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A Copywriting Formula

by mrozlat
14 replies
1. Find your biggest - most dramatic - and most compelling selling points.
2. Then create as many different ways to communicate these advantages.
3. Then ram these messages down your prospects throat! Repeat them as many times in as many ways as you possibly can.
#copywriting #formula
  • Profile picture of the author copycashvalve
    Hi, OP.

    Did you just make this up yourself?
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    • Profile picture of the author mrozlat
      Originally Posted by copycashvalve View Post

      Hi, OP.

      Did you just make this up yourself?
      no... i got it as a part of my newsletter today "M.O.R.E. Incorporated's Millionaire's Club"
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      • Profile picture of the author copycashvalve
        Originally Posted by mrozlat View Post

        no... i got it as a part of my newsletter today "M.O.R.E. Incorporated's Millionaire's Club"
        Thank heavens because it's complete utter crap and I would write back explaining that explicitly to the author. Also ask what it is he or she is actually trying to say here.

        Other than that, I will be putting up a nice little copywriters cheat sheet in the next couple of weeks that explains a little more than jamming copy down prospects throats.
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        • Profile picture of the author mrozlat
          Originally Posted by copycashvalve View Post

          Thank heavens because it's complete utter crap and I would write back explaining that explicitly to the author. Also ask what it is he or she is actually trying to say here.

          Other than that, I will be putting up a nice little copywriters cheat sheet in the next couple of weeks that explains a little more than jamming copy down prospects throats.
          I beg to differ... it makes perfect sense
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          • Profile picture of the author Aj Wilson
            Hehee... I dont think anyone likes things being rammed down their throat ... unless you're a prn star?
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          • Profile picture of the author copycashvalve
            Originally Posted by mrozlat View Post

            I beg to differ... it makes perfect sense
            It makes perfect sense? It makes about as much sense as if you were trying to take a shotgun and hit a target with pin point accuracy 1000 yards away.
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  • Profile picture of the author Irish Intuition
    Originally Posted by mrozlat View Post

    1. Find your biggest - most dramatic - and most compelling selling points.
    2. Then create as many different ways to communicate these advantages.
    3. Then ram these messages down your prospects throat! Repeat them as many times in as many ways as you possibly can.
    This is so generic its bad advice.

    Dish Network has several distributors in my area, and they send
    me mail all the time. I now HATE Dish Network.

    There is no offer that would ever persuade me now to switch to them.

    People are not sitting around waiting to get a 'ramming' of our messages,
    they are getting rammed by enough as it is.

    There is A LOT more to effective selling than what's listed here.

    This advice is like trying to get drunk on n/a beer.....
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    • Profile picture of the author excuzemee
      Originally Posted by IM Viper View Post

      This is so generic its bad advice.

      Dish Network has several distributors in my area, and they send
      me mail all the time. I now HATE Dish Network.

      There is no offer that would ever persuade me now to switch to them.

      People are not sitting around waiting to get a 'ramming' of our messages,
      they are getting rammed by enough as it is.

      There is A LOT more to effective selling than what's listed here.

      This advice is like trying to get drunk on n/a beer.....

      I don't like it also because of that. BUT they are also the best selling satellite company in the world.
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  • Profile picture of the author BrianMcLeod
    It's the phrasing of this advice that's getting people's hackles up.

    YES - you want to identify and clearly communicate the BIG BOLD PROMISE that you make to your prospect.

    YES - you want to devise as many ways of expressing that unique advantage as you can.

    YES - you want to hammer away on those points as persuasively as you can, as many times as you can, without boring or irritating the reader.

    So, the question then becomes how do we do that?

    Some of these include:

    Story - tell the reader a compelling narrative that projects them right into the experience

    Allegory - Similar to story, but more symbolic - like a cautionary tale of what NOT buying looks like for the reader

    Metaphor - help the reader tie the ends together and see how having ___ is like ____.

    Case Studies - one of your most potent tools of persuasion

    Comparisons - contrast your offer against the alternatives

    Value Building - make the reader understand what a tremendous bargain the offer represents

    Risk Reversal - obliterate any negative expectations with a powerful guarantee that kneecaps objections and excuses for not buying RIGHT NOW

    Hope this helps,

    Brian
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    Brian McLeod
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      Phrasing to create emotion?

      I agree - it makes sense. It is not stated elegantly and doesn't give exact instructions...but it is the formula found in most long sales pages.

      It's how the copywriter takes that basic formula and applies it with variables and methods Brian mentions...that makes the difference.

      kay
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    • Profile picture of the author Hank Rearden
      Originally Posted by BrianMcLeod View Post

      It's the phrasing of this advice that's getting people's hackles up.

      YES - you want to identify and clearly communicate the BIG BOLD PROMISE that you make to your prospect.

      YES - you want to devise as many ways of expressing that unique advantage as you can.

      YES - you want to hammer away on those points as persuasively as you can, as many times as you can, without boring or irritating the reader.

      So, the question then becomes how do we do that?

