How to Hook (More) Copywriting Prospects

The other day I was asked a ques­tion I hear all too often: “How do I dis­tin­guish myself from other copywriters?”

To find the answer, look to one of the most effec­tive and fre­quently used copy­writ­ing and mar­ket­ing tools. It’s your “Unique Sell­ing Propo­si­tion,” or USP.

(I pre­fer to call it a “Unique Sell­ing Posi­tion.” If you’ve read my book, “Power Posi­tion­ing,” then you’d know that I’m a big fan of posi­tion­ing rather than prospecting.)

Your USP is also your “hook.”

Time and time again, I’ve told many aspir­ing copy­writ­ers and mar­keters that a USP is what dis­tin­guishes you from the pack. It increases per­ceived value, exper­tise, and cred­i­bil­ity — with­out need­ing to state it outright.

But since I hear this ques­tion often, par­tic­u­larly from copy­writ­ers just enter­ing the field, I sense that it’s because peo­ple need a lit­tle help in defin­ing their USP.

So to help you, here’s a tip.

In mar­ket­ing acad­e­mia, they say that every prod­uct or ser­vice has three lev­els. They include:

• The core product.
• The prod­uct itself.
• The aug­mented product.

What does this have to do with devel­op­ing a USP? Before I share it to you, let me explain what these three prod­uct lev­els mean.

• The core prod­uct is the actual end-​​result, the ben­e­fits, that the prod­uct offers. It’s what the prod­uct does for peo­ple. As Theodore Levitt once said, peo­ple don’t buy quarter-​​inch drills. They buy quarter-​​inch holes.
• The actual prod­uct is what the prod­uct is and con­sists of. This includes the things that make the prod­uct a prod­uct. Those are the fea­tures, the com­po­nents, the ingre­di­ents, even the packaging.
• Finally, the aug­mented prod­uct is what is added to the prod­uct or offer to aug­ment it. Things like free ship­ping, guar­an­tees, cus­tomer sup­port, pre­mi­ums, etc.

Now, in the con­text of copy­writ­ing, you can look at it this way (and this is just an example):

1) Core Product:

Gen­er­ate and/​or increase response.

2) Actual Product:

The copy itself.

Writ­ing the copy includes research, writ­ing the first draft, and deliv­er­ing the final draft, prob­a­bly in the form of a Word doc­u­ment or plain text file. It includes all the ele­ments that help to achieve the core prod­uct: head­line, sto­ry­line, bul­lets, prod­uct details, offer, response device, etc.

It also includes the mar­ket you’re sell­ing to, such as focus­ing on a spe­cific indus­try or audi­ence, or a par­tic­u­lar kind of copy such as sales let­ters, direct mail, web­sites, etc.

3) Aug­mented Product:

What­ever you add above and beyond the actual product.

Extras, value-​​adds, add-​​ons, bonuses, pre­mi­ums, and addi­tional things, which can vary tremen­dously from copy­writer to copy­writer, and indus­try to industry.

For exam­ple, it can include for­mat­ting, graphic design, lay­out sug­ges­tions, project man­age­ment, mar­ket research, rewrites, guar­an­tees, split-​​testing the actual copy before the final draft, exclu­siv­ity, rush ser­vice for quicker turn­arounds, etc.

How do you use these three lay­ers to define a USP?

Think of these three lay­ers in the form of a bulls-​​eye, where you have three con­cen­tric cir­cles. The cen­ter of the bulls-​​eye being the core prod­uct, the mid­dle layer being the actual prod­uct, and the outer layer the aug­mented product.

Now, to develop a unique sell­ing propo­si­tion, you can add, remove, change, or give a unique twist to any of these three levels.

The eas­i­est way, of course, it to go from the out­side in. That is, find ways to aug­ment your prod­uct that few do or that no one does. It may not be one sin­gle thing. It may be a com­bi­na­tion of them.

