After a long hiatus from blogging and a mini-retirement due to newly acquired fatherhood, I’m going to make an attempt to blog more regularly here. Yeah, yeah, I’ve said that before, but THIS time, I really mean it.

Here’s the first in a little series on a subject that I did a chat show on a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn’t recorded and a few people asked about the topic.

As a copywriter, I get asked A LOT to review copy for people – and of course, I always check out the big launches and letters written by colleagues. If I had to try and come up with a short list of common errors, this would be it.

There are 4 simple questions that most underperforming copy fails to answer. Yes, you can sell stuff without answering them at all. And no, you probably can’t sell stuff by ONLY answering these questions. But MAKING SURE you answer these four questions adequately for your prospect will UNDENIABLY make your copy better.

Plus, they are REALLY easy to remember. Today we’re going to cover the first one, and I’ll go through all 4 as I find time to write around baby stuff. So take a look, and let me know that you think?

Today’s question:

1. Why Me?

Answer this from the prospect’s point of view. You have a very short amount of time to tell the prospect EXACTLY why this message is for them. It’s NOT for everyone – it’s targeted. You want to give the prospect the feeling that you are speaking DIRECTLY to them. You want to support the ILLUSION that your message is a one-to-one communication.

Now, of course, a sales letter web page is OBVIOUSLY not a one-to-one message – that’s why I used words like “feeling” and “illusion” – it’s got to do with making a connection with the reader. Here are some sub-questions you can use to help develop copy that will help the prospect know “Why Me?”…

- Why are THEY the one who suffers from this great problem your product will solve?
- Why has their situation been unavoidable – why has their problem been unsolvable before now?
- Why are you even talking to them now – help? Support? Compassion? Righteous indignation?
- Why are they even reading your stuff – are they seeking help? Do they even KNOW they have this problem?

Of course there are many other ways to approach this, but when you can answer this question in the prospect’s mind, you’ve hooked them in for the whole ride. If they feel the letter is written to them, and addresses a REAL problem that they FEEL… you’ve got a much higher chance of them sticking around to get to the part where you ask them for money, right?

So why do so many marketers and copywriters leave this part out or flub it? I really couldn’t say for sure, but I think maybe people get so caught up in themselves and their product. I guess that’s natural. You spend so much time creating something worth selling, it can be hard to re-connect it back to the prospect and their needs.

But the fact is, when it comes down to it, ALL the prospect cares about is themselves and their own problems. So IMHO, that’s ALWAYS where you want to start. Your sales letter will end up not just being FOR them, but it’s ABOUT them – it taps into who they are and what their problem is.
ONLY THEN will they be bothered to give a crap about you, your offer, your product, and giving you any money at all.

So that’s it – short and sweet for today. More to come soon in Part 2: “Why you?”

In the meantime, what are your thoughts – do you agree with me, or do you think otherwise? If you DO disagree, let me know why, so I can argue with you effectively.

Hey guys,

Been a while since I posted, but I’ve been busy. I’ve spoken at two events and been helping with copy for two launches. One of them is still a secret, but Video Boss 2 just finished, so I can share that one. In fact, a lot of folks I met on Andy Jenkins’ Bossathon events might be reading this. If so, HI!

Also, I spoke at Dennis Becker and Rachel Rofe’s “Earn $1K a Day” Event in Vegas, AND the Warrior Forum Live Event in Raleigh, N.C. Both were awesome, and I was happy to meet a ton of people there as well.

If you’re new to my list or blog or facebook, etc. I wanted to let you know you can join me LIVE tonight at 7PM Eastern on http://talkmarketingnow.com where I’ll be talking about a couple of very important words when it comes to copy:

Those are the words “COULD” and “SHOULD” and I think you’ll get a lot out of it.  So if you just met me recently, via ANY of the ways I mentioned, I hope you can make it to the live show and we’ll chat and kibbutz and all that good stuff.

And if you can’t make it, hey, I’m on every week.  In fact, I’m actually on vacation in Mexico now, and I won’t let that stop me from making the show!  So I hope it won’t stop you either.  Again, that’s 7PM Eastern.

See you there!

Colin

Just a quick reminder to join me live tonight on http://talkmarketingnow.com where I will be talking about several secret strategies for inbox ownage. If you do any kind of long-term email marketing, I think you’ll want to stop by for sure.

