So in part 1 of "My Newest Revelation" we left off saying that when you put the right person in front of the right offer – you get a response. (If you haven't read part 1 yet – here's the link: Click for Part I)

We even went so far as to say that the person can't help but respond. Crazy talk, right?

And I gave examples to support this.

But that lead to a very important question…

"How do you know what that irresistible offer is?" and even more importantly…

"How do you CRAFT an irresistible offer?"

First, let's explore a few possible answers… (these are real-life assumptions many people have about product / service creation…

1. You create products, and see the reaction they get
    
2. You see what other products are out there, and copy them
    
3. Ask an expert what to make your product about 

So let's examine these one by one…

First off – testing is key to any marketing campaign – but putting hours of your time and energy into creating products without knowing beforehand whether or not they'll sell is not such a bright idea.

And any expert who tells you a product off the top of his / her head might not be such an expert after all (unless they have a TON of experience in your specific niche. Even so – your own research will always be more powerful than blindly following what someone else tells you…)

Next, seeing what other products are out there is close – but there's something wayyy more powerful you can do…

Find out what problems that product solves. Find out other problems the target market has that the product ISN'T solving. Because…

Then, we can make a product that solves those problems differently, and better.

And what's the best way to find out what those burning problems are?

Listen to people in your target market. Simply observe them.

They're not hiding. 

Go onto forums they visit regularly and see what kinds of posts get the hottest reactions. 

Check out Amazon book reviews and see why people are raving about certain books – and shooting down others.

Talk to people! I know… I know… In this day and age we've made it possible to avoid talking to people at all costs. But nothing beats looking people in the eyes and hearing about their problems firsthand.

Next…

You'll start to see a pattern.

Say people in your market have the problem of not getting enough clients. They want to know how to get more clients.

That's good – but let's try to get even closer…

Say through conversing with a good handful of your past clients (who are, of course, your target market) you get a list of things they're willing to do, and not willing to do, to get new clients.

Say they're willing to spend hours at the computer – but they won't go out and approach strangers for the life of them.

Okay – we're getting closer to our irresistible offer…

Now say, you also discover that they're not technically savvy. They can manage e-mails and "the Google" – but not much else.

Okay, even closer…

And finally…

Let's say if at all possible – they want to be able to teach whatever marketing methods they learn to their assistants. They'd rather use their time for other things – like eating Big Macs and watching the baseball game.

So let's put the pieces together…

They want a method of getting clients that they can do from home, on their personal computers. It can't require any advanced computer skills, and it requires step-by-step instructions so they can teach it to their assistants.

Here's your task…

Figure out how to friggin do this! And you're sitting on a gold mine! 

Find out how people in the specific profession of your market can easily get clients on-line without any crazy HTML knowledge or anything.

Then, tell as many people in your target market about it as possible.

You now have yourself an irresistible offer.

And all you had to do was sit back, and listen to people talk. And read some forum postings. And fiddle around on Amazon.

Pretty cool, right?

Advertising boils down to just one thing…

It's all about connecting people with solutions, to people with problems. But step 1 is to come up with that solution.

Hopefully now you have a nice road map to help you get there.

What are your thoughts?

Am I spot on? Missing something? Out of my mind?

I'd love to hear your input.

David

I just got back from giving a talk tonight.

The thing was supposed to be about 1 hour. Ended up being 2 and a half.

It was exhausting – and great. And because it was a small group we got to interact a lot. You know, just kick back and do a lot of question / answer type stuff.

They were a cool group too. A hungry group. They sucked me dry of more copywriting knowledge than I've ever given away in such a short period of time. The basterds

Which leads me to…

…One of the most powerful ways I know of building credibility, trust, and getting new business: public speaking.

And there are a few reasons why…

For one, we’re conditioned to view speakers as experts. By default, if someone takes the stage, and gives a presentation…

They’re an expert on that subject.

Next, it gives you a chance to show off “how good you are.” If you give a talk, and people walk away with awesome, practical advice – you’re showing them before they even do business with you that you deliver results.

And finally…

People like to do business with people they like –

so by letting them get to know you in your speech, you can start to build a relationship with them, and increase their chances of hiring you / buying your products.

