Yesterday’s email about “present pain” selling better than future hope had a lot of responses…
So I’m gonna do part two today with more examples.
Let’s look at a situation I’m very familiar with…
Being a skinny guy with no muscles.
For most of my life I was super skinny.
When I was a sophomore in college, I was around 6’0 tall and 130 lbs.
Which meant I was a twig.
Even as recently as a few years ago, I was about 150-155 lbs at most.
Being skinny is not fun if you’re a dude.
You don’t want to be the guy who looks like a teenager.
You want to be strong.
You want to have muscles.
So if I was writing copy to myself…
I would 100% focus on how being skinny made me feel.
So things like…
– feeling smaller than other guys
– feeling like I couldn’t protect myself if shit went down
– feeling inferior if a big, strong dude started talking to my girlfriend (this would be a great story to use)
– feeling angry and bitter at guys who were genetically blessed with big muscles
– feeling angry at supplement companies who ripped me off and sold me a “pipe dream”
These are the pain points I’d hit on…
And as you can see they’re all about the “present pain”.
It’s not about the hopes of one day having 20 more lbs of muscle…
Or painting a rosey picture of an attractive girl fawning over my biceps…
That’s all “future hope”.
And while you SHOULD hit on future hope in your copy…
80% of your focus should be on the “present pain”.
Cause that’s what this skinny guy feels everyday.
And that’s what he’s gonna relate to.
People care about what’s affecting them NOW…
The stuff that pisses them off today…
The stuff that worries them all night…
That’s “present pain”.
And that’s what your copy should be about.
Like I said yesterday…
People want to get OUT of their current situation more than they want to get to the promise land.
So keep your copy focused on their current situation.
It’ll connect better…
And you’ll make a whole lot more moolah because of it.
That’s all I got for today.
Enjoy your Wednesday.
– Justin
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