What Studying Criminal Behavior Taught Me About Marketing
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👉👉👉 3 Rules of Thumb For Awareness-Based Headlines
Today, we're diving into the alluring world of desire and its power to influence our actions.
Desire is a crucial concept that can make or break your copywriting efforts. Desire is the beginning point of copy.
There is no copy, there is no advertising, there is no market…
Without DESIRE.
And if you don't understand what your prospect's desire, then you'll never be able to see the kinds of conversions that you want to get out of your copy.
So to help us understand how copy can tap into mass desire, we are turning to Eugene Schwartz's incredible book on copywriting, Breakthrough Advertising. You might have heard of it before if you are in the copywriting or marketing realm because it is absolutely legendary.
But if you haven't heard of it…
It was published over half a century ago in 1966, and Schwartz Insights remain relevant today because they tap into our most fundamental human desires.
While the way we live might have changed in the past 50 years, our deepest desires, those core wants and needs, remain the same.
And in order for our copy to work (read: sell stuff like gangbusters), it has to tap into a mass desire. More importantly, we as copywriters need to understand exactly how our product or service is going to do that.
And that's exactly what we're gonna be exploring today.
PLUS…
We’ll dive into how my background as a criminal defense investigator plays into my insights and my thoughts about mass desire and marketing.
As I mentioned in the 1st episode, I was a private criminal defense investigator for 6 years.
I worked with defense attorneys conducting investigations on behalf of a person who was accused of a crime. It was my job to understand the motivations and desires behind people's actions ultimately.
My job was to find evidence that could be used to persuade a jury that my innocent client wasn't guilty of the crime that they were accused of.
Or, lot of times my job would be to show how or why that person wasn't AS GUILTY as it might seem.
And in that case, I would be trying to provide some context about how or why the crime happened, what was going on in that person's life, and give a little more context for the jury to understand what was going on.
Sometimes that mattered and sometimes it didn't.
But I would hunt for some kind of explanation that might persuade a jury to give them a more lenient sentence.
And this is where things got interesting.
Through countless hours of interviewing witnesses, reviewing police reports, and pouring over all kinds of evidence, I came to understand the intricate web of desires and motivations that led people to commit crimes.
And in many cases, it was a mass desire that played a significant role in my client's criminal actions.
Learn more in episode 3!
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👉👉👉 3 Rules of Thumb For Awareness-Based Headlines
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(This is transcribed by 🤖 so please excuse the funky sentence breaks, misplaced periods, and typos. The robots are doing their best!)
[00:00:00] Through countless hours of interviewing witnesses, reviewing police reports, and pouring over all kinds of evidence. I came to understand the intricate web of desires and motivations that led people to commit crimes, and in many cases, it was a mass desire that played a significant role in my client's criminal actions.
[00:00:26] Hello and welcome to the Copy Lab podcast, the marketing and business podcast that teaches you how to write better, sell more, and ignite your business even if you suck at writing. I'm your host Sara Estes, entrepreneur, copywriter, marketing strategist, and founder of Copy Tiger, where I help changemakers, disruptors and dreamers get their message to the masses.
[00:00:47] Let's get started.
[00:00:55] Today, we're diving into the alluring world of desire [00:01:00] and its power to influence our actions. Desire is a crucial concept that can make or break your copywriting efforts. Desire is the beginning point of copy. There is no copy, there is no advertising, there is no market. Without desire, and if you don't understand what your prospect's desire, then you'll never be able to see the kinds of conversions that you want to get out of your copy.
[00:01:27] So to help us understand how copy can tap into mass desire, we are turning to Eugene Schwartz's incredible book on copywriting called Breakthrough Advertising. You might have heard of it before if you are in the copywriting or marketing realm cause it is absolutely legendary. Um, but if you haven't heard of it, it was published over half a century ago in 1966, and Schwartz Insights remain.
[00:01:54] Very relevant today because they tap into our most fundamental human [00:02:00] desires. While the way we live might have changed in the past 50 years, our deepest desires, those core wants and needs remain the same. And in order for our copy to work, meaning sell stuff like gangbusters, it has to tap into a mass desire.
