The E-Bootcamp in Hypnotic Marketing by Joe Vitale and Jo Han Mok Copyright © 2003 by Joe Vitale and Jo Han Mok. All rights reserved. Reproduction or distribution in any way, shape, or form is strictly forbidden. Lesson #2: What You Absolutely Need To Know Before You Even Write a Single Word Of Copy! If you examine all the great sales letters of the past and compare them to the current sales letters that are out there on the web, you’ll notice a “whole helluva difference!” 2 elements of writing successful sales copy have been either been ignored, or shoved down the drain pipe. It is also because of these 2 elements that legendary ad man Bruce Barton managed to achieve such phenomenal success in his advertising career. The 2 elements I’m referring to are: #1: Brevity #2: Sincerity

Let’s tackle brevity first. When I say brevity, I refer to its literal meaning of being ‘brief’. In our context, a more appropriate meaning for ‘brevity’ would be cutting to the chase.

The big problem with most sales letters now, is that they use so much jargon, and “Geekspeak”, that most people read the sales letter and go “Wow… that is really impressive, but I don’t really know what’s happening… nice sales letter though!”

Don’t make the mistake of writing to serve your ego. People are only interested in themselves, and if you want to sell them something, your sales copy must talk “to” them, and not talk “at” them. There is a HUGE difference.

In order for your sales copy to talk “to” them, you must be able to write at a level that they understand. You might be surprised to know that the majority of the population reads at the level of a sixth to seventh grader (11-12yrs old)

In other words, don’t use big big words like “obfuscate” when you can use ‘confuse”. Your marketing communication must communicate and not obfuscate.

In fact, if you top it up with the research that proves the people read 25% slower off a computer screen than off a real printed sheet, then you’ll realize that you absolutely must learn to write as clear as a bell.

So how do you write clearly then? You’ll utilize the KISS principle aka Keep It Simple Stupid. My good friend, copywriting genius extraordinaire, Jeff Paul has a fail safe technique for adhering to this principle, and he terms it the “Homer Simpson”

technique. Every time you write something, keep asking yourself this, “If Homer Simpson was reading this, would he be able to understand it, or would he go “DOH?”

Case Study: Examine the famous “Frankly I’m Puzzled” Greystone Letter below.

Dear Friend:

As the publisher of this Encyclopedia I am puzzled!

Frankly, I do not understand why everyone does not send in for free Volume 1 -- since it is absolutely free (we even pay the postage) and since there is never any obligation to buy any volumes, now or ever.

Once you see how good the first volume is, I hope you will want the rest. It's a sample. Of course, if you don't want further volumes, just tell us to stop. You never return Volume 1 -- you never pay for it -- no one will call you or come to your home to try and change your mind.

We don't send books to people who don't want them. It would be just as silly as if your grocer sent you five pounds of apples you didn't want. You would only send them back and not pay him for them. It's the same for us in the book business. Sending unwanted books simply doesn't make sense.

Perhaps you do not believe that you never have to pay

a single penny for Volume 1. Many people must feel that there is a hidden charge of some kind.

Perhaps you say to yourself: "Why should I send for free Volume 1 if I don't intend to get the rest of the Encyclopedia? What is the good of owning a single volume of an Encyclopedia?"

The answer to that question is simple. There is so much interesting material in the free Volume 1 that it will make an exciting addition to your home library whether or not you ever take another volume.

Perhaps you say to yourself: "I know all about buying

books by mail." If so, just bear in mind that this is not a Book Club. There are no monthly cards to return. Once you CANCEL, your subscription is cancelled. You never receive another book.

There may be other reasons for not sending in for your free Volume 1 -- but for the life of me I can't think what

they might be. So, if you have decided not to send in for free Volume 1, perhaps you would take just a minute to send me a card to tell me why? I would appreciate it a great deal. Cordially, Paul M.Greystone For the Publisher

This letter was used to promote a set of books called “Discovering Antiques”. It’s

quite obvious that this letter was a follow up letter. Now because of the huge increase in response this letter generated, almost everyone in Direct Response Marketing started to become “puzzled”. A large part of its success could probably be attributed to the fact that the addition of a 2nd voice from the Publisher greatly encouraged people to take action.

We’ll deal with “follow ups” in another lesson. What I do want to bring to your attention is the largely overlooked fact that this letter is a perfect example of brevity and sincerity. Not only that, but boy is it real simple to read! Even a nine year old would be able to read it with no difficulty in comprehension. Here’s a hidden benefit of writing simply and sincerely:

Your writing automatically becomes hype free!

Doubt my words? Read the Greystone Letter. Try detecting some hype, or anything that is blown out of proportion. Is there any doubt in your mind there is hardly an iota of deceit in this letter?

I’ll take it even further. Check out the following page for my favorite cornflakes

advertisement.

This is a WOWSER of an ad for Cornflakes!!! Just the headline alone will make you stand up and think “Wow!! Gee… there is a new cure for constipation!!!”

