This announcement is going to shock the life out of you — because it flatly says “bunk” to every idea you’ve ever had about how “difficult” it is to learn!
This announcement says that if you could only liberate the exact same talent and intelligence and ability that you have tied up inside you today — then you could:
… read anything you wish, twice as fast as you can today …
… absorb facts like a sponge, and repeat them almost word for word years later …
… flash through math, business, and financial problems that have stopped you cold today …
… hold people spellbound with the power of your speech and your written word …
… outthink others when you have to, tower over them in judgment, outshine them completely in imagination …
And do it all — not by struggling through dreary textbooks, not by memorizing useless theories — but simply by putting your LOCKED UP MENTAL POWERS to work — today — as easily and logically as this:
Have you seen this idea used before? If you haven’t, you haven’t been paying attention.
It’s an incredibly powerful opening because it ties directly into what we all want to believe — that buried somewhere inside us lies a hero waiting to be released.
And like every other successful lead, there is an element of curiosity isn’t there? Your prospect reads your opening and can’t help but wonder, “How do I unlock the genie within?” Pure genius.
Strategy #3 – Do you know this?
This third strategy is a wonderful method of getting immediate involvement from your prospects. It actually forces them to admit they need your information product.
Here’s how it works.
You begin with a series of questions, the answers to which should be known by your prospect, IF he or she has the knowledge they need to achieve the results they’re looking for. If they don’t know the answers, the only logical conclusion they can make is that they need your product.
Then you describe the specific problem your prospect is facing, and present your solution.
Here’s an example from a space ad written by Gary
Bencivenga:
Do you know why you should never eat a spinach salad when you’re being interviewed over lunch?
If you’re a man, do you know why you should never wear a gold bracelet to an interview?
If you’re a woman, do you know the kind of blouse that will make interviewers of both sexes think you’re a loser?
According to a new report, these are innocent mistakes that nearly everyone makes when job hunting. But they’re small potatoes compared to the most common mistake of all — not knowing how to position yourself as the #1 candidate in an increasingly competitive job market.
Here’s the problem. Competition for white-collar jobs has grown so fierce that a help-wanted ad placed in a major newspaper can pull in 2000 resumes. That’s seven large mail sacks bulging with resumes — from a single ad!
How can you beat odds like that?
That is the key question addressed by a riveting report that’s just been released, Interviews That Win Jobs.
This is a very simple formula, but don’t let that fool you. Provocative questions work wonders to draw people into your copy. And when they are phrased in a way that points to your prospects lack of information, they do a great job of quickly committing the prospect to your selling premise. The fact that they lead your prospect to the conclusion that “hey, I need this information,” without you coming right out and saying it is significant.
In last week’s edition of Web Marketing Advisor, I talked about the power of commitment and consistency. Well this is a very powerful example, isn’t it? By mentally admitting that he needs your information, your prospect is making a subtle commitment.
Later in the copy, when Gary asks the prospect to invest in the report, doing so allows him to remain consistent with the conclusion he committed to just a few minutes before.
The danger with this approach is that you don’t want to sound cocky or make the prospect feel stupid. Go back and take a look at how brilliantly Gary handled this by asking the easier (the first one is almost tongue in cheek) questions first.
Strategy #4 – Winner/Loser
Of course, no discussion of how to get your copy started should exclude the classic winner/loser approach. It’s a natural envy stimulator. And envy is a highly actionable and useful emotion in selling.
Note how this example stimulates a tremendous amount of curiosity as well:
There are two kinds of investors in this world. There are winners. And there are losers. What makes the difference?
John Smith reads the Wall Street Journal, watches the talking heads on CNN, NBC, and C-SPAN, and is concerned with the latest economic news of the day …
He looks at the stock market and figures it must follow some pattern. Prices go up. Prices go down. There must be a reason. He studies the situation, weighing the various forecasts and predictions of the financial pundits.
And when the markets are heading up … he jumps into the stylish stocks like they were the fashion season’s latest designer blue jeans. Low inflation, record profits, favorable Fed policies, he knows what’s going on.
John is a sucker. The net effect of his market watching, and pundit following is that he loses more money than he makes in the stock market every few years in a recurring cycle. He buys high, sells low, licks his wounds for a few years, and then jumps back in to follow the mob off the next cliff.
From the outside, he looks rich, and few are the wiser …
He lives with his family in a million dollar McMansion … drives fancy new cars … and vacations in all of the fashionable places. Only he and his accountant know his savings are miniscule and his debts are astronomical — because he’s borrowed nearly 100% of his home equity. At 55 years of age, retirement is nowhere in sight.
Jim Brown takes a different approach …
By now the reader is really getting curious. Chances are he’s found at least a few parallels between himself and John Smith (loser), and he wants to see what John Brown (winner) is doing that he’s not.
Strategy #5 – Let me tell you the story.
Of course, the best way to suck readers into your copy is with a good story. I’m not going to belabor the reasons why. I’ve done that on many previous occasions.
I’ll just leave you with is this shining example:
I’m a farmer. And the story I tell you is the absolute truth, as incredible as it may seem.
It all started in a grove owned by Dr. Webb, our family doctor. One of the men who was picking fruit in the doctor’s backyard came up to the Webb home holding six of the strangest grapefruit anyone had ever seen. A single branch of an ordinary grapefruit had produced these six unusual fruit.
These were big grapefruit, unusually big. And they had a faint red blush on their skin. When Dr. Webb sliced open the grapefruit, the flesh was a brilliant ruby red in color.
Dr. Webb decided to taste this strange new grapefruit. The fruit was perfect, juicy, and luscious. It wasn’t sour like other grapefruit either — it was naturally sweet without sugar.
For some reason, we’ll never know why, nature had chosen to produce an entirely new kind of grapefruit here in our magic Rio Grand Valley. It was incredible — men had labored for years to try and produce the ideal grapefruit, and had failed. But suddenly on a single branch of one tree, in one grove, Mother Nature had done it herself.
Isn’t that a great opening? The ad goes on to sell, of all things, a monthly grapefruit continuity program. It was highly successful, running in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and other pricey space for years. And it really was written by a farmer. His name was Frank Shultz.
So there you have it. Five proven formulas for kicking that promo of yours off to a winning start!
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Here’s a fantastic example of “The Genie Within You” opening from Gene Schwartz:
This announcement is going to shock the life out of you — because it flatly says “bunk” to every idea you’ve ever had about how “difficult” it is to learn!