A Copywriting Method So Simple, Even a Child Could Do It.

So now that we've delineated all 5 steps of the E.F.F.C.T. formula of influence, I want to show you a real-life example of how you can use it to craft the kind of copywriting that speaks right to the heart of your prospects and gets you results.

As a reminder, this method of copywriting does not rely on clever turns of phrases or catchy slogans to get your message across.

You're going to be speaking directly to your prospect's emotions, and in that regard it almost doesn't matter what words, or even the number of words that you use.

What does matter is knowing your prospect's dreams, failures, fears, suspicions, and enemies...and how to encourage, justify, allay, and confirm them, as well as how to align yourself with their side of their struggle.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Once you have that locked down, any catchiness or cleverness or wordplay you want to inject into your copy afterwards is icing on the cake, but it's never required.

Just to drive this point home...Someone once asked internet marketer extraordinaire Ramit Sethi,

"Who bothers reading your notoriously long (19 pages!) sales letters to your prospects?"

To which he epically replied:

"Only the buyers."

The lesson is:

People have all the time, attention, and interest in the world when you're truly speaking to the deepest parts of themselves.

For the purposes of this illustration, I'm going to use an employee-recruiting project for a company that was trying to attract new hires.

Because their culture was so unique, the ad copy had to speak directly to a very specific type of personality; only applicants whose aspirations reflected the company's core values would be considered for the position.

In that regard, the ad copy would serve as a qualifier of sorts; its language would appeal directly to the emotions of the right recruit and inspire them to apply, but at the same time screen out and repel those who weren't a fit.

 Christina Morillo from Pexels

As I mentioned earlier, at the beginning of every marketing project I take on, I start with a "brain dump" exercise where I get everything I know about the prospect's dreams, failures, fears, suspicions, and enemies down on paper.

After conducting some initial discovery with current employees of the company, I got the following responses about what attracted them to the job and what they liked about working there, in other words...

The description of their "dream job".

I get to do work I love and feel like I'm making a difference, I'm recognized and appreciated for my contribution, I'm part of an awesome team of friends who support me professionally and personally, I like not being told what to do or how to do it or when to come and go – I love being able to put my unique stamp on my work, that there's no cap to my growth or earning potential, this is a safe, stable place to call home, leaders know how to develop my skills and personality to become the best version of myself, I love that I can be myself at work...

Next, I asked them to relate some of their dissatisfaction with previous positions at other companies, in other words...

Their failures at their previous jobs.

I accomplished very little there, I felt I never measured up to expectations, didn't make any close friends or confidantes, couldn't motivate myself to do my best work, felt a disconnect with management and leadership, never made it past a certain pay grade, always seemed like I was letting people down with my attitude and my work, only stuck around because I was too scared to quit....

Then I asked, "What keeps you up at night in regards to work?", in other words...

Your biggest fears surrounding your job...

What if I'm always stuck at this pay grade or job role? What if I'm suddenly let go? What if I won't be able to find a comparable job? I'll be forced to take something I hate, just for the money, where I can't be myself. What if someone at the company is out to sabotage me? What if I grow old and have nothing to show for my working years? What will my legacy be?

Next, I wanted to know...

What suspicions did you secretly harbor about jobs you've had in the past?

I was pretty sure leadership/management didn’t always what they were doing. I felt like they didn't always have my best interests at heart...that I was doing more work than other people but they were making more money than me, that I was intentionally being held back from advancing in my career. I was sure I was a step a way from being let go, forever.

And lastly, I got them to open up about

Your biggest enemies at those jobs...

Micromanaging superiors, "teammates" that would throw me under the bus any chance they got and stab me in the back to get ahead, leadership who looked out for themselves first, leaders who made mistakes and would either deny it or blame other people, managers who didn't know what they were doing and had too big of an ego to accept input from people below them, employees who were being paid more because of their relationships and not based on merit....

As you can see, I got an earful, which is great. Plus, it's all in their own words, as opposed to me trying to recreate with my copy what an employee might think or say...

There's a lot here, but it's always better to have more than less. Because writing copy in this method is like a creating a sculpture.

By the time you get to this stage, everything you need for the finished product is already there, staring you in the face.

All you have to do now is just chip away.

My sculpting tool of choice is Canva.com

Canva has probably 1000+ templates on their site, for every imaginable use, created by world-class, professional designers - and they've already put placeholder text for where your copy goes.

Simply sift through Canva's library of templates until you find a few templates whose layout and length of placeholder text best suit your needs...

(TIP - go through all of Canva's template categories...presentations, posters, flyers, etc. not just the ones that represent your immediate objective. Sometimes you'll find the perfect design template for your Instagram post, in a category you'd never think of, like CD covers.)

Then, take all of that raw mass and start crafting it into short bursts of text to replace the placeholder text in the template with your copy.

I used a "scattershot" approach for the above ad, aiming to hit as many of the E.F.F.C.T. influence points as I could with my copy, but I could have just as easily created multiple posts, with less copy, each focusing on a single pillar of influence (for e.g. only justifying failures or throwing rocks at their enemies), and tested what resonated best with my audience.

That's the beauty of having the E.F.F.C.T. system as a roadmap for your copywriting.

Once you've clarified what needs to conveyed, i.e. the dreams you need to be (E)ncouraging, their previous (F)ailures you want to be justifying, their (F)ears you want to allay, the suspicions you want to (C)onfirm, and their enemies that you want to (T)hrow rocks at...

You can artfully weave in and out of those pillars of influence, laying it on sparingly over here and a little thicker over there, to great effect, and always with ease and intention.

Questions or comments?

Leave them below and I'll respond.