Better Sales Copy By Writing Less

If you want to chop down a tree don’t use a dull axe. Much of the sales copy I see is technically correct and well structured, but it doesn’t cut. I see too much emphasis on the writing itself, and less on the strategic thinking that should occur prior.?

Having written hundreds of sales letters and webinars, I now spend 80% of the time thinking strategically about the copy, and only 20% actually writing it.?

Here are 9 strategic principles that I keep coming back to time and again to make those big bucks.?

A strong offer with average copy beats world class copy with an average offer.?

Ideally, you’re world class on both.?

But I’ve seen fortunes loss because the opportunity to strike was missed, since “the copy needs more work”. I will rush out half-cocked copy if I have an offer that just won’t quit. Then while sales are being made, I’ll circle back and punch up the copy.?

Don’t let the copy get in the way of the offer. I’ve written high-performance pieces where the opener started with: “I want to sell you…”.?

Desperate audiences convert best?

Take care, because desperate people often make rash decisions and are easy to exploit. Even if it was morally acceptable to take advantage of these desperate folks (it’s not), it’s practically stupid, because you’ll lose the repeat business.?

When I think desperate, I think drowning in the ocean. And you have the life raft, ready to jettison out there and save that poor soul. The color of the raft doesn’t matter, nor the color of your skin. What matters is you’re there, ready to be of service, to rescue this distressed being.?

Another way to look at it: if you’re dying of thirst, you don’t care about the label on the bottle of water. Or if it’s tap, distilled or sparkling.?

Serve the desperate in an ethical way and you’ll help more and make more.?

New is better than better

Eat your vegetables, get a good night’s sleep, floss twice a day, blah. That’s old hat. Doesn’t matter if it may objectively be the best thing for your prospect to do, they’ll tend to discount it. I tried that before. Didn’t work. I also tried that. I couldn’t do it.?

If you want them to eat their vegetables, you have to stick some new stimuli in front of it first.?

New 4-minute breathing routine re-palatizes your taste buds and makes healthy foods taste good.?

Okay that doesn’t exist (or does it?) but the point stands. I swear half of my job is tricking people into doing what we both know is best for them.?

Tap into an already intense desire, then dimensionalize it?

I’ve read at least 10,000 prospect and customer comments over the years. I know the heartbeats of the markets I play in. When I think of my clients, I see them taking care of their fathers with Alzheimer's; having a child with severe developmental disabilities; feeling shame to make time for their own well being because of how much others depend on them.?

I have dozens of slices of life stories from actual customers that are rolling around in my head before I pen one word of copy. I feel the humanity of the market. I know what they want beyond the superficial “financial independence” and “travel the world” nonsense. When I write, I channel that. I bleed it on the page, so the undertone is “I understand you. I get you. I know the parts of you that you don’t even know.”

The trick is you have to do it safe. If you’re too on the nose, it’ll be scary. So you eat around the edges of those fears, doubts, insecurities and external factors that suppress, limit, and break down the mind and body. The totality of your understanding and empathy - the big and small; the overt and the covert - is what makes the difference between great conversion and world class conversion.?

Compelling scarcity with a believable reason why is hard to beat

Scarcity is practically needed these days to sell anything. But normal scarcity is passe. You want the scarcity that is out of your hands; the scarcity that rewards those who act, not just punish those who idle.?

A powerful way I used scarcity was when I went to a third party software provider and negotiated a contract to distribute licenses of their software in my product. I couldn’t negotiate an unlimited number of licenses - it wouldn’t make sense for the longevity of their business. I did work out a deal for 250 licenses, though. Not bad.?

Most importantly, we put it in a contract. Now I could show my audience that it was out of my hands - I am contractually obligated to only allow the first 250 buyers to get this software for free.?

You may think that caps the amount I can sell. Maybe. But if 250 meets the financial goals of the promo, so what? But use your imagination a bit. I could go out and find another software or product to license and attach to my offer, and run the deal all over again.?

I love rolling out “beta” offers to my existing customers. “Hey, we got this new thing we’re testing. Shows promise but I don’t know if we’re lucky, it’s a coincidence or we got something real here. You want to be our guinea pig? We’re only taking in 20 folks so we can devote the proper resources to see if there is merit to this or not.”?

Caveat - it can’t be a gimmick… but that doesn’t mean you can’t invent situations to test and get paid for it. Once you get a decent number of customers, you’l have a thin slice at any given time happy to pay you to try something that may be bleeding edge. If it hits, you can then roll it out to the masses with a compelling story. If it bombs, you found out quickly without much toil.?

Sell relief from existing pain

In the make money space, the gurus have it all messed up. They emphasis too much on that million dollar outcome - a future, potential gain. Where the focus needs to be is on the now - the limitation of a prospect’s current income stream and how if something doesn’t change, they may be a goner.?

It’s an art. All pain and no gain won’t cut it, but neither will pure hype and mania. You should paint the picture of the million dollar outcome, if it’s possible… but then you continually reel it back to the day to day of the now, and how quickly the situation can turn from terrible to not so bad, and then to hey, I got something here.?

In the crypto space we found a market who was sitting on the sidelines, in turmoil. They wanted in the market, but they were afraid of its volatility. They didn’t know who to trust, and wanted to feel safe, but also didn’t want the opportunity of a lifetime to pass them by.?

We spoke to that more than normal crypto appeal that litters most letters. The pain was decision-conflict, not get rich quick.?

When in doubt, use instant gratification

I have a love hate relation with this one. If you always seek the short term gain, you’ll end up with long term pain. But Newton’s law of motion also rings true: an object at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by an external force. You’re that external force.?

I built a million dollar business comprised of one thing: identifying common tasks my market performed, and figuring out how to get 80% of the results from those tasks with 20% of effort. I would build a system to deliver that promise, and then my pitch was practically fill in the blank:?

“How to [get a desired change] in [super short time frame] without [common limitations]”.?

Consider building into the product a component that can give someone traction right away, even before they complete 5% of the product.?

A buyer in motion stays in motion

My personal interpretation of the second half of Newton’s first law of motion. Sell to people similar things they just bought from others. I’ve been part of some expensive masterminds, and most people aren’t in one $25,000/yr group, but several.?

Sometimes what you want to sell to your audience is too much, too soon, so you have to put something to sell in front of it first. When someone buys anything at any price, they have an identify shift from being interested to being invested. We tend to stay consistent with our identities - in for a penny, in for a pound.?

The copy I write the most is for my existing customers because I don’t have to convince them on the merits of investing in themselves and I know more about this audience than anyone on the planet.?

Write more for customers less for prospects.?

Every benefit has a more compelling pain point behind. Carrot and stick it.?

What hits harder, wanting to get rich or escaping poverty? You want to snag the love of your life or do you want to avoid dying alone??

I used to consciously write a mirror-imaged pain point for every benefit I offered up in my copy to force myself to look at both sides. Us copywriters tend to be optimistic by trade, but our audiences are generally pessimistic toward the subjects we write about.?

Put it this way: for every person who went to a therapist and said “I’m really happy but I want to be even happier”, there have been thousands more who went to get out of pain.?

Paint the picture of a better tomorrow to move forward to while helping escape the darkness of today.?

Help others not to just run from their demons, but also run to their dreams.