But the key is to making this all work is by making an AMAZING impression on your audience… Here are a few ways to do that…

1. Give away an awesome gift.

I like to provide everyone with awesome, printed materials they can walk away with. I’ll also provide pens and paper for note taking.

People really appreciate small stuff like that. It shows you really care, and that you really want to help.

2. Really stack on the value.

Provide a HIGH level of value in your content. Give the kind of content for FREE that people pay for.

They will love you to pieces. Trust me. And a side effect of really helping people is they want to help you back. This is where you get business and referrals.

I’ve walked away from a presentation with a full page of leads before – filled from top to bottom (even the margins).

Oh, and it was only a 5 minute presentation!

3. Tell stories about your customers / clients.

One thing I like to do is to tell success stories of clients – and then break down for my audience how everything worked.

This accomplishes three things…

1. It shows that I help people succeed in their goals.

2. It lets the audience imagine what it would be like to work with me, and decide if they want a similar experience.

3. It shows them real world examples that they can apply to their businesses / lives. I’m not giving “abstract” information. It’s very real, and very practical.

4. At the end of your talk – tell people what to do next!

Just like any good ad – a good talk should end with a call to action.

You can tell people about a product you’re promoting, offer your services, a free consultation – anything.

Just make sure you tell them how to get in touch with you. Tell them to call – and give your number. Or give your e-mail address and tell them to write.

Just make sure you give clear, concise instructions.

Now, this stuff takes practice.

You won't become a Martin Luther King over night. Trust me – I'm still on the learning curve of public speaking myself. 

But I can tell you this – it's one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever come across.

What are your thoughts?

I’d love to hear them. Did you learn something new? Or maybe you think this is all "rubbish" (to be British for a second)?

Leave a comment in the comment box below and let me know.

Talk soon,
David

p.s. Part 2 of my "incredible revealation" is coming up soon… If you don't remember, you can check out part 1 here:

http://acupofcopy.net/http:/acupofcopy.net/my-newest-revelation

Keep a look out…

Some big idea’s been brewing in me these past few days. And it all came together for me tonight. And guess what I was doing when I had this awesome thought?

Watching the new Shrek movie!

I swear to God. No fingers crossed. Something about Mike Meyers’ voice behind that big green ogre made me realize something huge.

Here’s a few clues about what this thing is… See if you can put them all together.

• Clue #1… 

  My business and life partner Louisa hates a certain internet marketer (yet she stays on his list – I don’t know why). She also never watches a single video, opts-in for any offer, or anything like that. Never.

  Yesterday she did both. She opted in for a video!

  Clue #2…

• I really, really did not want to see the movie Shrek. However, after Lou hounded me all week about it, I caved in.

  Most of the movie was okay. I didn’t think it lived up to the other Shrek movies. Actually, I haven’t like a single one since Shrek 1.

  HOWEVER… There were still some scenes that made me laugh, and some even got me teary-eyed (yes, I got teary-eyed watching Shrek. Go ahead. Mock me. Get it out of your system already – you know you want to!)

So, were you able to put the pieces together?

You say you weren’t? Well why not? All the clues are right there in front of you!

These weren’t good clues? Oh, well, I guess that could be… I’m asking myself questions and answering them? It’s creeping you out, you say?

Aaaanyyywaaayyyys…. Ahem…

Here’s the “Big Secret”!

It doesn’t matter how much someone hates something, or someone.

Put that person in front of the right message – and they will respond to it!

Why did Lou opt-in for a video? The offer was right.

Why did I laugh and cry in a few scenes of Shrek? I couldn’t help myself! They appealed to my funny-bone and my sad-bone.

The point is – if something gets an emotional reaction out of us… there’s really no use in fighting it. In fact, we can’t fight it. We can’t resist.

It becomes irresistible.

We laugh when something’s funny. We cry when it’s sad. We BUY when the offer is just right.

The Big Question…

How can you make what you're selling irresistible? Well, guess you’ll just have to tune in next time. (Evil, I know).

Till then,

David

p.s. The comment box is below. You know what to do with it.

One day there was this kid, and he lived in Starton, Nebraska. In the summer Starton gets so hot that if you stand in one place too long, the bottoms of your shoes will start to stick to the pavement. And actually, now that I think about it, I suppose he wasn’t really a “kid”, but a young man, because after all he was 19 years old, and his facial hair grew faster than most fully grown men.

