Copy & Persuasion
How to Create Desire in Copy: Desire Is a Gap Between Two Pictures
How to create desire in copy: you cannot write a feeling, only the picture that causes it.
How to Start a Sales Letter: Open by the Side Door
How to start a sales letter, email or video so people keep reading.
A Persuasion Framework for Copy: Start With the Cause
A persuasion framework for ads, sales pages and sales videos: before you pitch, write the Cause Line, the few sentences that say what changed and why the usual way stopped working.
Handling Objections in Copy: Find What the Buyer Is Afraid to Lose
Handling objections in copy starts with one question: if buyers give this up, what do they lose? Find the real fear behind the objection and answer it.
How to Write Subheadings: Emotion First, Claims Down
How to write subheadings that make scanners read your sales page: give each subhead a feeling or a question only its paragraph answers, close every loop, and turn your biggest claim down to a smaller true number.
How to Write a Hook: Change Plus Hope in Four Questions
How to write a hook that sticks: find the one belief your market agrees on, break it with proof, and show why the change is good news.
How to Write a News Hook: Turn a Real Event Into a Post People Read
How to write a news hook: turn one real event from this week into the opening of a post or email for one buyer.
Social Proof Framework: The Proof Stack That Leaves Buyers Nowhere to Object
Testimonials are one layer of proof.
Let the Prospect Land on the Claim Themselves
Trust in marketing gets easier when you stop asking for it.
Timeline Words: Persuasive Transition Words That Move a Reader
Persuasive transition words, which we call timeline words, put events in order so a reader moves from the problem to the result one step at a time.
Educational Marketing Copy: Why Explaining It Well Does Not Sell
Educational marketing copy explains what a product is, then loses the sale to comparison shopping.
Limiting Beliefs in Marketing: Worthless, Helpless, Hopeless
Limiting beliefs in marketing: when a buyer wants the result and still does not act, one of three beliefs is in the way.
Copywriting Mistakes: What Not to Say in Your Sales Copy
The copywriting mistakes that cost the most are lines that fight your own offer: a bad word aimed at something close to you, or two lines that cannot both be true.
Assumptive Questions: Answer What Your Reader Never Asks
In sales, assumptive questions assume the yes.