The Psychology of Writing Copy (1 of 2)

This last weekend, I sat down with a gentleman who asked me, what is the difference between marketing and sales? And I simply stated, if you've done your marketing job really well, you don't need an absolutely spectacular salesperson because your sales was weaved into the marketing of the product. And if you don't have good marketing, then you definitely need a good salesperson. That is key for what we're talking about today. Welcome to the Magnetic Marketing Podcast. Today we get to listen to the man, the myth, the legend himself, Bill Glazer. Now, Bill Glazer is going to be talking about the 3 tripping points that happen every single time we try to write copy. A lot of us want to write copy and we go back into these things that we think are going to sound good and all these different things when we have to remember that it all comes down to psychology. Psychology is the reason copy works. And so what we're going to do is we're going to have a touchpoint really quick with Bill Glazer. We're going to talk about the psychology of writing good copy, including 3 different tripping points that you must avoid if you wanna be able to make sure that you are writing copy that actually converts. And then after he talks about those 3, we're actually gonna get into a little bit more, but that is not until part 2 of this episode. So we're gonna jump in and listen to part 1 of 2 of the psychology of writing copy with Bill Glazer.

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Welcome to the Magnetic Marketing Podcast with your host, Dan Kennedy. So let's get moving to this whole idea of the psychology of writing copy. Okay, so I'm gonna give you a couple tipping points, and again you can follow this along right in these overheads that I gave all of you. So first of all, feelings matter more than facts. Feelings matter more than facts. So there's product focus and versus prospect focus versus product focus. So let's talk about product focus. Is why is this better, this product better? What is the product story, features to benefits? So most people when they're sitting down and they're looking to write copy, and interestingly enough most of you are writing copy for your own businesses, you're not outside copywriters for others. So when people are sitting down and looking to write copy about something that they are looking to sell, they become product focused. Is what is it, why is it they deliver a message, why this product is better, what is the product story behind it, and what are the features and benefits. The other side of this coin is prospect focus. So what are the thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams, life experiences and reactions that somebody either will get out of using this product will get if they don't use this product, or they're feeling, regardless of whether they even thought about using this product. That's really what it's all about. So there's feelings matter more than facts. Everybody kind of pays more attention to the facts, the product focus side, and not nearly enough about feelings. So as I said here, most people spend most of their copywriting efforts on facts. If you ask people to sit down and they start writing down some stuff, because I'm going to give you a little bit of a list that I actually give out to folks to help them to start formulating a sales letter, is when they sit down and they start creating this stuff to start thinking about the sales letter, they think about the product or service that they are going to be delivering, but they don't think nearly, nearly, nearly, nearly, nearly enough about the whole feelings that people are going to have or not have by either using or not using your product. Almost everything is better sold with a psychological approach than with a product/service approach. Always better sold. We buy through psychology, not from product focus. The truth of the matter is there's very little that we really need to have to sustain ourselves. So there's like water and maybe like food and a place to sleep.. And after all that, everything else is sort of feelings, you know, things we want to have. You know, so I have a Porsche, okay? And I could easily have one of those little mini thingamajiggies, okay? And it took me— I didn't drive my Porsche here today, but it took me an hour and a half to get here from Baltimore. The little mini thingamajiggy would take me an hour and a half to get here from Baltimore. My Porsche would take me an hour and a half to get here from Baltimore. Actually, my Porsche would take me a little longer because I'd probably be I've been pulled over twice by the Pennsylvania Police Department for speeding. But they both would get me here. But why did I buy a Porsche versus one of the little mini thingamajiggies is because it wasn't because it made, like, get me here faster. There was feelings involved in that. Negative emotions are far, far more powerful than positive ones. And most people, when they think about emotion, so if they now get to this leap of, Let's think about the psychology of writing copy that sells. When they get to this, what they then talk about is what are all the great things that are going to happen to them by experiencing this. They don't feel about what are all the things they're going to lose by not experiencing this. So negative feelings are much more, much, much more powerful than positive ones. So you want to really You think about this a lot in your copy. People buy for two reasons and two reasons only. One is they buy for a gain. They're going to gain something by buying. And the other one is they're going to lose something by not buying. And fear of loss is much, much more powerful than personal gain. So if you're going to default to one to the other, you always want to default to fear of loss. Now the truth of the matter is to do it right, you do both. You put in what's your personal gain and the fear of loss, but the negative emotions, that fear of loss, is much more powerful than with the positive gain that you're going to get from it. So let's just do like a little example. And actually, is this thing— it must be— that's how you get it to work, right? You keep tapping it. Until it works or you turn the knob up, right? So let's— we're— this is the end of October when we are doing this. And we're about to come upon Halloween. If I was doing this any other time of year, I'd just pick out whatever holiday that I was going to pick out. So let's talk and let's just do a little— have a little bit of fun with this thing for a second. It'll be fun to me. I'll have you do the work. So it'll be fun. So let's have a little fun with this. Let's talk about— Why a parent would buy a child a Halloween costume. So we have little 6-year-old Sally, and she is going to get her Halloween costume at the— and she's going to go to one of these Halloween stores that are like right now, they're like on every corner. There are almost more of them than there are Starbucks right now. And she's going to go get— we're going to get her a Halloween costume. And so let's talk about feelings that are involved with that. And let's talk about the negative feelings that would be involved with this and the positive feelings that would be involved with it. Now who wants to volunteer with some feelings that you would use in your copy in order to encourage the parent to go to a specific Halloween store to buy little Sally, 6-year-old Sally, a Halloween costume? Anybody have a suggestion? Yes, sir. Tom, I knew you would.

