MINDREADING MARKETING (PART 1).
Clive Cable
I help working copywriters double their income by teaching them how to memorise and layer proven sales formulas, transforming them from slow, uncertain writers into confident, high-speed conversion specialists.
Picture this…
A gorgeous woman at a party in London.
She’s attracting the attention of the men there.
You see a few men grooming themselves ready to pounce.
Hoping to take her home.
The first guy came onto her saying how rich he was.
How many millions he had.
And how he would like to spend his money on her.
No reaction.
The second guy come up to her looking really handsome.
His fine clothes set off his physique.
He talked about his sports prowess and the trophies he’d won, etc.
No reaction.
The third guy walked up to her and talked about how powerful he was.
How he controlled this empire and that empire.
Again no reaction.
The fourth guy didn’t look much.
He sauntered over to her.
Spoke quietly.
Said a few words.
Showed her some heroin and they walked out together.
You can imagine all these guys writing her a sales message. ?
And you can see three of the four totally missing what this woman wants.
They are all wrapped up in themselves and are therefore overdressed.
The fourth guy knew she was a heroin addict.
He’d done his homework.
He didn’t need any psychological manipulation tricks.
No slick strategies could help the losers here.
The guy who did his research knew the answer to the one question that mattered.
And that is…
“What does my prospect lust after?”
Do you know what it is your prospects lust after?
Take the headline for a fly fishing magazine:
“Trout spoken here… also salmon and bonefish.”
Do you think the writer knew what his prospect lusts after?
Of course he did.
So this then is the number one skill of the persuasive copywriter.
The skill of what John Carlton calls, ‘The Sales Detective.’
Being able to follow all the clues that lead you to the answer to the question, “What does my prospect lust after?”
Mastering this skill will separate you from just about anybody else writing to your market.
In fact, this skill will put you so far ahead of your competition that they'll never catch up with you unless they know what you're about to read in this article.
Every master copywriter knows that in order to be successful you have to do the right type of research before you begin to write a single word.
Gary Bencivenga says that copywriting consists of 40% research, 40% writing, and 20% polishing.
So if we accept that as great advice then we’ll be spending as much time on the research phase as we are on the writing phase.
But what to research?
The mind of your prospect.
Denny Hatch wrote a book called "Method Marketing." In this book he likened prospect research to method acting. He also said that some of the biggest businesses were started by entrepreneurs and copywriters who understood and made a fortune out of mapping the minds of their prospects.
Companies like Agora and Boardroom, each started by solo entrepreneurs, soon became multimillion dollar corporations on the strength of their copywriting ability.
By the time you reach the end of this article you will know exactly what moves your prospects to buy products like yours.
This will make your copywriting come alive in your prospects mind each and every time you write to them.
How to grow richer BEFORE you write a single word of copy!
You’re about to learn what every top writer does to get the successes they consistently get.
They and you have to pave the way to success. Remember this. “It’s not the will to win that counts… it’s the will to prepare to win that counts.”
In just a few moments you’ll discover where to get the strong creative ideas and approaches all the best writers use.
At first this may appear to be a little daunting, but then so is any successful endeavour.
It all looks difficult at first, then you dive in and realise it’s no more difficult than failing.
Yes you can even work hard at failing; I know I have several times.
However, eventually you’ll come out a winner.
And here is your winning formula.
Study it and apply it.
You’ll astound yourself with the results you’ll get in every promotion from this point forward.
Now I’m going to ask you to leave the building.
领英推荐
Yes I want you to go down to your local newsagents, bookstore, or WH Smiths.
When you're there, look at the magazine racks.
Each one of these magazines represents a particular marketplace. No one knows more about their prospects than these magazines do. The magazines you see on the shelves live and die by how well they understand their prospects desires.
You'll see magazines on men's health, women's health, running, angling, golf, antiques, gardening, classic cars, shooting, Xbox games, and a whole host of other things.
As you can clearly see, they are all aimed at specific markets.
There is Britain's number one woman's magazine,
Glamour.
