It’s Sunday afternoon.
Three-year-old Eli is sitting there on the floor, reading a book about trucks.
And, he turns to the back cover.
There’s an ad for “other books in the series” with little pictures of the other books.
So Eli points to one, turns to his mum and asks:
“Mama, can I read this one?”
“No, darling,” Hayley says.
A fair answer. After all, we don’t have any of them.
And normally, that would be that.
But at this age, a dangerous new word has entered Eli’s vocabulary …
“Why?”
Oh, yes.
The typical two-year-old “No” has now given way to an even scarier favourite word.
And thus it begins:
“Because we don’t have them,” explains Hayley.
“Why?”
“Because we don’t own everything in the world.”
“Why?”
“Because … our house can’t fit everything in the world,” says Hayley, getting more and more desperate.
(Not the angle I expected her to take, but you have to think on your feet in these situations, so I forgive her.)
“Why?”
“I don’t know!!!”
Poor Hayley gives up in despair. It’s not easy trying to satisfy a three-year-old’s curiosity.
But if you think that’s hard?
It’s just as hard to try and get a skeptical person to buy from you.
When you’re writing sales copy, you need to think of your market like a three-year-old — and imagine they’re asking, “Why?”
It comes in many forms:
- Why are you talking to me?
- Why should I care?
- Why does that work?
- Why should I believe you?
Fail to answer any one of these, and you’ll get the sales equivalent of a three-year-old tantrum:
i.e. your reader just closes your sales page and goes back to Facebook.
That’s why when you write copy, you need to load it with proof and reasons to believe.
Legendary A-list copywriter John Carlton calls this “reason-why” copy.
And in my email from a couple of days ago, I showed you an example, when I built a sales hook for a new product.
If I’d simply said “Take advantage of a huge opportunity to profit in DFS — get the best tips in Australia for just a few dollars per week!”, nobody would be interested.
Which is why I didn’t say that.
Instead, I told the full story. Why the sport was about to blow up, big-time. Why Australians had a unique advantage. Why the guy offering to guide them was in fact Australia’s best tipster. And why it was an insane deal that he was offering his insights for just a few bucks a week.
Your copy should do the same.
But take heed:
This tip is most effective for sales pages.
In emails, it can backfire, for reasons I won’t reveal right now.
So don’t just start blindly writing all your copy with answers to “why” questions. You need to know what you’re doing.
Oh, what’s that?
You don’t know what you’re doing?
Ah, that is a terrible shame.
If only there were someone who did know …
Who would write your sales copy for you, using these secrets in the right way …
Who had a waitlist you could get on to apply to work with him …
And who put a link to this waitlist right … here?
Yeah.
If only.
😜
C’mon. Enough kidding around. If you want my copywriting help, click that link, ya big toddler.
Why?
Because I said so …
Daniel Throssell