Posted by: Daniel Levis
March 12, 2008
Issue #372

“It’s Us Against Them!”

In this issue:

• A simple 5-step plan for harnessing the common enemy theme in your promotions …
• How to stir up a delicious motivational cocktail your prospects can hardly resist … 
• How to use a very specific kind of anger to light a sales bonfire under your business …
• A special opportunity to share your views … 
• And much more!

Dear Web Business Builder,

Our enemies can fill us with meaning, purpose, and motivation.

As people who stand in our way … who represent what we love to hate … who are there for us to react against … they are a source of energy. Heck, look how lively things got around here last week …

Clayton Googles himself and finds some nut case who thinks selling valuable information is a sin. Maybe the big guy’s thong was on too tight, I don’t know, but he sees red and fires off a wild tirade in THE TOTAL PACKAGE.

Next thing you know, we’re all coming to his defense, pouring out sympathy … going on record saying he has every right in the world to charge for his stuff. And whatever the cost, we’re buyin’! Pretty smart marketing, if you ask me.

What’s more, it proves how important having enemies really is …

One of the big secrets to motivating people is to involve them in a cause against a hated enemy. In primordial times, our forefathers banded together against hostile forces or died.

Today, we are still hard-wired with these aggressive “us against them” impulses, but are trained to repress them. This just makes their pent up energy all the more potent.

When someone gives us an outlet for these bottled up drives and encourages us to express them, we find it refreshing and will usually take the bait. What’s more, we will endear ourselves to that person and to the group they represent.

Can you push this button in your copywriting? Hell yes, in five easy steps!

Step 1 — Expose some horrible injustice that affects both your spokesperson and your prospect.

Common enemy themes are ideal for tapping into a potent cocktail of fear, anger and greed. The idea is to warn the prospect of impending doom, blame a common enemy, and identify opportunities for profiting from the situation at the expense of the perpetrator.

Here are a couple of introductory paragraphs from an “us and them” themed promotion I wrote last year for a financial newsletter before the sub-prime mortgage crisis hit the economy …

I’m writing you today with an urgent warning …

Your wealth is in imminent danger!

Four diabolical LIES have now unleashed a silent wealth killer that’s quietly spreading its invisible tentacles throughout the economy.

Like a hideous thief in the night … unseen, and unnoticed by most, this murderous contagion hatched at the highest levels of government is already savaging the life savings of millions of unsuspecting Americans …

Incredibly, this same looming catastrophe is already making a small group of fiercely independent investors RICH beyond the dreams of avarice!

I’d like nothing more than for you to join this privileged group …

Nothing would be more satisfying to me than to have you laugh all the way to the bank with us on the backs of these crooks. Even more … I sincerely hope and pray you’ll do what’s necessary to shield your hard-earned wealth from their treachery.

I’ll tell you how you can do these things in a moment … but first, allow me to blow the lid off this grand conspiracy …

Step 2 — Put a face on the enemy responsible for the injustice.

Your prospect’s enemies are often nebulous and difficult to pinpoint. They typically hide behind some sort of faceless facade (big government, big business, the media, some element of society, as examples). But it is hard to drum up anger against a bloodless enemy.

Personalize the fight as much as possible. Understandably, this will often result in push back from your client, but do your best to put a face on the enemy nonetheless, bringing your prospect eyeball to eyeball with his nemesis.

In this particular promotion I incriminated a single individual and his inner circle without actually naming them.

If you’ve got any red blood in your
veins at all, it’s about to boil!

As you’re probably aware, America today is up to its eyeballs in a quagmire of public, corporate, and private debt … and the greenback is the laughing stock of the global financial community.

After denouncing the loose spending policies of his predecessor … and vowing on a stack of Bibles before Congress to begin paying down the national debt … our honorable leader (“a conservative”) proceeded to increase it by more than the sum total piled up during the previous 200 years!

After swearing to keep America strong, free, and independent, our illustrious administration proceeded to plunder her instead … plunging the American people into interminable bondage … borrowing almost half a TRILLION from of all places — COMMUNIST CHINA!

In the ultimate betrayal, your wealth is being quietly embezzled … while America becomes beholden to Red China for another $2 BILLION every single business day … just to keep these fat cats in style!

Washington hacks are telling you the economy is strong and expanding … but the simple truth is America is becoming poorer not richer.

You are witnessing the greatest liquidation of public wealth in the history of man. Every single hour, another $80 MILLION disappears!

Step 3 — Position your spokesperson as a fearless leader dedicated to fighting the injustice.

There’s an old saying, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”.