This one is aimed at women who want to look gorgeous.
There are other magazines for different types of women. Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, and Psychologies are some examples.
The front covers of these magazines show many benefit statements to get you to want to buy the magazine. Copywriters call these benefit statements “bullets” or "fascinations."
These are an instruction in how to write compelling copy. Let me give you some examples from a magazine called "Easy Living."
·?????? 10 Brilliant tips for a calmer, happier, more efficient you
·?????? The U.K.'s most heavenly holidays (from just £30 a night!)
·?????? Inspirational, achievable, beautiful - gorgeous make up - glorious flowers - simple, stunning home ideas
·?????? A-list beauty exclusive! Julianne Moore shares her anti-ageing secrets
So you can see that all of these bullet points or fascinations are calling out a certain type of prospect.
When you read the magazines, each article in the magazine is calling out a different niche within the main niche of the magazine.
For example: on the front cover of Marie Claire magazine you read “Boob-job Britain. Why more women are going under the knife.” The only people who will read that are those who are considering having a special type of surgery.
So this demonstrates how clearly each magazine understands their marketplace.
?My next question to you is, "what magazine does your prospect read?"
Once you have the answer to this insightful question you will get a real understanding of who your prospect is and what their secret desires are.
Not only have these magazines worked out for you exactly what your prospects want, they've paid expert writers to write bullet points and fascinations on their front covers.?
The good news about these bullet points is you can steal them and use them as templates for your own products or services.
Here's another insider tip for you.
Don't buy any of these magazines.
Just get the phone number of the advertising department, ring them up and ask them to send you a media pack. Also ask for three editions of their magazine.
The reason you’re asking for three is so you can see who their regular advertisers are. If there are companies in your marketplace that have advertised in all three magazines that you receive, then study their adverts because they are making money from them.
Also in the media pack the magazine will tell you who they created their magazine for.
In other words, your ideal prospect.
Here’s an example from ‘Start Your Business’ magazine:
WHO ARE OUR PRIMARY READERS?
? They’re both male and female
? Their average age is 38
? They have traded for less than three years
? They are establishing their brand loyalties
? They are looking for expert advice
? The choice of business bank will be their first major decision
? They will require office space or commercial premises
? They will purchase IT equipment with the first three months of trading
? They will re-assess their mobile phone requirements
? 67% will consider upgrading their vehicle within the first year of trading
? 84% of our readers consider business insurance as ‘essential’
? 64% are interested in improving their businesses’ online presence
? on average our readers went to six concerts over the last 12 months
? our readers are actively seeking new business opportunities
? our readers regularly look for special offers in advertisements
Read the articles and pay particular attention to the sub niches that align with your product or service.
Another good idea is to find out how many subscribers the magazine has, as this will give you an indication of how popular that magazine is. You always want to pick a niche with a high passion index.
Good examples of this are fishing, golfing, antiques, women's and men's health, beauty, etc.
If you really want to put yourself in to the highest ranks of researchers then you'll want to do either or both of the following strategies.
Go to Amazon and look up books on similar subjects to what you’re selling. Collect the titles of these books and read their back covers.
These will give you even more indications of the desires your prospect has.
Another excellent thing to do would be to look at the comments of people who have read the books.
You'll be looking for the buzzwords that customers are saying in the reviews and you'll be using them in your articles, blog posts, etc.
You’ll also be looking for the negative comments about the books you're researching. These are great for picking up objections that you will encounter when selling your own products.
One of the key things to do when you're writing is to bring up the objection before the person thinks of it and then resolve it for them in a way that makes them want the product even more.
You could also go down to your local book shop and look at the titles of the books that are selling something similar to your product. Here you have the advantage of looking inside the book.
What you're looking for is in the introduction or the first chapter. Here the author has just a few sentences to get you buy the book.
These few sentences are priceless for you because you can use them (not word for word) to sell your product.
Take a notebook with you and make notes of the exact words used in each of the books.
You can use all of this valuable information for creating great content for your website and sales messages.