When I first started writing copy long ago, I’d always get stuck when it came time to ask people to buy from me.
Asking people to give me money was so. Freaking. Hard.
Why?
I was convinced no one actually wanted to buy anything ever – and the only way people ever did buy things was if you pulled all kinds of Jedi mind games until they hesitantly pulled out their wallets.
So my copy was sort of anxious.
Constantly over-explaining and over-persuading.
And… I sold some stuff. But not a lot of stuff.
Want to know what’s helped me sell a lot of stuff NOW, though – while making copy MUCH easier to write?
Understanding that people actually WANT to spend money and buy stuff to solve their problems.
This is obvious to me now.
But for a long time, it was just so unintuitive.
Like a lot of people, I grew up in a house where my parents were constantly worried about the tiniest little expenses. Everyone was a scammer if they charged any money for their products or services. Everything was too expensive. Blah, blah, blah.
And that mindset, obviously, got passed on to me.
The truth is, most people are this way. Go on Reddit and read ANY thread about ANYTHING that requires spending money.
You’ll see a lot of:
- "You can just do it yourself, don’t pay someone else to do it for you, that’s a scam!"
- "All this information is available for FREE online if you just search around, anyone charging for it is a scammer!"
-
"That is WAY too much money for that product, here’s a cheap knock-off that doesn’t work as well but does the same general thing!"
But when it comes to selling stuff, you don’t need EVERYONE to buy from you.
In fact, normal conversion rates for the most successful products (particularly info products & digital courses) is about 0.5%-2%.
Reframe that a bit and it means most businesses have a 98%-99.5% rejection rate.
But that 0.5%-2% is all you need for massive success.
It’s the exact same conversion rate the ultra-successful "ballers" have.
Those 0.5%-2% of leads are the people in your market who WANT to spend money. Who don’t think everyone’s a scammer. Who value their TIME more than anything else, so they just want someone to hand them a solution so they can be done with their problems (instead of spending months or years seeking and failing with "free" ways to solve it).
And when you write your copy specifically to those people…
The ones who actually WANT to spend money on a solution to their problems…
And the only people that were going to buy anyway…
Suddenly writing copy becomes a lot easier.
And you’ll see a LOT more conversions too.
It’s like if you ran a burger stand and were talking to someone who’s already starving and wants to buy a burger – and they just want to know if you use organic grass-fed patties.
You don’t need to spend an hour using all kinds of persuasion tactics to convince them to buy your burger.
If you did, you’d scare them off. They’d think you’re a weirdo – and they wouldn’t fully trust you because why are you going into this ultra detailed pitch?
You simply need to tell them yes, you do use organic grass-fed patties (assuming you do).
Maybe even speak 1-2 sentences about how your grass-fed patties are actually the highest quality with the most omega 3s – to really drill home how much you value your patties being organic and grass fed.
And boom, that’s it, you’ve got the sale.
Tl;dr: 98%-99.5% of people will NEVER buy from you.
And there’s nothing you can do to fix that.
No amount of persuasion will make a difference.
It’s just how all sales work.
But the 0.5%-2% who DO buy… and who actually WANT to spend money… can make you wealthy.
So optimize everything you write specifically to speak to them – and write from the assumption that they already WANT to buy from you, and you just need to make sure they know you’re delivering EXACTLY the product they’re looking for.
This has completely transformed the way I write copy – and how much my sales pages sell.
But there’s one other mindset shift that changed how I write my copy (and how well it converts) that goes hand-in-hand with this one.
We’ll talk about that tomorrow.
— Derek