RealDose Nutrition

Dan Kennedy corrects a mistake I’ve made in my copywriting career

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Let me tell you a copywriting client experience that still stings:

About two years into my freelancing career, I got the opportunity to write some emails for RealDose Nutrition.

​​RealDose is an 8-figure supplement company, started by a couple of direct marketers and an MD. They sell actually legit supplement products — their USP is right there in the name.

Long story short – I did a good job with those emails. I even tripled results in one of their main email funnels.

Impressed with those results, the CEO of RealDose asked me to write a sales letter next, for their probiotics product.

The only problem was, at this stage of my career, I had never written a full-blown sales letter.

​​What to do?

​​I took Gary Bencivenga’s olive oil sales letter and analyzed the structure. I wrote something that looked nothing like Gary’s letter, but was the exact same thing under the hood.

I gave it to the guys at RealDose. They shrugged their shoulders. They copy seemed okay… but I guess they weren’t sold. Because as far as I know, the sales letter was never tested.

Some time later, I got that sales letter critiqued by A-list copywriter Parris Lampropoulos. Parris said the body copy was fine. But the hook? The headline and the lead?

Parris used my headline and lead to publicly illustrate what an uninteresting promise looks like. “Are you the first person on the plant to ever sell a probiotic?” Parris asked me. He laughed and shook his head.

I never got another chance to write anything else for RealDose. I always wonder how my career might have gone had I done a better job with that big shot that I got.

I bring this up because today, I made a list of 10 mistakes I’ve made in copywriting career.

That RealDose sales letter, with the uninteresting promise in the headline, was no. 1.

No 4. was that this newsletter, the one you are reading now, is actually the third iteration of my daily email newsletter.

​​I deleted the previous two versions.

Version one was very much like this, and ran for a few months in 2016.

​​​​Some time later, I deleted it because I started writing about crypto marketing.

​​Then in 2018, I deleted that crypto daily email newsletter… and started writing this current iteration, starting over where I had left off two years earlier, and wasting a bunch of time, effort, and opportunity in the process.

So those are mistakes no. 1 and no. 4.

And then there’s mistake no. 7.

Mistake no. 7 is that i didn’t treat my freelancing career as a business for way too long. And when I say that, I might not mean what you think I mean.

For example, I always paid a lot of attention to the prices I was charging clients. And I worked hard on getting those prices higher.

I was also always on the hunt for new leads and new ways of getting leads.

And yet, at the same time, I didn’t ask myself, until way too late, “How can I promote this? How can I make a spectacle out of this? How can I get this offer that I have — meaning myself and my copywriting services — in front of a much bigger audience?”

Maybe what I mean is best summarized by Dan Kennedy, the very smart and successful marketer I’ve mentioned a few times in the past few days. Dan once said:

“Your growth will have less to do with your talent, your skill, your expertise or your deliverables than it will your ability and willingness to create and exploit your own status.”

Dan claims this applies regardless of what business you are in, whether you are selling services or products. In fact, Dan gave the above advice to a guy with a software company.

Which brings me to my offer to you for today.

How would you like a free consulting day with Dan Kennedy?

A daylong consult with Dan normally costs $18k. But you can get it for free.

Well, fine, not the whole thing.

But you can get three highlights of the consulting day that Dan gave to marketer Mike Cappuzzi.

The fact is, I told you one of the highlights of that consult day above. But in case you think a little bit of Dan’s $18k/day wisdom could benefit your business, here’s where you can read Dan’s other two consulting day highlights:

https://mikecapuzzi.com/an-insiders-glimpse-into-a-consulting-day-with-dan-kennedy/

Free business idea: 9 Chambers of Pain

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Here’s a free business idea for you to run with, if you so choose:

Just a little over a week ago, a new study was published by scientists at the University of Pittsburgh.

They studied over 21,000 patients who came for treatment at pain management clinics around Pittsburgh.

