Your Reader Wants To Know These 5 Things

The other day, one of my read­ers asked me the fol­low­ing ques­tion, which I found rather inter­est­ing: “Why should the author of a prod­uct be included in their sales copy?”

Seems like a pretty redun­dant ques­tion, right? Espe­cially to any vet­eran copy­writer or mar­keter worth their salt.

But the ques­tion didn’t stop there. The reader offered the fol­low­ing insight, which explains why this issue was such an impor­tant one to him, and why I felt com­pelled to answer:

“Specif­i­cally, why do my read­ers need to know who I am or what I bring to the table? How does telling them my qual­i­fi­ca­tions increase the strength of my copy? My prod­uct solves a med­ical con­di­tion. But I am not a doc­tor and I have never had this con­di­tion myself. I’ve spent a year research­ing the best method to cure this con­di­tion. I have a list of 20,000 peo­ple with this con­di­tion and con­verse with them a lot. I know pretty much every­thing there is to know about this con­di­tion and have made it into an ebook.”

The answer is quite sim­ple, actu­ally. In fact, in his attempt to defend him­self (i.e., that he’s not a doc­tor but has lots of expe­ri­ence and spe­cial­ized knowl­edge about his mar­ket), the reader answered his own ques­tion. Let me explain…

Why should peo­ple buy from you?

This is not some new con­cept. John E. Kennedy, a Cana­dian fire­man back in 1905, was the per­son who coined the term “Reasons-​​Why Adver­tis­ing” in a book of the same name. (He was also the per­son who coined the famous term “salesmanship-​​in-​​print.”)

I’m a big fan of reasons-​​why adver­tis­ing.

I always try to add as many rea­sons as pos­si­ble in my copy, such as why the offer is made, why the author is mak­ing it, and why it’s impor­tant to the reader.

Good, suc­cess­ful copy tells the reader why right upfront because they always ask. If you don’t tell them, the irony is they’re left won­der­ing why you left it out. It is almost always a direct advan­tage to tell your prospects why they should buy from you.

Addi­tion­ally, peo­ple want to know five dif­fer­ent types of rea­sons. They are:

1. Why you (the reader)
2. Why me (the author)
3. Why this (the offer)
4. Why now (the urgency)
5. Why this price (the value)

1. Why You?

Your copy should qual­ify the reader for the prod­uct you’re sell­ing and the offer you’re mak­ing. As part of this qual­i­fi­ca­tion process, it should address why the reader is tar­geted to, and suited for, them — includ­ing in read­ing the copy in the first place.

For exam­ple, why is this impor­tant to them? Why is this copy, prod­uct, or offer per­fect for them? Who is it not appro­pri­ate for? In other words, who should not read the copy?

2. Why Me?

Cre­den­tial­iza­tion is an impor­tant ele­ment in copy. Your cre­den­tials — as the author, seller, or provider — are immensely impor­tant to build cred­i­bil­ity and lower buyer resis­tance, par­tic­u­larly in this day and age of scams, cyn­i­cism, and competitiveness.

Tell your read­ers why they should read what you have to say. Whether you’re an accred­ited expert or not, the more rea­sons you give, then the more cred­i­ble you are, the more believ­able your copy is, and the more apt peo­ple are to buy from you.

(This is the sec­tion to which the reader’s ques­tion above relates, and I’ll come back to this in a moment as it is impor­tant — espe­cially as it per­tains to the lack of credentials.)

3. Why This?

Are you sell­ing this prod­uct just to make money? Per­haps. But whether mak­ing money is the main rea­son or not, either directly or indi­rectly, your prod­uct exists and your offer is made for spe­cific rea­sons. So why not put them in your copy?

Don’t assume your reader knows or doesn’t care about them, no mat­ter how triv­ial you may think they are. If you don’t include them in your copy, left to their own devices your read­ers will be the ones mak­ing assump­tions. (And they won’t all be positive.)

4. Why Now?

Jim Rohn said, “With­out a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.” Whether it’s direct (such as a dead­line or lim­i­ta­tion) or implied (such as miss­ing out on some­thing impor­tant), adding scarcity and rea­sons to act now is important.

But by itself, urgency is almost always sus­pect. So back it up with rea­sons why your read­ers should act now. Don’t be shy in explain­ing why they must take advan­tage of the offer imme­di­ately, or what the con­se­quences are if they don’t.

5. Why This Price?

Why did you price your prod­uct or make the offer the way you did? Per­haps your price is based on indus­try aver­ages. Or you’re doing a clear­ance sale to make way for new stock. Maybe your prod­uct is new and you’re offer­ing an intro­duc­tory price.

But do your read­ers know? Do they, really?

Don’t be afraid to tell your read­ers why they should pay what you’re ask­ing for. Why is it valu­able to them? At least com­pare your price to the ulti­mate cost of either buy­ing an alter­na­tive (per­haps even com­pet­ing) prod­uct, or not buy­ing your prod­uct at all.

The bottom-​​line? The most impor­tant word in per­sua­sion, accord­ing to Dr. Robert Cial­dini, author of Influ­ence: The Psy­chol­ogy of Per­sua­sion, is not “you” or “free.”

The most impor­tant word in per­sua­sion is “because.”

Now, let me go back to the orig­i­nal question…

In this case, this per­son has quite a dis­tinct sell­ing point. They are what is referred to as the “anti-​​authority.” Non-​​experts. Lay peo­ple. And the fact that they are not a doc­tor, which means they are more like their read­ers, can be posi­tioned as a major advantage.

They did all this research from a layperson’s per­spec­tive. They did all the leg­work for their read­ers, which not only saves them time but also is per­ceived as less biased.

They did all the search­ing for them. They ana­lyzed all the data (from an outsider’s van­tage point) and cher­ryp­icked the best answers. And they con­densed and dis­tilled their find­ings into one, easy-​​to-​​read, easy-​​to-​​find place.

Add to that the fact they con­versed with over 20,000 peo­ple afflicted with this con­di­tion and know almost every­thing about it, makes them a lot more cred­i­ble than some gen­eral prac­ti­tioner who may have come across just a few hun­dred cases in their practice.

So this per­son is loaded with cre­den­tials, par­tic­u­larly unique ones, that def­i­nitely shouldn’t be avoided or hid­den from the reader. In fact, it should be not only com­mu­ni­cated but also high­lighted as a major ben­e­fit in the copy.

So, to the ques­tion “why you?” Because in the mind of the reader, you are the expert on this sub­ject. Use your unique cred­i­bil­ity and expe­ri­ence as a major sell­ing point.

About the Author

Last 5 Posts By Michel Fortin

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