About 10 years ago, a sensational story appeared on various media outlets:
Scientists funded by DARPA (the military’s research and development arm) were working on a chemical to replace sleep.
As a test, they made a nasal spray out of this chemical, and gave it to sleep-deprived monkeys to inhale.
They found that the tired and worn-out monkeys suddenly acted and performed just like normal, well-rested monkeys.
Soon, the story promised, even great apes like you and me will be able to snort our way to wakefulness and focus.
I found out about this intriguing story yesterday, while doing research for an email to my aromatherapy list. I wanted to write about orexin (the brain chemical from the monkey study above) and its connection to all-body inflammation.
The thing is, even though orexin is an interesting and important topic, it’s not a sure shot as a lead for a sales email.
That’s why I was so happy to find the sensationalist DARPA story from above, and to use it as an email lead (it got me some sales, too).
So what’s the point of this?
Well, a few days ago I listened to a fascinating interview with one of the world’s most successful copywriters.
His name is Parris Lampropoulos.
He’s the guy that’s brought in to defeat controls that have been running for years — and that seem unbeatable.
Apparently, Parris has a success rate of 80% in outperforming these world-class pieces of copy.
In the interview I mentioned, Parris revealed the underlying secret principle that allows him to be so successful. He even gave a demonstration of this secret principle as he uses it in practice. And this lesson from Parris is what guided me while I wrote the sleep-deprived-monkeys lead I mentioned above.
Honestly, I think this is one of the most valuable ideas I’ve ever heard about copywriting.
I’ll talk about the specifics of Parris’s big copywriting secret in my post tomorrow.
And I will also discuss it in more detail in my upcoming book on email copywriting for the health space.
Speaking of which, you can get a free copy of that book when it comes out.
All you have to do is sign up, before the book is released. Here’s where you can do that: