Copywriting Tutorial Part 2: Secrets to Writing ‘Grab Em by the Throat’ Copy

In Part 1 of this series, we went over the birds-eye view of your copy. We talked about the proven formula that drives your prospect from the attention stage, on down to the action stage! 

If you missed part 1 and you want to get caught up,  you can see it HERE now! (Part 2 will make a lot more sense if you check that out first! ?) 

Now we’re going to dig into how to make your copy shine throughout the formula…so your readers keep reading…and systematically start seeing that YOU and YOUR offer are the solution that they need. 

What you’ll read below works for all the copy you write. Sales pages, emails, blog posts, social media posts, you name it. You can take an element of what you’re about to read and apply it to see better results! 

Sound good? Then let’s get cracking! 

The MUST-DO… IF You Want to Create High-Converting Copy…

In a nutshell, you MUST know your target market like the back of your hand. 

If you don’t have this right, your copy won’t convert, period! (Except maybe by accident… and that’s not a good marketing strategy!) 

You MUST know their…

• • Wants 
  • Needs
  • Desires
  • Goals
  • Fears
  • Obstacles
  • Mental Blocks 
  • Insecurities

If you don’t absolutely know the things that your target market wants and desires most, plus the things that are keeping them from attaining those things… then your copy simply cannot work. 

You'll be sending the wrong message to the wrong person. 

Knowing all those things above will certainly help you get the right message to the right prospect. More importantly, it will prove that YOU are the one that can help them… with either your product, your service, or by joining you in your business opportunity. 

Write Like You Speak (and Use Your Target Market’s Language) 

Once you know your target market like the back of your hand, you can then start speaking their language. Each marketplace and niche has its own language and slang they use. 

When you speak that language too, you create an instant bond with them. 

BUT… it must sound natural. It must be YOU, talking to THEM, as a friend. So just write like you speak. 

There are no English grammar rules in copy. Your copy can make your English teacher want to vomit — and that’s fine. Because you’re not getting graded on your grammar. You're getting graded on how many opt-ins, sales, and sign-ups you can get. 

So write like you speak and it’ll go along way in amping up your copy. 

Rub Salt On the Wound…

When someone lands on your copy, it’s not out of the kindness of their heart. They’re there because they have some sort of pain they want a solution to. But how hot are they to really solve that problem? 

If you’re human then you know what I’m talking about. There are probably some real points of pain you’re facing in YOUR life that you’re just not taking care of. Because well…it just hasn’t gotten that comfortable yet. 

This is why you must remind your prospective customer exactly why they’re on the page. 

You must rub salt in the wound to make them feel the pain at a visceral level. Remind them that they came for a reason. And you want to make them why they don’t have to deal with this any longer.

But once you do this, you must deliver…

Offer a Solution to the Pain…

Nobody wants to feel that extra burn to their pain if you’re not going to give them a solution to alleviate that pain. 

And here’s what much of your competition doesn’t realize. It doesn’t have to mean physical pain. In fact, most times, what your prospect is looking for is for you to alleviate their deep emotional pains.

For instance… your prospect may be overweight and want to lose weight (if that’s the marketplace you’re in.) But why do they really want to lose weight? 

• • Is it because they’re not happy with how they look with the extra pounds? 
  • Are they sick of having low self-esteem because of their weight? 
  • Are they worried because they just got a scary diagnosis from their doctor? (Fear is a big motivator)

How about someone who might be wanting to start a home business? Most of your competition will assume it’s because they need extra money. But they won’t dig into the real why. 

• • Is it because they live in agony day after day, going to a job they hate… and a home business would help them get out of their job so they can finally feel free?
  • Is it because retirement is coming soon, and they’re fearing a future of not having enough money to sustain their lifestyle (And they don’t want to have to depend on their kids or government to get by?)
  • Or maybe it’s simply because the neighbor is always showing off their new cars and beautiful homes, and bragging about vacations…and they want to experience the same thing? 

Your prospect's issues are causing them emotional pain in one way or another, and so YOUR solution should be able to help them solve the emotional pain. And that’s where your copy should tap into. 

Because when it does, not only is it extremely powerful, but it will drastically boost conversions… but when you can solve someone’s mental anguish…they’ll follow YOU to the ends of the earth. 

Use the Power of Story! 

The story is one of the most powerful elements of persuasion there are. 

When you’re telling a story, you’re putting your prospects in what’s very similar to — if not exactly like — a hypnotic trance. (If you do it right!) 

As humans we love stories. 

It’s ingrained in our DNA because, throughout history, that’s how we learned. The elder tribesman would sit around and tell stories to the young tribes-people so that they would learn things like which dangers to be wary of, where to find food, and so on. 

