LESSON #3 of 7:

"The Secret To Developing Big Marketing Ideas & Compelling Hooks Today - Part 1"

From: Todd Brown

West Palm Beach, Florida

(Missed any of the prior Lessons? Go here for Lesson #1 and Lesson #2.)

After a brief 10-minute bio break, I introduce the second topic of discussion for the copy legends...
As I mentioned at the end of Lesson #2, this topic stirred a lot of responses and conversations for the next hour. 

Rightly so. The big marketing idea is, in essence, the advertisement for your entire marketing message. 

It's the quality of your big marketing idea which ultimately determines whether the masses in your market will pay attention and engage with your copy.

Dan Ferrari jumped in to share his approach to big marketing idea development...
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If you don't know Dan, he exploded onto the copywriting scene, writing several big-money controls for monster companies like Motley Fool, earning him praise from many legendary copywriters, including the man himself Gary Bencivenga. 


"Let me start with one of my frameworks," Dan said. "When it comes to developing big marketing ideas, I start by asking myself am I going in or am I going out."

"In would be, is there something in the product or the product creator's story, like in the offer which could be encapsulated into a big idea.  Out would be like a macro story from the outside world," Dan continued. 

He went on to explain how the decision of whether to go in or out for the big marketing idea is driven by what his research process exposes. 

In other words, sometimes the research shows there's an opportunity for the big marketing idea to come from in (i.e. the product or the product's creator), sometimes the research shows there's an opportunity for the big marketing idea to come from out (i.e. something happening in the world).

Dan went on to give several examples of how he's done this in the supplement space, the financial space, and even the real estate space. 

"But, how do you ultimately decide, though, whether to go in or out for a big marketing idea?" I asked Dan.
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"Usually it's kind of a finger in the wind approach," Dan responded. "But, I write my promos in a way where I can easily swap out pieces or chunks of copy. So I can test my theories and the in or out approach and let the data tell me which performs best."


"Smart," I said.

"Yeah," Dan continued, "I want to make sure when I make a choice, I've basically built in put options on my copy where I can say if I'm initially wrong, I'm still going to be right."

Before Dan even finished saying this, almost every copy legend around the table was nodding in agreement (and likely in appreciation for Dan's savvy strategy of rigging the game to win).

We talked a bit more about how Dan actually does this. 

Then, Peter Kell, jumped in eagerly wanting to share his thinking about big marketing idea development...
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"Here's what I think captures the big idea -- at the end of the day, someone has a problem... and you need to bridge to their dream life in a way that they believe will work for them," Peter said.


"You reveal the root cause of their problems, and the steps they can take to remove the root cause -- the "root cause solution" -- and show how it will fix the root cause problem in a simple, easy way," he continued. 

"That's where the big idea comes from. It's the bridge. It's the thing that gets then out of hell."

Peter's response too sparked a whole bunch of deep tactical discussion. 

And it led into one of the most valuable discussion chunks of the entire day -- how to formulate and present your Unique Mechanism as the solution to a new, root cause problem only your Unique Mechanism can solve. 

Note: Personally, from my over two decades of copywriting experience, I'd say there's no more crucial topic to understand than how to reframe your prospect's perspective on their problem in a way that you have the only viable solution to solve it. 

And that's what the copy legends went on to cover for the next 20 minutes or so. 

Almost all the copy legends agree, the first step to doing this is...

 (CONTINUE TO LESSON #4 OF 7...)

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