How do you get into the minds of your prospects and customers, so you can offer them products that they would be most interested in?

Every copywriter worth his salt knows that in order to craft a winning sales letter, you must intimately KNOW your prospect.

Easier said than done.

I remember John Carlton telling us at his jaw dropping 17 Point Copywriting Checklist Workshop that:

“Not understanding the tender heartbeat of your market is like getting dropped off in a bad part of town… you’re in trouble!”

Another thing Carlton mentioned is that the best copywriters OUTRESEARCH the mediocre ones.

Yes, good copywriting is not a lazy person’s game, no matter how many copywriting salesletters tell you otherwise.

Ironic, isn’t it?

And recently, while doing research for multiple sales letters, I realized I had overlooked one of the first, and best resources I have ever come across for truly “getting into bed” with your prospect.

Dan Kennedy’s classic book, “The Ultimate Sales Letter” was my first taste of true copywriting.

It was like crack.

One taste and I was hooked.

Believe it or not I read through it once and then ripped out a 24 page sales letter to hotel and motel owners offering commercial financing.

(Then nonchalantly showed it to a flabbergasted Brian Sacks - a well known mortgage trainer and former mentor of mine - who told me that I wasn’t ‘normal’)

And looking back on it, the letter was actually not too shabby.

But the resource that allowed me to get into the heads of my prospects for that particular letter was Dan’s 10 Smart Market Diagnosis and Profiling Questions.

I will reprint them here, and I hope that they help you as much as they’ve helped me. By the way you can (and should) get all of Dan’s stuff over at www.DanKennedy.com.

He’s a brilliant marketer and copywriter. Anyhow here we go:

1. What kees them awake at night, indigestion boiling up their esophagus, eyes open, staring at the ceiling?

2. What are they afraid of?

3. What are they angry about? Who are they angry at?

4. What are their top three daily frustrations?

5. What trends are occuring and will occur in their businesses or lives?

6. What do they secretly, ardently desire most?

7. Is there a built-in bias to the way they make decisions? (Example: engineers = exceptionally analytical)

8. Do they have their own language?

9. Who else is selling something similar to them, and how?

10. Who esle has tried selling them something similar, and how has that effort failed?

If you can honestly take the time to answer these questions ONCE, then come back to them again and again every time you have to write copy for the particular market, your chances for success will go up dramatically.

Hope this helps.

-James D. Lee

ps - Thanks to John Anghelache for mentioning this to us on a copywriting call. He’s a superb copywriter and teacher.

I was chatting with my friend Stuart Tan the other day about copywriting, marketing, and Web 2.0 (what else, right?). Stuart is a phenomenally successful business owner who runs an NLP and Success Training company out of Singapore.

Many of his friends and clients have dubbed him “Superman” because of his “go-go-go” attitude and his ability to do great amounts of work in a fraction of the time it takes most people to do it in.

I met Stuart personally at JV Alert Live in Philadelphia a few months ago, and truly, he was engaging in some Superman-ish behavior.

Never mind the jet lag from the time difference in Singapore, never mind the 14 hour plane flight, Stuart was the first one up and the last one to leave the networking functions in the wee hours of the morning.

He personally outlined an astonishingly simple but insightful business plan for me over a few glasses of wine, and I was scribbling notes the whole time on a bar napkin.

Regardless… he’s a wise dude, and when he talks, people listen.

While talking to him he asked me, “James, how long does it take you to finish a long copy sales letter?”

I asked him, “Research included?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“Mmm… if it’s in a niche I already know about, I’d say about a week or so? If I’m totally unfamiliar I’d need a few more days to crank out a 12 - 16 pager” I told him.

“I write 30 page sales letters in 4 hours,” Stuart told me.

I asked him how this was possible — and in reply, he told me one of the biggest secrets he uses to be able to finish such a large amount of work in such a short period of time.

He takes every letter ‘personally’.

Stay with me for a moment because this is interesting.

He gets all of the information he needs to write the letter, but right before he sits down at the computer, Stuart actually imagines a close friend or family member about to buy a similar product or service — but that the product is absolutely horrible.

The friend or family member would be making a terrible mistake and would be wasting a lot of money by purchasing this product.

Stuart imagines this person’s pain and anguish and he crafts his sales message around why HIS PARTICULAR product or service is going to create such a huge benefit in his friend or family member’s life.

He takes it personally.

By the time he’s done thinking about this, he’s so worked up that the words just flow from his mind and onto the screen.

And he finishes 30 page letters in 4 hours.

Not only does this get him “in state” it does the job of helping Stuart dimensionalize the prospect, and speak to this person one on one, rather than in general, muddled language.

All in all I think it’s a brilliant technique.

And it’s one I’ve started using.

I’ll report on results in a future post.