[00:02:15] And more importantly, we as copywriters need to understand exactly how our product or service is going to do that. And that's exactly what we're gonna be exploring today. So what is mass desire? Basically, it's when a lot of people share the same internal want. So you've got a large number of people in society that are secretly and privately wanting the same thing.
[00:02:41] That's what we refer to as a mass desire in copywriting and marketing. So what we're referring to are the common threads that really find every human being together. While each person's unique, there are these fundamental desires that we can talk about that resonate pretty universally in [00:03:00] those desires.
[00:03:00] Usually encompass our basic human needs and aspirations and longings. When we're writing our copy, we want to w write to one person, but we're depending on thousands or millions of people having that same response to our words. And that response is to buy our product or service. And in order for that to happen, they need to all secretly want the same thing.
[00:03:26] And. We need to figure out what that is, and if enough people share this desire so much so that they want your product or service and they're willing to give you cold, hard cash for it, then that means that there is a market for your product. Now there are potentially hundreds of mass desires out there, but there are a few that kind of rise to the top and show up a little more frequently than others.
[00:03:51] And as copywriters or as entrepreneurs who are developing products or developing services, you need to know what those mass desires are because [00:04:00] that's going to make or break your marketing. So if you're developing a product or service and you haven't thought about what mass desire it taps into, meaning what your prospect really deeply, truly wants, then this podcast is gonna help you spend a little bit of time thinking about that and deciding which desire to tie your product too.
[00:04:24] I wanna give you some examples of mass desires in case you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about, and these might. Relate to your product or service. So for example, some of the more obvious ones, one of them is convenience, right? So people desire things that make their life easier and more convenient.
[00:04:44] That includes everything from streaming platforms like Netflix and meal delivery services like HelloFresh or smart home devices that connect all your lights to where you can just press a button and turn all your lights on and off. That kind of stuff. Another example [00:05:00] of a mass desire is health and wellness, and this one is huge.
[00:05:04] The desire for physical and mental wellbeing is pretty massive, and there's a growing demand for fitness equipment like Peloton, bikes and health supplements, meditation apps, organic and natural food, food products, things like that, that those can all tap into the mass desire for health and wellness.
[00:05:23] Some other ones are sustainability. Personalization and customization. Like customers really want that personalized experience and products that are tailored specifically to their preferences and experience in life. Examples of this are streaming services that give you personalized recommendations, um, customizable sneakers and clothing, and then skincare products that match directly to your skin tone.
[00:05:47] All kinds of things like that. People are really looking for something that's unique to their circumstance. Another great example of a mass desire is the desire for connection and social interaction. [00:06:00] So despite all of our computers and digital advancements and how much time, we love spending doom scrolling on our phone, there is a huge desire for human connections still.
[00:06:10] Social media platforms, messaging apps, and video conferencing tools like Zoom have. Obviously all tapped into this fundamental desire for connection. People wanna stay connected with friends and families and communities, and we saw that demonstrated really well in the pandemic. So that was a time that people were so isolated that the desire for connection and social interaction was.
[00:06:35] Massive. So good copywriters were tapping into that mass desire when they were selling their products. That's why a platform like Zoom was able to take off so much because their product responded directly to a mass desire that was growing like crazy. Another big one is time freedom. People want more control over their time and they [00:07:00] want products that will help them optimize productivity and achieve a better work-life balance.
[00:07:06] So this is gonna include time management apps, remote work tools, and flexible scheduling options. Another big one, and this one's kind of obvious, is the desire for entertainment and escapism. This one has always been strong and remained strong. Streaming services, video games, VR experiences, and immersive storytelling, all of that provides an avenue for people to relax and engage in things that they love and to just escape their own life.
[00:07:35] Maybe your product or service taps into that element. A mass desire that I work with a lot as a copywriter for thought leaders and entrepreneurs is success and achievement. Many, many people want personal and professional growth, and they want success and achievement, and that is really reflected in the popularity of.
[00:07:54] You know, self-help books and online courses and all of the different personal development apps that are coming [00:08:00] out and all of the various coaching services. I think this one is becoming bigger and bigger as time goes on and people are seeking different ways to grow as adults and as professionals. And on a personal level too, people are looking for platforms like better help to get therapy and grow and reach new levels in their personal and professional life.
