Secret

Is There A Proven Formula For Sales Letters,
Ads, Web Pages, Infomericals Or Emails?  Yes.

When I first started writing advertising sales copy, I kept hearing about these formulas for putting sales messages together, but nothing I heard made any sense.

As time went on, I got the hang of it, and the formulas I had learned did a great job for me looking backwards.  That is, they described perfectly what had happened when a sales letter had worked... but they were of no use in putting a new one together.

Then I met a fellow named Ted Cooper.  A great copywriter with a terrific sense of whimsy, Ted wrote ads that helped build such Silicon Valley marvels as Apple Computer and Intuit (Quickbooks, Quicken).

One day, we were having lunch together in his hometown (the People's Republic of Berkeley), and Ted casually let slip the most powerful copywriting formula I've ever heard:

Actually, Ted and I were talking about clients who just "don't get it."  At the time, the dot-com madness was raging full ablaze in the Bay Area, and "marketing departments" were filled with fresh-faced English Majors barely out of diapers... uh, I mean, college.

Ted told me what he told them to help them understand how to evaluate the copy he wrote for them.

Ted Cooper's Never-Been-Improved-Upon Copy Formula

1. Make a Promise

2. Prove It

3. Ask for Action

4. Leave Everything Else Out

Interesting, isn't it?  That would sure disqualify a whole lot of ads you see and hear today, on the Internet and off, on your TV and radio, and on your breakfast table when you're reading the paper.

But then... how many of those ads are really designed to bring the business owner business?

As opposed to such lofty goals as "build brand awareness"... "get your name out there" ... "strengthen shelf of mind" ... and so on.

I've often wondered who those above-mentioned goals are for: the business... or someone else who profits each time the ad runs?

But I digress...

The living legend Ted told me in that four-step formula what I had discovered and knew ever since I started to write ads and sales letters that caused stampedes... but I'd never been able to articulate myself.

Last night on the JV Alert  teleseminar, where I was an expert panelist,  one of the participants asked for a simple formula for writing a sales letter, and I revealed Ted's.

(I think I gave him credit.  But once he told me the formula, I instantly warned him that over time I would gradually forget it was he who told it to me and one day think that I came up with it myself.)

As I was explaining the formula last night, I did elaborate a little.  Two key points:

• The promise needs to be about something someone already knows they want, or a problem they already know they have.  And it needs to be in the same language they use themselves when they describe what they want or what their problem is.

• "Proof" covers a wide variety of copy elements.  Testimonials are proof.  So are case studies.  Relevant statistics, artfully presented, constitute proof.  Research findings from scientific labs, when they back up your promise, are also proof.  Your own personal experience, spelled out in the copy, is another form of proof.

Of course, there's a lot more for a beginner to learn about writing copy than a four-sentence formula.   But I only had 90 seconds to answer, and I can't think of a better way to get someone's copywriting career off to a good start.

What about you?  What formula or other "cheat sheet" information has helped you with writing copy?

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter
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Comments

[Kevin Francis]

Hi David,

I may have mentioned this before, but your 4 part formula for testimonials is something I have found extremely useful.

On a slightly different tack, I have gone through a number of "presentation skills" trainings in my previous corporate life. The basic formula of 1) Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em 2) Tell 'em 3) Tell 'em what you've told 'em, was something that I have found very useful in putting a structure on a presentation or letter. In fact, I got quite proficient at writing what I thought were "punchy" business letters.

However, today's post just made me realise that in the trainings the idea of "Asking for the order" was rarely, if ever, explicitly spelt out! Confirms your point that most mainstream corporate communication is deficient when it comes to the key task of generating business.

Kevin Francis

[David Garfinkel]

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for your feedback. Yes, I know the "tell 'em" ... "tell 'em" ... "tell 'em" formula well myself. For several years I used to coach professional speakers.

The problem with that formula, from a sales point of view, is it doesn't sell. Not by itself. You can weave a sales pitch in there, no doubt, but that formula is expository, not influencing.

Meaning: It just explains things, it doesn't make the effort to inluence another person to feel a certain way and, more important, to take action.

Adding the action step helps, but you always need to get up that emotional head of steam to make the person listening/reading more inclined to buy.

David