He grew up poor. His mom was a single teacher. She made a fine salary for a single woman living alone – but not nearly enough to comfortably support herself, a son, and a daughter. But now that her son was in college – he wanted things to be different. He hated going to the cafeteria and only being able to afford a few side dishes. His stomach would grumble all day, and he never felt perfectly happy because he always had that uncomfortable feeling that comes with hunger. It was hard to make friends when he could barely focus.

Major Change

So he decided to make a change. He wanted friends, and he wanted money. He wanted to be able to buy as much food as he needed to stop being hungry, and still have plenty of money left over. And he wanted to make a difference in people's lives all at the same time. So he began to think about how he could do this…

He’d been playing piano practically his entire life. He was a genius on his piano. Every time he sat down in front of it, something beautiful and inspiring came out – and later you would find out that he had made it up on the spot. “I never like to play the same thing twice,” he would say with a smile.

He decided to started a piano lessons business. And he quickly noticed something… Every time he put up flyers, or posted ads on on-line classifieds sites, he would get clients. Every time he focused his energy on making his lessons more powerful, and a better experience for his students – he would get clients. Every time he read books on becoming successful, and studied marketing and business-growth – he would get clients. Now, here’s the thing… When he posted flyers and ads – he didn’t always get a response. But no matter what – he would get a client from somewhere. And even when he didn’t post any ads – but just focused on making his lessons the best lessons possible – he still got clients from the strangest places.

The Realization

He realized that as long as he was doing something – his business would grow. And it didn’t really matter what that something was. It just had to be something that made his business better. It had to be something with the intention behind it that it would grow his business, and lead to his success, and the joy of others through his lessons.

And so everyday, just about, he did at least one thing (though most days many things – he was very excited about his business) to grow his business. He would post flyers, call his clients and see how they were doing (randomly throughout the week – even when he wasn’t meeting with them), he would call other clients and ask for referrals, he would come up with incredible lesson plans, create new techniques to learn the piano fast, pour through books on success and marketing, etc., etc., etc.

Rapid Growth

And his business grew almost faster than he could handle. He quickly got over 20 students – and regularly saw 8 each week. And not only that – he became so confident in his lessons that he charged as much as the guys who had been teaching 20 years or longer. And he taught out of his college dorm room! Yet because his lessons truly were incredible, his clients never complained about having their lessons in a dorm room.

They simply loved him, and would have gladly had their lessons on the burning hot pavement if that’s what was required. They could feel his passion, his intensity. His eyes told them that he really cared about their success, and they felt comfortable making mistakes around him (after all, in learning a new instrument, it can be embarrassing to play in front of a professional when you can barely utter a note). Our hero later fell in love with a girl, and was happy to be able to take her out to dinner, and buy her nice things when his heart called him to do so. For the first time in his life, he was truly becoming happy.

To Be Continued…

As I'm sure you noticed, woven into this story are many lessons on both marketing, and life. (If you saw any) what lessons did you see? Do you have any thoughts / reflections about them? I’d love to hear them!

Talk soon, 
David

You’ll have to excuse me, because I’m a bit frustrated at the moment. Maybe I shouldn’t even be blogging right now, but I feel it’s a bit dishonest to only write when I feel good.

After all, as humans, we don’t just “feel good” all the time, do we? (Though it’s sometimes unfortunate), we feel a lot more.

You see, lately I’ve been in the company of people who take it upon themselves to “fix” everyone.

… By “fix” I mean they point out everything that they see “wrong” or “bad” about the person, and in a mean, disapproving tone, tell them what they should be doing with their life instead… (do you have one or two of these in your life?)

But it doesn’t stop there…

Because upon reading some sales pages, I realized something:

Many, many marketers do this to their clients and readers, too.

I think they don’t do it intentionally, but either way it’s inexcusable.

Simply put… People have enough crap in their lives that (trust me) you don’t want to be just another thing they have to put up with.

Now, sometimes you have to give people a hard time, and a lot of times they’ll give you a hard time first, but in your sales message -

Be a “good” guy / gal. Be a breath of fresh air.