[00:08:21] So that's another mass desire that your product or service might be tapping into. To sum this all up, if you don't know what people want, then you won't know how to give it to them. So you really need to spend some time thinking about desire and which mass desire your product or service taps into. And these things change over time.
[00:08:41] Mass desires aren't a stagnant thing. Sure, there are ones that will always be around most likely, like the desire to be attractive and wealthy and healthy. Those are human desires that probably aren't going anywhere for a long time. But there's a whole sector of mass desire [00:09:00] that is changing and does move with the times.
[00:09:02] So as a copywriter or an entrepreneur, you need to be keeping a pulse on what those are. The moment that you're living in the society that you're living in, those desires are gonna be a little bit different from a couple of generations back, and they're gonna continue to be different for generations to come.
[00:09:20] That's why it's good to keep a running list in your head or write it down and keep an actual list on your computer and really be on the lookout for new mass desires that are coming up in society. My insights and my thoughts about mass desire come from a unique perspective. As I mentioned in the first episode, I was a private investigator for six years.
[00:09:43] I did criminal defense work, meaning I worked with defense attorneys to do investigations on behalf of a person who was accused of a crime. It was my job to understand the motivations and desires behind people's actions ultimately. My job was to find evidence that could be [00:10:00] used to persuade a jury that my client wasn't guilty of the crime that they were accused of if they were innocent.
[00:10:06] But if they did it, then there was no getting around that. And a lot of times my job would be to show how or why that person wasn't as guilty as it might seem. And in that case, I would be trying to provide some context about how or why the crime happened, what was going on in that person's life, and just give a little more.
[00:10:29] Context for the jury to understand what was going on. Sometimes that mattered and sometimes it didn't. But I would hunt for some kind of explanation that might persuade a jury to give them a more lenient sentence. And this is where things got interesting. Through countless hours of interviewing witnesses, reviewing police reports, and pouring over all kinds of evidence, I came to understand the intricate web of desires and motivations that led people to commit crimes.
[00:10:59] And in [00:11:00] many cases, it was a mass desire that played a significant role in my client's criminal actions. Stay with me here because this is important to understand. I am talking about some basic human motivators that we need to understand if we're going to be able to market ourselves or others to, well, other human beings.
[00:11:20] Because guess what? All marketing is human to human. I don't buy into that B2C or b2b. That's business to consumer or business to business. It's all H to H to me, human to human. Okay, so where was I? Let me give you an example of how mass desire influenced a criminal behavior. One case that comes to mind involved a client who was accused of stealing money from her employer.
[00:11:48] Now, I won't go into details or give any names or specifics here, but during my investigation, I found out that my client was under severe financial stress. And [00:12:00] she was watching her friends and her family living these lives of luxury. They had a lot more than she did, and they were going on vacations and affording nice things.
[00:12:11] So my client felt very behind and she wanted to keep up with her family and her peers. There was a little more to it than that, but that's the general gist of things. So in this case, a mass desire played a significant role in my client's decision to steal from her employer. Not, I'm not saying that's the right thing to do, but after talking to her for a long time and getting to the root of it, it was very clear that it was a motivation that a lot of people could relate to.
[00:12:42] And there were really actually two mass desires at play here. Number one was the mass desire to be wealthy and be financially secure, and number two was a mass desire to belong. And that's a really big motivator for most human beings. So by [00:13:00] identifying those desires, I was able to help the jury relate to my client, to humanize her in their eyes and get a better outcome for her at trial.
[00:13:12] Okay, so how does all this relate to marketing and copywriting? Well, in both criminal defense work and marketing, the key to understanding what drives people's desires, what motivates them to take an action that's radically different from any other kind of action that they've taken before, is understanding desire. —
[00:13:34] And yes, I do believe that a prospect becoming a buying customer is a radical action. It's a radical action that's made in hopes that this product or service is going to solve some major problem and ultimately change their life, however big or small. So that's why I'm comparing the two remove. If you remove all the judgment about what's right and wrong, just pairing it down to a situation in which a [00:14:00] person is making dec a decision about whether or not to take an action.
