But Tiffany Markman brings up some good points and gives us all a different perspective as she wades into the swamp of today’s most popular TV genre.

***

I say ‘reality TV’.

You think of several good-looking people eating earthworms for money, a family of motorbike manufacturers fighting with each other, a chubby guy baking multi-storey cakes, or a nice family with several adopted kids getting a beautiful new house.

Whatever your impression of reality television – and whether you like it or hate it – have you ever considered how much like copywriting it is? No? Well, I have.

And here’s why…

1. Structure is really important.

There’s a lovely family with five kids. Two are adopted. Mom’s a neighbourhood saint. Dad’s a firefighter. And their two-bedroom home is on its last foundations. Enter the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition team, to save the day. That’s all very well, but this show wouldn’t be as interesting without the narrators, their commentary and their insights into the process. Nor would the results be as impressive.

Like reality TV, a successful copywriting project requires that a stage be set; that someone close to the top of the pyramid provides a bigger picture. Without this context, it’s almost impossible to predict the scope of the work, get started and deliver something with which a) the client and b) the end user is utterly thrilled.

2. Rank amateurs abound.

If American Idol (or any of the many international Idol spin-offs) used semi-professional singers, and if everyone who auditioned for the show was pretty good, there’d be no fun at all in watching it. Its beauty is its focus on amateurs. Rough diamonds, as it were. And the rougher – and more extraordinarily awful – the better.

In many cases, repairing or editing disaster copy can be just as much fun and just as rewarding as creating new copy from scratch. I love doing it, because a few strategic tweaks here and there, plus a polish, can often revolutionise a shoddy piece of text.

In addition, being a freelancer means that I get to work with new clients all the time – some of whom have no idea what a copywriter even does or how copywriting differs from copyrighting. This means that I’m able to educate them, which is very satisfying.

3. The facts are simplified.

Mythbusters is one of the most intelligent reality shows out there. Jamie, Adam and the junior Mythbusters do things that fascinate even science-averse non-techies like me. But there’s a lot we don’t see. Because you can’t really attach a prosthetic tail to a human being in one hour, using only the things lying around your lab.

As copywriters we are often required to simplify complex things, using words. The target audience doesn’t need to know – or can’t know – how complicated a product, service or solution really is. And so, we finesse it. We make it more accessible.

4. There are some weirdos.

Reality TV presents strange people doing strange things. That’s why we enjoy it. And the more bizarre, unlikeable or completely un-self-aware they are, the better.

It’s no coincidence that reality TV producers work on very specific quotas when casting a show. Ben Elton sums up this phenomenon in his novel Chart Throb, dividing talent show contestants into Blingers (the very glam), Mingers (the very sob-story-ish) and Clingers (the very desperate). And competitive shows like MasterChef, America’s Next Top Model, The Apprentice and The Bachelor are similar.

Always remember that freelance copywriting is what you do if you like variety. If dealing with different people, brands and companies every day excites you. And the weirdos keep it interesting. At the very least, they give you stuff to talk about.

5. Some of it is lies, lies, lies.

Many viewers are attracted to what they perceive as the non-scripted, unpredictable freshness of reality television. The ‘realness’ of it. Take Survivor, where you feel like you never know what’s coming next – even if you’ve watched 10 seasons of it.

In reality though, while episodes may not be scripted, they are constructed and edited within a deliberately designed framework that tries to reflect certain values. The issues of reality TV are simply a highly exaggerated version of everyday life.

For me, this is the biggest overlap between reality TV and freelance writing: the fact that what the target audience sees is sometimes not true. Many copywriters, me included, are also spin doctors who try to come up with the most impressive ways to convey unimpressive things. We are often asked to white-wash the facts; to make the negative positive. And if we do it well, the end-user only sees a lovely piece of copy.

Bottom line? It’s wonderful.

Reality TV appeals to many because it is about real people and it shows them doing real things. We want to be able to judge, laugh at and root for people like us – or, at least, people who make us feel better about ourselves. At the same time, freelance copywriting is among the best jobs in the world if you like people, variety and real-world tastes of different industries. And if you can take it all with a pinch of salt.

Tiffany Markman at www.tiffanymarkman.co.za is an opinionated freelance copywriter, copy editor and writing trainer, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, who has worked with over 200 clients over the last nine years.

No related posts.

Three pounds of stuff in the mailbox a day. 507 TV channels to flip through to find the weather report. 623 email messages selling male enhancement pills.

And that’s only a fraction of the information that bombards us. There are billboards along the highway, news broadcasts on the radio, memos and telephone calls at the office, instruction manuals for office equipment that won’t work, family schedules to remember, bills, books, seminars, random conversations at lunch time, business meetings, it never ends.

I even feel it when I walk into the supermarket cereal aisle and have to choose from about 200 boxes screaming with bright colors and promises of low fat and high fiber, when all I want is lots of sugar and a cool little plastic prize wrapped in cellophane.

It makes my head hurt.

There’s just too much information to process these days. And when people feel overwhelmed, they react in ways that aren’t good for your copywriting.

Whatever your copy is about or whatever you’re selling, it boils down to information, usually in the form of words people have to read. But people will avoid reading when they feel overloaded, or they’ll filter out difficult information and look for information that is easier to understand, or they’ll simply misunderstand what you’re talking about and wont’ respond in the way you want.

