“Every man you’ve ever known, loved, and trusted has lied to you.”
That was the sentence that Chris Haddad tacked on at the front of one of his VSLs in the relationship niche. Chris says this one sentence doubled conversions.
So what’s going on?
Well, the sentence is shocking. And shocking pattern interrupts work well at the start of a VSL to attract attention. But there’s more to it than that.
I heard a successful copywriter say that if you take a product’s features, you can ask “So what?” to get to the benefit of that feature.
And you can ask “So what?” again, to get to the benefit of that benefit.
And you can keep asking the same “So what?” question… until you get to the end. And the end is always the same:
“So I can feel better about myself.”
This same copywriter summed it up with a self-help quote. “We are all wounded children walking around in adult bodies.”
For somebody who’s in the direct response relationship market, that wound might be a broken promise or rejection or harm early on in life… which has trailed this person like a hungry shadow ever since.
In other parts of the direct response world, the wound might be something different.
But everybody — at least everybody who’s of interest to you if you write copy — has such a wound. And if you can address it right at the start of your message, like Chris did with his VSL… then the right people will listen.
Listen:
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