Focus on your reader’s strengths. For instance, if you have a product that solves a major problem, have you ever thought to commend someone just for arriving at your page?

Because just by coming to your page, they’ve taken initiative toward solving their problem. And anytime someone takes action, that’s something worth thanking them for (imho).

Or commend them for dealing with that problem for so long. Many problems are no cake walk to deal with – so the fact that the person is dealing with it, has probably dealt with it for a long time, and continues to go on with their lives is definitely a strength.

The bottom line is…

… Before you sit down to write to your readers, address them in a video, or talk to them on the phone / tele-seminar / in a speech…

Focus on their strengths, and be compassionate about their weaknesses. Because we all have plenty of people in our lives who attack and judge at the drop of a hair.

David

p.s. I’d love your thoughts about this. Any time I’m frustrated a part of me feels like it’s all just in my head. What do you think?

p.p.s. I hope you’ve been having a great day, and a great week

Many years ago I asked someone for help. I was completely stuck. I thought there were no options, no ways out.

And then I asked for help. I asked someone who had been in my same situation.

She took one look at my problem, and instantly had 3 or 4 ideas that I hadn’t even thought of.

She had other ideas that I had thought of, but cast them aside before even trying them out. But hearing her say them confirmed in my mind that they were good ideas.

I put her advice to action, and my situation changed. Immediately. I no longer suffered from my problem – and I was now in a place to help others who were.

Now, I know that was really vague, but I left it vague for a reason. I’m sure in your business there are one, two, probably even three or four things that you feel stuck with.

You could probably fill in the blanks of this story with a problem of your own.

Only right now you’re in the ‘stuck’ phase. However, your problem could immediately go away too if you ask the right person for help.

If your problem is something you feel I could help you with, you’re welcome to contact me. I offer private consultations which you can find out more about here (click on the word “here” in that sentence).

If your problem is something that someone else could help you with – start asking those other people!

I once read in a book by Jack Canfield a story where he was talking with his hair stylist who wanted to start her own business.

“I’d do it but I just don’t know how,” she told him.

“Well, why don’t you approach the owner of a successful hair salon, take her out to lunch, and ask her how she did it?” Jack replied.

“You can do that?” she said back, startled.

Yes, you can do that. You can just approach people and ask them for help. Most people who have solved the problem that you now find yourself in are more than glad to offer their assistance.

We’re kind of bred though to not ask questions. Asking questions means we’re “incompetent” or “unknowledgeable”.

But how are we supposed to get the knowledge unless we ask for it first?

What are your thoughts about all of this? Do you have any personal stories about this like I do, or do you completely disagree with everything I just said?

As always, I’d love your input. The comment box is right below this post – just scroll down and fill it out.

Talk soon,

David

I recently read a sales letter from a guy named Ross Browning.

I wanted to share it with you because I really appreciated something cool Ross did with his copy…

He got creative.

Creativity is extremely under-played in copywriting these days. Most of what’s out there is badly written templates that have been recycled over and over and over again.

…But the worst part is the people who use these templates put no effort into making them original. They simply plug in their product name, and publish it to the web.

I say let’em have at it.

Because for those of us who do put effort into creating something unique and original – we get noticed.

When you take the time to craft a unique sales message – just by doing that you’re distinguishing yourself from your competition.

Why?

Because they’re probably using worn out templates, or something dull, dry, and frankly, boring.

Now, Ross took a very unique angle on a very old tactic…

The tactic? He held a sale. Nothing original there.

How he did it? Well, that’s another story.

He gave one of the funniest, and most personable, “reasons why” I’ve seen lately.

Here’s what he did…

Ross told the story of his newborn child. And how, when she was born, this teenage girl photographer came and took pictures of the baby with Ross and his wife.

And THEN – the girl left, and came back a little while later with a full slideshow of the pictures on her Macbook, with beautiful, emotional music playing.

…That’s just not fair, if you ask me.

“Get me those pictures!” his wife told him.

So he needed a quick $600. Turns out the teenage girl was quite the saleswoman, and charged quite a fee.

So to get that $600, he was holding a sale.

Pretty cool, right?

However, taking just a few minutes to come up with a good “reason why” makes such a drastic difference. You could really relate to Ross’s message, and you wanted to help the guy out!