Or, worst of all, they may just ignore your copy altogether.

You can’t alter the flow of information out there, but you can do some simple things in your writing to make the information you present clear, simple, and easy to understand.

Make clarity your #1 objective. You can’t communicate or persuade someone if that person doesn’t understand your point. Don’t write to show off or call attention to how smart or clever you are. Simplify your message. Make it easy to understand. Get to the point and say exactly what you mean to say.

Good writing is like a clean pane of glass in a storefront—you don’t notice the glass, but you can clearly see what you want on the other side. Take a look at my headline and first paragraph on this article. No fluff. I get right to the point and you know what this article is about instantly.

Decide what you want to say before you say it. Don’t just hope something sensible will reveal itself as you write your copy. Plan and outline. Think about the point you want to make. Determine the tone or emotional feel. Know where you’re headed before you start.

This helps you stay on point and avoid distracting ideas. It also helps you organize your copy so that it reads in a clear and logical way from beginning to end.

Organize your information visually. Don’t be one of those copywriters who thinks subheads, bold face, and bullets are just for designers. They’re really for visual organization.

Take this article, for example. I’m using 8 bold subheads because I have a list of separate tips about my main topic. If I were explaining a process, I would have probably used a numbered list. You can also use italics, block quotes, underlines, sidebars, and other techniques for emphasis and organization.

Link information with familiar ideas. If there’s any chance for misunderstanding, use a simple analogy that relates to something your reader is already familiar and comfortable with. For example, if you’re trying to explain how anti-virus software works, say it’s like a doctor that checks your computer for infections, and when it finds one, it quarantines the bug and makes your computer feel better. That’s accurate and easy to understand.

Inject emotional content. Ideas are easier to understand and remember when they are linked with emotional content or intense feelings. If you’re writing copy for a political group striving to change the American tax system, don’t just explain economic theory and reel off dry statistics. Talk about how the IRS takes money from our wallets, how the government makes us work two hours every day to support a bloated government, or how frustrating it is to fill out all those confusing forms every April. People process emotional ideas more easily than intellectual ones. Make people feel so they don’t have to think so hard.

Avoid making counterproductive associations. Clever analogies, puns, and wordplay might make you look bright, but they will sabotage clear communication. This goes for gratuitous graphics, effects, and images that are used because they are trendy or cool looking.

I once saw an advertisement with a photo of a clown handing papers to a guy sitting at a desk. The headline makes a pun about the boss being a clown. You have no idea the copy is really about office equipment until you read all the way through. It makes sense if you spend the time to figure it out, but most people won’t. Be clear, not clever.

Focus on one big idea. Don’t dump too many messages on your reader at once. Start with a simple idea. Then build and reinforce that one idea, adding information paragraph by paragraph, always linking back to that one big idea.

In this article, my big idea is information overload. Each point I make refers to that one point. Even if one point isn’t as clear as I’d like it to be, the reader will never be lost or feel overwhelmed because I’m really only talking about one simple idea.

Present your main idea at the beginning and end of your copy. People tend to remember what comes first and what comes last. Things in the middle are usually forgotten. If you have a list of product benefits, for example, put the best up front, but have a few good ones for the end, too.

Follow the rule for good public speaking: Tell ‘em what you’re going to say. Say it. Tell ‘em what you just said.

The supermarket can’t do much to overcome my feeling of information overload in the cereal aisle. And I’m pretty sure we’re all on our own with channel surfing and deleting email spam.

But if you apply these ideas to your copy, you can reduce the feeling of information overload for your readers. If your copy becomes an oasis of clarity and simplicity in this sea of confusing information we live in, people will actually want to spend more time reading and responding to what you have to say or sell.

Related posts:

1. 3 ways to attract higher paying clients and avoid the $10 content mills
2. Rules schmules: 11 rebellious ways to electrify your copy
3. Why smart copywriters write about people

So even if you’re the most brilliant copywriter on the planet, you won’t get very far if you’re piddling away all the hours in your workday.

Here are some time management tips specifically for copywriters:

Eliminate distractions. Turn off the radio. Tell friends and family to not call you when you’re working. Turn down the volume on your computer so you can’t hear the *bing bong* chime when email arrives. Even little interruptions can throw you off-track.

Stop goofing around online. Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. You turn on your computer and check Facebook, right? Then you visit your favorite news site. Then maybe watch some funny cat videos on YouTube. Before you know it, you’ve burned a couple hours and have nothing to show for it.

Knock it off. Do personal things on personal time and business things on business time.

Say “no.” This is a skill you must learn because it’s the best way to prevent filling your schedule with time wasters. Say no to yourself. Say no to clients. Say no to colleagues. Be nice but decisive. The busier you are, the less time you have for all those little favors, pointless meetings, and endless freebies people want.

Use a calendar. Copywriting works on deadlines, so you need to get those deadlines into a calendar. A paper calendar is okay, but I recommend a computer calendar with programmable reminders, such as the one built into ACT!, a contact management program. If you juggle many simultaneous projects, you could also use project management software.

Write up a daily to-do list. If you’re not doing this, start immediately. Make a list of each thing you must accomplish today and start working through the list. At the end of the day, every item should be crossed off. Before you leave the office, make a list for the next day.

