Good morning!

Okay, so I thought I was done with my series about common lead mistakes…

But then, yesterday I realized there was actually one more biggie needed to go over with you.

I’m going to share it with you in just a second…

But, before I do…

If you didn’t catch the Zoom Call we did recently…

I posted the replay on my YouTube channel.

Here’s a link to my YouTube channel in case you’re not subscribed to it yet.

I taught for like an hour straight about different lead mistakes and showed a ton of examples.

So, if you didn’t get a chance to see the video yet…

It’s worth checking out when you have time.

—

Okay, and with that being said…

Let’s move on to today’s blog post…

Lead Mistake #6: “Selling Too Soon”

I’m thinking maybe the reason I forgot to mention this one previously…

Is because it seems kind of obvious.

But then, I was going through a ton of offers on Clickbank yesterday…

And I found that a LOT of writers are still making this mistake.

Remember what I’ve been saying in previous blog posts:

The point of the first sentence is to get the prospect to read the second…

The point of the second is to get them to read the third…

And so on.

The entire point of the lead is to evoke curiosity…

Call out the prospect’s pain point…

Promise to credibly solve that pain point…

Connect with the prospect emotionally…

And tease them with fascinations.

When you do those things in your lead…

It’s hard to screw up…

But, nowhere in this list do we find “try to sell the product.”

Why?

Because that’s not the job of the lead.

We don’t want the prospect thinking they are being “sold” at the beginning…

In fact, we don’t want them even thinking about our product PERIOD until pretty close to the end of our sales letter.

It’s the same thing when you do a sales call too btw.

Or when you’re quoting a client.

Or making a pitch.

You don’t jump right into the pitch…

You build an emotional connection…

1. Demonstrate understanding of the area where the prospect is struggling…
2. Prove you have the competency and mastery required to solve this struggle…
3. Dismiss alternative solutions as being inferior…

And, only then is it time to start telling the prospect about your product or services and asking for the sale.

So don’t be in a hurry to make the sale here, take your time.

—

Now, there are a few exceptions to everything I just said…

In Direct Mail, where you send a prospect a physical sales letter…

It makes sense to talk about the product earlier on.

I still don’t think the product needs to be on the front page…

But, you don’t need to wait until the very end either.

Why?

Because with a physical piece of mail…

The prospect is probably going to be leafing through it anyways.

Much in the same way they’d leaf through a magazine or the newspaper…

And, you might as well not wait until the very end to share about the product.

When it comes to online sales letters, though…

The prospect’s journey is more linear.

They’re either watching a video that they can’t skip forward in…

Or, they’re at least scrolling down slowly through your copy…

And, in these cases, you can take your time.

Another exception is with eCommerce pages (sort of)…

If you have a really short eComm page for a product…

Then yeah, maybe it’s okay to show what the product right away…

But, even in those cases…

If you can begin by teasing the problem/solution…

And then inject a brief emotional story into your lander…

Typically, it’s going to convert better than if you just jump right into the features and benefits of your product.

—

Hopefully, this makes sense to you.

I do enjoy writing out examples for you guys…

But I have a call in fifteen minutes, so I’m gotta cut this one short.

Have a great Saturday!

-SPG

P.S. Last night Laura and I drank some White Claws and then spent 40 minutes dissecting a random Clickbank sales letter while recording ourselves doing it. We had a TON of fun and I think we also provided some killer insights. By the time you read this, the video should be uploaded to my YouTube channel, so make sure you check it out here!

P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post Big Lead Mistake #6: “Selling Too Soon” first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

Good morning 🙂

Today’s blog post is Part 4 in my series on common mistakes writers make when crafting their leads [aka the intro to their sales copy].

If you missed my previous blog posts on this topic, you might want to go back and read them…

Or, if you’re new to my blog and this is the first one you’ve read…

I’ve listed the previous ones here for you:

Link to Big Lead Mistake #1
Link to Big Lead Mistake #2
Link to Big Lead Mistake #3

For now, though…

Let’s go ahead and jump right in.

—

Lead Mistake #4 – “Being An Over-Explainer”

Can you think of someone in your life who is an over-explainer?