Especially the parents out there. I’m sure they went bonkers over that letter.

Let’s check out another example…

One of my favorite copywriters of all time, Gary Halbert, was once asked by a friend of his…

“Gary, I want to get a book on copywriting today. What should I get?”

Gary thought a moment, and then handed him his favorite novel.

“What’s this?” the guy asked.

And then Gary said something like, “You’ll get more out of reading master storytellers than you ever will reading a ‘how to’ book on copywriting. After all, copywriting is storytelling, and that guy has it down like no other.”

So… If one of the most renowned copywriters of all time is urging us to use creative story telling in our writing… We probably should, right?

What’s your take on all this?

David

Awesome news… My life partner (and business partner), Louisa Levit, won this super-competitive logo competition, and she’s gonna be published in a book!

Lou is a KILLER graphic designer – and the logo she created for this thing is absolutely brilliant.

Here – Lou and I got together some samples of her work to show you (hey – it’s fun to show off from time to time )…

The Logo That's Being Published - "Green Clean Moving" - an eco-friendly moving company

Deux Maries Frameshop

Cover for a DVD info product

Our business card (mine says copywriter...)

Me and Lou on vacation

Pretty awesome stuff, right?

Like I said, Lou is super talented. The first logo (the one that won) is just brilliant. It’s for an eco-friendly moving company.

Now for a funny story about Lou with great copywriting tips hidden inside…

So, the other day I wanted to go to the local bookstore at like 9:50pm, get some coffee, hang out, and get some work done till they closed at 11.

Here’s the thing…

The cafe closes at 10:00 even though the store closes at 11:00.

Lou only wanted to go if she could go to the cafe.

“It’s gonna close by the time we get there – it’s practically 10,” she said.

“Actually… It’s a 2 minute drive, and it’s 9:50 – if we leave right NOW we can make it!” I told her.

All of a sudden she leaped off the couch – ran to the door – put her shoes on, and we were off.

Now here’s the lesson in all of this…

Urgency works!!!

Right as we were getting into the car, I realized what an awesome copywriting lesson that was. Knowing there was only 10 minutes left got her moving like a track star.

Before? She was as likely to get off the couch as a slug is likely to chow down on salt.

So if you find you’re not getting the response you’d like – add some urgency! Put a deadline on your offer, raise the price after the first X amount of orders, or something similar.

I’ll leave it to your imagination to come up with the best option for you

Have a great one,

David

I’ve written a story for you about a kid, his lawn mowing business, and his neighbor.

…But it’s not just any story.

See, hidden inside is one of the most powerful lessons for e-mail marketing lessons that I was ever taught. Now, I could just come out and explain it – but with a story I can show you this concept in action, and help you understand it even greater.

So without further ado…

Lawn-Mower Kid (By: David Tendrich )

In a small suburban neighborhood, in a small city of the good ole U.S. of A there was a boy who mowed lawns in the summer.

He would mow 5 yards a week at $20 each. For an 11 year old – that was pretty good mulah. But something in him always wanted to do better.

One day, his neighbor approached him…

“Did you know…” the man said, “That if you do this one little thing – you’ll get twice as many paying customers this week.”

Well, the kid was all ears, as you can imagine. And he didn’t blink once as the man talked to him. He just stood there, eyes wide as full moons, taking it all in.

The kid tried out the tactic that the man taught him…

And got 3 new paying customers that week.

Now, that’s not quite double the amount he started with, 5, but it was darn close enough. It was a failure the kid could live with.

He felt on top of the world.

Until, a week later, the man came back…

“Mister! Mister! It worked! It worked!” the boy beamed.

“I’m so happy to hear that, kid. But you know, the best part is that you took action on the ideas. Otherwise it’s just talking and jibber jabber.”

The kid smiled.

“Say, how about I teach you something else this week? This time you could triple the number of houses you mow.”

So the boy listened. And he acted on what he heard. And in one week’s time not only did he have 24 houses…

…He was paying another kid to mow them for him!

The boy was making money while sipping on lemonade all day!

"Yeah... Lemonade..."

And then the man came back.

“Mister! You wouldn’t believe it! I have 24 houses – and a friend of mine mows them all! That idea you gave me worked so great!”

