In this presentation, we're gonna talk about copywriting basics. And I'm gonna just go off of this sheet here because there's just some points that I wanna make. Some things that have served me well over the years, and I think when you are considering writing your own copy, your own sales copy. Now there's a lot of different reasons why you might wanna write your own copy. A lot of people do it because they wanna save money. They don't wanna hire a copywriter and they think, oh, what the heck? You know,  I'll just write it myself. But they don't really have a format to go by. And I think for those particular situations where you're gonna try to sell something yourself I think it's, first, it's really important to identify a few things. First of all, you don't always sell the same way to different types of people.


You don't sell different types of products to different types of people the same way. And another thing that you also should keep in mind is there's a lot of different types of copywriting. So copywriting for ads, copywriting for direct mail, copywriting for email copywriting for sales pages, copywriting for scripts and videos and things like that. There are different components to it. For example, if you're writing a copy for a sales video the way that you write that is gonna be a little bit different than it's gonna, if it's gonna be a long form sales letter, for example, that you're gonna fold and mail to someone as a direct mail piece. This is different because the ability to jump around is, is kind of it's, it's obstructed When you are on a video, you can actually force 'em to watch the whole thing, but it's really important to grab them between the eyeballs within the first five or six seconds, or else you're gonna lose them.


It's a little bit different when you're mailing a piece that they can just skim. So the actual layout of it, you know, of the copy and the way that it's written, meaning the things that are underlined, the things that are boldfaced, those are all the, the, the the visual aspects of the copy, the formatting of the text, the font, the size, the, the bold face, and that kind of stuff. That is very, very important. It contributes a lot to the conversion. But what I wanted to talk about is the substance, right? So the actual story is written in the order that you wanna present things. So the first thing that you want to ask yourself is what are you selling to who and how. So obviously, the how would be the method of delivering that copy? So is it gonna be on a sales page?


So one of the things on a sales page, if you are, if you're writing out sales copy to sell a product online, you know, you've got phantom scrollers, people can scroll with their mouths and skip right down to the part where you, you tell them the price and they see the price, and then they, they basically pre-judge before they've even read anything, they make a judgment about whether or not they're willing to spend the amount of money that they just saw on the price. And the reality is that nobody is willing to spend the money that they see on the price that is not to the point to justify going up and taking an hour to read the, the, the copy, right? So the, the reason for


This is that just about all marketing is usually pattern interrupt. And what I mean by that, especially online marketing pattern interrupt means that when they see it, they weren't shopping, right? Generally speaking, right? So the things that people buy when they're shopping for them are usually the things that they'll see in an e-commerce store. So I'm looking for a particular piece of clothing because I'm shopping for a jacket, or I'm shopping for a, a present or something like that, and I'm, I'm actually perusing different websites and looking for a specific item by model number that doesn't require the type of copywriting that I'm talking about here. So yeah, even those types of products could use snazzy descriptions and, and really catchy headlines and stuff like that. But what I'm talking about when I say copywriting basics is about writing that long form copy for a script or for a sales page that's gonna walk the reader through a story that's gonna present a shocking statement or a headline.


That then is gonna back it up with proof that there's gonna, you know, introduce the problem and then, you know, establish you as an expert or the authority figure, and then go into the features and benefits of the solution, and so on and so forth. So there's an actual order to these things. And dare I say, there's various types of order. I mean, if you ask 10 copywriters, you get 10 different layouts and, and kind of formats to follow. And, and they would vary depending on the type of product you're selling. And to who you see what you're selling and who you're selling it to is is really important because you don't sell gizmos and gadgets to baby boomers the same way that you sell books to college graduates that are living on ramen noodles, right? So the audience, the the specific people that you are targeting with your message play a big role in the type of things that you're writing in the message, the references that you're making, the language that you're using.


