No matter what type of sales copy you write, be it a full blown sales letter or Classified Ad the process can be broken down into three distinct phases.

They are:

1. Research

2. wRiting

3. Ruthlessly Editing

I call them the ‘three “R’s” of copywriting’… And they are fundamental to the success of every piece of advertising copy you write, from a full blown sales letter, a script for a video, a PPC Ad to a classified Ad.

Many people never bother to master them though, they are either too lazy or simply can’t understand the need to invest time in all three. They often plump for the actual writing without giving credence to the other two… But once you realise how important ALL THREE are to your marketing success you will soon be using them all without a second thought.

… And when you apply them to your sales copy they will have a dramatic effect on your results and, of course, your bottom line.

In this article I’m going to focus on perhaps the most important – the research phase.

To quote world renowned copywriter Michel Fortin:

“researching your market before you put pen to paper or electron to screen is the most important component of good copywriting. Not the headline, not the offer, and not the price.”

“R” Number 1 – The Research Phase Is…

“The make or break of your sales copy” – it really is that crucial.

Research, or rather lack of it, is where most sales copy falls flat on it’s face.

Fact is, most lacklustre sales copy is so not because the writer lacks the skills to write… It’s because he didn’t invest enough time to THOROUGHLY investigate his product, market and competitors… and thorough research is what is going to make your sales copy soar leaps and bounds ahead of your competitors.

But why is thorough research so vital?

Here’s why:

• It will allow you to truly understand your customer… It will tell you who your customer is, how he thinks, what his feelings are, what his wants are, how he talks and what motivates him
• Research will allow you to talk with the honesty of an expert and someone who’s ‘been there’
• You’ll discover every little nuance about your product – how heavy it is, what it feels like as well as looks like. Whether it smells, and if so, is that good or bad? What things it can, and more importantly CANNOT do
• You’ll know all the good points AND what the bad points of your product are – Pointing out in your copy a couple of the bad or not so good points of your product will really boost your credibility and make your customers believe what you say – they will look up to you for this
• Your research will instantly tell you how your product will solve your prospects problem
• From this you’ll immediately know the best approach to your prospect’s wallet – without having to resort to trickery
• You’ll be able to educate and inform your prospect as you write. This will build up his trust in you, in his eyes you’ll become more powerful and important
• You’ll be awarded expert status so people will look to you to solve their immediate and future problems – allowing you to make more sales in the future
• The content, headlines, sub-headlines, USP and ‘angle’ will come from your research, in effect your sales letter will almost write itself

Enough said?

I cannot stress how vitally important this prelude to actually writing your sales copy is. Don’t think you know it all, make the time and do the research then the rewards will flow to you like an incoming tide.

In a later article I’ll discuss different ways to research your product.

Speak to you soon,

Stuart

Hi there,

I was teaching some of my students the other day and one of the questions I asked them was “what do you do in your spare time?”

I had a small class of ladies with ages ranging from 23 to about 65 and the answers I got were enlightening.

One of the younger girls who was about 25 said sleep, some of the others said go out for supper, watch TV – pretty much what you’d expect.

But the elder lady, she must have been over 65 but looked a whole lot younger said she didn’t have any spare time, then she put all the others to shame because she started rattling off all the things she does every day.

“I have to take care of my mother…” she said, then proceeded to add… “I study Yoga, calligraphy, English, go dancing, play croquet…” on and on she went listing a whole heap of activities that would exhaust an Olympic athlete.

When she finally finished I asked her how old her mother was. Her reply was 90. So I said “you have a full-time job looking after your mother on it’s own but you still find time to do all those extra things every day… I think you’re very wise.”

I then asked the younger girl who liked sleeping all day whether she felt a little embarrassed and she replied sheepishly “yes!”

Thing is, we only have a limited time here on earth and never know how much we have. To me it makes more sense to spend that time wisely rather than wasting it away glued to the TV screen or looking at the inside of my eyelids in bed all day.

That’s why I’m always learning new things and studying the works of others. I’ve just finished a book on concentration, am busy studying some books on hypnotism I talked about a couple days ago, am impatiently waiting for Amazon to ship some other books about psychology and influence… the list goes on.

