How to read your customer’s mind (and make a fortune doing it)

From the desk of Roy Furr, August 9th, 2008

Have you ever wondered what the big difference is between advertising copywriters who write highly-effective ad after highly-effective ad, and those that can’t?

I obsess about these things — always trying to hone my craft.

From the language used… To the structure of persuasive communication… To design and formatting… I’m always looking for proven strategies and tactics to increase the response to my advertising.

And something dawned on me a few months back — something that you don’t find in most (if any) books and courses on copywriting and advertising.

In fact, as soon as I discovered this “X-Factor Secret” A-List copywriters use to create bigger winners, more often, I wanted to shout it from the rooftops — or at least create an information product that would show you how to use this simple (but often overlooked) method to boost the response from your advertisements.

I may still write that product — but I’m going to reveal a huge chunk of the secret right here, and show you where you can get even more information on this unique skill for a mere pittance. (And without slaving over books trying to discover “hidden knowledge” that very few teachers of copywriting want to — or even know to — bring to the forefront.)

You see — before client projects and the wonderful busyness of summer made this project a temporary non-starter — I’d created a name for this unique skill…

I don’t know how much you know about “Method Acting” but a quick Wikipedia description of it may help:

Method acting is an acting technique in which actors try to replicate real life emotional conditions under which the character operates, in an effort to create a life-like, realistic performance. This is contrasted with a more abstracted, less involved style of acting in which the actor himself or herself remains an outside observer of the character he or she is portraying…

“The Method” was first popularized by the Group Theatre in New York City in the 1930s, and subsequently advanced by Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in the 1940s and 50s. It was derived from Stanislavski’s ’system’, created by Konstantin Stanislavski, who pioneered similar ideas in his quest for “theatrical truth.” …

Strasberg’s students included many of America’s most famous actors of the latter half of the 20th century, including Montgomery Clift, Meryl Streep, Vic Morrow, Paul Newman, Al Pacino, James Dean, Dustin Hoffman, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Fonda, and many others.

In Stanislavski’s ’system’ the actor analyzes deeply the motivations and emotions of the character in order to personify him or her with psychological realism and emotional authenticity. Using the Method, an actor recalls emotions or reactions from his or her own life and uses them to identify with the character being portrayed.

These methods for getting inside the head of the character being portrayed lead to some of the most convincing, moving, and exciting portrayals in theater and film.

If only…

If only these methods could be applied to marketing and advertising — to write copy that leads to truckloads of checks being dropped off after you write and send out your ads.

What I discovered — and later proved through using it in my advertising — was that if you intentionally and methodically put yourself inside the head of your prospect before you write your advertisement, you can sell to them more effectively.

Duh! … But how?

It’s actually more simple than you may think.

Before I tell you exactly how to do it, I want to point you to a book I found (after I’d convinced myself my idea was completely original) that investigates how some of the world’s top direct response geniuses use the “Method” to get inside the heads of their customers (before they even write a single word of copy) and get incredible response.

This exciting — vastly overlooked — book even breaks down ads and shows how this technique has been applied to create a number of different multi-million dollar businesses. It has 15 examples of companies that did this right and succeeded — and 3 that did it wrong with much less success.

The book? It’s called Method Marketing by Denny Hatch — of “Target Marketing Magazine,” “Who’s Mailing What?,” and Million Dollar Mailing$ fame.

Hatch has a unique perspective into the industry — his company gets and looks at hundreds of pieces of direct mail every day. He has insight into how long a company keeps running a tracked, coded mailing (which is a good indicator of what’s profitable). He knows when companies are testing different mailings for a product or service. He analyzes what techniques the companies are using.

And he knows who knows direct mail, based on the longevity of their sales pitches, and of their company.

He’s used this knowledge — as well as the connections it’s fostered — to do case studies on a number of different direct response companies. A lot like Harvard’s “Case Method.”

It tells you what companies have done right and wrong, and lets you look at the results. You have a lot to learn about the way direct mail works, from looking inside these businesses. And from looking inside Hatch’s head.

