Direct Response Copywriter On Differentiating Your Product/Service
/How To Smash Your Competition To A Pulp, Legally Take Their Market Share Forever, and Win Every Marketing Battle Before That Battle Even Begins ... How I Took Eight Sales Pages From 2% Conversion to 11% By Differentiating The Product ...
Maybe I'm guilty of being a smidge bombastic in the headline, violent even, but, in this essay, I'm going to show you how to become the dominant force in your vertical.
Here’s something super-cool. Very few of your competitors understand the importance of differentiation. Even better, very few of the companies who want to differentiate their product or service know how to make this happen.
So when you take differentiation seriously, you can be the winner in your category. How would you like that? In 25 years writing direct response copy and working with many of the world's top direct marketers, success requires ... DIFFERENTIATING YOURSELF FROM THE COMPETITION. So in this post, I'm going to show you how I've done this and thus helped companies generate millions of dollars in revenue, often out of thin air.
Most of your competitors are just thinking, “I’ll just throw money at traffic and I'll win.” I recommend you spend money on traffic judiciously and prudently but when you differentiate, guess what happens? You get more, a lot more, from your traffic spend.
Suddenly, your sales pages and VSLs are converting at 11% instead of 2% and that can mean a ton more revenue. First of all, I never want you to differentiate simply by price. That might work for some companies but I’ve never been a fan of advertising to reduce top-line revenue. It’s just not how I work.
I’m going to bounce around a little bit in this post and I make no apologies. By the end of this post, you’ll know how to set yourself apart from the competition so that customers buy what you’re selling, even it has a higher price.
Where Differentiation Must Start
It all starts with research. This DOES NOT mean pumping a prompt into AI: “what differentiates my skin cream from other skin creams?” David Ogilvy’s agency was advertising Rolls-Royce cars back in the 1960s and 1970s. He came up with this famous headline for ad ad …
“At 60 miles per hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.”
This epic headline came from meticulous research and differentiates the product.
This headline came from meticulous and deep research. The copywriter basically unearthed this headline in a "boring" technical manual about the car. 80% of the time, deep research will give you the fact or factor or whatever it might be that will set your product or service above the competition. In many markets, you can try the following.
Find a powerful USP. If you don’t know what a USP is, make it a priority to understand this crucial concept.
Unique mechanism … something that’s genuinely unique that leads to a powerful benefit … something about how the product or service works that’s new and different.
Something new and newsworthy. The latest science/developments ... only available here.
People. A person or people who have enjoyed huge success.
Value. Stressing the many benefits.
Unique ingredient … unique blend … unique formula.
A new study that reveals something that leads to a powerful benefit.
No risk. A big guarantee.
Sometimes, I see the approach that says, “We’re #1” or “We’re The Best” without anything to back this up. I know one copywriter who runs around saying, “I’m #1” when he’s not.
A Note of Caution About Celebrity Endorsements
Every day, hundreds of marketing decision makers think, “if I give a vast amount of money to a celebrity to endorse my product, money will fall from the sky.” So a company will send $10 million to a celebrity to appear in ads, or do something, and there’s never any indication there’s any ROI. Why? Because there isn’t. Simply slinging a celebrity out there is a poor way to differentiate a product. Hiring an expert to share their expertise and selling that expertise is totally different.
Would You Like An Emu?
Massive, multi-billion dollar companies hire advertising agencies and spend tens of millions of dollars to differentiate themselves. You can see this in the insurance industry. I rarely watch TV but I see the insurance ads for Flo, the emu, the people who are becoming like their parents. If you feel the urge to spend tens of millions of dollars on TV advertising plus tie your company to a lunatic emu … have at it. But if you still want to differentiate your product without spending all that money, hang with me.
Graphically, a logo and a “look” can help you stand out. However, it’s not going to generate much of a bump in revenue and it’s hard to measure the impact. I’ve worked with super-successful direct marketing companies that have paid very little attention this part of branding.
Maybe someone has told you to stick with the "brand voice."
Quick ... how often have you bought a product or service because you loved the "brand voice" of the company that makes that product or service?
Q: What’s The #1 Way to Differentiate Your Product In A Crowded Space? A: Follow the fundamentals of direct marketing and direct response copy …
Motivate prospects to read the copy with a compelling headline.
Pile on the believable proof.
Provide reasons to try the product.
Justify the price by stressing the value.
Reverse any risk with a guarantee that’s way better than what the competition offers.
Empathy … we understand what you’re going through.
Copy that gets the prospect nodding their head in agreement.
Plus … put a 3-5 minute video above the fold. The goal of this video is to motivate the prospect to read the copy.
Give the prospect information about the real person behind the product and the real company behind the product.
Build everything around clarity.
A comparison chart that’s not overwhelming.
When you follow the fundamentals of direct marketing and direct response copywriting, you will differentiate your product in a crowded market and bludgeon the competition … competition that thinks that direct marketing is for the birds.
A Powerful Technique ... Rarely Used ... Your customers will tell you what's different and better about your product or service. Ask them in a survey or look through online reviews. It's part of my research process.
There’s Nothing Wrong With This … I regularly write copy that directly addresses the faults of the competition and the magnificence of the product or service I’m selling. The subhead reads something like this … Here’s Why People Choose The Acme Can Opener Over Other Can Openers.
It's not simply saying, with no proof or logic, “we’re better than everyone else.” It's using logic and proof to prove the product is better.
The Difference Between The ‘OK’ Direct Response Copywriter And The 'Elite-Level' Direct Response Copywriter … And What This Means For You ...
Every day, I see really poor copy, probably produced by AI. I also see copy that’s “OK” … if that. Sometimes I see copy that’s really powerful and motivates me to try a product or service.
When you hire an elite-level direct response copywriter who can successfully differentiate your product from the other products, your revenue can skyrocket. An “OK” copywriter will not know how to differentiate your product and thus your revenue will be flat.
I see a lot of sales pages that scream “we don’t really care about differentiating ourselves from everyone else” and that means only one thing: hemorrhaging money.
**How I Do This … **
I position myself as the copywriter who is the most likely to help you generate the most money. I can back this up because many of the companies I’ve worked with have kept me around for several years. It’s not because they like the way I dress or talk or ski. It’s because I drive more revenue than any other copywriter.
**And If You Want To Build A Brand … Don’t Do This … Do This Instead … **
There are lots of branding “experts” who can tell you how to build a brand. Avoid them. If you want to build a brand, which is another way of saying, “we want to differentiate our product” then hire direct marketing people plus an elite-level direct response copywriter. Your brand will emerge.
If you have any thoughts and/or want me to help you with generating more revenue, more often, please leave a comment below or contact me directly through LI.
