Copywriting

13 Ways to Be Entertaining In Copy

by

In my previous article, I mentioned that entertainment, experiences and escape are a priority for pretty much everybody…

And I kinda proved it’s true… but I didn’t really show you how to do it.

I’m not going to show you today, either. I just pulled an all-nighter finishing up a 68-page sales letter…

So I’m barely typing these words right now.

Here’s what I will do, though.

Let’s discuss what it means to “entertain” your readers with your copy – because it’s almost certainly different than you think…

And probably simpler than you think.

“Entertainment” in copy doesn’t necessarily mean trying to be funny, although that’s one option.

Entertainment, as I define it, is generating a desirable emotional reaction in your reader at some point in the copy.

So it can be humor, but it can also be:

  • Excitement – Most people are painfully bored all the time. Give them a jolt!
  • Connection – Reveal something you likely have in common with your reader. Growing affinity is a great thing.
  • Inspiration – Who doesn’t like feeling inspired?
  • Validation – People love finding out they’re right and/or that the right people agree with them.
  • Discovery – Education can go too far, but you want to help your reader feel like he’s stumbled across something valuable (especially something others haven’t discovered yet) when he reads your copy.
  • Nostalgia – I think everyone over 18 years old has fond memories of the “good old days.” Bring those memories to mind and your reader will associate you with those good feelings.
  • Curiosity – Curiosity creates its own discovery and positive emotional payoff when discover happens. Plus, once it’s sparked, curiosity is one of the hardest feelings to ignore.
  • Desire – Gets your heart pumping. Desire feels good, even before it’s satisfied.
  • Anger – Admit it, sometimes you WANT to be angry. And it feels good to be angry together.
  • Relief – If you can take away anxiety, pain or frustration, your reader will love you.
  • Story – An engaging story is an experience people gladly join along.
  • Hope – Help your reader believe his (immediate) future looks bright.

And the idea is to generate these desirable emotions consistently in your messaging over time that the reader WANTS to read before he even knows what your message is about.

He just knows he enjoys the experience of hearing from you, even if during those times he doesn’t buy from you.

Like Pavlov’s dog… ready for his tasty snack.

The good thing is, he’ll increasingly believe (partially unconsciously) buying from you or working with you will be even more emotionally fulfilling.

So that’s a quick overview of how I define entertainment in copy. Want more details? Check out this livestream recording:

See? There are lots of ways you can work it into your copy.

Now, have a productive and entertaining day!

P.S.

Next month, I’ll be speaking at Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever’s Black Millionaire Coach Live event in Washington DC.

It’s going to be an incredible 3-day event.

During my presentation, I’ll reveal the secrets to writing copy that attracts and converts high-ticket buyers.

(Previous copywriting experiences not required)

I’m excited to see lives and businesses TRANSFORMED and to be in the room with expert entrepreneurs on the verge of realizing their dreams.

Plus, I haven’t been on a physical stage since just before the pandemic. It’s good to be back!

If you’re a coach, consultant or service provider in the knowledge economy… and you’d like to add another zero to the end of your revenue number…

I encourage you to be there October 14-16.

It will be one of the best investments you ever make.

Anti-Inflation Inspiration from Disneyworld

by

Is inflation hurting your business, Donnie…

… or is it making your business better?

Here’s a few ideas that can move you in a positive direction:

1) Entertainment, Experiences and Escape are still a priority for virtually every segment… regardless of financial difficulties.

In case you hadn’t heard, Disney just had its best quarter ever. Its theme parks are making more money even though there are fewer visitors than there were pre-pandemic.

Revenue from legal gambling (which I guess is a form of entertainment and escapism) in American casinos and other legal gambling outlets “smashed all-time records.”

CEO of sports betting platform DraftKings said he sees zero impact from inflation. Revenue is up 68% year-over-year.

If you can offer the 3 Es as part of your product or service, great.

But if nothing else, add entertainment value to your marketing and make it an experience!

2) Your clients need you MORE now, not less.

You can help them make more money… save their relationship (which is strained by financial concerns)… get healthier (which is hard when you’re stress-eating)…

And you can come up with a way to give them the entertainment, experiences and escape they’re desperately looking for.

In good times, your ideal clients didn’t need help as badly. But now, even though they may be anxious about the economy, they really need to get results.

Position your business as THE solution your should-be client needs (including entertainment, experience and/or escape) – and promote your offers confidently and consistently.

People ARE spending money. They’re just being choosy about where and with whom.

3) Raise your prices – or at least add a premium version of your offer.

