An exercise that’ll make your copy oh so interesting

Posted by David Tendrich on Nov 24, 2009 in All | 5 comments

Hey there,

Interesting copy…

Don’t come across much of that, do ya?

I mean, sometimes you do – and that’s generally the copy that sells a ton of stuff.

But most copy is bland, boring, and just not interesting.

But me and you are different – we’re dedicated to creating copy that keeps the reader on the edge of his seat, wondering what the next crazy idea we’ll say is, wondering how it could possibly be true, and then watching in amazement as everything comes together to make perfect sense…

…Kind of like a good novel.

“But wait! Copywriting and novel writing are nothing alike!” you say.

Oh really?

Think about some of the qualities on writing a good novel…

First: they start smack in the middle of some event: an explosion, a birth, an event, a ceremony…

Second: they create suspense at every turn…

Third: there’s a problem (or two or three or four) that the main character overcomes…

Now how can we throw all of these into our advertising copywriting to produce copy that really sells?

Here’s how…

Step 1.

Tell a story. It can be about you, about someone you know, about anyone (as long as it’s true and real). The story should be about some event in your life or your character’s life that was a hardship, a difficult time. Tell the story of how you overcame that hardship.

Step 2.

Attach your product/service into how you overcame your hardship.

(you get bonus points if the difficult time you went through is something your reader is going through too).

Here’s a very rough example in 4 sentences.

I used to be 40 pounds overweight, weighing in at 220 pounds. Then I watched over 50 exercise videos and took all the best exercises from each from them. I did those exercises for just 10 minutes a day, 3 days a week, and lost those 40 pounds in 2 months. That’s when I realized I’d discovered a workout program that could get incredible results in a fraction of the time.

Now, here’s the exercise that helps you do this…

Step 1.

Write your story – and really let yourself go. Don’t try to make it perfect. Don’t polish it. Just write and write and write.

You should have a page or two of text by the end of this. If you don’t have that much, go back and fill in some more details about what happened. If this seems like a lot to you, the good news is you only have to do this once.

Step 2.

Read through your story and pick out the most important details. Then, re-write it in under 15-20 sentences.

“Whoa – what?! I just wrote 2 pages for nothin??”

Hey, hold it there tiger!

In those two pages here’s what’s happening…

You’re connecting to your inner-story teller. No one can just sit down and instantly pop out an incredible story (unless you’ve had a ton of practice – and even then it’s best to warm up). Remember, you want this story to really come alive in your reader’s imagination.

You want them to experience it – that’s how you keep’em reading.

The whole time you’re writing your 1-2 pages, you’re connecting with your story, re-living it, figuring out the best way to tell it and which details really stand out.

Then, you’re making it short and to the point. That’s because in copy, people aren’t interested in reading a novel, but they’ll definitely read a short, interesting story that lets their imagination go wild for a minute.

Here are a few ways to tie your story into your product/service…

• It was then that I realized….
• That’s when I stumbled upon…
• I couldn’t believe how simple the answer really was…
• If I’d only known years ago that…

Just take these intros, and tell about how you discovered your fat loss secret, or the way to make 6 figures in 60 days, or whatever it is that you were put on this earth to do.

Till next time,

David

p.s. As always I love your comments – and feel free to post any questions that you have, too.