This seems obvious, but I am always astonished at how many people don’t use lists. They rely on dozens of disorganized sticky notes or piles of paper or often nothing at all. I suppose some people can track everything in their head, but I’ve found that the only way to be SURE you get everything done is to make a list and work through it each day.

Stop being a phone slave. I screen calls with caller ID and voice mail. I never answer the phone if I don’t recognize the caller, and sometimes don’t answer even if I do. I check messages and return calls once a day when it’s convenient. I recommend you do the same.

Deal with email twice a day. Mid-morning and mid-afternoon are ideal. This is a hard one for me because I have email filling my inbox all day. And yes, some email is urgent. But by processing messages in clumps, you can save a lot of time.

Also keep in mind that you don’t have to answer every message. The delete button is your friend. When you do answer, don’t turn it into a writing project. Keep it short and to-the-point.

Being efficient with your time is really about organization and prioritization. These are just 7 ways to organize and prioritize. Do you have other tips you’d like to share?

Related posts:

1. Tons of productivity tips for professional writers
2. Computer meltdown: 5 lessons for copywriters
3. 7 writing workflow tips to double your writing speed

I know that sounds like one of those nightmare job interview questions, but it’s worth asking yourself.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? 20 years? 30 years? What’s the endgame for your freelance career?

To me, freelancing is a little like playing chess. That’s because for both there are three distinct stages: the opening, the middle game, and the endgame.

You see, when I was younger, I studied chess. Yes, I was a nerd and actually “studied” chess. That meant working my way through dense books full of difficult and arcane chess strategy, including how to handle each stage of the game.

The opening is all about rapidly deploying your assets to put yourself in a strong position and maximize your future opportunities.

In the middle game, you develop your position, trying to avoid costly mistakes and pursue rewarding opportunities as they arise.

When you get to the endgame, you narrow your focus to achieve your goal. The result depends entirely on all the previous moves you’ve made.

If you’re just starting out, you may not want to think that far ahead. And you certainly can’t plan for every possibility. Life is far more random than chess, after all.

But you should have some idea about where you’re headed and the goal you’re chasing. You can’t achieve it if you don’t know what it is. Right?

Here are 5 possible endgames for freelancers:

Plan to retire. You work hard, build your business, and save your money. When the time comes, you’ll be able to step away and relax. Maybe you want a comfortable beach house in Florida. Perhaps you want to travel or indulge in your hobbies. Nothing surprising with this goal. This is what most people want, whether you’re freelance or a full-time employee.

Get a job. Few people who talk about freelancing mention this possibility, probably because those who get into freelancing are often trying to escape employment. However, this endgame makes a lot of sense. Freelancing can bring you close to a lot of employers and open doors that ordinary interviews and resume mailings can’t. I’ve been offered countless jobs over the years.

Grow your business. Those with an entrepreneurial streak can use what they learn at freelancing to turn a small business into a bigger business. You can create and sell products online, start up a consulting firm, use your writing skills to open a brick and mortar business, or pursue a joint venture with another freelancer with complementary skills.

Turn full-time consultant. Unless you’re a writing machine, freelancing can become taxing after a few years. It’s hard work. But if you gain expertise in a particular field, you’ll find that some clients want your knowledge as much or more than they want your writing services. Sharing advice can be much easier and often pay better than writing.

Keep on truckin’. And then there’s the possibility that you could just keep doing what you’re doing. Maybe you scale things back, get a little more choosey about your clients, or focus your time exclusively on projects that interest you. After all, if you like to write, there’s no age-limit. As long as your mind is sharp, you can write forever.

Which is the best endgame? That’s up to you.

I’ve always planned to just keep on truckin’. But you never know what the future holds. As they say, life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. So think about where you want to go, but be willing to go with the flow. Freelancing can take you to wonderful places.

How about you? What’s your endgame?

Related posts:

1. Are you gambling with your freelance future?
2. The freelancer’s quick job hunting guide – Part 1
3. Is it time to go freelance?

Tiffany Markman shows how to share your feelings with those sort of clients. Though I don’t recommend you actually send a letter like this, it’s fun to fantasize about it.

***

Dear Client,

You and I have been working for some time on the web copy for your new range of products. We’ve gotten to know each other pretty well. At this stage, I feel a letter might be appropriate, to convey how I feel about my creative collaboration with you.

To begin with, when briefed to create search engine optimised (SEO) web copy, I revel in repeatedly explaining what search engine optimisation is. Even the third, fourth and fifth attempts to illuminate this concept felt fresh and new to me.

I enjoyed the drawings I did for you, and the many written explanations. And, when I submitted my first draft of carefully optimised web copy for your review, and then received your changes, I found it a welcome challenge to go back and re-insert all of the description titles, page titles, meta-tags and subheadings you had removed.

I applaud your commitment to the revision process – particularly the fact that both of your sons, your business partner and his wife were able to have their say during each round of “tweaks.”

Please convey my appreciation for the detailed and colourful notations they made on each draft in hard copy, and scanned and sent to me as PDFs. I really understand your products now.

I was given an even more thorough insight into your business, and its operations, logistics and personalities, by being CCed on every piece of correspondence you’ve had with your designers (local and international), packagers, distributors, stakeholders and close family since we began working together on your copy.