The scientists measured these poor people… probed them… interrogated them… and then fed all this data into a large tube-based computer.

And then they waited.

36 days later, the computer printed out a result:

There are exactly 9 types of chronic pain.

Such as group F (lower back pain radiating below the knee)… and group D (upper and lower back pain).

Each group varied in the location of pain… the severity of pain… as well as in the severity of other problems that went with the pain, like depression and anxiety.

So here’s my business idea for you:

You create a quiz. “Which unique type explains your chronic pain?”

People go through the quiz. You categorize them into one of 9 groups, based on their physical and emotional symptoms. For extra points, you can give it a Wu Tang flavor, and call it the 9 Chambers of Pain.

And then what?

Then you sell them something that helps them. It can be your own offer or an affiliate offer. For example:

Any kind of anti-inflammation supplement…

Or a course on meditation techniques…

Or a visit to a chiropractic clinic or some kind of other physical restructuring.

And here’s the incredible thing:

You can sell the same thing to all 9 groups. Of course, you say something like,

“Based on your unique scientifically-proven pain type… we recommend a free + shipping bottle of our doctor-formulated turmeric dust.”

As I’ve written before, this quiz => same offer funnel works like magic.

Because people like to feel unique… because they want a new understanding of their chronic problem… and because they aren’t very skeptical or critical when they get this new understanding.

Which is why RealDose Nutrition, the first big-name direct response company I ever worked with, built an 8-figure business in record time on the back of exactly the model I’ve just described to you.

And now, if you like, you can start doing the same. You already have the entire marketing concept. All you need is to decide which helpful product you want to sell… and to be quick, so other people don’t swipe this idea from right in front of your nose.

To end:

If you’d like more Wu Tang-flavored business idea, you best protect ya neck and sign up to my email newsletter here.

5 lessons from the most successful email I’ve written to date

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About a year ago, I got hired to write a set of emails for the 8-figure supplement company RealDose Nutrition.

​​The goal was to promote a “reds” product — basically the good stuff in fruit minus the sugar — to people who had bought RealDose’s flagship weight-loss supplement.

RealDose already had an email sequence that was going out to these customers.

So I wrote 5 new emails that we just stuck in the middle of this existing sequence.

The result of adding in these new emails was a 3x increase in sales for this email funnel.

The thing is, one of the emails did way better than the other four. You can find it below, along with my guesses about why it did so well:

SUBJECT: The evil twins blocking your path to good health

Here’s an interesting bit of recent research:

Inflammation (caused by obesity) reduces the number of taste buds on the tongue.

When you think about it, this is really perverse.

It means food will taste more bland…

Driving up appetite and reducing the feeling of satiety…

Contributing to more obesity, more inflammation, and fewer taste receptors on the tongue, repeating the cycle one level down.

This downward health spiral illustrates an important point:

Extra weight and inflammation are very tightly linked. In fact, they are mutually reinforcing, in dozens of separate ways. The list of problems this vicious cycle creates goes on and on: hormonal changes, cardiovascular effects, problems with the immune system, additional weight gain.

So what can you do to deal with the evil twins of inflammation and weight gain?

Well, you’ve already taken the first step by getting Weight Loss Formula No. 1, which will help you lose fat.

What about the other problem child, inflammation?

RealReds to the rescue, thanks to its 8 polyphenol-packed ingredients and a healthy dose of digestive fiber.

Not only will RealReds help with its high polyphenol content (which reduces your inflammatory response), but it contains practically no sugar, unlike whole fruits. This makes RealReds the perfect complement to Weight Loss Formula No. 1 in helping you along on the path to good health.

Oh, one more important thing.

RealReds taste great, even though it’s almost entirely free of sugar. You can just mix RealReds with water, or add it to smoothies, or even make popsicles.

After all, if inflammation is going to play tricks with your taste buds, you have to fight back somehow.