In Hatch’s research, he found 7 factors prospects continually use in their buying decisions. These factors were originally identified by direct marketing greats Bob Hacker and Axel Andersson — Hatch takes it to the next level and shows how some of the world’s best direct marketers have created a foundation for their company based on selling using one or two of these factors.

You can find similar success by identifying which of these factors influence your prospect’s decision making process — then getting into that state of mind through drawing on your past experiences — and writing a sales message targeted to that dominant factor.

The 7 “Method Marketing” buying factors are:

• Fear
• Greed
• Anger
• Guilt
• Exclusivity
• Flattery
• Salvation

Hatch gives an example (pages 11-12) of how each can be used:

The product I am marketing is a book club for very young children. The person who will be reading my copy is the parent of a very young child. If I were that parent, what would make me respond to this offer? What are my concerns? What are my fears? What is it about this offer that would represent salvation in terms of bringing up my child?

What would I respond to most eagerly — a terrific free premium or a great product? Guru Axel Andersson has said, “If you want to dramatically increase your response, dramatically improve your offer.”

Is the premium I am offering the best I can come up with? If one premium works well, won’t two work better?

At the same time, is the offer too good? Will it result in a lot of orders from tire kickers who have no intention of paying — those mail order shoppers consultant Bob Doscher disdainfully refers to as “premium bandits?”

What do I put on the envelope?

What is my lead for the letter?

- Is it flattery (”Because you are a smart parent…”)?

- Is it greed (”Yours Free when you respond…”)?

- Is it exclusivity (”This offer is limited to a very few truly caring parents…”)?

- Is it guilt (”If you don’t help your child acquire good reading skills, you will be party to a failure — in school and in life…”)?

- Is it salvation (”Now, be guaranteed your child will surge to the head of the class because reading is the key to success, and with your free books, your child will start to love reading…”)?

- Is it anger (”Will your child be one of those left to fall through the cracks in terms of reading skills because school systems have too many bureaucrats and not enough teachers…”)?

- Is it fear (”If your child fails to become a good reader, it can mean larger failures later on — in high school, in college, in life; will a failed child be able to take care of you in your old age?”)?

Go through this process. Figure out how these factors affect your prospect’s decision making process (some immensely, some not at all) then use that to create more effective marketing messages.

Do it right, and you’re getting about as close to reading your customer’s mind as possible. And your advertising will work like magic.

What about you? Do you use a process like this when you write your advertising — or any other communications? How has it worked for you? Weigh in below.

And if you’d like Hatch’s book — it’s been in and out of print recently, but you can go to his site at http://www.MethodMarketing.com for more information (including at least one free chapter you can read online).

Posted in Copywriting, Marketing, Persuasion | 5 Comments »

Tornado Strikes Iowa Boy Scout Camp… My personal connection

From the desk of Roy Furr, June 12th, 2008

Dear Reader,

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but tragedy struck a Boy Scout camp in Western Iowa last night.

A tornado ripped through, claiming the lives of four scouts and injuring dozens of others.

I had a personal connection to that scout camp. In fact, I spent many weekends there growing up. I have many fond memories of the place — of hiking in the hills, of sitting around campfires, and of being with friends.

I learned, slept, and played in buildings that are now rubble.

Now many unfortunate scouts are going to have memories of fear and loss. It’s painful to think about. And it’s so unfair.

There were also stories of heroism to come from the disaster — scouts coming to the aid of others despite their own injuries. Of pulling bricks from collapsed chimneys off of others. Of the scouts that ran to the on-site house of the camp director, to rescue him from the rubble.

Luckily the day before the tornado, the whole camp conducted tornado readiness exercises. The scouts learned to “be prepared” for what could happen.

If they didn’t have this training, things could have been worse.

Now, as they sort through the rubble and the local scout leadership decides what to do next, they need your thoughts and prayers.

That those who were injured come out okay.

That those who are suffering from the experience find healing.

That “normal” can return for those whose lives have been suddenly, violently been swept up into this tragedy.

