• The two biggest obstacles to market differentiation, and how to overcome them …
  
• How to create your own power positioning in the marketplace …
  
• How to generate a flood of super-qualified, ready-to-buy leads for your copywriting business …
  
• Plus more!

Jason Leister: Thanks Daniel for agreeing to let me interview you. I’m very interested in hearing your ideas about how copywriters can strengthen their positioning in the marketplace, and craft truly irresistible offers their prospects can’t refuse.

Daniel Levis: Well thanks for giving me the opportunity to contribute to your project.

Jason Leister: I wonder if we can start by having you give us your definition of “positioning.” But I’m not looking for a marketing-speak definition. I’m looking for the in the trenches, “Here’s what it means and here’s why it’s important” definition.

Daniel Levis: Sure, positioning is the perception your marketplace has about you. When they come across you, or hear your name, or visit your website, they unconsciously pigeon hole you as belonging in some niche within the overall market, and occupying a position of relative authority and reputation within that niche.

For example, they might say, “Oh Jason Leister specializes in writing copy for the financial markets or whatever, and he’s one of the top writers in that field.” That’s an example of positioning. And along with that positioning comes certain expectations as to what they might expect to pay you, what kind of results they can expect to achieve if they hire you, and so on.

Breakthroughs come in your career when you can position yourself in a unique way that’s seen as extremely beneficial to a desirable target market.

Jason Leister: What do you think the number one obstacle is that really keeps copywriters from differentiating themselves in the marketplace?

Daniel Levis: Well there are two things really. One is exposure. It’s almost impossible to differentiate yourself effectively without repeated contact with your target market.

And second is endorsement. You can’t have power positioning without being knighted by some other authority figure in your marketplace – whether that authority figure is some elite, well known customer in your niche who sings your praises … or one or more of the elite practitioners of your craft who for whatever reason say you walk on water and that anyone with the opportunity to hire you should jump at the chance.

When you have these things in place, you can declare yourself different, people will believe it, and they’ll line up to hire you.

Jason Leister: So how do you do it? If you were starting over today, knowing what you know now, what would you do to build a strong position in the marketplace? What are the steps you would take to do it in the shortest amount of time possible?

Daniel Levis: I like the way you’ve phrased this question. From a tactical perspective, obviously there were dozens of little mistakes that I could avoid if I had a chance to relive the experience. But strategically I don’t think I would do anything differently than what I did.

Let me tell you my story.

When I started in this business, I was already a very experienced marketer, but my background didn’t give me the kind of instant credibility that would differentiate me positively in the marketplace.

In my previous career, I had a rather unique way of selling. I was in high tech. And my job was to prospect for customers, meet with them face to face, and sell them software and services. Transaction sizes were in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes over a million.

The typical approach was to pick up the phone and dial for dollars. But what I was doing was mailing postcards and short letters and writing articles that compelled prospective customers to contact me and request information that promised an unbiased exploration of a problem or an opportunity my target market was facing.

When the requests would come in, I would send out the information, and within that package there would be some tacit selling of my company’s solution to the problem, and an invite to call me and request a customized audit of the client’s IT environment to determine the suitability of our solution.

This approach was incredibly effective, because it positioned me as a consultant, rather than a salesman. And because the prospect was calling me, it created a whole different psychological dynamic. It put me in a much more leveraged position. Even more so when I took that strategy online …

Before I even opened my mouth to speak with a potential client, my problem solving information had already done 95% of the selling, effectively minimized the viability of all other potential solutions. Therefore price was rarely an issue.

And when I decided to go out on my own as an online marketing consultant and copywriter, I added an important twist to this strategy. In addition to giving away problem solving “how to” information about online marketing and copywriting, I began selling it.

And I was lucky enough to enlist some other copywriters and online marketers who already had massive credibility in the marketplace to help me to create those products. And several of them endorsed me. So I had both exposure and endorsement. Without ever advertising my availability as a copywriter, my dance card started filling up.

