The Cornerstone Concept Behind Offering Solutions To Your Prospects

There are two words you can use that not only boost the response of your sales copy DRAMATICALLY, but they will also pierce through the heart and soul of what your prospects are truly after -- and that is... solutions to their problems.

And the good thing is, all you need to do is add these two words to the front of nearly ALL the bad ads you’ll find out there, and presto-change-o, you’re “in like Flynn.”

Here, look at a few ads in today’s local paper. I’m sure you’ll find things like this:

Eliminate Back Pain Once-And-For-All...

Make Your Swimming Pool Sparkling Clean!... and...

Children Are Safe Here.

Now make no mistake -- ads like this produce little, if any sales. They are fairly worthless and the ONLY people who will respond to them are prospects who happen to be in the right place at the right time. And I don’t know about you, but depending on being in “the right place at the right time,” isn’t a really good business strategy you want to bank you future on, is it?

But if you simply added two words to the front of these ads, and maybe used just a “little” creativity, you’d have the basis of a good headline for an ad. Like this:

“How To Completely Eliminate Back Pain, Once-And-For-All!”

“How To Make (And Keep!) Your Swimming Pool... Sparkling Clean!” and...

“How to make SURE your children are safe during the day, while you’re at work trying to give them a better life.”

Using “how to” changes the entire dynamic of these (formerly useless) ads. Use this trick wisely, and you will prosper for a long long time.

Have a great Thanksgiving and don’t eat too much, chubby.

Now go mail something, Craig Garber

P.S. Bob Maunsell, from Worcester, Massachusetts, had been a skeptic for a long long time. He finally ordered Lead Generation Explosion, and within a few days, he sent in this e-mail: “Craig, just got Lead Generation Explosion -- have to tell you, I love it! You’re right, the L.G.E. system is THE quickest & fastest way to build a cult following.” Bob’s going to be on a very special four-hour teleseminar on December 12th where I will answer ALL your questions about How To Generate MORE Leads in your business, than you’ve ever been able to before. You can get on this teleseminar FRE.E, when you order Lead Generation Explosion -- so take Bob Maunsell’s (a former Sergeant in the US Air Force) advice and start building your own “cult following” the fastest way possible, AND join the other successes on this FOUR HOUR teleseminar on December 12th. All the details are here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/leads

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If you enjoyed this, feel free to pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates. Or, simply have them subscribe themselves! Send them over to http://www.kingofcopy.com

Why newspapers ALWAYS sell.

Ever wonder why newspapers sell?

Or why people will listen to the nightly news over and over again, even when they somehow “sense” that not everything being reported may be true?

The answer to both of these questions is actually one and the same.

Do you think you know what it is?

O.K., pause for a moment before reading ahead, and think about what the answer is, and then write it down.

Got it? Good, now let’s get on with it.

The reason people come back to the news, and newspapers, is because of the word that’s buried in both of these items -- “new.”

You see, that’s the one thing everyone’s interested in -- what’s new. They want to know what’s happening now, who’s doing what, and why. They want to know what’s unusual about it, what’s odd about it, and just what’s unusual and odd.

John Caples once said, if all you do is make your headline “newsworthy”, you’ll be on your way to writing a good ad. Remember, people don’t want to know what used to work, they want to know what works NOW. They want to know they’re ahead of everyone else by using the latest breakthroughs and newest gadgets, and achieving solutions as rapidly as possible.

Keep that in the back of your mind next time you’re trying to figure out how to attract your prospect’s attention.

Now go sell something, Craig

P.S. Find out the NEWEST way to generate leads in your business, when I solve your MOST challenging lead generation problems IN PERSON, on my live FOUR HOUR Teleseminar on December 12th -- but only the first 100 (now 50 slots left) people who order Lead Generation Explosion will be participating on this exciting call! Grab one of the remaining lines still open, right here!: http://www.kingofcopy.com/leads

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If you enjoyed this, feel free to pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates. Or, simply have them subscribe themselves! Send them over to http://www.kingofcopy.com

What kind of question does a $300 Million Dollar man ask?

I get a lot of questions about this one. It’s something I’ve addressed many times, but admittedly, it’s confusing to say the least. So here goes...

You know, one of the greatest headlines I’ve ever seen was in the form of a question. The question read, “Is This Food Dangerous To Your Health?”

Why is this headline so incredible?

Let’s take a look: for starters, it provokes an incredible amount of curiosity for almost anyone, but most definitely for people concerned about health and wellness -- which is the target market for this ad.

Second, EVERYONE who is interested in this product will have to answer “Yes” to the question, and this is one of the hard and fast rules about using questions in your headline, as a matter of fact.

If you can’t answer “yes” to the question, and you’re in the target marketplace, then it’s NOT a good headline.

So for example, the question “Do you like oranges?” would NOT be a good headline here, because although SOME of the folks who are in this target market (health and wellness) will surely say “yes,” MANY of them will say “no.”

So if you want to use a question, your question really needs to meet two standards: One, the answer to the question has to be answered “Yes” by everyone in your marketplace. Two, you want your question to provoke and arouse as MUCH intense curiosity as possible within your marketplace itself.

