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hey what's up Ryan Deiss here from digital marketer calm and I want to give you a really simple tool framework that you can use to write much higher converting copy even if you're not a skilled professional copywriter so let me tell you I get asked a lot of times to review sales copy and the biggest mistake that I see people making is they spend too much of their copy talking about their product as opposed to the end result now a lot of people say that but they're like they don't know how to make sure that they're talking about the end result so again I want to give you a tool a framework that we use here at digital marketer before we go in and start writing any copy that you can do as well and again that I am the reason we're I'm showing you this on a whiteboard is what I'm doing right now I invite you to do with your team make this a group effort all right try to get some more people involved because the more ideas the merrier let me first lay out kind of the overarching kind of structure of why this matters and really I guess the philosophy and the idea behind this and that's this at the end of the day human beings are really only ever buying one thing and the one thing that we're always buying is transformation alright I don't care what it is that you're selling the people who are buying it product service widget doesn't matter they're buying transformation they want to be transformed from a kind of less good version of themselves or a less good reality into a better reality it doesn't matter if you're selling a spoon or if you're selling like a multi-million dollar nuclear reactor alright it really doesn't matter the person who's buying it the entity that's buying it they simply want a better reality than the one that they have today so this idea of transformation if you want to simplify copywriting it's really we just need to learn to start speaking more transformation so the way that we visualize this is we think about our particular avatar right and in this case this is mister or missus before and as you can see they're not particularly happy they're not particularly thrilled with life because they don't yet know that you exist they've got a problem and they don't have the solution that is your product or service now this is them over here in their after state you can see now they're thrilled having to go up on my tippy this whiteboards really tall that or I'm really short I'll let you'd be the judge of that but here they are and they're before state here they are in their after state what we simply want to be able to articulate is this transformation this shift from the before state to the after state what is there before state like what is there after state like if you want to be a better copywriter if you want to be a better salesperson if you want to be a better marketer whatever it is that you want to do learn to acknowledge the before state that's called empathy right I understand where you are I see you I hear you I know where you are right now but don't just leave them there say and I know where you want to be you want to be in this after State so we're gonna meet them where they are but we're not gonna leave them there we're gonna talk about where they can go we're gonna give them hope all right hope is simply the promise that tomorrow will be better than today right so we're gonna acknowledge where they our empathy empathy combined with hope that's speaking transformational II all right that's what we talked about and where does your product sit your products it writes it's right here it is a transportation device it is a transformation device so the key is stop talking about your product as a product start talking about your product in the context where it takes somebody from this before state to this after State that's the big lesson that's the only thing you take away from this it's gonna be enough you're gonna be a better copywriter that said I want to give you kind of a simpler framework for actually articulating the before state and the after state and and the way that we deploy this what we do is we call it the before and after grid okay the before and after grid now what we're gonna do right here is we're gonna say this is this we're going to map out the before on this side we're going to map out the after all right so we've got before we have after I recommend trying to make this as big as possible gather your team get a bunch of sticky notes a bunch of post-it notes and you can actually have them write down suggestions and paste them up here it's a much faster way to do it than writing everything down there are five ways that we begin to articulate this shift from the before state to the after state that all goes through we can go through in an exercise as we continued downward say hopefully I've got enough room here as we progress downward they get increasingly more and more powerful alright so the first way that we can articulate this shift is through what we call have okay have in other words what do they have before that they don't have after if we're alleviating pain right or what do they have what don't they have before that they now have after so if you're selling widgets right again I'm selling a spoon to somebody who loves cereal right before you don't have a spoon you're trying to eat cereal with a fork the milks dripping through you're stabbing yourself in the cheek life is generally miserable after you have this amazingly convenient spoon that makes searly eating so much more enjoyable right before no spoon after spoon it's as simple as that well we think about have what we're really talking about is basic features kind of features and benefits that's what lives in this have state okay that's the features and benefits don't overthink it what do they have before that they don't have after if we're removing a pain or what don't they have before they now have after if we're giving them more if we're giving them something that they that they don't yet have don't overthink it keep it really really really tactical really practical all right that's step one that's have that's how we articulate the have and again if you're doing this with a team have them write down things on