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How to Make Your Prospect/Customer Feel Special From the "Get-Go"
If you want to land your sale, you'll increase your success dramatically if you make your prospect/customer feel special. The best place to do this is when you first meet him - in your headline.
Most copywriters fail to do this. Instead, they try to impress the prospect with their cleverness. I know, because that's how I wrote headlines when I first started copywriting.
Those headlines of mine were mediocre. But I found a cure for my problem in AWAI's Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting. The cure? A strategy called "the Four U's." Meaning that a powerful headline is Urgent ... Useful ... Unique ... and Ultra-specific.
Using the Four U's in your headline, you'll make your prospect feel that it was written specifically for him. He'll sense that it's about his wants, hopes, pains, fears, and needs. Adopt the Four U's not only for your headlines, but also for your subheads, teaser copy, and bullet points. Your copy will be significantly stronger, more profitable for your clients ... and for you.
The Four U's is just one of hundreds of strategies to improve all aspects of your copywriting - or any direct-marketing effort - that you'll find in the Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting. Click here for more information [http://www.thewriterslife.com/ph/etrhr].
- Will Newman
The Laughter of Fools
Since my friends know what I do for a living, I get asked all the time about stock investments. As a result, I test-drive some of my most promising investment ideas at dinner parties.
"Hey, Andy, what do you think about Exxon?"
"Gordo, should I invest in Google?"
"What's the market going to do the rest of the year?"
My answers: Not much. No. I don't know.
Oh, I have my opinion on what the market might do. And a lot of the time, I'm right. But nobody knows.
I spend my time evaluating companies, not daily shifts in the stock market. So, when somebody asks what company I like, and (as I've been doing recently) I answer with "I like so-and-so newspaper company," I sometimes hear muffled giggling. Why? Because, in general, the newspaper industry is so beat up.
But though they may think my recommendation is crazy, I've done my homework on this company. And the fact that the industry has been in such a slump is one reason I like it so much. I like it even more when I hear their laughter. That's when I really know I'm right.
I'm not exactly breaking new ground here. The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu had it figured out centuries ago when he wrote:
When the fool learns the Way, He laughs at it.
Yet if the fool did not laugh at it,
It would not be the Way.
Indeed, if you are seeking the Way,
Listen for the laughter of fools.
- Andrew Gordon
"The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears."
- Francis Bacon
What Do You Want for Your Children?
By Michael Masterson
When Jay Abraham and I meet, we spend half our time talking about marketing and the other half talking about our lives. The last time we met - at our Bootcamp here in Delray Beach - we talked about what we want for our children.
"When my kids were young," I told Jay, "I wanted them to be both well-educated and successful. Now that they are older, I have changed my goals for them. Nowadays, seeing them out there in the world on their own, I want two very different things. I want them to be independent and kind."
Jay's children are both older and younger than mine. (He has six. I have three.) He too wants good things for his kids. And he too used the word "independent."
It struck me as interesting that we each have that same objective: that our children become independent. Independent means "not needing." With respect to your children, it means not needing you.
Good parents want this for their children because they know that if life goes as it should, their children will survive them and therefore need to be able to manage on their own. Bad parents aren't especially interested in their children's well-being (and, thus, independence). They use their children as a means to relive their own lives and derive vicarious enjoyment for themselves.
Bad parents want their children to remain dependent so they can feel like they are in control of the pleasure they get from them. Bad parents encourage whatever forms of dependence they can. The two most common varieties are emotional and financial.
I was thinking about that this morning after reading another one of Gary North's provocative essays in his Reality Check e-zine. This one was about "Helping Your Adult Children."
Gary says:
"On October 17, the new bankruptcy law will go into effect. This law will make it very difficult for debtors to escape their creditors, especially banks that have issued credit cards. After October 16, adult children who are in debt beyond their ability to repay will go looking for a 'bank' to tap into to delay the inevitable. It is likely that their parents or in-laws will become the prime lending agencies in the children's quest to postpone the visible, inescapable recognition of their own personal insolvency."
He goes on to point out that a problem with the state of the American economy is that people don't want to save their money. And the problem with children who go broke and hit up their relatives for money is that they can't stop overspending. ("It is easier to break good habits," North says.)
"Businessmen must save if their companies are to prosper," he says. And when businesses want to borrow money from banks, they must prove to the bank - by providing them with P&Ls and balance sheets - that they know how to save.
"Parents of children that go broke should lend them money only if they are willing to give their parents the equivalent of a P&L and balance sheet: a statement of the family's income and an updated and accurate family budget.
"If you are becoming a banker for your adult child, you have the banker's right - indeed, obligation - to see the balance sheet of the borrower before writing a check. You have the obligation to impose a savings program."