And three, you also want your question to dis-qualify as many people as possible. Meaning this: ALL the folks who answer the question with a “No” -- should NOT be part of your marketplace. This is basically the inverse to the first rule, but it’s also a standalone rule in and of itself.

Got it?

O.K., now listen -- the person who wrote the “Is This Food Dangerous To Your Health?” headline, is my good friend Christian Godefroy. Christian has been a successful publisher, copywriter, and self-help author in Europe, for over 35 years now, and he’s sold well in excess of over $300 Million dollars of goods and services, AND... Christian is actually this month’s Audio Success CD of the month interview! I interviewed Christian while sitting in his living room in his beautiful Oceanside home in Portugal, and the things he revealed were outstanding.

Here’s what Erik Johnson from Newark, California had to say: “By the way, I got the August newsletter yesterday. The Christian Godefroy interview is pure gold.”

Christian is not only a dear friend of mine, but he’s also a mentor and someone I look up to and respect -- and those folks have been few and far between in my life, so if you have even an INKLING of a desire to improve your marketing AND your life, then JUMP on this last chance to listen to Christian Godefroy, by taking a FREE test-drive of my offline Seductive Selling Newsletter -- and get a TON of bonus gifts to boot (including TWO FREE marketing critiques!), right here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

(Take a look at those nice new graphics on top of the page too!)

Now go sell something, Craig

P.S. One of my clients recently struck “paydirt” with a mailing that pulled in over $218 for every one dollar he spent. Read about his story, right here, at http://www.BriansIncredibleJourney.com

Be Careful With Questions. Very Careful.

Lots of people send me copy to review with questions in the headlines or sub-headlines, and frankly this is a very dangerous thing to do.

For starters, in social settings and in courtrooms, questions are often used to “trap” someone into saying something or putting themselves in a position they really didn’t mean to. By using reverse logic, and starting at the end result of where you want to to, it’s really not that hard to back someone into a corner.

I’ll assume if you’re a reader of this e-zine that you’re smarter than the average bear, so I can safely assume you’ve probably been able to use this kind of logic to get to an “A-ha!” moment yourself, either in a personal or business relationship, more than once.

True?

Good, so you understand the first thing you need to be wary of when using questions: Like cars and baseballs, they are weapons when in the wrong hands.

Now let’s talk about the second thing you need to watch out for.

The second thing has to do with asking the WRONG question. And the wrong question is any question that has even the slightest possibility of getting the wrong answer from the right prospect.

But before we talk about the wrong answers from the right people, appreciate that the ONLY two answers to your headline question can be either “yes” or “no.” “What’s your favorite flavor ice cream?” isn’t a question you want to ask. Do You Love Chocolate?, on the other hand, is an excellent question to ask, because if you’re selling chocolate, ALL your prospects will say yes.

And if you’re asking a question, you ALWAYS want their answer to be “Yes.” You want to start your prospect down the “yes highway”, right from the get-go.

So basically, for the most part, the wrong answer is going to be any answer other than Yes.

The big problem is, most questions I see eliminate prospects, instead of attracting them to you. For instance, asking someone “Can you see yourself on stage, getting paid top-dollar as a world-class lead guitarist?” will ultimately elicit a number of “No” responses from people who either don’t see themselves really being that talented... or who just don’t want to get paid to play guitar... or who have insecurities and hang-ups, and for any number of other reasons.

On the other hand, “Would you like to be able to shred and play guitar as well as ANY world-class lead guitarist?” will ONLY elicit “Yes” responses from every prospect who wants to learn how to play guitar.

So be mindful of this second trap, which is NOT taking your prospect down the “Yes” highway.

And lastly, be specific and provoke curiosity whenever possible, and here’s a simple way of doing this. There’s an old famous headline written by Maxwell Sackheim for an English course, that supposedly ran for 40 years.

The headline said “Do You Make These Mistakes In English?”

This prompted tremendous curiosity over the more bland “Do You Make Mistakes In English?”, which is simply very vague, comparatively. And as you know, curiosity is one of THE most important emotional buy-buttons to push when it comes to selling (see http://www.kingofcopy.com/seductive for more information on pushing buy-buttons).

So there you have it, that’s the cat’s meow on questions, and if you didn’t learn something from this, then feel your wrist because you are dead and have no pulse.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Remember, if you do not already subscribe to my Offline Newsletter, today is the LAST day you can get this month’s issue. Inside you’ll find:

• At LEAST one-dozen different online web page testing results, and how you can use them to improve your response rates in your own business! (Including testing of fonts, audio, photos, drop-caps, colors, scroll bars, home page, long versus short copy, and... much much more!)
• The three words I added to my home page that almost DOUBLED my response from 21.5% to 40.3%! (And no, “Free” wasn’t one of them!)
• Find out when a watch-winder is NOT a watch-winder, and how to “make” yourself or your product appear totally different to what you really are! This allows you to COMPLETELY separate yourself from the rest of your competition so there is no possible comparison between you and them! (on pages 5 and 7)
• The right way... and the wrong way... to research a product, including LIVE examples!
• How to use scarcity for a REALLY boring product, and what kinds of bonuses to give with the product to make it really dynamic!
• The fine slice of wisdom Mark Twain served up that shows you the power of FEAR and how to conquer it! (on page 8)
• Topical press release ideas for the completely oblivious! (So simple, even my ex-wife could figure them out!)
• How being Seldom Right But Never In Doubt helped create a $2.7 Billion Dollar empire!
• And much much more!