(Why is this the sim­plest way? Because com­ing up with dif­fer­ent angles or vari­a­tions of the cen­ter of the bulls-​​eye requires a bit more cre­ative think­ing. Mind you, devel­op­ing a USP from within usu­ally pro­duces the best “hooks,” the most prospects, and the great­est per­ceived value.)

Nev­er­the­less, here’s an exam­ple of work­ing with the out­side layer: you can offer design sug­ges­tions, lay­outs and mock­ups, addi­tional tips on how to best use the copy, offer free revi­sions, writ­ing copy for other parts of the sales fun­nel (opt-​​in page, order page, thank-​​you page, autore­spon­ders, etc), and so on.

Here’s an extra tip.

Don’t offer these willy-​​nilly. Always place a value on these aug­mented ele­ments or add-​​ons. Why? Because if you don’t, peo­ple will assume that it’s part of your orig­i­nal offer­ing. It may even decrease your per­ceived value.

The idea is to increase the per­cep­tion of higher value. And to do that, you must not only add value to the core offer but also make it visible.

For exam­ple, don’t say your copy comes with for­mat­ting and lay­out sug­ges­tions. Say you will throw in for­mat­ting and lay­out sug­ges­tions, which are addi­tional ser­vices, free of charge.

Plus, add a dol­lar value on those add-​​ons as if you were to sell them sep­a­rately. Don’t say your copy comes with one or two revi­sions. Say your copy comes with an addi­tional revi­sion, free of charge, worth $500.

(Aside from the increase in value per­cep­tion, this tac­tic also helps to pre­vent free­load­ers and deal-​​seekers from ask­ing for con­ces­sions before, dur­ing, and after the project, because they feel you’re already mak­ing some.)

Next in the lay­ers is the actual prod­uct. What can you change, add, or remove from the actual prod­uct so that it makes you unique?

For instance, how do you con­duct your research? Do you inter­view the client or the client’s clients? Do you have a prepara­tory ques­tion­naire they must fill-​​out before work com­mences? How is your copy writ­ten and delivered?

While it is eas­ier to work with the aug­mented prod­uct first, there is also an easy way to work with the mid­dle layer. Which is, of course, niche mar­ket­ing. It’s to focus on a par­tic­u­lar audi­ence, indus­try, or style of copy.

You could be a copy­writer spe­cial­iz­ing in, say, health prod­ucts. You could even hone it down to, say, nutri­tion and foods. You could even be a copy­writer who focuses on diets and weight­loss exclusively.

But don’t just focus on indus­tries or niches.

Remem­ber, it’s the “actual” prod­uct. What you choose to work on and deliver can also be spe­cial­ized. You don’t have to add or change any­thing, either. You can sim­ply remove some­thing to make your­self unique.

In fact, offer­ing less or focus­ing strictly on a cer­tain type of copy can cre­ate instant demand and cred­i­bil­ity, because being a spe­cial­ist cre­ates the per­cep­tion of greater exper­tise and skill.

For exam­ple, you might be a copy­writer who focuses strictly on head­lines. As a result, you become known as the head­line expert. When peo­ple (or other copy­writ­ers) need help with their head­lines, they turn to you.

Or you might be one who only focuses on ini­tial drafts in plain text. While that might seem like a lesser offer­ing, you can say that this is a ben­e­fit since you’re entirely focused on the research and the con­tent — unlike other copy­writ­ers who offer too much, overex­tend them­selves, and dilute their value as a result.

A neu­rol­o­gist is still a doc­tor. But you wouldn’t have a gen­eral prac­ti­tioner work on your brain, right? You want a doc­tor who spe­cial­izes in the spe­cific prob­lem or area that needs attention.

Copy­writ­ers are no different.

I know some copy­writ­ers who spe­cial­ize strictly in soft­ware copy, cat­a­logs, or autore­spon­ders, or a com­bi­na­tion of niches and copy types — such as direct mail for the finan­cial indus­try. And they’re doing quite well.

Finally, the inner­most layer, the cen­ter of the bulls-​​eye, is the hard­est part.