Most copywriters looking to build their practices introduce themselves to the marketplace by advertising their services. I’ve never done that.

My funnel starts with free information, moves on to paid information, and then to high-end copywriting and marketing consulting services. Because people approach me from within my database, and because I’m in a position to pick and choose my clients, I operate in somewhat of a competitive vacuum.

Jason Leister: That’s incredible. What position do you occupy in the marketplace? How did you create it? Does it grow out of who you are, an unmet need in the market, a combination of both … or maybe even somewhere completely different?

Daniel Levis: I position myself as the marketing mercenary of choice for some of the world’s most experienced and demanding information marketers.

I created that positioning by become imminently visible in the marketplace. My marketing is relentless. I’m constantly looking for fresh new joint ventures. I’m always creating and distributing new content and information products. I’m always advertising those products. And because the top of my funnel is information sales, it allows me to immediately monetize those activities, and draw people into my warm sphere of influence.

And yes, I think your positioning should be in tight alignment with your personality. It’s got to be something real. It has to grow out of the person you are, your unique strengths and interests. There’s no point getting involved in a niche that you hate, just because you feel it represents monetary opportunity.

I’m a firm believer in doing what you love, and what you believe in, because life is a marathon, and if you don’t stay true to your passions, you’re going to burn out long before the race is over.

Jason Leister: Just to hammer this home … can you put some number on the value your positioning has delivered to your bank account? For example … think of a project you’ve done recently. What fee did you charge (assuming it was due in part to your positioning)? What could you have charged without a position, USP?

Daniel Levis: My fees are currently $17,500 plus a minimum 5% royalty, and I can honestly tell you that without the kinds of unusual marketing that I do it would be difficult to stay booked full time charging those kinds of fees. The time overhead alone in having to sell my services to people would eat into my income.

But I think being able to justify those fees is based more on my reputation than on my USP. It’s more a matter of notoriety than unique position in the marketplace. My marketing creates a lot of interest, and then the laws of supply and demand kick in.

And naturally when you’re in demand, you can charge higher fees. The good clients – those who recognize that good copy is expensive and bad copy is even more expensive – are glad to pay my fees, because they know they’re going to get results.

Jason Leister: Most copywriters have offers like, “you pay me and I’ll write for you.” Nothing too compelling about that … What are some of the strongest and most successful offers you’ve used to attract clients in your copywriting business?

Daniel Levis: I don’t offer to write copy for anyone. What I do instead is to get people to tell me a little about themselves with the understanding that they’re trying to qualify for a free 30-minute consultation with me. That’s essentially the client attraction offer you’ll find on my website.

Basically I call out my target audience with a pre-head, make a big promise with my headline, and then pose a challenge to the reader. I’m basically saying, read on “only” if you’re convinced you can make the cut.

Then I paint a little picture of the pain that comes from unproductive copy in the first couple of paragraphs, carry on with proof of promise with plenty of documentation of my accomplishments and testimonials and so forth, and then tell them straight out that we probably won’t be working together. I’ve got enough clients. I’m not looking for any more. What I’m looking for are visionaries.

And then I go on to describe the kind of visionaries I’m looking for, I tell them that the bulk of my compensation will be performance based, but that they’ll probably end up paying me much more than other writers.

Then I spell out what happens after the 30-minute free consult if they qualify. And then ask them to apply. That in essence is my client attraction offer.

Of course the only people who see it are people who have already raised their hands as high probability candidates by opting in to my database or buying one of my information products. Since they’ve already experienced my marketing, they’re already predisposed to hiring me.

Jason Leister: What are the steps you use to create a powerful offer that will help attract clients and set you apart from the competition?

Daniel Levis: I use the same techniques that I use when my clients hire me to craft marketing campaigns for them. I call it my 5R conversion system. 5R is a systematic approach to quickly creating the most powerful and persuasive sales positioning possible for my clients. In a nutshell it works like this …

5R stands for the right person, communicating the right message, to the right audience, at the right time, and in the right way.

