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Lars Lofgren

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The 17 Copywriting Axioms of Joseph Sugarman

April 21, 2013 By Lars Lofgren 11 Comments

Who is Joseph Sugarman?

Well, he’s considered one of the best copywriters of all time. He’s up there with David Ogilvy, Eugene Schwartz, and John Caples. He’s the real deal.

And he happened to write a book on copywriting that has become a classic. It’s easily one of the top 5 books on copywriting.

In Advertising Secrets of the Written Word, he breaks down his approach to copy so that you can replicate it. Within the book, he includes 17 axioms of copywriting. To write copy as persuasive as Sugarman’s, this is where you want to start.

I’ve gone ahead and copied each of his axioms here.

So if you want to write better copy that gets you more customers, I’d staple these to the wall behind your desk:

1. Copywriting is a mental process the successful execution of which reflects the sum total of all your experiences, your specific knowledge and your ability to mentally process that information and transfer it onto a sheet of paper for the purpose of selling a product or service.

This is Sugarman’s definition of copywriting. Basically, it’s the process of putting your knowledge and experience in writing in order to sell a product or service.

2. All the elements in an advertisement are primarily designed to do one thing and one thing only: get you to read the first sentence of the copy.

Your entire ad is designed to do one thing: get people to read the first sentence. This is why people include giant, bold headlines. If you can’t get people to start reading your ad, you’ll never persuade them to buy from you. Never design an ad that distracts people from reading the first sentence.

3. The sole purpose of the first sentence in an advertisement is to get you to read the second sentence of the copy.

There’s a lot of formulas out there on how to write headlines and start your copy. But at the end of the day, all it really needs to do is to get people to keep reading. Grab people’s attention with the first sentence and set the stage so that they’ll want to keep reading.

4. Your ad layout and the first few paragraphs of your ad must create the buying environment most conducive to the sale of your product or service.

As you get people to start reading your copy, the next goal is to create what Sugarman calls a “buying environment.” This includes the copy, the layout, design, everything in your ad. The rest of these axioms will help you create that buying environment.

5. Get the reader to say yes and harmonize with your accurate and truthful statements while reading the copy.

As people read your copy, they should say yes to each of your statements. All of your claims should resonate deeply with them. The goal is to write from their point of view so that they get the feeling that you know exactly what they’re going through. This is only possible when you put in the time to deeply understand your customers. The easiest way to do this is by talking to them in person and asking them about their problems.

6. Your readers should be so compelled to read your copy that they cannot stop reading until they read all of it as if sliding down a slippery slope.

Your copy needs to be so compelling that people can’t stop reading. Do this by leading with a personal story, give hints about what’s coming later, or not completing answering a question. Give people a reason to want to keep reading.

7. When trying to solve problems, don’t assume constraints that aren’t really there.

When writing copy, none of us know what will truly work. The only way to find the best solution is to try different approaches. So experiment with your copy and make sure you can measure it to see which versions work the best.

8. Keep the copy interesting and the reader interested through the power of curiosity.

By building curiosity in your copy, you’ll easily get people to keep reading. Sugarman relies heavily on curiosity to keep people reading and it can be a very powerful tool. But make sure you’re using curiosity to attract the right kind of customers for your business. Using massive amounts of curiosity will get you plenty of attention but it won’t do you any good if it doesn’t produce valuable customers.

9. Never sell a product or service, sell a concept.

The benefit of the product is far more important than the product itself. So pay close attention to your positioning and unique selling proposition.

10. The incubation process is the power of your subconscious mind to use all your knowledge and experience to solve a specific problem, and its efficiency is dictated by time, creative orientation, environment and ego.

After you’ve put together all of your notes and done your customer research, take a break. This will give your subconscious time to work through the problem and come up with the best approach for your copy. When you’re ready to start writing, let the copy pour out of you. Don’t worry about grammar or anything else. Your job is to get everything that’s in your head on paper. Editing comes later.

