Research library Required reading Copy that sells
How Much Does the Reader Already Know?
Michael Masterson and John Forde reduced the opening of a sales message to six kinds of lead, ordered from the most direct to the most indirect. The right one depends on how aware your prospect already is.
Michael Masterson & John Forde · Great Leads · 2011
What it is
A short, practical book from two veteran direct-response copywriters, published by American Writers & Artists Inc. in 2011. Its subject is the opening of a sales message, the lead, which they treat as the most important part of it.
They sort leads into six types, running from the most direct to the most indirect: the Offer lead, the Promise lead, the Problem-Solution lead, the Big Secret lead, the Proclamation lead and the Story lead.
What we took from it
The question that picks the lead: how much does the prospect already know? It’s Eugene Schwartz’s awareness ladder turned into a working tool. A prospect who already wants the product can take a straight offer. One who doesn’t yet know the problem has a name needs to be brought in sideways, with a story or a startling claim. Pick the wrong lead for the reader and even good copy falls flat.
Where it shows up in our work
A lead is a filter as much as a hook. A direct offer speaks to people already close to buying. An indirect lead casts wider, and brings in readers further from the decision. Neither is wrong; they bring in different people at different costs, and the people they bring in are worth different amounts.
So when we test leads, we don’t stop at which one pulls more responses. We ask which one pulls the buyers worth having.
Next on the shelf Robert B. Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion