Before we get into it, I have to share this email I got from a BTMSinsiders member…
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Yo Roy.
Thanks to you man, (well I put work in my sample) I’m going to be getting a job with Agora. You put it on the list of recommendations to get experience and they want promos. Lots of them.
So I’m getting the opportunity of a lifetime, my copy was the best among the recruits, and it’s starting next year.
Thank you for the courage and advice.
Forever a student.
Manuel
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Of course, it’s NOT all me — far from it. Like Manuel said, he put the work into what he did. I can’t do that part for you.
But I hear almost daily now how often someone is getting bigger opportunities in their life, career, and business because they actually went out and used what I teach.
I’ll borrow a line from Jay Abraham. I don’t do this for your intellectual entertainment. I’m relentlessly creating this daily content plus my BTMSinsiders training specifically for you to APPLY what you learn.
The good news is, the more diligent of a student you are — as measured not just by study, but by application — the more rewards you’re likely to see as a result.
(I should probably charge a lot more than $37/month for the BTMSinsiders All-Access Pass membership when my students are specifically thanking me for landing a gig at one of the most successful direct response businesses of all time… Hmm…)
On to today’s lesson…
I want to share a “sneaky” price justification technique I use in all kinds of copy — including in what you just read!
Now, I don’t specifically do this to be sneaky. Rather, it seems sneaky in retrospect. And in calling it so, your curiosity was probably piqued a little bit more for reading this.
This has become so natural to me that I don’t even think about it, in fact.
But every time I see that I’ve just done it, I think…
“Dang Roy, you’re good!”
So, what is this technique that has me fawning all over myself?
Simple: I tell a story that seems only tangentially related to my offer, that pre-frames any investment in what I’m selling as being small and completely worth it.
I have three examples. Starting with what you just read. And I’ll make this first one quick.
Let’s say that even an entry-level copywriting job at Agora has a base pay of $48,000. I don’t know, I just made that up. I know the potential upside at working at one of their divisions is $250,000 to $1,000,000 or more per year, if you’re cranking out really effective copy. But I’m making up a bare minimum salary for a junior copywriter at a really successful direct response company.
That’s $4,000 per month. So let’s imagine for a minute that Manuel feels he wouldn’t have gotten that gig without me. Even if it was just that little extra confidence to try.
I normally wouldn’t come out and say this so directly, although I am here as a lesson in effective copy…
If I turn around and offer you a $37/month membership that has been helpful in someone getting a $4,000 starting salary at a job that could eventually make them as much as $20,000 per month — or more — that $37 seems cheap!
Of course that story is pretty closely related to the offer — and there’s no problem with that — but it doesn’t even have to be for this technique to be effective…
Yesterday I wrote a Facebook post and wasn’t trying to be “sneaky” but I worked in this technique as well…
(And note, because I act from a fundamental place of INTEGRITY and PREEMINENCE, I 100% believe everything in what you’re about to read, even as I reveal what some might see as sneaky persuasion techniques that it contains. If you truly believe in whatever it is you’re offering, it is your fundamental duty to your potential customer to do everything in your power to get them to avail themselves of your product.)
Here’s what I wrote — and see if you can pick out how the story at the beginning is a preemptive price justification for what came later…
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WOMEN COPYWRITERS: there is no fiercer advocate and champion than Marcella Allison. And if you’re not at least seriously considering her Titanides event (go here: www.Titanides.com), it’s time to check it out at that link.
A story, then an unabashed endorsement for an event to which I am not invited…
** STORY **
Back when I was first getting into financial copywriting, Marcella Allison was already working directly with many of the world’s best copywriters. And, she knew everyone.
I was chatting with her at AWAI’s Bootcamp. I showed her literally the first financial promo I’d ever written. I still remember I had it on my iPad at the time. She got really excited, and said, “Do you know Mike Ward from Money Map Press?” I didn’t. So she said she’d introduce me, and wanted to show my copy to him.
At the Job Fair, later during the Bootcamp, she grabbed me. Dragged me across the room. Asked me to pull out my iPad, and the promo. And she went on to sing my praises to Mike.