We’ll cover:

• Cultivating the correct context to get them to join…
• Capturing attention forever with the first few emails you send…
• Creating content that keeps them opening, reading, clicking, and buying…

Plus, as always, answers to any and all questions you may have about copywriting.

Hope to see you there!

Colin

What a busy week!  Hope yours has gone as well as mine, completing projects and taking on new ones.

But I’m writing today to remind you that you can join me LIVE and for free on http://talkmarketingnow.com tonight at 7PM Eastern.

I’ll be talking about copywriting again, and this time I’m going to go into detail on how to create a rapport with your audience so you can be granted the kind of emotional access it takes to create a subtle and persuasive influence that will grow over time.

So if you fancy yourself a guide, guru, or advisor to your niche and your list, you’ll want to tune in to see how to create a lasting and profitable relationship that they will not only value, but will benefit from, too!

See you there, on http://talkmarketingnow.com at 7PM Eastern.  Oh, and if you want to show up early, or stick around late, there’s lots of other great hosts on tonight, too.  Check the site for details.

Talk again soon,

~Colin

Okay, only kinda sorta. I can’t cover “how to write copy” in an hour… But I WILL talk about how to start with the product. I will reveal how I take a list of features and end up with deep subliminal psychological hooks that will make prospect WANT to buy your product before they even know it exists!

To check it out and even participate, join me LIVE tonight at 7PM Eastern on http://talkmarketingnow.com.

I know I need to update this blog more, but I’m a shameless ham for an audience, so when I write stuff I tend to post it where I know people will read and comment.  So I put this on the WarriorForum a couple weeks back.  But then I realized that I need to put it here, so I can turn THIS blog into a place where people will read and comment.  (Duh!)  Enjoy!

So I spent 2010 doing copy for 7 major launches in the IM market. Here are a few short lessons I learned that I think will be of benefit for anyone that thinks they want to have a big launch and make a lot of money just like Mr. Super Guru who charges $2K per product and makes millions each time they release something new.

1. You can’t have a launch without a PILOT: If you think making those kinds of products and those kinds of numbers ONLY has to do with the quality of the product, you’re deluding yourself. IM is a cult of personality, and at least 70% of the active customer base across the market are basically fans and collectors, not business people in any position to fully use any IM product. 

To that end, you can’t have a launch go huge when no one knows the “pilot” – there needs to be a face, a name, and a reputation of some kind. It doesn’t matter if that rep comes entirely from the affiliate email that sends the traffic there. But there MUST be a person behind the product if you want it to truly resonate.

Plus, as a bonus, if the product flops, people will still remember the personality involved, and as long as you don’t rip people off, no one knows what sold and what didn’t. Your rep will carry over from launch to launch… but ONLY if you focus on yourself as well as the product.

2. You can’t have a launch without a LAUNCHPAD: Every single launch I’ve ever done has had technical issues. Some catastrophic, some just speed bumps. But your tech needs to be in place, redundant, tested, and tested again. Then, when you launch, watch it like a hawk, because tests only tell you it’s not broken YET. 

Don’t skimp on tech tech you need either. Find out what the best guys are using and use that. If they’re using it, it’s because it hasn’t broken yet. And if it can take what the guru guys can throw at a launch, it can take almost anything below that.

You need a site for the product, you need a place for the prelaunch to happen. You need a place where people can watch and comment and follow and share. PLUS, it doesn’t hurt to have a non-launch related site that will allow people to dig even deeper and deeper if they DON’T know the pilot.

3. You can’t have a launch without a ROCKET:The rocket is the product itself and if it isn’t so awesome that it can FLY, it’s not going to generate much interest. It’s got to be sexy, it’s got to be deluxe, it’s got to WORK. It has to actually take people from where they are to where they want to be, and it has to be safe and sleek enough for them to want to spend the dough for a ticket to ride.

Launches are for rockets, so if you’ve got a rowboat, don’t bother. The primary function of a “launch” vs. a regular product release is because you’re trying to STEAL attention from other things – you want to make a splash. The reason you want your product to be the best ever is because even for the people who don’t buy it… they’ll be MAD they didn’t. The halo lingers and every badass product your name is connected to builds your rep. See above re: Pilot. 

