In Columbus, Ohio, judges have relocated eviction hearings from the courthouse to the city’s convention center. The justice system needs space — more people than usual are about to be thrown out onto the street.
And no wonder.
Corona-era eviction bans are expiring in many places, and federal aid ended last month. As a result, more than 30% of American households expect to miss their rent payments in August.
Come September, 20 million renters will be at risk of evictions. And even if they aren’t evicted, this will cause mass problems further up the food chain.
Small landlords, who are counting on that rent money, will be at risk of defaulting on their mortgages.
When that happens, expect the Grim Banker to swoop in with his scythe, and to heartlessly start cutting down both landlords and renters.
I’m not telling you this to paint an ever-bleaker picture of the current crisis.
Instead, I do it to illustrate a copywriting technique I talked about last week.
That technique is having an occasion to your copy.
Over the past few days, I’ve talked to two business owners. Both guys have popular websites offering info on real estate investing. And both recently launched new entry-level products. Neither product did great.
One reason I can imagine for the many shrugs that met these offers is that neither product had any occasion. In other words, the marketing for the products didn’t answer the question, “Why am I seeing this offer now?”
The thing is, if you’re in the real estate space, there is an incredibly powerful story you can tell right now to answer that question.
That story has high stakes (millions of homeowners betrayed by the system, trillions of dollars up in the air)…
… it’s got villains everybody can rail against (the Grim Banker above, and his minion, the incompetent government bureaucrat)…
… and it’s got an unlikely hero — your prospect — who gets the call, and who rises to the challenge of making himself mounds of money while helping his fellow citizen.
Of course, maybe you are not in the real estate space. In that case, the current moment might not offer such a clear-cut occasion to hitch your sales copy to. But if you look a bit, there’s almost certain to be a reason somewhere in the current mess, and probably a good reason, to give occasion to your specific offer.
I’ll certainly be on the lookout for such occasions, whether for real estate or for other businesses my clients are in. If you want to get updates as I write more about these topics, you can sign up for my daily email newsletter here.