Marketing

The Biggest Lesson Clayton Makepeace Taught Me

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Many of the biggest names in the copywriting world gathered yesterday to pay tribute to Clayton Makepeace, who passed away almost exactly one year ago.

His death hit me pretty hard because he was such an instrumental part of my journey.

Not only was Clayton a great copywriter (one of the all-time greats) and brilliant teacher (his copy cubs are some of the best in the game, too)…

He was one of the most interesting guys I’ve ever hung out with.

Since I wasn’t invited to speak at today’s tribute, which was organized and hosted by another legend, Carline Anglade-Cole…

I’m going to share a game-changing lesson he taught me right here.

Now, to be fair, I wasn’t invited to speak at the tribute because:

1) I’m barely a big name copywriter in my own house and
2) Clayton was only my mentor from a distance.

Plus, I only hung out with him once, when I was invited to speak on a hot seat panel during AWAI’s “Makepeace Method for Writing Million Dollar Sales Letters in 7 Days or Less” workshop in 2016.

Here’s a picture of Clayton and me on stage at the event, along with David Deutsch and Parris Lampropoulos (who both spoke at the tribute).

By the way, I’d like to publicly thank John Forde for helping get me on stage with these titans.

Now, let me share the lesson Clayton taught me that impacted me more than any other.

No matter how you rate your copywriting skills, this concept can revolutionize your ability to persuade in print or in person.

It’s…

“The Triumph of Hope Over Experience“

Your should-be clients have dreams and desires. In many cases, those dreams and desires do not match up with the reality they’re face every day.

They dream of having six-pack abs… even though they see their gut bulging more every week.

And they want to get that six-pack without exercise or dieting. A magical fat-burning pill will do nicely.

They dream of their husbands putting their socks in the hamper instead of leaving them on the bathroom floor… even though their experience tells them not to hold their breath. (Pun intended)

Experience tells them their dreams and desires are out of reach.

But they still have HOPE and their hope consistently triumphs over their experience.

Hope is what drives them to keep trying – and buying – new things to get closer to those dreams and desires.

Your job as a persuader is to pour gasoline on the embers of their hope. Do it right and your prospects will appreciate you selling to them.

And here’s a brilliant tip:

His experience can be the path of least resistance to the promised land he hopes to reach.

Show him an experience he’s already personally familiar with.

Then connect that experience to a fact he knows (or at least suspects) and could easily prove.

And then connect that fact to the dream/desire you’re appealing to in your copy.

Take this oversimplified example:

Copy: 90% of people live paycheck to paycheck.
Reader: “Yep, I’m broke and so is everyone I know.”

Copy: The 10% of people doing well have totally different mindsets and habits than the broke folk. But no one ever told you.
Reader: “That makes sense! My role models were broke, so they couldn’t show me the right way. So it’s not my fault”

Copy: Once you learn just a few mindset hacks and simple habit stacks, you’ll be ready to join the rich and famous 10%.
Reader: “Take my money!”

See how that works?

You’re building belief in the new transformation you’re selling on the foundation of one (or more) of his established beliefs.

And get this.

Even if the reader has tried a similar product… the fact that he’s reading your copy means he HOPES you’re going to be the one who finally helps him realize his dreams and desires.

A lot of copywriters skip this step. They go right from “You’re broke” to “here are mindset hacks and habit stacks to help you get rich.”

Again, that’s oversimplified, but you can see how powerful the concept is.

We could go deeper, but we’ve covered enough ground for one article.

Add this lesson from Clayton to your persuasion repertoire. It can make a world of difference for you (and your should-be clients).

This Story Can Put Money In Your Pocket

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“Did you seriously tip that waiter 37 percent?”

Wifey is clearly irritated with me… mainly because we’ve had this conversation before.

“Did I? I didn’t do the math. I just gave a flat $50.” Which is true, but we both knew that I knew I overtipped for our anniversary dinner.

I promised my queen I’d stop “showing off”…

Which explains why she was annoyed when the credit card company sent a message asking if the charge was legit.

But I did it anyway.

So why the heck did I do it?

