True Story:

Your AdWords Campaign is Smoking HOT!  Massive Click Through Rates with Huge Search Volume.

You just hit # 1 in Google for your Main Keyword Phrase, Organically.

Your Joint Venture Partners have TESTED swipe copy and their hands are hovering over the "send" button.

You unleash all your traffic at once and….

FAIL.   Your conversion rate is less than .05%.

This is true.  I know this because it happened to me.  And like a cheese grater yanked across the soft-fleshy part of your inner thigh…

Being stubborn with a large ego usually causes me "interpersonal problems", but in this case it caused me to limp back over to Microsoft Word, flip on "Track Changes" and start tearing up the offending copy.

13 hours later (wired on Orangina and the occasional clove), I was ready to test again.

Conversion went from .05% to 6.38%.

Here's what happened…

To begin, I'm pretty good at getting traffic, ya know – getting people to my sites.  But what happened here was I forgot to consider the "The Arrival Mood" of said people.

What you message your prospects governs how they will behave when they show up to your offer. I totally spaced on that little nugget and paid for it big time.  Don't be like me.

Do this instead:

You can create buying behavior with just a few simple tweaks to your sales copy – and it doesn't matter what you're offering.

Here's the first thing I did.  I stopped "selling".

  I know.  Just hit 'delete' now, right?  Heh.  Seriously, I stopped selling and instead focused on how to CREATE DESIRE in the readers mind by focusing on what Freud called the "ID" of human nature. And what I mean is, the ID doesn't follow rational lines of cogitation when it considers its next action.

BTW, neither does your prospect.

Think about this – every prospect that arrives at your sales message ALREADY has some form of desire.  The desire has already been created somewhere else.  And it was created NOT by the products FEATURES; it's created by a FANTASY RESULT.

Fantasy Result?  Sounds kinda weird, right?  What I mean is – the result that your buyer absolutely LUSTS after is an emotional concoction based on a "Rescue Fantasy".

If you sell acne medicine, the result of using that medicine will be the elimination of acne. That's the reality of the product's result.

Your buyer, on the other hand, visualizes that little tube of goo as his "enabler" to get a hot date to the prom.

He could smell like (wet) burnt dog hair, be constantly drooling and be sporting a rented tuxedo shirt with baby blue frill – but at that very moment, the tube of pimple goo (priority shipped and liberally applied) is going to get him a date with his own personal version of Cindy Crawford named Libby from 4th period chemistry.  A fantasy, to be sure.

Another example:

You sell camping gear.  And your new hot product is LED-based Coleman lanterns.  You turn them on, they light up (bluish-ly) and the battery lasts forever, kinda. They're waterproof, don't use explosive fuel or an open flame as a light source, and you take them… camping.

Your buyer, on the other hand is thinking about how he can once again let the kids have one, because the old-fashioned kerosene version of the lantern set fire to the $1,856 tent the family used on the last trip when a game of chutes and ladders went terribly wrong.

And…AND his buddy Carl (Buddies named 'Carl' know everything about camping gear apparently) says that the blue LED light doesn't attract mosquitoes.

Carl is of course, WRONG about that (notice color of light from bug zapper…), but it sounded good and Carl wears flannel shirts to church so your buyer listens to Carl.

The point is, your buyer is definitely not thinking about the features of the product (who the heck cares how LED lights work?)

He's probably not even thinking about the benefits of the product (LED Lights last a long time, are durable, and…blue – whatever).

What your buyer is FANTASIZING about is the dramatic (and sometimes unreasonable effect of something as simple as a non-exploding light source, and how using it will play out the next time he goes camping with the family.

It means that when his child starts yelling for him because he has to pee at 3am in the middle of the woods, Our buyer doesn't have to unzip his sleeping bag, rummage for his slippers, kick/trip over his wife, unzip their tent, wait for the pilot to light on the exploding lantern, walk his kid to the public rest room….

…Because now, since the LED lantern won't explode (even during a full-contact game of Jenga), his kids can safely have their own and walk themselves to the potty. And since Crystal Lake is a pretty safe campground, you sleep soundly.

New Lantern = Harmony.