PLUS: You MUST remember that you want your rocket to be round-trip. You’re not launching garbage into the sun. You’re transporting PEOPLE, and you need to bring them where they wanted to go AND be able to bring them back because… you want to launch them again and again. Your best customers will buy everything you make as long as you give them the best ride they can get.

4. You can’t have a launch without MISSION CONTROL: You have to get help that knows what they’re doing. And it takes a LOT of people and a LOT of stuff to put one of these things together. It’s not the people you see on the camera, and not the faces you see on the box. 

It’s the programmer that can FIX or BYPASS your broken cart process on launch day. It’s the writer who can generate creative ways to capture and recycle all the user-based feedback into a deadly targeted salesletter as the launch unfolds. It’s the affiliate manager who is on the phone and cracking the whip to get people to promote because damn it all, we have a ROCKET here! 

Everyone shows up to the launchpad to ride the rocket or at least watch it fly – but behind the scenes, in the bunkers are the nerds and engineers and masterminds who are making it all happen. Your team is vital, so don’t skimp there either.

5. You can’t have a launch without FUEL: You might have thought I would have referred to the traffic generated in a launch as “passengers” but the fact is the people you attract that DON’T end up buying can be even MORE valuable than those that do. Because that DESIRE is a fuel that burns like a nuclear reactor. 

You need to give them a place to stand and talk and plead and rant and rave. We normally do this by having a sexy free prelaunch and letting people comment and driving them to share stuff. Of course, we GIVE them all kinds of things designed to set them aflame…

But if you don’t harness them and put them to work, they burn out and you get nothing. Put them on display, put the kindling out and IGNITE their passions, then stoke them. Let everyone see, and then the people who CAN buy will get infected with that enthusiasm, and unlike the majority, they CAN get satisfaction… by buying.

Anyways, there’s my rant. That’s what you need to have a launch WORTH doing. That’s a career-making launch. That’s a guru-making launch. That’s what it takes if you want to be an astronaut – The elite – the right guys with the right stuff… 

Lots of people WANT to be an astronaut and they DREAM of having a launch, but they see those other ones and don’t realize what goes into it. It’s not ACTUALLY rocket science… but you DO need to have all the stuff before you can pull it off.

If you want to do a launch in 2011, I hope this helps. If you WATCH any launches in 2011, look for these things, because everyone that pulls it off will have had every bit of this in place. Maybe you never noticed, but that’s how it is when all this stuff works right. It fades in the background, and everyone just watches the launch in awe, and they’re in envy of the people who get to take the ride. 

Maybe next time, little guy. Maybe next time. 

P.S. I chopped off the end of my finger while cooking a New Years dinner side dish. I’m taking some very good painkillers for that. Typos or offense can be attributed to that, or the fact that my primary hand is bandaged like a mummy.

So I just got back this week from going to Shoemoney’s Elite Retreat event in San Francisco.  I did some writing work for him early in the year and he invited me out.  I’d never done any speaking before, so I was nervous, but it went awesome and I can’t wait to do more!  But anyways, he made a post on his blog about it, so I figure some people might show up here and wonder why I have no new updates in a long time.

Short answer, it’s been a busy year!   I did 7 launches in 2010, and I guess in a way, I basically sold all my best stuff, and I didn’t have much left to put here.  But in 2011, I promise to do a lot better with my own personal branding and blogging and all that kind of thing that I do for other people more than for myself.

Anyways, if you’re here because of that, feel free to look me up on Facebook – in the meantime, I working this week on a major overhaul for the site here with a new design, new guts, and all that kind of thing.   Oh, and new content (of course).

Later!

So it’s possible someone may have noticed that I haven’t updated since early February.  That’s due to a few reasons.  First, I broke my blog on the admin side right around then, and I haven’t had time until now to fix it.

That’s due to one of the other reasons I’ve been so busy.  I was hired on by my friend and mentor Andy Jenkins to do some copy for his blog and for his Video Boss launch last month.  HUGE success.

Plus, I was able to once again try some of my better sneaky influence tactics on a large list with positive affinity.  Again, huge successes there, and I hope to put together a bunch of the resources I used to write those promos and posts, and why I think they worked so well.

