In the next 59 minutes, 100 marketers will suffer a devastating defeat of their marketing message…
… and for half of them, this defeat will come even though their message kicked off with a big promise or a really scary warning.
Today, I want to give you an example of a powerful and undercover copywriting technique. It comes from a Clayton Makepeace sales letter, which I guess ran about 20 years ago.
Clayton’s sales letter had the headline “Cholesterol’s Evil Twin.” And the sales argument went like this:
Fact 1: Only half of people who die of heart disease have high cholesterol.
Fact 2: The other half have heart disease because of inflammation.
Fact 3: Serious conditions like arthritis and diabetes set off inflammation.
Fact 4: Less serious conditions like skin rashes or gum disease also lead to inflammation, which could have dangerous consequences…
Fact 5: And even less serious, everyday conditions, like a splinter or an in-grown toenail… “could trigger an inflammatory response capable of turning plaque into a deadly heart or brain bomb!”
So there you go. An in-grown toenail can make your heart or brain explode.
Pretty wild, right? And apparently, effective, since this sales letter mailed in huge numbers. But here’s my guess:
Had Clayton said this in-grown nail thing at the start of his message, he would have just gotten a roll of the eyes in response. It would have made the rest of his message hard to swallow.
So let me take a page out of Clayton’s book. And let me make a modestly outrageous claim to finish this message:
Beware of putting your most dramatic promise or your scariest warning first. Even if you’ve got facts to back it up. Because the right claim delivered at the wrong time can trigger a defense response in your reader… capable of turning your entire sales message into a deadly marketing flop.
Speaking of deadly marketing:
I write an email newsletter. Deadly copywriting and marketing brain bombs. If you’d like to try it out, here’s where to go.