We buy 'things' because we think 'things' will change circumstances important to us.

You have to tap into what those Rescue Fantasies might be to create LUSTFUL buying behavior.   And don't worry about hitting the exact target of the buyer's fantasy either…

…because if you get them thinking about MORE fantastic 'circumstantial improvements', you're just feeding more into the desires that they've already created.

This short video shows how EASILY you can create Lustful Buying Desire

There's 2 killer examples, so have a notebook ready to copy them.

Now, I'm off to fantasize how that treadmill in the corner of my bedroom is making me thinner just by looking at it.  And who knew they made such excellent clothes hangers, too?

Freud-ingly,

Andy Jenkins

P.S.  I'm hoping to have a VERY Cool update on the state of Search Engine Optimization for you really soon.  Leslie Rohde, Dan Thies, and Jerry West have been giving "The Google" fits with some of the shenanigans they've been…"getting away" with.

More very sooooon.

Feel free to forward this to a friend, partner, colleague, or persons named Carl.

Follow meeeee on Twitter:  www.twitter.com/AndyJenkins

Hello again!

If you did your homework, you've opted in at Mark Joyner's site
to watch the 2 Joe Sugarman videos I told you about yesterday.

As promised, here's my little "cheat sheet" of notes that will
help you break down and study Joe's masterful presentation, and
hopefully use a couple of his tactics in your OWN marketing.

And don't forget to join Mark, Joe, AND Ted Nicholas tonight at
8pm for a LIVE webinar. You should have already been registered
if you signed up to see video 2.  If you didn't, there's still
time!

Plus – FAIR WARNING – Here be *SPOILERS*!  I'm going to talk IN
DETAIL about some of the sneaky, cool tricks Joe used in his
presentation, and the effect of seeing it work will be RUINED
if you don't watch the videos FIRST.  (So go already!)

Once you've watched both videos, start here:

=====

Steering People with Storytelling

What I love about Joe's presentation here is how it shows an
extremely masterful use of storytelling, and how he uses this
powerful tool to accomplish multiple different goals – all of
which cumulatively add to the power of his closing offer.

Here are a few things I spotted.  Consider how Joe used these
methods, and how YOU might be able to adapt them to your OWN
marketing.

Creating Curiosity

The longest running story in Joe's presentation had to do with
the Batman credit cards.  Did you notice how that one plot
thread was woven through Joe's whole presentation, tying the
ending to the beginning?

When you have a long sales letter or sales pitch, you want to
have some kind of unifying thread like this simply because it
makes it easier for people to stick with you through your pitch
if you give them something worthwhile to pay attention to.

The viewer's desire to know the end of the Batman story
literally tugs at you through the whole presentation.  In all
honestly, 100% of my decision to commit to watching Part 2 of
Joe's video based on my unshakable curiosity about the Batman
cards.  Would Joe EVER get to sell them?  Would they be a huge
hit?  How does it END???

Curiosity is a powerful force.  It's a MAGNET that draws
people's full attention.  It's also a powerful motivator – in
this case the video was split just where it needed to be so
that the REAL ACTION Mark wanted from me (signing up for the
webinar) seemed like NOTHING.

The itch of curiosity was so strong that it was WORTH my name
and email address so I could scratch that itch with the
resolution of the story I had become so involved with.

Giving Value to the Worthless

Also notice how the card itself is literally worthless.  Joe
has a whole useless pile of these things sitting in storage for
DOZENS of years.  The *whole point* of Joe's story about the
card is that it was a flop – a failure.  A miss.

But it's that VERY SAME STORY that creates a value for the card
NOW.  The formerly worthless card is magically transformed into
a desirable item simply BECAUSE of its unique life story.  If
you have one, then YOU have that cool story to tell.

I like to think of this as "Pedigree".  A Pedigree gives value
to something, even if the item itself has little or no value.

Other examples of this are those little garden gnome statues.
I'm sure everyone's heard the stories about the "kidnapped"
gnomes?  Basically, a person swiped a neighbor's garden gnome
before setting off on a world tour.  The "gnomenapper" sends
the neighbor postcards and photos of their lowly little gnome
in famous scenes from around the globe.