Also, I’m flirting with completely changing my theme and look, because thus far, the number of votes against is one more than the votes FOR the current theme.  Anyway, I hope to wrap this up this week.  This post is as much to inform as it is to test whether or not I managed to correctly fix the social syndication junk I broke.

Fingers crossed, and more to come soon!

I posted a reply to this thread over on the WarriorForum earlier, and I thought it was good enough to go back to and edit there, so I figured it’s got to be good enough to post here.   After all, it’s been a little while without content, and that makes me a bad blogger.

Originally Posted By winebuddy: I was just going through one of my student’s followup emails and what I found is something that I think will help a lot of warriors.

The noobie was attempting to put all of his content in the followup email itself. That, in my book, is a big no no.

One of the things we are attempting to do in followup emails, besides build trust and repore, is to train the reader to click on links in the email.

I recommend to my students that they always put thier free content on a separate page hosted on their site or on a free blog or site.

The emails can then generate interest and have a call to action to click the link and then when the reader does click the link, they are directed to a separate page with the article or the video or the extra free download.

Not only does this build anticipation for what you might send them next, it also has a small element of surprise – like opening a gift.

Lesson for the day – Train your readers to CLICK by keeping your content out of your emails. Put your content on a separate free hosted page, a separate page on your site, or a free blog.

Just this one thing will increase your sales – I guarantee it.

I tell people this all the time. Every email you send should do two and only two things. Get opened, and get clicked. And you do this through repeated conditioning. Reward the open, reward the click. At least that’s what’s typically done, and I agree it works.

I will say though, you can hybridize what you’re saying, and I like to think I sort of “pioneered” this when I was running StomperNet’s lists. (At least I didn’t see anyone else doing it and it worked like gangbusters for StomperNet).

Basically, you have the content in the email AND on your blog, but you position a link towards the very top of the email that tells people that they can read the same content and leave a comment on your blog. Then, put the same link at the very bottom.

This does a few things that I think are very beneficial.

1. It gives the prospect/consumer the perception of having options, and that you’re catering to them in a means that focuses on THEIR convenience and not yours. Obviously, when your ongoing ulterior motive is to sell them things (and your audience is well aware of the fact) this can go a long way towards increasing “stick” and consumption.

Even though they’re already on your list, and they’ve given you what you wanted out of the initial exchange, what they see is that you keep on giving without ever asking anything in return. Even though you DO send promotions, they will tend to remember the content, and stick around.

2. When you have content-filled emails, people will actually SAVE them and read later. I can’t tell you how hard it is to track overall list results on a spreadsheet when literally HUNDREDS of people are opening and clicking on your emails MONTHS after they were sent. Of course, that’s a GOOD problem to have, right?

If you have a long-term content-based or membership-based business, this is great, because it makes your content have a higher chance of being effective, simply because the prospect at least intends to come back to it later. And even if they don’t, it’s only really the intention that matters. If they hoard your stuff, it means they’re addicted to it. That means it’s time to make more products, lol.

Some car dealerships and shoe stores will let you take home your possible purchase to keep overnight. Once you have it, you feel like it’s your own, and you don’t really want to give it back. And just like a “trial period” the prospect effectively “takes possession” of the content, strengthening their connection to the ideas inside (and to you).

Bonus tip: Everyone in the marketing world knows that the word “you” is powerful to use in copy. But one that’s even more powerful is “mine” but unfortunately that’s a label that only the prospect can apply. Having them think of something as “mine” in their own mind is way better than you saying to them that it’s it’s “yours”.

So anything you can do to get them to take an action that indicates taking possession of your material will only increase your ability to persuade them in the future. Your stuff becomes tehir stuff. Your ideas become their ideas. When you are locked in so tightly with a subscriber like this, do you know what it takes to make them buy things? All you have to tell them is that YOU want it. You don’t even have to say WHY. They will want it because you want it, and they’ll justify it to themselves some kind of way.

3. Even if they don’t click over, you are conditioning them that the link is there, right at the top. So when you DO run a promotion, and there IS no more content to be had in the email, the link position remains consistent and recognizable.

What happens here is subtle. Even though the readers who choose to consume the content via email will develop a kind of “blindness” to the link, when you remove the content, the link will stand out like you want it to, but it WILL NOT be an anomaly.

