The Trash Can Technique All Copywriters Must Know
Posted: November 13, 2009 at 10:34 pm | Tags: copywriting technique, copywriting techniquesThe funny thing about copywriting techniques is that they can come to you at almost any time of the day.
This article, which points out in detail what I describe as the "trash can copywriting technique" was something I thought of after a very long 2 weeks.
I???d been working some ridiculous hours and decided to give myself the day to kind of relax, sit back and watch some DVD???s (on copywriting, marketing, persuasion etc.) and audio???s.
Deciding it was time to take a break, I went down to go outside and grab the mail while I made myself some pizza.
Reading my mail while the pizza was in the toaster oven, I slowly moved my way over to the trash basket. When I got through roughly half of it, I realized something.
I'm doing the same thing I've seen other copywriters talk about!
Have you ever heard anybody talk about how you need to visualize your prospect standing over the paper basket with the mail in their hand?
And how you need to somehow captivate them enough to actually read your mail and not throw it in the trash?
Well that???s exactly what I was doing, and the only piece of mail that got more than 5 seconds of my time was a check and a business magazine (both of which I???m obviously interested in).
Anyway, I just thought I???d let you know that if you???ve ever heard that phrase???they???re not lying! People honestly do stand straight over the top of their trash can with the mail in their hand.
And if you don't realize it yet, even prospects online have a "virtual paper basket" sitting right at their fingertips. The rule applies to both online AND offline.
Which brings me to a very important point???
How do you captivate someone enough to read your mail and not through it away?
And the answer is???tell a story.
You???ll notice at the beginning of this blog I told a story of a few minutes of my life. If you???re reading this still, you were interested by it ??? probably because you wanted to find out the end of the story.
That's exactly what you have to do for your prospects. Tell them an interesting story they'd like to hear. Start the story off with something that will make them NEED to get to the end of the story to find out.
Make your story as compelling as possible and be sure to give a hint about your product.
For example:
In the story you could explain a specific problem some person was having, then how they came over that problem and how your product helped them do it.
This is just one copywriting technique you can “take to the bank” to implement it immediately in your business and watch your profits soar.
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