I was manipulated by the waiter!

And it was so smooth I didn’t even realize what happened until 4 days later.

(It’s possible the manipulation wasn’t intentional, but I doubt it. I’m bet he uses this routine all the time to put more cash in his pocket.)

Here’s the short version of what happened:

We ate at a nice steakhouse in downtown Chicago. Food was amazing and the service was top notch. The guy was attentive, funny, even charming. Very likeable.

As we’re getting close to finishing the meal, the waiter points out a group of men hanging out at the bar… and he starts to tell me a story.

This is so doggone smooth…

He says the group remind him of another group of guys who didn’t want to leave the bar when the restaurant was closing one night.

The ringleader was a high roller. He’d spent about $8 grand on drinks that night. Tipped the bartender $1,000 and the waiter (the guy taking care of us) a couple hundred. Everyone loved the guy. But they didn’t want to keep the bar open all night for him.

Conveniently, the exterminator arrived for their monthly inspection, and our waiter concocted a ruse to convince Mr. Money Bags everyone had to leave.

And everyone lived happily ever after.

See the trick?

The story felt very natural. I couldn’t detect any ulterior motive. It was just another way our waiter was entertaining us during dinner.

But through the story, he introduced a couple insidious ideas:

  • Patrons of this restaurant are big tippers.
  • Waiters recognize your status by now much you tip… and you don’t want to be a man with lower status, do you?
  • Big spenders are admired — and have stories told about them.

He said all that without explicitly saying any of it. And there was zero pressure.

Masterful manipulation for maximum tip.

Let’s call it “maTIPulation.”

Long story short…

Stories can be the powerful persuasive tools.

Use them wisely.

P.S. Want help writing story-based emails that put money in your pocket? Inbox X-Factor is a good place to start.

Super Bowl-Inspired Marketing Ideas

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Quick one for you today.

I honestly didn’t realize the big game was happening yesterday, but that won’t stop me from jumping on the “lessons from the Super Bowl” trend.

Here are a few marketing concepts you can better appreciate right after a public spectacle like this.

You can probably guess what a direct response guy like me is going to say. But you’d be wrong today. ?

1. It’s helpful to build an audience

Word on the street is that 30-second commercial spots during the game cost $5.5 million.

Why? Because there are literally millions of eyeballs glued to the screen to see them. And people are trained to actually watch these commercials. Where else does that happen?

The lesson for you, of course, is to start building your own audience — preferably an email list. Get intentional, even aggressive about it.

Your list (and the interest+trust you’ve earned from it) is your greatest asset as a business owner.

2. Focus on entertainment value (which makes #1 easier)

This is about both the game and the commercials.

All those millions of people watch because they want to be entertained. That’s really the only benefit they get from watching — especially for people who didn’t have parties this year.

People have been conditioned to pay attention to advertising messages during the Super Bowl because they’re designed to be entertaining.

How profitable they are is debatable (and in many cases impossible to determine).

But there’s no debate that entertaining marketing messages CAN be profitable. In fact, I’d argue that pretty much all entrepreneurs would benefit from adding some entertainment value to their marketing… and a majority are actively hurting themselves by neglecting to do so.

People have better things to do than be bored by your marketing in 2021

3. Leverage the “love-hate” in your target audience

The moment I realized the game was today was when my next door neighbor told me “I hope Brady loses tonight. I’m tired of that guy.“

A good percentage of Super Bowl viewers felt the same way.

That love-to-hate character is in itself entertaining. People will pay attention to your message if you talk to them about something or someone they’re ready to see eat some AstroTurf.

(I’d bet that 50% of the money Floyd Mayweather’s made in the past 5 years is from people who were hoping to see him get knocked out. His anti-fans have put millions of dollars in his pockets.)

Who’s the bad guy you can trash talk in your marketing to keep engaged — and spending money?

Think about it. Then do something with it.

Have a productive day.

P.S. It’s kinda weird I forgot about the game, considering Inbox X-Factor focuses on turning current events into email ideas. But I look more for the less obvious stories.

Anyone can tell you to write an email about the Super Bowl. 

