BROADCASTS.com

b'When it comes to communicating the value of a product or service, Ray Edwards is a true legend in the industry. I met him way back in my corporate job days when my boss hired him to work his magic on a new sales letter for a product we were launching. That was when I saw the true power that words can have in generating sales and building a business. Since then, I decided to become a devoted student of copywriting, and a student of Ray\\u2019s, in particular.\\nWhy Is Persuasion So Important?\\nIn a perfect world, we could just say \\u201cHere\\u2019s what I have, it\\u2019s good, buy it if you want to,\\u201d and all the right people who need our product would click\\xa0Purchase. But the thing is, we\\u2019ve all become really smart, and really skeptical.\\nRay points out that even Apple isn\\u2019t immune to the need for writing sales copy\\u2014they\\u2019re just so good at how they present it that we don\\u2019t realize we\\u2019re consuming their copywriting!\\nVery few of us like thinking about \\u201csales writing.\\u201d It makes us think of smarmy used car salesmen, trying to con hardworking people out of their money. Ray is familiar with this aversion to copywriting, and here\\u2019s how he explains the way to avoid sounding \\u201csales-y\\u201d:\\n"I think people get confused about persuasion versus manipulation. I like to define the difference this way: persuasion results in you making a buying decision that you will celebrate later; manipulation leads to you making a buying decision that you will regret later.\\n"The key to guiding your clients toward a decision they will celebrate is\\u2014no surprise\\u2014knowing your clients really well! You think of the problem that you\\u2019re solving, and you write about it from the perspective of the person who has the problem, and you describe their pain. Someone once said that the more accurately you can describe the pain of the person you\\u2019re selling to, the more they feel as though you automatically have the solution to the problem.\\nWhew. Great stuff, huh?\\nGet even more of Ray\'s insights on how genuine, emotionally persuasive copy can make selling a breeze.\\xa0Click here to listen to the whole episode.\\xa0\\nOkay, now let\\u2019s get into the nuts and bolts of writing great copy.\\nRay has a couple of frameworks that he teaches anyone who is trying to improve their copywriting skills. The first one is called...\\nThe "Pastor" Framework\\nThis one gets its name from the original meaning of the word \\u201cpastor\\u201d\\u2014having to do with being a shepherd. (Kind of an old meaning of the word\\u2026look it up.) Not only does this word help you remember the purpose of your business\\u2014to help and take care of people with what you sell\\u2014but it also just happens to be a handy acronym for setting up the points of your sales page.\\nP \\u2014 Problem\\nA \\u2014 Amplify\\nS \\u2014 Story\\nT \\u2014 Testimonial\\nO \\u2014 Offer\\nR \\u2014 Response\\nAsk people to take action.\\nEPISODE FREEBIE Get 100+ Email and Headline Templates from Ray Edwards\\nFREE DOWNLOAD\\nThis last piece of the Pastor framework brings up an important point that should be present in your copy:\\nAny Decision Is Better Than No Decision\\nStep #1: The Existing Situation\\nStep #2: The Dream Solution\\nStep #3: Discovering the Trusted Guide\\nStep #4: Presenting the Unique Solution\\nStep #5: Describe the Features\\nStep #6: Describe the Benefits\\nStep #7: The Transformative Offer\\nStep #8: Present Proof\\nStep #9: Justify the Value\\nStep #10: Eliminate Fear and Risk\\nStep #11: Offer Bonuses\\nStep #12: Invite a Decision\\nMake sure\\xa0to\\xa0listen to my\\xa0full podcast interview\\xa0with Ray Edwards--we covered so much more than I could fit into this blog post! And don\'t forget to\\xa0sign up to receive more than 100 templates\\xa0for writing your own persuasive headlines and emails. This is the stuff that Ray normally offers only\\xa0to students of his copywriting course, so you\'re not going to want to miss it!'