In the meantime why don’t you start ‘taking things personally’? — you might find yourself being more productive as a result.

Hope this helps.

-James D. Lee

ps - Another topic we were talking about was Twitter. Are you on Twitter? If not, you should be! Follow me here!

And yes, the event featured an all star lineup of speakers.

Joel Comm was there.

And when Joel Comm crooks his finger at you and says, “let’s talk, step into my office” — (which of course was the sofa next to the bar) — you better go!

We talked business, as well as non business related issues, and I must admit — I was surprised.

Scratch that… I was pleasantly surprised to find that Joel was truly a ‘man of the people’ and has kept his common touch, despite his massive success.

Nathan Anderson was there, as was Willie Crawford, Ken McArthur, Alan Bechtold, Anik Singal, Frank Sousa, Donna Fox, Simon Leung, Eric Farewell, Lee and Robin Collins, Mike Savoie, Eric Stafford, Jason Develvis, and a whole slew of other Internet Marketers who I’m forgetting at the moment.

It was another great opportunity to catch up with old friends, make new ones, and to talk to as many people as possible about JV opportunities.

I believe it’s an old adage in the Direct Marketing community, but sometimes the conversations you have in the halls, at the breakfast/lunch/dinner table, and at the bar are more valuable than what you hear from the stage.

I tend to think it’s a bit of ‘all the above’.

Ross put on a great event, and, according to him, his next event will be even better.

On the personal side, it’s been a pretty busy past couple of weeks writing copy for clients, so it’s been tough to post. But fear not! I’ll be back in the saddle in no time.

For now check out these cool pics.

Me and Ken McArthur. I hunted Ken down and forced
him to record my video testimonial for JV Alert!

Me and Alan Bechtold. Wish I’d gotten to talk more
with this super smart, funny Internet Marketer. Next
time, Alan!

Me and the one and only Frank Sousa. I’m laughing
because Frank is making fun of Simon Leung’s
“pointing in the pictures” move…

Mike Savoie and me. After talking a few times I’m
really starting to like and respect this guy. Hopefully
we’ll be working together really soon

Me and vunderkid Anik Singal. This guy started
PPC Classroom in his dorm room in college! I think
he’s a ripe old 24 or 25 now. Sheesh, I don’t even
wanna TELL you what I was doing in college…

So that’s all for now. Again, I’ll be posting regularly again so thanks for being patient.

-James D. Lee

Candid, emotional, and best of all… unscripted.

(The disclaimer here is that when you write or tell stories for your marketing please practice the structure and flow BEFOREHAND so that you’re not boring your audience. Understand what the setup, climax, and conclusion are BEFORE you start. It’ll save you and your listeners/readers a lot of time and boredom.)

But the story I witnessed at JV Alert was heart wrenchingly real and undiluted because it came out of left field. And it came from the heart.

Here’s what went down:

During the copywriter’s panel, the audience had a chance to go up to the microphone and ask the copywriters their questions.

One gentleman got up to the mic and began asking his question.

But here’s the interesting thing about this guy.

In the entertainment industry, some actors are “typecast” because of the way they look. Some actors never get out of a “tough guy” role or a “teeny-bopper” character because they simply look a certain way, and producers always cast them in the same roles.

Well this guy looked like your typical, gruff, New Yorker.

And to top it all off, when he began speaking, he had a THICK Brooklyn accent.

I’m not joking.

He just looked, and sounded like a tough guy from the streets of New Yawk.

So this “tough guy” said that his business was helping people cope with divorce so that the transition was smooth for the children involved.

But his specialty was helping men during a divorce, because according to him, many times a judge will award custody of the children to the mother, regardless of what records show and what evidence is presented.

He was fighting for a fair rap for divorced dads.

Okay, so all this sounded honorable and good.

But the thing is there was no emotion behind it, no mojo, no juiciness.

The guy was flat, and everyone could sense it. He was still the tough guy character.

So finally, one of the copywriters on stage, my friend Vin Montello I think it was, suddenly says, “Hey… so what makes YOU qualified to help divorced fathers who are suffering from an unjust court system and perhaps have negligent ex wives who aren’t fit for custody, and are actually hurting the child in the process?”

Silence.

After a few moments the guy clears his throat and says in a small voice, “Well, because it happened to ME…”

Suddenly, everyone in the room perked up and leaned forward to hear what this guy had to say.

Here was his story:

“You see, my ex-wife was absolutely unfit to take custody of our son, who was around 5 at the time we got divorced. We split our time with him.

But even then, she was never around for him, she would forget it was her weekend to take care of him, and was always thinking about herself, and not his welfare.

One night I was working late in the city because she was supposed to take him to her place for the weekend, and had promised to pick him up to go to the movies and dinner.

He was really excited because despite all the times she had hurt him in the past, he still loved her… she was his mother, you know?