Eventually the gnome returns home with a photo album of his
globe-trotting adventures.

Suddenly, a cheap, poorly made, ceramic lawn ornament becomes a
priceless object.  All because it has a Pedigree, a History, a
STORY.

Maybe an even better example: when you catch a home run ball at
a baseball game, is that ball physically worth anything more
than any other baseball?  No, not really.  But what if it's the
winning home run of a historic World Series?  Nope, the ball is
still physically worth the same as any other dumb old baseball.

But the STORY, the PEDIGREE, the HISTORY – that can actually
add an INCREDIBLE value to an otherwise worthless item.

The desire to be a part of those kinds of historic, epic
stories is what drives us to want these kind of items.

What Joe does here is create a wonderful, engaging story, and
by offering you a Batman card at the end, he invites you to be
a PART of that story – to make it your OWN story.

By the end, I wanted one of those worthless pieces of plastic
so bad I went straight to eBay to see in I could find one.

Breeding Familiarity

Last week, I talked about how engaging both the emotional and
logical parts of your prospect's mind can help you create
powerful calls to action.

Well in order for people to trust you enough to let you
interact with them emotionally, you need to become FAMILIAR to
them.  Joe does this in his presentation through telling you
humanizing stories of his failures.

If you've ever struck out with a girl you really liked, you
felt empathy with Joe when he told you about how he studied for
weeks to become an expert in San Diego so he could impress a
girl who was from there – only to find out she was from
Sacramento, after all.

I'm sure if any of you have been in business for long,
especially the bootstrap, entrepreneurial kind of business, you
can DEEPLY relate to Joe's stories of having to borrow money
from friends.  You can also feel his pain when he repeatedly
strikes out with selling his Batman cards – we all know what
it's like when an idea fails.

Through these humanizing anecdotes, the audience comes to feel
a kinship with Joe.  "He gets knocked around by life, just like
me!"

Manufacturing Trust

So Joe's heartwarming tales of overcoming common struggles of
life and business allowed him to create an emotional bond with
you.  He also uses storytelling to engage with what I spoke
about last week, your "Lazy Skeptic".

He needs his audience to trust him.  Now due to those emotional
connections he made with his other stories, he HAS convinced
you that he has a trustworthy character.

He even tells you this in his video – when he talked about how
he paid every penny back to the investors in his failed
business, even though it took years of hard work.

But he also needs you to trust his FACTS, not just his
intentions.  You know he's a good guy at heart, but can you
believe his other claims?

Well he proves it through demonstrating Authority.

The stories about his incredible business successes with Blu-
Blockers, and his advertising agency, and how he gives seminars
for people in beautiful Hawaii…  those all give him
credibility as an expert in his chosen field.  The help
establish his position of AUTHORITY.

Of course, the killer introduction he was given before he took
the stage helped too.

Do you think you would have been as likely to watch Joe's whole
presentation if you hadn't been told who he was before he got
started?

I doubt it – but he was presented as an authority, and his
story confirmed it.

If the Wildest Claim is True…

Here's another cool thing Joe did.  Do you remember when he
revealed his time working for the CIA as a spy in Germany,
helping Russians defect?

That's a pretty insane claim, right?  How many people can boast
of that kind of experience?

Well he also said that as part of his training, he needed to
learn to speak perfect, fluent German, without an accent.

Did you catch later in his talk, where he actually spoke in
German?

Do you see how by providing this little detail of proof for his
most OUTRAGEOUS claim makes every other claim he made easily
more believable?

Let this serve as a reminder – when you need to provide proof
for your own products and services, do what you can to prove
your MOST EXTREME claim.  If you can do that, everything else
you claim will usually be taken at face value, making it much
easier to make your case for a sale or deal.

Greasing the Chute

Now, one of the most powerful things Joe did with this
presentation is a cool little time manipulation.  You'll recall
he insists that everyone fill out his order for at the
*beginning* of the presentation.

What this allows him to do is create an actual sense of URGENCY
and SCARCITY at the end of the presentation, when he drops the
price for only one minute.

