“How to commit business suicide”
April 16th, 2008 by Allen Voivod
We received this sales email (subject line: “How to commit business suicide”) last year from Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero of Red Hot Copy, whom I’ll hopefully get to meet at an event I’m going to on Saturday. I’ve removed the final portion of it, which relates to the pitch for her in-person workshop that happened in October 2007.
In it, she does something a little beyond what I normally see in sales emails. It has the typical elements - for example, a strong opening, problems, and other solutions pitched as ones to avoid for the purposes of the email.
What’s different is every time I re-read it, I truly feel like she does take it personally. It’s a great example of the “form, not formula” idea I’ve heard from Robert McKee. She hits all the notes of the sales email format, but it’s not like she’s following a paint-by-numbers template.
Instead, she’s poured her own personality and passion into her content, in a conversational, informative way.
Let this be an example of how great content spans every part of your business - and it can’t possibly be great content without your own unique voice, tone, and style layered throughout.
The worst thing you can do in your business is to trick yourself into thinking you can get by with limp, lifeless copy. I see entrepreneurs do it all the time, and it gets me hopping mad.
Here’s the deal - NONE of your marketing works without strong copy. PERIOD. No sales letters sell for you round the clock. No emails get read. Money drains out of your business like water through a sieve. And you may not even realize you have a leak.
It’s a real problem.
Of course there are definitely ways around this problem - once you recognize it exists. You can break out your credit card and hire one of the better copywriters. Just be prepared to have enough room to accommodate our fees. (Right now I get between $15,000 and $25,000 a project - and I’m on the CHEAP SIDE of what my colleagues charge.)
If that’s in your budget, it’s a worthwhile investment, I promise. But if you’re like most entrepreneurs it’s not.
That doesn’t change the fact that you need good, strong copy for EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR BUSINESS. That includes copy for:
=> Websites
=> Email blasts
=> Video and podcast scripts
=> Newsletters
=> Press releases
=> Articles
=> Brochures
=> Flyers
=> Postcards
Are you starting to get the picture? And the competition is fierce.
The average person today is exposed to over 3,500 marketing messages a day! That’s 24,000 messages A WEEK! 1.7 million a year and climbing!! Barnes and Noble bookstores have over 130,000 titles to choose from. Most grocery stores have over 30,000 choices vying for your attention. (Walgreens has a measly 15,000 choices and they’re doing okay.) Then of course there are a slew of other marketers trying to do business with your customers! Everyone is competing for ATTENTION. But check this out. . .
=> People don’t buy because of clever slogans or graphics;
=> They don’t buy because you say you’re the best;
=> They don’t even buy because you have a truly great product;
They buy because you have the answer to making them richer, happier, or better looking - because YOU are the SOLUTION to a problem they want fixed!
If you appear salesy, people resist. That doesn’t work (especially in today’s skeptical society). In your copy, you have to COMMAND their attention, solve their problem at no risk to them, answer every one of their objections, show how to get the fastest results possible and gain their TRUST. If you can do all that, they MIGHT be open to giving your product a shot.
I didn’t mean to go off on a rant, but I am passionate about this subject.