They’re the WORST.

You ask them a simple question like, “hey do you know what the weather is supposed to be tomorrow?”…

And they respond with a 15 minute answer about the history of forecasting, which apps they use to check the weather, how they pick their wardrobe depending on the temperature, and twenty other things.

It’s really annoying when people do this in real life…

But it’s especially bad when people do it in their sales copy.

Remember what I’ve already said multiple times in previous blog posts…

The point of the first sentence of your lead is to get them to read the second…

The point of the second sentence is to get them to read the third…

And so on.

Your lead should be catching the prospect’s attention (aka evoking curiosity)…

Calling out their pain point…

And then promising to share a unique, and credible, solution to their pain point.

The mistake a lot of copywriters make, though…

Is that they start trying to explain how the unique solution to the prospect’s pain point works in the lead…

And that’s WAY too early.

When you start explaining the solution to their problem in your lead…

You remove all of the mystery.

It’s kind of like going up to a stranger and asking them to have sex…

Before you’ve done any flirting, or built up any chemistry, or engaged in any foreplay.

Can it work?

Yeah, I guess…

But your chances of “getting it on” are definitely going to be a lot lower…

And, even if you do “get lucky”…

It’s probably not going to be all that great of an experience for either party.

—

So, let me show you what NOT to do, and for this one we’ll use a totally made up health example:

“Hey, I’m John and inside this video I’ll be sharing the surprising reason why you feel tired all of the time.

It has to do with the discovery of a strange, microscopic enzyme inside of your liver…

And scientists have nicknamed it your body’s “battery enzyme”…

Because this enzyme determines whether you feel energized and fully charged…

Or you feel exhausted and drained.

The technical name for this battery enzyme is NP241…

And the way it works is by feeding the bacteria in your gut.

Specifically, you have tiny blood vessels that connect your liver to your gut…

And this enzyme is made inside your liver…

Then sent into your gut through these blood vessels…

Where it latches onto your gut bacteria…

And tells them to be more active.

The reason this is important for you to know…

Is because according to Dr. So-And-So of Some Prestigious University…

About 74% of your energy comes from your gut bacteria…

And in a new study conducted by Another Prestigious University…

It was found that when your gut bacteria are more active…

You’re more active and have more energy too.

The problem though is that when your liver doesn’t produce enough of this NP241 enzyme…

Your gut isn’t as active, and you feel tired and drained…

And according to a 2018 study at Yet Another Prestigious University…

As we get older, our bodies start naturally making less of this NP241 enzyme…

And it turns out that the reason why…

Is because of a little-studied hormone in the body called B-L-A-H.

Experts have found that our gut starts making higher levels of B-L-A-H as we get older…

And that B-L-A-H essentially “mutes” the NP241 hormone…

So that you experience less energy as the years go by.

Well inside this presentation…

I’m going to share how you can stop B-L-A-H from disrupting your NP241…

That way you once again experience a surge of replenishing energy that lasts all day long…

Just like when you were young.”

—

Can you see the problem here?

The lead actually starts off promising…

But then, instead of just giving the prospect a big sexy tease and moving on…

It rapidly transitions into “over-explainer mode”…

Where we go from evoking curiosity and making a promise…

To a high school biology lesson.

That’s where you confuse and lose most of your prospects…

Which is why the lead would be 10x better if it went like this:

“Hey I’m John and inside this video I’ll be sharing the surprising reason why you feel tired all of the time.

It has to do with the discovery of a strange, microscopic enzyme inside of your liver…

And scientists have nicknamed it your body’s “battery enzyme”…

Because this enzyme determines whether you feel energized and fully charged…

Or you feel exhausted and drained.

It turns out that as you grow older…

Your levels of this battery enzyme begin to drop…

And the reason why has to do with a certain hormone that’s virtually never discussed by mainstream science…

Even though it could be the real reason why you’re always feeling sluggish and fatigued.

That’s why inside this video…

I’m going you exactly how to get this hormone under control…

So that your battery enzyme can thrive…

And you can once again experience a surge of powerful energy that lasts all day long…

Just like when you were young.