If you DID fill out the form like he asked, you can immediately
hand it in.  It lowered the level of commitment for those that
followed the instructions.  They didn't need to *snap* out of
the moment to get their wallet and fill out the form.  All they
had to do was say "yes" and hand over a piece of paper.

Now when that flurry of people jumped at his offer, what do you
think happened to the people that had NOT followed his
instructions?

You can practically HEAR them FRANTICALLY filling out the forms
because he left them NO TIME to reconsider, and they were even
further pressured by all the people turning in the forms in
front of them.

It reminds me of this recurring nightmare I have where I'm
still in school and I forgot a test, and everyone is turning in
their final report and my page is BLANK!

It makes you gasp and gulp and rush.

And he creates that frenzy without trying very hard at all!
It's amazing to watch.

Be Consistent and Authentic

The final thing that Joe did, which I thought was very subtle
but VERY powerful – was PROVE that he was being authentic with
his scarcity play.

Now I'm not saying this really was pre-arranged, but he
couldn't have planned it better.

When the guy from the audience tries to turn in his form to Joe
LATE, and Joe turns him down…  Remember that?

I bet any doubt or skepticism ANYONE had about Joe and whether
he was for real, and whether giving him their credit card
number was a safe thing to do… I bet it VANISHED when he did
that.

Why?

Simply because he PROVED that he would DO what he SAID.

By proving that you will do what you say – that your claims
(and stories) are AUTHENTIC – that you will behave CONSISTANTLY
with your words – you win nearly unbreakable trust from your
audience.

See, Joe made a SPECIAL offer to those who acted and took his
offer during that minute.  People LOVE to feel special and to
be a part of something special.

If he had just let that guy squeak in, it would have erased the
"special-ness" of his offer.  You can even hear some of the
audience boo-ing the guy trying to sneak in his order form!

They were boo-ing because Joe created the EXPECTATION that they
needed to act fast.  He MET that expectation when he turned the
straggler down.  All he did was behave consistant with what he
said, and the crowd LOVED him for it.

And there's a good reason I'm closing with that point.  These
techniques I'm revealing to you here are EXTREMELY powerful.
When you get good at persuasion, it's as close to a superpower
or real-life magic spells as you can get.

And because of that, we ALL have a RESPONSIBILITY to be
Authentic and Consistent – We MUST NEVER use these powers to
manipulate people into doing something harmful.  We MUST NEVER
use these powers to leave people in worse shape than we met
them.  We MUST NEVER lie or be dishonest when we tell these
powerful kinds of stories.

In exchange for my teaching you about all these little "secret"
tricks and tactics, all I ask is that you dedicate yourself to
being one of the "good guys" in our industry.

Because we all know there's way too many of the bad.

Until next time,
Keep Stomping
~Andy Jenkins

P.S. DON'T FORGET – I didn't make ANY of this stuff up – all
the cool stuff I talk about here comes from Joe Sugarman's
videos on this page.  If you already signed up there, don't
miss the chance to get on the LIVE webinar TONIGHT at 8pm
Eastern – Joe himself, Ted Nichols, and Mark Joyner – all
MASTERS of the art and science of persuasion.  Join them and
hear them talk WAY more about this kind of thing.  I'll be
there listening myself.

P.P.S. Leave a comment below if you don't mind.
We love the feedback – let us know what you're thinking!

Today, I want to talk to you a little bit about copywriting – an often
overlooked and undervalued part of your internet marketing arsenal.

Primarily, I want to give you a quick and easy set of guidelines that
should help you construct your messages so they CONNECT with
the reader on a deeper level, and MOTIVATE them to take the
action you want.

The reason I think this is a GREAT time for you to learn a little
about this is because our industry is going launch-crazy right now.
Everyone who's anyone is trying to push one product or another
and that's a great opportunity for anyone who wants to learn
marketing.

Why?

Because you have a TON of messaging coming from the best
and the brightest marketers out there.  This is a GREAT chance
to get a crash course in what works and what doesn't – and WHY.

What I want you to get out of this article is a new way to look at
all that messaging and analyze it and learn from those
uber-successful marketers.