You know, it is the time period that this person like for example, if you're, if, if you've got an older generation that you're writing an ad for, maybe you have senior citizens that you're writing an ad for, you're not gonna make references to current day pop culture, right? Because they're probably not that trendy and you're gonna lose them in the copy. But if you maybe write some things about, if you want to use pop culture from the day that, you know, like, you know, when they were in their twenties or they were in their thirties you know, that might be a little bit more people. I've see a lot of people do this with headlines, you know, like you know, if you maybe date your headline back to a movie or a line in a movie that was used, or that was very, very famous back at the time where this particular reader might have been fa familiar with it, right?


So these kind of things are important to know. And usually when you write copy, you try to write sales copy or, or a video script, and you try to make references that you're trying to be clever with, or you try to appeal to everyone, chances are it's gonna go over somebody's head or it's gonna go under somebody's head, like so far into, they don't even understand like, what, what are you talking to? I don't get that reference. I don't understand it. So, you know, it's important to know who you're selling to so that you could tailor your script so you could tailor your copy as much as possible to them. The other thing is what you're selling, we don't sell the, you know, let's say you, you did have a template that you like to use all the time. Well, the question would be, well, what type of product is this template for?
If you have a sales page or sales copy, or sales script template, you can't use the same exact process or steps for selling coaching as you would for selling software. Because those two things, those two products, even though they can both be sold on a webpage, those two products, the sales copy needs to focus on completely different things. You see, when you're selling coaching, what you're really selling is the authority of the coach, the expert status of the coach, the subject matter. I mean, come on, it's the internet. You can learn just about anything on YouTube nowadays, right? So if I'm gonna pay for information, I wanna know that I'm paying the right person. This person's earned my money. So really what that sales copy has to sell is the, the, the coach, the person, the vendor themselves. There's gotta be a story involved there.


There's gotta be credibility, there's gotta be social proof, there's gotta be testimonials. There's gotta be an authority established, you know, expert status has to be established right at the beginning of that copywriting, or else I'm just gonna be like, ah, no, no, I'll take my chances with that person on YouTube. Now, if you're selling a gizmo, a gadget, a software, the story of the creator isn't really as important, at least not to the measure that we need to know. They are an expert in the thing that they may, oh, with, with selling gizmos, gadgets and software, really, you just have to establish the need. So once you've established that the user or the reader has that need, and sometimes you know, they have the need, but they don't even know they have it. So you have to put them in that place with your copy.


Well, once you've established the need, all you have to do is demonstrate that your software or your tool solves the need. You know, and, and that's it, that's really the main mission. But, you know, whether or not the creator's a multimillionaire or had a rough life, you know, being born in a, you know, a, a cane field in Cuba, you know, that, like the story doesn't really matter as much. Unless, you know, we're, we're really talking about the author's expertise coming into question with, with the product. So if you're selling coaching, you're not gonna sell it the same way to the same type of people as you would a gizmo or gadget. So this part right here, when we're talking copywriting basics, selling what to who and how are really the first things that you have to establish. And you have to really give this some thought and you have to write it out.


And usually just like what you're looking at right now, it just, this is just a Google dot with, you know, and when I, when I, somebody suggested this topic and I said, let me, lemme just open up a Google doc real quick and let's just write down a couple of ideas, a couple of thoughts that I want to cover on a, on a, on a presentation about copywriting. Well, this is how pretty much all of my writing starts. I just quickly created a doc and I just started, you know, blurring out some bullet points, just typing out some bullet points, and then eventually fleshing them out meant taking the most important ones and then making an outline out of it. And then eventually turning that into a story. So in order to understand, we're gonna talk about the steps, right? So there's, there's basically, I wanted to go over the base of the things that you need to know before you start.


Then I wanted to go over a five step process that has really worked for us quite, quite well. And then I wanted to, you know, kind of cover the important things you need to know about just the human psyche and just the customer mentality when they're reading your copy in order, create a copy that actually is compelling. So what I'm gonna do before I jump into the steps, the five steps I'm going to talk a little bit about, the propensity of the viewer or the reader to buy. You know, I mentioned being marketing, especially copywriting, you know, it's, it's, it's primarily pattern interrupt, meaning the person that's reading your advertisement, you know, your, your sales copy, that person was in the process of doing something else when all of a sudden you got in front of them somehow, whether through an ad or through a link or an email, whatever they were doing something else.