When you’re ready to give RealReds a try, here’s where to start:

[link to product]

So that’s the email. Now, why did it work well?

​​Who knows. But here are my 5 best guesses:

#1. Curiosity + benefit headline

I’ve written about this before: curiosity + benefit seems to be one of the most powerful ways to open up a sales message. Curiosity alone can be too vague (“These evil twins are out to get you”). Benefit alone can be tiring (“How to beat the inflammation that’s keeping you fat”). But together, curiosity + benefit are magic.

#2. Research

People who buy health products love to hear the word “research” and love to be told about new scientific findings that relate to them. The key is to present the research in a friendly and understandable way, like I did above.

#3. Tied into where the prospect is

One of the cardinal rules of sales copywriting is to meet the customer where they are. These prospects had just bought RealDose’s weight loss product, and since this tied perfectly into the angle for this email, I called it out.

#4. “Reason why” sales argument

Reason why copy — what other kind is there? The headline + research sucks readers into accepting that inflammation is keeping them fat… and then presents the product as a way to eliminate inflammation.

#5. Close ties into the hook

I was proud of being able to tie in the close of this email (“RealReds taste great”) to the hook (“Obesity makes you lose your sense of taste”). Honestly, maybe this is just vanity, and I’m not sure it helps sales. Still, it can’t hurt to close a sales message on a high instead of simply trailing off into the call to action.

And there you have it — my most successful email to date.

The thing is, I’ve had lots of other successful emails — as well as some bombs. And I’ve learned lessons from all of them.

And when you want to read more of those lessons, here’s where to start:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

The obvious secret to creating blockbuster products

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I talked to a potential client a couple of days ago.

He’s selling a prostate supplement. It’s going well. And he now wants to create other products he could sell to the same audience.

So he wanted to know whether I could give him advice about which products to develop based on what I’ve seen working. I told him the truth:

I don’t know that I can predict which marketplace will sell the best. But I do know of a formula for almost guaranteeing that a product you create will be a blockbuster.

It’s a secret I learned from master copywriter Gary Bencivenga. In Gary’s own words, great products are “those with a clear-cut, built-in, unique superiority supported by powerful proof elements.”

Now, this might sound obvious. Or maybe too abstract. So let me give you a few real-world examples of what “powerful proof elements” really mean in practice:

# 1. RealDose Nutrition is an 8-figure weight-loss supplement company that I’ve written for. Their main product is called Weight Loss Formula No. 1. It’s a combination of four ingredients, each of which has been shown in clinical studies to improve a different hormone related to weight loss.

​​RealDose sources their ingredients in the same way as in the clinical study and they use the same dosage (hence RealDose). At core, their marketing simply consists of saying, “Our product works, and here’s the science to prove it.”

# 2. Another supplement company I’ve written for is Vitality Now. The face of that company is Dr. Sam Walters, who at one point formulated nutrition bars for NASA.

​​Unfortunately, Vitality Now isn’t in the business of selling nutrition bars. If they were, they could make a killing simply by saying, “The same nutrition bars used by NASA!”

# 3. I’m currently going through a magalog written by another famous copywriter, Parris Lampropoulos. This magalog is for a boner pill called Androx. One of the ingredients in Androx is cordyceps — a mushroom from Tibet that was used at the emperor’s court in China for its libido properties.

​​Thanks to this, Parris can open up the sales message by talking about how the Emperor had to have sex with nine different women every night, and how this was the supplement that made it possible.

With products like these, which have such powerful proof elements built in, the marketing writes itself. Or as Gary Bencivenga put it:

“It’s your mission to come up with a product so inherently superior that, as soon as it’s effectively explained, demonstrated, or sampled, your prospects have no conclusion to draw except “I want it!”

