Posted by:
Daniel Levis
August 30, 2006
Issue WMA #13
In this article:
- Horse Puckey and Hocus Pocus – Madison Avenue foo foo dust, and the truth they don't want you to know …
- Why long copy rules on the web …
- 5 ways to kick your writing speed up a notch … so you can flood the Internet with an army of tireless salesmen-in-print … dramatically increasing the profitability of your business …
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And more!
Dear Web Business Builder,
This is an article about writing for the purpose of extracting money from people who habituate the Internet. If that offends your delicate sensibilities, then you might as well stop reading right now.
On the other hand, if you're looking for ways to either turn that beautiful whiz bang web site of yours into a money sucking monster … or get paid big bucks to help other web entrepreneurs do the same, then listen up …
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
August 28, 2006
Issue #58
In this issue:
- Why persuasion is the most valuable skill you could ever acquire …
- How to seduce prospects without ever explicitly naming a single benefit…
- How acknowledging and validating your prospect’s core beliefs and values gives you an almost unfair advantage in sales copy …
- How to use rhetoric to bypass prospects’ brains entirely – making it virtually impossible for them to refuse the impulse to order NOW …
- And MUCH MORE!
Dear Business-Builder,
Whether you’re a business owner or entrepreneur, marketing pro or copywriter, this issue is going to be extremely valuable to you.
We’re continuing last week’s ramblings on persuasion: Without a doubt, the most valuable skill any human being could possibly develop – and I am not talking about just in copywriting or sales either.
Persuasion makes the world go around:
- Persuasion is at the heart of every government system you can name. In democracies, politicians gain power by persuading perpetually gullible citizens to vote for them. Once elected, the peoples’ representatives debate each new bill before it becomes law, each side attempting to persuade the other.
Even in monarchies and dictatorships, domestic tranquility – and in many cases, the very survival of the regime – is assured as the masses are persuaded that the monarch was divinely appointed … that the dictator is the nation’s destiny … or at the very least, to abide by the law of the land (often at the point of a gun).
- The world’s legal systems operate almost entirely on persuasion. Trials are little more than contests between two sets of attorneys to determine which will better persuade the judge or jury of its point of view.
As the OJ Simpson and Michael Jackson trials graphically demonstrated to many, the guilt or innocence of the accused can be irrelevant: If you have the most persuasive lawyer, you win: You can get away with the sickest behavior imaginable – even murder. On the other hand, if your lawyer is less than persuasive, you can be as innocent as a lamb and as pure as the driven snow – and still wind up on Death Row.
- Every religious movement owes its existence to its abilities to persuade converts that its holy script – and therefore its precepts and doctrines – is authentic, accurate and reliable (and by extension, that contradictory ones are frauds).
- In our personal lives, many (if not most) of our marriages and life partnerships are rooted in persuasion. Whether by passive seduction or aggressive pursuit, one of us persuaded the other to commit to an exclusive long-term relationship.
- Raising children is a Herculean two-way exercise in the art of persuasion. Parents use every persuasion strategy at their command to produce desired behaviors and discourage undesirable ones – and kids are past masters at figuring out what needs to be said or done to persuade Mom and Dad to give them their way.
- And of course, persuasion is an essential component in every business success story. Every day, banks and investors are persuaded to bankroll new businesses … quality employees are persuaded to join their teams … workers are persuaded to perform in productive ways …
… new customers persuaded to make their first purchases … existing customers are persuaded to make new purchases … unions and vendors are persuaded to accept companies’ terms … and executives persuade other businesses to enter into alliances and joint ventures and to concede to mergers and acquisitions.
Heck: One of the greatest business empires of all time began with a simple act of persuasion. Microsoft was born when Bill Gates persuaded IBM to pay him a royalty on every copy of MS-DOS software installed on its machines!
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
August 22, 2006
Issue WMA #12
In this article:
- What makes Yankees tick …
- Sage advice from Gene Schwartz!
- Why focus groups are for dummies …
- Why NEW equals IMPROVED…
- The power of social imprinting…
- What Americans really think about health, work, and money …
- And more!