[00:14:04] In that scenario, consumer behavior and criminal behavior do have some parallels. So just as a person might take the action to steal money from an employer, To keep up with her peers and have that sense of belonging. Another person might buy a product to fit in with their social group or to feel more confident in themselves for these same kinds of mass desires.
[00:14:32] That's why understanding and leveraging mass desire is the cornerstone of successful copywriting, and it allows us to connect with our target market on a deep and meaningful level. So now you kind of have an idea of how my background in private investigation and spending a lot of time interviewing people who are accused of crimes, whether they did it or didn't do it.
[00:14:58] And all the people in their life, how [00:15:00] that really plays into my unique approach to copywriting and marketing. Now that you know what a mass desire is, I wanna talk about something that we can't really get around. What copywriters can't ever do is manufacture a market that simply isn't there. We can't create mass desire no matter how good we are.
[00:15:23] So let's have some fun for a second. I'm gonna give you an example of a market that just doesn't exist. Let's say you are starting a new business and your big life changing idea is that you're gonna sell square shaped watermelons. Yes, I get a ridiculous example, but it's fun. So stay with me. So you've got these watermelons and they've been specifically grown in a square shape rather than the traditional round shape, and you're super excited about it because it's easier for storage and transportation, and the square shape allows you to stack them more efficiently and [00:16:00] you think that you've hit the jackpot.
[00:16:02] So while square watermelons may seem unique and potentially convenient, it might not be what customers really want. So consumers might be wildly turned off by it. As you start to try and sell these, you start to find out that your potential buyers are accustomed to watermelons in their natural round shape.
[00:16:21] So the square shape might be super unnatural and familiar, and they're not into it. So that might lead to resistance or total disinterest among potential buyers. And in that case, there just might not be a market. For that product, and maybe you have to charge more for them because what goes into growing them is so complex, so they're more expensive.
[00:16:46] So people might not be willing to pay more for something that they don't even want in the first place. So in this case, the market for square watermelons would likely be very niche and limited. [00:17:00] So copywriters or marketers would face a pretty big challenge in creating a widespread demand for that product because it deviates from the natural shape that people are familiar with.
[00:17:09] And copywriters can't create a substantial market if the product's appeal is that small. So if the desire is small, then the audience is naturally going to be small too. Now, that's not to say you can't create a niche market, and that's totally possible. But when we're talking about products that really take off and kind of hit a global success, that's gonna be really hard if there isn't already a mass desire.
[00:17:34] So all that to say, copywriters can't create desire from scratch if the appeal or practicality of a product is limited or if the desire isn't there, even the most skilled copywriter is gonna face challenges. What great copywriting can do is if there's a mass desire out there, is direct it and focus it on your product or service.
[00:17:58] So as copywriters, we're not [00:18:00] wizards or magicians, it's kind of better to think of us as irrigators, irrigators of mass desire. And when a strong desire already exists among a significant number of consumers, copywriters can tap into that desire and guide it towards a particular product or service. So when you've got something that taps into an already existing mass desire, that's when great copywriting and advertising goes gangbusters.
[00:18:27] So what about if the desire isn't there? What do you do? You've got a product and you still want to attempt to market it. Well, that means you're basically educating people. So you're not really advertising at that point. You're educating and the ROI on ads spend, that is not great, but you can do it in hopes that the mass desire gets created at some point.
[00:18:50] But that can be very hard to predict. So just be aware of that. It's not impossible, but you might have to have your product around for quite a long time before that [00:19:00] mass desire hits society. Now let's talk about how we actually tie a product to a mass desire in our copy. As copywriters, we've got three things that we're working with essentially.
[00:19:11] Number one is we've got what we know about mass desires. That's our first tool. We know about what people are hoping for, dreaming of, and what they desire. The second tool that we have is our product or service, and the third thing is our message, and that's what's gonna connect. The first two things. It acts as a bridge between the mass desire and our product.
[00:19:34] So how do we actually tie these things together? There's gonna be three stages of our work here. The first stage is what we've been talking about throughout this podcast, and that is picking the most powerful desire that can be applied to your product. This is the most important thing that you can do as a copywriter.
