories are an excellent method of communicating ideas to both the conscious and subconscious mind and that’s why we are going to use a story in this part of the sales letter before we introduce our product. If you study mythology from various parts of the world, you will notice that Hero based stories are common method of communicating ideas. Here’s an interesting theme that often pops up in these stories: Hero hears a call of distress Hero ignores this call Hero changes his mind and decides to confront the monster terrorising everybody Hero seeks help from people to complete his mission Hero meets a number of challenges on the way to confront the monster Hero does battle with monster Hero is victorious
- 26. So, what am I getting at here. Well… You should set your goal to make your stories dramatic and take your prospect on your emotional ‘Hero- based’ journey to increase the probability that your prospect will become fully engaged. If you have been on an emotional journey that led to you making or selling this product then please describe these emotions in detail. If you haven’t had a personal experience yourself then use the emotional story of one of your customers. I don’t care if you are selling photocopiers – there will be an emotional story lurking deep within a customer’s mind that you can extract from a testimonial and tell. This is key. Also… Using emotional topics to do with jealously, sex , social status, near death-experiences etc, are a valuable tool to use in your stories also. Yes – even with photocopiers! OK, so how will you actually go about writing this story? I would recommend you break your story into the following 7 elements: 1. Your initial challenge/problem.Where you were (mentally, circumstances, emotionally etc) when you first started out before creating/deciding to offer this product to the world – Your initial trials and tribulations. 2. You tried to find a solution but failed. 3. The breakthrough – your eureka moment. You managed to figure something out that you were sure would answer your problem and it miraculously worked. 4. The miraculous results were now proving to work consistently – you will now talk about the predictable results that you/your customer’s have achieved. 5. You were able to help more people to achieve the same results that you had experienced That’s it. By writing the story you could easily take a somewhat interested customer who is a little bit sceptical to a place where they related to you, trust you and like you and are now ready for you to introduce your product to them which is the next step of the sales letter. Assignment: Write your story( No more than 1 page) Tip 6: How To Create An Endorphin-Gushing, Foaming-At-The-Mouth Desire For You & Your Products
- 27. OK, so let’s recap. We’ve talked about how to grab your prospect’s attention, how to maintain interest and now we are going to talk about how to create a burning hot… Desire ! …for your you and your product. In this section of your sales letter, this is where you are going to formally introduce your product to the prospect and sell its benefits. As I mentioned previously, you can’t make a person desire something that they have no need/want for, but if there is an alignment between their needs and the benefits of your product, all you need to do is to help them to realise that they want your product and that’s 90% of the work done. So… For your prospect to be sure that they want your product, you must be able to answer some fundamental questions in your prospect’s mind: 1. What exactly is this product? 2. What exactly is it going to do for me in the short-term? How do you go about helping your customer to answer these questions? Well… The best way to introduce your product, so that they know exactly what it entails, is to start by giving them relevant facts. Facts are what will ultimately give your customer the confidence that your product or service is right for them. One of the best ways to create a burning-hot desire for your product is to give them detailed information. But you need to be aware of the following… Every product in existence will have a number of associated: Features Advantages
- 28. Benefits Features are physical characteristics of the product itself. Using air conditioning as an example, one associated feature could be its size. Make sense? Advantages are what the product actually does – the a/c cools the air inside the car. Still with me? Benefits are the result that you get from using it – you get to sit in your car, with the windows rolled up , feeling cool without boiling to death. Comfort is the benefit in this case. Now… Most people write this section of their sales letter discussing features. They spend far too much time talking about the : Size Colour Shape … of their product. Big Mistake! What they should ideally be talking about is what these features are ultimately going to do for the customer. Remember: The only thing that influences a customer’s decision to buy your product is the associated benefits. So… Using weight loss as an example – it’s not important that your product will be delivered in the form of tin containing shake powder, some tablets and a tea, what’s important to your customer is the fat that they will lose and their reduction in cellulite and the fact they might ‘feel more attractive to the opposite sex’ etc. So… What’s the best way to start introducing your product to your prospects. Let me ask you a question. Which of these opening statements is more appealing to you? Let me introduce you to << your product name here>>., which includes 30 days worth of shake mix, a bottle containing 30 days worth of vitamins /chelated minerals and a tub of green tea or…
- 29. Let me introduce you to XYZ, which is going to help you to lose 14lbs within the next month and you will never feel hungry. Believe me when I tell you that adopting an approach similar to the second example above will cement your product’s benefit in your customer’s mind and motivate them to discover more about your product. So, after you’ve written this introductory benefit-rich statement/paragraph, you will now want to talk more about your product to sell it further. You will start documenting what is inside the product, the general features, how it works, how they are supposed to use it and what it is going to deliver for them (in more detail). As, I mentioned earlier, the key here is to make this section benefit rich, so here is an exercise that you should go through. Step 1 Make a list of all of the benefits associated with your product. Once you have done this write a paragraph about each benefit. Here’s the mistake too many marketers make…. They simply list the benefits in bullet point form before moving on to the next section of the sale letter. Big mistake! You can really sell the product when you can use a combination of bullets and paragraphs focusing on a few of those bullets using your conversational, empathetic style to describe the benefits in more detail. Step 2 Look at this bullet-pointed list of benefits that you’ve gathered and start to gather some industry related facts about these benefits. You need to have the mindset that your goal throughout the marketing message is to… Educate your customer. Also… If you are one of those clever marketers who has used surveys to get to know your prospect before sending them your marketing messages, you will dramatically improve your success in creating a desire for your product. Here’s why… The human mind has a habit of rejecting information that is inconsistent with our existing beliefs and attitudes. And… Academic research seems to suggest that attitudes based on direct experience are held with more confidence and strength when compared to those based on advertising alone.(Tweet this!)