Copy is copy. And copy has one prin­ci­pal func­tion. But let’s say that your copy’s goal is to increase the client’s response, as it is with most copy. Ask your­self, what other ben­e­fits do you offer?

I don’t mean addi­tional ben­e­fits pro­vided by the aug­mented prod­uct. I’m talk­ing about the copy itself. What else does your copy do for your clients? What else does your copy­writ­ing ser­vice specif­i­cally bring to the table?

Sure, the ulti­mate goal is to boost response, sales, and profits.

But per­haps it’s to make the client look good as to increase refer­ral clients. Maybe it’s to increase vis­i­bil­ity or gen­er­ate more word-​​of-​​mouth. Or per­haps it’s to attract qual­i­fied staff or poten­tial investors.

You can and should think of all the ben­e­fits your copy delivers.

Don’t just stick with the obvious.

Take some time (even write a list, if you have to) of all the advan­tages your spe­cific copy offers. What kind of results have you achieved in the past? What other ben­e­fits (includ­ing unsought ben­e­fits) did your clients receive?

(Some­times, ask­ing for or re-​​reading client tes­ti­mo­ni­als can offer some clues. If not, take some time to inter­view some of your past clients. Ask them what your copy did for them, beyond just increas­ing sales.)

Say your client is also look­ing for copy that “sounds like them.” In other words, they want a copy­writer with a knack for writ­ing in their voice, their lan­guage, and their com­mu­ni­ca­tion style.

In this case, it makes your ghost­writ­ing abil­ity far more effec­tive than other copy­writ­ers. That’s a USP right there. (As your “hook,” you might call your­self “The Chameleon Copywriter.”)

Here are some real-​​world examples.

David Garfinkel is an excel­lent copy­writer. He may label him­self as a copy­writer, but he is also known as “The World’s Great­est Copy­writ­ing Teacher” by his peers. That’s his USP.

Speak­ing of hooks, another top copy­writer, my friend John Carl­ton, is a mas­ter at find­ing hooks for his clients. That’s his hook.

Brian Clark, also known as “The Copy Blog­ger,” pub­lishes one of the most pro­lific blogs on the Inter­net. The rea­son is obvi­ous: Brian focuses on writ­ing copy for blogs. That’s his shtick.

Michael Stelzner is an excel­lent copy­writer, too. But his focus is on writ­ing for white papers, includ­ing reports, newslet­ters, and col­lat­eral mate­ri­als. That’s his expertise.

While Tom Chan­dler deals mostly with cor­po­rate clients, he is the expert on some­thing he calls engage­ment copy­writ­ing, which is copy that’s meant to engage the reader and encour­age inter­ac­tion. That’s his specialty.

(On the topic of hooks, Tom is also a rabid fly fish­er­man.)

What about you?

Again, you need to take some time to really think about this. It might not come overnight — for me, as an exam­ple, it took over a decade to find the var­i­ous ben­e­fits my copy specif­i­cally brings to the table.

The dif­fer­ence is, you have a leg up because I’m let­ting you know about this now so you can work on it right away — with­out hav­ing to wait and learn it all by your­self, like I did.

In the end, there are so many ways to develop a good USP. There are so many vari­ants. The idea is to be a bit cre­ative, a bit of a con­trar­ian, and a bit dif­fer­ent — not nec­es­sar­ily a whole lot.

Just by being 10% dif­fer­ent, unique, orig­i­nal, or spe­cial is enough to make you stand out like a sore thumb in an over­crowded, hyper­com­pet­i­tive marketplace.

About the Author

Last 5 Posts By Michel Fortin

• Superior Value Equals Superior Sales
• On Not Playing The Blame Game
• The Future of The Internet is Cloudy
• Carve Your Niche By Dominating One
• Can Copy And Content Commingle?

Other Related Posts

• The Seven Deadly Sins of Website Copy (31)
• Lowball Puts You Behind The Eight Ball (9)
• Why Freelance Copywriters Go Hungry (27)
• Three Tips For Finding Top-Shelf Clients (12)
• Risk-Reversal's Role Reversal (8)