Copywriting Guide – Fascinations

By: Michael Dunlop     Topics: Making Money Online

The ‘Unfair Advantage’ for selling anything online

Ask any good business owner that understands direct marketing “what is the one biggest advantage that if you had it could make you millions?”

They are not going to say their list. Although it is a huge asset. Nor will they say there PPC campaign, or their blog.

All of these are great and essential.

And almost all the most successful people online have these.

But the one thing they will all agree on is their secret weapon is their copywriter.

Whether it’s the entrepreneur who does the writing… or if they hire out this work to a direct-response copywriter who has a proven track record.

If you already have your own in-house copywriter, do it yourself or get a ‘hired gun’ you’re already successful.

If you don’t then what I’m about to tell you will rock your world.

When I first started out as a writer 21 years ago, I got into by accident. I was a door to door commission only salesperson.

How’s that for a tough choice?

Imagine having to go up to someone’s front door you’ve never met and ask them to buy your stuff.

Well I was successful, so much so an entrepreneur asked me to work for him.

This was industrial sales. And when I tried cold-calling it didn’t work.

You had to have an appointment or you couldn’t see anyone.

Next I tried telesales. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried this, but it’s pretty soul destroying stuff.

Out of sheer frustration I wrote a letter and sent it out first class.

And guess what?

My phone started ringing.

They were calling me for an appointment.

I liked this. A lot.

I’ve never admitted this to anyone before, but it was so easy it was almost embarrassing.

This got me started on a quest to learn more about writing sales letters.

Over the years I’ve been able to launch new products fast and profitably.

I’ll show you were you can see examples of some of these successful sales letters later.

But for now before you write another piece of copy, or hire someone else, you need to know the number one skill the gives any writer the winning edge.

And I’m going to tell you what that is in a moment. But first let me tell about selling in print.

In order to sell you must get the interest and desire of the person you want to buy your product.

Next you must bond with them. They must see you as a real person.

After that you give some kind of proof.

Only now can you give them a sample of what you do.

So, that’s the foundation laid now to build a strong building you need powerful building blocks.

They come in the form of fascinations.

Just a quick aside here. If your copywriter doesn’t know about fascinations then you’re not getting anywhere near the results you could be getting.

What is a fascination?

It’s like a mini benefit statement.

Some people call these bullets… however they are far more than just bullet points.

They fascinate you to the point where you must have the answer.

Designed to tease but never to give away everything.

The question is often asked, “Why is lingerie sexy?”

Not because of what it reveals, but rather what it hides.

You may already know your job as a salesperson selling what you sell is to turn features into benefits.

That’s obvious right? Wrong! Most people turn their features into ‘functional benefits.’

In other words they’ll tell you the handle on the coffee cup (the feature) allows you to drink the coffee while it’s still hot without burning yourself (functional benefit.)

Do you see what I mean?

A successful marketer and copywriter will spend a lifetime coming up with better ways to talk about benefits.

The ‘what’s in it for me’ approach.

Until you can say that to the reader’s satisfaction they aren’t going to buy.

Let’s say you tell the coffee drinker that drinking coffee at the temperature you like it – not too hot, not too cold – but just right makes you feel really good inside.

I don’t know if you know this, but everyone craves heat. So talking about what the heat does for them before they get the buzz of the caffeine will help you sell the cup.

And that’s the part nearly all marketers overlook.

It’s the real benefit.

Now comes this question of which is better, long copy or short copy.

I think that’s the wrong question.

If you asked which is better more benefits or less benefits you’re going to get the answer you’re looking for.

Because you don’t know exactly which benefit makes your readers buy.

So putting more of them is almost always going to give you a better chance of making that sale.

So what’s the best way to state a benefit?

Say it in a way that fascinates your reader so much they want to own your product.

A fascination is an advanced way of writing bullet points. It gets to the core emotions of the reader.

It’s what I call ‘State of the Heart Selling.’

How to make this work for you

Let’s imagine your selling an information product.

Hire someone to read it and give it back to you with highlighted sections of anything that’s a benefit, or newsworthy or a breakthrough.

Especially anything that’s exciting or fascinating.

Now you take all of these statements and put them into a word document and reword them into paragraphs that make sense.

Essentially you’re just cutting and pasting at this stage.

Here’s my little secret.

Look for themes you can turn into headlines and sub-headlines.

That way you create desire and interest right from the start.

If you want examples of how I did this then go to my website http://www.scienceofgettingclients.com and look under the tab on my home page called portfolio.

Scroll down until you see the document reseveratrol 500.

On the first page you’ll see examples of fascinations. But even better is the headline.

This got me a 24% response rate.

That’s the power of these fascinations.

You come up with as many of these as you can and then design you’re whole promotion around them.

Before I end here today I want to give you the quintessential skill that allows you to come up with great fascinations.

I reverse engineer my fascinations.

Here’s what I mean:

In the reseveratrol promotion I give the bullet point. “What never to drink if you want to stay young.”

How did I arrive at this?

I looked at the ORAC value of dark chocolate. The ORAC value will show you the levels of anti-oxidants in the things you eat and drink.

Dark chocolate has one of the highest ORAC values at over 1200. But when you add milk to it the ORAC value is halved.

And the less anti-oxidants you have in your body the faster you age.

So there you have it… some of my best secrets only ever given here at Income Diary.

One last thing, then I’m out of here.

Once you’ve written your piece you show it to people who could buy your product. But DON’T as l them what they think.

Instead watch their reaction.

If they say, “Where can I get this?” You’ve done it.

There are however, one or two pitfalls in getting people to do this.

And it has to do with your language and they way you use it.

I have a recording I would like to give you called, ‘Why People Resist You and What to Do About it.’

All you have to do is write in the comment box below the word “YES” and I’ll give this to Michael so he can make it available to you.

That’s it for this month. You now have the unfair advantage to take you to the next level

Clive Cable

The Quintessential Copywriter.

PS If you want me to take a look at one of your benefits and turn it into a fascination you can email me: [email protected] it won’t cost you anything. However I’m only offering this for the next seven days otherwise I’ll be swamped.