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You’re about to learn an invaluable copywriting concept, something you can use to captivate your market’s attention, not to mention differentiate almost any product. Indeed, this will help you position whatever you’re selling in a unique, compelling way.
Now, consider this book:
It’s called Outsourcing: The Beginners’ Guide to Hiring Virtual Assistants.
I found it on Amazon, amid dozens of other books on outsourcing. It has 6 ratings, so it’s not very popular, especially when compared to this book on the same topic:
It’s called The 4-Hour Work Week.
It has 12,684 ratings. Tim Ferriss sold over 2 million copies, but not because of his celebrity. (In fact, when the book was published in 2007, Ferriss was still relatively unknown.) The differentiator? I’ll tell you exactly: The 4-Hour Work Week is a “big idea.”
Big Ideas:
If you have a big idea, you’ve likely revitalized something old. You’ve made something tired feel exciting, compelling — even irresistible — by expressing it through a proven formula:
Big, “irresistible” ideas are born when a promise meets a mechanism.
The Promise.
A promise is a personal thing — and the best, most emotionally charged promises usually provide these four things:
1) Novelty
2) Security
3) Ease
4) Significance
Let’s examine each one:
Novelty.
New things are emotional because they give us hope. Hope for change, for opportunity, for improvement. Novelty creates the potential for change, an opportunity to become different, better.
To prove novelty: you can make your offer exclusive: only available through a single source — your company, your brand.
Security.
Safety is a fundamental human need. After breathing, food, water, shelter, clothing, and sleep, feeling safe and secure is our next priority. It’s emotional on its face.
To prove security: make your offer predictable with credible case studies, reviews, and testimonials. You can also offer a guarantee to lower the perceived risk.
Ease.
Though humanity is productive and ever-evolving, individuals are often lazy. Most people don’t like working, thinking, and overcoming challenges. We’d much rather relax, rest, and avoid exerting ourselves. This is one reason to promise ease. Another is because most people simply aren’t confident in their abilities.
To prove ease: you can present a system, formula, or process to accomplish something. Give people a set of steps or concrete rules. These things give us a path, a way forward that doesn’t require much thought or risk.
Significance.
People want big gains. Slow, incremental progress isn’t exciting. We want remarkable, significant results — and fast.
To prove significance: you can put a deadline on your promise, the sooner the better. In other words, tell the prospect how quickly she’ll see results, the impact of her taking action.
The Unique Mechanism.
Unlike an emotional promise, which should be clear and specific and easy to prove, a unique mechanism should be mysterious, or inexplicable, or curious:
A mysterious concept.
An inexplicable system.
A curious product.
The mechanism is the method. It’s how the promise gets fulfilled. The technique, then, is to withhold as much of the mechanism (i.e., the concept, the system, the product itself) as possible while layering on the benefits of the promise.
This juxtaposition — a clear promise paired with an opaque mechanism — creates tension, interest, desire. It creates an irresistible appeal.
Big Idea Marketing Example: The 4-Hour Work Week
This book’s a great example of Big Idea marketing. Tim Ferriss uses the formula to refresh and reposition the “outsourcing” concept, which gives his book a huge marketing advantage.
This blue copy is designed to prove significance:
“Escaping the 9 – 5” is a significant thing to many people, a big thing.
“Living anywhere” is a big thing.
“Joining the new rich” is a big thing.
Where do those three proof points come from? They come from your research, the data and information you’ve gathered about your target market:
What’s important to these people?
What’s their definition of success?
When are they happiest?
The answers to these questions will inform the significance of your promise.
This orange copy is the mechanism:
“The 4-Hour Work Week” is a mysterious, inexplicable concept — seemingly impossible — and it makes The Reader wonder:
Can this really work?
Is this even possible?
What if it were true?
Now she’s engaged, curious. Now you have her attention.
This green copy is designed to prove safety:
The safety of a credible award or status symbol — like being “The No.1 New York Times Bestseller” — is transferred to the mechanism, this mysterious thing called The 4-Hour Work Week.
The back of the book is a continuation of the promotion and, by extension, it’s an opportunity to keep proving out the novelty, safety, ease, and significance within the promise.
This yellow copy is designed to prove ease:
“READ THIS BOOK”
“STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE”
“…this book is the blueprint.”
This promises the prospect a clear path forward, a literal “blueprint” to achieve these significant promises:
Escaping the 9-5…
Living anywhere…
Joining the new rich…
Want these things? Then simply read the book and follow the steps. It’s a system — and this gives The Reader confidence not only in the product, but also in themselves, their ability to easily understand, follow through, and succeed.
This red copy is designed to prove novelty:
The word: “New”
The sentence: “Forget the old concept of retirement and saving for the future…”
This promises The Reader an alternative way to earn money and live life. It’s hopeful and compelling on its face.
This blue copy is designed to prove significance:
“Escape the rat race”
“Experience first-class world travel”
“Earn a monthly 5-figure income with no management”
“Live the life of your dreams”
This promises big gains, big differences in her quality of life. Again, this is so important because unless The Reader thinks your system will make a significant material difference, she’s unlikely to take action.
This green copy is designed to prove security:
“It’s about time this book was written. It is a long-overdue manifesto for the mobile lifestyle and Tim Ferriss is the ideal ambassador.”
This testimonial makes the results of the 4-Hour Work Week predictable, which lowers the perceived risk of investing time and money in the program.
The more completely you fill in this formula, the better.
The 4-Hour Work Week is a great example because Ferriss creates a mechanism while also promising novelty, security, ease, and significance.
Obviously, this is ideal, but it’s not always possible because depending on your medium, you might not have enough room to check every box. You might be working with a word limit or a time limit — and you don’t have the luxury of proving your promise one element at a time. That’s okay:
As long as you have a significant promise and a mechanism for that promise, you have the makings of a big idea. And if you marry an emotional promise and a unique mechanism in an appealing way, you’ve actually created a big idea.
Practice:
When you see an ad — for any product, across any medium — ask yourself:
What’s the promise?
What’s the mechanism?
Together, do these things appeal to the target audience?
Do this constantly and you will actually train yourself to think in big ideas. Something else you can do is an exercise I call “Copy-Annotating,” which revolves around finding and isolating the four components of a promise in an ad — any ad.
It could be a sales letter.
It could be a commercial you transcribe.
It could be a landing page or an email.
Go through an ad and highlight the copy describing the mechanism. Then go through it again and highlight the proof points that make the promise novel, safe, easy, and significant.
To prove a promise is novel, look for examples of exclusivity and newness.
To prove a promise is safe, look for testimonials and examples of predictability, like guarantees.
To prove a promise is easy, look for systems and formulas and blueprints designed to make it foolproof. To prove a promise is significant, look for examples of speed to impact — the faster the better; the bigger the better.
The mechanism, then, is the product, the system, the concept.
Is it curious?
Or mysterious?
Or inexplicable?
It should be (to create intrigue).
Look for the mechanism as well as the four proof points whenever you’re annotating copy. The more you practice, the more fluent you’ll become in this language. And over time, it will become easier for you to assemble all of these elements into irresistible marketing.