[00:19:51] Nothing else matters more than this. Now, your product may apply to several mass desires out there. But you have to [00:20:00] choose just one to focus on. So really think about the most impactful desire that you can apply. Number two is the headline. So here in the headline of your sales page, landing page, website, whatever you're writing, you want to acknowledge the desire, you wanna reinforce it, and then you want to show the prospect a way to satisfy it.
[00:20:24] And the third stage is where we show our prospect how our product satisfies that desire. Now this is where it gets really good. I'm gonna give you the secret code to writing a headline. Now chat, g p t does not freaking understand this, so it's important that if you're using AI, you understand this so you can evaluate any headlines that chat G B T spits out at you with this criteria.
[00:20:49] So this next thing that I'm gonna say, I want you to remember it. Your headline has to speak to your prospect, and this is key at [00:21:00] her point of awareness. I'll say it again for the people in the back. Your headline has to speak to your prospect at her point of awareness. Now here's the really good stuff, and this comes straight from Eugene Schwartz's breakthrough Advertising.
[00:21:16] It's his three rules of thumb for writing headlines, and I'm really excited to go through the three of these because they are going to save you so much time and agony over what in the world your headline is supposed to look like. So I'm gonna go through all three rules and then we're gonna do some examples so you can see it in action.
[00:21:37] Okay, so the first rule of thumb, and remember, these are all about awareness-based headlines. So the first rule of thumb is if she's aware of your product and realizes it can satisfy her desire, then your headline starts with the product. That's the first one. Number two, if she's not aware of your product, [00:22:00] but only of the desire itself, then your headline starts with the desire.
[00:22:06] And the third, if she's not yet aware of what she really wants, but is only concerned with a general problem, then your headline starts with that problem and crystallizes it into a specific need. Okay. Now I know that's a lot to process, so we're gonna break it down and I'm gonna give you some examples of how this actually plays out when you're writing your headline.
[00:22:30] Let's use a Fictitional personal finance course as our product for our demonstration. So this is what it looks like when a headline is tailored to those different levels of consumer awareness. We talked about knowing your customer avatar in a previous episode, and we'll go more into actually defining that, but this is part of the reason why you really need to know who you're marketing to and where they are on that customer awareness level.
[00:22:59] You wanna [00:23:00] really think about your audience and think about where they are on the scale of things, and your copy can move around and it can be flexible. You can write different versions of things, and as your product becomes more well known, you'll need to change your copy to reflect that. If you go from being an absolutely unknown product and unknown brand, we're virtually.
[00:23:21] All of your prospects are going to be at the lowest level of awareness, and then your product becomes extremely popular and say you become a household name, then you're gonna be writing very different kinds of headline and very headlines and very different types of copy. Okay, so let's start with that first headline option that we talked about.
[00:23:42] Now, remember, the rule is that if she's aware of your product and realizes it can satisfy her desire, then your headline starts with the product. So what that's gonna look like is, and real quick, full disclosure, I'm not spending a lot of time trying to come up with brilliant headlines [00:24:00] here. These are just examples.
[00:24:02] All right, so we're gonna call our fake financial Course Wealth Builder Pro. Your headline is gonna say something like, accelerate Your Financial Success with Wealth Builder Pro, the Ultimate Personal Finance Course. This headline speaks directly to someone who's already aware of Wealth Builder Pro, so they know the product and that it can satisfy their desire for financial success or for getting their personal finances together.
[00:24:32] So what it does is it highlights the course as the solution, and it positions it as the ultimate resource for achieving their financial goals. Okay? So that's the first level of awareness. That's basically the highest level of awareness. Of awareness, where someone knows your product. So let's drop it down a little bit, and the second rule is gonna be that if your prospect is not aware of your product, but only of the desire [00:25:00] itself, then your headline starts with the desire.
[00:25:04] So an example, using our financial course, the headline is gonna look like this. Master your finances and build wealth. Unlock the secrets to financial freedom. Now this headline addresses a prospect who's aware of their desire to master their finances and build wealth. That's the mass desire that we're talking to.