11. Copy should be long enough to cause the reader to take the action that you request.

If you need long copy in order to sell effectively, use long copy. Some products don’t need long copy like a bottle of Coca-Cola. All people need to know is where they can get it, that it’s cold, and the price. But other products will need to take people through an entire sales process before anyone will be willing to buy. Use as much copy as you need in order to make the sale.

12. Every communication should be a personal one, from the writer to the recipient, regardless of the medium used.

Your copy should be in the first-person. We don’t connect with amorphous “brands.” We connect with people. Make your copy personal so that readers feel like it was written directly to them from someone else.

13. The ideas presented in your copy should flow in a logical fashion, anticipating your prospect’s questions and answering them as if the questions were asked face-to-face.

Each new claim should logically flow from the previous one. If you jump around between all sorts of different ideas, people will get confused and feel like you’re trying to trick them. Keep it simple by moving people from one step to the next.

14. In the editing process, you refine your copy to express what you want to express with the fewest words.

The most important role of editing is to remove unnecessary words. This makes your copy more persuasive and easier to read. A lot of people skip this step and end up with rambling copy that doesn’t get great results. The best copy has been edited and refined countless times.

15. The more the mind must work to reach the conclusion successfully, the more positive, enjoyable or stimulating the experience.

You can’t just grab people’s attention, throw out some basic copy, and hope for the best. You need to engage people and get them to form their conclusions with you. If copy is too obvious, people will feel dumb or bored. Then you lose them. Build some intrigue into your copy.

16. Selling a cure is a lot easier than selling a preventative, unless the preventative is perceived as a cure or curative aspects of the preventative are emphasized.

People don’t care about prevention. They’re not willing to spend money to prevent a problem they don’t have yet. Cures on the other hand sell VERY well. Even if you have a preventative service or product, you want to position it as a cure instead of a prevention.

17. Telling a story can effectively sell your product, create the environment or get the reader well into your copy as you create an emotional bonding with your prospect.

People love stories. It’s the single best way to communicate a message and persuade people. Whenever you get stuck and don’t know what to do with your copy, start with a story.

There you have it.

The 17 copywriting axioms of Joseph Sugarman.

If you want to dive into all this and get better at copywriting (one of the most important skills in business), I highly recommend picking up Sugarman’s book.

The hardback version of Advertising Secrets of the Written Word can be pretty hard to get your hands on (copies usually sell between $50 and $300). But the publisher just released a Kindle version for $10.

The Shifting Divide Between Features and Benefits

December 13, 2012 By Lars Lofgren 2 Comments

There are only a few LAWS in marketing. Out of all the advice, best practices, and books, there’s only a few principles we can rely on every time.

And one of them goes like this: push benefits, not features.

But there’s a subtle nuance that people never really discuss. But before we dive into it…

Let’s do a quick recap of how benefits and features work.

When you’re talking about your product and service, you’ll choose whether to prioritize your benefits or your features.

One will make you a massive amount of money. The other will open to crickets and closed wallets.

What’s even worse is that we don’t automatically choose the right one when we first get into business and marketing. Unless you learn the difference, you’ll slow down your growth and prevent your own success.

For someone new to business, they’ll get in front of a prospect, they’ll get super excited, and start saying “My product has THIS. And it has THAT. You NEED it.”

The whole time the prospect is wondering “Why?” She or he doesn’t get it. They’re not persuaded. And the entrepreneur goes home empty-handed wondering what went wrong.

If you’re going to persuade prospects to view your products the same way that you do, you need to spell it out for them and connect all the dots. You need to tell people WHY they should care.

The easiest way to do this is with benefits.

Check out this description of a product:

“My new vitamin supplement has Vitamin A, Riboflavin, Calcium, Potassium, and Sodium.”

BORING. Excuse me while I take a nap.

What about this one:

“My new vitamin supplement has all the ingredients you need to feel energized all day, look good naked, and is completely natural.”

Now we’re talking! Where can I get some of this stuff?

The first example focuses on the features of the product (the ingredients). This won’t get you anywhere.