As you know, I take pride in ensuring that my copy is the best it can be. This is why I was willing to make a sixth and seventh set of changes, although you were only willing to pay for one.

And I didn’t mind the fact that the final (eighth) draft had to be worked on overnight and returned by 6am the following morning. That sunrise was so pretty.

I’m delighted to report that I’m now a sunrise expert, having received regular calls from you at 5.30am. I also like late-night TV, which I watch after your 10pm check-in, when I can’t sleep.

Now that the site has gone live and I’ve submitted my invoice for payment (don’t worry, I wasn’t upset by your attempt to bargain down my quoted price post sign-off), I’d be happy to make some extra changes for you, and to “finesse” the pages of copy that your nephew, who’s done so well in high school English, thoughtfully provided.

After all, as you say, this job I’ve done for you will open so many doors for me.

However, I wanted you to know that I’ll be unavailable for a while. There’s been an offer of work in a temple on an island between Vietnam and Cambodia and, although I’m concerned about the reliability of its communication infrastructure, I’m going anyway.

All of the best,

Your Freelancer

Disclaimer: This client is completely real, but I didn’t have the guts to send him this letter. You should know that 99% of my clients are superlative people, with whom I really enjoy working. But the remaining 1% is special. They’re what dinner party conversations are made of. Luckily, they’re around to fluff out my sense of irony.

Tiffany Markman at www.tiffanymarkman.co.za is an opinionated freelance copywriter, copy editor and writing trainer, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, who has worked with over 200 clients over the last nine years.

Related posts:

1. Turn an angry client into a loyal client (with one word)
2. 8 time-eating freelance client species to avoid
3. Translating freelance “Client Speak” into plain English

It will probably go something like this:

Client: “Do you handle direct mail?”

You: “Yes I do.”

Client: “Good. We have a direct mail package that has been working for a few years, but it’s starting to get a little tired. So we want to test something new.”

You: “Okay, what did you have in mind?”

Client: “Well, we want you to write something that gets better response. We’ll test your package against our control and see which is the winner. Are you up for it?”

If you’ve never faced this situation, you may break out in a cold sweat. After all, this isn’t just a writing project. You won’t be judged by your style or command of grammar. Your skills will be tested and measured with a calculator. You will win or you will lose.

So what do you do?

You could take a shot in the dark and hope for the best, but I recommend a more methodical approach.

Here’s my 7-step procedure for tackling a head-to-head copywriting test, based on proven problem-solving methods. It’s great for direct mail, but it can work for any ad in any medium.

1. DEFINE the problem. Because that’s what you’re facing, a problem to be solved: How do you beat the “control” and get better results? Put the problem in writing. Be specific. If the business you’re dealing with thrives on sales leads, and good leads have dried up, your problem is a lack of good leads. Write “The problem is that the current direct mail package is not generating qualified leads for salespeople.” Without a specific problem, you’ll never arrive at a specific solution.

2. EXPLORE available resources. Gather information about your problem. Collect samples, promotional literature, press releases, competitor information, memos, testimonials, articles and reviews, marketing reports, everything. Read and ask questions. But don’t make any creative decisions yet.

3. ANALYZE the control. Look at the control by itself and in context with any other past tests. How does it measure up creatively? Look for fundamental problems. Run a diagnostic check against proven principles and techniques.

Then look at the numbers — response rates, conversions, ROI, cost per customer, etc. Arrange tests chronologically or by response. Do you see a pattern? What has worked and what has not? Why?

When your analysis is complete, formulate your Hypothesis. This is a statement that summarizes what you believe the real problem is and what — in general terms — should be done about it. For example: “The subscription acquisition package is getting a good response and has beat out all contenders, but the ROI is still unacceptable. The package must be made more cost efficient while maintaining the current response and conversion rate.”

4. PAUSE. By now, your eyes are bleary and your brain is numb. It’s time for a break. Set everything aside and do something else. Take a walk. Golf. Eat lunch. Anything. The break will allow your brain cool off, to sift and organize information subconsciously.

5. CREATE your ideas. Now it’s time to come up with some ideas. How you proceed will be determined largely by your analysis of the control.

If the control is excellent, it may be doing all it can do. So, your best bet is to brainstorm fresh ideas and take a different approach to beat it.

If the control is merely good — the category most controls will fall into — there’s room for improvement. Look for something to change about the current control to improve results.

If the control is bad, toss it. Start from scratch and create something new. It’s safest to use a proven formula, to go back to basics. (Caution: A control can only be a control if it has won in tests. So, a “control” that shows poor technique or low numbers may indicate faulty testing or other serious problems.)

6. EVALUATE your ideas. Go over the ideas you’ve generated. Weed out all but the best. If you don’t like anything, or think you can do better, go back to creating for a while. When the deadline gets close or when you stop generating useful ideas, move on. Choose the single best idea you have. This is the one you will develop.

7. ACT on your best idea. Plan how to make your idea happen. Anticipate obstacles and prepare for them. Be ready to sell your idea to others. Expect hesitation or even resistance: “We’ve never done this before.” “I wouldn’t respond to this.” “It won’t work.” “This isn’t very creative.”

Doubt is a natural and inevitable feeling as you arrive at the moment of truth. Don’t let it stop you. Only testing will prove what works. So, GO FOR IT!