Once you implement Idea 2 above, it’s clear you have something people gotta have… and they’ll be willing to pay

Disney theme parks KEEP raising prices. It’s a major reason why they’re bringing in so much cash even with fewer guests. (Maybe fewer guests is a good thing.)

Keep in mind, it’s not just marketing. Disney delivers a memorable, share-worthy, braggable experience. You need to do the same.

Also, higher prices are attractive to clients who are less price-sensitive. Clients who make decisions primarily based on price (in your industry at least) are probably not the best clients for you.

Oh, and boosting your prices helps you fight off inflation, too.

Here’s to putting more dollars in your pocket!

P.S. You can’t control the economy. But you can control your response to it. It’s time to be proactive and aggressive. Let’s get it!

David Deutsch Learned This From Me

by

Maybe you’ve already seen this…

But just in case you haven’t, I want to make sure you don’t miss it.

I gave a mini-training for Agora Financial on creating intense curiosity in your emails.

Lots of great feedback, including this from copywriting legend David Deutsch:

We talked about neurology and clinical studies, but we weren’t just bookworming. We had some fun, too.

At least David Garfinkel (the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest copy coach”) thought so…

Check out the mini-training the Davids were talking about below.

Enjoy and learn. And hopefully laugh out loud.

P.S. You don’t have to be a professional copywriter to get ton of value from this video!

The 2nd Fastest Way to Make People Care

by

My friend Golibe made a great video this week exploring the power of a compelling story.

He briefly highlighted a point I haven’t heard too many gurus talk about:

How “unfair injury” connects you to a story character.

Golibe’s video just touched on the concept briefly, and it inspired me to expand on the idea a little more.

Because it’s a subtle but hard-hitting persuasion tactic.

It’s a key reason we form emotional bonds with characters (even if we don’t realize it) in countless books, movies and even marketing material.

In The Story Solution, Eric Edson says:

“After courage, the second quickest way to bond an audience to your hero is to place that character in a situation where blatant injustice is inflicted upon her.”

This isn’t necessarily the same thing as the “rags to riches” story arc. There are levels to this.

Let me share an example.

I worked with a few years ago who was paralyzed from the waist down as a teenager.

We occasionally mentioned that fact in sales copy. It was the catalyst that drove him to learn the skill he turned into 3 multimillion-dollar business.

One day, the client had the idea to take the story to another level.

He talked about how a group of older teens beat him so badly that he’d never walk again. Then the medical bills crushed his family financially. And that series of events forced him to do something different…  

Fleshing out the unfair injury kept people glued to their screens and practically forced viewers to root for my client.

Sales on that webinar were off the charts. (I don’t remember the stats, but I get there were fewer returns, too.

You can use unfair injury to draw readers/viewers into your copy and keep them emotionally engaged.

Share painful stories — and especially of injustices — against your main character. The more vivid the better.

Maybe your boss gave the promotion you deserved to someone else. Better yet, she gave it to the new guy the one who always wears tight shirts — the guy YOU TRAINED.

There are a thousand variations.

As long as the story is believable, your reader/viewer’s heart will go out to your character, which advances the sale.

That’s your homework: Spend some time thinking about how you can use unfair injury in your own marketing.

It’s not the only trick you’ll use. But it’s a good one to have in your repertoire.

Have a productive day!

P.S. Presenting a perfect picture of yourself in your promotions is less persuasive than you probably think.

I know, it’s a little scary to tell your darker stories.

But it works. It can help you with sales now and retention/ascension over time.

Your ideal clients will feel even more connected to you. They’ll be even more excited to hear from you.

Isn’t that worth a little discomfort?

(Guess that’s up to you to decide.)

40 Days to Destruction: Urgency on a New Level

by
Man in cloak looking at desert city from a distance

“Forty more days and Ninevah will be destroyed!”

After spending 3 days in the belly of a big fish, Jonah marched to the Assyrian capital to deliver a message.

And it worked. The entire city heard the message and repented. No fire or brimstone needed.

It’s fascinating illustration of how effective urgency can be.

I mean, “do X or die” gets right to the point, doesn’t it?

(Makes you wonder: Did Jim Rutz swipe the Jonah when coming up with his famous headline?)

copywriting tip clarity rutz

Of course, Jonah was coming out away from a very urgent situation himself. You know, the whole fish thing.

We talked about that the kind of urgency in the previous post.

I promised this post would explore a kind of urgency that goes deeper than deadlines and emergency situations and cuts to the emotional core of your ideal customer.

Let’s go back to Jonah.