Nobody gets up in the morning, rolls over in terms of their spouse and says, well, hey honey, I sure do hope I get pitched today on some amazing product. 'cause I'm just feeling in the mood to really buy something based on some copywriting. That's just really persuasive. Nobody thinks that way. So they were in the middle of doing something, they were checking their emails, they were going through their Instagram feed or their Facebook or something, and then all of a sudden your copy, your headline, your thing popped in front of them, pattern interrupt. They were already exhibiting a regular pattern that they do, whether it's checking their email or scrolling through their social media. And now all of a sudden that pattern's been interrupted. Here's the challenge. Your copy has to consider that that open loop will eventually be closed. That person, their brain is struggling to get back to the thing they were doing.


They're, they're, they're being pulled in. 'cause they never finished checking the emails. They never finished going through their Facebook feed. They never finished doing what they were doing. They ran into you. So there's always this thing that's kind of pulling them away from your copy. So you have to use impulse factors and in order to keep them engaged with a copy and impulse factors are really probably the most important part of persuading someone with any kind of copywriting, any kind of copy, whether it's in a script for a video or if it's in long form sales letter that you're mailing to people, even if it's in a print ad in a newspaper or a magazine, impulse is the propensity to buy. So when someone first gets interrupted by your copy, they are at a purchase level of zero. So somehow you've gotta get them at an inter, from an interest level of zero or maybe just slightly above zero to the interest level of pulling out their wallet and throwing money at you.

You have to do that in a relatively short period of time before their brain pulls them back into the pattern that you interrupted. So we do this by engaging them through impulse factors. Impulse is their propensity to buy, how willing to buy are they? Well, when they first run into you, their willingness is at zero. And when they are going to actually pull out their credit card and pay you, well, their willingness is now at its highest point. So let's say a hundred. So you gotta get 'em from zero to a hundred really quickly before they lose track, you know, or like lose interest and get back over to what they were doing. So the factors of impulse that we use in order to get that done are called the figs, fear of loss, indifference, greed, and sense of urgency. And those are the things that people, that, that trigger people's minds when they're, when they're, so, for example, fear of loss, when you start telling them, Hey, look, you should really read this right now because it's got something that you're gonna need.


And unfortunately, there aren't enough to go around. So now you've already instilled the fear of loss in them, which is gonna make them weigh their, their, their, you know, balance. Like, okay, well, should I go back to what I was doing? Or should I maybe take a chance and finish reading this now so I don't lose out? Right? So fear of loss, indifference, indifference is like, like, Hey, look, this may or may not be for you. I, I hope that it is, because if it is, you know, so taking the position where you're the opposite of a needy salesman, people want what they can't have, and and more importantly, they avoid what's being pushed on them. So if you try to convince somebody to stay and hey, look, look, please don't go away, please don't go away, please, just gimme a chance. Just read this whole thing for me, please, please, there's only 17 paragraphs you can get through that.


And let's see if you do one paragraph per minute in less than 17 minutes. So don't worry about what, see the difference. There's a very big difference between being needy and coming off like, like, you know, a really pushy or, or just aggressive persistent salesperson. Then hey, look, this isn't for everybody, but I'm pretty sure that once you realize what this is, you're gonna see how you've needed it for so long, and it's finally here. So using word verbiage that is not needy. So that's, that's indifferent. So the next one would be greed. Some people refer to it as social proof. So greed is a common impulse that we share and that an impulse factor that we share in we all want what the 
other one has. Nobody, you know, the greed factor is like, it's the Jones effect, right?


You drive down a neighborhood and it's not just one driveway that has the basketball hoop in it, right? Like if one kid gets it, like 10 kids have to have a basketball hoop, right? And, and, and what starts happening with the greed factor is when one person does it, the other people are like, okay, they wanna jump on the bandwagon. Nobody wants to be the first person on the dance floor. So you can use things like social proof, like, Hey, did you know? And like, here's an example of using the three that we've covered so far, right? So we talked about fear loss. Hey, listen you really should pay attention to this right now because I think it's something that you need. And unfortunately, we don't have enough to go around now. It may or may not be for you, but I, I'll tell you what, if this is for you, you are gonna be so glad that you got it right now.