But how many people are showing you how to write an email about the couple who got married underwater in India last week?

He Wanted to Break My Jaw (True Story)

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If your ideal customer has a problem that needs to be fixed (whether he knows it or not), this may be helpful for you.

It’s the tale of two dentists.

You see, I’ve always had crooked teeth and a slight underbite.

(You can see the crookedness in this selfie I took with my queen, who is perfect in every way.)

When I was a child, our family dentist suggested that he could fix that… by breaking my jaw and resetting it “properly.”

It was a fool-proof solution, apparently.

But he couldn’t sell it.

Most mothers don’t jump at the chance to break their children’s bones.

So I went through my childhood and adolescence feeling self-conscious when I smiled or laughed. Took a long time get over it.

Fast forward to 2019. I’m perfectly happy with my flawed smile.

But every time I go in for a checkup, my new dentist finds a new cavity and has to use a bazooka to knock the tartar from between my teeth.

After a few appointments, she told me:

“Based on what I’ve been seeing, it’s going to be impossible to get ahead of this. No matter how faithfully you brush and floss, you will develop gum disease and your teeth will eventually fall out of your face.

“It’s not your fault. It’s just the way your teeth grew in.”

She sold me Invisaligns in a single conversation.

What’s the difference between the two dentists? And…

… How Does This Help You Sell More?

Here are a few thoughts.

Your solution should be “easy.”

The first dentist wanted to break a child’s jaw to fix a few imperfect teeth. The fix required too much work, too much discomfort.

Talking with “problem aware” prospects isn’t enough.

My parents could clearly see an issue, but they weren’t compelled to do anything about it.

People live with their unresolved problems all the time. That’s the default for many of us. If you want to sell, you have to figure out how to shake them up to make them dissatisfied enough to change.

Fear is a legit selling tool, but there must be evidence.

The second dentist would never have been able to sell me $4,000 Invisaligns to fix my smile. She couldn’t have sold them to me if they were FREE. Because I was fine with my smile.

But I was NOT about to let my teeth rot out.

Sometimes you gotta go negative in your messaging. (SORRY!)

I wouldn’t try to scare a prospect about something they don’t know about. Rather, help them appreciate the real severity of the problem they already see.

“Sell” the diagnosis before you sell the solution.

When your should-be buyer believes that you really understand what he is going through, he’s more likely to convince himself to see things your way.

In many cases, that’s where you want to start.

(Almost) Unlimited Ideas for Story-Based Emails

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I shared this video training in the Email Copywriting Corner, but it makes sense to put it here, too…

Especially if making more money with email marketing is one of your new year’s resolutions.

You may be particularly interested in the 7 types of stories you should be sending to your email list:

Genesis stories: people want to know the story behind why you started something
Idealist stories: illustrate your personal & business values/philosophies with a story
Iron Fist stories: Tales of battle, struggle and victory (or lessons from losses) — either of yours or your customers’
Catalyst stories: Moments, decisions, interventions that caused critical change
Journalist stories: commentary on trending topics or news or little-known truth behind well-known stories
Adventurous stories: Crazy, funny stuff going on in your life
Status stories: Elevate your authority with big name clients, famous friends, recognition, accomplishments.

You’ll have to forgive me. I was really trying to be clever with this bootleg rhyming thing.

Until recently, this training was only available to Inbox X-Factor members. I’m giving you access now to help you kick 2021’s b.u.t.t.

Enjoy!

Happy Little Addicts

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What was your initial reaction to the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma — or even just discussions about it?

(I’m assuming you’ve had at least one discussion about it. Seems like everyone was talking about it a few weeks ago.)

Here’s a review I saw that captures a snippet of the conversations I had after the film was released:

“This exposes truths about big data, manipulation, & warnings from the people who designed Facebook, Google, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Everyone should definitely watch this to understand how these social media platforms are using us and how Humanity will be destroyed by Technology in the near future.”

A lot of people are “mad” at the social media companies, which Netflix should be counted amongst.

As a marketer, what was YOUR reaction?

The proper response should have been inspiration.