I would say that you could play on the fact that a little child wouldn't want to be embarrassed by their costume. So you could maybe promote the fact that if they went to somewhere else, the costume may not be as good, the child would be embarrassed to wear that particular one, the ones that you have, not so much.

Right. And also while Sally's walking around with little Susie and little Jimmy, She can't be embarrassed about Susie and Jimmy has a nicer costume than Sally has, so she certainly can't be embarrassed by that. So that's definitely a negative emotion. Yes, I see over here. I'm getting off the thing, so I'm screwing up the guy. It's his problem.

Also, the parents worried about the child in the cold. Last week I was talking to a parent. She said, every costume is this— it's very thin. It's cold in Cincinnati in October.

That's very cool. So it's about making sure that little Sally's walking around from door to door, that she now has enough warmth to keep her warm so that she won't get swine flu or something like that, right? Parents do not want to disappoint their kids in having an experience for memories, right? So this is all about when I was, when I was 6 years old, I remember my I went around with my parents and I could think back now how I held my daddy's hand and when I walked around and what that meant to me. And now I want to make sure that my daughter Sally has that same experience.

Charlie.

You could touch on safety. There you go. Fluorescent colored suits so the kids don't get run over.

There you go. That's the big one. I mean, that would be my big one is the whole— and every— by the way, every one of these, that you all said, I'd use them all. I didn't think of them all, which is the reason why you always want to be in a mastermind group, by the way, is to figure out how to mastermind together with ideas you didn't think of. But at the same time, the big one is safety. You can't get more fear than safety. You don't want Sally crossing that street where all of a sudden a big truck driver comes along and doesn't see Sally in the effervescent, you know, outfit. You know, so we got to make sure that she's safe. So all these things we said, anybody else want to jump in? Oh, we got, boy, we got a lot of people that are worried about Sally.

So far we just talked about worry about the kids, but the biggie is the mother having to come up with a costume every year and make it, because that's the way it used to be. And you can remind them about, remember when you used to do that? Aren't you fed up with it? And having to come up with something creative that's not going to create all those problems for your children, for your child. So it's now direct to the parent.

Yes, sir. Well, the other side to that is you have a shop that creates very unique costumes so their kid's not like everybody else. Right. And so now that, that moves into the other side. So now that moves from fear, and really this gentleman was sort of getting there also, that moves from now fear to the gain. So the gain is now I can go to— you come to my store And although, you know, if I was running, if I was running, so like I'm friendly with a guy who owns 9 Party Cities and this is their biggest time of the year. And so he's there 12 months a year as opposed to these people that are on the little street corners. So the copy for him would be all about if you come to Party City, you have 10 times as much selection than you would have in one of these little street corner things. This is about personal gain now.