And you can see from what I’ve told you that I’ve been very deliberate about positioning myself as the right person for discriminating info-marketers hungry for productive copy.

I’ve done that by front ending my entire business with information. People are exposed to me all over the Internet. I cast a very wide net, because the front end of my sales funnel is very easy to fall into.

Actually I make $4 for every dollar I spend promoting myself before I even bring a copywriting client in the door. So those clients come to me at zero cost in time or money, apart from the 30 minute free consults that I only do when I find a potentially hot customer that I may want to work with.

For me, the right message is not “hire me as a copywriter.” I’ve found it much more profitable to say, “invest in my copywriting and web marketing information, and explode your sales and profits,” because I know that my ideal clients are already buying this information anyway.

They are my right audience. They understand direct response. They know that even if they end up hiring a copywriter, they’ve got to be smart enough to recognize productive copy when they see it. And they appreciate what it takes to bang out productive copy.

And I plant the bug in their ear that “hey, maybe we should work together” at the right time – after they’ve already had plenty of exposure to my written and recorded works. They’re 95% sold before I ever speak to them on the telephone.

And everything about the messaging I use to get them to take that final step is designed to be consistent with my positioning. It gets the message across in the right way – a way that makes people feel like they’ve really pulled something off when they have a chance to work with me. Fees are rarely an issue.

It’s not about them deciding if they want to hire me. It’s about them proving to me that I’ll want to work with them. As a service provider, I believe it’s essential to start the relationship off in a position of power. Clients respect you for that. They feel compelled to do business with someone who doesn’t need their business.

Jason Leister: Would it be fair to say that your positioning and your offer are related … that one grows out of the other?

Daniel Levis: It absolutely would. Ultimately what people are buying is “you.” They’re not buying copywriting services. They’re buying results, yes, but they’re also buying a relationship.

People buy from people. And your positioning is much more than a USP. It’s also your persona. I love to quote Emerson in this regard, who said, “Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear a word that you’re saying.” Sellers rarely realize the significance of this.

Your offer has to be in sync with the person who’s making it. Imagine if I were to take the kind of approach I just outlined, asking people to qualify to hire me, if I didn’t have the positioning that I do.

It would come off as cocky and insulting. But because of the credibility and persona that I’ve built up with my front end products, and the relationship I’ve established, I get away with it.

The fact that they feel they know me through the information they’ve already bought from me, combined with the uniqueness of my offer, absolutely differentiates me from everyone else they may be considering.

Jason Leister: I think that’s great advice. OK, last question. What can our listeners do to find out more about the information marketing business, if they’d like to consider following in your footsteps?

Daniel Levis: Sure, well I know most of the people listening to this are probably well on their way to learning the craft of copywriting, so I’ll point them in the direction of some information specifically designed to help you with this whole idea of using information marketing as a lead generator.

I’ve put together a little package that gives you a firm basis for selling information about anything, both as an end in itself … and of course as a front end for a service business. Virtually any kind of service business can profit from this.

Click here to check it out.

Jason Leister: Great. Well thanks for stopping by Daniel. I really appreciate this wonderful information.

Daniel Levis: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Until next time, Good Selling!

Daniel Levis

Yesterday, we took a magical mystery tour into the fantastic world of forbidden rhetorical devices … studying metaphor and analogy … anchored words … and future pacing.

Today, in celebration of All Hallows’ Eve I’m going to indoctrinate you still further, with a few more of my favorite heretical machinations.

Adam Gordon didn’t ask about this one, but it’s perhaps the most important pre-requisite to persuasion.

Mirror and match: It’s human nature to comply with requests from people we like. If you’re a parent, you know how difficult it is to say “No” to your kid. And why do you love your kid? Because he or she reminds you of YOU!

Unconsciously – automatically – we take a shine to people who remind us of ourselves.

I’ll never forget an initial sales call I made many years ago on a prospect who spoke very slowly, almost as though he were groping around in the dark for the right words to speak. Gradually, half deliberately, half sympathetically, I started speaking in this very slow, feeling-out-loud sort of way as well. The effect was almost magical …

For several hours, I just sat there listening, every once in a while feeding his thoughts back to him slowly, reflectively. The rest of my physiology naturally harmonizing with his, and we got along famously. And then finally, when I closed on the next step in the sales cycle, he came right along with me, effortlessly.

Each time I spoke to him on the phone, or called on him at his place of business, I zoned in to his way of processing the world, used the same kinds of words and phrases he used, and for several years he basically just did what I told him to do.

His company spent several million dollars with my company, and I believe it was largely based on the rapport that we shared. This is a striking example, because of this man’s unusual mannerisms, but I believe the same thing happens unconsciously in every successful sales encounter. Even an asynchronous encounter …

When you write in the way your prospect speaks … when you begin by saying things he agrees with … when you reveal things about yourself that demonstrate you are like him … that you have walked in his shoes … he is magnetically pulled in to the rest of your sales message.

Matching and mirroring in sales copy can be situational, reflecting on the prospect’s circumstances, and attitudinal, echoing his existing feelings and beliefs. At best, it is both …

Here’s a particularly instructive example of matching and mirroring taken from the first few paragraphs of a well-known and highly successful ad written by the late Joe Karbo:

You think you’ve got problems? Well, I remember when I got turned down for a $200 loan. Now I lend money to the bank – Certificates of Deposit at $100,000 a crack.

I remember the day a car dealer got a little nervous because I was a couple of months behind in my car payments – and repossessed my car. Now I own a Rolls Royce. I paid $43,000 for it – cash.

I remember the day my wife phoned me, crying, because the landlord had shown up at the house, demanding his rent – and we didn’t have the money to pay him.

You can see how the target prospect (broke dude) sees himself in Joe, can’t you?

The really clever thing about Karbo’s opening is how each paragraph compares and contrasts pain with pleasure. This is very smart because there is a real danger when empathizing with your reader’s pain. Denial!

Too much negativity all at once and your prospect can easily hang up on your copy. It’s just too painful to deal with. Since matching and mirroring often involves harmonizing with negative states, this ad is a great example for you to model. Observe how it dips the prospect in a bucket of acid, pulls him out, dips him in, pulls him out.

How to fan the flames of desire
through “nested” narrative …

Wrap your argument in story – Of all rhetorical devices, storytelling is perhaps the most powerful. Since the dawn of civilization, dramatic stories have been the primary means with which those in power have imprinted and perpetuated belief systems on the mass of humanity.

Myth – Bible stories, fairy tales, and moral fables – consumed just beyond the cradle program our thinking until the grave. They install an unconscious belief system that influences our actions and reactions for the rest of our lives.

Realize our beliefs are NOT things we think about. They are things we think with. And as a persuader whose job it is to mold and extend those beliefs in ways that make purchase decisions inevitable, doesn’t it make sense to use the same subtle techniques that created them in the first place?

By their very structure, well-told stories use the reader’s active imagination to induce a kind of sensory disassociation from the world around him. A little off balance – like a stranger in a strange land – he searches for his bearings in your words. After all, the story is about him. And if it is a good one, he soon projects himself into the action.

Naturally, this induces a kind of childlike over-reliance on the imaginative and emotional right brain. Your reader slips into reverie and begins experiencing the protagonist’s emotions as if they were his own. If they are negative emotions, he becomes dependent on the storyteller for a way out. If positive, again the storyteller holds power over him, because he wants that happiness to continue.

In this suggestible state, your spokesperson’s authority is greatly enhanced. And it becomes very easy for your prospect to accept virtually any reasonable mechanism that promises to relieve the pain or prolong the pleasure.

Perhaps the most talented sales storyteller of them all was John Caples. Most of us are familiar with his perennially swiped headline, They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano – But When I Started To Play! But I suspect few of us grasp how hypnotically powerful the storytelling that comprised the rest of that ad really is.

