Psychology and online marketing

There are volumes of training out there on writing sales copy that won’t convey what Frank Cushing can effectively teach you just in 8 sentences.  Unfortunately he doesn’t teach it… but I’ve got some of the best “unintentional training” from him that is going to absolutely ROCK your marketing world!  But first, I’ve really got to briefly tell you why his life is so incredibly fascinating to me.

Frank is an online sales copy-writer, an entrepreneur who works on a contractual basis which means he’s in total control, working only when he wants to.  He is a US citizen who has decided to travel abroad full-time.  He lives, traveling from one beautiful place to the next, staying just until he and his wife get the itch to move on and explore another country, another culture, another hemisphere.

He is fluent in Japanese and amusingly functional in several other languages (meaning he can functionally communicate but his verbal missteps make the locals laugh).  Every week or so he’ll write a post about the travels and adventures on his blog displaying a unique writing ability that allows you to freely imagine the unique beauty and comical events of the nomadic experience he lives….ok, I know I digress!

So would you now like to learn one of the key strategies to successful copy writing to your target market?  I’ll let Frank tell you himself with the only 4 paragraphs in the entire blog where he talks about what he does:

The secret to successful copy-writing is to get the customer to believe their life will be improved if they buy your product.

When I write copy, I imagine the feeling (when I was in middle school) of walking out of a shoe store in a new pair of sneakers because at that instant, my life got better because of the product purchased.

I would dream about the next pair of shoes.  They would give me the ability to run faster, jump higher and always get the girl.  No matter that none of those things ever happened–the feeling was present.

A pair of royal blue Nike waffle trainers with a bright yellow swoosh spotlighted in a shoe store window has provided me with inspiration to write copy that has sold a mountain of goods.

Perhaps the promise of a new pair of sneakers should not be to “run faster, jump higher and get the girl” but instead to “inspire copywriting that sells.”  Nah, that promise would never sell a single pair–even though it’s true!

What Frank is describing is the principle strategy I call “Sell them what they want & then deliver what they need”.  He needed shoes but what he was in the market for were shoes that would positively impact his self perception.

So many marketers try to sell people on what they need when that, quite frankly won’t motivate action because, well… It isn’t sexy at all!  You have to sell them what they desperately want and then deliver on what you know they need as a vehicle to get there.

How To Apply That To Make Money Money Online

If there is one major take away I want you to get, it’s this: You must be the parent in your sales relationship! Its best if I explain it this way: When you were young and your parents wanted to take you on a trip to Disney World in January how did they tell you?  They got you all excited about going to Disney, how warm it would be, about Mickey, Goofy, Magic Mountain and how much fun you would have….

In that initial “sales announcement” they never led with the pain of having to pack your clothes, wake up before dawn to load everything into the car or the excruciating boredom yet to ensue from being trapped with your sister for the 10hr road trip it took!  They sold you the excitement of the final destination, not what it took to get there because the donkey work isn’t sexy!

I see marketers all the time that think writing compelling sales copy involves selling to the needs of their target market.  Wrong! You have to tell them about the vacation in Florida where its warm and fun and for God-sake stop selling the 10hr road trip because (say it with me) it ain’t sexy!

There are ineffective marketers that will respond “I feel that’s deceptive” but that makes no sense!!  Here’s why: your compelling call to action, the value of your product/service is reflected in the fact that you can sell the vacation destination.  You’re only marketing deceptively when you know you’re selling them a car with the check engine light blinking that you know can’t get them there.

Think about it; when you announced the trip to your kids, you wouldn’t exclaim; “Guess what??  We’re going to ride in a car for 10 straight excruciating hrs tomorrow! Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

Will they have to drive in order to get there? Sure, but no “marketing parent” even mentions that until they’re excited and sold on going to Disney World because at that point it doesn’t matter!  They’d run through a wall to get there…which is exactly the emotional place you want your prospects to be when you ask for the sale and convey the price. Make sense?

It Comes Down To Learning 2 Main Things

To separate yourself from failing marketers and successfully build the marketing bridge to mass conversions you need to concentrate on doing just two things really well:

1.      Accurately describe in detail the priorities, needs & wants of the niche target market your product/service is designed to resonate with

2.      As you start to make your compelling case for them to buy your stuff, emotionally become that person, channeling them if you will, and “Sell them what they want”…the final destination….sell them Disney!

Many Internet marketers don’t do the donkey work required to successfully execute #1, and hardly any of those marketers know the importance of doing #2 at all. Trust me on this, if you get those 2 down you will be a marketing stud (or stud-ette) who, given traffic, can coerce mass conversions at will, moving product regardless of the quality (you’ll have that power so you have to promise me now that you won’t be pulled over to the dark side!).

How important is the information I’ve just given you here to being successful marketing anything online?  Internet marketing guru Frank Kern made over 1M in a single day from those strategies and later created a training that taught people how to do those 2 things well and it sold like hot cakes…that’s impressive but not as impressive as this…he set the price-point at over $1,600 a pop and practically crashed the server he sold so many of them!

So what’s the real quantifiable impact of applying all this to your online marketing bottom line?  Let me just say that in my experience, it’s the difference in making a few hundred dollars a month and $100,000 a year.  No kidding… It’s that important!