When writing copy, nothing should happen at random.
Every sentence needs to serve a purpose.
And before a single word even hits the paper (or Google Doc), the roadmap must be established.
When Eugene Schwartz said “copy isn’t written, it’s assembled”, that’s what he was talking about.
You collect all crucial elements that every great piece of copy needs – and turn them into a waterproof, emotionally compelling argument that leaves the perfect prospect in a state where doing what you want is easier than not doing it.
But how exactly would you do that?
As you know, copy always starts with research. Research into the prospect, research into the market, research into the product.
That’s the foundation.
From this research, you collect your nuggets. Your BIG IDEA. Your USP. Their problems, how you will present your solution…
And – how to proof everything with studies, testimonials, case studies, powerful stories, etc.
Then (and only then) are you ready to go to the next step: create your outline. This will be your structure, your skeleton, the scaffolding that carries all the gold nuggets that you uncovered during the research phase.
Now, when creating this outline, you can use two methods:
- List all objections to your offer you can think of and rank them in order of appearance (i.e. “who are you?” would come earlier than “how much does it cost?” or “how can I buy?”). This is your structure. Or you…
- Map out the emotional road you want to take your prospect on (based on their level of awareness) and fill every step of the way with your gold nuggets
The emotional rollercoaster comes into play when you use the second method.
For example, if you target a largely unaware prospect, you’d spend quite some time in the beginning introducing and talking about the problem, agitate it. and then offer your solution as the only way out (see Dan Kennedy’s PAS-formula – problem, agitate, solution).
This way, you’d move your prospect through the following emotion:
Curiosity (what is this?) -> Anxiety (this sounds bad…) -> Fear (this sounds terrible… is there even anything I can do about it?) -> Hope (is there really a way out for me?) -> Optimism (hey, looks like this will help me get rid of this problem)-> Enthusiasm (this sounds incredible, I can’t wait to get started).
Based on this skeleton, you’d beef up all these major emotions with the elements you collected during your research phase.
The more aware your prospect is, the shorter your emotional ride needs to be.
If your prospect already knows you, trusts you, is aware of his problem AND aware of your solution and how it works… all he needs is a little nudge to get him to make the purchase (or sign up to your list).
You’d simply make him a great offer (discount, bundle, limited time bonuses) and maybe repeat what’s included.
So that’s the bird’s eye view of how to not only write a rationally, but also emotionally compelling piece of copy.
As you probably know – most (if not all) of our decisions are based on emotion… but justified by logic.
Right now, you have 2 options:
- You use this approach to write your next killer piece of copy (it takes a while to get the hang of it… but if you’re up for a challenge, you’ll love the process) – or:
- You click that scary black button below to head over to my “Contact”-page, fill out the form… and ask me to write your next winner (this is the option you should go with if you wanna save yourself hundreds of hours of painstaking trial and error)
Whichever way you go, I can’t wait to hear how you implement the emotional rollercoaster into your copy.
Seriously – let me know. I love hearing from you.