So if you’re sick of waking up in the morning and feeling like you’re covered in a lead blanket – because it’s almost impossible to get out of bed…

Or you’ve noticed that your brain is getting foggier and foggier with each passing year…

Or that you’re often the victim of those afternoon energy crashes…

The ones that come around 2 pm, and make you wish you could just crawl under your desk and fall asleep…

Then pay careful attention, because what you’re about to discover could change everything.

You’ll see why in just a few moments from now…

Plus, inside this video I’m also going to be sharing the surprising reason why eating a certain type of popular cheese could be the key to doubling your energy (you often see it put on burgers, but it’s not American or Cheddar)…

Along with startling new research from Prestigious University that suggests people who chew gum weekly are at least 33% less likely to get a good night’s sleep compared to those who don’t.

All of that, and more, is coming up…

So let’s go ahead and get started.”

—

See the difference?

In the second version of this lead…

We teased the solution…

But then we backed away…

And left them wanting more.

It’s Copy Foreplay, if you will…

And my goodness, is it better than just jump right into things.

—

Okay hopefully you found this helpful.

If you are liking this series of emails on leads…

Please feel free to respond to this email and let me know 🙂

– SPG

P.S. Yesterday I shared how my podcast with Josh Felber went live. Well after I sent the email I checked my inbox and saw that a second podcast I did went live as well. This one is with my friend Rachel Ngom and her podcast “She’s Making An Impact.” I really, really enjoyed this conversation with Rachel. What’s cool is we covered some topics I don’t normally discuss on podcasts. In particular, we spent a lot of time talking about Emotional Response Marketing, which is a concept I’ve been really enjoying developing. You can listen to it here.

P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post Big Lead Mistake #4: Being An “Over-Explainer” first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

Good morning!

This blog post is being sent a bit later than usual…

Mostly because I ended up leaving my car at the Las Vegas Strip last night…

And had to Uber back this morning to get it.

I HATE doing the morning “Uber ride of shame”…

But I’m pretty sure I’d hate getting a DUI even more…

So, ya know, it is what it is.

Anyways, I’m at my office now crafting this blog post to you…

And today, we’re going to continue looking at the common mistakes people making when writing their leads.

So, let’s jump on in…

Lead Mistake #3 – “Ron Burgundy Syndrome”

If you’ve seen the movie Anchorman…

You know that the main character, Ron Burgundy, is completely self-obsessed.

He talks about himself, only cares about himself, and has little empathy towards other people or their problems.

When a character acts this way in a movie it can be very funny…

But, when the spokesperson in your copy comes across this way…

It’s disastrous.

Why?

One of the most important things you can do throughout your sales letter (and especially in the lead)…

Is to continue to relate whatever you’re saying back to the prospect.

And yet, one really frequent mistake I see writers making…

Is that they come up with what they think is a compelling and emotional story…

Start their sales copy with it…

But then forget to relate this story back to the reader/viewer.

In other words…

These writers fall so deeply in love with the story…

That they assume anyone who is engaging with their sales copy will feel the same way…

Which isn’t necessarily true.

Since, as we’ve discussed in previous blog posts…

The number one thing a prospect is thinking about as they begin to view your sales copy…

Is “what’s in it for me?”

Now, this certainly doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use stories in your sales copy…

In fact, I personally love starting sales copy with a good story.

The secret, though…

Is to frequently be relating the story back to the reader and the pain point they want solved.

Let me give you an example of a bad story lead:

“I’d been homeless for two months and things were only getting worse.

At the start I’d been living out of my car…

But after it was vandalized in the middle of the night – with me sleeping in the back seat…

I felt safer sleeping on the street than I did inside my Honda.

So each morning I’d wake up on the cold concrete…

Scrape together change for a cup of coffee…

Then walk two miles to the nearest community shelter…

To see if there were any new job postings.

I must have applied to at least 47 jobs in that two-month period of time…

But no matter what I said or did…

Nobody wanted to hire a guy who was living on the street.

It seemed like I’d hit rock bottom…

I felt hopeless…

And yet little did I know that just two weeks later…

I’d be getting sent a check for $2,329…

Or that this check was just the first of many…

Or that, in a matter of just four months…

I would go from homeless and scared…

To living in a guard gated community…

In a 4,600 square foot home that backed up to the 18th hole of one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious golf courses.