By positioning your spokesperson as your prospect’s advocate, fighting to protect common interests against a common foe, you trigger a primordial bonding instinct within your prospect’s mind, especially if you elevate those interests by linking them to a higher cause.

Ideally, your prospect isn’t just buying a product; he’s joining a movement — a group crusade against moral injustice that will fuel dozens of purchases for years to come.

For the past two decades, it’s been my job to help investors like you to safeguard your wealth, and cash in when gold, silver, and other precious metals soar in value. Actually it’s much more than a job …

It’s a life-long dedication … a passionate commitment to leading savvy investors like you to the most explosive profit opportunities in a tiny and largely overlooked area of the economy that both Wall Street and Washington quietly despise …

For years, while the power brokers on Wall Street have been doing their dead level best to convince you the stock market would go up forever … and Washington spin doctors have been sugarcoating reports about the true state of our economy for their own selfish ends … I’ve been warning my subscribers about the undercurrents of inflation and spiraling public debt.

Step 4 — Position your product as a way for your prospect to turn the tables on his enemies and profit from their treachery.

The thing to remember about these kinds of promotions is that you have to constantly tie the situation back to your prospect’s self interest throughout the editorial elements of the copy. What does he stand to lose if he fails to take up arms and join you in the fight? And how can he gain from the situation?

If you do this skillfully, when it comes time to present your product, buying it becomes a natural outlet for the emotions you’ve built up.

Note how the copy reads like an article, but never loses sight of what’s in it for the prospect.

It’s beyond absurd to think inflation is advancing at between 3 and 4% a year like they’re telling us …

All you need do is pay your bills to know your cost of living — the price you pay for everything from housing … to food … to fuel … and to health care … is skyrocketing by double digits every single year!

Make no mistake – the duplicitous Consumer Price Index con game is a central tool the government is using to rob you blind.

Yet incredibly, this shameless swindle can also make you RICH! Because with every bogus dollar the FED pumps into the economy — aided and abetted by these funny figures — the price of gold and other natural resources catapults higher.

In 2001, when the current administration came to power, gold was trading at under $300. Today, it’s trading at around $600. Put another way, the real purchasing power of your money has been raped by half in five short years!

Meanwhile, had you followed my December 2001 recommendation … and piled into a little known company called Nova Gold, you’d now be sitting on a mouth watering 641% gain!

Step 5 — Channel anger toward a purchase.

Fear and greed are both actionable emotions, but they have their limitations. There is always an element of prevention when you’re selling with fear. And people try to hide their greed — even from themselves — much preferring to make their motives seem altruistic and disinterested.

Add anger to the mix — particularly righteous indignation — and you give your prospect moral justification for his actions. He has permission to take what he wants without the slightest guilt or hesitation. It’s the perfect way to close.

Don’t Let Washington Parasites Suck Your Wealth Dry,
and Cheat YOU out of a Richer Life!

You have two choices, you can:

A – Do nothing. Just pretend I’m wrong, and that you really can trust BIG government to resist the temptation to play you for a sucker … and keep its greedy hands out of YOUR cookie jar. (That’s what they’re counting on. They think you’re too dumb to notice, or too apathetic to do anything about it.)

Or …

B – Get ready to make a killing by turning the tables on them, using the super potent tools I’m offering you.

I’ll help you to safely position your finances so that each time these political snakes devalue the dollar for their own selfish gains, your precious metals shares soar like ballistic missiles to more than offset your loss!

This is no time to leave your family’s financial security vulnerable to attack!

Don’t you owe it to yourself to put a sound game plan in place to insure your dreams for a better life … your plans for helping your kids and your grandkids get a top-notch education and a solid start in life … and your need for a secure retirement?

Instead of becoming furious every time you buy gas or groceries … or pay your heat, hydro, and medical bills … wouldn’t you rather be celebrating – because with each spike in price you’re getting richer and richer?

The common enemy theme is one of the most effective archetypical dramas you can possibly use to rivet attention, inflame desire, and motivate your prospects to action.

Your mission this week in Web Marketing Advisor — should you chose to accept it  — is to share ideas and experiences about using common enemy stories in your own promotions.

Have you used them? Share your story.

Haven’t used ‘em? Thinkin’ you should? Share your questions.

Don’t be shy. Sound off in the form below.

Until next time, Good Selling!

Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE™

P.S.  Clayton has used the "common enemy" theme many times in his career to build trust and create an instant bond with his prospect.  And it works!  Just look at his famous Forbidden Cures package.  Clayton made those greedy medical fat cats and drug company big shots such convincing enemies that his prospects ran for their wallets – and sales skyrocketed into the millions.   Now you can get a copy of this million-dollar promotion and apply its secrets to your copy.  Click here to find out how.