I don’t know of any other ways you can help right now. But at least keep these young scouts and their adult leaders in your thoughts and prayers.

Thank you,

Roy Furr

P.S. — If you want more information, here’s a link to the New York Times coverage of the issue:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/13tornado.html?ref=us

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Want $40,098.25 in sales? Write a simple letter…

From the desk of Roy Furr, April 28th, 2008

A simple letter (that’s snail mail!) can be the most powerful way to generate immediate sales for your business.

Here’s an example…

I wrote a short 1-page letter for a client that generated $14,916.25 in immediate sales.

The letter sold a subscription product with a high renewals — my client expects to make another $25,182 in renewal sales from these same clients within the next 12 months, based on the sales made from my original letter.

That means my letter will have created $40,098.25 in gross sales, within 12 months. From a single mailing.

Their cost was less than $2200.

This client made over 680% ROI immediately, with an expected ROI of at least 1,800%.

Naturally, they’re ready to do this again, as often as possible.

How do you write an ultra-profitable letter like this?

There’s a lot of details that go into writing short, effective sales letters. More than I can cover here today. But here are the basics…

1. Know who you’re talking to.

The better you know your clients or prospects, the better you can speak with them on their terms, about their needs. Remember — any marketing or sales communication you write to your customers is not about you, it’s about them. It’s about how your solution makes their life better.

Forget that, and you might as well not have contacted them.

2. Make your message look personal.

People always open personal mail, and mail that looks valuable.

They only sometimes open other mail — mail that looks like marketing. Whether you’re sending your letter to 10 prospects or 10,000,000, make sure it looks as much like personal mail as possible.

That means print the address directly on the envelope (a regular #10 envelope). Make the return address a person, not a company. Use a live first class stamp. What does the personal mail you get in your mailbox look like? Make yours look like that.

And don’t screw it up when they open the envelope. Stick with a letter. You may not even need a reply card. Just write a personal letter, on plain paper, and give them a phone number to call to take the next step.

If you have to include your brochure, reply card, or other “marketing” materials, put them in a separate envelope to be opened after they read your letter. And it’s okay to tell them — in writing, on this extra envelope — not to open the envelope until they’ve read your letter.

3. Start your letter with a bang — tell them specifically why your offer benefits them.

Nobody cares to read about how cool your company is. They don’t need fluff. They want to know how they’re going to benefit — “What’s in it for me?”

Put that up front, and tell it big. If they can save 50% off what they’re going to pay elsewhere for the same merchandise, tell them that. If you can write a letter for them that will generate $40,098.25 in sales, tell them that (I have a letter going into the mail right now that starts with that!).

Make it clear how they’ll benefit, so they want to read the rest of your letter. You have 3-10 seconds to really capture their attention. So do it — either in a headline before the greeting, or in the first sentence of your letter.

This is the only way to guarantee they’ll read the rest of the letter.

4. Explain why your offer is unique — why your prospect could trek to the ends of the earth and not get a better deal.

This is critical. People may get excited by your offer. But you’ll lose those sales left and right unless you give them a good reason why you’re the only person they can turn to if they want what you’re offering.

People don’t really want to go through the effort to make sure your offer is the best one available.

But they’ll shop around unless you tell them why they don’t have to. Or why shopping around is worthless because your offer can’t be compared to anything else out there.

If you’re unique — and you give customers an unquestionable reason why — they won’t look elsewhere, and you’ll get the business… as long as you follow the rest of these steps.

5. Prove any questionable claims.

Proof is often M.I.A. — missing in action — in sales and marketing materials. Yet it’s the single strongest element you could include.

You need to prove that your product does what you say it does. Especially if you have strong, almost unbelievable claims.

The pudding — you could say — is in the proof.

There are a lot of ways you can prove your claims — I won’t go in to them here — but be sure if you make a claim that you back it up.

6. Tell your prospect why they have no choice but to respond NOW!

It’s so easy to lose a sale here. For some reason, people get all queasy when it comes time to ask for the sale. (I used to, too.) If that’s you, knock it off!

