I’ve spent most of my workday researching…
I have a handful of new financial promotions I’m developing big ideas for.
This one in particular, for me to write.
I’ve been digging into all sorts of bleeding edge tech news today.
I have a stock I need to write about, that’s a leader in a particular kind of networking technology.
But in writing about stocks to sell investment publications, you can’t just write about the stock. You can’t write about the company or their technology, either.
You have to find a bigger story.
You have to find how the technology will be used.
You have to paint a picture of a much bigger future. A future the company you’re talking about is well-poised to capitalize on.
That’s what I’ve been looking for today.
That’s what I’ve been researching for hours. More than four hours already.
I’ve found the idea. I’m not going to share it here. But it is good. It’s really good.
This part of the copywriting process is painful. Agonizing.
But, it’s what leads to controls. It’s what leads to marketing that moves markets.
I’m reminded of a conversation with the world’s first billionaire copywriter…
If you’re in direct response, you should be familiar with Bill Bonner. He is the founder of what is now the Agora publishing empire, consisting of dozens of smaller publishers primarily in the health and wealth niches.
They’re the biggest player in direct response marketing today.
Their revenue is somewhere in the 9 to 10 figure range.
And marketing as of a couple years ago claimed that if he were to actually have his company valued to sell, as well as his personal assets, as well as his international real estate portfolio, Bill Bonner would very likely be a billionaire.
He also happens to be a copywriter.
I think he qualifies as the world’s first billionaire copywriter.
He launched what is now Agora with a sales letter for International Living that was pretty much unbeatable as a control for decades.
And in 2010, I actually managed to score an interview with Bill, when he appeared to keynote the AWAI Bootcamp.
During the interview, Bill told me something critically important.
He told me that if you want to be successful as a copywriter, you need to find the story and big idea that excites you.
If you can’t do that, you’re not going to excite anyone else.
And so you have to dig, and dig, and dig to find the story.
If you’re not willing to do this work, you won’t write controls…
It’s easy to get lazy.
It’s easy to think you just have to say the right sing-song combination of words, using the right headline formula, and you’ll have people buying.
Your headline is IRRELEVANT if you don’t have the right idea, the right story.
Your style is USELESS if your substance isn’t there.
Once you have the right idea and you start to write, some of this comes back into play.
But if you can’t find that story that will completely captivate your market, you’re out of luck.
In my Control-Beating Project Pre-Flight Plan, I go through the exhaustive thinking process I follow before I start writing a word of copy, in order to dig up these ideas.
One of the most critical questions I ask is…
What curiosity-provoking, captivating story will stop them in their tracks?
This is NOT an easy question to answer. Often it’s the hardest part of the whole project.
But when you do find it…
And you’re able to connect it to your big idea (because it should be connect-able but not necessarily already connected)…
And that connects to your offer…
It becomes so much easier to sell.
Great copywriters are sales detectives…
John Carlton tells a great story about this.
He was selling a golf DVD. A run-of-the-mill golf pro was teaching a run-of-the-mill method, telling a run-of-the-mill story.
Sure, it worked.
Apparently if you followed his advice, you could smash the golf ball straight down the fairway, however many yards further… (I’m not a golfer, sorry.)
But everybody says that.
John new that. He knew he needed a REASON WHY this was different.
So he’s hours into interviewing this golf pro.
And he asks a question.
“Where’d you pick up this technique, anyway?”
And the guy says, “Oh, it’s not that interesting. I was golfing one day, and our group was behind this one-legged golfer…”
John fell out of his chair.
He dug further.
And one of his most famous — and successful — ads was born…
“Amazing Secret Discovered By One-Legged Golfer Adds 50 Yards To Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks and Slices… And Can Slash Up To 10 Strokes From Your Game Almost Overnight!”
It was the same program. The same teacher. The same content.
But once John realized that the guy picked up a balance secret by watching a one-legged golfer play…
He suddenly had a captivating story to tell.
There is no other way…
Rosser Reeves’ original definition of the Unique Selling Proposition said that it was an idea that could “move the mass millions.”
It’s incredibly rare as a copywriter that you can find that in your product or service.
You have to dig deeper.
You have to do the legwork.
You have to do the research.
You have to connect the dots.
Find something that makes your heart skip a beat. Or, in the words of Marty Edelston, that makes you vibrate.
Then write that, tied to your offer.
That’s where your next breakthrough will come from.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