His attitudes and actions are also fascinating illustrations of urgency’s other side.

As you remember, your boy did NOT want to go to Ninevah.

He was happy about its coming destruction. And he knew if he did his job as a prophet, the LORD might spare the city.

You know the story. Jonah hopped on a boat to get as far away from Ninevah as possible… but he couldn’t avoid delivering the warning forever. 

And his fear came to pass. The people repented and God was merciful.

Throughout this story, there’s an intense battle of urgency going on in Jonah’s mind.

On one hand, he was convinced if he did what he was put on earth to do… the outcome would be transformational.

He even complained to God after the fact: “I knew this was going to happen. That’s why I got on that boat in the first place!”

On the other hand, Jonah’s actions were driven by his (cultural and spiritual) identity and his attachment to it.

Why didn’t he want the people of Ninevah to “turn from their evil ways”?

As he saw it, God was on his side, not theirs. Mercy for them was a threat to his identity.

So when God spared the city, Jonah expressed it’d better for him to die than to accept a different perspective.

Like Jonah, we’re all attached to our identities.

We’ll go to extreme lengths to protect ourselves from threats and to take actions that line up with how we perceive ourselves (or a future version of ourselves we desperately want).

It’s an urgent need.

Here’s the lesson:

1. When you pursue your purpose so intently… when you become so convinced of the transformation that’s possible when you share your message, product or service…

The urgency of who you are and why you do what you do comes through in your communications in a way that’s impossible to fake.

Every interaction and all your communications resonate with it. Your Ninevah, the people you’re here to help, will feel that urgency and respond.

2. Get familiar with your ideal customer so that you have a solid understanding of how he sees himself and his place in the world.

That identity is a key driver of many of decisions, including the content he consumes, the products and services he buys, and how he connects with experts like you.

What’s the future version he urgently wants to grow into? What role can you play in helping him get there?

That’s a different, deeper way to leverage urgency in your sales copy and marketing.

P.S. If your business is related to the reason you were put on this planet, don’t run away from your “Ninevah.”

Believe in the transformation that you can help create and move boldly forward.

A Different Way to Leverage Urgency in Sales Copy

by

Selling with urgency is effective.

Selling TO urgency is almost unstoppable.

Here’s a real-life example.

[Warning: If you have a sensitive stomach, you might want to skip this article.]

On Saturday night, I bit into a piece of caramel… and pulled the crown right off one of my teeth.

It didn’t hurt, but MAN it freaked me out!

copywriter's dental crown laying on teal tabletop

I instantly swore I’d never eat candy again. (I meant it in the moment. We’ll see how long my resolve lasts.)

Then within 2 seconds, I started trying to figure out how I’d find a dentist who could patch me up on a Saturday night.

My situation was urgent. This kind of urgency creates a selling environment with:

Kind of a dream scenario.

So here’s a question for you:

Can you market and sell your offer to an urgent situation your ideal client is freaking out about right now?

If your offer doesn’t speak to an inherently urgent desire or need, how close can you get?

It’s a powerful way to simplify and accelerate your sales.

There’s also a way you can speak to urgency that goes deeper than emergency situations and cuts to the emotional core of your ideal customer. 

We’ll get into that next time.

The “Tootsie Roll Center” of Effective Sales Copy

by

The #1 reason people click on your ads… sign up for your email list… and ultimately BUY from you is because there’s…

1) something they want and don’t have…

or

2) something they have and don’t want…

AND THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO FIX IT!

This causes dissatisfaction and insecurity. No one wants to feel that way. They have to do something to alleviate the discomfort.

I don’t mean to sound negative, but it’s just the truth. Insecurity is a core driver beneath many of our purchases.

That’s why I call insecurity the “Tootsie Roll center” of effective copy.

These subject lines give you some ideas of ways to tap into that feeling…

So you can help your subscribers get more of what they want & get rid of the negative stuff they don’t want.

1. Is THIS the missing piece of your [BLANK]

2. This is why your cold emails get ignored

3. Being broke on Mother’s Day sucks

4. Do you make these mistakes with [BLANK]?

5. The Lies That Hold You Back

6. 5 Reasons Your Man Is Tired of You

Have a productive day.

Love Is Not Blind. Here’s What It’s Looking for (Copywriting Insights from Netflix’s Hit Show)

by

Let’s make one thing clear.

I’ve been watching Love is Blind… purely for research purposes.

Whether or not you enjoy this sort of entertainment, you can learn a lot by studying the content people have strong emotional reactions to, positive or negative.

(This is why a Netflix subscription should be tax deductible for marketers.)