Watch how skillfully Caples leverages the reader’s active imagination to stimulate his emotions, and fan the flames of desire for the product …

Arthur had just played, The Rosary. The room rang with applause. I decided this would be a dramatic moment for me to make my debut. To the amazement of all my friends I strode confidently over to the piano and sat down.

“Jack is up to his old tricks” somebody chuckled. The crowd laughed. They were all certain I couldn’t play a single note. “Can he really play” a girl whispered to Arthur? “Heavens no!” Arthur exclaimed. “He never played a note in all his life … but just you watch him. This is going to be good.”

I decided to make the most of the situation. With mock dignity I drew out a silk handkerchief and lightly dusted off the keys. Then I rose and gave the revolving piano stool a quarter turn, just as I had seen an imitator of Paderewski do in a Vaudeville sketch.

“What do you think of his execution!” called a voice from the rear.

“We are in favor of it!” came back the answer, and the whole room rocked with laughter.

Then I Started To Play

Instantly a tense silence fell on the guests. The laughter died on their lips as if by magic. I played through the first few bars of Beethoven’s immortal Moonlight Sonata. I heard gasps of amazement. My friends were breathless – spellbound!

I played on and as I played I forgot the people around me. I forgot the hour, the place, the breathless listeners. The little world I lived in seemed to fade – seemed to grow dim – unreal. Only the music was real. Only the music and the visions it brought on – visions as beautiful and enchanting as the wind blown clouds and shimmering moonlight that had inspired this great composer.

It seemed as if the master musician himself were speaking to me – speaking through the medium of music – not in words but chords. Not in sentences, but in exquisite melodies.

A Complete Triumph!

Caples’ brilliant sales storytelling is pure emotion. It over-stimulates the reader’s right brain, squeezing out any room or desire for rationality.

It also uses “nested” narrative (a story within a story), which has a powerfully disassociating effect on the reader. He is no longer sitting there trying to relieve his boredom in the pages of Harper’s Monthly. Caples has given him a double fantasy with which to make his escape!

Judging from the sales this ad generated, let’s just say plenty of people took the bait.

How to install an automatic interest-retainer
in your prospects’ minds that keeps them hooked
on reading your copy …

Create Open Loops – The human mind hates unfinished business. It has a compulsion to see things to their logical conclusion.

Psychologists have proven this in memory tests involving wait staff in restaurants. Almost without fail, the waiters and waitresses could remember what patrons who were still in the restaurant had ordered. But almost always, they substantially forgot what patrons who had already paid their bill had ordered, even when those patrons had left the restaurant just minutes before.

Master novelists and screenwriters use this phenomenon to keep their audiences spellbound. Their stories often begin at the height of tension – with Pauline perilously bound to the railway tracks as a locomotive barrels toward her.

Just as the beautiful heroine is about to be sheared in three, the scene freezes … and you’re transported back in time to the real beginning of the story. The image of Pauline lying there in abject terror forms an open loop in your mind that keeps you hooked until the cliffhanger is resolved much later in the story.

The nested narrative in John Caples’ famous ad has this effect as well. Naturally the reader wants to know what happens after Jack finishes playing the Moonlight Sonata. They’re hooked until that tension resolves. And Caples uses that open loop to veer off in another direction, deepening the reader’s reverie, and introducing still more promise of emotional satisfaction.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little series. The tools I’ve uncovered for you here are incredibly powerful. Please use them with discretion.

If you’d like to comment on these articles, or suggest subject matter for future Info-Marketer’s Blog posts, please drop me a line in the comments box below. I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time, Good Selling!

P.S. WARNING! This is the very last day to lock in gargantuan savings on Effortless Influence – How to Master the Art of The Sales Story. You will NEVER see a better price on this course.

• What the mind can’t prevent itself from doing … and why tying your sales argument to that process is diabolically clever …
  
• How the simple twisting of words can make a lame sales proposition sinfully delicious …
  
• A wicked way to close the sale that hardly anybody knows about …
  
• And more!