Test-drive it FREE here, and get FREE interviews, prior issues, and even free copy and marketing strategy critiques, right here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

It’s the most important thing to know.

I’ve been studying a lot of old ads lately for a project I’m going to start working on soon, and it’s amazing how easy it is to get bogged down in complicated selling formulas when you really don’t need to.

A lot of your positioning and how well something is going to sell, is completely based on the simplest things you say.

Usually, complicated things make people stop and pause, but instead of stopping and pausing to try and understand what’s going on, they stop and pause because there’s been a disconnect. The words and music just aren’t matching and when this happens, “poof” -- whatever you were trying to do goes away like a puff of smoke.

For example, here’s a headline of an ad I came across. I wouldn’t be interested in ordering this book because the subject matter isn’t relevant to anything I’m interested in, but what a brilliant and useful headline:

“The most important book on creating wealth since Think And Grow Rich!”

There are so many ways you can use this, but let’s look at just a few of them:

For starters, you can say almost ANYTHING is “The most important”... you fill in the blanks.

As an example, if you are pitching fishing gear, you can easily say “The most important breakthrough in catching fish, since the fishing rod!”

Or... if you are a divorce lawyer, you can say “Inside... the most important thing to know if you are going through a divorce!”

That’s pretty compelling, isn’t it?

Now you’d better have something good to say after this, or else you’re dead meat, but... that’s another subject entirely.

The other VERY clever thing about that ad (which was for a book about Multi-Levvel Selling, by Randy Gage) was that by making a reference to Napoleon Hill’s “Think And Grow Rich,” it uses Think And Grow Rich as a standard frame of reference -- almost like an implied endorsement.

So now let’s take a look at how you can use THIS strategy in your business:

Plumbing: “The most important discovery since the floating turd!”

No, I was just kidding on that one -- I wanted to see if you were paying attention.

How about this instead:

“The most important plumbing breakthrough since the snake!” (A snake is the very long spindly thing plumbers use to unclog your toilet. It can go literally dozens of feet up into your system. One time I’d recently moved into a home -- back in 1993 -- and the plumber went 100 feet into my system to unblock our toilets. He found eggshells, lobster claws -- you name it, it was in there.)

Or what about this, if you are selling fuel additives:

“The most important breakthrough since lead-free gas!”

This makes your base of comparison HUGE, with virtually no effort on your part.

Again, I will emphasize that you’d better be able to deliver on this, otherwise you’re toast, and don’t EVER lie, but I’m sure you can figure out the difference between right and wrong.

Now if you’ve every wanted to figure out how long it takes to become a Millionaire -- and I don’t mean that hypothetically -- then you’ll want to check out this month’s issue of my offline Seductive Selling newsletter. I have an extensive article that genuinely addresses this question, and also does a fair amount of soul-bearing as well.

Test-drive it for fre.e and get $1,391 worth of bonus gifts -- including FRE.E copywriting and marketing critiques -- right here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Who said, “I think the blood is rushing to my antlers.”? Bet you don’t know.

Again, make sure you check out that article about becoming a millionaire, right here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

3 Simple Ways To Create & Strengthen Your Headlines And Build Your Entire Sales Pitch

Here are 3 simple ways to create and strengthen your headlines and build your entire sales pitch:

One of the many reasons I always write my headlines first, is that by doing so you get a number of ideas you can ultimately build your entire marketing campaign around -- or at least the lion’s share of your “big reason why” your prospects should buy.

For example, one strategy is to define the “size” of your claims, like this:

“Drop Your Golfing Score By FOUR Strokes In Less Than 30 Days!”

I cheated a little bit on that one, because I defined the size of the claim and I also defined the speed of it, but, you can only do one if you want, like this:

“DOUBLE The Number Of Fish You Catch Next Time Out!”

Similarly, you can also define the “speed” of your claims alone like this:

“Eliminates Back Pain In 90 Seconds Or Less!

Or... “Whiter Teeth In Just 7 Days!”

Another thing you can do is state something completely unconventional -- that’s something that catches EVERYONE’S eyes.

Like this, “How To Gain Muscle By Training LESS!”

Or... “Now Fly First Class For Half The Price Of A Coach Ticket!”

Make sense?

Don’t ignore these simple but highly-effective techniques -- they’re easy to use and proven to work, and you don’t need to be a rocket-scientist to figure them out.

And that... is good.

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$1,391 in FREE Bonus Gifts for you, just for trying my OFFLINE Seductive Selling Newsletter -- discover why it really IS good to be the King!: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl**********
Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Make 2007 your BEST year in business, EVER... try and qualify for my Mentoring Program and change your life right here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/maverickmentoring