- 30. So, what I’m getting at here is that your customer is only likely to really desire your product if they can learn more about it. Step 3 Write this ‘desire’ section of your sales letter putting together all of the information in the following format: First paragraph – Introduce your product(in as similar fashion above) Second paragraph – list a few basic features. Example: In your package you are going to receive…. Third paragraph – List bullet point benefits that you gathered earlier.Example: This product will help you to…>. Forth…(n)th paragraph – Write paragraphs based on some of the key benefits outlined above. Start each paragraph with a relevant fact and then write a few sentences about the benefit related to this fact using a conversational style of writing. That’s it guys. We are coming close to finishing our sales letter. Tip 7: How To Leave Your Prospects Feeling That They Couldn’t Imagine Living Without Your Product – The Secret Of Immesurable Value Creation. During the course of reading this tip we are going to learn how to communicate our product’s… Value! After you have communicated the relevant benefits of your product using facts to create desire, your next step is going to be to discuss the price of your product and your reasons for it’s pricing. The goal here is to help your prospect understand why you’re product is worth much more than you are asking them to pay for it. Now… Instead of simply telling your prospect that your price costs X, and that they should buy it,you want to
- 31. spend some time discussing the value which will in turn justify the price that you are charging. You need to reiterate the fact that the price you’re offering for your product for is an absolute bargain! Here’s why this is a critical step in any given marketing communication. We humans struggle to determine the value of things. We always feel better when someone can explain how the value has been determined. You see… You have to be able to relate the units of currency that your prospect will be exchanging for your products to the units of currency associated to their needs. This is a complex statement for most people to get to grips with so let me break it down for you. Let’s say your product is priced at £100. You customer will not have a problem understanding what £100 is, whether they visualise it in terms of 2*50 notes or 5*£20 notes. So… The point I’m making is that your customer has a way of evaluating what it means to spend £100 on something. Now.. In your prospects mind, they have a unique form of currency in relation to their current need. Using weight loss as an example, if they know that they need to lose 14lbs worth of fat, it’s is your job to make them realise the connection between the £100 and the 14lbs of fat. You could do this by including a picture of 2 lbs of lard/butter and demonstrate to them the relationship between the £1 spent and the 2lbs of butter. This technique is effective but if you could relate the money being spent to units of emotional benefit that they will receive – this would be even more effective. You need to be creative with this and I would recommend that you start researching academic studies on self-esteem to do this. OK, so let’s walk through an example. The first part of this ‘value’ section of the sales letter would be a paragraph that you would write demonstrating your knowledge of the domain. You might write something similar to the following…. The average person in the western world who is overweight, weighs about 20lbs more than they should do according to BMI calculations. The average female in the U.K/U.S spends the equivalent of £300/month on food.This works out to roughly £10 a day which results in them carrying an extra 20lbs more than they need to. If you use the general assumption that
- 32. most people eat 3 meals a day. It could be argued that they are spending £3.33 a day a meal. Our XYZ product costs £100 which works out to £3.35 a day and our product replaces two of your daily meals, which means that you will be saving £6,66 a day and you will be losing 10-14lbs. Can you see how using XYZ product will put more money in your pocket whilst stripping off the unwanted fat. What could you do with the extra £200 a month that you will be saving. Buy some new slimmer clothes? Make sense? It doesn’t matter what you are selling, weight-loss, skincare, marriage guidance. etc, there should always be a short-term cost or time saving associated with the use of your product. It’s your job to determine what this cost or time saving metric is and communicate these benefits to your customer in quantifiable terms that they can understand. Thats it. It’s really that simple. I hope you got some value from this section. We’re almost finished – one section of your letter left. Tip 8: How To Motivate Your Prospects To Buy Your Stuff Without Hesitation – The Art Of Procrastination Elimination We’ve practically finished. This is the last tip and it’s all about helping your customer to… Take Action! and.. Buy Your Stuff! Here’s a key principle you will need to learn if you want to increase your sales…