This special Halloween blog post is dedicated to my good friend, Adam Gordon, aka The Profit Leak Detective, who in a moment of weakness and sorry sin, once asked: “I wish these processes can be made more clear:”

• Metaphor and analogy
• Anchored words
• Future pacing
• Multiple open loops that close sequentially
• Wrapping your argument in story

Metaphor and analogy: When the brain is confronted with an abstract or unfamiliar idea or situation, a little alarm goes off inside saying, “what’s that like?” Automatically the brain begins searching its memory banks for something similar.

Using metaphor and analogy to make the comparative connection for your prospect allows you to basically pigeonhole that idea or situation in a slot that furthers the sale. By saying something is like something else (a simile or analogy), or calling it something it isn’t (a metaphor), you can twist its meaning in the direction you want.

Smart metaphors, analogies, and similes are therefore like tools that allow you to move your prospect toward, or away from a given conclusion. For example:

It’s like a dagger driven deep into the heart of your financial and emotional security …

… The savings account you’ve counted on, your precious safety cushion, has been rendered virtually useless by the lowest interest rates in 45 years …

Do you see how comparing low interest rates with a dagger straight into the heart intensifies the problem the sales copy is addressing? And how the use of the metaphor safety cushion (rendered virtually useless) further intensifies the seriousness of the situation?

These metaphors serve to lead the reader to the conclusion that “hey, this is serious, I better pay attention.” and they do it in a way that is subtle, yet dramatic and engaging.

And here’s an example of how a metaphor can be used to neutralize a conclusion that is potentially negative to the sale.

Washington is in an absolute panic to put a band-aid on the gaping head wounds of the economy and convince you that Wall Street is safe again.

Why else would the Democrats, Republicans and the Bush White House be hammering out one of the most radical economic stimulus packages in history?

The goal of the copy is to draw the reader to the conclusion that Wall Street is a house of cards (hey, another metaphor) ready to collapse at any moment. This is a supporting premise to the overall sales argument. The stimulus package (advertised as a solution to the crisis) is therefore a potential roadblock to the sale. It is also a very abstract idea to most people.

Calling it a Band-Aid, and the economic trouble head wounds satisfies the brains need to draw a comparison. It also happens to support the conclusion that the stimulus package is too little, too late, therefore countering it as an objection (an excuse for inaction) to the sale.

These examples of metaphor and analogy taken from some of Clayton Makepeace’s financial newsletter copy consist of just a few words woven into the copy.

But these techniques can also be extended, playing a much more prominent role in the copy. Robert Collier was a master of teasing the reader along with these extended analogies that culminated in the conclusions he wanted his readers to make. Here’s one such example:

Have you ever stood on the shore of a calm, peaceful lake and watched the reflections in it? The trees, the mountains, the clouds, the sky, all were mirrored there — just as perfectly, just as beautifully, as the objects themselves. But try to get such a reflection from the ocean! It cannot be done, because the ocean is always restless, always stirred up by winds, or waves, or tides.

So it is with your mind. You cannot reflect the richness and plenty of Universal Mind, you cannot mirror peace and health and happiness if you are constantly worried, continually stirred by waves of fear, winds of anger, tides of toil and striving. You must relax at times. You must give mind a chance. You must realize that, when you have done your best, you can confidently lean back and leave the outcome to Universal Mind.

OK, hopefully that gives you some ideas for using these tools in your copy. Pedagogues, forgive me if I’ve made a mess of the technical definition of any of these terms. I’m an elementary school graduate.

Anchored words: Words are symbols — representations of reality. They cause a kind of Pavlovian reaction. It’s as if our entire life experience is recorded, and specific experiences can be played back if the right stimulus is provided.

Certain words are particularly evocative, triggering a cascade of images and emotions in the mind of your reader.

Love, hate, sex, death, kill, joy and blood are all examples of these highly anchored, viscerally charged words that create powerful, automatic, involuntary associations.

Some words are conversely very dull, without much anchoring, neutral. Most are somewhere in between. And when a word produces an anchored response, that response is either positive or negative to the sale. Your word choice either propels your prospect toward the action you want him to take, or it causes him to stop and think.