Yes, sir?

I guess on a positive note, you could say something to the effect of, you know, see the look on your child's face, the smile on your child's face when they have the most perfect costume for Halloween and that, you know, they really enjoy. All the stuff I've heard so far has been based on the fear, I guess. Right.

So, well, these last two are positive. So like, for example, like, you know, I do a fair amount of— I mean, one of my clients is NAPMA, National Association of Professional Martial Artists, okay?. And so when we create things for them, it's not about teaching people how to be a better martial artist. It's about when their kids come there is the self-esteem that they get. And actually it helps them feel better about themselves. They get better grades going forward. It's all about that. That's what we talk about. We don't talk about the fact that they know how to do the better karate chop. I don't even know if they even know— teach karate chop. I don't know how to do it. I just know how to write copy for them.

I think to address the safety issue, what I would do if I owned that store is I would say we offer— this is the only store that does it— we rent a GPS unit so you can track which streets your kids are going up and down so that, you know, for safety issues, you'll know where they're at at all times because that's a big issue.

Yeah. So now, I just want to point out something to you. Think about what's just happening, what's starting to happen here now. We're starting to move from feelings to benefits and features. So like the GPS system is really a benefit and a feature. But a lot of this other stuff is about feelings. You've got to use them both, but our natural reaction is to go to benefits and feelings. But do you understand how when we did the feeling stuff first, how that's a lot more powerful? If I am now a parent that's worrying about little Sally and I want to make sure she's safe when she crosses the street, I want to make sure that when she walks with her two other friends that she doesn't I don't want her to feel like she's in this like, you know, 21st century beggar costume compared to these other folks. I want to make sure of all these other things that we, that we talked about their feelings. You see how that becomes such a more powerful sales letter that you send out. That's now getting into the psychology of writing copy. Now, think about something for a second. If you open up the Philadelphia Inquirer and you open up today and you see in their ads for Halloween costumes, what are you gonna see? Price. Everybody's showing price. Nobody is showing feelings. Now, I'm not gonna tell you that you can't use price, but they're only using price. That's a big mistake. You actually see how when we just took any one thing, Halloween, and the reason why I chose it was 'cause it was coming up, okay? If I was doing this in the end of December, I would be using Christmas or New Year's. You know, I could use anything, and every business has feelings that are attached to them. You gotta figure those feelings out. Okay, psychological tipping point number 2: preparation is as important as the assembly of the copy itself. So you must get inside the head of the prospect And you have to understand the person that the copy is being aimed at. I'm going to take you to an exercise that we actually gave last year to our peak performers group members. I think Karen, you were in the room for this. Not last year? Okay. So, Karen is one of our peak performer members. So, I couldn't remember when you joined us. So, last year I gave our peak performer members this exercise. And this exercise moves right back to this last slide that I was showing before. It's preparation as important as the assembly of the copy itself. You must get inside the head of the prospect, understand the person the copy is being aimed at. Now, most of you who I asked you a few moments ago how many of you are writing copy for yourselves, most of you raised your hands. Only I think 3 of you in the room were professional copywriters writing copy for other folks. In most cases, when you're writing copy for yourself, you have a specific customer in mind. Myself, as a copywriter for others, I'm often having to write copy for a whole lot of people, you know, lots of different professions. Matter of fact, basically today I really like to narrow it down to two genres, although I find it hard to do it. But one of the genres I like to I write copy for is for actually to help people fill seminars. So I write copy for people who need to fill seminars. And the other one is for information marketers. Those are the two areas I spend the most amount of time with. But I also right now am involved in a project to write some postcards for a dentist. And I'm involved with a project also to write postcards for a guy who is a Google AdWords provider. Service for them. And so I get into other areas, and when I do that, I've got to do this sort of this exercise either in my head or with the client each time. When you are writing copy for usually for yourself, you have one client, one genre that you are writing for, and it actually makes it easier because you want to do this exercise to and spend the time it It takes to do this. As a matter of fact, at our peak performers meeting, we did it over 2 meetings, and each meeting is 3 months apart. So you'll see the exercise in a few minutes. So the first thing we did at the first meeting was this: mistakes my prospects make. Make the list. What are the mistakes that my prospects are making? So every one of you who are writing copy for specifically for yourselves, You've got this prospect in your head. What are the mistakes that my prospects are making? So you want to take these home with you because I'm not gonna have you sit here and fill these out. I