This is on top of teaching three days a week and writing sales copy for clients as well as myself, studying Tai Chi, increasing my knowledge of marketing and sales letter writing.

I’m so grateful for the information marketing business because it really has expanded my mind. When I look back at myself a few years ago and compare me then to now the change is incredible. I’ve grown so much and I love learning.

So you can imagine how I was excited to discover a set of predictions about the future of Internet Marketing the other day. To hear 72 of the top marketers give their view on where our business is headed in the next few years was mind blowing.

Now I can’t say I agree with all their ideas and hope some, like paying for email, being controlled (or should I say regulated by) by the FTC never come to pass…

But sharing their ideas was rewarding to say the least.

Why don’t you have a listen yourself my friend? You’ll find them here:

http://gainmoreonline.com/InformationMarketing

And you know what? I love learning from people like yourself. So once you’ve had a listen leave me a comment – I’d LOVE to hear YOUR views!

Speak soon,

Stuart.

Hi there,

I remember going to watch Walt Disney’s the ‘Jungle Book’ when I was younger, I went to see it twice in fact and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I can still see the characters vividly in my mind even today. There was the lovable but bumbling Baloo the bear – didn’t you just love the way he danced… “I wanna be a man, man cub… walk like you, talk like you…”

Then there was the somewhat sinister Shea Khan the tiger, I used to love his haughtiness. And of course there was Mowgli… But what about the snake, what was his name?

You know I can still picture him today but his name escaped me so I had to look it up online… it was Kaa.

But the scene I remember most was when he tried to hypnotise Mowgli… there were those big, big eyes with circles going round and round — somewhat bewitching and eminently unforgettable.

After that whenever someone spoke to me about hypnotism I got a mental picture of Kaa doing his thing.

But there’s more to hypnotism than that, take the TV for instance… it may seem innocent but scientific studies have shown that it induces a trance like state in children in 30 seconds!

30 seconds…

… Then their minds are programmed to accept whatever the networks want to feed them.

Scary!

As if that wasn’t enough look at this innocent sounding paragraph:

“I need to tell you that ACME Product has just hit the shelves. By now you’ll have
heard that there was a small delay to get it in shops, but we’re pleased to
announce that we can get it there NOW without any problems. We feel proud to
have done so at last.”

Do you see the hidden message there?

Most people don’t, but there is a very strong hypnotic, some would say subliminal message there… it commands you to buy in a subtle way…

Here it is:

“Need ACME Product , [buy] now, get it in shops, get it there NOW, feel proud to
have done so at last.”

Whew…

And that’s just one of the ‘sneaky’ tricks advertisers throw at us every day.

Fact is, you need to know them to defend yourself against them.

And you could even use them in you sales letters…

Imagine you’re midway through explaining your product’s benefits to the reader and you slip in an innocent paragraph with a command like “By now you will clearly understand XYZ product will help you… don’t discount the fact… etc.etc.”

You can tailor your own message and include it a couple of times throughout your sales letter.

Every time your reader sees it he gets a little mental command “Buy now, discount, need…” So later when he gets to your order button his mind is already primed to buy your product.

Sneaky? Maybe, but even if you don’t feel comfortable using copy like this you need to know what people are doing so you can protect yourself…

Fortunately there’s a great free report that details the worst of the tricks, you can get it here:

Find out more about hypnosis today

Speak to you soon,

Stuart.

PS
I’m going to be accepting a couple more copywriting clients shortly, drop me a line if you’d like my help:
copy at kungfucopywriter.com

Hi there,

I watched a movie called Johnny Q the other day, maybe you’ve seen it?

It started with a scene of a beautiful woman driving a car when she was suddenly involved in a major crash. Then the movie switched to a totally unrelated subject…

Why?

Thing is though, there was no indication of whether the woman was OK or anything…

The movie then carried on with a young couples life which revolved around their young son. Slowly as the movie progressed the viewer understood that the couple were going through a rough patch what with the husband being on short time and their car being repossessed – sounds all too familiar these days doesn’t it?

A little later their son collapsed during a baseball game and was taken to hospital where the couple were informed he needed a heart transplant and, big problem…

They’d have to put up $75000 deposit in cash otherwise their son would be left to die.

