Posted by:
Daniel Levis
May 14, 2008
Issue #417
Dear Web Business Builder,
I’m sitting here in my backyard enjoying the late afternoon sun. To my side sizzle a few steaks on the barbecue.
About 50 yards in front of me extend lush woodlands for several miles, teaming with deer, rabbit, raccoon, grouse and other wild fauna.
Singing birds and chirping frogs serenade me through the clean country air as the evening unfolds.
On days like this I feel like I’m living in paradise. Especially when I think back to the hustling, bustling area where my wife and I used to live … with its 24-hour traffic … rancid exhaust fumes … incessant noise … and sardine packed neighborhoods. The contrast helps make our new life doubly sweet.
Why am I telling you this?
Because as in life, so in copy. When you take pains to compare and contrast, you make your copy doubly sweet.
Allow me to explain …
The human mind thinks in relative terms. We have this overwhelming compulsion to compare and contrast almost everything we encounter. We’re unconsciously thinking, “What’s that like?” and “How’s this different?” That’s how our minds work. We relate things.
And this gives YOU an enormous opportunity to magnify the selling power of every feature, advantage, and benefit you promise your prospect.
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
May 7, 2008
Issue #412
Dear Web Business Builder,
Holy Crap Batman! This is cause for celebration …
… I’m sitting here writing the 100th edition of Web Marketing Advisor. Can you believe it? One hundred weeks of blood, sweat, and tears to bring you a new business building, sales exploding morsel of inspiration with each and every edition.
Is it a pain in the ass coming up with something new to say each week? For YOU, no way! I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Unless Clayton and The Redhead tell me to bug off with my odd, some would say twisted — slant on things … and occasional hysterical rantings, I’m here to stay.
Now let’s get down to biz.
This week I’ve been struggling
to keep my head on straight …
It’s part of the human condition to look around you and be influenced in ways that are often counterproductive. We’re sympathetic creatures. We naturally model the world around us.
And if the world around you is full of stinkin’ thinkin’, it can rub off. Sometimes you get ground down and your attitude suffers. It happens to all of us. Optimizing your attitude takes discipline and constant vigilance.
No matter how successful you are, unless you’re constantly struggling and pushing yourself for more, you’re sliding. It’s a law of life. And therefore, attitude management NEVER ceases to be an issue.
Every day I struggle to keep my head on straight. And you should too, because there’s no standing still in this world. You’re either moving forward, or falling back.
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
April 30, 2008
Issue #407
Dear Web Business Builder,
Today’s my birthday. I’m 39 again this year. Accolades … condolences — both welcome in the comment box below.
But I’m fit to be tied!
In fact, in true Taurus the Bull fashion, I’ve got fire blazing out my flared nostrils this year. Why?
Because amid the balloons, confetti, and wanton overindulgence, I’ve got to stop and send a check to the snake farm in Ottawa that could easily put a top-of-the-line Lexus in my driveway.
Yes, today’s the income tax filing deadline in Canada once again. But what I’m about to say is relevant on both sides of the border, and many other countries around the world as well.
This may offend — so fair warning …
Is it just me, or does anybody else notice how “left” the world seems to be leaning these days — no I’m not talking about Communist or Socialist dictatorships that openly coerce their citizens — I’m talking about places like Canada, the US, Australia, the UK, France and dozens of other countries who claim to be democracies or republics operating under the free enterprise system?
In Canada, we pride ourselves on a kinder, gentler kind of capitalism. Take “free” access to medical care as an example. A noble concept perhaps, but when you and your family move to a new town, there’s a very good chance you won’t find a family doctor for love or money.
Doctors and nurses are overworked, underpaid, grumpy, terse, and insensitive — if you can get access to them. The good ones have either left the country or quit medicine in favor of selling stuff on the Internet.
Canadians routinely go south for elective surgery, while our government spends with reckless abandon delivering sub-rate care. And poor suckers like me foot the bill!