can assure you that if you spend the time to do it, this whole thing, you will find it monumentally valuable to you. As a matter of fact, I'm gonna prove it to you in a few moments just how valuable this thing is to you by, by example. So the first list is mistakes my prospects make. Then after you do that, you have exercise number 2, which is carefully examine your list of your prospects' mistakes. And then after you carefully examine your list of your prospects' mistakes, then you want to mark off the ones that— one, mistakes that they don't know they're making. So now you got your— by the way, in the first list, I think there was 8 8 of them on there, is that what I had? 8 on that first page? 12? You don't have to limit it to 12. I mean, we had in Peak Performers, we had people come up with dozens of mistakes that their prospects make. You don't have to limit it to 12. Don't get to 12 and say, okay, I'm done, you know. So the first list is mistakes that they don't know that they're making. The next one is mistakes that they think that they should be doing but shouldn't. Two different lists. Alright, I'll clean it up for you. So the first one is mistakes that they don't know that they're making, and the second one is these are mistakes that they're making, but they don't realize they're making them because they think they should be doing these things. That's what it is. Two different lists, and you gotta deal with them differently. And So the second list is mistakes that they think they should be doing but they shouldn't. In your copy, you got to point out to them that these are mistakes that you're making and you think that you should be doing these things but you really shouldn't be doing, and here's why. And then the first one is mistakes that they don't even know that they're making. Okay? So that's exercise number 2. Exercise number 3 is building your own city. So I think actually, what did I hear? You had, you called someone, you, Louis. Okay, so I didn't know you were doing that, Mike, but that's great. And so when I first wrote my sales letter for my BGS marketing system to menswear retailers— this is back in 1998, first time I wrote that sales letter for that— I looked at all the menswear retailers in the United States, and I figured out I wanted to name the person I was talking to. I called him Sidney. It's a fictitious person, but I called him Sidney. But it really helps you focus to give, to build, to give your person a name. So I called him Sidney. And so this is describe your ideal customer's traits. Their age, their personality, how they live, what they enjoy doing, political affiliation, religion, career, education, age. Again, I had that twice. Big city, whether they live in a big city versus a small town, homeowner versus renter, male versus female, marital status, children, grandchildren. I was talking to Steve on the break. He told me some very personal things about his folks that he knows about them. That should be on that list too. Don't narrow the things to the things I gave you. Make it as long as you possibly can. So describe your ideal customer's traits. And then I have gave you 21 here. If you can go out to 50, that's okay. That's fine. So that's exercise number 3. Exercise number 4 is to name your Sidney and determine his or her 8 most common traits from your long list of traits. So now what you want to do is you want to now get that long list of traits and you want to go down there and figure out what are the 8 most common mistakes that all your prospects that you would be writing to would have. That's the next thing you want to do. And then after that, exercise number 5 is you want to establish credibility. And this is where we get into the psychology of this. You want to establish credibility with your Sydney by building out your own empathy story, because nothing will get you a better response in your copywriting if somebody believes that you are empathetic to them. Your own empathy story, letting him or her know that you know what it's like to be in their world. Now what I just described to all of you that are listening to this is this is not the kind of thing that you're going to be able to get done in an hour. This is the kind of thing that will take you hours to get to this point. And I'm gonna manage your expectations for you. But believe me, if you are writing copy for yourself and you have a very specific thing that you're trying to accomplish, it's worth doing this one time to really put this all together. So if I were Sidney, or whatever the name you name them, how would I like to be talked to? You want a couple notes for you. You always want to use you or your, not me or mine. Basic copywriting 101. And you want to say it in the clearest— and so bless you, who sneezed? You know, I had a friend of mine that died from a sneeze just like that. He was standing naked in his next-door neighbor's bedroom at the time, in the closet, and it was ugly. Okay, all Old, old speaker joke. Couldn't resist. Actually, I put him up to it. I put pepper on his plate. So if I were Sidney, how would I like to be talked to? Use you or your. Say it in the clearest and the simplest way that you can. So now, who owes me a favor? Gee, Nina Hershberger. So I've only sold about a gazillion wallet mailers for you. So turn to the page. And can you see that? I can. Okay, here's the mic. Now, Nina, stand up. The wallet mailer lady. So this is the winning entry we got from Peak Performers. Now this was from a lady named Gail Carson who is known as the SOB, Spunky Old Broad. And Gail just turned 70, as you're about to find out. This was the winning entry that after she went through the actual exercise that I just showed you, you've got it there, but listening to it, and Nina has been practicing this now for months, you're gonna hear her read this.