What’s even crazier is that I didn’t win the lottery or anything like that…

Instead…

It happened because of a chance encounter with an eccentric but brilliant Real Estate Maverick…

Someone who had found a way to leverage other people’s money to purchase premium real estate at bargain level prices…

And who ultimately caved and shared his secrets with me.

Blah blah blah.”

As usual, I just made that story up on the spot…

But I do think it has some compelling elements.

With that being said, however…

This lead ultimately falls flat.

And a big reason why…

Is because it doesn’t relate anything the speaker is saying back to the prospect.

So, here’s how we could fix the lead to make it more compelling:

“Imagine being homeless on the streets of Los Angeles for two months.

Hopefully, it’s not something you can easily picture…

But it was my reality back in December of 2017.

Hi, my name is John Doe…

And just two years ago I was living out of my car in LA.

It was the roughest time of my life…

Because not only was I having an impossible time finding a job…

But I came close to dying on three different occasions.

(I’ll share the scariest of those occasions with you in a minute, and it’s gonna really freak you out).

As awful as being homeless was though…

I’m not writing to you because I want sympathy…

Or even because I think should care about my time living on the street.

Instead, the reason I’m here talking to you today…

Is because of what happened to me on January 27th, 2018.

That’s the day I received a check for $2,329.

It was just the first of many checks I’d begin receiving week-after-week…

And the checks haven’t stopped since.

In fact, the only difference is that today…

Those checks are a whole lot larger.

Now I know what you’re wondering, and the answer is “no, I didn’t win the lotto”…

And I didn’t get “job” in the traditional sense either.

Instead…

These checks are all the result of my chance encounter with an eccentric but brilliant Real Estate Maverick…

Someone who had found a way to leverage other people’s money to purchase premium real estate at bargain level prices…

And who ultimately caved and shared his secrets with me.

This man, who I’ll be introducing to you in just a few moments, utterly changed my life…

And I’m willing to bet he can change your life too.

For me, personally…

I went from sleeping on the cold concrete…

To living in a 4,600 square foot home that backed up to the 18th hole of one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious golf courses…

And while I know that sounds like a pretty incredible turnaround…

The truth is…

I truly believe that anyone can follow in my footsteps…

Because all I did was to start using a simple but genius ‘Water Rights Loophole’…

Something that exists in all 50 states in the U.S….

And that allows you to scoop up highly valuable properties…

For just pennies on the dollar.

It’s actually crazy that more people don’t know about this…

But it’s also probably for the better…

Because if this loophole went too mainstream, it wouldn’t work as well as it does.

So, while I am going to show you what this loophole is…

Along with how it works…

Right inside of this letter…

I also need to urge you to read every word that follows right now…

Without any distractions or interruption…

Because I doubt this website will stay online for very long.

Blah blah blah.”

See the difference?

We basically told the same story and even hinted at the same promise…

But in the second version of this lead…

We continuously related what we were saying back to the reader…

We focused on grabbing their attention…

We built rapport with them…

And then, most importantly, we answered the question of “what’s in it for me.”

In other words, we spoke to their inner Ron Burgundy…

Instead of acting like Ron Burgundy ourselves.

A final note on this…

The idea of relating what you’re saying back to your prospect or audience has a wide range of applications.

It’s the same thing when you’re writing blog posts… doing public speaking… going on a podcast… etc.

At the end of the day, we all have a little bit of Ron Burgundy in us…

And the secret is to speak to others’ self-interest…

Rather than focus on only serving our own.

– SPG

P.S. A little over a month ago I went on my friend Josh Felber’s Podcast. The episode just got released recently, and if you want to hear it you can listen here.

P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post Big Lead Mistake #3: How “Ron Burgundy Syndrome” Screws Up Your Leads first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

Have you ever heard the expression “don’t bury the lead”?

It comes from journalism…

And it’s a term used to describe a news story that starts with secondary details…

Rather than the most attention grabbing “hook.”