At the time, the gigs Mike was offering didn’t match what I was looking to do. So I didn’t work with him right away. But later, I did. And Marcella’s endorsement had played an important role in establishing me as a copywriter to watch, in his eyes.
This is not the only time this has happened. Marcella is an incredibly fierce (and tireless!) advocate, friend, and champion.
And definitely not just to me.
EVERYONE I know who knows her well, and who earns her respect, gets this kind of treatment.
She is a constant champion for copywriters. She gives 100% and without expectation.
She’s a force to be reckoned with. And someone it absolutely, positively pays to know.
Heck, even if she never introduced you to anyone, she’d find another way to give you value.
I still remember a 10-minute hallway conversation (at another AWAI Bootcamp) about the ups and downs of freelancing life where her “keep it real” attitude and vulnerability about how ALL copywriters go through it were incredibly insightful and reassuring.
So it’s with absolutely zero reservation that I will come out and endorse something she’s doing (and no, there’s no compensation here!).
** ENDORSEMENT **
In 2014, I went to The Titans of Direct Response. And if it was a gathering of the best of the best in direct response (the audience, not just the speakers), of course, Marcella was there. Mingling, networking, working her magic.
That event was incredible on so many levels. And yet, there was one big way that it sucked…
None of the speakers were women.
I’m not writing this specifically to rant and rail on that. Rather, to give certain context to why there is now a WOMEN-ONLY conference for high-level direct response marketers. (Named “Titanides!”)
Marcella and a handful of women who were there recognized that in direct response — like all industries — women are often treated like crap, and excluded unjustly.
(Whether or not you want to believe this, it is 100% true and happens all the time. Often, not conscious and intentional, but as a result of unconscious and culturally-ingrained biases.)
The market may not know if it was a man or woman who wrote the copy, but if the woman doesn’t get the gig, she won’t have the chance to shine.
And in case my story didn’t make it clear enough, I’ll come out and say it:
Marcella is a woman of action.
So she decided to do something about it.
On the day before the official start of this year’s AWAI Bootcamp, Marcella is hosting an incredible lineup of The Titanides of Direct Response, women copywriters and marketers who are often less-celebrated, less-lauded even as they are notching up huge wins in their marketing and business.
I’m going to intentionally exclude gendered language from this:
***These are some of the smartest minds in direct response today.***
They are incredible copywriters, marketers, entrepreneurs, and business-builders.
And for a day, on October 17th, they’re opening up the doors exclusively for women copywriters and direct response marketers who want to join them. And discuss 1) what works in direct response, and 2) how women specifically can achieve maximum success in this world.
If you’re a guy, you’re not invited. Sorry. Maybe one day Marcella will hold an event with these amazing women and their peers, and you’ll get to sit in the audience and get schooled on what works in direct response today.
But Titanides is an event for women, by women. If that’s you, I encourage you to go to www.Titanides.com right now and read Marcella’s letter in full. And fully consider how this event might be exactly what you need. (And if you’re already going to AWAI, there’s no extra travel — it’s just one day earlier!)
And if you do sign up after reading what I’ve just written, please thank Marcella on my behalf for being such an incredible champion for me and so many other copywriters.
Go to: www.Titanides.com
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Again, none of that is affiliate links. It’s just me giving back to Marcella, after she treated me so well, so many times, without expectation.
But do you see what I did there?
If I’d simply said, “If you’re a woman copywriter and you’d like to learn from other women copywriters, you should check out this event…” It wouldn’t have been nearly as compelling.
But when I thought about why I’d promote Marcella’s event, in particular (aside from the awesome talent — which is simply prerequisite for me giving even a casual recommendation)…
I definitely thought about her generosity…
And, specifically, about how that generosity led me to quantifiable financial success.
Now, even at my original freelance copywriting rate of $2,000 (today I charge 10X that and am constantly turning clients away!), her introducing me to one client who hired me for even one project would have had the potential for a substantial payoff.
And if Marcella is your champion, helping you over and over again, in a lifetime relationship? That’s extraordinarily valuable!
So: how does that pre-frame the value proposition, before I even specifically tell you that you should check out her event, Titanides?
Would it seem like a smart investment at $2,000 or more?
And if in reading her letter, you realize you can get in and join a room of women like her for a fraction of that?
