Great Leads: The 6 Easiest Ways to Start Any Sales Message
“Great Leads: The 6 Easiest Ways to Start Any Sales Message” is essential reading for any copywriter.
The lead is one of the most important elements in a sales message. If it fails, it doesn’t matter how good the rest of the sales letter is because the reader will have lost interest.
The lead is the first 100–600 words of the sales letter.
The book builds on ideas of Eugene Schwartz about buyer sophistication and how well they understand the problem, solution and specific product. The more they know, the more direct you can be in the copy.
Offer
Promise
Problem-Solution
Big Secret
Proclamation
Story
As John Forde has to say about it: “I can think of a lot of people who balk at big promises. I can think of plenty more who couldn’t care less about a bulleted list of shocking statistics. But, I can’t think of a single person who can resist a good story. Can you? “Everybody loves a good story…. there is no better way to melt resistance”.
A Story Lead lets you sneak into the psyche sideways, like no other lead can, delivering anecdotal proof and promises … and a setup for the rest of your pitch … long before the reader even realizes what you’re doing.”
Story leads always contain a promise. They are less direct though. This type lead gets the reader emotionally involved in a story that they forget it is an advertisement.
They laughed when I sat down at the piano … But when I started to play!
The classic story lead from John Caples. This ad has been swiped by many other advertisers.
They grinned when the waiter spoke to me in French … But their laughter changed to amazement at my reply.
They laughed when I sent away for free color film … But now my friends are all sending away, too.
They laughed when I sat down at the computer — But when I started to use it!
Here is the structure behind Caples ad:
1. The hero, an ordinary person like your prospect, attempts to do something extraordinary.
2. People doubt him.
3. He proves them wrong.
Dear Reader, Many of the world’s wealthiest families have used this “secret currency” for generations to grow dynasties. Let me show you just one example …
Mayer Amschel Rothschild used his knowledge of this investment to launch the largest family fortune the world has ever seen.
Mayer was born in Germany in the middle of the 18th century, and was raised in Frankfurt’s ghetto, where the average house held 15 people. When the boy was 11, a smallpox epidemic swept through the ghetto. It killed both of his parents. This tragedy set up young Mayer to learn the greatest secret of his life.
f you’re trying to get your prospect to donate money to provide shelter for homeless teens, few leads are as powerful as a well-told story such as this Covenant House appeal … I’m writing to you from our shelter tonight …
Dear Friends, I’m writing to you from our shelter tonight. From the corner, I can see James, just 16, sleeping on a fresh cot we set up in the chapel. Covenant House is full. Every bed is taken. I don’t always know how we make room for all these kids, but by the grace of God, tonight we found a way again. James came to us tonight, exhausted, his eyelids barely able to stay open. He’d been trying to sleep near the restaurant dumpsters, in the bus station, on park benches. He’d rested his head on tables at 24-hour donut shops, under the fluorescent lights, desperate for a safe, quiet place to sleep. We set up the cot, put on fresh linens, and gave him a new blanket. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow. James is safe tonight because of people like you who care about kids.
