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Can the news make you a better marketer?

by shawnlebrun
5 replies
I live in Maine and have attended the Boston Marathon many times.

And what happened last week still hurts deep in my heart.

The thing that amazed me the most was the sheer amount of real time information that we were all able to get from Facebook posts, Twitter, etc...

And watching the news coverage made me realize how much we all tend to gravitate to major events like this.

What makes the top stories on the news? Usually its the killings, the fires, the major car accidents, the earthquakes.

Why? Because that's the kind of stuff that catches our attention. It's like the car accident that you can't look away from as we drive by.

The news story about the Special Olympics or the new addition to the animal shelter? Those are usually buried towards the end of the news.

And the more I think about it, that's really what draws the most attention in all news and even marketing, to a point.

When watching the news, it's usually the horrible stuff that gets reported first.

When reading the newspaper, the horrible events usually are front page.

That's what catches our attention... normally the bad news.

And if you have a certain problem in your own personal life... chances are a sales letter that addresses that problem will catch your attention or have more of an impact on you than just a benefit headline alone.

In some of my best performing sales letters as of late, I've noticed almost all of them really focused the entire lead on just the big problem.

And I think that as a copywriter and marketer, we can all embrace the fact that humans are drawn to stuff that talks about their problems... it's the best way to catch attention.

After all, that's really all a headline is for at the top of a sales letter... it's to catch attention of the prospect and get them to read the rest of the letter.

And the letters i've done recently with a more problem-focused headline have done considerably better than those with just straight benefits.

So the next time you're watching the news or reading the paper, take notice of how "problems" or the more "bad-kind-of-news" is what leads off... and the warm, fuzzy stories are usually towards the end.

so, as a copywriter and marketer, maybe starting out your copy with the big problem that your market faces will catch more prospects' attention and get them to read further on?
#make #marketer #news
  • Profile picture of the author marciayudkin
    Sean,

    Someone did a study of which articles in the New York Times got forwarded most, and why.

    According to professor Jonah Berger, most often it was not the horrible headlines that went viral but writing that evoked the emotion of awe.

    This is in his best-selling book, CONTAGIOUS. (I read about this in a review, but didn't save the link. Have the book on order...)

    Marcia Yudkin
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    • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
      If you look back at the recent blockbuster promo of Agora "End Of America"

      Then you look at so many in the financial newsletter space
      and you'll see "bad news" leads.

      Gary B's persuasion formula starts with the problem.

      The ...WARNING don't buy x until you... captures the attention of people who are in the market to buy.

      It's a safety mechanism in the brain, kinda like self preservation first before anything else.

      People want to feel they are making an informed choice and look for a way to rationalize their buying impulse.

      Great subject on the thinking when making a buying decision.

      Best,
      Ewen
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Pescetti
    Personally...

    I'd love to live in a world where hope and inspiration are more powerful than targeting fear. It's just not (usually) the most effective way to go - when you're selling. My two biggest financial successes this year target "the problem" in an extremely urgent way, while my flops are always the more visualization-based, "Imagine if..." approaches.

    The fact is...

    We live in a fear-based reality, especially here in America. It's how (most) people are trained to pay attention. I wish it wasn't the case. but my attempts to disprove the status quo just don't work well... if at all... yet. (With a few high-converting exceptions.)

    Honestly though...

    I wish tactics like "I don't know how much longer this video will be up," "this little secret will change your life," " "turn off your phone, x-out your other browser tabs and pay close attention" type stuff didn't work. It blows my mind how this over-used nonsense still manages to draw prospects in like the tactics have never been used before.

    Anyway...

    I rarely watch the news. I distance myself from that kind of incessant negativity whenever possible. But it's an interesting point Shawn. It's a well-tested model that certainly isn't exactly losing steam.

    Mark
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    • Profile picture of the author CopyMonster
      WARNING: Do not read this unless you are already rich

      That was a Halbert headline. Gets attention, no?

      What you're talking about Shawn is the reptile brain at work.

      Survival requires looking out for threats. It's how our ancestors survived and why you and I are here today.

      The brain is wired to constantly be on the look out for danger. Tapping into scarcity, fear, pain is and will always (unless humans change) be a part of marketing and selling.

      As for good or bad - I guess it depends on where you sit of the "the ends justifies the means" question. If you're using scarcity to bump conversions on something that truly is valuable for someone - is that a bad thing?

      So yes, I agree, the news CAN make you better marketer.

      But wanna know something I think that makes you a MUCH BETTER marketer? (Actually there are two things in my mind right now)
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      Scary good...
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason_V
    "What you focus on expands." -Oprah Winfrey

    When someone has a problem, that's generally all they can think about. In some circumstances, that problem will become the excuse for why they can't achieve everything they want to achieve in life. So, most of the time, they associate their lack of happiness in life to that problem.

    For example, someone who is overweight and not happy about being overweight can start thinking things like:

    Because I'm overweight I'm getting passed over for promotions/not getting hired (sadly, the second point is actually true. I read a study where they did a test with candidates who had identical resumes, but the people of normal weight or thin got picked over the overweight people the majority of the time.)

    Because I'm overweight I can't get dates

    Because I'm overweight I can't go out and have fun with my friends because people will make fun of me.

    If someone has acne, you can replace acne for overweight in every single one of those above examples with because I have acne...

    If you can speak to them and show you understand their pain and can provide a real solution to them that will solve the core issue and it will help their self confidence and make all those other concerns melt away, you'll most likely get the sale.

    Sadly though, humans being humans, some people even if they get that "one thing" they've been obsessing for so long handled, they'll then just focus on something else. A good example of this is women who have problems because they think their breasts are too small. They get their breast augmentation surgery, then all of a sudden they notice they don't like their butt and the cycle repeats.

    Yeah, great post, as usual Shawn.
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