And, and you know, Mary actually just told me that she loved it. She didn't think it was for her, and she got it and it changed her life. So you, you see how I'm kind of structuring the fear of loss indifference, the greed factor already. And then the final one is the sense of urgency.  Now a lot of people confuse that with fear of loss. I think fear of loss and urgency are the same, and they're not the same thing with fear of loss. Your, your, your reader is in a race you know, with the products, like they're, they're, they're competing with other readers because the products are running out. So the, the products are what's scarce, but with urgency, time is what's scarce. So now at the end you could say, Hey, look, we may or may not run outta these, but whether we have any left or not at midnight, this is gonna close.


So when you add that to the sentence, you say, Hey, look we are, we, you know, we're, we're doing this for a short time. There's not enough for everybody. This is gonna close. You know, it may or may not be for you, but it's gonna close at midnight. Either way, you know, you're combining these factors of impulse. Now, when you word these in your copywriting, there, i i, I don't recommend that you use them all at the same time like that, but when you weave these in and out of the copy that you're writing, you're going to be hitting what we call the hotspots in somebody's psyche. And you're going to get them more engaged. And this is the kind of thing that you do to counterbalance the fact that it was a pattern interrupt and they're getting pulled or they subconsciously need to go and finish something that they were doing.


Keep in mind that the pleasure principle is what drives people. Like, at the end of the day, they're gonna make a decision based on one of two things. Either the product is going to increase pleasure for them, or it's gonna decrease pain. So it's gonna eliminate a problem. A problem - a need is something that's just, that's just a pain in the in, in their life. Your product that you're trying to sell is either going to solve that problem and make their life better and increase their pleasure, or it's gonna remove their pain by taking away something that's hurting them, something. So when you write your copy, you've gotta pick which one of those things your, your product does, and that's how you are going to basically, you know, frame the copy that you're writing, the impulse factors we already went over that we already explained to you, fear loss and difference, greed and sense of urgency.


Now, what a lot of people don't understand is that people that decide not to buy your product, they seldom, you know, choose to not buy because they didn't like the product or because maybe it was missing a feature or because you did a good job of, you didn't do a good enough job of explaining it. Most people that don't buy something are simply because they're afraid. It's fear that compels them. Fear of making a bad decision is the main thing that stops 'em. They're just afraid. So really all your copy needs to do, all your sales copy needs to do, whether it's a script or it's a sales page, whatever it is, it needs to relieve them of that fear. And in many cases, they're afraid of making a bad decision. And, and you know, what's tied to that bad decision is the potential loss of money.


Because if they make a bad decision, they buy something that they shouldn't have bought and they regret it tomorrow, and then they can't get their money back. That's the fear that that that usually stops 'em from taking action. So when you do things like add parts of, of your copy to make the product risk free to alleviate all risk from them, then what you're gonna find is that you're removing fear and the person's impulse or the likelihood or propensity to buy is gonna go up. Another big mistake that I see a lot of people make when they write copy, and they're not used to writing sales copy, whether it's in an email or it's in an advertisement, what they do is they focus a lot on the, the features of the product, thinking that that's what's gonna sell. Look, I didn't wake up in the morning and plan to, to, to go evaluate your product based on the features or compare it to some other product.


Very few purchases are made that way. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, there are a lot of people obviously, that make calculated purchase decisions when they're shopping for a product and have a specific budget, and they're evaluating two similar types of products. Yeah, those people are out there, but the majority of your sales, like 90 something percent of your sales are not from people that were out there looking for your product. It's from people that just, you know, pattern interrupted, you got in front of 'em somehow. And those people, it's not the features that are gonna get them over the edge, it's the benefits. It's the benefit that that feature will provide for them. So if you've got you know, if, if, if your software performs a task at lightning speed, it's not the particular speed of the, of the feature that, that, that, that's gonna convince them to buy.


