My “unpleasantly manipulated” reader guesses the essence good copy

True story about daily emailing:

This past spring, I wrote an email about my grandmother and a neighbor she once had. My grandma couldn’t remember the neighbor’s name any more, but only the fact he liked fried chicken.

I made the point in that email that if you want to be remembered, you have to take things into your own hands — otherwise you run the risk of becoming the fried chicken guy.

My email was selling my Most Valuable Postcard #2.

Our story continues with a reply I got to that email. The reply came from an uncommitted new reader, who wrote:

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I am feeling unpleasantly manipulated by your writing.
Is this the key to good copy?

New subscriber, not yet committed.

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“Could be,” I wrote back to my uncommitted new subscriber. “Which part did you find manipulative here?”

He wrote back to explain:

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No one wants an epitaph of being “the guy who likes fried chicken”.
That sets up a negative emotion in the reader.

Followed by the pressure to purchase MVP #2, by tomorrow night at 50% discount.

Two emotions jammed together –
Felt manipulative.

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My eyebrows shot up when I read his reply. I can understand if my uncommitted reader didn’t enjoy reading my fried chicken email.

​​But with those two points he singled out he literally got to the essence of effective copywriting, at least the way I describe it in MVP #2.

Only thing is, in MVP #2, I managed to unify his two part observation into a single guiding principle, a single word, a single approach that is really the most important — the most valuable thing — in all copywriting and direct marketing.

I also spelled out specific techniques to apply this guiding principle, both in your marketing campaigns, in your copy, and even in your customer service.

Maybe that’s got you a bit curious.

Maybe this will get you to take action:

I will retire MVP #2 this Saturday at 8:31pm CET.

The reason why, in case you’re curious:

As the name of it suggests, MVP #2 is really just the remains of my short-lived subscription offer, the Most Valuable Postcard, which I ran last summer.

​​MVP #2 should be a standalone course, with clearer positioning, with its own sexy name, with a bit more bulk, and with an extra zero or two in the price.

So I will be retiring it. Maybe I will bring the content back in the future, changed slightly and priced much higher.

​​But if you would like to get it before it disappears, at the current very affordable price, you can buy it today, of your own choosing, at the link below:

https://bejakovic.com/mvp2/