You’ll notice that I don’t include anything about writing the new piece. That’s because this kind of challenge isn’t as much about writing as it is about clear thinking and sound problem-solving.

I face challenges like this all the time. How about you? Have you ever been asked to beat a control? How did you tackle the project?

Related posts:

1. A 9-step copywriter’s guide for taking effective notes
2. Blab and blather your way to great copywriting ideas
3. Merlin’s 5-step method for managing your email inbox

No worries. Barry Densa has some advice about this to make things a little easier.

***

There are, as you may have heard, 13 human motivators, or “hot buttons” that inevitably drive sales.

Employ any one, or two of them, in your marketing campaigns, with a deft and artistic touch, and you’ll easily deliver your customers to the precipice – the point at which he or she is presented with an all-important and consequential decision:

To buy … or not to buy.

Yet, use more than one, or at the most two hot button motivators in a single marketing campaign … and more than likely, you’ll lose the sale.

Just as a sentence should contain only one thought, lest in confuse and distract the reader, a sales promotion should appeal to one dominant motivator at a time.

So which one, or two motivators will work best in a recession?

First, let’s identify these 13 motivators.

In no particular order, they are:

1. Fear:
Fear of lost opportunities, or the loss of a possession. (Plus, millions of people just love it when they’re scared – why else Stephen King and Final Destination 5?)

2. Greed
The coveting of more … more … and more (And its still never enough)!

3. Vanity
Mirror, mirror on the wall … (Indeed, why mirrors at all)?

4. Lust
Sex sells. Dare to deny it.

5. Envy or Jealousy
It all began when we were little mini-me’s, and we pulled on mommy’s skirt and screamed: “I WANT ONE, TOO!”

6. Pride
Who doesn’t want to be valued and feel important … (And drive a BMW)?

7. Laziness
Why stand when you can sit; why sit when you can lie down; why work when someone else can work for you (otherwise known as outsourcing)?

8. Anger
You’ve been robbed! You’ve been cheated! And now you want REVENGE!

9. Strength
C’mon, do you know anyone who really wants to be weak?

10. Charity
The pleasure is in the giving (so they say).

11. Hope
Why else do we suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune (Shakespeare). Because … after all, tomorrow is another day (Gone with the Wind).

12. Prejudice
We all have one or two. Because in some perverse way, it makes us feel better about our miserable, guilt-ridden selves.

13. Justice
The politically correct, socially acceptable and legal equivalent of revenge.

Ok, so which hot buttons work best in a recession?

Hold on, not so fast.

Along with these 13 motivators, we humans are also prey to 12 universal desires.

Indeed, at one time or another, regardless of our sex, age, race, political persuasion, or whether we watch CNN or FOX, we are all subject to these 12 desires – and some of us are subject to all of them all at the same time!

Again, a warning: Pander to more than one or two and you will muddle your marketing message.

Okay, these 12 desires are, in no particular order (and they need no explanation):

1. Money
2. Good looks
3. Comfort
4. Time
5. Praise
6. Popularity
7. Leisure
8. Self-confidence
9. Enjoyment or pleasure
10. Success
11. Health
12. Security in our old age

Now, which of these 12 desires appeal most strongly to consumers during a recession – when money is tight, the future is murky and an overall sense of anxiety and dread causes many a sleepless, frightful night?

Hmm. Well, truthfully, from where I stand, a recession won’t stop, inhibit or negate any of them!

They all belong to the basic human emotional and visceral food groups, regardless of whether Bernanke institutes QE3, or not.

Because they function in all climates – and in all economies – indeed, they will survive and thrive in the best of times and the worst of times (Dickens, sorta).

Therefore …

Great News!

If your product or service can successfully satisfy any of these 12 desires, your promotion could be squarely on the road to making you oodles of money – if you can combine it with a hot-button recession-proof motivator!

Important Caveat: The desire you choose to arouse and satisfy must be relevant to your product.

For example, if you sell car parts, security in old age or good looks might not be the best two desires to leverage.

But, if you sell pimple cream … good looks certainly works, as would popularity, praise, self-confidence, and, a case could even be made for health (after all, if you look good, you feel good).

Okay, now on to …

The motivators you should absolutely use in a recession …

Well, FEAR certainly works – but use it sparingly. For example, use it in the lead, to get the readers attention. After all, you don’t want to drone on and on about how terrible things are – they get enough of that watching the nightly news on TV.

What they really want, therefore, is HOPE!

Okay, so now we’ve got two motivators that go hand-in-hand: FEAR and HOPE.

Anything else?

ENVY or JEALOUSY works.

For example, your prospect grumbles to himself: “Gezus! How can Harry next door still take annual Hawaii vacations, when I can’t even afford to fill my gas tank?”

So, here comes your product to the rescue, allowing him to act like neighbor Harry, thereby restoring his PRIDE (and presumably filling his empty wallet and gas tank).

LUST, now that’s clearly a motivator for all seasons. Nothing will stop carnal desire, not rain, nor hail, not even old age (as long as your product has the horse power of a little blue pill).

GREED, on the other hand, wouldn’t work.

The average consumer isn’t looking for more – he’s looking to hold on to and protect what he’s got.

