I Got C's In English Class, But Generated Millions With Copy. Here's My Process (Step-By-Step)
You want to write high converting copy, but you’re left staring at a blank google doc with no idea about what to do?
Or worse:
You’re putting low value prompts into AI tools and hoping and praying it magically pops out high converting copy?
If so, you’re in luck.
That’s because I’m going to run you through my entire process for writing winning controls in 10 minutes…
… and also provide a running example along the way.
This way: You’ll see exactly how it’s done and can follow suit.
Sounds good?
Let’s dive right in.
Step 1/ Narrow in on a specific target inside a growing niche that belongs to one of the BIG 3 verticals.
This is how I find extremely profitable niches. I start with one of the BIG 3 verticals: health, wealth, or dating. Find a growing niche inside it [i.e. tinder dating, keto, copywriting]. And then find a specific target with a specific high pressure pain point.
Without this, nothing works.
So let me provide you with a hypothetical example of what this looks like…
BIG 3 market: Health
Growing niche: Keto
Specific target inside growing niche: Target who has successfully lost weight with keto, but now is experiencing a weight loss stall and cannot lose any more weight to hit their goal weight. Tried everything, but nothing is working.
–
At this point of the game, I’ll prepare a client avatar of the chosen target so I can get a clear picture of who this person is – this will make writing copy extremely easy because we always want to write to a clear person, not to a vague, blurry niche.
Here’s what most people collect when preparing client avatars:
Demographics such as age, occupation, relationship status, # of children, average day in the day, frustrations, desires, media consumption, etc.
This is cool, but the majority of this info is useless.
I don’t really care to know a bunch of random information about my chosen target, I want specific information related to the offer that I’m selling and the niche I’m in.
This varies for each niche, but with our keto example I’d collect something along the lines of the following:
Who is this target?
How did they originally find keto?
What are their goals with keto?
How long have they been on keto?
What do they find easy about keto?
What do they find hard about keto?
How much weight have they lost on keto?
How did losing this weight make them feel?
What is their biggest frustration with keto?
What products/offers have they used in the keto space?
What is their current state?
What is their desired state?
What are the barriers in the way between current and desired state?
Get the point?
After I’ve collected the above (using research), I’ll turn it into a PDF customer avatar file, find a real person on social media that represents my target (get your stalking on!), put their face to the research, print it out, and now I know exactly who I’m writing to.
Next step…
Step 2/ Determine target’s awareness level.
Marketing does not occur in a vacuum.
If you go up to someone and tell them something they’ve never heard before in an area that interests them, they’ll be captivated and will want to hear more.
If you go up to the same person and tell them something they’ve heard 100 times before in an area that interests them, they’ll use their mind to group what you have to say in the “I’ve already heard this before” bucket and tune out your message.
As a result, your marketing will not make it through their mental barrier that is constantly filtering out:
What is relevant for me?
In order to create the perfect marketing message that lands with your chosen target, you first need to know:
What do they already know?
Without this, it’s very difficult to figure out what type of message will convert and which won’t.
Fortunately, this part is relatively easy because there’s 5 main levels of awareness as documented by the legendary copywriter Eugene Schwartz.
Here they are:
Level 1: Unaware – Don’t know anything about anything
Level 2: Problem Aware – Know they have a problem
Level 3: Solution Aware – Know they have a problem and solutions exist for their problem
Level 4: Product Aware – Know they have a problem, know solutions exist, know about your product
Level 5: Most Aware – Know they have a problem, know solutions exist, know about your product, know why it’s the best product for them, etc.
For our Keto example, I’d group my target into L3 awareness (they know they have a problem – not being able to continuously lose weight with keto and they probably know solutions exist in the market for this problem, but aren’t yet aware of our product).
This is all I do during this stage. Now I know who I’m writing to and what level of awareness they fall into. This is critical information that will allow us to get a lot of the copy decisions we’ll have to make later right.
Next up…
Step 3/ What is the market sophistication level?
Target’s don’t live in isolated homes.
They belong to niches which belong to markets that are characterized with sophistication levels.
In short, the higher the level of sophistication, the more competitive it is which will require stronger, better, tighter marketing in order to cut through.
When it comes to the BIG 3 MARKETS as a whole (wealth, health, dating), these are very sophisticated markets.
Lots of offers. Lots of competition.
But when it comes to the growing niches inside these markets, these are usually less sophisticated so there’s more room for us to play and strike it big. This is one reason why we start by choosing a big 3 market and narrowing it down to a growing niche and then a specific target inside the growing niche so we don’t have to worry about the massive spikes of competition that exist at the macro level. With that noted, what I do now is group my chosen niche into the correct level of sophistication.