post-it notes stick them up here if you see two things that match pick one peel the other one away but begin to build out your grid so have have is where it starts the next step down is feel okay feel what we're beginning to articulate here is what is their emotional state before when they're when they're here and then what's their emotional state after right what's the emotional state before and what's the emotional state after now you can guess at this or you can bring in I absolutely recommend if you're doing this strategy and you have a team bring in some customer facing team team members so bring in a customer care rep a customer support person bring in a sales person someone who's talking to people in this before saying ask him what do they like you know how do they feel that did they sound frustrated are they angry are just what is their emotional state describe it describe the words that they use right what is kind of that negative before emotional state and then what is it like after right is it you know are they joyful is it relief and do they feel a sense of power right there are lots of ways that we can express emotion but one of the things that you've probably heard is if you want to be able if you want to be a better copywriter you need to write with more emotion you need to inject more emotion that's true but which emotion right what we want to make sure that we're doing is we're matching their emotional state when we're describing the before we want to make sure that we're linking them so if in the before state if they're if they're angry we want to say you know you know you're probably angry probably makes you angry when this happens if they're frustrated then you want to speak more in terms of the frustration so we want to match the emotion that we're injecting into our copy with the emotion that they're feeling so we need to make sure that we know what that is as precisely as possible to make sure that we're matching it as precisely as possible so have then we have feel the next one is average day have feel average day with average day what we're beginning to unpack is narrative so you've probably heard you need to learn to write with more emotion you've also probably heard that you need to learn to write with more stories so which stories are you gonna tell well I recommend that you tell stories about your customers so with average day we get done what is a day in their life before and what's a day in their life after now you can get hypothetical with this or you can tell an actual real-life story of one of your customers and you could say yeah Jan you know was experiencing you know a lot of frustrations a lot of difficulties about this and then after you know her life was really really great I'll give you an example of this maybe we can put it somewhere whether it's in a link below or something like that we got a link somewhere to to the chat books video because I believe that Harmon brothers some friends of ours they produce some of the best marketing videos that you've ever watched in your life they did the poopourri they did squatty potty basically if it's poop related Harmon Brothers produced it but another one that they did that wasn't poop related is the chat books video so you can google it you can look it up on YouTube it's a phenomenal example of really kind of dramatizing what's the average day in the life of a you know of a mom you know kind of a work from home mom before chat books and then what's it like after really really great example we'll link to it say about it you need to watch it great example before to after and referencing average day okay so what is that for you again you can make it up you can get hypothetical or you can get an actual real life story and just tell their stories that's what I mean by average day now can you see how as we move down it's getting more and more powerful right most marketers most copywriters live at the half stage they're talking features and benefits that's have can you see how if we begin to inject some emotion into it our copy gets a lot more powerful if we begin to inject some narrative in it the copy gets even more powerful but we're not just telling stories and emotions out of context we're telling stories and speaking in terms of emotion in the context of your here you want to be here we understand it and we have the solution alright so I just wanted to kind of pause and on that and really hit that point moving down the next level status status status is one of the single most powerful forces on earth Napoleon Bonaparte said I've made the most wonderful discovery men will fight long hard even die for a bit of colored ribbon right Napoleon realize I can get people to do really ridiculous and irrational things by increasing their status so ask yourself what is the status of your customer before and how are you able to change their status after you know one of the things that digital marketer that we realize is while we had really really really great content our content wasn't necessarily changing the status of our of our customers we were teaching him things I mean sure you know before they were frustrated and they felt lost because they didn't really know you know what they should do first or how to do it and we gave him community and so afterwards they had this sense of like confidence and understanding and really just you know power over the fact that they could they could influence the course of their of their company you know their average day is they're reading a billion blog posts trying to you know trying to rummage through all the you know muck that is the content ecosystem and in the marketing space and you know after they know exactly where to go they've got a one-stop shop they get in they get out they get the job done they go home but status we weren't really touching and so we realized is we need to introduce some aspect status and that that's when we launch certifications so if you're a member of La Plus or elite you know that we don't just teach content marketing will actually certify you on content marketing and you get a badge and a certificate all these things that's status all right now you may say how that doesn't matter to me and it may not in certain areas but I