I hope that’s the kind of product you’ve got (or are looking to make). And if that’s the case, and you just want good ways to explain and demonstrate to your buyers WHY your product really is superior, then you might like my upcoming book:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

“America’s best copywriter” offers a 2-part formula for sucking readers in

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I’m re-reading Maxwell Maltz’s self-help classic Psycho-Cybernetics, which opens with the following sentence:

“During the past decade a revolution has been quietly going on in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and medicine.”

Now if you ask me, this is a great opening line.

In case you’re interested, I’ll tell you why — and how you can use this to suck your own readers into your copy.

To get started, let’s look at a couple of alternative opening sentences old Max coulda used. For starters, here’s one:

“During the past decade a revolution has been quietly going on.”

This opening line isn’t bad.

It sounds mysterious. And sometimes, that’s enough to suck readers in.

But it might not be enough, because this opening line is also very vague.

Anybody who reads this might rightly say, “So what? There are too many revolutions out there to worry about right now.”

That’s why this opening line gets a B-.

Now let’s look at a second possible opening line:

“During the past decade researchers in psychology, psychiatry, and medicine have come to an important conclusion.”

Boy that’s a dull duck.

While the content is pretty much same as in Maxwell Maltz’s original, there’s no intrigue.

There’s no excitement.

There’s just the cold feeling that reading on will be work and not fun.

That’s why this second opening line gets a C-.

Maybe you see where I’m going with this.

Because the B- and C- aren’t grades in the traditional sense. I’ll let Gary Bencivenga, who has been called “America’s best copywriter” and “The Michelangelo of direct mail copywriting,” explain it in his own words:

“In pondering this, I realized a great truth about headlines: your level of interest is directly proportional to the presence of two factors: benefit and curiosity. Either one without the other is a devastating weakening. I = B + C. Interest equals Benefit plus Curiosity.“

And there you have it.

The first alternate opening line was missing a benefit (B-).

The second was missing curiosity (C-).

The original Maxwell Maltz opening line wasn’t missing anything. It had both benefit (don’t tell me you have zero health or mental issues) and curiosity (a quiet revolution?). That’s what made it so good.

The good news is, you now know a formula that let’s you do the same: I = B + C. This works whether you’re writing a headline, a subject line, or some other crucial piece of copy, like an opening sentence.

Or a call to action. Speaking of which:

I’m putting together a book on email marketing for the health space where I will share what I’ve learned writing for some big clients. And I’ll also share examples of some of the most successful emails I’ve written — including a 5-part email sequence that tripled sales in a funnel for RealDose Nutrition, an 8-figure supplement company.

If you want to get your paws on this book when it comes out (and get it for free), here’s where to sign up:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

I survived a copy critique from Parris Lampropoulos

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A few weeks ago, I got a shot at a copy critique from one of the most successful copywriters active today, the great and reclusive Parris Lampropoulos.

Now, Parris can apparently be brutal in his copy critiques.

Plus, the critiques he was offering would be done in front of an audience of several hundred people.

And it would all be recorded.

So I was a little nervous about submitting anything.

At the same time, it was a fantastic opportunity. After all, Parris has written dozens of million-dollar marketing campaigns, and here was an opportunity to get personalized feedback from the guy.

So I gritted my teeth, picked out a sales letter I had written last year, and submitted it.

This sales letter was for RightBiotics, a probiotic supplement sold by RealDose Nutrition.

Anyways, when the the big day came, Parris critiqued several other people’s copy before he got to mine.

And all throughout, he was encouraging and fair — even though he told a few people to burn what they had and start over.

Finally, it was my turn.

“The body copy is good,” Parris said. But there was a serious problem, which Parris pointed out with a question:

“John, are you the first person ever on the face of the planet to sell a probiotic supplement?”

(I am not.)

“So why would you come out and tip off you’re selling something?”

And it’s true. In my headline, I announced a “clinically proven new probiotic that does XYZ.” Regardless of how this letter was formatted — even if it looked like an article — the reader would know immediately I was selling something.

Doing this might be acceptable when you’re selling something incredibly unique…

Or when you’ve already got a good relationship with the reader.

