JQMEDIA-This almost forgotten 60-year-old marketing rule can quadruple your sales without copywriting
Photo by Esther Wechsler on Unsplash
Many people who want to sell their products and services
online focus on copywriting.
In other words, they want to learn how to sell.
And while this is a great idea on paper, most people are
just wasting their time in trying to learn how to write compelling copy.
Here’s why.
It’s all about this
forgotten marketing rule
If you’re into copywriting, you’ve probably heard of Brian
Kurtz.
This marketing genius has been working with the greatest
copywriters of all time, including Gary Halbert and Gene Schwarz. And in an
interview with Ben Settle, I heard Brian talking about an almost “forgotten”
marketing rule by Ed Mayer that goes back to the 1960s.
It’s called the 40–40–20 rule.And this rule stipulates where
you, as a marketer, should focus your efforts.
Here’s the breakdown: As a marketer, you should focus on the
following three variables.
40% of your focus should be dedicated to the market. This
means that you have to focus your efforts on understanding the market, the pain
points, the struggles, the words the market is using, etc.
The next 40% should be allocated to your offer, which means
you want to create a compelling offer. An offer that your target market can’t
resist buying.
And the remaining 20 percent should be devoted to… Well…
copywriting.
Did you notice something?
Yes, the good ol’ Pareto law: 80/20.
This unsexy law stipulates that 20% of your actions lead to
80% of your results. But on the flip side, the vast majority (i.e., 80%) of
things that you’re doing only lead to 20% of results.
So if you’re focusing most of your time learning copywriting without spending time in your market and crafting your offers, then you’re focusing on the 80% that actually only leads to 20% of the results.
But we can take this
further.
So here it is: If you focus on the market and on your offer,
you can walk away even if you suck at copywriting.
Think of copywriting as a prettifier. And yet, most people
think that copywriting is the magic bullet. They smash their heads against the
wall and complain about rock bottom sales.
But…they don’t have any clue about their market. They think
that they can rely on “what they know”. They don’t have any clue about the pain
points and how the market actually talks. And the list goes on…
It’s because they actually don’t understand the basics of
marketing.
They get the 40–40–20 rule completely backwards.
Imitate to elevate
The easiest way to get results is to mimic what other
successful people have done before you.
You can’t afford to ignore how the greatest copywriters
became… great.
When you focus on the wrong things, it’s like swimming
against the tide. You’ll end up exhausted before even reaching your
destination.
Listen: You won’t be able to fix lousy sales by focusing on
lousy tricks. You fix lousy sales by understanding your market and creating a
compelling offer.
The reason for that is that it’s all about the fundamentals.
This is why you see Gary Halbert talking about becoming a student of markets.
This is why he emphasizes selling to a starving crowd.
Pros learn how to master the basics and the fundamentals.
Rookies look for the latest hacks. Don’t be a rookie. Copy the masters.
Shifting your focus acts
like hocus-pocus
We all make mistakes.
But when you start shifting your mindset, and when you start
shifting your focus towards the things that truly matter, everything becomes
way easier.
Instead of focusing on headlines, start focusing on the
market. It becomes easier to create offers because of headlines because your
market will tell you what grabs their attention.
In fact, mastering the 40–40–20 rule is like having an unfair
advantage in your market.
Focus on your market. Create a compelling offer. After that,
you can learn the basics of copywriting in just one afternoon.