Go ahead, Nina, thank you. Cassandra, I know just how you feel because I turned 70 this year and also lost my husband of 44 years. It's a whole new world for me, and I know it's a new world for you as well. With all the changes going on in your life. Maybe it's not as dramatic as my experience, but you have been taking care of someone almost your entire life, and it's difficult for you to start focusing on just you, and that's exactly what you need to do. In the last 5 years, I had my third bout with breast cancer, the most devastating of all, lost my oldest son, had custody of a tween grandchild, and was a caretaker for my husband. I still had to run my business, take care of our properties, handle the household, fill volunteer duties, and stay sane. Did you multitask the same way? Did you have dozens of people and things pulling you in different directions? I certainly was busy from morning until night and sometimes wondered if there was a light at the end of the tunnel. However, one thing I learned early on was that I had to take care of me. So I learned how to operate the computer and how to market my business online, continued my daily workouts, my number one at-peace time and stress reducer, got a dog and cat who love me unconditionally, organized my time for maximum effectiveness, and tried very hard not to get trapped by circumstances surrounding me. You must believe that your past is not your future. You are not stuck or defined by tradition, and you don't have to listen to what others tell you you should do. Focus on the right things, the ones that bring a smile to your face. Find that passion and focus. Experience the excitement. Live your dream. I know that you look and feel that how you look and feel are important to you. No matter what you do, there are new daily aches and pains. A few extra inches may creep up when you aren't looking, and sometimes the face staring back at you isn't the one you remember. Guess what? It doesn't matter. You're still the wonderful person you were, only wiser and sharper. You deserve every fabulous opportunity that presents itself and the success that comes with it. So how did I cope with all the things that happened to me? I reinvented myself and became the SOB, a spunky old broad. I figured out there were 9 secrets to living a life that's free of regret, and they are things that you can easily follow. And what's even better, I've developed an entire community that follows them as well., and we want you to be a part of that. They want to help you discover your future path by supporting you in your dreams. It's never too late. A new future is always possible. Your someday is now, and we will be cheering you on. It doesn't take a new dress, a piece of jewelry, or new lipstick to create a new you. It's your community of SOBs who will love and support you unconditionally and be there for you through thick and thin. And more important, I will be your chief guide, taking you through all the steps you will need to wake up with a smile on your face and love in your heart. Let me give you a recent example. I was in Chicago to give a speech and had an entire afternoon and evening before I returned home. So I decided to treat myself to a few shows and a nice dinner. Yes, I do go to events by myself and have a terrific time. I saw Jersey Boys and was walking on Dearborn Avenue to a restaurant recommended by the concierge. It didn't open for another 30 minutes and I was starving, so I continued walking toward the other show I wanted to see, which was Wicked. I found a delightful place called Peterino's. And sat at an outside table enjoying the beautiful weather and sights. Just about the time I was finishing, 4 women came to the table right behind me. Before long, they invited me to sit at their table. When I told them I would— that I was through, they said, sit with us anyway. They were 2 sets of sisters, all of whom were cousins. To make a long story short, I sat with them for about 45 minutes told them about the spunky old broad, and they all asked for my card. They wanted me to come to their home the next day, invited me to another event, and were absolutely terrific. They ended up subscribing to my SOBEZINE newsletter and wanted me to stay in touch. I will guarantee you that you will experience the same kind of reaction from people when you join our club. You will be able to walk up to strangers and also have them walk up to you with only the best intentions. People will be attracted to you and include you in their group because of your charisma and charm. You will find the invitations will come to you for all kinds of activities from art classes to book clubs to theater groups. Come join us on a trip to your future and begin to enjoy the rest of your life. Just enter your name and primary email address below and you will be officially registered as a member of the Spunky Old Broad Club and begin to receive our weekly ezine and blog. We can't wait for you to be part of our family. Your personal SOB, Gail Carson.