Because the film is practically a field guide illustrating how to build an army of happy little addicts…  

And we marketers should be taking notes.

Do you want your own army of happy addicts?

You can start taking notes right here, right now.

(BTW, I’m curious to know what your reaction to THAT statement was. Leave a comment and let me know.)

I’ll just briefly hit on a few points that are especially important.

What’s Wrong with an Echo Chamber?

One of the big criticisms leveled by the producers of The Social Dilemma is that Facebook and others feed you more and more stories to reinforce a particular opinion… one that you hold already.

News flash: humans already do this automatically. It’s called confirmation bias.

People enjoy the feeling of being right, smart, and on the right side. The crave it.

You should harness that reality.

When planning out your messaging, you must use your ideal customer’s view of reality as the starting point.   

Don’t fight your prospect’s brain.

Stake Your Claim

To a certain extent, you have to own real estate in your prospect’s mind.

How do you do that? Through regular, consistent, engaging communication.

Our brains are biased towards information we’ve heard recently and repeatedly.

You’ve heard that a lie told often enough is believed. But it’s not about the lie. It’s about the repetition.

A few things you can do to claim more real estate between your prospect’s ears:

  • Frequent communication via email, YouTube, social channels. You don’t have to use them all, but the more you use, the more you can dominate your prospect’s time and the more opportunities you’ll have to reinforce your ideas.
  • If possible, be present in the physical environment. Get a book, a t-shirt, a printed checklist, something physical into homes or offices. When you can do that, you’re in a rare group — and as a result, people convince themselves you’re more important.   

    Studies also show there’s a stronger and longer-lasting neurological response to physical marketing (e.g. direct mail) over digital version of the same ads.
  • Impact ONE THING that’s part of your prospect’s daily routine. Now you own part of his day.

    A recent poll found that 80% of people check their phones before doing anything else in the morning. It’s a routine set by social media (and email).

    What part of the day can you own?

By the Power Vested in Me

A huge reason The Social Dilemma is so hard-hitting is that it’s filled with admissions from THE experts on this topic: the people who designed these addictive apps.

People are eager to defer to authorities and experts, sometimes without even realizing it.

I’ve talked about authority several times in the past, so I’ll just mention one important point.

Your personal story — how you came to experience and understand the idea you’re trying to share — is likely to carry more weight than scientific studies (which make fantastic supporting arguments).

Your story makes you an authority, whether or not you have credentials or position.

Now listen…

This topic can make some people squeamish. I get it. Most people don’t want to feel manipulative.

But let me remind you of what we said last week.

When you’re selling something that helps people, you make the world a better place by promoting it aggressively.

Arguably, your prospects are struggling because they haven’t bought from you yet.

You can to lead them to freedom.

I encourage you to embrace the task.

I Believe… Help My Unbelief

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The odds are stacked against you as a marketer.

Your should-be customer or client has developed a sophisticated system for NOT buying from you.

(The system is deadly effective, even though he was hardly aware that he was building it.)

One of the main components of this system is disbelief. No surprise, right?

But what most marketers don’t consider is that disbelief comes in two flavors:

1. Disbelief about your or your product/service

and

2. Disbelief about his own ability or worthiness to experience the transformation you promise.  

In other words…

Your prospect can believe that you help save marriages… and disbelieve you can save HIS marriage.

To neutralize this part of the anti-buying system, you have to

1. Prove that you can deliver a result

and

2. Prove that you can deliver a result FOR HIM.

I want to talk about #2

How do you do it?

Identify the B.S. stories he tells himself… about himself.

A significant percentage of your prospects will never buy from you — not because they don’t want what you’re selling or because they don’t believe you’re good at what you do…

… but because of their limiting (dis)beliefs.

A Prospect's reason for not buying is the B.S. stories he tell himself 57.1% of the time.
*All figures are estimates

Some generic B.S. stories include

  • “I’ve failed before, so trying again is pointless”
  • “I’m not smart/handsome/wealthy enough”
  • “People who look like me don’t/can’t do that”
  • “I haven’t paid my dues yet”
  • “I don’t deserve to be rich/happy because I did XYZ in the past”

You can uncover more specific crippling B.S. stories by talking (or having your team talk) with people in your target audience.