And the second example pushes the benefits. In a nutshell, benefits tell your prospects how their lives will improve after using the product. Features describe what the product is made of. If you’re talking about the customer (or your soon-to-be customer) you’re on the right track and you’re focusing on benefits. But if you’re spending your time talking about your product, you’re going through the features.

This is usually where the lesson ends. You’ll be told to ALWAYS push the benefit instead of the feature.

And in general, this is pretty solid advice. Getting your benefits in front of people is a good habit to get into.

Buuuuuuuuut life isn’t quite that simple…

Take a look at this diagram:

 Features vs Benefits Spectrum

It’s the Benefits vs Features spectrum. On one end, we have a raw benefit (you’ll look good naked) and on the other hand, we have a raw feature (50 mg of Vitamin B manufactured in XYZ factory).

After reading a few marketing books, you’ll forsake your feature-based ways and move on over to the Benefits side. Hurray!

Features vs Benefits Focus on Benefits

 

Now let’s work through another example.

The other day, I was looking for some apps for drawing diagrams. Building content is a major part of my work and it’d be great to quickly build simple diagrams that looked great.

When it comes to professional diagrams, one of the most well-known tools is OmniGraffle.

Here are the 3 main selling points from their homepage:

  1. New layout engine
  2. Bézier lines
  3. Mini inspectors

To me, this stuff is just a feature. You have bézier lines? That does absolutely nothing for me. But to someone that builds professional diagrams all day long, I bet they’ve ranted day and night about how they’d do ANYTHING for some bézier lines.

This sort of thing happens to me with analytics tools all the time. After helping countless clients with Google Analytics and working at an analytics company, I’ve gotten to know the benefits and features of the industry pretty well. On a regular basis, I rant and rave about how badly I need one tiny, little feature. And if someone said they had it, they would get my attention (they’d also have a strong chance of getting my credit card).

What’s worse it that marketing copy from analytics tools actually PISSES me off. Just lead me to the support docs already and get out of the way. But I’m not a beginner when it comes to analytics.

And I’m sure some people have gotten just as advanced with diagrams, they’re not beginners. For them, bézier lines might be a major selling point.

But maybe OmniGraffle would do a lot better with a heavier emphasis on benefits. There’s no way to know without talking to their customers and running some A/B tests to get our hands on the data. It’s very difficult to judge the effectiveness of someone’s copy until you have a solid understanding of who their target market is. And you’ll never be able to tell someone they’re doing it wrong until you have the data to back it up.

One person’s feature is another person’s benefit.

Features vs Benefits Find Your Customer

Remember, it’s the Benefits vs Features SPECTRUM. There’s a sliding scale between the extremes on each end. As a marketer, it’s your job to find the right mix that’ll resonate with the skill-level of your target market.

5 Best Practices for Using Benefits and Features

Here’s a few guidelines:

  1. If your industry is new and people aren’t familiar with it, start with benefits.
  2. When in doubt, go with benefits. It’s always better to err on the benefit side than it is on the features side.
  3. For most people, most of the time, most of your copy should still focus on benefits.
  4. The more advanced your customer is, the more you’ll need to include features.
  5. Don’t ever go PURE features, use benefits to grab people’s attention then support those claims with features.

Bottom line: benefits are still the safe way to go, they will serve you well. But we can’t judge the benefits/features mix without having a deep understanding of who the target market is.

So the benefits vs features law isn’t that good of a law. It makes a great rule-of-thumb though.

The 35 Headline Formulas of John Caples

April 11, 2012 By Lars Lofgren 12 Comments

I’ve previously discussed the importance of headlines and why they deserve the majority of our attention when writing copy. But what does a solid headline look like? As it turns out, John Caples (one of the most famous copyrighters of all time) put together a list of 35 headline formulas in his book, Tested Advertising Methods.

I’ve pulled all 35 of them for this post. I even included guidelines for how to use each group. You’ll never draw a blank on headlines again.

Using Keywords in Headlines

These are your workhorse headlines. Use them often.