Okay. Indeed. And Karen said that it's getting Gail got a standing ovation, which is another marketing lesson in itself. But think about this for a second. First of all, who is her who? Who's her who? Raise your hand. Who's her who? Somebody got to raise their hand. Because I was told this has got to be on record. It would be nice if people in the front, I didn't have to walk back so far. Widows? OK. How old? 70? Elderly, okay? Elderly widows, right?

Right?

If— so now if we've got elderly widows and we send this message to them, will this resonate with them? Okay, let me ask you a question. What's she selling them? What is she selling them? Where's money exchanging hands? When you sell something to somebody, money's got to exchange hands. First rule of Bill Glazers. Okay, so where's money exchanging hands? Excuse me, excuse me, where is it? Huh? Where's money? Not exchanging hands, right? So what this was, the purpose of this exercise was to create the psychology of the sale. Not to make the sale. Again, when you go back to what we have to do as copywriters for our own businesses or for others, it's we have to eventually make a sale. We're not, as copywriters for others, we're not going to get paid, continue to get paid if we don't make sales. When we write for our own business, our business is not going to continue unless we make sales. So we gotta make sales, but So now you got to take this piece and you got to add to it the other stuff. But think about the other stuff by itself. So let's talk about what she wants to sell. So let's say, I mean, let's, let's just think about the things that she even said in here, which is not really what she sells. But, but let's— she talked about trips that you would take. What was the other things? You'll be invited, you know, invitations come to you for all kinds of activities, for art classes, book clubs, and theater groups. Let's say we were just selling those 3 things, which is not really what she sells, those three things. If we were just selling to that group, art classes, book clubs, and theater groups without this whole other thing, much harder to make that sale. With this whole other thing where we are empathetic to that lady, to others, and she tells a story how she met four other sisters that are cousins to each other and the loneliness of going to the theater by herself. All this other empathy things that she actually talked about makes it infinitely easier to now sell this other thing. So what do most people do when they're looking to, when they're looking to write copy? They're only talking about the product. They're only being product-focused. They're not being feelings-focused. This is 2 pages of feelings. It makes the job of the sale infinitely easier. See, when I went back for my BGS marketing system and I added all the feeling stuff of Sidney in there, because I was at that time, I was a menswear retailer for 26 years. At that time I was already a menswear retailer for 26 years. I could feel, I knew Sidney's feelings because I was feeling that crap myself. So I could empathize with them. And as many of you folks can do actually in your own business because you know your own customers. Customers very well and you could also empathize with them. But you can see how it makes the job of the sale so much easier. So Jim, again, you sell insurance, is that right? Group health insurance. Group health insurance, okay. So if Jim comes, which I know you don't do, I hope, if Jim comes and just sits down and talks about group health insurance to his prospects, where he's only going to talk about the product, that's not nearly as good as also talking about all this other stuff for his prospects. The group health insurance now becomes almost irrelevant, and price actually is no longer as relevant at all when we are actually empathetic to them. This is all about the psychology of the copy. Now, when you do that, we actually come out with the next exercise.

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