We’re going to tackle the show’s most captivating aspect:

How can people fall in love & decide to get married in 10 days or less?

Because we want your should-be customers to fall in love with you enough to give you money… as quickly as possible.

The dynamics at play are FASCINATING — useful for your marketing efforts, too.

I’d like to share 5 actionable insights to make people fall for you fast.

These insights will be valuable for you even if you’ve never seen an episode of the show.

Check them out in the following video or read about them below.

Or both.

1. Pick the right folks (or let them select themselves)

One of the biggest reasons Love Is Blind “works” is that the producers have curated people looking for the specific outcome:

They want to find the love of their lives. They’re frustrated with the polluted dating pool and they’re actively looking for a solution.

As a marketing concept, this seems basic. But it’s shocking how often we lose sight of it.

In the first place, make sure your offer is something people have a strong desire for. It should help them achieve a dream they already have… or eliminate a pain point they’re already frustrated about.

You don’t need everyone to buy your product/service. Concentrate on the small percentage of the population that’s actively looking for the transformation you produce. 

Speak to them to the exclusion of all others. (Others will come anyway.)

2. Connect them with a FEELING they want

This is where things get really interesting.

You could argue the Couples on Love Is Blind don’t really fall in love in mere days. Which is probably true. But they certainly develop strong attachments at warp speed.

And they do so based solely on the words they hear in their conversations.

One of the comments you hear on the show constantly is that cast members feel that their future fiancé knows them better than anyone else in their lives.

They feel understood. The feel seen. (Ironic, right?)

Humans crave that feeling… and we attach ourselves to those who make us feel that way.

You can use your words to have a similar effect in your marketing.

And that’s exactly what you need to do to make your prospects fall in love with your business or offer.

It’s more than just using “power words” or hyping up your product or service. It’s communicating a deep understanding, shared values and painting a vivid picture of the beautiful future that’s possible with you.

There’s another theory I feel like we need to address.

Another reason cast member fall in love so quickly can at least be partially explained by a psychological theory called “object relations.”

To keep it easy-breezy, object relations theory describes how someone can instantly form a deep emotional bond with a new person because the new person reminds them of an important emotional experience or relationship from their past.

Most people are constantly looking to recreate that feeling (even if they don’t consciously think about it) in the present.

Now…

It’s impossible to predict how this will work, especially when marketing to groups of people who each have their own unique pasts.

But what you can get close by going for nostalgia.

When you understand your ideal customer, you can predict certain things from the past they likely have strong feelings about.

Work these into your marketing… and even into you own personal brand.

For example, if you know your best customers loved Axel Foley in the 80’s… see if you can embody some of his characteristics in the way you present yourself.

It’s more powerful than you might think.

Google shared data finding that 75% of GenXers watch YouTube to relive the good ol’ days.  

Think about ways you can add nostalgia to your marketing to attract prospects, hold their attention and (hopefully) win their business.

3. Use scarcity to position yourself as “The One”

One of the biggest motivators for cast members on Love Is Blind is that they have limited options… and they know it. There are just 15 men and 15 women in the group – and there’s plenty of potential competition.

Having too many options can prevent you from ever moving forward. You may always be looking for the next best thing.

Scarcity helps you focus.

There’s two ways you can use scarcity to help your ideal customers fall in love with you quickly.

  • Position yourself in a niche where you have few, if any, competitors. No one else delivers exactly what you do… for the exact people you do it for.
  • Use real limits in your business. Produce a limited quantity of a product… work with a limited number of clients… put a cap on the number of attendees of an event.

Don’t make up fake scarcity to trick people. Honest scarcity can be a spectacular motivator.

4. Commit to spending “Quality Time”

No matter how fast they fall in love, couples on Love Is Blind have to spend quality time together. The more time, the faster they build the bond.

You don’t really see it on the show, but the reality is that cast members can spend as much time as they like in the pods with the people they want to talk to. They don’t have to cram everything into 60-minute daily sessions or anything like that.

The same thing is true for you as an entrepreneur. Your prospects and customers need to spend time with you. It may be less time than you think, but you can’t expect to maximize your relationship with (and profit from) them with just an occasional text message.

You need to be consistent & frequent in your outreach.

The more “love letters” you send… the more marathon phone conversations… the more moonlit walks on the beach… the faster they can fall in love with you.

If you need help coming up with more ideas about topics to write about for emails and social content, check out Inbox X-Factor.

You’ll get access to weekly content plans (so you’ll ALWAYS have a timely topic to write about), proven subject line templates, video trainings and more.