When you can’t come up with anything and your blinking cursor starts staring you down, choose one of these bad boys. Each sets you up to get the attention you need.

Now that I’ve shown you these formulas, you’ll see them everywhere. But don’t worry, they can’t get overused. Now matter how often we see a headline that starts with the word “How,” we never grow immune to it. As long as the rest of the headline is about something we’re interested in, we bite.

These headlines also encourage you to write good copy that provides value through helpful information. Use these headlines to teach, explain, and help people. Then ask for the sale. You’ll build trust with your audience and prove to them that you have value to offer.

  1. Begin Your Headline with the Words “How To”
  2. Begin Your Headline with the Word “How” (It’s basically a duplicate, I know)
  3. Begin Your Headline With the Word “Why”
  4. Begin Your Headline with the Word “Which”
  5. Begin Your Headline with the Words “Who Else”
  6. Begin Your Headline with the Word “Wanted”
  7. Begin Your Headline with the Word “This”
  8. Begin Your Headline with the Word “Because”
  9. Begin Your Headline with the Word “If”
  10. Begin Your Headline with the Word “Advice”

Headlines that Focus on Benefits

My favorite headlines focus on benefits. When people consider new products or services, they want to know how their lives will improve. Don’t keep them guessing, throw that benefit straight into the headline.

These headlines will give you the most sales with the least amount of effort. Take the time to get good at them and you’ll never have to worry about your marketing failing ever again.

  1. Use a Testimonial Headline
  2. Offer the Reader a Test (Can Your Kitchen Pass the Guest Test?)
  3. Offer Information in Value
  4. Tell a Story
  5. Warn the Reader to Delay Buying
  6. Let the Advertiser Speak Directly to the Reader (Write the entire ad in the first person and speak directly to the reader)
  7. Address Your Headline to Specific Person or Group (I suggest you address your target market)
  8. Have Your Headline Ask a Question
  9. Offer Benefits Through Facts and Figures

News Headlines

These 8 headline formats deliver because they do a fantastic job at arousing curiosity. People always want to know what’s new and exciting. And the best way to show them that you have something new and exciting is to blantantly tell them.

  1. Begin Your Headline with the Word “Introducing”
  2. Begin Your Headline with the Word “Announcing”
  3. Use Words that Have an Announcement Quality (Finally, Presenting, Just Released, etc)
  4. Begin Your Headline With the Word “New”
  5. Begin Your Headline With the Word “Now”
  6. Begin Your Headlines With the Words “At Last”
  7. Put a Date Into Your Headline
  8. Write Your Headline In News Style (This one’s a little redundant, focus on pushing the announcement angle)

Price Related Headlines

Be careful with price headlines, they’re too easy. Marketers rely on them WAY too frequently and condition their customers to only respond to discounts. When you can only sell with discounts, you’ve pushed your business into a death-spiral. Keep them in your back pocket for emergencies but avoid them as often as possible.

Now, some businesses depend on low prices. Their entire business model is based on delivering the product or service cheaper than anyone else. Think Walmart and generic brands. If that’s the game you’ve chosen to play, you’ll want to display your prices every chance you get. Put them in each headline you have and hope someone hasn’t figured out how to do it cheaper than you.

  1. Feature the Price in Your Headline
  2. Feature Reduced Price
  3. Feature a Special Merchandising Offer
  4. Feature an Easy Payment Plan
  5. Feature a Free Offer

One to Three Word Headlines

You’ll want to leave these headlines for the pros. Why? Because they still need to accomplish what the other headlines do naturally (grab attention with benefits or curiosity). But they only have 1-3 words to do it.

It’s simply too easy to slip from attention grabbing to completely confusing.

Too often, marketers believe they can be pithy and cute by embodying their message into an abstract phrase or word. Usually, they just end up confusing everybody and the ad is worthless.

Remember: don’t make your copy pithy and cute. No one will get it. They’ll just think you’re boring and confusing.

So approach these last 3 with extreme caution.

  1. Use a One Word Headline
  2. Use a Two Word Headline
  3. Use a Three Word Headline

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