But for cold traffic, Parris said, this simply wasn’t good enough.

And with that, the critique was over.

I was still alive.

And I even had a clear plan of action. That’s because Parris gave me a simple — though not necessarily easy — way to fix this sales letter.

I’ll talk more about this over the coming days, as I implement Parris’s critique.

For now, remember Parris’s advice about tipping off the reader. It applies if you’re ever running ads and trying to sell something to people who don’t know you.

On the other hand, if you’re not trying to make sales to cold traffic, you might consider sending them daily emails to build a relationship first.

And if you want some advice on how to do this well, you might like my upcoming book. It talks about several successful email campaigns I’ve written — including one for RealDose Nutrition, which tripled sales for a specific funnel.

What’s more, you can get a free copy of this book when I finish it (in the next month or two). To sign up, here’s where to go:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

“Show and sell” day at Copywriting High

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I listened to another episode of David Garfinkel’s Copywriters Podcast today.

This episode was about the old writing maxim “Show, don’t tell.”

I wasn’t 100% clear what David’s position was on this idea.

But it did get me thinking of the sales letter I am currently writing, for my own book on essential oils.

The version 1.0 lead for this sales letter was a placeholder, and a lame placeholder at that:

Essential oils — Mother Nature’s miracle cure…

Or an expensive gimmick peddled by multi-level-marketing companies?

Well, a little bit of both.

Here’s the truth: essential oils can really be a wonderful help for issues like… [yadda yadda yadda]

After I listened to David’s podcast, I went back and rewrote this in a “Show, don’t tell” way:

Back in May 2017, a woman in Florida thought she was preparing a nice bath for herself.

Like many times before, she added some essential oils to Epsom salts, and let this sit for 30 minutes before adding it to her bathwater.

She then got in.

This time, however, the bath wasn’t the usual relaxing nighttime routine.

Instead, she got painful burns on her back.

“Normal brand essential oils,” she later wrote, “and coconut oil took the red burns away, but did I do something wrong?”

[it then goes on to explain what she should have done]

More effective?

I think it is.

This “show, don’t tell” approach is something I actually do all the time when writing sales emails.

For example, when I look at the 10 emails I wrote for RealDose Nutrition’s new front-end email sequence, exactly half kick off with a story that “shows” either the problem or the benefit.

Does it work?

Well, the new sequence is outperforming the old one by 30%.

So you can say it’s “Show and sell.”

Anyways, if you want to know more about the little tricks I built into that email sequence, and others I wrote for RealDose, check out my upcoming book. It’s free if you sign up for it now, $17 when it goes on sale:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/

Thanksgiving frustrates Bejako’s turkey

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I’m preparing to launch my new book on essential oils, and while I’m pretty much ready to pop this turkey in the oven, there’s a snag:

This Thursday is Thanksgiving.

The day after is “Black Friday.”

And the Monday after is “Cyber Monday.”

Which means every retailer, online and offline, will be bombarding their email lists with offers and special discounts.

Not a good time to try to vie for attention, especially since I plan to do so starting on a Thursday and ending on a Monday.

I’ll have to wait a week.

No problem though, because it will give me time to write all my promotional emails ahead of time.

And there will be a lot of them.

I’m largely following the product-launch strategy that Ben Settle outlined in his September 2017 issue of Email Players.

And it’s something I’ve applied once before, with a lot of success, for a big client, RealDose Nutrition.

This is an 8-figure company in the supplement space.

I rewrote their front-end autoresponder along the same lines I will be using for my own product launch.

The outcome was a 30% increase in sales — and that’s for a company built on direct response, and one that already relied heavily on email marketing.

If you want to get the full details of what I did for RealDose, you’re in luck.

Because this will be an ongoing case study in my upcoming book on email marketing for the health space.

The book is not out yet, but if you want a free copy when it does come out (it will sell for $17 after that), you can sign up here:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/