In a moment of idleness today I clicked on an email from Stansberry Research. It took me to a VSL with a big headline that reads:
“WILL YOU BE LEFT BEHIND?”
Behind the video, there is a shadowy photo of what looks like people being corralled into a concentration camp. And then Porter Stansberry starts to speak in a monotone voice:
“In regular places all across America, the lights are going out. And no, I don’t mean streetlights.”
I didn’t watch past the first few minutes. I am not in the Stansberry target audience, and it didn’t much move me. But something similar did move me a while back.
A while back, copywriter Dan Ferrari sent out an email with the subject line “If you want to be a poor, no-name copywriter, don’t read this.” It was about the consolidation Dan saw in the direct response industry. Here’s a part of that email:
“If you’re a copywriter that can produce actual results in that cold traffic, consolidated arena, you’ll have it made. If not, you’re going to be one of the writers fighting for the scraps.”
Really, this is very similar to the Stansberry promotion. It’s a prediction about the future, with the overarching message:
“Some will get left behind, while others will thrive — and it’s your choice which group you end up in.”
I don’t bring this up to talk about the future — of copywriters or of pensioners. Instead, I bring it up to talk about inspiration.
I used to think I cannot write inspirational copy.
After all, I’m such a cold, unenthusiastic fish. How can I possibly motivate others when I can’t even motivate myself?
But then I realized inspirational copy has its own predictable templates. Some are familiar — Frodo goes to Mordor and keeps pushing when the ring gets real heavy.
But there are other inspirational templates as well.
The way to find them is simply to watch your own cold heart. If it starts to twitch with a bit of life, you might have just read something inspirational. So take note of it, and see how you were influenced.
That’s how I singled out that Dan Ferrari email, which reincarnated into the Stansberry promo. And which, if you’re a student of copywriting who’s always looking to improve, you can find here:
https://orders.stansberryresearch.com/?cid=MKT421756&eid=MKT460923