Here are the various levels:
L1: Blue ocean – No competition. Simply lead with your promise.
L2: Some competition with similar claims/promises – Tie proof element to your promise and lead with that.
L3: More competition – Add a unique mechanism.
L4: Advanced competition – Add problem & solution mechanisms.
L5: Red ocean – Murky waters.
For our keto example, I’d choose L3.
At this point, I know my target, I know how much they know, and I know the overall sophistication level of the niche they belong to. This, in return, gives me a lot of ‘insight’ into the type of marketing that will work (and what won’t work).
Now I move onto the next step.
[Important Note: Notice how we haven’t started writing a single word of copy yet. Writing is not the important part. Doing all the upfront research is where the big money is made.]
Step 4/ Craft your marketing elements
Based on the information we gathered and based on the research we conducted into our offer, we want to now come up with the following 5 marketing elements.
These will form the bedrock to our sales argument.
USP/Mechanism: What is unique about your offer? [In order to figure this out, study your offer in relation to the competition and ask yourself: What does my offer have that other competitors don’t have which allows it to generate the big promise the target wants?]
BIG IDEA: What is the central idea that will capture the attention of the chosen target? [In order to figure this out, study your niche and find compelling, attention grabbing ideas that lend well to your offer]
BIG PROBLEM: What is the core problem of the target that your offer solves? [In order to figure this out, study your chosen avatar and ask yourself: What is their main problem that my offer solves?]
BIG PROMISE: What is the core benefit your target wants? [In order to figure this out, study your offer and ask yourself: What is the main benefit of using this offer?]
PROOF: What proof do you have that the offer actually works and delivers on the big promise? [In order to figure this out, study your current customers and the results they’ve generated. If you have no current customers, here’s where you can leverage a proof based guarantee].
[In addition here is when you can also add mechanisms (problem/solution) based on market sophistication level – if needed]
For our Keto example, here’s what I’ve come up with:
USP: 72 hour extreme keto diet
BIG IDEA: 3 levels of ketosis: L1/L2/L3
BIG PROBLEM: Target is experiencing a weight loss stall
BIG PROMISE: Overcome your weight loss stall and start losing weight on keto again
PROOF: Success stories
Nice and easy.
Now we’re ready for the next step.
Step 5/ Decide direct or indirect copy
How you approach and talk to your best friend is vastly different from how you approach and talk to a complete stranger you’ve never met.
With the former, you go more direct and get right into it…
But with the latter, you go more indirect and let things build slowly, but surely.
Same goes with copy.
If you’re writing to a target with a low level of awareness (somebody who doesn’t know you), then you want to go indirect with your copy.
To go indirect means you don’t lead with your product and what you have for sale. Instead, you meet the target where they’re at, capture their attention, stimulate their desire, and then transition into the offer, what it delivers, why it’s unique, how it works, etc.
On the other hand…
If you’re writing to a target with a high level of awareness (somebody who already knows you and your offer), then you want to go direct with your copy.
To go direct means you lead directly with your offer and why they should buy it now.
With our keto example, we concluded that our target was in L3 level of awareness, so with our copy we’re going to go more direct [Here’s what level of keto you’re currently in: L1/L2, this is why you’ve stopped losing weight, here’s what level you need to be in to induce optimal ketosis: L3, and here’s how you can get there: [introduce the unique offer].
Again, we’re not writing a single word of copy yet.
We’re just putting all the chess pieces on the proper squares, so we can give ourselves the best chance to win.
Step 6/ Write your headline
After you’ve:
Chosen your target
Pinpointed their level of awareness
Defined their level of market sophistication
Crafted your elements
Decided on direct or indirect
Now it’s finally time to use all the above intel to actually start writing copy.
How do we use this intel?
By leveraging our chosen elements to craft winning copy in accordance with the target’s level of awareness (direct or indirect).
If, for example, we decided to go direct, then we want to come up with a headline that mentions our offer/results/proof/USP element/big promise.
If, on the other hand, we decided to go indirect, then we want to come up with a headline that mentions our big idea or the big problem.
Based on the above, you want to leverage the most common structures for copywriting headlines…
… and write 20+.
Then choose the best one.
For our keto example, I’m going to go with the following (this is the headline of the sales copy they would see AFTER taking a keto quiz to determine their ketosis levels):
Please Take The Next 5 Minutes To Read Your Ketosis Results
It Could Be The Difference Between Losing 3 lbs/Week With Keto Or Living With Stubborn Fat Forever!”