The man smiled.

“I’m so glad to hear that,” he said, “Say… I happened to see one of the houses your friend mowed, and he did a mighty fine job… How much do you charge? I’d like to hire your services to mow my yard.”

The boy arched an eyebrow, “Mister – your money is no good here. You’re the reason I have as many houses as I do – and why I’m not doing a single ounce of work to collect the money from them. I’ll pay my friend to mow your house for the whole rest of the summer. Thank you for all you’ve taught me.”

The man smiled, tipped his hat to the boy, and went on his way.

So… Did you catch the single most important secret of successful internet marketing?

Wanna go back and look again? Or do you think you got it?

I can boil it down for you in 4 little words…

Giving. Leads. To. Getting.

It’s as simple as that.

The man gave something of great value to the boy. In fact, he did it twice. And when the man asked for something – the boy jumped to his aid.

He thankfully jumped to his aid.

Think of the last time someone did something really nice for you. Didn’t you want to appreciate them back by doing something for them?

Like when a stranger opens a restaurant door for you – don’t you want to do something in return?

Or when a friend gets you an awesome gift for your birthday – don’t you just want to one-up them and get them something even better?

That force that makes you want to give back has been called the “Law of Reciprocity.”

The Cycle of Reciprocation

It works in e-mail marketing too…

The key to successful e-mail marketing is to constantly provide awesome, free content to your subscribers. What happens is they get that same, “Wow – I wanna do something in return” feeling building up in them.

Keep providing it until their “law of reciprocity gauge” hits overload.

Then you pitch them your product or services and out of the desire to give back, and out of trust for you because you always come through with the content…

They start buying from you like crazy!

But the key is in the value, and in the desire to really help.

If you don’t genuinely care – then this all kinda falls apart – because people can see right through it.

So keep providing value.

Often when I talk about this, someone will ask me how much value can you provide before offering someone the chance to buy your product.

While there’s no “set in stone” rule for this, until you get the feel of it you can follow this simple plan:

Something Free –> Something else Free –> A bonus –> A product

That’s the gist of it. Just make sure the “free” stuff is GOOD.

A lot of people don’t provide as much free stuff in between pitches – but I like to really provide people with great value before I ask them for a sale.

I want them to have no doubt in their mind that my product is extremely effective – because they see how effective my free content is.

Now, I do have one rule of thumb that I suggest you follow…

I only provide content that I feel is worthy of being paid for.

Rule of "Thumb" ...haha

For instance, I only provide the quality of content that I would to my private coaching clients.

You can stand out really easily if you do that – because 99% of internet marketers give away junk.

Which gives you a golden opportunity to be the Hero of Your Niche!

Give away for free what people would gladly pay for. They’ll really appreciate you – and want to return the favor.

So what’s your take on all of this?

How do you personally view the law of reciprocity, and how to use it?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Feel free to share in a comment.

David

Which is WHY…

I want to offer 2 FREE spaces to my now-closed coaching program, Copywriting Domination.

The full value of the course is either one payment of $597 – or 3 payments of $250 ($750 total).

But 2 people are gonna get it completely FREE!

Here’s how and why…

I’ll start with “why”…

I know for a fact that there are more than 2 people on my list who wanted to join my coaching program – but didn’t have the means.

I also know that there were more than 2 people on my list who had the means – but for one reason or another they couldn’t justify the cost of the course at this time.

Both of these things are perfectly fine!

I’ve been in both of these situations myself many-a-time.

But I also believe that people should randomly be given gifts for no reason what-so-ever. I love receiving gifts, and I love giving them.

Here’s the “how”…

Simply leave a comment on this blog post saying whatever you want. You can say, “Hello”. You can say, “David, you rock man!” Anything!

Tomorrow, at around 5pm EST, I’m going to check the number of comments.

Then, I’m going to randomly pick 2 numbers between 1 and however many comments there are.

Whoever has the comments in those slots will get the 2 FREE spots valued at $750 to join my live Copywriting Domination course.

Best of luck to you – and even if you don’t win on this free giveaway – there will be many more to come

(just a couple months ago I gave away 5 free 1-hour coaching calls. So no worries – I guarantee at some point you’ll get something good )

Enjoy the “contest”, and have fun,

David