Tweet This!What the Dog Whisperer Taught Me About Writing Good Copy
Ok, I admit it.
I didn’t want a dog.
But despite my kicking and screaming, my husband brought home a 6 week old puppy – a Bull Mastiff at that.
For the first day, I tried to ignore the dog, hoping he would go away … but when that ball of black fur nuzzled up to me and nibbled at my toes, well, doggonit, I just fell in luv wit da puppay!
Naming him wasn’t difficult – when we looked at the size of his head, the entire family agreed – “Jaws” – is the perfect name.
Jaws was 11 pounds when we got him and was putting on about 10 pounds a month. And if he inherited his father’s genes, he would be well over 120 pounds by his first birthday. Knowing that made me a little nervous.
Since Jaws was now my morning exercise buddy, I knew I had to learn to control him. So, I consulted (i.e. watched on T.V.) the only expert I knew in the animal world – Cesar Millan – a.k.a The Dog Whisperer.
I taped all his shows and every night, I watched 2 … 3 … even 4 episodes with notebook and pen in hand – taking copious notes.
Cesar made it perfectly clear: he doesn’t teach dog training, he uses dog psychology. His 3-step method is very simple:
- Exercise
- Discipline
- Affection
Cesar teaches the dog owner that you are the pack leader – the head honcho. Dogs respect authority and will do what you say if you show them in you’re in charge.
And you have to manipulate the dog’s behavior – focusing him on positive actions and rewarding him with affection only when he obeys.
The more I studied Cesar’s dog psychology, the more I realized his approach is not that different from writing strong, powerful copy. Here’s what I mean …
Exercise and fine tune your writing skills
The first step to Cesar’s training is regular exercise. So every morning I take Jaws out for a 3 mile walk/run workout. By exercising Jaws, he burns up energy … respects my leadership … and remains in a calm, submissive, trance-like state for several hours.
When you’re writing copy, you’ve got to exercise and excite your reader – giving him an enticing headline that promises to make him look younger … feel better … or make tons of money overnight. Now he’s salivating and wants more …
… but you’ve got to let him see you’re in charge. So your deck copy supports your promise by naming prestigious medical trials and studies … or a noted financial guru’s track record … or documented cases that give you credibility.
Once you’ve excited him and gotten his respect, well, now you’ve got him in a trance-like state. So what do you do?
You keep LOADING on layers upon layers of your product’s benefits – and how they’re going to make him better off in ways that he deserves. And this is where step 2 comes in …
Discipline your writing style
Cesar says discipline and consistent behavior is the key to a happy and healthy dog. He needs to know you are the pack leader.
Your dog picks up on your energy – so he can sense if you’re tense, nervous or relaxed. Have you ever noticed how a dog will go after the person who’s the most afraid of him? That’s because he senses the fear!
You’ve got to be clear in your tone of voice and body language what you expect of him. And you can’t confuse the dog by being inconsistent or wishy washy in your training.
And if he’s still not listening to your command, sometimes you’ve got to slide his choke chain up around his ears, tug at it for a second and get his attention! Well, guess what? …
Your reader is the same way!
Once you get into the body of your copy – you’ve got to stay in control. You are the leader. And you’ve got to maintain a high energy level in your copy!
You tell the reader when to turn the page. You pull and tug on his heart strings and keep him focused with stories and testimonials.
You must remain the authority figure and you’ve got to deliver on your promises and support your claims with reputable sources. If not, you confuse your reader and he’s not sure if he should continue to follow you. In other words, you blow the sale!
Reward your reader and lay on the affection!
Cesar says only reward your dog for positive behavior. The reward can be a food treat or forms of affection such as a friendly “good boy” pat and rub behind the ears.
Any negative behavior must be redirected to the positive behavior you desire.
Now, can you think of the #1 way we reward our customers?
If you guessed “free gifts” – you get the doggy treat!
Actually, if you’re smart, you’re rewarding your reader throughout the entire process. You’re revealing little known remedies … ”inside” information … or simple steps to boost his income.
With all this wealth of info you’re GIVING your prospect, he’s now convinced you’re the leader for him! So, how do you reward him for this behavior?
You lay on the 3 … 7 … even 10 FREE gifts he gets when he acts RIGHT NOW and orders your product!
And if for any reason he hesitates to make the decision, you redirect that negative energy with a pubnote that says “read this if you’re still not sure” message – and you give him even more compelling reasons to act now in that copy!
Or to get him off his couch and on the phone, you include an early bird ADDITIONAL mouth-salivating gift when he replies in the next 7 days!
Then you go for your close – and continue to lay on the affection! Compliment the reader on his good decision to act now and buy your product.
Reaffirm his trust in you as his pack leader and remind him of the bizillions of benefits he’s going to receive by following your lead!
With exercise, discipline and affection, you too can raise a healthy dog and write killer copy!
Here’s to Creating Success Your Way!
Carline Anglade-Cole
Guest Contributor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE
Carline Anglade-Cole writes multi-year controls in the alternative health field for clients including Healthy Directions, Health Resources, True Health, Soundview Publications and Sun Chlorella USA. She also provides phone consultations and “mini-boot camps”. Put her 20 years of direct mail experience in mailing list strategies, new product development and creating kick-butt controls to work for your company!
Contact Carline directly by visiting her website at www.CarlineCole.com
Looking for resources related to this article? Try some of these.
Looking for more guest articles? Check these out.
Looking for past issues of The Total Package? Click here for our archives.
 |
Want to share or reprint this article? Feel free. Just give us full attribution and a link to our Home Page when you do. |
Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.
No Comments »
No comments yet.
Join the Discussion!
Let us know what you think. Or ask us anything. Or offer your own sage advice.
The only rule: RESPECT THIS HOUSE! Postings that contain abusive language and/or personal attacks will be cheerfully VAPORIZED. One cross word and – POOF! – your well-thought-out post will be gone in a puff of smoke.
– Clayton