They can ignore it, but they will always remember that it’s there, because it’s always there.

If you didn’t include the link there at the top, on the occasions when you mixed in promotions, the link would seem blatant and would trigger resistance. I find that including the link this way every time conditions an expectation if not necessarily a behavior. A lot of marketers don’t place any value on that, but let me tell you – the power to set expectations in the mind of the prospect is extremely useful.

How? You know how you keep hearing how you need to overdeliver? Consider that if you can precisely calibrate the expectations of your audience, you can make ANY product “overdeliver”. After all, satisfaction is an entirely relative perception.

Consider also that what you’re repeating over and over is “if you can’t read it here, you can read it at this link”, so when you ONLY have the link, that notion remains. It won’t feel like an ad. It’ll feel like the same action: “I can get the content at the link instead”.

4. When you provide the content in the email AND on a blog, you have a totally logical “reason” to have the links in EVERY email, even a content-based one. You’re going to ask for comments EVERY SINGLE TIME. Again, even if they’re not clicking the link, you’re conditioning them to understand that they aren’t just getting a robotic email – they are participating in an ongoing conversation, which they can always participate in, any time they choose.

This makes you appear both sincere and approachable. Whether you actually are or not is up to you, but the appearance is more than most marketers can even manage.

This framing of your messaging as a “conversation” has another very subtle side effect in that again, when you remove the content for a promotional email and leave only the link, the perception is NOT that of being a link that leads to an ad. Every other link you send is simply an invitation to participate in the conversation. Through consistency and conditioning, the prospect sees promotional links the same way.

Here’s something freaky.

This is going to sound weird, but bear with me. When you have set up a repeating pattern where you have someone consume content and then ask for comment, they will automatically start thinking about the content and internalizing it just before they click the link. Or even if they don’t click it. It will happen subconsciously and they won’t even be able to help it. Because they read over and over “What do you think? Leave me a comment!”

The mind does what it’s told unless it has a reason to be skeptical and resist. Over time, they’ll just start actually *thinking* immediately about what they’ve just read, because they *know* you’re going to ask them to.

It’s similar to how annoying it is when someone’s brain turns off during a conversation and they stop listening so they won’t forget what it is THEY want to say next. It sort of forces the brain to switch gears from passively consuming to actively absorbing.

For you NLP enthusiasts out there, this is the written equivalent of doing a touch-based induction like Erickson’s handshakes.

So what happens when you suddenly switch from content to promotion? Imagine what happens when the prospect consumes your persuasive promotional message but they read it AS IF it’s content. Then out of sheer force of habit, he or she begins to internalize it subconsciously just before they click the link…

Now, imagine your persuasive copy is designed to subtly aggravate some pain or problem they’re having… They’re thinking, “yeah, I guess that is a pain I have” while hovering the mouse. They click, and then immediately see a headline that promises immediate relief from that pain they just had…

This is what’s called PRE-SELLING. I didn’t sell at all. I just sold them on the idea of being sold. I invited them to have a problem, which they have been conditioned to internalize. Then I leave them hanging with only a link to a product that can solve the problem.

See the difference there is in that you aren’t just using the email part of the promo to pique interest, but through long-term conditioning, you’re getting them to internalize WHATEVER it is you’re telling them, make it part of their own thinking, so that when they hit the salesletter or squeeze page you’re promoting, they already have the concept of what you’re promoting in mind.

They’re already wrestling with the problem you presented, asking themselves “what do I think about this?” – among other questions. Which ideally, the salesletter you’re sending them to should answer. If you encountered a salesletter that answered questions you had in your mind before you even had the chance to ask them, do you think you might respond favorably to that message?

I guarantee you will.

You know that old quote from Collier’s Letter Book about how you need to enter the conversation the prospect is having in their own mind? Do you get what I’ve been saying here now?

Basically, through conditioning and mixing content with promotion in this way, every salesletter you promote can have this powerful feature EVEN if it isn’t part of the copywriting. This is because YOU are the one that CONTROLS the TOPIC of the conversation in the first place. You start the conversation, so that when you expose them to your promotional message, it IS the conversation they’re having in their own head.

This is powerful, powerful stuff. Use with caution.

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That’s the full post from the Warriorforum, but if you read it and had something to say about it, I’d love to hear from you in a comment below!