The 5 Puzzle Pieces

This show is especially for service business owners and copywriters who write for service business owners. I have reason to believe that this includes 68% of our audience. If that’s not you, stick around, because I think you’ll find a few tips that you can use for other types of copywriting and marketing.
It all started a few weeks ago when I did critiques on lead-generation sales letters for two business owners. They were on opposite sides of the country and in very different businesses. But in both cases, they had remarkably similar problems with their copy.
What’s more, I ended up using the same method, more or less, to help them turn what they sent me into powerful, response-getting sales letters.
Then I was reading an interview with the great songwriter Suzanne Vega. She’s best known for the hit song “Luka” many years ago. She said something about the puzzle pieces falling into place. Then I went back to the interview and I couldn’t find it, but she did say a lot of things close to that.
Anyway, that’s how it is with copy. At a certain point you’ve done enough work so the pieces fall into place. Today I want to share what the five most important pieces are for service business owners, and how they fit together.
In a way, there’s a sixth piece of the puzzle, too. It’s this:
OK. So here’s what we’re going to do. Of course I can’t reveal any details about either of the clients, but I don’t need to for this show. What we’ll do is, I’ll share what each piece is and give you some questions you can ask to make sure you’ve got this piece as good as possible.
The first piece is the hook/headline/opening. This is where most people get it very, very wrong. A couple of reasons: First, it’s not catchy. Second, and this one’s easier to spot but sometimes harder to fix: It asks the prospect to meet the business owner where they are, mentally, rather than reaching and stretching to meet the prospect where they are.
I’ll give you a simple example. Let’s say you do Facebook campaigns. A typical marketer might start out with, “Are you getting the best roi possible with your Facebook ads?”
Reasonable enough question, but that’s the problem: It’s too reasonable. The prospect is thinking, “Help! My Facebook ads aren’t working. How am I going to get new business?”
So a good hook would be built around what is emotionally troubling the prospect, that you can solve. Not around the end result of your solution, which would be better roi for Facebook ads.
Here are some questions you can use on this puzzle piece yourself:
Whose point of view does the opening of my copy speak to?
If you overheard the words in a conversation, would you want to eavesdrop on the rest of the conversation?
How well do your hook and opening open up the prospect’s awareness of an emotionally troubling problem they already know about, that you can help them solve?
The second puzzle piece is: staying on the problem and expanding it... in an empathetic, understanding way... while you point out the increasingly negative real-life implications to the prospect of the problem.
In simpler terms, this is called skillful agitation of the problem.
Like with our facebook ads marketer, you put together a sequence of events that leads to spending more and more money and getting less and less business from it.
A couple of problems I see when I critique copy:
First, the “nice guy” syndrome. People don’t want their prospects to get upset, so they don’t do this at all.
Second, the “lunge and plunge” syndrome. People who go for the throat all at once, rather than building up to it at a more digestible pace. So the prospect can digest this.
Some questions to help you hone this puzzle piece:
Are your statements and questions about emotions rather than facts?
Is it easy for the prospect to understand that you care about their situation?
Can the prospect readily relate to what you’re talking about?
The third puzzle piece is a lot easier. Yet many, many business people leave it out or are very shy about including it.
This puzzle piece is identifying yourself and your relevant credentials. “Relevant” means something your prospect would care about and see as making you qualified to do what you do, or maybe even seeing you as the best choice.
So, having a certification from your local community college for online advertising might not be a good credential for the facebook ads expert to include.
Having added profits to 11 businesses would be a very good credential. Because that’s what the prospect your facebook ads expert wants, is looking for.
Some questions to help you get this puzzle piece right:
Are you telling your prospects what they need to know to feel assured that you can do the job?
Is it easy to understand how the credentials you give make you qualified?
Are you leaving out things that will impress people without convincing them that yo...