Imagine being able to string your reader along…
Clicking something deep within their brain that forces them to read the next word… then the next… then the next.
With each word a well of emotional pain and anguish is unleashed within the reader. They slip from “thinking” to “reacting” and they become entirely your pet. Whatever you ask of them, they will do.
Now, imagine being able to do this without gimmicks, tricks, or having to become a copywriting “guru” (whatever that means).
If you do nothing else this week – add future casting to your sales letters and then send me a “thank you” email for making you more money.
Only Idiots Try And Sell With Logic
One of my favorite quotes of all time… one that I will undoubtedly butcher to pieces… is from the ole’ grand master Gene Schwartz. He said something like this about your target market:
Read the National Enquirer. Watch trashy TV. Because THAT is the level of your markets’ reading, comprehension, and use of logic.*
Point is, if you are using logic to sell your products… you are speaking OVER people instead of TO them.
Rational people don’t spend $7 on a 43 page PDF.
Rational people don’t care if you were featured on CNN (because they know you cheated and just used iReport… you big cheater!)
Rational people don’t spend money like irrational people.
Hate to break it to you… but if you are in the info marketing biz, your buyers are irrational.
Trying to overwhelm your reader with logical arguments in your copy is like trying to explain the complexity of the Universe to a 4 year old. They might nod their head, but nothing worthwhile is getting through…
That being said…
Logical arguments have their place in compelling copy. But they don’t work unless readers are emotionally receptive to hearing them. If you don’t get someone emotionally primed early on, they’ll stop reading. They won’t give your product or service a chance even if it makes a ton of logical sense to do so.
A rational argument listing the reasons why someone should buy might win you a debate tournament, but it won’t convert sales if you don’t get people in the right emotional state first.
You Gotta Rip Their Hearts Out Joe!
People have a funny way of responding to their emotions and then rationalizing their behavior using logic.
Think about the last time you lost your temper. It probably went something like this:
Angry Outburst > Pondering/Guilt > Logical Justification Of Outburst
This same process goes for buying decisions too. We buy based on emotional reasons, and then we rationalize the decision using logical “hooks.”
Say a young professional moves into a fancy neighborhood. He sees all his neighbors cruising around in luxury cars, and suddenly he becomes self-conscious about the clunker parked in his driveway.
He feels jealous, and he doesn’t want his neighbors to think down on him. Envy and insecurity are the emotional triggers that spur his search for a new car. He might tell himself he’s looking for better gas mileage, reliability, or whatever else. But the things that come out of his mouth aren’t really driving him. They’re just logical rationalizations of an emotional response.
How do you tap into these deeper emotional triggers and use them to make your copy more persuasive?
“Future Casting”, sweetheart.
Future Casting Puts Readers in an Emotionally Receptive State
Prospects who end up on your sales page, are there by choice.
Don’t let your inflated ego trick you into thinking anything different.
They are there because you set up a slippery slope, and they happen to be searching for the solution you are offering… but don’t kid yourself into thinking you “forced” anyone.
By the time they start reading your copy, what they are looking for is the EMOTIONAL PAYMENT to the EMOTIONAL DEBT their problems have created within themselves.
Future casting dangles this emotional payment right in front of your reader. For a brief moment in time, their EMOTIONAL DEBT feels partially paid.
Use future casting early on in your copy, and you can nurture the spark of interest you create in your headlines into a desire to buy. It’s a great way to persuade people to step out of their comfort zones – non-action and consuming information – and motivated to act because it touches chords deep within their emotional psyche. Stuff that only really good therapists ever get to.
The good stuff.
How to Use Future Casting in Your Copy
It ain’t hard.
All you have to do is:
1) Reaffirm that the solution to the reader’s problem is possible (through showing NOT telling), and
2) Paint a picture of what the reader’s life will be after it’s solved.
I did it at the beginning of this article.
You can do it right now.
Pick up the last product you launched.
Find out the single solution it provides.
Now SHOW me what life would be like with that solution.
(If you need help figuring out how to SHOW me, then read this article.)
Put what you just wrote near the top of your sales letter.
Cut me a check for 0.001% of the total product earnings.
You’re welcome.
*If you want the actual quote, go pay the $149 like I did to get access to the seminar he gave. Well worth the money and you can grab it here >>> http://100moneyblueprints.com/