In this post we’re going to have a little fun.
I’m pulling in help from four masters to illustrate an important lesson in copywriting: Knife-fighting expert and Indonesian Silat instructor, Art Rhemrev and the others, Master copywriters Gary Bencivenga, Peter Stone and Robert Collier.
Okay, let’s get started.
One of the keys to mastery in fighting (and copywriting) is learning the art of “set-ups”.
In a fight against an experienced opponent you’ll quickly discover they aren’t going to just let you do your fancy moves on them. If you want to take a knife away from someone who actually knows how to fight with it, you can’t just waltz in and take it with one of those joint lock moves that are so popular in the movies. You’ll be cut to ribbons.
You must “set-up” your opponent so do your disarms.
In the same way, master copywriters “set-up” their readers minds and emotions to accept their important sales appeals.
An illustration is called for… Here’s a master knife fighter and Indonesian Silat instructor, Art Rhemrev, illustrating how to set up your opponent and disarm them…
Notice how he didn’t go right for the knife and start struggling with it? Instead he feints an attack to the opponents head, and occupies his non-weapon hand. Only then does he take the knife. He now has two hands to the opponents one.Now go to http://www.peterstonecopy.com/This is Peter’s personal promotion page.If you scroll to the bottom third of the letter, you see he uses the emotional appeal, “Fear of loss”
“If Not Now … When?
Day and night, you’re losing every additional penny of pure profit you could otherwise bank.
If you want to increase your sales, just fill out the quick-form below and click the red bar at the bottom to get started right away.
You’re Paying For It Anyway
When you think about your margin of profit bleeding out, you’ll quickly realize that sooner or later, one way or another, like it or not … you’re paying, anyway.”
Now if Peter had led with this appeal at the top of his letter it wouldn’t have worked. But, placed where it is, it packs an emotional wallop.
Why?
Because in the opening of his letter his authority is established by the likes of John Carlton, Gary Bencivenga, Gary Halbert and Michael Fortin. Next you learn that 700% jumps in conversion are possible in a day. Then you read several million-dollar case studies. By this point in the letter, you are convinced that 1) Your website can be making millions of dollars. 2) Peter Stone is the man that can deliver those dollars into your bank account.
Then and only then does Peter deftly place the appeal to fear of loss. And he doesn’t overplay it.
Go, read the letter in it’s entirety. I promise you that you’re emotions will feel a tug when you reach that point in the letter.
And here is an example from master letter-writer, Robert Collier selling a correspondence course. He’s going to ask a question - but before he does, he “sets up” the emotions of the reader so that when he ask it, it packs an emotional punch…
“Your boy is a little shaver now. He thinks you are the most wonderful man in the world. You can fix his boat, med his velocipede, tell him wonderful stories.
But it will only be ten or twelve years until he goes to College. The fathers of the other boys–his chums–will got to see them. There will be a Railroad President, perhaps; a great Banker; a Governor
And you will go; and your boy will say, “This is my father, boys.”
How will he feel when he says it? Will he be proud of you?
And finally, here is an example from copywriting great, Gary Bencivenga. He’s about to tell you that he’s pretty darn good at direct response copywriting. But he just doesn’t come out and say it that way, let’s look at how he first sets up the reader to believe it…
“To some, it would seem a sadly unbalanced life—to devote some 38 years and counting to discovering the secrets of boosting advertising response.
It is regrettably true that, as a 21st century man, I know nothing about how to fix a car or miter a molding.
I have never, in my entire life, balanced a checkbook. My wonderful wife, Pauline, patiently handles all such trivia so I can focus on what really matters in life, which from my lamentably narrow perspective means studying the most effective techniques of persuasion and scheming with my clients to boost their response.
Renaissance man? You must be joking. About 98% of the questions on Jeopardy leave me clueless. For heaven sakes, I have trouble with the questions on Hollywood Squares. Ask me to name the capital of Norway or the prime minister of France, and I’ll stare at you as blankly as a dead mackerel.
But ask me to cite the most reliable ways to beat your control ad right now, and I could rattle off a dozen in my deepest REM sleep.
Like a chess master who has memorized thousands of lethally effective opening gambits, or a master salesperson with dozens of proven, remarkably effective closing strategies on the tip of his or her tongue, I can tell you about scores of masterful techniques that will tweak, goose and explode the response of your promotions by 50% to 200% or more, both online and off. “
Now, if Gary had led his copy off with that last paragraph - what would your reaction be? Yet, after he expertly set up the idea by leading with self-deprecation, we are ready to accept that paragraph without question.
There you have it, from four masters…
Set-ups are part of the master’s craft.
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