I want to give you a simple way to break any promotional
message down so you can see WHY and HOW it works, so you
can better apply the same powerful tactics in your own messages.

So if that's something you're interested in, read on.

NOTE: Even if you think you're a swell copywriter already,
you should still give this a look – consider it a refresher
course – so you can make sure you already know this
stuff inside and out.

Emotion: the "Old" Brain

Starting at the beginning, any time we message a prospect, our
goal is to get them to DO SOMETHING for us.  Whether it's
clicking a link, or watching a video, or filling out a form – it doesn't
matter.  We want an ACTION.  However, in order for us to get
them to take that desired action, we need to CONVINCE them
that they WANT to.

In order to MAXIMIZE your message's ability to get people to
WANT to do something for you, then to actually DO it – you
need to address two aspects of the reader's brain.

You need to appeal to EMOTION in order to create a desire for
some kind of change – and you need to appeal to LOGIC to help
them justify that desire and take action.

It's VITALLY important that you structure your messages in that
order, too.  Appeal to emotion first, THEN appeal to logic.

Here's why:

Our emotions come from a deeper, older part of our brain in
terms of evolution.  When you use storytelling to relate to people,
when you talk to them about their struggles and pains, when you
sympathize with them – those are all appeals to the Emotional part
of the brain.  It's a pretty simple system that controls those
emotions – you could even say it's primitive.

But it's SO POWERFUL.  People can practically be ENSLAVED
by their own emotions.  They often get the better of us, and they're
incredibly reactionary and almost impossible for most people to
control.  People frequently throw logic and reason right out the
window if they are emotionally charged enough.

And THAT'S why you want to appeal to emotion EARLY in your
messaging.  Emotion is a shortcut "inside" your prospect – if you
get them to relate to you, if you show them that you know how they
FEEL deep down, it triggers a powerful CONNECTION.  You have
their attention, and you have a rapport with them.

Love, envy, frustration – are all examples of powerful emotional
responses.  Appeal to those feelings – connect with those inner
states in your prospect, and it will be very easy to create in them
a DESIRE.

Most of the time, it doesn't even have to be a REASONABLE desire.
As long as you can effectively connect with the RIGHT emotions
in your target audience – if you can NAIL the way they REALLY feel
and speak to that, you can make them WANT almost ANYTHING.
It's like a magical spell.

But here's the hard part. 

Once you have the prospect under your emotional spell, you
need to break it.  It simply can't be helped.  You see, if you keep
them in that wanting stage, where they're emotionally engaged,
they won't ever do anything.  You want them to take an ACTION
now that you're tugging on their emotional strings.

Any time you do that, you're going to snap them out of their
excited emotional state and you're going to wake up another
part of their mind.

This part of the brain is the VILLAIN of our story here, and you're
going to have to learn to deal with him if you ever want to have
successful messaging.

The Lazy Skeptic

That's what I like to call this part of the brain – it acts like a
"gatekeeper" to protect us from acting purely on emotion all the time
(which is generally pretty bad for you).  We all have this mechanism,
and it does serve a useful purpose by keeping us out of trouble.
However, as marketers, he's a BIG problem for us.

The reason why is because he will use his powers of
LAZINESS and SKEPTICISM in order to keep that emotional
part of the brain from acting on the desire we created earlier.

"Why should I bother?"

"This can't possibly be true."

That's the voice of the Lazy Skeptic – and I KNOW you've
heard him whispering in your ear many times.  I sure have.

But even though he's an obstacle, it's okay, because I'm going
to tell you the perfect weapon to defeat him.

See, the Lazy Skeptic evolved much later than the emotional
part of the brain.  He functions logically and using reason, and
that's the way he can sort of talk you out of impulsive decisions.
People say they "came to their senses" or "thought better of it"
when they listen to that Lazy Skeptic voice.

And that's the key to defeating him.

You need LOGIC to silence him, and you can use his own traits
of laziness and skepticism against him.

Here's what I mean.

When you break the emotional spell you've cast on your prospects
by asking them to take an action, use LOGIC and FACTS and
FIGURES to justify that action.

