I love Daniel Levis newsletter. Not only he’s one of the best copywriters in the world, but he also shares some amazing tips with his readers. Recently I read an issue about getting into the prospect’s trance.

In it, Daniel says some really important tip that made me realize how to better write a web copy. I’m not a professional copywriter, but I read as much as I can about it, because I think it’s one of the most important and powerful marketing methods you can ever learn.

So, in the article, Daniel talks about a prospect’s trance. People worried about losing money, people are sick of their 9-5 jobs, overweight people hate exercises and so on.

If you want to get into your prospect’s trance, you must start a conversation by showing them that you think the same way they do. You have to show them in your sales message that you agree with their beliefs.

And this is really powerful when you think…

I mean, imagine selling weight loss system that involves exercises to those searching for diet pills. If you try to tell them that they must exercise, because there’s no other way to lose fat naturally, they won’t even listen to you. But if you tell them that you hate exercises just as they do. You’re sick and tired of fake diet pill promises, etc. And then introduce your new weight loss system, a prospect won’t feel so negative about it, because they feel exactly that way. And it’s just because you showed them in the beginning that you understand their position and you agree with their beliefs.

If you try to say something that confronts with your prospects’ beliefs, it’s next to impossible to gain their interest and trust in you.

Here’s a quote from Daniel Levis newsletter issue:

“For example, if your target market believes that Guaranteed Investment Certificates are the best way to invest their money, they are unlikely to listen to you if you boldly proclaim the superiority of Mutual Funds.

But would they give you some attention if you began with, “Would you be interested in more of the kind of money growth you’ve enjoyed through Guaranteed Investment Certificates?”

And then, “If there were a low risk strategy for using GICs, together with Mutual Funds to increase your returns by 53% or more, would you want to find out about it?”

And then, “Give me just 15 minutes, & I’ll show you the failsafe secret to an earlier retirement!”

By establishing empathy in your sales message, you enter the trance.”

This is very important. I think this tip alone can give you advantage over your competitors when writing web copy or Google ads or whatever.

Have you ever received a marketer’s email saying that the response from their previous promotion was 70%? Or when they email and say: “Hey, have you ever seen a 95.453% converting web copy, well here it is…”

You know, that really pisses me off. I mean, c’mon…

This kind of promotion can only be generated from a super targeted, small mailing list. There’s simply no way one can get a response even close to that from a PPC campaign, or SEO rankings. So when they emphasize their unbelievably successful “web copy”, which in their opinion is responsible for such success, it makes me mad…

Gee, I could meet a dozen close friends and tell them about the opportunity, then send them an email or call them to go and buy my stuff. Walla, 100% CR! But try to get such a response from an Adwords campaign these days…

What I mean is that newbie marketers might fall for that and start thinking that great web copy is all they need. Don’t get me wrong, copywriting is very important, even one of the most important skills in online marketing. But copywriting alone, won’t help you succeed. It’s not the web copy, it’s the right market.

You may have the best directory building software in the world, but if you advertise to bad credit mortgage market, you’ll get no sales. But if you have a product that’s really not the best in the market, actually one of the worst. Yet, you manage to send a promotion to the specific target market, you’ll get sales. Maybe many refunds too, but you’ll get some sales. That’s the whole point here. Sending a promo to the most specific target market is mostly responsible for the success of your ad, and not the copywriting. Yep, you may argue with me, but that’s what I think it is…

The broader that market, the lower the response. So don’t blindly fall for any copywriters’ claims about extremely high conversions… If their ad was sent to a broader audience, probably they’d lose 10 times the response. On the other hand, if your current web copy produces 0.5% CR, sent to the right market, it may get you 7% or 10%.

The point is that email marketing produces the best response rates. Nothing can beat that. People who get the message already trust and love the owner, so they’ll buy. They might even buy, because it’s their buddy sending them a product and not a stranger. PPC or SEO can’t even compare to that.

So when measuring your web copy statistics, don’t be disappointed when your CR is only 1% or 2% when others are screaming about 50% to 90% conversion. It’s the right market and the volumes you’re trying to reach and not the copywriting.