guarantee it does in others because as human beings status is everything it's how we order ourselves in society and it's just baked into us so the question I would have for you and really a question ask your team is how can you influence the status how can you change the story that that your customers tell about themselves when we got an average day we talked about the importance of telling your customers a story if you tell your customers story if you tell your prospects a story you'll engage their their minds you'll you'll engage their attention you'll capture their attention if you alter the story that they tell about themselves which is really what status is all about that's when you capture their heart alright that's when you really really have them telling them a story capture their attention change the story they tell about themselves capture their heart alright I used to believe that status was the most powerful of all that's where this grid used to stop I got to give credit where credit's due my good friend Donald Miller who wrote the book building a story brand said actually there's one even higher than status and this is this concept of good versus evil all right good versus evil and what we're simply saying is how can you pit your product and align your product your service with your customer in a battle to the death between good versus evil now this sounds really bold this sounds really extreme but if you think about some of the biggest brands in the world they touched on this another video that I would maybe encourage your watch after the chat books video is the Apple 1984 video this was a commercial that ran during the 1984 Super Bowl it was a commercial that ran only once during that Super Bowl it's produced by Ridley Scott and it absolutely positions Apple and their brand-new soon-to-be released computer the Macintosh in this fight between the evil that is IBM and the cloned computers that were out at the time and being released at the time between this new individualistic technology that was going to be the Macintosh and if you really if you think about Apple as a brand the reason they've been so successful is because what they've done everything they've sold whether it was computers the iPod it's always about giving us our own individuality back they've been selling us ourselves back here's your individuality look you're not you don't have to be a clone that is this fight between good versus evil if you think about other brands think about a brand like chick-fil-a right chick-fil-a will take a very strong stance and whether you agree or disagree with them you may hate their politics and hate their views but you can't deny the fact that when they say we are closed on Sundays they're saying something about where they stand in a battle that they perceive to be between good and evil that's a stance that they are taking now good versus evil it is not easily done by by brands you may not have this yet but I would encourage you to continue to search for it now I'll give you another one last example then we'll kind of close this this example this particular training and that's what's ours at digital marketer so I'll kind of let you look behind the scenes just a little bit because for us at digital marketer I mentioned before we didn't have status we also didn't have good versus evil and what we ultimately decided and kind of a where we are planting our flag at digital marketer is you know our mission is to double the size of 10,000 businesses but our why what's beginning to come out more and more and more is we want to double the size of 10,000 good businesses the 10,000 businesses that truly deserve to win you say we see the great evil in this world being companies that don't deserve to win win not because they have the best product and not because they have the best service but because they're better marketers so a digital marketer we believe in leveling the playing field so that those who deserve to win we will win the evil out there are companies and products and services that don't deserve to win winning why because they're better marketers not because they offer a better product the best plumber in your town the person with 20 30 years of experience might be losing to somebody who has no business doesn't know the difference between a pipe wrench and a plunger but you know what maybe he's better at Google AdWords so he's getting all the traffic we believe that that's evil so a digital marketer we believe in leveling the playing field so the best product the best service can win that's why we're gonna democratize all of our knowledge that's what we're gonna open source everything that we you know know works out there that's why we're not gonna charge as much there's a lot of the other companies right we're gonna make the entry point really really really low why because we think it's evil that inferior products and inferior services win just because they're better marketers and the way that we defeat that is by equipping everyone with the same set of marketing skills so that's where we are at digital marketer now you don't necessarily have to you know project it from the rooftops but if it begins to influence all the other copy that you're writing if it's just there in the background if the copyright kind of marinates in it for a while it will come through and it will be authentic and one of these days maybe you run a nineteen eighty four style commercial during the Super Bowl and you let everybody know exactly how you are working with them in this balance of the death between good versus evil now whether you get all the way down here if you will simply shift from have to feel and from feel to average day just getting into the average day beginning to tell better stories just that will make you a better copywriter will make you a better marketer but really at the end of the day of all you learn to do is to just stop talking about your dang product and start speaking about transformation that in and of itself will absolutely make you a better marketer and a better copywriter so I hope you found this framework helped I hope you use it with your team and hope you go out and start transforming more lives thanks so much for watching I'll see you the next one