I hate rules, don’t you?

They make me dig my heels in and make me want to do quite the opposite.  Probably just a leftover from teenagehood.

However, I have learnt to follow some and life if far easier if you decide for yourself which ones you choose to follow.

Note the "decide for yourself" bit.  That’s my favourite bit.  I love that bit.  Really love it.

Take a salesletter.

Here are the "rules" of a salesletter.

It should contain all of the following elements.

1. A lead in (this is optional)
2. A headline
3. A sub-headline
4. Some bullet points
5. A story
6. An offer
7. Some social proof (testimonials etc)
8. A guarantee with risk reversal
9. A postscript (p.s.)

That’s not to say you can’t play around with the order of the elements and their presentation but if you decide to leave out a section altogether – watch out!

Because the thing is it’s proven to work.  So why mess with it if it’s going to make you money?  (Because if it’s done right – it will.  Big money.)

Suddenly I like that rule – funny that.

Give me a good reason why to consider for myself and I’ll adopt a rule.  Just don’t expect me to jump without thinking first.  Some people just skip the thinking bit.

Which brings us to "reason why" advertising.  It’s my favourite in case you hadn’t guessed.

Do you know what my all time favourite copywriting word is?

I’ll give you 3 guesses…

Free – nope

Now – nope

Because – Spot on!

"Because" is a wonderful word to soothe a mind.  It feels like finishing a jigsaw puzzle.

Here’s the problem – and here’s the answer.

Here’s the question – and here’s the answer.

Here’s the statement – and here’s the reasoning.

Very satisfying.  Very balanced.  Very rewarding.

You’ll have heard this story before but incase you haven’t there was an experiment done somewhere in some university, probably in the States, where there was a long boring and frustrating photocopier queue (or just imagine a trip to the post office on a Thursday).  Yawn.

Then someone comes along right to the front of the queue and asks if they can go right ahead "because I have some photocopying to do".  And the majority of those in the queue said OK or more likely just didn’t bother saying a thing.

(If they were a UN staff member, possibly because they preferred waiting in a long boring queue looking at other people than being stuck in a cubicle going mad alone.)

However, the real reasoning is that the person used the word "because".

It’s almost like a trance-inducing word.

Doesn’t work on its own of course (just ask any child) but if you have "because" immediately followed with a statement you can do a fair amount of persuading or at least calming people’s minds.

So that’s a rule I do love.

Because as a good copywriter it makes your client money.
 

Rachel Goodall
———————-
Clear Passionate Copywriting

www.rachelgoodall.com
skype rachel.goodall
rachel@rachelgoodall.com

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