Ask for the sale. And ask for it clearly. Tell the customer exactly what they’re going to get. Then tell them how to get it. And give them a good reason why they have to get it now!

If you don’t convince your prospect that their life is going to become abysmal if they don’t respond to your offer now, it’s likely that they’ll set aside your letter and never respond.

Do you believe in your product? Quit selling it if you don’t. But if you do…

There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be yelling from the rooftops telling people to buy, and buy now. You should have no reservations about getting your potential client to cough up the dough for your product because you know for certain how much their life will be transformed in a positive way as a result of doing business with you.

So ask for the sale — because the whole sale hinges on you taking this simple step.

7. Send the letter, and reap the rewards!

Enough said!

Want me to write a simple sales letter for your business — profits guaranteed?

I’ve given you step-by-step instructions on how to write a profitable short sales letter for yourself. But if you’d like me to do it for you, I can.

I’m not going to publish my rates here. But I will tell you they’re higher than the rates of at least 70% of other direct marketing writers out there, for good reason (the investment pays off better).

If you’re interested and willing to invest a small sum to make a large one, write me an email at roy@freshlookinc.com or call me at 541-543-1438.

I may or may not decide to take you on as a client — but if I do I will even guarantee that the letter I write will be profitable, so there’s no risk to you.

Email me: roy@freshlookinc.com. Or call: 541-543-1438.

Tags: sales, sales letters

Posted in Business, Copywriting, Marketing | 2 Comments »

The secrets of persuasion revealed in 27 words

From the desk of Roy Furr, January 4th, 2008

—
Download this free report by registering on the right.
—

I’m back again after the holidays and have discovered something very interesting.

I don’t know if you’re into understanding persuasion — it’s a little hobby of mine. I suppose it comes from being a Psychology major in college… being fascinated by human motivation… the workings of the mind… how language impacts our thoughts… (a little fascination with magic and hypnosis, too)… and then ending up in the world of advertising and marketing.

I don’t suggest using persuasion to lie, cheat, or steal — but if you bring value to the lives of your customers it’s nice to understand how to say it effectively. That’s how I approach using the powerful — and sometimes scary — principles of persuasion in your marketing and advertising.

But here’s a problem — something you may have noticed too.

There’s so much gibber-jabber surrounding persuasion that it’s hard to understand what the true secrets of persuasion are. What really works. What core principles are used in effective persuasion.

Fortunately, Blair Warren has broken through the clutter — and summarized the secrets of effective persuasion in just 27 words (and, of course, surrounded those 27 words with 13 pages that help you understand them fully).

His special report, titled “The One-Sentence Persuasion Course: 27 Words to Make the World Do Your Bidding” is extremely valuable — and to the point — and will give you incredible fire-power for writing effective advertisements into the future.

If you’d like to read this report, I’ve set it up so you can get it for free — just register on the right, and you’ll get a link to my Special Reports page. It’s on there under the headline “27 words to make the world do your bidding.” You can also get it from his website, linked above.

Enjoy!

- R

Tags: free report, persuasion, Psychology, human motivation, workings of the mind, language, magic, hypnosis, advertising, marketing, value, principles of persuasion, secrets of persuasion, effective persuasion, Blair Warren, The One-Sentence Persuasion Course, 27 Words to Make the World Do Your Bidding, effective advertisements, Special Reports

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Copywriting 101 by GrokDotCom

From the desk of Roy Furr, November 29th, 2007

GrokDotCom — one of the most prolific publishers of useful information about marketing, advertising, copywriting, marketing testing, and the like — has published a blog post that links to dozens of resources on Copywriting and writing effective advertising.

Here are some of the topics covered:

• Writing headlines
• Readability
• Customer-focused copy
• Copywriting techniques
• Trust & relationship building
• Email marketing
• Copywriting blogs & resources
• Transcription services
• Copywriters
• Public relations
• Blogging
• Persuasive online copywriting

If you haven’t seen it, it’s a resource worth looking at and studying in depth.