So they were going to watch Toy Story or something like that and eat at his favorite place, and he was just about jumping off the walls.

At around 7pm I get a call from my mother who tells me that my ex-wife had called her saying that she couldn’t make it after all, with no explanation.

My mother tells me that since my son had heard the news, he had started crying hysterically, and hadn’t stopped.

She told me to come home right away because she was worried about him.”

Here the guy stopped and clenched his fists to his heart to make his point.

“You don’t understand how helpless I felt. I grabbed my briefcase and raced out of my office, but it still took me an hour to get home with all the traffic. It was torture every minute of the way.

As soon as I got home I jumped out of the car while it was still running and raced up the driveway.

As I happened to look up at his room… I saw his little face at the window, still crying, but still looking to see if his mom was coming to take him to eat dinner and watch a movie.

He was still waiting for her… and all I could see was his little hands on the window and his face pressed against the glass. Just his little hands on the window…”

Here he drew in a shaky breath and composed himself before going on.

“I went up to his room and told him that I was going to take him to the movie and dinner. That mommy wasn’t coming tonight, and that I was so sorry.

It took me over an hour to get him to stop crying… all he wanted was to spend some time with his mommy…”

Another deep breath.

“And at that moment, I promised myself, I promised my son, and I promised GOD that I would do whatever I could in my power to make sure that no other children from broken homes would have to feel this way, and that no other divorced fathers AND mothers would have to deal with negligent ex-spouses…

And THAT is what Single Parent Power is all about.”

I swear the gravity got sucked out of the room.

Women were sniffling.

Men were actually misty eyed.

One of the copywriters on the panel said, “THAT… is your story that you must put into ALL your marketing, ALL your copy, and ALL of your verbal presentations!”

The no longer typecast New Yorker replied that he had a hard time telling it because he felt so vulnerable and choked up every time he told it.

But it is exactly that level of intimacy that your prospects want from you. They WANT to know that you’ve been there before. That you’ve walked the same roads and shed the same tears.

And if you can prove it with a personal story, it’s one of the most powerful rapport building and trust building techniques that you can have at your disposal.

I’ve probably said this before but… find your story.

It will serve you well.

-James D. Lee

]]> http://onlinebusinessfreedom.com/the-power-of-true-storytelling/feed/ http://onlinebusinessfreedom.com/the-power-of-true-storytelling/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/onlinebusinessfreedom/ISbq/~3/316875514/ http://onlinebusinessfreedom.com/the-profitable-power-of-the-zeigarnik-effect/#comments Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:55:30 +0000 James Lee http://onlinebusinessfreedom.com/?p=155 Michel Fortin talks about the money making power of the Zeigarnik Effect in his Breakthrough Copywriting home study course.

Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik first studied the phenomenon after her professor, Gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin, noticed that a waiter had better recollections of still undelivered orders.

Basically, waiters remembered orders better before they were delivered. And the moment that the food is brought to a table, the waiter’s memory of the orders drops dramatically.

So why does this happen? And how can you apply this to your marketing?

First, this phenomenon happens because the undelivered order is an incomplete thought in the waiter’s mind. And the mind has a natural tendency to remember open or unfinished thoughts.

But the moment the thought or task is brought to a conclusion, the mind lets it go.

In television this phenomenon is very common. You may know it as the “cliffhanger”.

If you watch any TV at all, you know that seasons don’t end with all the loose plot ends wrapped up in a nice, tidy conclusion.

In fact, there is usually a huge cliffhanger that you must tune into next season in order to find out what happened.

And when done well, people will tune in again and again, even when knowing that they were being duped by the Zeigarnik Effect.

That’s how powerful this phenomenon is.

Even students are advised to leave certain learning incomplete when taking breaks from studying, because doing so will result in better retention.

So how do you use it in your marketing?

In your copy, introduce the big promise of your ad, or the tantalizing secret that will solve your reader’s problem… then promise to reveal the secret further down the letter, after you briefly explain the story behind it.

Or after you explain another brief tidbit of related information.

The Zeigarnik Effect will be put into effect since the reader will want to know what the solution to their problem is.

In more advanced copywriting, you can actually place open loops all throughout the letter or email, and really get your reader’s curiosity glands boiling.

When you get good at it, you can identify your prospect’s problem, tease them mercilessly by alluding to the solution, then lead them to sweet release only when they are sufficiently worked up into a buying frenzy.

It’s playing on human psychology at its finest.

Think about using the Zeigarnik Effect in your own marketing.

It might be an interesting and profitable weapon in your marketing arsenal.

-James D. Lee

But it was also filled with some terrific speakers and great friends.

It also marked my first presentation about copywriting to the Internet Marketing world, and boy, what a rush!

