When Great Copy Fails To Sell ...

If it wags its tail, eats and barks like a dog, then it must be a
dog. At least so goes common wisdom. Yet I've reviewed many a
great pieces of copywriting with all the important
elements--great headline, a great open, effective bullet points,
remarkable close, guarantee and offer--and yet the copy fails to
sell.

Oh dear, what can the matter be?

The copywriting client is often confused because he knows there
is a market for his products and there is "nothing wrong with the
copy", so why the dismal sale results?

More than any other reason for poor sales with 'great copy' is
the failure of the writer to tap into the deepest desire in the
minds of his prospects for his product. If you write a sales
letter assuming that the greatest desire of your prospect is to
save money and it is actually safety and reliability, then your
copy will fall flat on its face even though this approach would
convert like crazy in another market.

Let me explain ...

In copywriting there are three critical elements that go into
creating effective copy, and they are:

(1) Clear understanding of the prospects fears, desires, dreams
and strongest emotions towards the product.

(2) Comprehensive knowledge about the product itself.

(3) The sales letter or marketing message itself.

And there is no way to get to (3) before going through the
pathway of (1) and (2).

Now if we were to analyze the first element further we would
realize that there are three dimensions to any human desire.

First, there is the actual intensity or urgency of the demand to
be satisfied, second, the repetition of the demand for the desire
to be satisfied and finally extent or size of the market who
shares this desire.

These three dimensions can be uncovered for any product by asking
the appropriate questions which can be stated as:

'How intense is the desire for my product or solution?'

'Is this a one-time desire or a continual one?'

'How many people need this desire satisfied?'

For example, one of my clients sells a product that gives relief
to arthritic pain so these questions can be answered as:

arthritic sufferers have a very intense desire to overcome pain,
need an ongoing solution and the statistics show that there are
over 43 million people diagnosed with the disease in the Unites
States alone.

Now as the copywriter I must choose the most urgent of these
desires for this product and center my sales copy on that main
desire, which in this case was immediate and permanent pain
relief. Of course there are some secondary desires such as pride
of physical appearance and desire for physical activity but
reliable pain relief is by far the greatest.

And this is the point at which many great pieces of copywriting
fail--it does not tap into the deepest desires of the prospect
and so no other trick in the book could deliver such a sale
letter. So as a copywriter I must find the most powerful desire
for my product that resides in the hearts and mind of my
prospects and tap into all three dimensions of this desire at the
same time.

And here is where the magic begins because I can now use the
headline to form a bridge to the rest of my sales letter by
voicing this desire, reinforcing it and promising that my product
can satisfy it. When I write such a headline I am meeting the
prospect where they are at and offering them a clear passage into
my show room for my product.

Jerry Seinfeld once joked that when you are in the process of
moving everything looks like a packing box and so our final
box-the casket-is the ultimate box we were looking for all our
lives!

The point is that when your headline resonates with the desires
that are already in your prospects minds then you have won half
the battle towards the sale already. They will easily see the
'box' they have been looking for even if it's a casket.

Such headlines work because they empathize with the prospect just
where they are most sensitive and aware. In other words, you've
got their attention.

From this point onwards I can choose to start the sales letter by
mentioning the product if they are already aware of it and what
it does or start with the desire then lead to introducing the
product. But if the client is less aware of what his needs are
then I can state the problem and tie this to a specific need. So
my letter moves from recognizing the desire to intensifying it to
finally offering my solution--recognize, justify, and intensify!

The burden of the body of the sales letter now becomes
highlighting all the different features of the product and
showing the prospect how their desires can be ultimately
satisfied. And the trap to avoid here is getting bogged down with
the 'physical' product without showcase the 'functional'
product--what the product actually does for the client.

While I've seen well-written sales copy that fail to meet their
goal I've also seen 'crappy' writing that sells products like
hotcakes simply because it bull eyed the prospect's 'sweet spot'.
It therefore cannot be overemphasized how important it is for the
copywriter to determine the deepest desires of his prospects
before writing the very first word of copy.

Bonus Tip: You can seldom sell successfully to the affluent by
casting your product in the light of saving them money. Maybe
because that's not their deepest desire?

-Ray Edwards