And for that same reason, CHARITY isn’t a big motivator in tough economic times either, unless …

Your customers are rich and philanthropic. And if they are, then GREED or CHARITY, and certainly VANITY can be used with wanton abandon!

What about ANGER? Absolutely!

Yes, play into the rage – the loss of privilege and comforts that a recession robs your customers of.

And by all means – pin the blame – join your customers in throwing rocks at the enemy!

Who is the enemy? Those whom your customers may have a PREJUDICE against – Wall Street, Congress, Obama, the Tea Party, your landlord, your boss who denied you a raise, the list could be endless!

After all, your customers want, indeed they demand JUSTICE!

But be smart and sensitive about it. Use good taste. Don’t blame the Jews, the blacks, the Mexicans, the poor, or even your mother-in-law (unless you’re fully capable of cooking and doing your own laundry).

And what about LAZINESS? Silly question – that’s another all season perennial!

For example, there are millions of overweight men and women who would eagerly pop a handful of pills rather than run 5 miles on the treadmill, much less deny themselves the pleasures of chocolate, ice cream and cake.

And if a pill, powder, or chair (which easily folds and stores in a closet), can miraculously turn their pot bellies into a rippling rack of 6-pack abs in 90 days or less – and – give them the STRENGTH to bend steel in their bare hands and leap tall buildings in a single bound (Superman) – it’s a no-brainer!

My, my, my, what have we just discovered here?

There are no one, or two, hot button motivators best suited for a recession!

Depending on who the customers are, what they value, what drives them and what they desire – there are exactly 13 motivators… and 12 desires … to choose from.

In which case … what recession? 2012 is going to be a great year!

Barry A. Densa is a freelance marketing and sales copywriter at Writing With Personality.

Related posts:

1. How to write the perfect sales letter
2. How to write snappy headlines that make sales
3. Hype copy that sells and how to write it

It was a from Donnie Bryant, who said he has just finished reading The Art of Zen Copywirting and offered me another take on the subject.

I liked it. And I think you will too.

***

Supercharged salespeople and marketers love to make reference to the movie Boiler Room.

You may have heard them use this quote from the film: “A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock or he sells you a reason he can’t. Either way a sale is made, the only question is who is gonna close?”

It sounds good. It’s motivational. And it’s false.

A customer doesn’t have to “close” a salesperson. He doesn’t have to “sell you a reason he can’t” or won’t buy from you. All he has to do is hang up the phone. Leave the store. Click away from the website (even while the autoplay video is still running).

The truth is, you can’t sell anything without selling. But that doesn’t change the fact that people hate to be sold. Copywriters have to be able to take a different approach. How can we sell without appearing to sell? Here are 4 practical ideas.

Storytelling

There is quite a bit of literature available on why telling stories is such a powerful vehicle for communication and influence. I probably don’t have to tell you how effective they can be in selling situations.

Without a doubt, the two copy projects which produced the most startling results for me were pure narrative.

Stories get past all the barriers that listeners and readers erect as soon as they hear a sales pitch coming in their direction. The oft-mentioned truth is that the human brain is hardwired for stories. In a presentation at a TED event this April, Amanda D’Annucci talked about how stories affect us psychologically and neurologically.

“Story,” she says ”is an influential tool which can mold the most obstinate of minds by means of appealing to an individual’s pathos (emotion) … We dream in narrative. Daydream in narrative.”

You can use storytelling in both your online and offline marketing materials. Rather than stating feature after feature, or even benefit after benefit, craft a story. How were those features invented? How have those benefits changed lives? What will your business look like after you use this service?

When done properly, stories allow the audience to draw their own conclusions, which is a far more persuasive than telling them what to think. Good stories get the listener involved, invested in the outcome, and even participating in the plot in their own mind.

Think of some ways you can add narrative elements into your marketing copy. As I noted above, I’m sure you’ve heard this stuff before. But have you acted on what you’ve learned? Do it today. The results could startle you, as they did me.

Testimonials

Customer testimonials are related to storytelling. But testimonials have an added dimension of realness.

It’s always better to have someone else shouting your praises than tooting your own horn. Other people who have been enthusiastically satisfied with your product are doing the selling for you. See the difference?

They’re the ones offering proof that your product is worth what it costs.

They’re the ones who ease the fear that new customers may have of getting burned.

They have no incentive to lie. They’re not getting a commission check. But they’re smiling anyway, talking about how their lives are better because of the product.

I spoke with a colleague last week about the subconscious effect of testimonials. He was testing up an email sign-up page where he replaced long salesy copy (with all the reasons you need to sign up NOW) with nearly 400 positive comments he’d received from his current subscribers.

No one is likely to read all 400 comments, but the fact that so many people have taken the time to tell this guy how great his content is powerful.

A trend that’s becoming increasingly popular is video testimonials. Video adds another level of credibility to testimonials. These are real people (a little harder to fake than written ones). The emotion is more visible, and it’s easier to imagine that the person raving about the product is just like you (which makes it all the more seductive).

Teaching

I’ve had some interesting conversations over the past few weeks about the topic of teaching. Is teaching selling?

In my opinion, education is among the most powerful selling tools in any arsenal. Not all teaching is selling. But done properly, there is no better selling technique than education.

At its core, real teaching is the selling of ideas. Great teachers obtain the exact response they’re trying to elicit: improved lives and altered courses of action.

