The Amazing Secret Of The Dark-Erasing Beam Cylinder

Today I have an incredible secret to share with you…

It’s a secret that is shared by an elite group of fearless adventurers…

These daredevils willingly venture into the heart of the Earth…

Winding their way through secret tunnels and hidden passages, some so narrow that these daring souls have to inch forward on their bellies…

Deep into the bowels of the Earth, where no light can enter. Only inky blackness that clutches at you until the panic rises in your throat…

But these adventurers never feel that fear. They march forward with supreme confidence.

Why?

Because they wield the power of the Dark-Erasing Beam Cylinder.

This cold metal object slices through the darkness until every crevasse is bathed in brilliant illumination…

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OK, enough of that.

Question:

Can you imagine reading copy like that for a flashlight on Amazon?

No, of course not. It’s absurd, and it would almost certainly bomb.

But WHY?

I’ll circle back to that in just a minute.

Last week I did a quick copy critique recently for a subscriber named Jonathan.

Jonathan creates video sales letters (or “VSLs” in copywriter-slang), and he’d written a “classified ad” to sell his services on a jobs board for online marketers.

And while Jonathan’s copy was a lot less ridiculous than my hypothetical Amazon listing, he still made the same fundamental mistake.

Here’s the intro he wrote—see if you can spot the problem:

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Do you get traffic to your website or sales funnel but sales are small?

Need to boost your conversion rates?

Don’t have the time or skills to produce great sales copy?

You’re about to hear the secret to the success of some of the world’s best-selling online products, highest converting websites and most profitable sales funnels.

But before I let you in on the secret, you should know that:

  • The biggest names in Marketing use these including Ryan Dyess, John Carlton, Ryan Levesque, Jay Abraham, Eben Pagen, Todd Brown and our own Perry Marshall
  • This may shake up your business
  • It may change your life
  • Brands like Agora Publishing, Porter Stansbury, Pimsleur and Ford have used these methods to make over $1 BILLION dollars
  • You may find financial freedom and liberation like you could only dream of before

What is this amazing tool?

It’s the Video Sales Letter, a/k/a the VSL…

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What’s the common thread?

Both of these examples start at the wrong “knowledge level”:

They misjudge what the target audience already knows about the product.

You’re very familiar with what a flashlight is.

So trying to hype a simple flashlight as some kind of mystical device just isn’t going to get you excited.

Same thing with VSLs.

Jonathan’s audience already knows what a VSL is. They know that video can often convert better than a text-only page. They’ve probably even thought about adding video to their website.

His attempt to present a VSL as a major new breakthrough will just damage his credibility with the marketers who read his ad.

Knowing what these “knowledge levels” are—and how to correctly size up where your audience falls on the spectrum—is one of the most important techniques to writing copy that sells (instead of coming off like a bunch of empty hype).

And my buddy Derek Johanson has recently retooled his stellar CopyHour program to focus on this key principle.

I got in on a “beta test” of the new program, and I have to say it’s a HUGE improvement over the (already awesome) version that I used a couple of years ago to launch my career as a copywriter.

Along with a complete overhaul of the course, Derek is also shaking up how he runs the course.

From now on the course will be “live,” meaning you’ll be going through it with dozens of other students. That’s great for accountability and sharing what you’re learning.

It also means more direct attention from Derek—who is a GREAT teacher.

So he’s closed down enrollment, and you can only join during limited windows a few times per year.

One of those windows is coming up in just a few days.

I’ll be sending an announcement to anyone who’s interested in joining.

To make sure you don’t get locked out, jump on my email list.

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