Click here for Copywriting 101, Part 1

- R

UPDATE

GrokDotCom has published part 2 of this article. The topics in part 2 include:

• Copy length (long copy vs. short copy)
• Word choice
• Formatting
• Usability
• Active vs. passive voice
• Writing for customer personas
• Branding
• Advertising brain food
• Monetizing content
• Inspiration & fun

This is good stuff. It includes links to some very valuable resources. They call it “Copywriting 101″ but if you really dug in and learned everything included in the articles they referenced, it’d be as good as a Bachelor’s in Advertising Copywriting.

Click here for Copywriting 101, Part 2

Enjoy!

- R

Tags: GrokDotCom, marketing, advertising, copywriting, marketing testing, effective advertising, Writing headlines, Readability, Customer-focused copy, Copywriting techniques, Trust & relationship building, Email marketing, Copywriting blogs & resources, Transcription services, Copywriters, Public relations, Blogging, Persuasive online copywriting, Copy length, long copy vs. short copy, Word choice, Formatting, Usability, Active vs. passive voice, Writing for customer personas, Branding, Advertising brain food, Monetizing content, Inspiration & fun

Posted in Copywriting, Marketing, Marketing Testing | 1 Comment »

A Different Formula For Effective Advertisements

From the desk of Roy Furr, November 21st, 2007

You may be familiar with a couple different formulas that copywriters use for creating effective advertisements. AIDA — Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Or the 4 P’s — Picture, Promise, Proof, Pull.

This article isn’t about those.

This is about a different advertising formula — based on research done on magazine advertising where responses were tracked (the study was done on magazine advertising, but the formula will work across all media).

You may have seen in some magazines where there’s a response card at the back, with a listing of all the advertisements in the magazine. It allows you to send in your contact information to multiple vendors with a single reply device.

You just put your contact information on the card, check the offers you’re interested in learning more about, and send it in. Then the magazine passes on your information to the vendors you selected, and you get the info you requested.

This method allows the magazine to track the effectiveness of the advertising included in each issue, and that’s where this research comes from.

In the magazine that did this analysis, they noticed that while many advertisements got 20 or 30 responses, there were some that consistently got 200 to 300 or more. Obviously these advertisements were doing something right to draw attention and build the interest of prospects, enough to get them to reply.

After an analysis of these ads, here’s the formula that was discovered:

1. The ad is distinctive — it grabs attention. This is usually through a compelling picture that attracts the attention of as many potential prospects as possible, that is somehow linked to the big idea of the ad.
2. The ad tells the big idea — the benefit to the customer — in 3.5 seconds or less. The headline and the picture’s caption contain the same big idea, and it’s the major benefit customers get from responding. This helps prospects self-identify — only those who want the benefit you promise will read on, and that’s okay.
3. Pack your ad with the benefits your prospects get from responding. Focus on how your product will help them save money, save time, enjoy life more, etc. These are their reasons to respond — getting your product or doing business with you is just what they have to do to get these benefits.
4. Focus on “you” — the customer. Customers only care about how long you’ve been in business, or how cool you are, or how innovative your product is if it means more benefits for them. Good ads are about the customer, bad ads are about your business (if you’ll — God forbid — permit me to define “good” and “bad” ads by results instead of creativity or entertainment value).

That’s it. This 4-part formula works into the other formulas — a solid call to action and effective persuasion both improve the results of this formula. But if you want to create a compelling advertisement that gets results, keep these 4 parts at the front of your mind.

Special thanks to Chet Holmes for sharing this formula.

Good luck!

- R

P.S. - Let me know if you need help coming up with ads that follow this formula. Call me at 541-543-1438 or email me here.

Tags: copywriters, effective advertisements, AIDA, Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, the 4 P’s, Picture, Promise, Proof, Pull, advertising formula, magazine advertising, effectiveness of the advertising, advertisements, The ad is distinctive, grabs attention, prospects, The ad tells the big idea, benefit to the customer, headline, big idea, Pack your ad with the benefits, save money, save time, enjoy life, Focus on “you”, effective persuasion, compelling advertisement

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