5. Urgency

The Love Is Blind experiment would fall apart if cast members were given an infinite amount of time to propose marriage.

Cast members know they have a short amount of time – just 10 days – to get what they came for. They have to be decisive & take action to avoid missing out.

Urgency also works in marketing. Set real deadlines. Use (honest) countdown timers.

Let people know they don’t have an eternity to make a choice

Using urgency the right way can help everyone get what they want faster, both in relationships and in marketing.

There you go.

I hope you’ll take time TODAY to think about how you can put these insights into practice in your business.

Because they really can maximize the speed with which prospects become paying customers… the amount of money they’re eager to spend with you…

And the positive impact you’re able to have in their lives.

Let’s get it!

100 Perfect Prospects

by

If you walked into a room with 100 of your perfect prospects…

How many of them have their eyes glued onto a screen?

How many are reading?

A nonfiction book?

A how-to book?

(Did you instinctively inflate the reader count to soften what you think I’m about to say next?)

Chances are, more than 90% of your perfect prospects are doing ONE of these activities.

Shoot, they’ll even watch a terrible movie on the wall-mounted TV…

But they refuse to sit in a room and be bored.

It’s your job to be interesting – whatever that means to your specific target audience.

Whether your folks are watching customers cook their own food at Waffle House on TikTok or reading a business book…

They’re actively looking for SOMETHING to engage their minds and fill some of their time.

You gotta figure out how to make your marketing material the right kind of interesting so they’re happy to pay attention to it.

Truth is, that’s hard to do with pure information – even for entrepreneurs who read business books for fun.

It’s worth taking time to think about what it takes to be interesting to your perfect prospects.

Where does your uniqueness overlap topics that are important and valuable to them?

Figure that out and you’ll be intensely interesting practically by default.

We’ll get more into that next time.

P.S. A powerful way to create and maintain interest with your should-be buyers is by sending a consistent flow of interesting emails.

Get access to weekly email plans, video trainings and group coaching inside Inbox X-Factor.

Humans in 2022: A Shift You Can’t Afford to Ignore

by

This message is going to make some folks angry.

It’s also going to make some people a pile of money.

You get to decide which group you’re in.

(Hypothetically, you can be in both groups. Be angry and sin not.)

I’m going to share one surprising statistic (which you may have heard by now)…

One high-impact implication of that statistic…

And two action steps to leverage the current state of things into that pile of money I mentioned a second ago.

Here’s the startling statistic:

TikTok is now the #1 website on the planet in terms of traffic.

Maybe you aren’t surprised. I was straight-up flabbergasted.

But I shouldn’t have been.

Because, this lines up precisely with one of the lessons I’m constantly promoting:

Entertainment (which is so much more than just humor) is increasingly essential if you want to get and keep people’s attention.

And you can’t get anyone’s money legally without getting and keeping their attention.

Next point.

Google has FELT unbeatable as the world’s top website. People need to know stuff or find stuff, and Big G dominates as a provider of answers and information.

I’m no TikTok expert, but it doesn’t seem particularly search-based (that’s standard for social media).

The platform intentionally and aggressively serves you novel content… and although your interactions inform what the algorithm delivers…

The algorithm is in the driver’s seat.

According to the numbers, we love being passive passengers on the ride.

The masses – probably including your should-be buyers – are making time in their schedules for this content… at the same time as complaining there aren’t enough hours in the day.

Think about it.

That doesn’t mean you need to start a TikTok account. That’s up to you to decide.

If you go that route, just watch the ROI on the time you spend there and make the right decision for you.

(Entertainment/enjoyment IS value, so you gotta factor that in, too.)

Here Are Your Action Steps

1. Your potential clients crave entertainment. And they’re going to get it somewhere. Might as well get it from YOU.

Again, that doesn’t just mean humor. It definitely doesn’t mean you have to dance on camera.

Don’t expect people to pay attention to you for long when there are more entertaining options out there. You can be more qualified, more intelligent, more honest… and still lose.

Think about how you can add entertainment value to your marketing and other content.

2. Millions of people open TikTok every day… to see videos from people they don’t even follow. The algorithm FORCES videos on users.

So when people say they only want one email a week from you…

Don’t just believe them.

Most of your readers will likely consume your content (email or otherwise) every single day… as long as you’re sending them stuff crave as much as their next TikTok binge.

Shoot, you could even send them an email linking to your latest Tiktok video.

It’s not time to be shy.

It’s time to step up to the plate and consistently deliver valuable marketing and content in packaging your people will devour.

Let’s get it!