You might not even realize it on a conscious level (and in fact I often don’t connect the dots because this is probably more effective when it’s a subconscious realization)…
You’re going to see anything less than the value of one emphatic introduction to one great client as a smart and worthy investment.
I tell a story about how knowing Marcella gets you good clients. I present an opportunity to get to know Marcella. Suddenly you’re not thinking about the cost of a day in a room. Suddenly you’re thinking about the value of having a great connection and a fierce advocate in your corner.
Here’s my most famous use of this technique…
I actually go into great detail on this, in my line-by-line analysis in The Story Selling Master Class…
Here’s a block of copy from the first couple pages of The Titans of Direct Response letter, for the event itself (it’s not in the DVDs letter)…
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“Down To His Last $3,500 — Then $100 Million.”
True Story.
1972. Our future-$100+-million business didn’t look like much. Boardroom’s “office” was a desk in Marty’s basement, squeezed between the furnace and the wall. Marty had nearly burned through his meager startup fund, and was down to his last $3,500.
He had an idea he believed in — and tenacity. But he did not have sales.
However — even then, with his last few dollars — he understood the value of investing in Titans. So Marty called the already-legendary Gene Schwartz, and asked him to write an ad.
It would cost him $2,500 (that’s over $9,000 today). More than 70% of his budget — leaving him with barely enough to run his first test! No hesitation. Marty wrote the check. And they went to work. A four hour conversation. Marty talked. Gene took notes.
That evening, in the time his wife took to put on her makeup, Gene wrote an ad that would go down in history for launching one of the biggest, most successful direct response companies of our time.
LESSON LEARNED:
A Few Minutes or Hours with These Titans — In the Flesh — Will Completely Alter the Course of Your Business, Your Career, Your Life!
Marty and Gene BOTH made millions as they worked together to grow Boardroom into one of the world’s most-respected direct response companies.
But Marty didn’t stop with Gene. He used this lesson over and over again… Never hesitating to invest the sweat-inducing fees of A-List copywriters and consultants. Just about every Titan he could hire, he would, as fast as he could write the check…
Knowing that just one good idea — an offhand remark, a quip, a story of a seemingly unrelated success — could be worth millions, if applied.
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Much later, in the very long copy, I’m going to ask you to spend $3,500 to $5,000 to spend two to three days in the presence of Titans.
It’s an apples-to-oranges comparison, yes. But again, it pre-frames the value of the investment. Marty dropped $9,000 in today’s money (that inflation-adjustment was important to this illustration!). 70% of his budget — so it meant something.
And when I later ask you for less than $9,000… It will seem like a bargain.
I’m always on the lookout for stories like this… Especially for ROI- and wealth-driven offers…
In other fields, it might be a little tricker. Or not.
How expensive are health conditions? How does a story of a health disaster (and subsequent medical bills) help justify the cost of whatever health-related offer you’re making?
What about relationships? Divorce is easy to pinpoint as an expensive relationship problem, but it’s not the only one. What’s the cost to your career of not being able to build good working relationships? What’s the cost of not having a good relationship with your kids?
Give me a horror story, and I could probably use it to cost justify in all kinds of product categories!
The trick about making it really effective? Make it real!
Manuel’s story above? Totally real! He emailed me last week, I wanted to use it, and I didn’t even mean to turn it into a lesson for this but as the idea came together AND I wanted to share his comments, it turned out they were simpatico.
The Marcella story? It inspired this essay, yes. But that was only AFTER I wrote it, and it’d been out there a bit. When I wrote it, it was just a true story to convey my respect and gratitude for my friendship with her.
The Marty/Boardroom story? The story had been told, and I’d heard it as Boardroom legend, long before I was writing the promo. It was just a matter of it rising to the top of my mind, then editing it and working it into fulfilling that role, as I was realizing how powerful it could be.
Again, totally true stories. And then, with the right understanding and intention, also “sneaky” price justification tools.
(Goes straight to cart page.)
You’ll get immediate streaming access to ALL the training in the catalog, and a full 30 days to decide it’s right for you, with a prompt and courteous refund available if you don’t totally love it.
Oh, and you’ll get the new High-Velocity Copywriting training scheduled to come out later this week.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
