Let’s say you’re in a super crowded space.
There are hundreds of people. Tons of chatter and ambient noise. Everyone rushing around in their own little world.
And you’re given a challenge: grab the attention of one specific person in that crowd.
They don’t know you. You don’t know them.
You’re just allowed one piece of information about them to help you do it.
How would you do it?
What item of information would you choose?
For me the answer is simple:
- I’d pick up a big, huge, loud megaphone.
- And then I’d say their name into that megaphone.
That’s it.
Our brains are wired to immediately pick up and hone in on anything that uniquely identifies us. We could be in the deepest trance, tuning out the world, yet if we hear someone yelling out our name… we’ll snap out of it and immediately turn our attention their way.
(If I wanted to be cheesy with it, I’d point out the quote in How To Win Friends And Influence People: "Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language." Cheesy, but also true.)
Now why do I point this out?
Because you could have the perfect product.
And you could know your target audience like the back of your hand. Their fears, their desires, everything.
You could even have some killer copy written that sells the crap out of that product to your audience.
But none of that matters if you can’t get their attention.
They’ll just walk on by and ignore you.
So how do you fix that?
That’s the job of the first element of The 7 Figure Sales Writing Framework: The Lead.
(That’s pronounced "leed", like "she’s in the lead in the race.")
The job of The Lead is to simply grab your target audience’s attention so they say, "Huh! This is written for me and might be exactly what I need" – and go on to read the rest of your sales message.
You obviously can’t use their name so instead we use the next best things:
- How they identify themselves
- What they’re struggling with
- And exactly the outcome they dream about
(When I say "how they identify themselves", I mean any kind of label they use. For example, in the case of our [fake] product The 5 Day Workday, our ideal audience identifies as solo entrepreneurs.)
These three are almost as effective as saying their names – while also letting them know you may have something they really want to see.
When you’re writing a sales letter, you pull this off with your preheadline, headline, subheadline, "pattern interrupt" image, and first paragraph of body copy.
The two elements in bold above (headline & first paragraph of body copy) are the only required elements. The others are optional but recommended.
In the preheadline, we’ll simply identify our ideal customer: "Solo Entrepreneurs"
Then in the headline, we’ll state exactly the dream outcome they wish they had: "Learn how to get 5 days of work done in just 8 hours"
Then in the subheadline we’ll touch on their struggles – while making it clear we have a solution: "Either 5x-10x your normal output — or take more guilt-free time off. Your choice. My 5 Day Workday system will show you how."
In our case, a good image that will break your reader out of their daily trance doesn’t come to mind immediately – so I’d either feature testimonials here, or simply show a hero image of the course inside a laptop (which helps the reader immediately understand this is a real course outlining a real system).
And then my opening paragraph of body copy would identify them again, state their biggest problem (particularly what they’re emotionally feeling because of it – all the stuff we covered in yesterday’s email), and tease that I have a solution: "If you’re a solo entrepreneur who feels guilt, shame, and frustration because of how little you’re getting done every day — I want to show you how to fix it. Even better, I want to show you how to 5x-10x your output overnight — guaranteed."
Simple enough, right?
If you’ve done your research right, your target audience will see this and immediately be drawn in — as if you were yelling out their name in a crowded space.
So now that we’ve got their attention, it’s time to gain their trust – and show them we really do have a solution to their problems.
That’s the job of the next element of The 7 Figure Sales Writing Framework: The Sales Argument.
We’ll cover that tomorrow.
– Derek