LESSON #2 of 7:
"How To Know With Certainty (and Proof) What Will Make Your Market Buy"
From: Todd Brown
West Palm Beach, Florida
(Did you miss Lesson #1 of 7? If so, go here now.)
We pick-up our story the morning of October 17, 2023 -- the first session of the official Copy Legends Lock-In.
Despite the drinking and shenanigans at last night's cocktail party, all the copy legends appeared fresh, rejuvenated, and ready to get down to business.
After an off-the-cuff five-minute heartfelt welcome -- telling the copy legends how grateful I am for their willingness to be here and share so openly with one another -- I dove right in to our first session.
"The first topic I want us to cover is marketplace research. I want to know what you guys and gals are doing today to know exactly what a marketplace needs to hear to buy," I said.
"Tell me how you're researching markets today, including what you're doing today you weren't doing before, to know what makes the marketplace tick and what will make them buy."
Since everything we do in marketing begins with matching our message to what our market wants, I knew we needed to begin with this topic to lay a solid foundation for the entire day of sharing.
To my surprise and joy, almost half the group of copy legends immediately shot their hands up ready to share their research techniques.
So, one by one they laid-out they're different strategies and tactics (and tools) for uncovering the wants, desires, and hot buttons of an audience.
What I immediately found interesting was the variety of research methods being used. Almost none of the copy legends were following the same research process or flow.
Some aspect of their marketplace research process was unique to each copy legend.
However, the one thing they all had in common -- none of the copy legends rely on mere intuition or assumptions about what audiences need to hear to buy. None of them.
All the copy legends rely on some research process to identify and confirm what needs to be said to an audience to produce the sale.
[Sidenote: Chris Haddad, probably the most emotionally sophisticated copy legend was the only exception. Sort of. Since his copy is known for its punch-in-the-gut emotional style, Chris explained how his "research" is more around getting himself in-tune with the deeper core emotions and drivers of an audience. He emphasized how he does this with empathy and a form of "method acting".]
Peter Kell then raised his hand to share.
If you don't know Peter, he's the creator of some of the most successful video sales letters online today. In fact, he's the copywriter behind most of Mindvalley's monster mega-hits.
Peter's take on marketplace research is interesting and smart. And a bit contrarian.
I think it's not hyperbolic at all to say Peter's method is the ultimate shortcut to knowing exactly what your market needs to hear to buy.
Watch this little clip to hear a bit of what Peter shared...
In a nutshell, with Peter's approach you don't have to try to figure out what your market is feeling, what your market wants, or what emotional triggers will move them to buy.
Peter simply reverse engineers the campaigns which are already working like gangbusters in a marketplace to see and confirm the necessary copy angles, chunks, etc.
Then, he uses that as a model... as a jumping off point... for his own copy and campaigns.
Peter went on to explain how he uses the spy tools, as well as what specific elements of the winning campaigns he looks at to model.
We'll cover some of that in a later Lesson.
For now, I want you to understand this one key takeaway...
Before any word of copy is written, these copy legends are investing a significant amount of time learning about the mindset, attitudes, perspective, emotions, motivations, and fears of the marketplace.
And, they're all going deep... well below the superficial benefit statements relied upon by most average copywriters and marketers.
They're abandoning all presuppositions they may hold about the marketplace. So they're not at all relying on any assumptions or speculations about what moves the marketplace.
They're going direct to the source (i.e. prospects) and/or going to direct to the proven copy already converting well.
Got it?
Good.
Onward.
I now lead the group into our next session -- What they're doing today to create winning Big Ideas and Marketing Hooks...
This session led to some of the most insightful and valuable shares of the entire day.
It began with...