- 33. Cognitive Dissonance! These two words basically mean unhappy thinking, which often translate into buyer’s remorse. Your ability to get your prospect to buy your product or service is directly proportional to your ability to give your prospect the confidence that they will get their desired results and have no regrets in doing so. Here’s the issue… When faced with any form of sales-related pressure, it’s a natural reaction for human beings to instinctively say… “Hmmm, I don’t know if I should buy this” Let me ask you a question? Have you ever gone to a shop to buy something like a pair of shoes, only to say… “I’m OK thank you, I’m just looking” … when the sales person has asked you if you need any help? I certainly have. Why do we do this? Cognitive Dissonance at work again. It’s a prewired protection-mechanism. So, let’s say that you’ve captured your prospect’s attention, maintained their interest and then created a red-hot desire using facts. Is that enough? Almost, but you must be aware that cognitive dissonance is the hurdle that could potentially get in the way of your prospective customer pulling the trigger and buying your product or service. So, there are two main steps that you need to use to get around this annoying protection mechanism: 1. Remove risk 2. Tell them exactly what they need to do to purchase your products – let them know how easy it is to buy. The Best Way To Remove Risk An excellent way that you can remove the element of risk for your prospect to offer a guarantee. This might take the form of a traditional money back guarantee such as: If you’re not happy with the product for any reason, simply return within the next 30 days and you’ll get a full refund. Not bad but here’s a better guarantee…
- 34. If you’re not happy with the product for any reason, simply return within the next 180 days and you’ll get a full refund + £10 in cash, for your trouble. Now a number of you reading this might be thinking… Jon, you’ve gone mad. There are bound to be dodgy people out there who will simply return the product for the extra £10. Yes, you’re right. But, statistically speaking, if you are offering a great product or service which involves some sort of relationship with you personally, your refund-rates are likely to be under 25% and closer to 5% of customers. BUT you will dramatically increase the number of sales that you make to genuine people. Another way to minimise risk for your customer is to use the … Puppy Dog Close! What I’m talking about here is to actually let them have your product for 30 days and only pay for it after the 30th day. This is an extremely powerful technique. Honestly! Why is this such a great technique? Well… I bet you didn’t realise this but the majority of people who buy products and services don’t count the days until the refund is due to expire. And… The further away the date is, the more likely they are to shelve your product and forget about it, if they don’t like it or were never that serious about getting the desired result. Marketers never tell you this! I’m going to get into some trouble for revealing this to you but this is why businesses offer such great guarantees, it’s not just out of the kindness of their hearts.
- 35. It’s an old marketing trick that’s been used for years! ..and as a result of this post, you’re one of the few who know about it. You’re welcome So.. Now, that you’ve reduced the risk. The next step is to tell your customer what to do to place the order and what they should expect after they’ve ordered. Here’s an example that you could use in your letter. Our Guarantee: If you’re not happy with the product for any reason, simply return within the next 180 days and you’ll get a full refund + £10 in cash, for your trouble. Here’s how to over come <<their problem>> , right now. Please complete the order form and return the form using the enclosed envelope to : > ———————————————————————————————————————————————— Order Form: Name: Address: Card Number: Card Exp: Card End Date: etc So, the section in red does a number of things: 1. It reminds the prospect of their problem. 2. It tells them they are told that it can be resolved right now. 3. It guides them step-by-step and tells them exactly what they need to do next. Here’s something that you should always consider. A person will only follow your instructions, if it’s something that they can first see themselves doing in your their mind. Brace yourself, because I’m about to give you a tip that hardly anyone is teaching about copywriting. A really good psychological technique that you can use, before you even present them with your order form, is to try to get your prospect to imagine taking the action by using a story in the ‘Desire’ section of your sales letter, of someone who had gone through the exact same steps with good results. OMG! You have no idea what I’ve just revealed to you. I’m going to leave you to take action and see that happens to your results.
- 36. Here’s an example that could be included in the ‘Desire’ section of your letter. You could include a section that says something such as: When Amy decided to purchase the XYZ product, she was amazed at how easy it was for her to fill in the order form with her credit card information and post it to us using the self- addressed envelope. This is powerful! Another technique that you could use could be to make a statement such as: I want you to imagine that your product has just been delivered, only a few days after you filled out the order form and sent it into us and you’re so excited because you know you’ve made the right decision. So please… Meditate on these two principles, because if you can use these techniques in your ‘take action/order- form’ section of this letter, you will dramatically improve the ease at which you are able to get around the predisposed cognitive dissonance that I referred to earlier. Conclusion You now know everything that you need to know to write effective marketing messages to sell any product or service. Go forth and start using these principles to increase your customer base and… Make more money! I hope you got some value from this. If you did, please leave me a comment and click one of the social media share buttons on the left hand side of this page, if you found any of these concepts useful. Till next time, Jon