[00:25:27] The headline focuses on that desire itself, and then positions the financial course as the means to unlock the secrets to financial freedom. So we're capturing their attention and offering a solution to their aspirations. Okay, so the third rule of thumb, and that is if your prospect is not aware of what she really seeks, what she really desires, meaning she doesn't know that there's a deep desire within her, but she's [00:26:00] only concerned with a general problem, then your headline starts with that problem and you're going to crystallize it into a specific need.
[00:26:10] So the headline might look like this, transform financial success into confidence with Wealth Builder Pro. So this headline is gonna target a prospect who is aware of the general problem, which is financial stress, but they might not be aware of these solutions or courses or what have you. So what we do here is we crystallize that problem of financial stress, and then suddenly she has a need of wanting to turn it into confidence.
[00:26:42] So we're crystallizing that need. So in this case, you'll see that the headline is crafted to resonate with someone who just is feeling a particular problem. And also we do mention the product in this, but you don't even have to when you are in [00:27:00] these stages where no one knows your product. Just make sure that you're not kicking off the headline with it.
[00:27:05] So if someone knows your product very well, then you can start with your product. But if they don't know it, start with that problem. So you can literally see that financial stress comes before even mentioning the course. And in a lot of cases, you may not even want to mention that course at all in the headline.
[00:27:23] So, as you can see, this is why the nuances of headlines are so important. You can't, it's not just about creating something that sounds really catchy or has alliteration or sounds super cool. Your headlines actually have to have a strategy. You need to be able to really capture your readers exactly where they are.
[00:27:47] If you're writing a sales page or a landing page or your website, the headline that you have is the number one thing that's gonna be tapping into the mass desire. So, [00:28:00] and like we said, it might include your product, it might not, depending on where they are on the awareness scale, you just wanna make sure that your headline is enough for them to stop scrolling and to start reading.
[00:28:11] There's a saying in copywriting that the headline has one main job. One job only, and that is to get the reader to read the second sentence, and then the second sentence only has one job too, and that is to get you to read the third sentence and so on and so on. Every sentence essentially just has one job, and that's to get you to read the next sentence.
[00:28:34] So when you're thinking about headlines, you're not trying to sell everything in that headline. You're just trying to connect with your reader just enough so that they're willing to read that second line. Okay. Going back to the three stages of work, if you remember we stopped on the second one, which was headline.
[00:28:53] The first one was picking the. Mass desire that our product taps into. The second one was [00:29:00] creating that headline and offering a way for the prospect to satisfy it. So the third stage of copywriting of this work that we're doing is to explain how your product helps your prospect satisfy that desire, and that is what the body copy is for.
[00:29:18] And the way you're gonna do this is you're going to break down the features and benefits of your product to show exactly how it satisfies that desire. And in next week's episode, we're going to go in depth into features and benefits because the aspects of your product or service that you think are the most valuable.
[00:29:39] May not really be what consumers are looking for, and this is a really important thing to know and that's why we're gonna cover it in depth next week. Alright, we're gonna end it there. Thank you so much for being here with me today. I have made something special for you. I've put those three rules for [00:30:00] headlines, the three rules of thumb from Eugene Schwartz, into a super handy quick reference PDF that you can download for free.
[00:30:10] Just go to copytiger.com/headlines and you can download that little cheat sheet so you can always remember how to structure a headline depending on what stage of awareness. Your prospect is in. This is gonna be really helpful and it's gonna save you so much time agonizing over which headline is gonna work the best.
[00:30:29] And you know, if you are using chatGPT or some kind of ai, you need to be able to feed the AI information about what you're wanting to get out of your headline. So this is really valuable because you can include it in that process. And get better results than other people. So again, you're going to copy tiger.com/headlines to download that free guide.
[00:30:54] And while you're at it, head over to copytiger.com/newsletter [00:31:00] for my weekly newsletter where you will never miss podcast episodes, and you'll also get stories and copywriting and marketing tips that I only share via my email list. So go get on that and remember. The right words can help you make a huge difference in the world.
[00:31:18] So keep writing. I'll see you in the next episode.