Today I found myself in a hypnotic trance, reading through an article titled,
“Charlie Munger: 20 Book Recommendations That Will Make You Smarter.”
When I got to the end of the article, I slowly started to wake up.
“What the hell am I doing?” I asked myself. “How many thousands of books do I already have on my to-read list? Why did I need to click on this article and why did I make it all the way to the end?”
It might be obvious:
It’s because it’s Charlie Munger’s recommended books. And Charlie Munger is a successful and smart guy… so his recommendations might make me smarter and more successful too. At least that’s how my brain rationalized it.
In my mind, this goes back to the advice of Gary Bencivenga, the man many have called the “best copywriter in the world.”
Gary’s entire copywriting philosophy was built around proof. And Gary believed that, while proof in your copy is great, proof embedded in your offer is even greater.
When I think a bit, I see that’s what got me to click and consume the “offer” of that article today. Because that article could just as well have been,
“Charlie Munger: 20 Negotiation Tips That Will Make You Richer.”
Or, “Charlie Munger: 20 Mental Models That Will Make You Stronger.”
Or, “Charlie Munger: 20 Indian Dishes That Will Make You Fuller.”
With any of those offer variations, but with Charlie Munger again at the core, I probably would have still wound up in a trance.
And vice versa.
Imagine that same article had been titled, “20 Really Fantastic and Valuable Book Recommendations.”
And if you go to read the article… there’s a case study right up top of Charlie Munger… and how he made a bunch of money by applying an idea from the first book on the list.
Yes, that case study would be proof. And yes, it would be valuable. But it would be nowhere as valuable as basing the entire offer around Charlie.
But perhaps I’m not making this “proof offer” idea clear. So consider something Gary Bencivenga himself did.
At some point in the 70s, Gary started working for a direct response marketing agency. Gary wrote an ad for the agency itself to hunt for new clients. He ran the ad in the Wall Street Journal — and got his agency swamped with new work.
How did he do it?
Well, there was a ton of proof throughout the entire ad. How the agency works… how they reward copywriters… case studies of past clients.
But all that was nothing compared to the actual proof-centered offer. The entire ad was built around that offer. In fact, it featured right in the headline:
“Announcing a direct response advertising agency that will guarantee to outpull your best ad.”
So there you go. Build your offer around an embedded proof element, and watch your prospects get into a buying trance. But…
Perhaps I’m still not making this “proof offer” idea clear enough.
In that case, you might like to read more about it.
And you can do so in Commandment I of my little book, The 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters. Yes, I took Gary’s advice when titling that book. For more info: