2 Secrets of World’s Great Copy Writer

Today is a tale of two men with valuable secrets to share with you.

Both are named Gary.

First, there is the Gary that I know and look forward to seeing every time I’m in Denver at our Early To Rise offices (like I was last week).

That’s where young Gary The ETR Copywriter works relentlessly on the dozens of ETR projects to which he’s been assigned.

Gary’s a pitbull when it comes to creating copy. Matt and I pile on the work and Gary, almost magically, turns it around lickety-split. He’s as productive as my Director of Marketing at Turbulence Training, Amy.

And then there is one of Gary’s mentors, also named Gary. This ‘other’ Gary is known as the world’s great living copywriter.

On my last visit to Denver, I found Gary (from ETR) engrossed in a seminar by Gary (the world’s greatest copywriter). I asked young Gary to give us a report on the master…

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2 Secrets of The World’s Greatest Living Copywriter
By Gary, The ETR Copywriter

Gary Bencivenga is the world’s greatest living copywriter.  He has launched businesses, saved failing products and changed the face of direct response copywriting.

Until he retired from active business, he never shared his secrets, but during his retirement seminar, he revealed them all.  Here are the major lessons from his career:

1) Make your advertising valuable.

Bencivenga was an early user of the magalog format.  Magalogs are sales letters designed to look like content-rich magazines.  They offered valuable content along with the sales message.

It follows the “old school, new body” article to sales letter approach and delivers enormous amounts of valuable content that makes you wonder if your kitchen is actually filled with fat-storing foods.

Putting Value in Your Ads is The Truth About Copywriting

The secret to pulling off this strategy is to weave good, curiosity-based content in with your sales pitch.  This accomplishes two things:

A)     it gives people a good reason to listen to your sales message;

B)     it makes your readers more likely to buy because you’ll prove to them that you have good content and they’ll want more of it in your paid product.

2) The Bencivenga Persuasion Equation

This is a simple but potent method to organize your sales messages.  The equation goes like this:

Problem + Promise + Proof + Proposition = Persuasion.

Problem is the problem that your customers face that your product solves.  This could be losing weight, making more money, getting a raise at work, etc.

Promise is the solution that your product offers to your prospect’s problem.

Proof is the facts, testimonials, and case studies that prove that your promise will work.

Proposition is the offer you make to your customer.  This is exactly what they’re going to get and exactly what bonuses they’ll receive when they order.

To make this powerful equation work for you, you need to use it to structure your sales messages.  Every claim should have proof backing it up.  Your product must solve a big and easily recognizable problem for your customers.  And your promise must be powerful.
This simple structure will add power and persuasiveness to all your copy.  I recommend you implement it immediately.

After all, it does come from The World’s Greatest Living Copywriter.

Young Gary, The ETR Copywriter

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Thanks G-Man. These are two powerful secrets from a living legend that every VM member can use immediately. Keep up the great work.

Let me know how this changes your copywriting,

Craig Ballantyne  “Even if you find the best copywriter in your industry, you cannot abandon your job as your company’s master marketer. You have to direct the copywriter to use their skills to sell your particular product at a particular price to a particular market. Nobody but you can be in charge of that.” – Mark Ford