This is the fourth (and final) post in a short series of posts on how to be a better copywriter from my good friend and colleague Clive Cable.
This time, Clive focuses on creating a convincing offer.
How To Create A Convincing Offer.
Creating a convincing offer takes time, effort, and often sacrifice.
But most people are lazy.
They don’t want to put any more effort in than they need to.
That is why some of the most successful ads of all time have implied it doesn’t take any effort or sacrifice.
Take for example one of the most successful ads of all time was, “The lazy man’s way to riches.”
It worked because it implies no effort.
There’s a story of how one marketer writing to sell came up with a headline “Put music into your life.” He sent his letter to a printer to have a few thousand copies printed.
This wasn’t the first time he sent out that letter, but after getting it printed and sent out, he got a 300% increase in response.
When he investigated the reason, he found the printer had added one extra letter to the headline, and that had made all the difference.
That letter was ‘s’, and it was added to the word put.
The new headline read, “Put’s music into your life.”
The word ‘put’ implies effort, while the word ‘puts’ doesn’t
Pluralising the verb.
When writing to sell, see if you can add a letter to the end of a word to remove any required effort on the part of your reader.
We call this pluralizing the verb.
Take a look…
– Strip 10lbs of fat in 3 days.
– Strips 10lbs of fat in 3 days.
– Build 7lb of muscle in 4 weeks.
– Builds 7lb of muscle in 4 weeks.
– Generate an extra £10,000 this month.
– Generates an extra £10,000 this month.
When you’re writing to sell change words that imply effort like “learn” to “discover.”
(Just like we did at the start of this post.)
People are almost always open to discover new ideas, but they don’t like to learn.
Maybe because it reminds them of school or college.
Here’s something else…
Done for you.
If you offer a service can you make it a done for you service?
If your reader doesn’t have to lift a finger to make more money, they are more likely to buy.
Dan Kennedy once said that the ideal weight loss product is one where you take two pills last thing at night and wake up skinny.
Sacrifice.
If you ask your reader to sacrifice time and or effort when writing to sell, your writing is as useful as a bucket without a bottom.
NEVER imply your product or service will cause your reader to sacrifice time or effort.
AND if you forget to build value into your product or service then your reader will not want to sacrifice their hard-earned money buying from you.
Tony Robbins created a “buying scale.” On one side he has…
ERBN – Emotional Reasons to Buy Now
And
LRBN Logical Reasons to Buy Now
On the other side he has…
DRAB Dominant Reasons to Avoid Buying.
Every time you’re writing to sell stack more reasons on the left-hand side of the scale to overwhelm the right hand side.
There are no simple answers to a complex problem, however, when writing to sell you must give your reader the illusion you have a simple answer to their problem.
The axiom is…
Sell them what they want, then give them what they need.
To your Copywriting Success!
Author: Clive Cable
Clive Cable has been writing winning sales copy for over 30 years and is the author of “Influence Intelligence – why people resist you and what to do about it.”
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Related Blog Posts:
Why having the right product name MATTERS!
How To Be A Better Copywriter – The Carrot and Stick
How To Create Product Personality