What game are you playing here?

I remember many years ago, there was a television commercial for an insurance company (I think). Coulda been an investment firm.?

It featured Jim Burt, star nose-tackle for the 1986 Super Bowl champs New York Giants.?

The set up was simple: a rehearsal of the New York City Ballet. Petite ballerinas bouncing about, performing delicate moves on toe...?

And bounding into this scene comes Jim Burt, dressed in leotards and ballet slippers, with all the grace you’d expect from a nose-tackle.?

If the basis of most humor is anachronism – this was hysterical. This giant football player trying to gambol about with these delicate, accomplished dancers is an image I still remember.?

Then, a voice-over gives the tagline - and I’m totally paraphrasing here:?

“No one’s ever made money playing someone else’s game.”?

I’ve always loved that commercial (especially as a Giants fan).?

But I’ve kept the tagline close to my heart for all these decades, and I mentally pull it out and reflect on it from time to time.?

No one’s ever made money playing someone else’s game.?

Elegant in its simplicity; disarming in its depth.?

And, perhaps not surprisingly, this tag line has a lot to say about copywriting.?

Which is why I’m writing to you today.?

Because at some point in your career – especially if you’re writing long-form direct response copy – someone you like and respect (and pays you) will show you a piece of copy that is just killing it – bringing in tons of sales and thousands of names...?

And this person you respect will hand this copy to you (metaphorically, at least – it will probably come in an email) – and they will say something like this:?

“This copy is killing it. Write something just like this.”?

It may sound innocuous enough – and on a surface level, makes a lot of sense: “This is working well. We can do something like this. Go do something like this.”?

It’s the way the business has worked for ages – and will likely never change.?

But I come to you now, so that on that dark day when someone speaks those words you – and tells you to “write something just like it...”

The tagline of the Jim Burt commercial will come to the surface of your mind, and you will say to yourself:??

“No one’s ever made money playing someone else’s game.”?

Because that is often what you’re doing – you’re playing someone else’s game.?

Now, I’m NOT saying it’s bad to emulate copy that is working.?

There are no original thoughts in this world. We speak a language, and our thoughts are made up of that language, and chances are someone had a very similar thought using very similar language at some point in the past.?

What I am saying, is that there is a right way and a wrong way to “write something like this” – and most people get it wrong.?

I know – because it’s happened to me – more than once.?

I’m sharing this with you now, so that when this happens to you – and it will – you will at least be prepared.?

So, with that in mind – let’s begin.?

?“No one’s ever made money playing someone else’s game.”?

What this means to me – and why it’s come back to me over and over for months now – is that you cannot hope to duplicate someone else’s success by simply mimicking what someone else is doing.?

So, a publisher or a copy chief, hands you a winning promo and says “Write it just like this.”?

That’s wrong on so many levels.?

Let’s break down a couple of them.?

The biggest mistake – the one that makes this command?uber-wrong –?is it assumes that one publisher’s list will be exactly like another’s.?

They’re having success with this, so we will too.

Not true.?

Because it assumes that “our” list is the same as “their” list.?

Which it is not.?

What worked for one list, will not necessarily work for another.?

In financial, we often make the mistake of thinking that our traditional demo is monolithic – all the same, all over.?

That’s where the currently popular, and ultimately pejorative term, ‘Grandpa Kurt” falls down.?

I’ve gone off on the dangers of this stereotype in the past – but the worst part is that it does your audience a disservice.?

Yes, there are similarities to our audiences. Certain people are attracted to certain ideas, opportunities etc.?

And yes, there are certain emotions flowing through the zeitgeist of our society at any given time – euphoria, fear, uncertainty, anger – and ignoring those bigger, societal feelings can be detrimental.?

But it ends there.?

The audience?- the list – can be as much as 60% of the success of any given campaign.??

And if your audience isn’t in-tune with?that other?audience – your promotion results will fall short.?

Another problem – guru misalignment. Meaning, their guru in their big winning package is able to say things because of who he or she is, the reputation they’ve built over the years, background, positioning, connections and historical performance.?

And because of that – their guru can say things to their audience that only they can get away with. Because it’s sounds authentic to the persona they’ve been crafting for years.?

But try to put their words – or even words like it - into your guru’s mouth and it will sound forced and worse – insincere, cynical, and manipulative.?

You need to have a deep understanding of who your audience is, and their relationship with your guru – before you can begin to adapt their messaging to your customers.?

Okay – I can go on and on about what’s wrong trying to play someone else’s game this way – but that’s not constructive.?

So, let’s look at the RIGHT way to “write it like this”?- what you can do to make such an assignment work for you.?

Track the over-arching emotions of the “winning” promotion. Any promotion that’s doing well is definitely firing on all cylinders emotionally.?

So, figure out what they’re doing and how you can apply that to your new copy.?

What’s the BIG emotion they’re targeting? How are they targeting it? What words or phrases are they using to zero in on these emotions? Who’s the enemy, who’s the goat? What’s the payoff??

Can you work with similar ideas in your copy??Will this work with your audience? If not, what will – what emotion can you target that will have a similar response?

What are the sub-emotions?– the underlying, perhaps even unspoken, feelings this copy is stimulating??

Can you find similar, or even different, sub emotions you can use??

What is their big idea?– and will it work for you? Or how can you borrow their idea, or parts of it, and make it yours??

Is your big idea emotionally compelling??What emotions does it stir up??

After you’ve done that...?

Here’s a simple way to use their copy to build your own – without causing too many headaches or sleepless nights.?

Steal the “infrastructure” of their copy – and make it yours.?

This is a simple hack that will make things smoother for you – it’s something I’ve done plenty of times, and it can cut the time it takes to go from “write it like this” to delivered promotion.?

When someone hands you a promotion, and suggests you “Write it just like this”... here’s what you do.?

Go through their promotion and chart out the flow of the copy – the underlying infrastructure that holds their piece together.?

It’s super mechanical, but it’s a simple way to ‘steal’ their copy and make it your own.?

Here’s one way to do it:?

Read through the copy once.?

Open a Word document (I often create a Scrivener document).??

If you’re in Word, set up a simple table – two columns, endless number of rows.?

Call the left-hand column something like “Copy Element” and the right-hand column “Emotion”.?

Then, go back and chart out how their copy flows.?

Go line by line, and determine what they’re doing, how long they’re doing it for, and why they’re doing it.?

State the mechanical (what they’re saying, and how long they say it) – and then name the emotion they’re kindling.?

Here’s a rough sketch of what it might look like:?

Go through that process for the entire lede, highlighting what works and why.?

Now you have the perfect structure for your own “winning” copy.?

Once you have that – THEN you can begin to create your copy in a way that will resonate with your guru and his audience – and hopefully avoid much of the pain and suffering that can come with “playing someone else’s game.”?