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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.

Related posts

• Inside the Labyrinth of Your Prospect’s Mind
• Getting More Money as a Freelance Copywriter
• How I Bagged $5 Million In Internet Sales In 5 Short Weeks
• Drayton Bird Q&A
• Do You Believe?

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5 Comments »

1. Comment by Greg Thompson — March 12, 2008 @ 2:09 pm

   "Don’t you owe it to yourself to put a sound game plan in place to insure your dreams for a better life … your plans for helping your kids and your grandkids get a top-notch education and a solid start in life … and your need for a secure retirement?"

   Personally, I’ve found that copy worded like this tends to piss people off. They think "ARGH! Stop trying to sell me!"

   Instead, I like to use a slightly less blatant approach by using myself as an example (instead of saying stuff like "wouldn’t you…?" it’d be more like "I don’t know about you, but personally I’d rather be getting rich off all this stuff instead of sitting around bitching and moaning about my gas bill going up all the time - and be able to provide a better life for my kids before they enter college…"), to which the reader can then transpose himself into the same shoes.

   Then it comes off less like I am trying to force words into his mouth.

2. Comment by Art Speakman — March 12, 2008 @ 6:29 pm

   Got any proof for this statement?
   borrowing $1 TRILLION from of all places — COMMUNIST CHINA!

3. Comment by Increase Sales Coach Cheryl — March 12, 2008 @ 7:53 pm

   Daniel you are a master at creating word imagery.  However, at the beginning of this article you said, "Maybe the big guys thong was too tight."  Yipes, after that I couldn’t get past the mental image!

   Nothing against Clayton mind you, but I just don’t want a mental image of anyone whose thong is too tight:-) 

4. Comment by Daniel Levis — March 12, 2008 @ 10:47 pm

   To cover its deficit, the US government sells treasury bills – essentially IOUs. The Chinese central bank currently holds over $1 TRILLION US dollars in its treasuries, of which, according to US government statistics dated Dec. 07, http://www.ustreas.gov/tic/mfh.txt $477,600,000,000 are US treasury notes. See the following explanation. (source, wickipedia) …

   The mechanics of U.S. Government debtWhen the expenses of the U.S. Government exceed the revenue collected, it issues new debt to cover the deficit. This debt typically takes the form of new issues of government bonds which are sold on the open market. However, the debt can also be monetized by which the Federal Reserve creates an entry on its books to credit the US Government for an amount equal to the dollar amount of the bonds the Federal Reserve is acquiring. The money created in this process not only includes the new dollars that came into existence just to purchase the bonds, but much more because this new money is now sitting in the form of checkbook money at the Federal Reserve. Under the scheme of Fractional Reserve Banking this new checkbook money is treated as an asset to lend against. Economists estimate the expansion of the money supply as being many times the amount of the initial money created with the exact amount being a function of what percentage of deposits banks must set aside as "reserves". The ultimate consequence of monetizing U.S. debt is that it expands the money supply which will tend to dilute the value of dollars already in circulation. Thus, expanding the pool of money puts downward pressure on the dollar, downward pressure on short-term interest rates (the banks have more to lend) and upward pressure on inflation. Typically this causes an inflationary boom that ends in a deflationary bust to complete the business cycle. Note that money supply expansion is not the only force at work in inflation or interest rates. United States Dollars are essentially a commodity on the world market and the value of the dollar at any given time is subject to the law of supply and demand. In recent years, the debt has soared and inflation has stayed low in part because China has been willing to accumulate reserves denominated in U.S. Dollars. Currently, China holds over $1 trillion in dollar denominated assets (of which $330 billion are U.S. Treasury notes). In comparison, $1.4 trillion represents M1 or the "tight money supply" of U.S. Dollars which suggests that the value of the U.S. Dollar could change dramatically should China ever choose to divest itself of a large portion of those reserves.

5. Comment by Kevin Rogers — March 13, 2008 @ 10:49 am

   Hi All–

   Greg, I see your point, but I wonder where you got the notion that Daniel’s example would "piss people off". If you’ve effectively engaged your prospect to stand up and battle the nefarious forces that have held them back, then dammit, stand beside them through the whole battle!

   You can’t get them all heated up about their enemy and then say: "If I were you, I’d stop complaining and think about trying to provide a better life…"
   
   You have to say:
   
   "You owe yourself this chance to get back what has been taken from you… You owe yourself the sweet taste of revenge…  You are in control…. Your moment is now!"