By creating awareness of a problem and showing us how to fix it, teachers really can change the world. Learning a life-altering lesson creates more internal tension than any other kind of sales pitch. It must be acted on.

Purposeful teaching is selling at its best.

Demonstration

Giving stuff away doesn’t feel like selling to the recipient. But samples and free trials can be perfect bait to get people to try what you have to offer. After all, what do they have to lose?

When there’s no risk, potential customers can take a sneak peak at your product or service without fear. If you provide an amazing experience, there’s a very good likelihood that they will continue to hire you or buy from you.

A personal example: Gillette sent me a Mach 3 razor for my 18th birthday. It probably cost them less than $5, including shipping. I loved it, and now I’ve been buying replacement blades for over a decade. Sounds like a smart investment. Spending five bucks gained a lifetime customer. I’m sure there are thousands of others who responded the same way.

I didn’t feel “sold” or pressured. In fact, I remember saying that the razor was my favorite gift that year. There was no resistance on my part. There’s still not. I’m not out shopping for new shaving utensils. I know what I’m buying when I go to the store.

How can you use this same principle? Make sure to offer a product or service that people will find value in. If you disappoint them with your free trial, you will not get them to pay for the full service.

Donnie Bryant is a direct response copywriter, author, and speaker. Visit his website at donnie-bryant.com.

Related posts:

1. 7 defensive copywriting strategies to close the sale
2. How to sell by not selling: the secret of the cedar plank
3. 30 sales letter openers to kick start your sales pitch

Why? Because it’s overused, it can destroy your credibility, and many copywriters just don’t feel comfortable being so aggressive.

We also looked at 4 basic principles behind the idea of a different, less in-your-face approach. Namely that people want to buy from you, you cannot force anyone to do anything they don’t want to do, selling does not require brilliant copy, and you must remove the barriers to buying.

If you’re clear on these preliminaries, let’s now get into the meat of Zen Copywriting and how you can make it work for you.

First, what can this “radical” sort of writing do for you?

The Benefits of Zen Copywriting

Going beyond the Behaviorist approach of hard sell and adopting a barrier-removal mindset presents a host of benefits for the smart copywriter:

• You see your audience as real, individual people, not just faceless targets.
• You start making a genuine effort to help people, rather than just sell stuff to them.
• You decrease your reliance on random copywriting techniques.
• You increase your chances of finding meaningful appeals that hit the real hot buttons.
• You reduce the “perceived risk” your potential customers feel about buying from you.
• You ensure more long term business by avoiding tricks and deceptive ploys.
• You develop a more realistic, practical approach to writing and selling.
• You have a better sense of when to follow copywriting rules, when to break them, and when to make up your own.

Overcoming The Barriers to Buying

The barriers to buying include everything that may stand in the way of your prospective customers responding positively — physical, emotional, intellectual, and financial. Your goal is to ask yourself questions about your copy to identify and remove every conceivable barrier so that absolutely nothing stops the sale.

The Identification Barrier
All of us have a certain image of ourselves which helps determine how we think and act. Does your copy make your prospect think, “Yes. A person like me would buy this” or maybe “I want to be like people who would buy this so I’ll buy it, too”?

Does your copy clearly target the prospect you’re aiming for? Do headlines get the attention of your particular prospect? Is your message interesting to your prospect? Does your copy have a distinct personality to which your prospect can relate?

The Clarity Barrier
Don’t expect to sell something to someone who doesn’t understand what you’re selling or the benefits of accepting your offer. Does your copy prevent clarity by calling attention to itself instead of focusing on the offer? Is your offer absolutely clear? Does your copy say what you really intend to say? Are all the details about your product or service fully understandable to your prospect? Is your copy easy to scan and easy to understand at a glance? Is it simple, straightforward, and to-the-point?

The Product Identity Barrier
Your product or service should have a distinct identity. Remove your product from your message and replace it with a competitor’s product. If your copy still makes sense, you have not established identity. Do you provide a “big idea” for your product or service? Can your prospect instantly grasp your “unique selling proposition”? Have you proven your superiority? Have you turned all your features into benefits that are meaningful to your prospect?

The Involvement Barrier
Have you given your prospect a choice to make? Do you encourage involvement with a quiz or checklist? Do you ask your prospect to complete something (like an order form) to accept your offer? Have you offered your prospect something of true personal value? Do you use audio, video, photos, illustrations, or animations to help activate the senses?

The Credibility Barrier
You may be truthful, but does your prospect actually believe you? You can’t argue a prospect into trusting you. You must remove all doubt with tangible displays of credibility. On what authority do you make your offer? Do you show how other people have used your product or service? Do you communicate your reputation without chest beating?

Can you show how there’s a trend for using your product? Do you provide testimonials from satisfied customers or experts? Have you featured your guarantee? Do you show who personally backs up the guarantee? Do you make clear any qualifications to your offer? Do you have teeny legal type that might arouse suspicion?

The Immediacy Barrier
Have you expressed why it’s so important to respond now rather than later? If your offer is really urgent, does your copy make it sound urgent? Do you tell people what you want them to do in clear, specific terms? Have you painted a “word picture” of how your prospect will immediately benefit by responding? Do you have a deadline? Have you talked about the scarcity of your product (only 100 remaining)? Instead of punishing those who order late, can you reward those who order early?