Here are some pictures of the event for those of you who couldn’t make it:

My good friend Simon Leung… the “Google Insider!”
(http://www.SimonLeung.com)

My buddy, and product launch expert Eric Farewell
(http://www.EricFarewell.com)

Wonderful friends, Robin and Lee Collins -
Hybrid Marketers! (http://RepeatProfits.com/blog)

Donna Fox (aka Foxy Donna!)
(http://www.DonnaLFox.com)

Giving my first Copywriting presentation to a group. What a rush!

I actually have pictures with Mark Widawer, Dr. Ben Mack, and Dr. Mike Woo Ming as well, but for some reason I’m having trouble uploading them.

Will try to get them up later.

Talk soon.

-James D. Lee

It was way more than that.

It was life changing.

The culture at JV Alert Live events are unlike anything I have ever witnessed before.

At most events people are noticeably pitchier and self serving.

(I’m sure you’ve been at events where people are simply business card dispensers…)

But at JV Alert Live, people actually cared enough to sit down and have a conversation with you about how they could help you.

And this went for speakers as well as attendees.

It’s strange because as Internet Marketers, sometimes you believe that all you need to be successful is your laptop.

You don’t need people, you don’t need to meet anyone face to face.

All you have to do is sit in front of your computer all day, doing the things that you do.

My new friend Ron Capps, aka Niche Prof, said something pretty interesting to me this weekend.

I told him how I finally realized that it wasn’t just your skill set that paved the way for your success.

It was actually a mixture of that as well as your social network.

If people know you, trust you, and love you, they will just buy your product and get their community to buy from you too.

It’s that simple.

And the best way to gain recognition, trust, and love, is to press the flesh, shake some hands, kiss some babies… okay, maybe not kiss babies, but to make some face to face contacts and real life relationships.

To quote an oft used phrase… “It’s not about what you know, but who you know…”

When I said this, Ron looked at me and said, “It’s not just about who you know… it’s about who knows YOU!”

And it’s true.

There is an inner circle of marketers who get rich by promoting each other’s products.

And how did this inner circle come to be?

By becoming friends first.

And how did they become friends?

By consistently going to events, hanging out, and actually cultivating relationships before asking for any business favors.

Many times they don’t even look at the products they are pitching.

That’s the power of friendship.

That’s the power of face to face networking.

You just can’t create a lasting connection online as fast as you can in person.

So the lesson is, go for friendship first, and the business will come automatically.

-James D. Lee

But he just said something(s) so profound that I had to tell you.

One of the misconceptions that aspiring Internet Marketers have is to take “massive action”.

And that’s great.

Only it’s just a PART of the full equation.

The full equation is the title of this post…

“Massive Action to Completion!”

Let me ask you a question.

How many projects do you have going on right now?

How many windows are open in your browser right now?

How many ebooks are on your desktop that you haven’t gotten to yet?

You see, massive action is a great idea in and of itself.

It’s much better than doing nothing.

But it’s equally important to actually FINISH what it is that you have started.

If you can’t… you’re sunk.

It’s hard work to spread your energy across a million different things to do.

And ‘multi-tasking’ actually affects you more negatively than you may have originally thought.

In fact, Eben Pagan just talked about a scientific study that was done that proved multi-tasking renders the person who was multi-tasking more mentally useless than someone smoking marijuana.

Eye opening, right?

Well, the point is, FINISH WHAT YOU START.

It’s better to have one completed project as opposed to 30 half finished projects.

So yes, take massive action… but once you’ve started… take it to completion.

Okay, gotta get back to the presentation.

Hope this helps, and more gems to come.

-James D. Lee

I was invited by my buddy Simon Leung who couldn’t recommend this event highly enough.

Apparently this environment is much warmer, more personal, and family-like as opposed to the pitch fests that most of these events turn out to be.

In fact JV Alert was THE event where many a famous Internet Marketer claimed to have “got it,” screamed “AHA!” - then went on to become successful.

I guess we’ll see.

If anyone is headed out there as well, please keep an eye out for me.

If you see me, say hello!

More updates and pictures to come.

-James D. Lee

How often would you like me to post?

I’m going to send out a separate email to my subscribers, but I’d like to ask YOU, too.

You see, in the past few days, I’ve received a few “unsubscribes” from my list, saying that they were getting too many emails from my blog broadcast feature.

(Blog Broadcasting alerts your subscribers through email that you’ve written a new blog post. I use Aweber as my email marketing software)

So here are the choices…

A) Every day - Like I’ve been doing since January

B) 3 times a week

C) Once a week

D) Whenever inspiration strikes

I blog so I don’t go crazy with all the ideas and experiences going on in my head.

But really I blog so I can share insights and information with YOU.

So if posting everyday is too much, let me know!

It simply means there will be fewer, but more insightful posts in the future.

It’s win/win either way.

Thanks for reading.

-James D. Lee