If you’ve ever eating plain yogurt, you know it can be pretty blah.
No sweetness, no spice, no flavor really. Except for a mild tang.
Sure, it’s smooth and creamy. But flavor-wise, it leaves your taste buds craving more.
Which is why when I eat it, I add agave syrup, vanilla extract and (sometimes) a few crushed almonds. These extras give my plain-Jane yogurt some gustatory pizzazz.
A few weeks ago in Part One and Part Two of The Pain, the Promise, the Pizzazz, I asked you to get clear on two things: your client’s top of mind problem and the promise of your offer… without trying to make it snazzy or snappy.
Just a plain yogurt promise.
Why?
Because trying to write copy without knowing the pain and the promise of your offer is like trying to bake a yummy cake by throwing lumpy batter onto the walls of your oven. Not only will you end up with a god-awful mess, no one will ever eat it.
So, first… get clear on your client’s top of mind problem.
Second, state the promise of your offer in clear, straightforward way… no frills, no thrills.
Then, once your promise is as simple and flavor-free as plain yogurt… add some agave, vanilla and crushed nuts.
In other words… add some pizzazz!
How?
By adding one or more of the following:
• Specifics
• Personality
• Objection Blasters
• Faster, Cheaper, Easier, Better
To explain what I mean, let’s return to the example I gave you in Part II of this series.
The Excedrin example.
The Pain of Excedrin’s clients? A headache.
The Promise of Excedrin: It gets rid of your headache.
Plain and simple.
So… let’s add some caramel sauce to this promise, shall we?
Specifics
One of the easiest and most effective ways to kick up your promise is to get specific. For instance, instead of saying, “Excedrin gets rid of your headache,” you could promise: “Excedrin gets rid of your headache in 3 minutes or less.”
Can you see how adding that specific makes the promise more attractive?
Here are a few more before-and-after examples that show how specifics (like exact amounts, time frames, and percentages) jack up the appeal and power of a promise:
Before: Subject Line Hacks that Increase Your Open Rate.
After: 5 Subject Line Hacks to Increase Your Open Rate by 25%
Before: Attract More Clients
After: 3 Sure-Fire Secrets to Attract 5 New Perfect Clients in One Week
Before: Sell Your Home Fast
After: Sell Your Home in Less than 24 Hours
Personality
If my friend Phil had written the promise for Excedrin he may have written something like… “Excedrin: your headache is outta here!”
He would give that promise his own personal flare by stating it like he means it… like he’s the man in charge.
If you want to give your promise more oomph, pour in your personality. How would you state your promise if you were just telling it like it is? Without trying to “get it right” or be all writer-like?
Sprinkle in a bit of your own sass and spirit to take your promise from plain to pow!
Here are some other examples of infusing personality into a promise:
Before: The easy way to create and orchestrate your first, high-profit launch.
After: How to make a big pile of moolah with your first big-daddy launch… without stressing-out, freaking-out or doing a bunch of marketing you hate.
Before: A fill-in-the-blank template for writing a client-attracting email.
After: A 6-step template for writing emails and social media posts that stop readers in their tracks and turn them into instant fans.
Objection Busters
Sometimes, when you make a big (or almost-unbelievable) promise, it’s wise to soothe the immediate objections that come up in your client’s mind. And you can do so as part of the promise itself.
For example, let’s continue with the Excedrin theme.
Let’s say Excedrin’s promise is: Knocks out your headache in 3 minutes flat.
Now, there might not be any immediate objections to that promise because most people have taken a pain-killer and it’s relieved their headache pretty darned fast.
But some people may have tried pain-killers in the past and ended up with a queasy stomach. So, if Excedrin stated, “Knocks out your headache in 3 minutes flat without upsetting your stomach,” they would widen their appeal.
Let me give you another example.
Let’s say you have a program that shows people how to lose up to 20 lbs. in 3 months and keep it off for good. What do you think their immediate objections would be?
“Oh, sure! If I stop eating everything I love.”
“Maybe. If I exercise like a maniac.”
“Right. But only if I buy $10,000 worth of pre-made meal substitutes.”
So, to soothe these objections and pizzazz-up your promise, add a “without statement.”
Lose 20 lbs. in less than 3 months and keep it off… without giving up the foods you love, exercising like a maniac or spending money on nutritional supplements.
Bam! You’ve soothed the objections and made your promise so much pizzassier.
Faster, Cheaper, Easier, Better
If your offer makes something faster, cheaper, easier or better, say so! In your promise.
Again, we return to our Excedrin example. (Are you sick of it yet?)
Faster…
Our original plain-yogurt promise is: Excedrin: gets rid of your headache.
Then… we added “in less than 3 minutes,” which gave it more specificity and gave it that “faster and better” kick.
If Excedrin wanted to play out that “faster” theme, they could also have used: “Gets rid of your headache 5x faster than other headache remedies.”
Or…. if they wanted to add some sass: “Gets rid of your headache in less time than it takes you to pour that second cup of coffee.”
Either way, they’ve given their promise more pizzazz by promising results fast!
Cheaper…
Now, let’s say Excedrin has a competitor. Like… Bayer Aspirin. But Bayer is slightly more expensive. Excedrin could beef up their promise with “Easier on your stomach, easier on your pocketbook, Excedrin gets rid of your headache in less time for a lot less money.”
Easier…
Hey, we all want things to be easier, right? So, if your promise simplifies a complex problem, be sure to flaunt that advantage in your promise.
Excedrin: Gets rid of your headache in 3 minutes flat with one easy-to-swallow pill.
MoneyMinder: The easiest way to take charge of your finances… in just 10 minutes a day.
Instagram Made Easy: 10 tiny steps to become an Instagram Superstar… even if you have zero social media experience.
Okay… So, Now What?
As you play with different ways to give your promise some pizzazz, you may be wondering, “How do I use my pizzazzy promise in my copy? Is it the name of my offer? Is it my headline? Do I use it in my description?”
Yes. And then some.
Think of your promise as the one big idea you’re selling in your copy. Yes, your promise needs to be clear in your headline or tag line. It may become part of the title of your product or offer.
But more than that, your promise needs to be one big idea to which all of your copy is devoted. Your promise is the recurring theme, the enchanted melody, that sounds throughout your sales page or work with me page or home page or opt-in page, etc.
This is why it’s so critical to get clear on your promise before you write one word of copy.
Remember… your clients don’t want your product, program or package. But they are desperate for the promise your products, programs and packages provide. And they’ll pay handsomely for it.
Get clear on what that promise is and give it the pizzazz it needs to stand out, entice your ideal clients and inspire people to open their minds and their wallets to what you’ve got to give.
Hey… I’ve got an idea!
Why not get clear on the promise of your latest and greatest offer right now, write the plain-yogurt version in the comments below, and together we’ll give it some pizzazz! Come on! This will be fun.
Or you can always hop on Zoom with me for a few minutes (no charge) and together we’ll see what kind of playful promise-making we can get into.