On a fine Saturday afternoon, I joined this copywriting masterclass event from Crazy Ant. This class is conducted by their co-founder who is also the senior sales copywriter of Mindvalley, Benjamin Sim!
In this 2 hour masterclass, he teaches the basic of copywriting and how to make copy that converts. So if you are business person, freelancers, or someone who wants to use a copy to sell instead of being a door-to-door salesman, this is for you.
Again, I was late for this masterclass because I did not realise I have to register from a web URL and therefore I did not get the link! But the Crazy Ants team were suppeeeerr kind and gave me the link anyways!! (I love this company already)
I was 30mins late in this event (what’s with me being late 30mins after the event started? This happened twice already!) and therefore I only watched from the part 3 of their lesson.
The third lesson Ben was sharing is 7 Building blocks in Copywriting.
So the 7 building blocks are :
1. TWO words that set you up for success : “NOBODY” “CARES”
What this means is : always assume that nobody cares about you. It is a harsh truth but it’s still a truth nevertheless! So, how to make them care about you? Well, you have to first care about them!
Remember, write for THEM. Not for YOU. Here’s a small example : Nobody cares if your company has been in the business for 17 years and worked with famous companies”. If you write this, people mostly would not care and thought “so, what?” . Instead, change this to something like “we help business like yours to grow”.
2. Copy is NOT a written language
Think of the best ad that you can remember. Does the copy sound like a formal letter, or like someone speak to you? This is the thing, copy is a spoken language. The simple rule when you write is to think like this : “Does this sound like how you would whatsapp a friend?”.
3. Make them feel special.
If you have a gf/bf and you keep ignoring them by doing more work, they will say something like : “you don’t care about me!”. Why? Because you didn’t make them feel special. In order to make someone feel special you would say something like “you are my only one” . So this tells you that in order to make someone feel special, write to only ONE person in mind. Although your copy is going to be read by thousands of people, only 1 person will read at one time. Example, if you wanted to write a copy for those that just attended your event, you might say “thank you all for coming to this event”. The word “you all” is in plural form, this speaks to more than 1 person. Instead, try to remove the word “all” and write like this : “thank you for coming to this event”. By just removing this 1 word, you made it sound like as it intended for 1 person, which is good!
Another example is : imagine your friend texted you with this message “Hey, how is everyone doing with the lockdown?” , you might think this is a broadcasted/copy pasted message, right? But if you get this message : “Hey, how are you doing with the lockdown?”, less likely you’d think this is a broadcasted message (although it might be) and therefore replies this message.
4. The end Goal (Feature vs Benefit)
Ben opened this topic with a question : who wants a million dollar ? Which everyone of course says they do. Then, he asked another question : “Who wants a stress free and high class lifestyle?” to which most replied with the same answer. It actually got me thinking and realised that I don’t know what I want! Anyways, this question then leads to him explaining that Money is just a means to a goal. The 1 mil dollar is a way to get high class stress free lifestyle. So it is not that people actually want 1 mil dollar. They actually want the high class stress free lifestyle! Now this further explains about FEATURE vs BENEFIT.
You see, FEATURE is what the product is. While BENEFIT is what the product does for the user.
Here’s an example : a smartphone has 13MP camera and 5000mAH battery capacity.
These are the features.
The benefits are : so you can take high quality pictures and does not have to carry powerbank and charge constantly!
2 rule of thumb :
Ask yourself, “why does user want this feature?”
Use “so that” rule : “(Feature) so that (Benefit)”
Remember, people buy BENEFIT, not feature.
5. What every 5 year old says in a toy store
Ben then asked the audience, what would a 5 year old say in a toy store to which most of us replied “I want this!”. So in this section, it explains the importance of WANT vs NEED. The rule of thumb is that WANT is infinitely stronger than NEED. Therefore, lead user with what they want then give what they need.
6. We don’t think, we FEEL.
People buy with emotion and then justify with logic.
Logic makes people think and emotion makes people buy.
