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

From the desk of Roy Furr, Saturday, 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).

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