Dear Web Business Builder,
I love Americans, don’t you? Not only are they great people, they’re great spenders. It pays to know them.
But sometimes, they’re hard to fathom …
Old, young, doesn’t matter. They love fast food, blue jeans, and loud violent movies. One day they’re up. One day they’re down. Crazy, rebellious, invincible!
In America, dreams come and go like the noonday sun. Certainty leads to uncertainty just as quickly. New discoveries go from promising to disappointing in the blink of an eye.
America is the land of limitless opportunity, of optimism, and abundance. Of Disneyland, and Hollywood, of promise, hope, and discovery. Of never growing up, and never giving in.
Americans are primed for action, and ready to tempt fate at a moments notice. You couldn’t dream up a better prospect if you tried … but what are these proud, defiant people thinking?
Why do they do the things they do? Why to do they buy the things they buy?
Worth studying don’t you agree?
I’m a Canadian, but to me, Canada is like the 51st state. I know more Americans than I do Canadians, and they make up 89% of my business, so I have more than a passing interest in trying to figure out what makes them tick. You should too, but where do you start?
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
August 21, 2006
Issue #57
Three Powerful Persuasion Strategies And How to Use Each One To Rocket Your Response
In this issue:
- How to structure a logical argument that will have your prospects ready, willing and even eager to buy …
- The astonishing response-rocketing power of the “scientific demonstration” – and how I used it to sell more than $7 million-worth of products in a single DM package…
- 8 Ways to turn ordinary testimonials into profit-pulling powerhouses…
- And MUCH MORE!
Dear Business-Builder,
Over the years, I’ve tried to teach lots of folks to write sales copy – and (have I mentioned this before?) not all of them have gone on to be stellar successes.
One of my most spectacular failures had a Ph.D. in English Lit. Another was a crackerjack newspaper reporter. Still another had penned a best-seller and now wanted to try her hand at writing sales copy.
All three of these guys and gals were great word-jugglers. But as direct response copywriters, every one of them was hopeless. Not one of them could have written a winning sales letter if you’d held a .44 magnum to his or her highly educated head.
Looking back, though, it wasn’t their fault that they couldn’t “get” it. It was mine.
I should have been flogged for hiring these “great writers” in the first place.
See, I didn’t need great writers. I needed great salespeople – experts in the art and science of persuasion – who could also write.
They didn’t have to be Shakespeares, Longfellows or Hemmingways. They just needed to have a knack for helping others see things their way … and for persuading others to take a particular action – i.e. to look at their headlines, read their sales messages and for god’s sake, to order the doggoned product!
Put simply, I needed PERSUADERS.
So much is written today about the technical, nuts-and bolts aspects of writing great sales copy: How to structure a headline. How to use power words. How to find the right tone. How to write a fascination. How to close with conviction.
Too little, in my opinion, is written about how to be persuasive. And I mean to remedy that.
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
August 16, 2006
Issue WMA #11
In this article:
- The real reason your prospects whip out their plastic and BUY NOW!
- The silent connection that bonds you to your prospects …
- What you must do with your landing pages to turn visitors into buyers …
- How your own self-image is both your secret copywriting weapon, and your marketing Achilles heel …
- How to supercharge your creativity, making your writing time infinitely more productive …
- And more!
Dear Web Business Builder,
Why do your prospects buy from you?
I often ask my consulting clients this very question. And the first answers I get usually look something like this:
- Because we’re the most affordable
- Because we offer the best service
- Because our product offers the best value
- Because we have a superior reputation in the marketplace
What do you think of these answers? All of these reasons are putting the cart before the horse, don’t you think?
They can afford it. Great! They’ll never think of whether they can afford it or not until you get them emotionally involved in wanting it!
And who cares if you offer the best service, or the best value, or if your firm has the best reputation, if they don’t want it?
Most often I’ll get several logical reasons why people buy, before I get a single reason that even smells remotely like an emotional one. But that’s not what I’m getting at here.
Today’s article goes beyond the idea that people buy for emotional reasons, and then back up their decisions with logic.
It cuts straight to the core of what gets those emotional wheels turning between your prospect’s ears in the first place, and reveals the real reason people buy.
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