There is a reason some people buy a more expensive products, for example “I don’t want to feed my children with that cheap formula milk!”. And in the terms of emotions, negative emotion is apparently 10x more motivating than positive emotion. Ben shared that people apparently will react more with fear of losing something than gaining something.
Another thing to note is that people are more interested in story.
For example, you are running a charity company that helps to feed homeless and you are looking for people to donate. The performance of your copy will be much better when you tells a story, for example, “Anita is a single mom who dream of having a home to protect her son and send her son to have a good education” rather than “2 out of 10 people in KL are homeless”
7. Three Letter word that keeps people hooked : “NEW”
This is what instagram and facebook have been using to get you hooked on their platform. The idea can be old but it has to be repackaged in the new way.
BONUS TIP!
8. Cliche words
Some words have stigma attached to them. So it is better to avoid cliche words.
Example of cliche word : “Passive Income”
Some people in the audience gets bad response after seeing this word. Some commented that it reminds them of scam, motivational speaker, paying for a course, bad investment, etc.
Ben shares how this word is such a cliche word because most people would think of those motivational speakers that we always see their ad on facebook. Instead, he recommends changing it to “second income”. It serves the same meaning, but doesn’t have those stigma around it!
And then we move on to the 4th lesson, which is P.O.P System for writing high converting copy.
The first P is for PROSPECT
Prospect is all about understanding your user and find out what they WANT.
He gave an example of Gary Halbert giving an assignment to a youngster on selling a viagra, target audience is 50-70 year old man. Ben Sim then asked us “can you guess why 50-70 year old man would buy a viagra?” Some commented similar answers such as : to feel young again, for ego, or because they can’t get it up anymore.
So Ben then tells the next part of this story. Gary Halbert gave the youngster a list of people who bought this viagra from direct mail and asked him to call them. He then called them and apparently he find out that the real reason why they bought this viagra is because of guilt. They feel guilty that they can’t make their wife happy anymore. And so the youngster revised the copy and it became a high performing copy.
Imagine if we all just gonna go with our guess and make the copy to be just like our guess. Imagine a company doing that. And the truth is, a lot of companies are doing this. They rely on their guess and never bother to find out what user REALLY WANTS.
So do your research. Find your prospect, and then find out what they really want.
Next, the O is for OFFER
This is to OFFER what they want. So after you know your prospect and got to know what they really want, it is to OFFER them what they really want.
The last P is for PERSUASION
Ben pointed out how a lot of companies jump straight to persuasion without doing Prospect and Offer. Persuasion as we all know it is basically making the right word to persuade your customer.
So that is all the lesson I got from this event.
Sorry that I was late (again) and therefore I guess I am not a reliable event reviewer lol!
Lastly, Ben shares his masterclass promotion from Crazy Ants, and if you are interested, you can find the details in the image below. It is much cheaper than many classes out there and for COVID-19, they offer a free instalment option! And the best thing is, this whole package lets you personally consult about your copy to him. So he will review your copy personally. This is great for business owner, freelancers, etc.
My take on this event is that this is such a great great event. I love how Ben is actively interacting and making sure everyone participates in this class by asking questions and encourage everyone to reply. If you are new to copywriting, this is highly recommended for you!
As a UX designer, I find it also important to master copywriting/ UX writing.
Yes, there are professional copywriters out there but we should not put all the weight on other people. It is so much better when we can help in writing copy and cross check others’ copy. Especially that in my opinion, art is not just visual. But also in the written form. This also accounts for how user’s impact/experience on our design. So I recommend this class for UX designers out there.
Thank you Crazy Ants and Ben Sim for organising this class!
I learned a lot today and had so much fun learning.
I think you should really follow their social media and be in the lookout for their classes! Also, if you are a freelancer, they help you to connect you to companies/businesses that need a freelancer, AND if you are a business that needs a freelancer, why not ask Crazy Ants to look for you the reliable freelancer? Save time and energy 😉
Visit Crazy Ants :
Thank you for reading this, I am looking forward to this kind of event.
Invite me if there is similar events like this, I am always up for it.
If you bump into me in events in the future, say "Hi" to me!
See you!
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