Too few anchored words will cause him to stop and think, “Do I really want to read this, I’m bored.” Words anchored in opposition to the sale will cause him to put your promotion aside for further consideration, or worse, cause him to reject your proposition outright.

Here are a few examples of how words can be anchored positively or negatively in context to the sale, and why word choice is so important in your copy.

When selling information products, the word learn is sometimes anchored negatively. People hear or read this word and instantly they’re mentally back in school, bored, and hating it. They don’t want to learn anything. But they love to discover things, magically stumbling upon the answers to their problems.

The word selling in certain situations is also anchored very negatively. People don’t want to sell, and they don’t want to be sold. They hear the word selling, and they’re thinking of the time some misguided “friend” cornered them and started pushing Amway or some other crazy scheme on them. They don’t want to sell. They do however want to serve, and be served.

Signature as in “sign your name” is another word that’s anchored very negatively toward the sale. People hear or read this word, and they remember their father warning them to never sign anything without talking it over with somebody else first, or showing it to their lawyer. Doubly so, if the thing they’re being asked to sign is a contract. The word contract is also negatively anchored. Better to say, “All you need do is give me your John Hancock right here on the agreement and by this time tomorrow you’ll be enjoying [insert delicious benefit here].”

Your prospect’s mind is like a vast storehouse of images and mental movies. Virtually every sentence you write gives you an opportunity to strategically pull just the right one out and play it.

Future pacing: Before your prospect can take action and buy your product, he has to imagine himself using it to either obtain a positive, pleasurable experience … or avoid a negative, painful one — or both.

And since the sub-conscious mind literally can’t tell the difference between a real and imagined experience, the more vividly those outcomes are imagined, the more motivated he will become.

Future pacing involves projecting your reader into the future, and then getting him to look back on the present, and reflect on his decision.

Here’s an example:

A year from now, you’ll have had a chance to reap some of the mouthwatering gains I’m convinced are in store — and you’ll be enjoying the rewards …

Maybe you and your significant other will be lazing for weeks on end along a sun-drenched stretch of Mediterranean beach … maybe fishing off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard for the entire summer … maybe taking a long leisurely tour of the glamour capitals of Europe.

Whatever you’re doing … you’ll be looking back on the decision you made here today as one of your very best!

Future pacing works incredibly well if the visions you’re asking your prospects to engage in are congruent with their fantasies.

Your prospects don’t see themselves in the exact scenario you put them in. But if you’re close, you’re triggering an analogous, very personal vision stored within their minds. And that daydream is far more motivational than anything you could possibly describe in your copy.

Of course future pacing works both ways … you can paint a negative picture as well …

Take your prospect forward to a place and time where nothing has changed. There he sits, in exactly the same place he is today, looking back in regret on the opportunity he chose to ignore.

This is not a comfortable feeling, and will often compel your prospect to cast aside whatever fears are preventing him from buying your product.

Here’s an example of negative future pacing:

I’ll be the first to admit that getting involved with what we’ve discussed here today takes a little guts. I was scared out of my mind the day I took the plunge. Do you know what clinched it for me though?

I said to myself, “Look, if you don’t try this, 10 years from now you’ll be looking back on this moment and wondering what could have been. And you’ll be hating yourself for having given in to your fears, and having let a golden opportunity like this slip through your fingers, along with your dreams for a better life.” Believe it or not, that motivated me to take action, and I’ve never looked back.

Don’t hate yourself for wondering what could have been.

Whoa, that’s the makings of a wicked close. I bet I’m going to hell for that one.

Stay tuned for part two of Copywriting Witchcraft And The Black Arts Of Persuasion, coming your way soon.

Until next time, Good Selling!

P.S. Remember, until the witching hour, 11:59pm Eastern, October 30, you can steal away with Effortless Influence — How to Master the Art of The Sales Story at a positively spine tingling discount, the ultimate Halloween treat! Click here.