Why do we take action? Answer that, and you can sell anything (or so they say…).
Top of the list globally is money. Most of us will do almost anything if there’s a guarantee of money at the end (this is another premise – start here if you’re new to this series).
This is why almost all scams involve money.
You may think this is obvious (duh!), but it leapfrogs past most people’s internal warning system when done well (until the spell is broken by scandal etc.).
The internet marketing industry is built around it, and by that, I mean anything that is sold with an outrageous promise of riches (which is most of it).
This is usually done through affiliate networks advertising huge commission payments.
Let’s put this in the context of the questions I posed last week. Imagine an ad selling some unique new video software driven by AI.
The ‘killer’ feature promises automatically generated videos from text. You input a script and it generates all the images, clips, music, etc. and glues them together without any intervention from the user (and, perhaps, as the icing on the cake, publishes them automatically and fills them full of Google ads – instamoney).
The cost is advertised at $1997 per year (because almost everything in the IM industry has a 7 on the end of it so you know what this is about even before even reading the content).
The ad leads on the killer feature, then segues into how valuable this is and how you’d be a fool not to take advantage of it (and be grandfathered in for life – the usual stuff).
Having been sold on the big idea (the killer feature and how it ‘changes the world forever’), it ends with an offer you can’t refuse: “Get it FREE for LIFE”.
Here’s the questions again from part 2 along with how I’d answer them for this ad:
1. Who is the ad aimed at? Existing IM industry consumers (people who have bought through affiliate links, as well as people who have bought from IM industry celebrities).
2. What problem does it solve? How to get-rich-quick. That’s the IM market’s ultimate goal (even though they often claim the opposite).
3. What’s the big idea? The big idea is always the same: some unique product, feature, or strategy that no one else has ever seen before.
4. What does the audience need to believe? Two things: is it real? Does it work?
5. Can they refuse it? Yes of course, everything can be refused, but hey, if this really does what it claims, and it’s FREE, “why wouldn’t I go for it?”
Is the above fit for purpose? Yes. It fits the IM profile.
To understand (or write) any ad, no matter its context, think deeply about question 2 (“what problem does it solve?”), then make sure the prospect is clear on it.
PS. For kudos points, how would you make this “FREE for LIFE”?
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