In journalism, burying the lead is considered a cardinal sin…

And the same can be said about sales copy too.

I see it all the time…

I get to review hundreds of pieces of sales copy through my mastermind…

And I’ve found that even some of the best copywriters on the planet…

Still sometimes struggle mightily with their leads.

That’s why, over the next several emails…

I’m going to share some of the biggest mistakes that copywriters make when it comes to their leads…

And I’d urge you to pay close attention to these emails.

Because dialing in your lead is one of the fastest and easiest ways to increase conversions and engagement.

Okay, so here we go…

Lead Mistake #1 – “Throat Clearing”…

Throat Clearing is when you waste several lines before you get to your big idea or hook.

It’s related to burying the lead…

Here’s an example of what Throat Clearing can look like:

[V1]

“Hey, I’m John, and I’ve got an important message for you today.

This is something I only recently discovered…

But I think you’re going to be pretty blown away by what I have to say.

Why?

Well what I’m about to share is unlike anything you’ve ever heard of before…

It has to do with a freak horse-riding accident that nearly killed me…

But that ultimately led me to discover a controversial, yet medically backed pain-relieving ‘super-grass’…

Something that the world’s best trainers have given to their thoroughbred horses for centuries…

And that new science is now showing to help with pain in humans too.”

I just made that up on the spot…

But can you see how we “buried the lead” there?

Instead of how it’s written above…

It would be much better of the lead just started by talking about the accident and strange discovery.

In other words, it should look more like this:

[V2]

“In 2014 a freak horse-riding accident nearly killed me after I shattered virtually every bone in my body”…

Or we could even start right in the action, a la Chris Haddad, and go like this:

[V3]

“The last thing I remember is the horse rearing onto his back legs…

Then the sickening sound of my bones cracking as I hit the dirt with a thud.

It sounded like shattering glass the way my bones snapped…

And when I woke up in the hospital four hours later, completely paralyzed…

I thought I’d never be able to walk again.

Hi my name is John…

And while that day, September 24th 2014, was the scariest and most horrifying of my life…

It also ended up being the luckiest.

Why?

Because while I didn’t know it as I was lying in that hospital bed with tears running down my cheeks…

My accident would ultimately lead to the discovery of what is probably the most important pain-relieving breakthrough of the past twenty years.

It has to do with a controversial, yet medically backed super-grass…

Something that the world’s best trainers give to their thoroughbred horses as they’re preparing for races like the Kentucky Derby, so they don’t get sore…

And that new medical research has now found to help mute soreness in humans as well…

Especially those who are over the age of 50…

And who suffer from a stiff back…creaking bones…or joints that howl each time they bend over to pick up the newspaper.”

 

Go back and look at the first version of the lead…

Then look the last one.

Can you see what a massive difference there is?

And, let’s be blunt here:

There’s practically zero chance that a reader is going to be more into V1 than they are V3, right?

So, that’s why we don’t clear our throats.

Now, as I mentioned at the beginning…

I’m going to need to do a whole series of emails about common lead mistakes…

Because otherwise…

This email would be like 5,000 words long.

So, make sure to keep an eye out for my next few emails if you’re into this kind of stuff…

And hopefully you are into it…

Because dialing in your lead has very wide-ranging applications.

This isn’t just about long-form sales copy…

The same concepts can be applied to two-minute eComm videos… Facebook Ads… presentations… an on-air-interviews… discovery calls with prospective client… and so much more.

K, enough about leads.

We’re celebrating Eden’s official birthday party!

She’s been 2 years old for a few weeks already…

But today, a ton of friends and family are coming to my mom’s house in San Diego…

And we’ve got all kinds of toys and machines that will be pumping out bubbles in the backyard…

Which should be heaven for my little girl.

I’m super excited…

And I’m sure you’ll see lots of pictures on FB and Insta later today…

So get ready 🙂

– SPG

P.S. I think Todd Brown was one of the first to use the expression “throat clearing” in relation to the copy mistake I describe in this email. I’m not positive, but figured I’d rather err on the side of attribution than risk ticking someone off.

P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post Big Lead Mistake #1: “Clearing Your Throat” first appeared on Stefan Georgi.