You’ve got to make your promos like Die Hard. Whenever it gets too boring, make something EXPLODE. This could be a “Eureka!” moment in a science lab, with scientists high fiving each other across the room… A heart wrenching confession to a stranger in a burger bar… Or the pivotal moment when your hero is […]
People want massive change
Promises are like balloons. You’ve got to blow them up until they’re about to POP. Because here’s the thing… Your reader craves MASSIVE change. They’re hungry for life transforming results… Not mild improvements. So, blow up your promises as big as they’ll go. BUT… And this is a big but… You can only make promises […]
Add Specifics to Sell More
You’ll often hear that “specifics sell”. But why? One simple reason… PROOF. Specifics are concrete details you can add to make your claims more believable. Specifics show that you know what you’re talking about… And that you have proof to back it up. For example… Instead of saying “apigenin helps to relieve stressful thoughts at […]
How to survive the robot wars
Many guitarists start out wanting to sound like Led Zeppelin… But end up sounding like Kingdom Come. What’s this got to do with writing copy? When starting off you want to study the greats. Read their sales letters… copy them out by hand… and try to replicate their structure and writing style. But, in case […]
A powerful yet underused emotional trigger
Want to know one of the most powerful emotions to trigger in your copy? An emotion that makes us do crazy things… Makes us wildly jealous… And forces us to feel like we’re in constant competition with our friends, work colleagues, and the Jones’ next door? ENVY! Envy is a super powerful emotion. It’s envy […]
3 Caples Copywriting Tips
This week I’ve been rereading Caples’ ‘Tested Advertising Methods’… A book David Ogilvy said is “Without doubt the most useful book about advertising that I have ever read.” Here are my 3 key takeaways: Success in marketing comes from A/B testing, nothing else You can spend years brushing up on best practices and sales psychology. […]
Harnessing the “Zeigarnik Effect” in Copy
Ever wondered how waiters can remember long orders in their heads… But forget them the moment they’re delivered to the table? It’s due to the “Zeigarnik Effect”… A principle you can harness in your copywriting. It works like this… The brain has an uncanny ability to store information that’s incomplete or unresolved… But it forgets […]
Rolex and the Power of Framing
They were just another watchmaker. But then something happened that flipped the watch market upside down. Seiko unveiled the Astron – the world’s first “quartz clock” wristwatch. All of a sudden Rolex’s watches looked dated. Basic. Even cheap. Rolex knew they had to do something fast… Otherwise their goose was cooked. But rather than follow […]
How to Make Science Interesting
In science class at school… All I ever wanted was to see things explode. But mixing sulphuric acid with baking soda only ever happened once in chemistry class. Then it was back to studying the periodic table… And calculating the speed of waves nobody could see. BORING! Well, guess what… Readers feel the same way […]
Joe Sugarman’s secret to making cookie cutter products look amazing
Joe Sugarman’s “Adweek Copywriter’s Handbook” is one of my favorite books. It reveals a simple technique for making even the most cookie cutter products sound amazing. It’s a technique Joe perfected to sell everything from sunglasses to burglar alarms… And it can be applied to selling supplements, software and even services. What is this technique? […]