The Acceptability Barrier
Have you put yourself into the shoes of your prospects to consider whether your offer is really acceptable to them? Have you made an appeal to your prospect’s emotional needs? Do you also make an appeal to logic? Is your product, offer, and overall presentation “likable?” Does the idea of responding make your prospect feel good?

Have you made an effort to show how desirable your offer is? Does your offer allow prospects to feel that responding is consistent with their self-image, goals, and past actions? Do you give prospects the logical justification they need to make a purchase?

The Accessibility Barrier
Is there any physical barrier your prospect must overcome to respond? Is your order button easy to see? Does your web page load quickly? Is your site able to handle the traffic you expect to generate? Are you using popups, scripts, or animations that may cause problems with certain browsers? Are links obvious or do you confuse people with underlines that don’t link to anything? What can someone do if there’s a question about your offer or if something goes wrong?

With hard sell copywriting, you try to beat your prospective customers into submission with line after line of copy. With Zen Copywriting, you offer something of high-quality that people want and focus on making it so easy to buy, people can’t refuse.

Wearing a tie-dyed shirt while you’re writing your copy is optional.

Related posts:

1. The Art of Zen Copywriting – Part 1
2. Credible copywriting: Who ya’ gonna trust?
3. Sell anything with this universal copywriting formula

If you’re like most copywriters, you truly want to help your clients (or help yourself) sell more products and services.

Your instinct will be to write the sort of hard sell copy you’ve seen so much of, because you will assume that’s what always works. But will it? Maybe. Maybe not. The trouble with hard sell is that it’s overused, it can destroy your credibility, and many copywriters just don’t feel comfortable being so aggressive.

So what do you do?

I’d like to show you a different approach to selling that turns conventional wisdom on its head, replacing hard sell with a less aggressive and more natural way to write copy. We’ll call it Zen Copywriting.

But first, let’s look at exactly why hard sell isn’t always the right answer.

The Limitations of Writing Hard Sell Copy

Most of the techniques for hard sell copy come from the world of “direct response” marketing, which is the business I work in. Often, this sort of selling can be highly aggressive. We want to “capture” the attention of our audience, “push” their hot buttons, and “force” them to act immediately.

It’s a good approach. It’s based on sound Behaviorist principles that do, in fact, work. We operate with the functional analogy that copy is a “sales person” speaking to prospective buyers. We want our sales person to coax, urge, persuade, and sell just like someone going door-to-door.

However, this is only an analogy, a way of thinking about what we do. It is not reality. Unlike face-to-face sales, words can’t force anybody to do anything. A car salesman can grab you by the lapel and sit you down in the vehicle he wants to sell. He can, to a certain extent, push you past many of your doubts and objections with an aggressive approach and make a sale. But written words can’t be that forceful.

In copywriting, there is a line beyond which the aggressive approach cannot take you. When you reach this limit, it’s time to think of a different analogy.

Zen Copywriting: The “Passive” Approach to Selling

Let’s reverse our typically aggressive thinking that casts us as the hunter and our prospects as the prey. Instead of thinking “I’m going to capture a sale,” think “I’m going to remove the barriers to buying and allow people to follow their natural inclination to make purchases from me.”

No, I’m not wearing a tie-dyed shirt and hugging trees here. I’m just talking about understanding the modern consumer and writing copy in a way that’s more natural and appealing to a wider segment of your audience.

Consider a few basic principles:

Principle #1: Your readers WANT to buy from you. We live in a highly evolved consumer culture. Shopping and buying is the modern equivalent for the hunting and gathering of our ancestors. People don’t just buy necessities, the majority of purchases today are discretionary. Luxury cars, smart phones, designer clothing, gourmet food, books and magazines for every interest. People are in a daily frenzy to purchase products of every kind, including yours.

Principle #2: You CANNOT force anyone to do anything they don’t want to do. No matter how good your copy might be, it is not endowed with magic powers. For all the huffing and puffing we copywriting gurus do about persuasive communications, the reality is that you can’t force a sale with words. The best you can hope for is to capitalize on an existing need or want and turn it into a buying action.

Principle #3: Selling does not require brilliant copywriting. (Don’t tell my clients this. It will be our little secret.) Since people are natural consumers, we don’t need clever ideas to sell them our products and services. They are actively looking for things to buy, because they want to solve problems and better themselves. Yes, there’s a certain amount of want-making you can do, but you’ll find much more success if you offer items for which there is an established need or want.

Principle #4: You must remove the barriers to buying. If we agree that people naturally consume, that you can’t force a sale, and that clever copy is not a requirement, we must ask ourselves why prospects accept one offer and reject another. What is stopping the natural inclination to buy? What are the barriers to buying? All things being equal, isn’t it reasonable to conclude that if we identify and remove these barriers, our sales will increase? When we take away all the reasons prospects have to say, “No,” what can prospects do but say, “Yes?”

Are you starting to feel excited? Can you see the possibilities here? Stay tuned. In the second part of this post, we’ll look at the benefits of Zen Copywriting and see how to overcome the barriers to buying.

Related posts:

1. 7 defensive copywriting strategies to close the sale
2. 5 copywriting judo moves every copywriter should know
3. Convincing the gatekeeper: writing copy for the real decision maker