Most parents don't feel that obligation, North argues. Quite the contrary, they feel a tug of conscience in the other direction: "To write a check, just this once."
But parents "who want to avoid becoming dependent on the State or their solvent children in their old age, let alone insolvent children, have a moral obligation to become and remain maniacal savers. They must not break their own thrift habits for the sake of financing children who do not know or practice the basics of budgeting.
"So if a child comes to you for financial assistance," North says. "Lay down the law."
I agree. And I hope I will be able to demonstrate this type of tough love if the day comes.
So far, things are looking pretty good. Sons One and Two are on their own now and don't ask for money. We did buy Number One Son a car after he graduated from college. Number Two Son got the cash equivalent to use as seed money to start his own business.
That was more than my parents were able to give me and more than most children receive. More importantly, it was more than they needed. But the good news is that they know that to be true.
There are many ways that I'm proud of my children. But when it comes to money, it's not their success or ambition that pleases me the most - it's that they don't want to (and don't need to) ask for our financial assistance. They are - and want to be - financially independent.
When I see how some of my friends' adult children still depend on them, I am happy and proud to know that my kids can get along very well on their own. How did we do it? Well, truth be told, I didn't have much to do with it. K was responsible. Her system was simple: She refused to spoil them and told them a thousand times that they couldn't expect anything more from us than food (not junk food, just good food), shelter (not a fancy, high-tech room but just a bed and a toilet), and love (not the kind that wants to be your friend but the kind that wants to be your parent).
Number Three Son is still in high school, and thus his financial independence is an open question. We were less strict with him than with his older brothers, and that worries us somewhat. I would even go so far as to admit that I occasionally spoiled him.
I worry that because we've been a little more indulgent, Number Three might have a harder time achieving financial independence. He's just as motivated and ambitious as his brothers, but I sometimes worry that he might not have the same desire for independence.
Having said all this, I must admit to an irony. Now that we have nurtured two sons into a mentality of financial independence, I want - more than ever - to help them out. K and I have more money than we need. Who would we rather give it to?
Yet, we recognize that helping your children by giving them money actually hurts them. Thankfully, our children know that too. Every effort we make in this regard - every gift we offer - is adamantly refused. The only way we can "help" them these days is by providing - in rare cases - modest, arms-length investments in some of their projects.
Here's my position on this right now: If you love your children, you don't want them coming to you for financial (or emotional) handouts. You want them to develop into adults who can take care of their own needs. And once they do, then and only then can you have the fun of trying to talk them into accepting gifts from you.
Today's
Action Plan
On Friday, I'll have more to say on the subject of helping your kids become independent - along with some practical advice on how to do it. Meanwhile, take a little time today to consider your own situation in this regard - both as a parent and as a child.
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An Unrecognized Cause of Adverse Drug Reactions
An Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) is a negative side effect that occurs as the result of using a drug as prescribed. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, ADRs affect 22 million people each year.
Many ADRs are not directly caused by the drug. Instead, they are triggered by drug-induced nutritional deficiencies. However, the FDA does not require drug companies to report whether or not an approved drug can elicit this reaction. As a result, most physicians and pharmacists are unaware of the magnitude of the problem. And this lack of awareness among our health professionals puts millions at risk for poor health and even premature death.
Tomorrow, I'll tell you about a very common cause of nutrient deficiency - from a "safe" source that you almost certainly have in your medicine cabinet right now.
- Jon Herring
Good Riddance to the Army's Baffling Slogan
Longtime ETR readers may recall Michael Masterson's reaction to the then-new slogan for the U.S. Army: "An Army of One." Here's what he wrote about it in Message #284, way back on February 19, 2001:
"Two decades after launching one of the most successful ad campaigns in history, the Army has come up with a new slogan that it thinks will connect better with young people. Replacing the very good 'Be All That You Can Be' is the incomprehensible 'An Army of One.' Don't understand it? Neither do I. And the explanation provided by the Chicago ad agency that created it (Leo Burnett) doesn't help me at all. According to them, it means: 'The Army is an egalitarian outfit that values self-growth and teamwork.' Huh?"
Well, now it looks like Michael was prescient. (See Word to the Wise, below.) Burnett's $200 million Army account is now in review, and AdAge just reported that the agency is retreating from the tagline.
"The line has been criticized since it was first unveiled, as critics argued it undermined the notion of the Army as a team," AdAge concluded.
- Charlie Byrne
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Word
to the Wise: Prescient
Someone who is "prescient" (PRESH-unt) has the ability to foresee the future. The word comes from the Latin "praeiscere" ("to know beforehand").
Example (as Charlie used it today): "Well, now it looks like Michael was prescient. Burnett's $200 million Army account is now in review, and AdAge just reported that the agency is retreating from the tagline."
