Flashback Friday

Hiya CopyStar!

Want to know the absolute BEST way to turn wimpy copy into a smokin’ hot control?

You gotta grab your prospect by the eyeball and not let go until you make the sale!

And you can do this by doing one simple thing…

… replace limp and lame copy with powerful trigger words!

Ever heard of ‘em?

Trigger words spark action… ignite energy… and infuse your copy with imagery and illustrations that keep your reader hanging on the edge of his seat!

Trigger words pluck emotion strings…

… get your blood boiling…

… make you green with envy…

… unleash the floodgates of tears…

… scare the beejesus out of you…

… but most importantly – trigger words get you to pick up the phone or click the button and say “I want this product NOW!”

Ooooooh… don’t you just love that?

So what are these trigger words?

They’re words that paint a visual picture… bring to mind a specific pain or joy… or move you to action! For example:

Let’s say you want to stir up some anger in your prospect. The first thing you need is a person or thing to target that anger. Yep – you need an ENEMY!

And you’re going to call that enemy all kinds of juicy names that gets your prospect seeing red! For example…

… if you’re writing for the health market – don’t attack “the pharmaceutical companies” – noooh – that’s waaaay too nice!

Call them the “Fat Cats”… “Pill Pushers”… “Big Pharma”… “Drug Czars”… and “unscrupulous big wigs shafting you out of your hard-earned money!”

Aargh… doesn’t that just get you STEAMED up?

And now you’ve just set the stage to position your product as the hero – the one and only solution your prospect needs to start feeling better today!

But here’s another powerful theme that can create killer trigger words: Betrayal!

Maybe it’s my years of reading romance novels as a teenager…

… or my sister Viv and I listening to Keith Urban’s country songs – but I really love creating “done me wrong” scenarios!

I feel it’s my duty to show the prospect how he’s been lied to… cheated… and led down the wrong path!

‘Cause I hate when that happens to me – don’t you?

So what words come to mind when you think of betrayal?

How about: “What the drug companies don’t want you to know”… “Bald-faced lies your doctor is telling you”… “caught red-handed”… “conspiracy”… “cover-up”… “What popular medical tests don’t really tell you”… “fleecing you”… “flim flam and sham artists”… “hucksters”… “pull the wool over your eyes”… and “snake oil remedies” – just to name a few!

Ok, ok here’s one more for you…

… how about: Frustration!

One of my most successful headlines tapped into the frustration of my health market. It started off with:

“If you are sick and tired of…”

Then I listed all the health problems my prospect faced:

Popping a fistful of vitamins every day and still not feeling better!

Painful muscles and sore joints!

Yo-yo diets that make you fatter than ever!

Putting out the welcome mat for every flu, bug and virus!

Blood pressure medicines that zap your energy and wipe out your sex drive!

And then I empathized with my reader – and offered a concrete health solution:

“You don’t have to put up with feeling lousy any longer. Feel better today – with an amazing 2.5 billion-year-old “new discovery” that gives you back your health – so you can really live again!”

The package ROCKED!

Here are a few more choice words that ooze frustration:

Bullying you into going under the knife… kicking yourself for caving in… drugs offer you a temporary fix – when you want a permanent solution… natural remedies are off-limits unless you know where to get them… or…

… beating yourself up trying to find a solution… doctors want you to grin and bear the pain. And how about…

… “Had enough?” – Now, that was also a killer headline for many years!

Ok – I lied.

I can’t stop here – let’s talk about a more positive emotion – the promise of feeling good!

This is where the hero (your product) can really stand out as a star! It’s the solution your prospect has been waiting for – so yell it from the top of the Eiffel Tower:

Not just better vision – but EAGLE EYES!

Not fast – but BREAKNECK SPEED… or PUSH-BUTTON HEALING!

Not depression – but BANISH THE BLUES!

Not good for your mind – but BRAIN-BOOSTING!

Not great – but PHENOMENAL… AMAZING… and WOW!

Not unique – but THE ONLY KNOWN CURE FOR… LITTLE KNOWN REMEDY…

… and not heal – but DISEASE-PROOF… FEEL DECADES YOUNGER THAN THE AGE ON YOUR DRIVER’S LICENSE… REVERSE SICKNESS… LIFE-SAVING… RENEWED ENERGY… BRINGS SICKNESS TO A SCREECHING HALT… UNCLOG YOUR ARTERIES… SURGERY CANCELED!… and as the saying goes “and much, much more!”

Now I must warn you…

… trigger words are extremely powerful – so strong they can scare the heck out of your client’s legal department! Some of these words will make some clients queasy.

But that’s OK.

Let the client red line the problematic words in your copy. You can fix it later.

Remember – it’s easier to tone down copy than rev up the energy level later!

Are you getting the picture, CopyStar!

Now – here’s your homework:

Take a look at copy you’ve recently written. Really scrutinize it. Do you see emotionally impotent words?

If so – castrate those limp words – and replace them with bigger… Harder… STRONGER… (oops sorry – got carried away. I was just thinking about a male potency project I’m working on – so you know where my mind is…)

Anyway – as I was saying…

… replace those weak words with TRIGGER words that spur your prospect to action!

And make it your goal never to write boring copy again!

That’s how you’ll experience an explosion of controls that keep your wallet stuffed no matter what’s happening in the economy!

Yours for stellar results,