*takes a sip of coffee*
Good morning’, so yesterday I asked the community if it would be useful for me to share tools out of my mental toolbox of the game…
…These are tools I’ve accumulated over the past 20 years in the game — everything from copy openings, storylines, hooks, character arcs, bumps, closes, ads, etc…
…These are the same tools I use every day in my own offers, client consults, Fast Forward hot seats, and daily fast feedback and also in round table questions on NHB+ calls.
…And after seeing just how useful this would be to you, I’ve decided to make this part of the NHB community.
So going forward, I’m going to be dropping these as much as time allows, sometimes it’ll be one or two a day sometimes one or two a week, but in short you’ll be getting them so you too can build up your own toolbox for the game. Most of the time, I’m not going to do the everyone tag on them.
My main reason for sharing all this is that I don’t want these things forgotten. Unless I share them, most people won’t know they ever existed.
It’s my way of carrying on tradition for the next generation of great marketers so one day they can pass it on.
So with that in mind, let’s talk about the shame opening.
The opening copy has one job, and that job is to open the door in order to get in the mind and begin to change it.
In order to do that, it has to stimulate the mind to REACT.
The big difference between REACTION and ACTION, while we have the CTA (call to action) on the end of the offer, a reaction is needed at the beginning of the offer to get the emotional engine going.
So if you want to write thought-provoking openers, think of “creating reactions”, once you look at it through that lens, everything will become so much easier for you.
So way back in 2009, an offer popped up on the scene that kicked you in the nuts so hard that you couldn’t stop thinking about it, the whole industry was talking about it and everyone was mailing it.
Even now, 14 years later…I vividly remember every sentence of that offer because that’s the opening I’ll never forget.
To give credit where credit is due: The offer was “firstsaleonline.com” by Matt Bacak .
I’ll ask Matt to see if he still has the link so you can see it.
The copy used the shame opening and can be used on ads, VSLs, webinars, and even upsells.
And here’s how it opened:
“It’s a shame you can’t make money online when my 12-year-old daughter can do it so easily”.
Then it went into the rest of the copy…
This opener is so simple yet it’s such a gut punch that it just displaces your soul when you hear it because it makes you accept your deepest limitations and lack of ability to acquire your desire, and then it compares it to someone who does it so easily that is supposed to be “much less” than you, and then it slings you out into the copy full of emotion.
Here’s a variation I came up with someone in FF for an offer selling copywriters:
“It’s a shame you can’t make 10-20k a month as a copywriter when overseas copywriters who barely speak English are making 20-30k a month so easily.”
“It’s a shame there are beginners making 10-20k a month when you struggle so much to get a client” – Neefe cooked this one up for his new offer.
(Sorry copywriters hahaha)
Then it goes onto weight loss…
“It’s a shame you can’t lose 10-20 pounds when these women using this new _________ are doing it so easily”.
“It’s a shame your ecom store struggles to make 10k a month when my ugly half-assed store pulls in 40k a month without ads”.
“It’s a shame you can’t hit _____ yards when these first-timers are hitting ____ range without __________”.
“It’s a shame your doctor will never tell you about this new breakthrough that doctors in Europe are now using to treat ____________”
So the structure is this:
- It’s a shame that (something they’re desperately trying to do but can’t get the result).
- When (someone who is far lesser than them, far behind them, less experienced than them, dumber than them, etc…) does it so easily
Now in order for you to understand the nuance of the opening, I’ll discuss the modifiers below that take it from brutal to softer:
- You can range the depth of the emotional pull down by knowing the difference between motivating and demoralizing. Not to say that demoralizing doesn’t work, but you should know the difference and discern which one to use.
- So it has to be motivating, not demoralizing. Enough to just have enough emotional reactivity that swings up into the rest of the copy.
- The use of external vs. internal comparison. External comparison is motivating, and internal is demoralizing.
- External comparison casts light on capability and lack of knowledge, system, etc…
- Internal comparison casts light on the lack of capability, strength, and intelligence – it’s their needing to be better or different than they are
- The one that punches harder attaches them to the front of the opener, which causes the difference between YOU vs THEM. It has the YOU first notice:
- Now, if you want to SOFTEN it up, just make the comparison of THEM to YOU (not YOU to THEM).
- “It’s a shame there are beginners making 10-20k a month when you struggle so much to get a client” –
The goal is not so much to make them feel bad as it is to provoke their thoughts and to make them realize that if others who are 1/5th as capable as them can do it, so can they.
So here’s the “bounce out” out of that opening into the rest of the copy.
“And I know because I was ashamed of myself after trying and failing _______ times to (get outcome)…
…Looking around and seeing everyone else (some type of outcome/success) while struggling to make any progress…
And that’s when I took a long hard at everything I was doing and realized why I was failing…
…It had nothing to do with _______ or ___________ or even _______________.
It didn’t matter how much I worked, how hard I worked or what I worked on…
…All because everything I thought I knew about ______________ was wrong, and the only difference between myself and those that were better than me was that they had a (system, process, formula) that worked, and I didn’t…
…So I decided to scrap everything I knew about (topic), ignore the gurus, and start doing my own research”…
So now that you know how the shame opening works, one thing I’d love to see is if you would write your own version in the comment box for your own niche or a niche you’re working in.
The key is to have fun with it, because when you have fun with copy, that’s when the best copy comes out.
And as always, any questions, comments, appreciation or love for the algo, punch it in the comment box. Alen
P.s. Next one will be the eulogy opener.
Post Addendum #1:
The offer was called «First Sale Online». This is a key to a good mass market offer, that assumes and implies that it’s their first, so you can do your 1st coaching client, your 1st 7 figures, your 1st eCom store, etc…