The $12,500 Copywriting Formula That Makes You Buy What They’re Sellin’

Jun 22nd, 2009 by Brett Greene

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Have you heard of Brian Keith Voiles? Probably not, but if you have eyes you’ve seen his ad campaigns and you probably even bought products that he created ad campaigns for.

Would you like to have the formula he gets paid $12,500 to put into use for Fortune 500 Companies? Are you curious as to how this formula is used to influence your buying decisions?

Well then, today’s your lucky day, isn’t it? You’ll notice this formula whenever you read a sales letter or an ad. Remember that the key to writing a sales letter is that the job of every paragraph is to make the reader want to read the next paragraph. Now that you know this you may catch yourself thinking of this when you hypnotically continue to watch an infomercial or read an enticing offer.

This is the secret skeleton used to write the most successful ads that grab your attention and motivate you to give out those credit card digits.

1. ATTENTION – Write a headline that GRABS your reader. Fear or curiosity are good places to start. For example: “Ex-Truck Driver Makes $21,815 a Month Doing What You’re Not”

2. INTEREST – List the benefits of your product or service. Acknowledge their problem while showing you have the solution. Show that you’ve been where they are and you can help them.

3. CREDIBILITY – Mention referrals and references of how others have benefited from your product or service.

4. PROVE – Show testimonials with full names and cities or countries. Offer a risk-free guarantee.

5. BELIEVABLE – Give your full contact information. Make it easy for them to buy with no hassles. Let them know why they should trust you.

6. SCARCITY – Have limited offers, special time sensitive sales, discounts on a few products in limited quantity.

7. ACTION – Ask for the sale. Make it simple.

8. WARN – Let them know the pain they’ll experience if they don’t use your product. i.e. If you’re selling a wrinkle cream let them know how dry their face will be and how much deeper their wrinkles will get without your product – if that’s true. Don’t lie.

9. NOW – Tell them why they should buy right now.

That’s it. Now you’ve got the skeleton that the best copywriters in the world use. If you’re a marketer this won’t be gold, it will be platinum.

If you’re a consumer, this is a platinum shield to help you take a deep breath and question if you REALLY need that product or service before parting with your hard earned cash. Read the formula a few times and you’ll start to notice it in the structure of commercials, the language of print advertising and the content of major marketing pitches that effectively get you to buy whatever they’re sellin’.

Tags: brian keith voiles, buyer beware, commercial, commercials, copywriting, infomercial, infomercials, marketing pitches, sales, sales letter

Posted in Advertising, Beliefs, Books, Consumerism, Marketing

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2175 Responses2009-06-22+18%3A46%3A03Brett+Greene to “The $12,500 Copywriting Formula That Makes You Buy What They’re Sellin’”

on 30 Oct 2008 at 7:54 pm1ExpertCopywriterSecret

hi Green..
love your post..
but its better if you provide the details. Ex : how to write headline that grabs your visitor, how to write benefit (bullet) of your product or service..etc..
on 30 Oct 2008 at 11:22 pm2Jared

Hi Sopan-
Nice article. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head for what the traditional methods of marketing copy have done over the years to convince people to part with their money.
I can’t help but wonder if it is as effective these days, on a generation of people who are growing up with an almost congenital ability to sift through massive amounts of informational noise in a short amount of time.
For example, points #1 and #8 absolutely *do not* work on me, and have an opposite effect….those kinds of headlines and/or copy make me run away, and fast. Perhaps it goes back to an innate awareness of “too good to be true”?
It would be very interesting to read a study on the effects of this kind of marketing on different age groups. Perhaps it is just as effective across the generations, and I’m just the odd man out!
Thanks for a well-written article.
on 31 Oct 2008 at 2:11 pm3Sopan Greene

Expert Copywriter Secret,
Thanks for the comment. I didn’t go into more detail to keep the post short. There will be future blog posts on how to write and notice headlines that hook you. This site is aimed mostly at informing consumers on how to be more savvy rather than how to teach marketers how to be better at marketing. The two coalesce often though.
on 31 Oct 2008 at 2:17 pm4Sopan Greene

Thanks for the comment Jared,
Though you seem to be more marketing aware than the average person, I agree with you that younger generations are much better at seeing through disingenuous advertising tactics. I appreciate you mentioning your personal experience and questions about how effective this classic formula is in the very different world we live in today. My guess is that every day it gets harder for ad messages to break through the wall of noisy marketing messages being pitched. Relationship marketing through company-to-consumer conversations on blogs, Twitter and social media is redefining the landscape is wonderful ways.
on 24 Jun 2009 at 5:30 am5Paul, copysnips.com

Thanks for the great formula. As you say, most of the great copywriters will have all of these elements in their copy, and more.

In reply to Jared, just remember that some of the stuff may work less on marketers and copywriters (I’m assuming you have some knowledge of these subjects, since you read the post), but we’re not usually the target audience… unless we’re selling copywriting stuff

It’s what works on the target audience that matters.

Twitter: @copysnips