Contrast this to one of those “Make $90,000 in 9 seconds” spams and scams you put to your Thrash folder on a daily basis. There is no substitute for the truth. When you tell the truth, you enhance your credibility. When people start to trust you, they believe what you say, and if you can do that, you would have eliminated one of the BIGGEST barriers for a prospect to make a buying decision. This is especially so if you’re selling on the Internet. Who knows if you’re legit? Are you able to answer the question in your prospect’s head: “Why should I buy from you? How do I know that you’re not out to scam me? Is it really safe to even believe a word you say?” Here are 10 Golden Rules for Increasing the Sincerity Quotient of ANY Sales Letter:

1. Do not try to be clever. We live in the Age of Skepticism. Being clever may wind up turning into a liability as opposed to an asset.

2. For every claim you make, be sure to support with a fact. Statistics are very

useful in this area. 3. Provide preponderance of proof. You can never have too many testimonials.

4. Make sure you demolish any jargon.

5. Tell the truth.

6. The less “fancy” your writing, the more sincere you’ll come across

7. Try to personalize

8. Don’t try to emphasize everything. The resulting effect is that nothing is

emphasized. E.g.. “Buy our amazing super duper, fantastic, ultimate, positively mind-blowing vacuum cleaner!”

9. Provide a link to something that is already out there. You’re selling a better

mousetrap!

10. Be bold, and tell your reader what to do. It shows your confidence and how much you believe in your product. (Provided you have made your case of course) This is no time to be “shy” or subtle.

Next, I’ll have you take a short quiz. These quizzes are for your use only. You do not need to send them to me or to anyone else. They are to help you reinforce and integrate the principles you are learning here. QUIZ: 1. What are the 2 elements in Bruce Barton’s sales letters that have been responsible for his phenomenal success? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Why do you want your reader to trust you? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. What is the hidden benefit of writing simply and sincerely? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Before we end this lesson, I want to touch on a VERY misunderstood area of copywriting, creativity. It absolutely does NOT pay to be creative when you’re writing copy!!!

The ultimate objective of writing is not to satisfy the author within, but to write a sales letter that will ultimately get the sale. As such, you simply cannot leave anything to chance! Why invent mediocrity when you can copy genius? There are time proven principles of selling in print that have been tested and proven to work, so if you want to write successful copy, model successful copywriters!

Specifically, I’m referring to creating a swipe file. Any copywriter worth his salt

will need to have a swipe file. Examine the products that you have bought and look at their sales letters. Print them out and keep them in a file. It’s your swipe file, and you’ll be adding lots more to it, so I suggest you organize them with dividers and categorize them so that you can refer to them easily. Now, obviously these sales letters in your file were effective because you bought the products. Look at these letters and start dissecting

them. What was it about the letter that made you buy? Was there a particular word or phrase that motivated you to take action?

Very few “gurus” ever address this “self-examination” process. Do NOT skip this

self examination. When you know why YOU buy, you’ll be able to put yourself into the shoes of the prospect, and this is the exact mind frame you need to be in, before you start to write any copy. You’ll have EMPATHY!!! You’ll have empathy because you’ve been there, done that!! If you know how to use empathy, your sales letter will not even read like a sales letter. Instead, your reader will hear a friend “talking” to him and offering him a solution to his problem.

STOP! Do your sales letters “talk” to your prospects? Examine the 3 exhibits in

the following pages. Pay particular attention to the openers. Can you identify with the following scenarios? Exhibit #1: “A few years ago, I was going broke on $9000 a year” Exhibit #2: “I expected dull reading” Exhibit #1: “I was tired of living on $8000 a year” Do you notice the magic words: “By a subscriber?” What does that tell you?

Now here’s another quiz. Again, this is for your use only. QUIZ: Why does it not pay to be creative to write copy? What are you specifically looking out for when you’re examining sales letters of products you’ve purchased in the past? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Commit to putting yourself in your customer’s shoes. Be in touch with your own feelings before you make a buying decision, and write your thoughts down. An example would be, “I was apprehensive about buying another e-book. All my e-books have been stored away in a folder gathering digital dust. What made this e-book different? I much rather read a real book…” When you can capture your frame of mind, you can then translate that into any sales letter and “pre-empt” all the objections your reader has in an emphatic fashion. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ HOMEWORK: Your homework for this lesson is to start a swipe file of letters related to bootcamps. Do a keyword search on bootcamps on any search engine; print any sales letters that you can find on the subject. Read through the sales letters. Are there any particular words or phrases that seem to affect you emotionally and make you really want to attend the bootcamp? Your homework is to create a Word document of all these “goodies” and name the document “Research”. This will be your “data bank” for reselling the packaged home study course. Go through this lesson. Look at all the tips and principles. Review the quizzes. And then start collecting your “emotional selling weapons” online. Send your homework to johan@superfastprofit.com and be sure to put in the subject line “BOOTCAMP HOMEWORK” so I can clearly see it from all my other emails.

What are you waiting for? Get working! Jo Han Mok in partnership with Dr. Joe Vitale ☺ Director, Hypnotic Marketing Institute See http://www.HypnoticMarketer.com NEW! - "The Greatest Money-Making Secret in History" PS: Do you have a Hypnotic Writer’s Swipe File? Add it to your arsenal if you have not! http://www.HypnoticWritingSwipeFile.com