How to Find Out What a Mass Market Really Wants to Buy
Dear Marketing Maven,
Quick review…
We know that advertising is expert salesmanship leveraged by a mass medium.
And Maxim #5 gave you the number one rule of expert salesmanship: “Before you start selling, find out what the buyer wants.”
But how do you do that when selling to thousands or even millions of people at once? How do you discover the right message that will generate the highest response, especially from your best prospects—those most likely to become repeat buyers who’ll generate the lion’s share of future revenue?
That’s what we’ll look at today.
A Copywriter’s Job Is to Write, Right?
When I began my career as a copywriter, I naively believed that copywriting mainly involved—what else?—writing.
How wrong I was!
After years of working with several marketing masters, I learned that the most important first step in powerful copywriting is to hold off on writing anything until I dive deep with…
Maxim #6:
Research Like an Obsessed Detective Before You Write a Word
If you want to produce consistent breakthroughs, questions are the answer! My “secret weapon” for consistently creating winning ads is a list of questions that I’ve honed over many years, questions that give me the answers I need to write highly responsive promotions custom-tailored to whatever market I’m trying to persuade.
The Research That Will Help You Succeed
If your goal is to grow rich as a marketer or copywriter, you will leverage your selling power to a much higher level when…
- You know your market better than your competitors. You should especially know your market’s most urgent problems, desires, pet peeves, beliefs, and assumptions.
- You know your product inside out, especially why it was created and how it can solve your market’s most urgent problems and desires in a way that similar products will not.
- You know your prospects’ most likely objections and the best ways to address them and even turn them into reasons for buying now. In scores of little ways, you know how to make it easier, safer, and more comfortable for your potential customer to say “yes.”
- You know that all prospects in every market are bombarded by hype daily and have justifiably grown extremely skeptical. You therefore know that you must unearth your product’s most powerful proof elements to offset that skepticism. Your aim is to build a case so authentically believable, factual, and accurate that you could convince a skeptical jury—because that’s exactly who you’re facing!
- In fact, one of your primary motivations for improving your skill is so you can be in high demand and able to choose to work exclusively for products and services you respect the most and would recommend to your family and friends. You realize that a gifted product is mightier than a gifted pen and that you’ll win much more often when you work with the most gifted products and services.
- You know the most appealing offers, premiums, and terms that others have found successful in your market and make it more likely for your prospect to close the deal.
- You know the best media for reaching your target market and which media can let you test inexpensively with maximum upside potential if your ad is a winner.
- You realize that once markets start expanding, they subdivide into niches, making it much easier for you to specialize and grow rich in a niche. Much more on this to come.
The Research Checklist That Became My ‘‘Secret Weapon’’
Over the next several issues, I’ll be sharing my comprehensive list of questions you must answer before you write a single word. You should ask these questions of all the key people who could possibly help you. Quick tip: spend at least one-third of your assignment’s total time on this research.
Also, don’t start your copywriting phase until you’ve completed your research. If ideas come to you during your research, jot them down, but don’t become wedded to any headline or copy theme ideas just yet. Otherwise, it’s too easy to fall in love with a headline or copy theme on your first or second day of research and easily miss even better ones you may find with deeper research. When mining for diamonds, never quit after your first find.
Above all, be thorough. Research like an obsessed detective! My list of research questions, coming your way, will make this much easier.
In the meantime, remember…
Maxim #6:
Research Like an Obsessed Detective Before You Write a Word
Sincere wishes for a good life and (always!) higher response,
Gary Bencivenga
P.S. If you know any copywriters or marketers who would enjoy these Marketing Maxims, just send them an email with this link: https://marketingmaxims.com/
P.P.S. Your e-mail address will never be shared. And if you ever wish to unsubscribe, just let me know and I will vanish from your life like a shadow in the night.
To Visit Gary's Marketing Maxims Archive, click here.
To Subscribe to these Marketing Maxims, a hype-free zone, click below.
Get your FREE Subscription to Gary Bencivenga's Marketing Maxims