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
April 23, 2008
Issue #402
Dear Web Business Builder,
It seems my little tutorial last week about winning formulas for creating riveting opening body copy that cements readership proved useful to a few readers.
So this week I’m handing you a few more strategies that I hope you’ll find just as helpful …
Apart from selling your reader on reading your copy, there are no hard and fast rules on what your objective should be in these crucial opening paragraphs. Every selling situation is different. And your market is what should drive your direction.
You may find it best to bribe your reader to read your copy by making him a big fat promise of what he can expect in the copy that follows. You may want to scare the daylights out of him with a terrible warning of impending doom and promise his rescue.
You may want to shock or surprise him with something so unusual he can’t look away. Or you may just want to make him smile and agree with you, so that he instantly likes you and is interested in what you have to say.
All of these approaches and more can be used to enter the conversation that’s taking place right now between your prospect’s ears. Here are five more specific strategies that have proven successful…
Strategy #6 — The damaging admission opening: With this strategy, you start by saying bad things about yourself, your company, or your product.
The idea is to shock the reader with a statement that’s incongruent with what a salesperson would be expected to say when selling a product.
Naturally, this grabs attention and builds trust.
What’s most unusual about the following example is that there’s no appeal to the prospect’s self-interest anywhere in the entire opening.
The copy is curiosity arousing, but there’s no statement of benefit to the reader, not even in the headline. Its author, marketing maverick Joe Sugarman, in his book, “The Adweek Copywriting Handbook,” says there’s no need for such in the opening of an ad.
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
April 16, 2008
Issue #397
Dear Web Business Builder,
When you’re writing an online promotion, probably the toughest part is the opening few paragraphs …
These first few paragraphs are as important as your headline and your offer when it comes to the success or failure of your promotion.
If you can get off to a great start, everything else just kind of falls into place.
You’ve done all of the research into your target market. You know the conversation that’s taking place between their ears.
Now how do you turn that knowledge into an opening that gets your prospects hooked on reading your copy and salivating for the promise of your product?
Here are a few of the best formulas I’ve found:
Strategy #1 – You Have A Choice.
With the “you have a choice” opening, the idea is to quickly remind your prospect about the thing that’s keeping him up at night, and instantly empower him to choose a much more desirable alternative.
“You have a choice. You can continue to be disappointed with the results you’re getting from action x, or you can take action y, and get these much better results.”
Here’s how it works …
In the first few paragraphs, you tell your prospect why option y is so much more desirable than option x, but you don’t tell him exactly what option y is. You describe certain facets of it, and its benefits, but you don’t name it.
Then you compare and contrast the impacts of action x versus action y on your prospect’s life, building desire for option y, and curiosity about what it might be. “Instead of [undesirable outcome], you can be enjoying [desirable outcome].” You just list them off one by one.
Here’s an example from a promotion written by Eric Beutel:
You have a choice. You can resign yourself to the ridiculously low yields of bank CDs, money market accounts, checking and savings accounts.
Or you can take a small, reasonable amount of risk and go for a dividend yield of 12.7% per year PLUS the potential for a TOTAL return of 36.2% per year — all with a reasonably conservative investment.
That’s nine times better than the S&P 500 and seven times better than today’s bank CDs.
When was the last time you earned 36% on your money in a single year? When was the last time you earned that much in two or three years?
Just imagine the profound, positive impact that kind of return could have on your life!
Instead of living in fear that your finances could collapse like a house of cards … you can rest easy knowing you’re set for life no matter what happens on Wall Street — or the world.
Instead of just “making ends meet,” you can make exciting plans for the vacation you’ve always dreamed of. You can buy that retirement home on the golf course or the beach. And you can finally treat yourself and the ones you love to the luxuries you never thought you could have.
Isn’t that a great formula? It empowers the reader with choice, uses the power of comparison, leverages curiosity, and inspires the prospect’s active imagination. Very powerful.
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