      Some of these include:

      Story - tell the reader a compelling narrative that projects them right into the experience

      Allegory - Similar to story, but more symbolic - like a cautionary tale of what NOT buying looks like for the reader

      Metaphor - help the reader tie the ends together and see how having ___ is like ____.

      Case Studies - one of your most potent tools of persuasion

      Comparisons - contrast your offer against the alternatives

      Value Building - make the reader understand what a tremendous bargain the offer represents

      Risk Reversal - obliterate any negative expectations with a powerful guarantee that kneecaps objections and excuses for not buying RIGHT NOW

      Hope this helps,

      Brian
      ^^^ Pretty cool stuff.

      Just to add, I agree with the formula.

      Too many writers try to "go wide" when they should "go deep."

      In other words, you want to base your whole sales message on one theme - or main idea - and make all your benefits relate back to that theme.

      If it resonates, you've got a real winner.

      If it doesn't, you didn't do your research.

      (which is why you see so many writers going for the "wide" approach - it's safer! Problem is, the response isn't even CLOSE to as high)

      That's my 2 cents.

      - HR
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Sanchez
      Sweet now I can write copy just like... like a...like...ummm

      a...good..copy...guy?



      Originally Posted by BrianMcLeod View Post

      It's the phrasing of this advice that's getting people's hackles up.

      YES - you want to identify and clearly communicate the BIG BOLD PROMISE that you make to your prospect.

      YES - you want to devise as many ways of expressing that unique advantage as you can.

      YES - you want to hammer away on those points as persuasively as you can, as many times as you can, without boring or irritating the reader.

      So, the question then becomes how do we do that?

      Some of these include:

      Story - tell the reader a compelling narrative that projects them right into the experience

      Allegory - Similar to story, but more symbolic - like a cautionary tale of what NOT buying looks like for the reader

      Metaphor - help the reader tie the ends together and see how having ___ is like ____.

      Case Studies - one of your most potent tools of persuasion

      Comparisons - contrast your offer against the alternatives

      Value Building - make the reader understand what a tremendous bargain the offer represents

      Risk Reversal - obliterate any negative expectations with a powerful guarantee that kneecaps objections and excuses for not buying RIGHT NOW

      Hope this helps,

      Brian
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    • Profile picture of the author geegel
      Just one more tip that needs to be added to this list (and no it doesn't belong to me). That big bold promise, the killer or the maker. HOW do you get at it?

      Research seems the obvious answer, but the research is merely the start. Try to see it as a quest to reach weirdness. If your promise doesn't sound "weird" enough, you need to dig deeper. Why weird? Because settling for an average promise only brings average results.

      One trap you should avoid is to not take this advice as an excuse to bring a quantitative USP (promise 1 million instead of 1000 dollars) but one that should alter the quality.

      The method I use most of the time is the "pain drill". Figure out the problem that you're solving and start imagining in the most frightening, gut-wrenching details of how this particular problem affects your readers. Alright, it's better to show than tell, so here's how I started one of my better sales letters:

      A quiet evening. You just finished the day’s work and you are now browsing the web. The gestures are smooth as you have done them countless times before. You reach for the pack of cigs, take one out and light it. The first smoke fills you with a sense of serenity. You don’t even think about it, you simply enjoy it. Sounds familiar?
      Doesn't really sound very brutal, does it? Except that the sales letter was for a stop smoking product. Imagine the impact of someone telling you in an almost clinical fashion of how you behave right now, the very behavior you want to eliminate. Wouldn't that jolt you? That's the weirdness.

      So yeah, do go ahead and find the "weird" spot. There's always one.

      Originally Posted by BrianMcLeod View Post

      It's the phrasing of this advice that's getting people's hackles up.

      YES - you want to identify and clearly communicate the BIG BOLD PROMISE that you make to your prospect.

      YES - you want to devise as many ways of expressing that unique advantage as you can.

      YES - you want to hammer away on those points as persuasively as you can, as many times as you can, without boring or irritating the reader.

      So, the question then becomes how do we do that?

      Some of these include:

      Story - tell the reader a compelling narrative that projects them right into the experience

      Allegory - Similar to story, but more symbolic - like a cautionary tale of what NOT buying looks like for the reader

      Metaphor - help the reader tie the ends together and see how having ___ is like ____.

      Case Studies - one of your most potent tools of persuasion

      Comparisons - contrast your offer against the alternatives

      Value Building - make the reader understand what a tremendous bargain the offer represents

      Risk Reversal - obliterate any negative expectations with a powerful guarantee that kneecaps objections and excuses for not buying RIGHT NOW

      Hope this helps,

      Brian
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  • Profile picture of the author aiza.bb
    and others can help also are:

    the headers (title) must have a very eye catchy themes, good font, font size, image use. Where the ATTENTION of the reader will be attached to it. Your first headline really makes or breaks your copy. It's the first thing read and possibly the number one deciding factor for your reader staying or leaving.

    And for your FIRST PARAGRAPH it must be impressive and have interest that the reader will not feel boring or just take down the copywrite
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