Get on the phone.
Send surveys (but take responses with a grain of salt).
Spy on them online (social media, Reddit, Amazon reviews, etc.).

You’ll gain fascinating insight you can to overcome objections in your copy.

Showcase People Like Him Who Got the Result

Once you know some of the B.S. stories, find examples about people who contradict those stories.

The more unbelieving prospect see himself reflected in your marketing messages — including his dreams, challenges, and B.S. stories — the more your message will resonate…

And the weaker his disbelief will become.

Leverage A Unique Mechanism

Position your offer as a special, proven approach your prospect has never seen before.

Show him why it’s different — and why other solutions fail.

Your unique solution helps him understand why he may have struggled in the past. And it can give him hope for future success.

Make it Ridiculously Easy to Take the First Step…

Offer a sample. A free or low cost trial. A 7-day challenge.

One of the main reasons people fail is because they never MOVE. Get them to take the first step and you unlock optimism and even confidence by default.

That confidence can force your prospect to re-examine his disbelief — especially if you…

Give Him a Quick Win

Provide information or action steps that will give him some forward momentum.

It only takes a little… and you can deliver it right inside your marketing copy if you like.

This give the prospect more confidence and trust in you. More importantly, it builds confidence and trust in his own ability to reach his goal.

An obviously you’re the person best equipped to help him do it.

Now, there’s something to be said for not convincing anyone who’s not already sure he wants to work with you.

But no matter how you approach your own business growth, it’s helpful to identify the disbelief and B.S. stories that hold your prospects (and customers) back.

You can work that knowledge into your marketing or use it to improve results inside your paid offers.

I hope this helps you grow in one way or the other.

Have a productive day.

P.S. Overcoming a prospect’s disbelief in this way is part of  “killing them softly” with their own song.

This Weird Halloween Ritual Made Me Famous

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Every Halloween, my family freaks out trick-or-treaters with an unusual ritual.

Some people think we’re crazy.

Others love to play along.

Either way, it’s a tradition that’s made us semi-famous in each neighborhood we’ve lived in over the years.

(Actually, it goes back further. My wife’s been doing this since she was a child.)

On the morning of October 31st, we start putting up Christmas decorations.

As you can imagine, kiddies in their costumes are confused and delighted.

Teenagers and parents snap pics and stop for conversations.

We love it.

But we do get some pushback, though. A good percentage of people tell us…

“It’s too early to start thinking about Christmas.”

Which brings us to today’s marketing lesson.

How early is too early to ask for the sale?

This is a question that comes up a lot when I speak with entrepreneurs and budding marketers.

The answer is… probably sooner than you think.

So often, we’re conditioned to believe you have to get someone to “know, like and trust” you before you’ve earned the right to ask for the sale.

Or we’ve been told that we have to GIVE before we ASK.

Something about jabbing… jabbing… and more jabbing before anything else.

There is some truth to those concepts.

But people don’t buy just because they know, like, or trust you. Otherwise most of us would give all our money to our mothers.

No, people buy what they desire.

If you’re selling a product or service that:

  • relieves their fears and frustrations…
  • solves their pains and problems…
  • helps them reach their dreams and desires…

You don’t have to wait long to give them an opportunity to buy.

It can happen in the first email in a welcome sequence.

It can happen directly in a Facebook ad.

Don’t be fooled.

When you make the right offer to the right person, the right time is probably now.

Keep this in mind…

The classic AIDA formula still applies.

You have to get attention and interest before you can direct desire toward your offer. (That can happen faster than you may think, too.)

In the same way that you can start decorating for Christmas much earlier than many people think… You can start selling before you’re done throwing Gary Vee-style jabs.

After you’ve grabbed your should-be buyer’s attention and started generating interest in what you’re talking about, it’s safe to start moving toward the sale.

Let’s get it!

P.S. I just recorded a video diving deeper into this in the Inbox X-Factor membership.

I honestly believe it’s one of the most valuable trainings I can share right now. 

