My Reputation Is More Important Than Hype - Can You Help?

To be perfectly honest, I think you have just written it (well...part of it)! 'Bookies chasing you with pitch forks' made me laugh out loud. You were being honest, great...people love that!

I know what you mean though, I am no fan of boslhy sales missives myself...says more about the egotistical writer than the product and puts me off straight away...but that kind of goes against the grain with what most copywriters have been taught imo. And if I hear the promise of 6 figure this that or the other once more...I might just grab a pitch fork myself.

Why don't you try a rewrite of what you have already written? Worth a try. :-)

(cue the copywriter mafia who will leave the head of a miniature donkey chewing a carrot in my bed while braying 'results results it's all about results')

What is the truth?

What kind of results does your system get?

Why is your system different than those guys?

If you were writing a letter to a friend explaining why he should get your videos, what would you tell him?

You don't need an example of a non-hypey sales letter - you need to understand the value of your product. OR - if you do understand, then you need to explain it to us better.

The other alternative is that your system is crap or untested. I hope that is not the case.

Hello Easy,

Go to Bob Bly's website and look in his Products section.

Here is the link (Not an Affiliate Link): Products - Bob Bly: Copywriter

Pick any of his products and study the layouts. Instead of hype he uses lists and bullets to provoke the viewer to buy.

Him and I disagree on a great many things but his product sales letters are killer examples of how to sell something without hype.

It appears as though the purpose of your post isn't to ask for feedback, whether you realize it or not. It's to defend your beliefs, voice your frustration with reality, and to justify your inevitable failure.

Serious question: do you want to be successful or do you want to be right? You do not have to be dishonest to be successful in this niche. That's a fallacy that you've somehow created.

But if you pay attention to what successful companies are doing... Yes, they are using hype. LOTS of it. But it's done with discretion, not necessarily big red headlines and exclamation points. Have you been following what Apple has done with their 9.9 launch?

Anyone who thinks honest, successful companies don't use hype isn't even worthy of engagement as far as I'm concerned.

In your space, you can check out motley fool and stansberry. Are they super hypey? I don't know. You tell me. It's a subjective question. But what's not subjective is that their messaging reflects what the market wants as demonstrated by sales.

Let me emphasize that it's by no means just about hype. That alone, and you're just another amateur. The effectiveness of your sales message is largely dictated by two things: 1) How much value or perceived value does the prospect feel like they receive from the message? and 2) How entertaining is the message? The hook, story, the flow, the presentation, the offer - how effective and compelling are they at grabbing and keeping attention?

It's not a black or white, "hypey, dishonest" or "honest" kind of scenario. It's more like a million shades of grey and you need to find the one that is in line with your values and generates the maximum revenue.

Sorry, I should have added that this is all worked out on a special excell spread sheet. And the reason
it works on 95% of the matches is because you place a combination of bets that cover specific out comes.

Its old advice but still gold:

• Tape yourself selling the system to someone
• Transcribe the conversation
• Cut out all the ums and ares
• Play with the format

and you have the base of your sales letter in your own voice.

With this type of thing the biggest seller is proof and testimonials. Have you given it to half a dozen or so people to try. Betfair has a forum you could use.

I think you are right in the way we Brits react to the hype but you need to balance that up with establishing yourself as an authority on this subject. You probably don't want to show your mansion with a DB9 in the drive but at the same time ask yourself would you buy it from a guy with a broke down corsa on a council estate.

Rightly people will want to know this works an you have to be the first example of this.

Any questions please ask



Eric

I'd have to disagree splittest, sales psychology is the foundation of what we do everything is built upon this.

Without this you have a literature guide, write a headline,write a sub headline write a paragraph.

Eric

Haha,

Hey guys, nice to see you all still popping in. I'm really grateful for all of the advice and points of view given in here.

To be honest I thought this thread would die a slow death.

Nothing is hype if it delivers on it's promise.

If it can't deliver and you are saying it's amazing, it's hype.

Simple. Don't make claims you can't deliver on. This way you will avoid hyped copy.

Here's where I believe your biggest mistake is right now...read what you wrote again...

(Pay attention to the words "I," "my" and "want")

Writing great copy isn't about saying what you want to say.

Sure, you don't want to compromise your values.

I get that.

But starting from "I want" is where most marketers go completely wrong.

What does YOUR CUSTOMER want?

What do THEY not want to put themselves through in order to get it?

What are THEIR secret "fear barriers" that tell that they can't have what they want?

And what do THEY not want?

What do they need to hear in order to give themselves permission to invest in themselves.

Someone on this thread, Mal I believe, said something about using hype for Americans and a more authentic approach for people in the UK. If you'd started out thinking about your reader instead of about yourself, you would have come to that conclusion (and probably many other useful ones) already.

Writing great copy starts with getting into your customers head.

Right now, you're stuck in your own head.

You're looking for the solution that makes YOU feel good.

Again, you don't want to compromise your values.

Good for you, really.

But the most noble value in business is to put your customers needs first.