Help them to validate that snap emotional decision by backing
it up with common sense.  Make them understand that what
they want to do is perfectly reasonable, and that EVERYONE
in their situation would take that same action.

When copywriting teachers tell you to write tons of bullets of
features and benefits when you're selling a product – that's what
those bullets are really for: ammunition to help gun down the
Lazy Skeptic.

You want to also turn his own powers against him.  Appeal to
the inherent laziness in everyone by talking about how easy
it is for the prospect to take the desired action.  Appeal to their
sense of skepticism by agreeing that it SOUNDS too good to
be true, but it isn't.

Guarantees and Testimonials are both tools in the same arsenal
here, helping you overcome the prospect's inner doubts.

Deep down, they WANT to act on the desire you planted, you just
need to help them realize it's SAFE to do it.  That it's OKAY to do
it.  It even helps if you can prove OTHER PEOPLE have done it
with success.

Logic for Dummies

Now, some of you may be worried about having to use logic, and
I know that can sound all academic and intimidating, but it's
really not.

You're not trying to win a debate – you're just trying to help your
prospect see that the desire you created in them makes sense.
A lot of times, if you were very effective with your emotional
appeal, you barely have to try.

Sometimes all it takes is "because".  "Do this because it's cool."
"You know you want to." 

However, be aware that the more complex and risky your
requested action is, the MORE justification you're going to
need to help your prospect act on their desire.

• High Prices
• High Risk
• High Investment

Those are all factors that the Lazy Skeptic is going to have a
problem with, but face them head-on, give reasons WHY those
steps need to be taken, and you'll do fine.

• "Our prices are high because of our incredible quality."
• "We have a no-risk guarantee."
• "It takes only minutes a day."

See, generally speaking, even though the Lazy Skeptic is more
complex and "smarter" than the old emotional brain – he's still
kind of a dummy.  It really doesn't have to be a world-class PHD
Thesis to convince him to stand aside – it just has to pass for
common sense.

As an added bonus, I'll give you a "secret shortcut" when
coming up with logical appeals.

Use as many comparisons and analogies as you can when
justifying your prospects desires and validating the action
you want them to take.

The reason is, they act like short-hand that the not-so-smart Lazy
Skeptic can quickly absorb and understand.

For example, if you're selling something and you have the lowest
price, don't say:

"We have the lowest price."

Say, "Our price is 10% lower than the nearest competitor."

Don't say "Our course is easy to read and learn with."

Say "Our course is so easy to learn, it's like downloading the
information directly into your brain."

These kinds of comparisons and analogies aren't just cute talk,
and copywriters don't just include them to be clever.

They work by providing SUPERIOR justification.

Your prospect will be saying in his inner voice – "I really want this
product because it will make me feel good.  And it's okay to get
it, because it's the cheapest one out there, and lots of other
people are buying it too!"

The job of your messaging is to help your prospect complete
that inner conversation between the different parts of his brain,
so that from his point of view, he's just acting on his own
deep desires.

In actuality, through careful appeals to Emotion (Old Brain)
and Logic (New Brain) – you've gotten him to act the way
YOU wanted him to.

Now, once your prospect TAKES that action, you need to
make sure you DELIVER on the expectations you've set up.
You NEVER want to let a prospect's Lazy Skeptic get to say
"I told you so."

But that's a WHOLE other article for another day.

I hope this somewhat weird and metaphysical ramble helps
give you some insight into the inner workings of good
copywriting, and I hope it helps you get more people to do what
you need them to do.  And I hope that means MORE
BUSINESS for you!

Until next time,
Keep Stomping.
~Andy Jenkins

P.S. Please note that I'm NOT a psychologist or brain expert or
anything – the stuff above is DRASTICALLY simplified for the sake
of making this easy to grasp and use.  Even if you KNOW
something I said above is over-simplified or just plain inaccurate
from a scientific standpoint – just know that it's based on REAL
experience writing and testing THOUSANDS of pieces of copy. 
As far as a rule-of-thumb goes, I use it, and it works for me
every time.

P.P.S. Did you like this article?  Do you want to see more?  Do
you want to know about something different?  Let us know by
leaving a comment.