Well, you know,  in 0.003 seconds, you can have your sales page done for you. Well, no, that's, that, that's a great feature, but that's not, you know, what's gonna, what's gonna sell them is the time they saved. Hey, you know that last time that you tried creating a, a, a webpage and it took you hours, and then you thought you were done and you really weren't done, and then you had to do this, you think, well, you know what, now you can spend that hour with your family. You could take your, your wife or your spouse or your kids to get ice cream and you can enjoy a beautiful summer day wherever it is that you live, because you don't have to spend time doing that anymore. So that benefit is what's gonna sell the product. And these are the tricks that copywriters use to get people thinking about how their life is gonna be after they've purchased the product.


Now look, I could probably sit here and work out with you a series of steps to, to write a copy for all different purposes, because remember, it all comes down to what are we selling to who and how Is it a gizmo? Is it coaching? Is it a software as a service that we're selling? Is it a digital information product? Is it a video course? There's so many different types of things that we could sell, and the scripts that we would create or the copy that we would write would be different for all of those. But generally speaking, generally speaking, a really good starting point for almost any type of script. Again, each one would have to deviate a little bit based on what you're selling it to who. But a good format to follow are these five steps, an introduction, a short story or presentation, a close, and then a rehash, an introduction.


Now, typically on a sales page or on sales copy and introduction, if we were doing an introduction in person, it would be, you know, hi, how are you? How are you doing? You'd be introducing yourself, right? You know, if we were doing this in person, it would be, you know, if we were doing like door to door sales or retail sales, it would be, you know, who, what, why? Hi, my name is so and so, and I'm just here representing so and so, and we're doing a sale, or we have a special, right? So you're doing an introduction in a short story that way, but in sales copy, it's a little bit different. So usually the introduction is really when you introduce the challenge or the pro. Now depending on the type of product, the introduction could be a headline that is just, just posts a big, bold claim.


And then in this introduction phase, not only do you make the bold claim that maybe addresses a problem or a challenge that the viewer or the reader is having, but then right beneath it, you satisfy that with, with proof you have some sort of proof statement. So that would be like a sub headline. Okay? So, the introduction and the short story, what you want to cover here is who, what and why, who you are, what you're doing and why you're doing it. The short story is really important because it establishes you as the person that is going to be presenting something to them in a minute. So who you are, what you're doing, and why you're doing it, that's the key. Who, what, why is the key to the short story? So introduction, bold, claim proof, and then short story, who, what and why.


Now, the thing that you want to accomplish in the short story phase, as you're telling 'em who, what and why is you want to, to do two things. You essentially want to get a common denominator on a problem that the person is having. 'cause Remember, they're either buying to, to, to increase pleasure or to decrease pain. So the short story needs to accomplish the fact that you establish the problem that they, they, they, you know, so you introduce who you are, what you're doing, and why you're doing it. And then you say, look, the, the why is typically because of this problem, because I had this problem in my life because I was trying to do this or I couldn't get done. 'cause I realized that a whole bunch of other people are having this type of problem. So that is the, the, the thing that, and then what's, what's going to, what's gonna really bring this into the presentation is the imagine.


So you wanna get this reader to imagine within the short story, the who, the what, the why, cover the problem. And then finally, you wanna make sure that they can imagine a place in their life where that problem is gone. That problem is no longer what would their life think of all the benefits in their life if they no longer had the problem. You wanna get them dreaming. You wanna get them to imagine that place in their life. That's the moment where you hit them with the presentation. The presentation is when you introduce the product, you say, this is why I created X, Y, Z, or this is why we do this coaching program, or this is why we have this service or this software. You present the product. And now beneath the product is where you lease, you list your features and your benefits.


