Discovering Empathy

  In some markets coming on with a big, arrogant attitude may work: particularly martial arts and bodybuilding products where for some reason you can capture a prospect’s interest by calling him a wimp or namby-pamby.

  For most products your prospect has a legitimate fear that you are going to take his money and sell him crap that doesn’t work. I doubt you’ll have much success with marketing that makes no attempt to empathize with the prospect’s situation and fears.

  Buyer today feel at a disadvantage. Most people have been screwed in a buying situation more than once and they have heard horror stories about unethical salesmen.

  Good copywriters understand the value of empathy in making the sale. Prospects are much more likely to buy if they feel you understand them and their problems. In a one-on-one sales situation the good salesman asks probing questions and listens intently.

  The copywriter’s job - and a big part of the art of it - is to anticipate questions and objections as they come up in the reader’s mind and address them in a way that moves the sale forward, right there on the printed page.

  You might look at a sales letter and think that it appears pretty straightforward and that you could write such a letter yourself. You probably could and I encourage you to read the same books copywriters read and study copy yourself. As a business owner you may have more pressing concerns than writing copy - that’s where my CopyMatch comes in. We help you get the right copy for your business - and your customers.

weird notes:

Consistent, Warm, Empathetic Voice,

Entertaining, Informative, Selling

Advantage Benefit, Offer  

Emotional + Rational appeal

  Perhaps the most obvious way to make copy better and more relevant to the customer is to tell him what’s in it for him. Lots of companies completely miss the boat on this - they tell about the company and how long it’s been around and how distinguished the CEO is and so on. Advertising agencies sometimes sell this tripe to executives because it’s all about stroking their egos... but it seldom brings in customers in a cost effective way. This sort of thing is sometimes called "image advertising".

  The most transparent trick to getting the reader more involved is to use the word YOU a lot - and use the words me, I, and us a lot less. Of course it’s also sometimes appropriate to make the writing personalized, like one friend talking to another, so in that case the use of first person pronouns - I, me, my, us, we - serves to bring warmth to the equation.