“I feel like I’m talking to a celebrity right now,” said the voice on the other end of the phone.
“Ha! Come on,” I said.
It was my best friend Jesse, calling me from the USA.
He confessed that he’d been digging my regular emails lately.
So he’d called up to ask about my process for doing them (he’s a copywriter himself).
As I explained the psychology behind the way I write, he was fascinated.
“Super interesting … and it’s working,” he said. “I’m loving them. It’s like I want to tell people, ‘Hey you know that guy whose emails everyone’s reading? Well, I’m his friend!’”
Thankfully, my astute social skills allowed me to instantly deduce that this was a social phenomenon formally known as ‘joking’.
To my knowledge Jesse does not in fact introduce himself as “friend of the Tom Cruise of email”.
(Although I wouldn’t mind that nickname, I love Tom Cruise movies.)
But it does illustrate an important lesson:
So many people have this dumb idea that copywriters have magic powers.
I can’t count the number of job offers I’ve had that say some variation of “I need a copywriter who can write to SELL and get my customers salivating like hungry dogs for my product!!”
The idea being that a good enough copywriter should be able to come in, write some sales copy pitching their product to their list, and make ‘em much-o moolah right off the bat.
(Never mind, Dr. Quackyduck, that you’re selling a “spirit power wristband” to a cold list you haven’t mailed in years … yes, actual job offer I have had)
But, as I always tell my clients:
Copy is a but a part of the equation.
More important than the copy is your offer.
And more important than your offer is your relationship with your list:
You want your list to trust you so much they’ll buy your next offering sight unseen, just like a Tom Cruise fan will buy tickets to his newest movie as soon as they know he’s in it.
You want your list to be so crazy about you they’ll tell their friends about you, just like moviegoers post on Facebook about how cool Jack Reacher was.
Basically, you want your list to see you as a celebrity in your field.
Because if they don’t, selling to them is basically Mission: Impossible.
And the simple way to do that?
Get in front of them regularly (every day if you can), and show ‘em why you’re an A-lister at what you do.
The trick is, of course, to do it in a way where they keep wanting to hear that from you — like you are right now, at the bottom of yet another daily email.
And yes, that’s where the copy comes in.
Not many people can do it right … and those who can are in the Minority (Report).
Okay, that’s Far and Away too many Tom Cruise jokes for one email.
To get in contact with one of the few who can help take you from Oblivion to being Top Gun in your market, go here and I’ll help you make it Rain, Man:
https://www.upwork.com/fl/danielthrossell
(Gah sorry couldn’t help myself)
Daniel