For every feature that your product that you're gonna list about your product, you have to focus on the benefit. Because again, like I mentioned earlier, it's not the feature that's gonna sell that product, it's the benefit. So we're going through this with an intro, with a short story who, what, and why establish the problem. Get them to imagine a place without the problem. Now present the solution and list the features and benefits, features, benefit, feature, benefit, feature benefit. Now, once you've done that, you wanna close. Now typically the close is where you ask for money. You say, Hey, look, this is how much it is. Now what I do here with the close is this is where I, I start introducing. If I haven't already sprinkled in some, some factors of impulse, I start doing it here at the close phase. And essentially I'm doing things like testimonials.


I'm doing things like proof proof, screenshots and statements. Where I am, I am basically showing them proof that the things that I just explained or that I talked about with the, with the presentation that that actually is true. Okay? And, and we're doing that and we're asking for the money with the close. The most important thing is gonna be the call to action. You want to, you wanna basically tell them that it's time to pay and they need to click here, or that they tell them what they need to do next to take action and walk them through that, explain it to them. Finally, once you've gone through your close, you wanna rehash. Usually I see people do this online, on web pages by doing things like an order box where they say, yes, I want this product now I want it so badly.


This thing is amazing, and I know I'm gonna get this, and I know it's gonna be for a year, and I know it includes this and I know it. So you're rehashing the product. I usually like to include with my rehash a PS statement down at the bottom. Usually this is for the phantom scrollers. This is for those people that decide they're gonna, they land on your page, they scroll all the way down to the bottom, and then they start reading it in reverse. So the rehash is gonna cover some of the most important parts of this script. You know, of your five steps. It's just gonna kind of put them down in like the PS section for that, that guy or gal that kinda scrolled down to the bottom and just, just went from the bottom up. Now I, I wanna just reiterate again, this is a generic general series of steps to follow.


When you are writing copy this, these five steps, I can, I can start writing copy about anything for any type of audience by simply putting them on a document like this and just kind of hitting a, a little bit of space in between each one like that. And then just starting to write, you know working out over here. Okay, well, what's gonna be the who what's gonna be the what what's gonna be the why, what's gonna be the problem and what's gonna be the imagine? Okay? So imagine the place without it, the presentation. So what's the product? Feature one, benefit one. You see what I'm doing here? So I'm, I'm basically going through all the things that I just explained, and on a Google doc like this, I would literally start filling in these blanks and writing these things until I start fleshing out my story.


I start fleshing out what, you know, I didn't do over here. So a bold statement, bold statement, a bold claim in the headline and in a supporting statement, in the sub headline you know, a trick to writing really great headlines and openers. Tell them that, you know, you wanna list everything that they want without everything that they hate. So, a good headline would be, imagine building your most, the most beautiful site you've ever done without having to pay a designer, without having to spend time on building it. So everything that they want without everything that they hate, that would, that's, that's a good headline formula for you. And then beneath it, a supporting statement. You know something like over, you know, 300 people can't, or 3000 people can't be wrong because they've created over, you know, 6,000 pages with, you know, our software.


You know, something that kind of supports that bold claim that you just made. Then go into the short story, who you are, what you're doing, why you're doing it, what's the problem that you're solving. And then imagine a place with the solution present, the product that you're gonna, that you're gonna be talking to 'em about. Features, benefits, and this is a series of features each followed by a benefit. Go into the close, the closes where you use things like testimonials. It's where you start using impulse factor, field of loss. I see people online use countdown timers and things like that here to to, to raise urgency. And then finally, the rehash at the bottom. Once you, once you tell 'em, call to action, click here, buy


Now, go check out. You know, and by the way, don't forget that you get this, you get that, you get the other thing in the, in the kind of checkout box. So this is a kind of format where you can customize these five steps for just about anything. And you know, again, keeping in mind the type of audience and the type of product that you're selling, your script will vary. But this is a good, good starting point for you. I hope that this kind of gets your wheels turning and at least covered the most important things about writing copy, so that as you're drafting that, that story, you're crafting that, that story, that that's gonna compel people. You understand the importance of impulse. You understand that hey, they were in the process of doing something else. So you've gotta be quick, direct to the point, and you've gotta use impulse factors and a process to sell the right thing to the right type of audience. Okay? 

So I hope you enjoyed this video and I look forward to talking to you again very, very soon. Take care.