You can see the evidence of how much people love stories in today’s world of binge-watching. People don’t want the story to end, and they NEED to see what happens next. (The open-loop!) 

Stories don’t have to be long and contrived…and they don’t even have to be your own story. 

What your story must do to be ultra-effective is to allow the prospect to see themselves in the story. To help them see themselves being able to go on a journey as who they are, and come out the other side who they want to be, living the NEW life they want to live! 

The best way to get better at stories is to start reading more stories, studying stories, and to start telling more stories (even if you stink at it now!) 

One of the best ways to suck someone into your story is to tell them that YOU know exactly how they feel… because you once went through the same things. Detail that story so they start recognizing things about their own lives and things experiencing they’re dealing with right now. 

In other words, you want them to place themselves in YOUR story. 

This builds rapport and creates a bond between you and the reader. They think, “Wow, this person really understands me”, which therefore leads them to believe that YOU are the person that can help them. 

Tackle Objections (AND Skepticism!) 

No matter how well you layout your case, or describe your product or service, your prospect will have objections. 

Before they’ll pull the trigger and take action (opt in to your list, buy your products, join your opportunity), you must tackle these objections. 

The trick with writing great copy is anticipating exactly what those objections will be…and then addressing them. When you do this, you’re entering that conversation that your prospect is having in their mind. 

Common objections…

• • It’s too expensive
  • It won’t work
  • It’s too hard
  • I don’t know how to do it
  • I won’t be able to do it
  • This is a scam

2 Simple Ways to Handle Objections…

The easiest way to hit objections is with a F.A.Q section or page. This is simply because you’re able to layout the objections one by one in the form of a question, and then hit on each one. 

The other (and more effective) way is to hit on these objections throughout the body of your copy. This flies under the radar, and you’re handling their objections along the way, without them even realizing it’s happening.  

For instance, you could say something like…

“When I first heard my upline tell me how much it would cost to join, I almost fell over in my chair. That was more than I had, and I knew my husband would murder me if I charged that much on our already maxed credit card. 

Then I realized that the reason I’m in a position that $299 seemed too expensive was that I was working on a fixed salary, with huge bills, and no supplementary income to cover costs like this. 

And it hit me like a brick that if I don’t do this now…I may never get out of this situation!” 

Now you’ve just tackled your prospect’s price objection covertly, without them even realizing you’re doing so! 

Make your Copy SIMPLE to Consume

When someone lands on your page, they’re in a hurry. You can always assume that. They’re also lazy. (Hint: Almost all of us are inherently lazy.)

So when they get to a page full of big blocks of text, it looks like it’s going to be work to get through it. It’s overwhelming, and the perception is that it’s going to take too much time and it’s gonna be work. 

Perhaps this is from years and years of having to read boring textbooks growing up in school. 

So just like you’ve seen demonstrated here, keep your paragraphs short. Leave lots of white space, and make your page pleasing to the lazy eyes of your readers. 

This will allow your copy to start getting read. (Of course, it won’t be read for long if it’s not talking directly to the prospect's interests, wants, and desires.) 

Use Sub-Heads to Break Up Copy to Drive Your Reader Down the Page! 

Subheads are hugely important in copy…but often overlooked for their power. 

And the reason is simple. As humans, we have very short attention spans (proven by science). This means your prospect’s mind will veer off when reading your copy. 

If that happens, and their attention stays off, they won’t understand the benefits of what you’re showing, and worse yet…they’ll leave your page. Likely never to return! 

And subheads are the key to pull them back! 

Subheads help in a few ways, one being to keep people’s attention on YOUR page. 

First… it helps grab attention once somebody does start to veer off. 

Your subheads act as little attention grabbers as people are going through the motion of reading. You can think of subheads as another headline, selling them on the next section of your copy. 

Second… most people are skimmers. Again they’re in a hurry. There are billions of pages online, and tons of stuff trying to constantly steal their attention from YOU. 

Therefore use your subheads to drive them down the copy, even if they don’t read all the copy. 

Your subheads should tell the story that your copy is telling. Your reader should know exactly what your product will do for them, just by subheads alone. 

Your goal is to get them to the buy button! Anyway, you have to do it! 

Now Go Improve Your Copy! 

There you have it. Now between the AIDA formula in Part 1, and what you’ve just read above, you’re ready to start applying your new skills.

Will you be a master? Probably not. That takes time of course. But your copy will significantly improve as you keep all the above in mind as you write! 

You rock,

PS: Want to work directly with me? Click Here