If you’re aggressively growing your email list, these insights could be worth millions of dollars for you.

You can check it out inside Inbox X-Factor.

… and they left the cocaine

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This crazy story happened 101 years ago, almost to the day.

On October 20, 1909, a team of federal agents sat on a stakeout on the Tennessee-Georgia border  

Their target: a truck headed north from Atlanta.

As soon as it crossed the border into Tennessee, the agents intercepted the truck and took possession of its cargo.

40 barrels and 20 kegs of Coca-Cola syrup.

The government decided to bring a sue Coca-Cola for adding “poison” to their popular beverage…

Caffeine.

At the time, a high-ranking guy at the Department of Agriculture was on a tear, enforcing the newly-passed Pure Food and Drug Act.

This guy was appalled by the “thousands of Coca-Cola fiends” he saw during a tour of the country.

This is where this story gets even crazier.

Because while the government began prosecuting Coca-Cola for over caffeine…

Coke still included trace amounts of cocaine!

But caffeine had to have it’s day in court.

(Incidentally, this court case actually generated MORE demand for caffeine by consumers. The opposite of what the lawsuit was supposed to do.)

In the end, the case was dismissed on a technicality. And in 1929, Coca-Cola stopped putting cocaine in its drink.

But not after creating millions of coke fiends.

This story has a few interesting takeaways, but we’ll just talk about two of them today.

Number 1: Never count on the government to know what’s best for you… or to do what’s right for you.

You’re going to have to control your own destiny, my friend.

Number 2: It’s easy for anyone to focus on the wrong things. Too easy.

That tendency slows down your progress and can even sabotage you.

When it comes to marketing your business, it’s insanely easy to focus on the wrong things.

Or at least suboptimal ones.

You probably already know email is the highest-ROI marketing channel there is.

So here’s the question: are you focusing on maximizing that channel in your business?

Or are you focusing on another, less leveraged activity?

Email is the cocaine in this analogy.

I believe it’s a mistake for you to focus on marketing “caffeine.”

If writing consistent, high-converting emails is something you struggle with (or don’t have the time for), this may be helpful for you.

Never Waste A Good Crisis

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This week, disaster struck the Bryant castle with swift fury.

I got this weather alert at 3:27 Monday afternoon…

Within 3 minutes, the sun was swallowed by dark clouds and the wind got stronger and stronger.

I ran outside to try to secure what I could… but in less than 2 minutes, those clouds began hurling rain and the wind started moving things around the yard.

I hid under the gazebo to stay dry while I strategized.

My wife (being far smarter than me) told me to get in the house, and it only took a few seconds for me to see the wisdom in taking shelter.

And by the time I got into the house and looked out the kitchen window, the top of the gazebo collapsed.

Here’s what it looked like after the storm:

Obviously we weren’t the only ones.

This storm caused a ruckus all around the Midwest.

And actually, with 90 mile an hour winds, marble-sized hail and lightning strikes around our neighborhood, we were very lucky.

Here’s another silver lining:

The storm gave me a great excuse to send my list a dramatic email.

Disasters, accidents, failures and hardship make for GREAT emails (and sales letters, ads, etc.)

The kinds of emails your readers WISH you’d send.  

That’s why today’s subject line is “Never let a crisis go to waste.”

In politics, it’s about using tragedy and fear to push an agenda.

For entrepreneurs and marketers, it’s a different kind of opportunism.

Your personal story gives you authority to speak into someone else’s life… to show them how to handle situations they’re struggling with.

It’s better than any degree or certification you could study for (in most cases).

Plus, once again, the difficulties in your life give you an entertaining reason to get in touch with your readers.

To connect with them.

And to show them what you’re made of.

In my experience, the more of that you do, the more money you’ll make in your business.

P.S. Chances are, you’re already sharing some of your “crises” on social media. Why not turn them into money-making emails?

I still haven’t written the sales page for Inbox X-Factor, but you can get in here.

You’ll get a plan for what to write about every day of the week (if you want to email daily). If you’d like to write more emails and make more money in LESS time, I think this will be insanely valuable for you.