Moving on…
Step 7/ Write your lead
After the headline, the next most important part is the lead.
In a nutshell, there are 6 types of leads:
Offer lead
Promise lead
Problem-solution lead
Big secret lead
Proclamation lead
Story lead
What you choose depends on your target’s awareness level.
In a nutshell: Top three leads for higher levels of awareness. Lower three for lower levels of awareness.
For our keto example, I’m going to go with the problem/solution lead type.
Here’s the flow of how this looks like:
We’ve finished gathering your keto results
Here are the results: you’re not currently in ketosis [problem]
Rest of the copy would then go into details of the problem and transition into the solution.
Step 8/ Brainstorm and rank all objections [in order]
Now we’ve written the headline and the lead.
What’s next?
To create an overall flow for the copy.
How do you do this?
Think about all possible objections the target would have to buying your offer. In other words, what questions do they need answered before deciding: “Yes, I will buy this.”
Brainstorm all those objections now.
Then rank them in the order they occur.
For example, let’s say the objections to our keto example are as follows:
“How much is it?”
“How can I know I’m not in ketosis?”
“What makes ABC product the best choice?”
“What is optimal ketosis?”
“What is ABC product?”
“Am I in ketosis?”
“Why should I buy ABC product to get into optimal ketosis?” “How does ABC product work?”
“Who has this worked for?”
“How do I get into optimal ketosis?”
“What if it doesn’t work?”
And so on and so forth (just jotting down quick and dirty objections here, but for the real thing I’d brainstorm all the objections)
It’s obvious that before somebody asks, “how much is it?” they would first need to know: “What exactly is ABC product?”
So the order of the objections would be as follows:
Am I in ketosis?
How can I know I’m not in ketosis?
What is optimal ketosis?
How do I get into optimal ketosis?
What is ABC product?
How does ABC product work?
What makes ABC product the best choice?
Who has this worked for?
Why should I buy ABC product to get into optimal ketosis?
How much is it?
What if it doesn’t work?
Get the point? You’d do this for all potential objections (this creates the structure/flow for our copy).
Then we move onto the next step.
Step 9/ Use your marketing elements (from step 4) to answer all the objections.
Take each objection and turn it into a selling point by using the marketing elements to address each objection.
With our keto example, it’d go as follows:
“How can I know I’m not in ketosis?” → Use BIG IDEA to address this objection: “There are 3 levels of keto. L1, L2, L3. Only in Level 3 are you in optimal, fat-burning ketosis. Most people think they’re in L3, but are actually in L1/L2. Here’s how you tell what level you’re in: [insert specifics]
“What makes ABC product the best choice?” → Use USP and PROOF elements to address this objection: “Reason ABC product is the best choice for solving [BIG PROBLEM] and delivering [BIG PROMISE] is because of [x USP]. Here’s how [USP] works and here’s proof it works: [PROOF ELEMENT].
“Why should I buy ABC product to get into optimal ketosis?” → Use BIG PROMISE element to address this objection: Here’s what you’ll experience once you’re in optimal ketosis: [BIG PROMISE THE TARGET WANTS].
See how that works?
Now our copy is really coming together.
All we have to do now is the last step.
Step 10/ Use a risk reversal and write the close
Once you’ve answered all objections in the order they occur in, you’ve finished the body part of the copy.
Now leverage a risk reversal to ease all concerns and write the CTA.
After the CTA, include a FAQ section that summarizes all the main objections from the copy (for the people that skim through the copy) and include a second CTA below it.
For our keto example, it’s go something like this:
FAQs
What is ABC product?
How does ABC product work?
What proof do you have ABC product works?
How much is it?
What if it doesn’t work?
Etc.
[CTA: Get Into Optimal Ketosis In 72 Hours With ABC Product]
See how that works?
Now we’ll put it through the editing phase, make it tighter, take out all unnecessary parts, improve the flow/readability, and ensure all objections are addressed (in order).
After we do the above, we then launch, collect market data, use that data to optimize, and scale.
Understood?
That’s how I go about writing winning copy. As you can tell, it’s not a lot about writing. But nailing the research, elements, positioning, structure, objections, and flow.
These are the most important parts.
So, hopefully this quick and dirty deep dive provided you with the juice and overall process you can follow to start writing winning copy of your own.
If you want to explore this process in great detail with two real life examples provided (this was just a very high level run down), I highly recommend checking out 6 Figure Promotions (2000+ customers and is considered by many to be the best copywriting/direct response course on Money Tweeter)
Go here to learn more
/tej
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