"Reason why" in copywriting

I love that the answer will come.

In the absence of interwebular nebulosity, gotta figure we get to reinvent the wheel.

I cannot fix your conundrum, an' the weird thing is, the more I shake " " from side to side, the more I get a blurry "" "".

""" """, now.

Ha!

Shake an absence, an' you formulate a presence.

Someone smart will be more precise, any moment...

John E Kennedy.

Thanks, Andrew.

I found a copy of John E Kennedy's book online (it's public domain) at bluelynxmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/reason_why_advertising.pdf

What I am looking for is a clear explanation of WHY it is essential to provide an explanation when you have a possibly-too-good-to-be-true offer. I'll be back asking for more if Kennedy didn't actually explain this!

Marcia Yudkin

Great question Marcia. I had come to post John E. Kennedy as the answer to remind you when I saw the thread and I think it's a great idea to refresh our memories with the principles of the old time masters. He's also the one who said, "Advertising is salesmanship in print."

I'd like to share a few thoughts we can call Why Reason Why Copywriting.

In a single sentence, in the absence of a good reason to buy your product, they won't, because there's no good reason to buy it.

Humans are duty bound to a sense of purpose. In the absence of purpose we search for a replacement to fill that void. If your too good to be true offer appeals to their emotional yearning to either fill the void directly or otherwise fulfill a lesser purpose, they now search for the practical purpose of the product to justify purchasing it. That's where your solid reason why comes in to assure them they aren't just acting on impulse to fulfill a mere emotional need, but that they also have a valid, very practical purpose they will fulfill with your product.

You let them off the hook for being such a human emotional creature and give them that reason why to buy so they feel smart for making such a wise and logical purchase.

The French have the lovely expression for this. It's your product's raison d'être.

Its "reason to be".

The underlying power is we also each have the need to fulfill our own raison d'être.

Once we discover it, we aim to become the best possible version of our fullest potential and realize it completely.

Fulfilled, if you will.

In psychology that's what "self-actualization" is.

Purpose is so fundamental.

Emmanuel Kant's philosophy suggests the "categorical imperative" and makes for interesting reading when read with an eye for the relationship between how duty motivates action.

I've always said the closer you can align your offer to fulfill the purpose of solving your market's problem with a solution that ends their pain, the more successful your offer will be.

To be more effective, we become more selective.

We discard that which distracts from the purpose and we magnify that which fulfills it.
So one part philosophical, one part psychological, one part emotional and one part logical all equal an important ingredient to the sales success recipe, in my opinion, when it comes to crafting effective reason why copywriting.

In a single sentence, in the absence of a good reason to buy your product, they won't, because there's no good reason to buy it.

^ Why should they, anyway?

Now that's where you come in with the answer and clinch the sale.

Of course you already got their attention with a bold promise, qualified them and established your credibility by demonstrating you know what their problem is and that your product can solve it, made your offer unique, discredited alternatives, demonstrated proof, and explained the benefits of buying your product and all the ways it can make their life better and all the other "must have" elements of a winning ad. (That's outside the scope of this post, but all of that is covered in my book Get The Click for those who want to get all the exact ingredients to a winning ad, where to use them in what order and how to do it all. That's why it was written.) So, yes, you'll remove all the risk and close the sale with a guarantee that is created to function as a selling device for you in a very specific way soon enough, but first let's look more at why the reason why.


Your reason why message, in its essence, assigns your offer a purpose. Its purpose is that it is the solution to a problem or a fulfillment of a desire, or both.

The reason your product exists is always to solve their current problem and/or make their future life better.

This is also why agitating the problem (twisting the knife) tends to be so effective because once our prospect is effectively reminded of how much their problem sucks, they are acutely aware of their need and desire to solve it.

When you help them connect the dots between their need and your product with the "reason why" it's so important to solve that problem of which you have just made them so painfully reminded and aware, their desire to purchase your solution (because it solves their problem, meets their need and fulfills its purpose) now naturally becomes the by product.




Johnson, Robert, "Kant's Moral Philosophy", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2014/entries/kant-moral/>

That's it Marcia.

I remember reading Influence The Psychology of Persuasion several years ago.

It really is a good thing to remember.

Not long ago, I bought a pair of Versace sunglasses online. They came with a certificate of authenticity from Versace and a money back guarantee.

As you and your husband might guess, there were still dozens of comments from people wondering how they could possibly be real, it was too good to be true, etc.


In a single sentence, in the absence of a good reason to buy your product, they won't, because there's no good reason to buy it.

^ Yes, in that case their reason why is their "I want it" and to them it's a good reason.

Alex makes a good point too. The reason why isn't limited to only logical justifications. You don't want to neglect to tap into the emotional reasons people should buy from you.

You could mebbe hand 'em in.

Not everyone in Hawaii is a non-local.

Tellya, if I lived in Hawaii, I would be 24/2 beach beach beach.

So mebbe somea those sungogs are reunitable with their owners.

I love your story here, an' I figure there is a cool take on how sumtimes the truth gotta be made more truthful in order to persuade people who might flip on in to the product>dollars nature of the deal from another perspective.

"Those glasses must be fake!!!"

I see the possibility of that certainty.

I see also the certainty that "the owners would already have gone home" is not the only possibility.

You got a wouldy on there.

But wider out in the order of all things here is the question of reason.

In the absence of a self-spawnin' vacuum, you gotta figure that all actions are taken (or witheld from occurin') on the basis of Prompts Thrust.

Who creates order from the pulse of worldly thrusts?

Especially in an information-rich thrustitude such as we now have c/o the web?

I figure the nature of narrative jus' got a whole lot more lusciously complex.

Carvin' out an arc for your steps got more free play now, more reasonably possible angles, speeds an' skips of feet swung out onto ground.

That's why my response to mucha what I hear about persuasion is F*CK OFF!

Quit tryin' to smart me outta my life with yesterday's options for freedom!

Gotta figure that more people gonna seek to swat pre-supposed drivel from view as they throw out a path before them.

So I would prolly miss the sunglasses, out there in the blue.

I would be the other way up.

I have a proprietary method that I am delighted to share with you all.

It's called "Reason Why? - The Lockdown" © Steve The Copywriter.

Rather than 1 RW.

You can be adventurous and give 2 RW's.

At times you can go a little berserk and use 3 RW's (or more if they are really good).

This lets you mix a range of RW's with the intention that some or all will resonate perfectly with your readers - rather than risk a one shot attempt which may miss.

I've found it works like a dream because…

(RW1) it answers the nagging question your prospect has (and they probably won't buy until they get the answer). (RW2) it can be quirky but still gives an "answer" remember the brain is searching for any answer - and you want it to intrigue your prospect in a positive way ("Yes, I'll buy it because of that") and (RW3) the more good reasons there are to to do something - the more likely it is that your prospect will do it.

Hope this is of use.


Steve

There's a great explanation from Gary Bencivenga at MarketingBullets.com (See Bullet No. 9)


MarketingBullets.com

HTH.
: )

People buy because of emotions. But they actually have a conversation in their head right before they hit the submit button. Just before that convo starts is where you make your sales argument. If you do a good job that conversation leads to a single thought: "I can click submit now because this purchase makes perfect sense."

That's one perspective on the matter, Hope it helps.