Future Pacing

Alex Cohen · 02-01-2011, 10:17 PM

Eugene Schwartz was one of the top direct response copywriters of the 20th Century. His space ads and direct mail letters sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of products.

What made Schwartz so successful?

One factor was his excellent grasp of persuasion techniques. A tactic he used with great effect was "future pacing".

Future pacing paints a positive picture in your prospect’s mind of what the future will be like after he buys your product.

As an example, here are three paragraphs from Schwartz’s copy for a memory building product. Notice how each one describes the future benefit of using the product …

“You will take any popular magazine you wish — one that has, for instance, 60 or 70 pages. You will study the magazine once, and perform a simple trick that burns each one of the pages into your memory … You will hand that magazine to a friend — turn your back and ask him to call off any number of pages he wishes, in any order he chooses. And … you will tell him instantly — not only the editorial content of each page, but the very advertisements that are placed next to them.”

“Once you finish this revolutionary new memory course, then you will never again forget the name or face of anyone important to you.”

“Once you learn this simple technique, then you can memorize anyone’s telephone number (including the area code) in as little as thirty seconds flat, and never forget it as long as you need it (even if you carry as many as 50 or 100 of them around in your head).”

The entire ad can be found here:

http://www.copywriting1.com/Eugeneschwartz.pdf

To improve your ad’s response, use future pacing.

Alex

Pusateri · 02-01-2011, 11:04 PM

Second person, present tense is also extremely effective. Let's you tell stories where the reader is the hero.

RickDuris · 02-02-2011, 12:58 AM

Hi Alex,

I'm not saying you are wrong AT ALL. But allow me to provide a little more clarity.

I've been told on pretty good authority what Mr. Schwartz actually was trying to accomplish was making descriptive, often incredible, PROMISES. If you are meticulous and go through his ads, you'll find the bulk of the copy is devoted to making promises.

Sometimes as many as 25 different promises in an ad.

Now, does future pacing = making promises? Maybe it's the same difference these days. I don't know.

What I do know is the term "future pacing" wasn't seen in print until around 1975. Way after a lot Eugene's long form ads were written.

Not only that, "future pacing" is an NLP term. It is considered a way of calibrating whether or not the Client's changework is effective. In other words, it is used as way of testing. Having people step into their future mentally with their new "resources" and noticing if there is any change in their behavior or physiology.

Future Pacing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

- Rick Duris

PS: Here are a few of Eugene Schwartz's ads:

http://www.hardtofindads.com/home/br...0127/file.html

Also Lawrence Bernstein at infomarketingblog.com has I believe about 30 of Eugene's ads. But I believe he charges a couple hundred dollars for the Eugene Schwartz pdf swipe file. Yes, I have it and it's worth every penny.

02-01-2011, 10:17 PM	#1
Alex Cohen Copy Champion War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 1,001 Thanks: 45 Thanked 501 Times in 304 Posts Contact Info	Future Pacing Eugene Schwartz was one of the top direct response copywriters of the 20th Century. His space ads and direct mail letters sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of products. What made Schwartz so successful? One factor was his excellent grasp of persuasion techniques. A tactic he used with great effect was "future pacing". Future pacing paints a positive picture in your prospect’s mind of what the future will be like after he buys your product. As an example, here are three paragraphs from Schwartz’s copy for a memory building product. Notice how each one describes the future benefit of using the product … “You will take any popular magazine you wish — one that has, for instance, 60 or 70 pages. You will study the magazine once, and perform a simple trick that burns each one of the pages into your memory … You will hand that magazine to a friend — turn your back and ask him to call off any number of pages he wishes, in any order he chooses. And … you will tell him instantly — not only the editorial content of each page, but the very advertisements that are placed next to them.” “Once you finish this revolutionary new memory course, then you will never again forget the name or face of anyone important to you.” “Once you learn this simple technique, then you can memorize anyone’s telephone number (including the area code) in as little as thirty seconds flat, and never forget it as long as you need it (even if you carry as many as 50 or 100 of them around in your head).” The entire ad can be found here: http://www.copywriting1.com/Eugeneschwartz.pdf To improve your ad’s response, use future pacing. Alex

02-01-2011, 11:04 PM	#2
Pusateri Words Rule the World War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: South Texas Coast Posts: 342 Thanks: 314 Thanked 282 Times in 141 Posts	Re: Future Pacing Second person, present tense is also extremely effective. Let's you tell stories where the reader is the hero.

02-02-2011, 12:58 AM	#3
RickDuris Rick Duris CopyRanger.com War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Laguna Beach, CA Posts: 1,180 Thanks: 513 Thanked 1,431 Times in 518 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Future Pacing Hi Alex, I'm not saying you are wrong AT ALL. But allow me to provide a little more clarity. I've been told on pretty good authority what Mr. Schwartz actually was trying to accomplish was making descriptive, often incredible, PROMISES. If you are meticulous and go through his ads, you'll find the bulk of the copy is devoted to making promises. Sometimes as many as 25 different promises in an ad. Now, does future pacing = making promises? Maybe it's the same difference these days. I don't know. What I do know is the term "future pacing" wasn't seen in print until around 1975. Way after a lot Eugene's long form ads were written. Not only that, "future pacing" is an NLP term. It is considered a way of calibrating whether or not the Client's changework is effective. In other words, it is used as way of testing. Having people step into their future mentally with their new "resources" and noticing if there is any change in their behavior or physiology. Future Pacing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Rick Duris PS: Here are a few of Eugene Schwartz's ads: http://www.hardtofindads.com/home/br...0127/file.html Also Lawrence Bernstein at infomarketingblog.com has I believe about 30 of Eugene's ads. But I believe he charges a couple hundred dollars for the Eugene Schwartz pdf swipe file. Yes, I have it and it's worth every penny.
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