Jan 21
24
Hark unto me.
I’m about to share one of the most valuable marketing lessons I learned from my dad but I’m going to provide modern examples and more insight on the subject than he ever did and show you how I made more sales using proven techniques in a modern marketing medium.
This highly critical concept has been proven to make the difference between success and failure for businesses over and over again and while it seems simple, marketers and copywriters don’t really get the true impact until they see concrete examples to make the point really stick in their brains.
The concept is just sell them what they want but ALSO deliver what they need.
The “also” is my own little but critical addition and I’ll prove this right now.
If you sell what customers don’t know they need, you are almost certainly doomed to fail. I know because I’ve tried.
Even if you describe what they need, yet also offer what they want, your chances of making the sales roll in are greatly reduced.
I’m going to use my own recent experience as an example.
You may or may not know that last year I started a paid membership program which isn’t as unique as the way I started it.
Knowing my market is made up of people who again know and more importantly, believe that research and editing are critical, I decided to do a training on marketing research for copywriters.
It’s a huge subject but I was able to give everyone the broad strokes and enough tricks to do very effective copywriting research as soon as they were done watching the training.
The way I did this was I offered the free training in our main Facebook group called The Gary Halbert Copy Club but… I told everyone who was interested in the free training they had to request to join a different group called Proven Marketing Methods.
Now in this new group Proven Marketing Methods I turned off everyone’s ability to post or comment so all the members would not have to look for the training when I went live and all the focus would be on exactly where I wanted it to be.
The sales staff at car dealerships bring prospective buyers into a separate space where they can get their undivided attention because whenever possible you want to take prospects into a place where they can not be distracted from your sales message and this was the online version of that principle.
Until the training started, the only announcement or post was when the training would take place.
This is important because you need to always make it very easy for prospects to order what you are offering, even if it is free.
Had I done a Facebook live training in the main group there would have been confusion on where to find the presentation after the Facebook live ended as the post moved up and down the feed which shows different posts first depending upon the user’s personal settings.
One setting shows the posts with the most recent comments and another setting shows the most recent post.
If I made the training presentation an announcement it would have not been easy to spot for those on mobile devices and only advanced Facebook users would have an easy time finding the killer training and IT WAS KILLER!
Nobody watched that training without learning lots of hot new tricks.
Yes, I covered the basics and a lot of what other copywriting teachers cover but, I made sure to include a lot of cool and nifty tricks I have invented and tested myself.
At the end of the presentation, I offered everyone a chance to join a paid membership program where Kevin and I would give them copywriting and marketing training as well as the ability to brainstorm (masterminding), get copy critiques, and show them how to build a copywriting career at a ridiculously low price but that is not one of the points I’m trying to make.
What made what I did unique was we used our big Facebook group as a lead generating tool and then I used a completely separate group as a landing page or selling stage and finally I used a third Facebook group to deliver the product none of which individually was a new concept. I’ve seen marketers use any two of these in a single campaign but I never seen anyone use all three for the same promotion. It was like a complete funnel using nothing but facebook groups.
Anyway, during the training I really over delivered at least according to the numbers. Of the 500 people who watched the presentation 157 immediately signed up for the monthly membership program and it was such a success…
I Turned Off The Sales Spigot Because
It Was TOO Successful!
I knew the price had to go up and I wanted to make sure Kevin and I could keep the members happy over the long haul.
We are still giving members all the personal attention they want so we can’t do that with 1,000 members.
Anyway, lots of marketers sell a membership program and by the third month, there are only a handful of diehard fans or people who forgot they were paying a monthly fee.
Now when it comes to copywriting training here is..
What They Wanted
What They Really Needed
And
How We Delivered Both!
What They Wanted: Copywriters want to get up and running fast. They want to start making money the weekend after they decided to become a copywriter.
That’s why brand new copywriting students want complete handbook style guides, cheat sheets, checklists, templates, swipes, and easy to follow formulas.
But there is a huge problem with this desire for fast and easy.
Supposing you give them just what they want and it works like a charm.
They start writing copy for small clients using the simplest templates based on “here is who I am”, “look at how great my life is”, “you can do it too and”, “but wait there’s more”, “here is a value stack and tripwire offer with an iron clad double your money back guarantee”.
Pretty soon they will think they are good and while some clients won’t know any better others will but the new copywriter will just assume the clients who are unhappy are just difficult but unhappy clients isn’t the big worry. Everyone has unhappy clients.
The big issue is the mildly successful copywriters will cut themselves off from becoming truly great because they don’t know the difference between knowing enough to get paid and being awesome so let’s talk about what they need but don’t usually want.
What They Need: Great copywriters need to put in work. If you look at the best of the best (which I am not because I’m too lazy), they study the heck out of their products and markets. The very top copywriters in any niche will read the emails sent in by real customers, work the customer service line, study the competition and never be caught off guard not knowing the best answer to any question a prospect might have.
The problem with selling this truth is the mindset between winners and losers.
In the beginning, even the winners will think “hey let me get up and running on templates first and then I’ll put in the hard work to get great.”
The difference between the winners and losers won’t be talent, a way with words, people skills or even training. And, it sure as hell won’t be a certificate of completion handed out on day one before training has begun. The difference will be the winners will keep on learning.
They don’t lose their shit and cut themselves off from great advice because someone used the word “shit” and they will honestly look at how effective their efforts have been.
They will quit doing what doesn’t work, try various ways to be persuasive and keep on trucking.
My dad NEVER stopped learning and I never do. You can ask any top copywriters who have spent any time with me and they will say I’m really freaking smart but they are wrong.
What I am is always eager to learn new marketing tricks and every piece of knowledge or experience I gain is evaluated based on how it can improve marketing. But let’s get to how to deliver both’
How I Delivered Both: The first trainings I gave were fast and easy ways to do research and from that point on…
Every single training I give on headline or bullet writing etc starts with a simple fast and easy way to get the job done with good results. This is what they want, the techniques work and these tricks are just some of what they need but then I go into revealing all the deep concepts and knowledge they need to have to become great which some members would not have bought all on their own.
Now I firmly believe these future copywriting rockstars in the group will stick with it because they can now see the path to greatness and it is worth the uphill climb to get that view from the top and the feeling of accomplishment when they get there.
If you don’t deliver what they want, you get a lot of refunds real fast.
If you don’t deliver what they need, you won’t keep long term loyal customers.
You must deliver both!
Peace,
Bond Halbert
PS Although we have been closed to new members since March of 2020 we will be opening up for new members but because Kevin provided members with personal advice and critiques we really can’t let everyone from our other groups join but if you want to be in the early batches of invites, send an email to bond@thegaryhalbertletter.com and put Halbertizing in the subjectline.
We do have a lot of people already on the waitlist who will get first dibs but getting through this long post proves you deserve priority status so from this moment on I’ll prioritize the folks who mention this post in their email request for more information.