Obviously they had nowhere near that amount and their insurance plan didn’t cover the bill…

The movie carried on showing the couple’s fund raising efforts but still, the figure raised was nowhere near the amount needed…

… Yet their son was getting closer to dying at every moment.

Then with death imminent the mother gave her husband an ultimatum: “For once in your life DO something!” she demanded.

Next we were shown the extraordinary measures the husband took to save his young son… and yet there was no correlation with the first scenes of the movie — what DID this beautiful young woman have to do with the story?

I mean here we are almost 3/4 of the way through the movie yet still nothing more about her.

Now, if you’ve not seen the movie and intend to watch it you’d better skip the next part because I’ll explain her involvement…

Turns out she was killed in the crash and her heart was a suitable donor organ that could save the child. But what about the cost of the operation? Who was going to foot the bill?

Well, I don’t want to spoil the movie if you’ve not seen it yet and if you have you already know the outcome…

But, what of the marketing lessons I mentioned in my title?

I’ll tell you in a moment, first let me tell you the movie star is Denzel Washington and I think it’s not too shabby a movie, albeit a little slow to get moving.

The marketing lesson? Well the beginning scenes are a classic use of the Ziegarnik effect – unfinished business.

The viewer is left wondering what happened to the woman (the fact that she is obviously beautiful adds to the intrigue) and is almost compelled to keep watching to find out.

In my opinion many viewers would leave the movie early on if these scenes were not shown this way. As I mentioned the beginning is a little slow…

And the second lesson is do what EVER it takes to get to your dream, NOTHING should be allowed to distract you no matter how tough the going gets.

If you haven’t watched it yet I suggest you do and if you have make sure you understand the lessons — they apply to your life as well as business.

Speak to you soon,

Stuart.

PS
I’m always on the lookout for lessons from every source — they’re all around us if only we take the trouble to see them.

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***Trivia question… Which famous copywriter sends bullets to his readers? (Read on to find the answer.)***

Using psychology to sell is such a fundamental part of marketing isn’t it?

You may not realise it but every time you write a sales letter or send an email there are hidden phsycological triggers that you should use to communicate with your reader.

And be warned… if you’re not using these triggers right now you could well be losing more sales than you realise.

One that is put to good use on your everyday soap operas and sports programs is the Ziegarnick Effect. This is the official name for the cliffhanger scenes that always end each episode and leave you in a state of high drama, desperately wishing tomorrow would come so that you can get some release.

Imagine how you’d feel if tomorrow didn’t come and you couldn’t see the next episode. You’d be grumpy, agitated and probably cross with your friends and neighbours. That’s how powerful this psychological trigger is.

In TV sports programs it’s use is characterised by asking a trivia question at the beginning of the program with the promise of the answer later on. This often keeps you glued to the screen just to get the answer to the question. Often you have no real interest in the program but have to have the answer so you watch anyway.

Here are Nine of the most important triggers, study them and you’ll understand how psychology affects your customer’s buying decisions and how you should be using it to your distinct advantage.

1. Using the psychology of authority figures
2. Ziegarnick’s discovery – the power of unfinished business
3. Understanding the ‘herd’ phenomenon or social proof
4. Foot in the door phenomenon
5. Conformity to emotions – smile and the world will smile with you
6. Cognitive Dissonance – not wanting to admit you’re wrong and ‘because’
7. Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs
8. Framing
9. Price Conditioning

I’ll explain more about each one in later posts but if you’re in a hurry to find out more (and you should be) I suggest you take a look at my new manual. it’s called the ‘Three “R’s” of Copywriting‘ and has helped many a writer get higher conversions from their sales copy, no matter what form it is in… and it’s guaranteed to help you too.

Take a look now, you’ll be glad you did, it’s extremely reasonably priced.

Oh and before I go let me answer the trivia question. The copywriter is Gary Bencivenga. He sends regular bullets to his readers. Lots of good info there, after all he’s been writing winning copy for many years now.

Speak to you soon,

Stuart.

Don’t forget to drop me a line if you need a sales letter critique or other copywriting services. I’m always happy to help out. Drop me a line to copy {at} kungfucopywriter.com

Tags: Sales Letters