Volume 26 • No 04 • 2003
ISSN 0742-468X • Since 1978
On-line Since 2000
Why Crooked Politicians Are The Best Marketers In The World...
by
Ben Settle
Editor’s Note: Many of our readers work in Federal, State, or Local government organizations. That is to say, you may work for a politician. Ben Settle has an interesting take on the effectiveness of politicians, particularly if they are crooked. In this article he explains how they get their message out, and therefor how honest people can do the same. Naturally, nothing he writes states that your politician is a crooked politician.
Ben Settle teaches entrepreneurs how to write sales letters that
bring in cash, even if they think their writing skills are horrible. To subscribe to his e-newsletter, “Copywriting From The Trenches!” send a blank email to
7daysalesletter@boo.bamboobiz.net
Have you ever noticed how crooked politicians have literally
mastered the art of scaring people?
Even though it usually translates into higher taxes and more
misery all around, these politicians are able to get people to line
up at the voting booths in droves to vote for them!
How?
Because most of the really crooked politicians have the art of
scaring people down to a science. Ironically, good copywriters also do this too, just not to the same extent or exactly the same way. Just like crooked politicians, they
know that the fear of loss, pain and inconvenience translates to big sales.
On the other hand, the one thing that the 2002 midterm elections
proved is that unless these fears tactics are inherently honest,
they will eventually fall flat on their face. A perfect example was the picture of President Bush pushing a senior citizen in a wheel chair off a cliff on the Democratic Party
Website. It's fundamentally dishonest and relies on sleazy fear tactics. 
But many good sales letters, ads and websites use the power of
gut-wrenching fear to get massive sales.
For example, one of the most powerful, yet tragically underused,
sales letter "formulas" is the "problem-agitation-solution"
formula. When this kind of sales letter is sent to the right
person, it's almost impossible to put down!
Here’s how it works:
Begin your sales letter by establishing a specific and painful
problem. Let's pretend you're going to assemble a sales
letter
selling vitamins. To use this particular sales letter formula, you
could go into pain–staking detail as to how the general
population is deficient of basic vitamins and minerals.
You could use statistics from doctors, the government or
whatever it takes to get your point across. The important thing is
to get the reader to agree with you that there is indeed a problem
and it's affecting his life right now.
Next, you would need to agitate him by taking that problem of
vitamin deficiency and relentlessly rubbing the reader's face in it.
You wouldn't want to go overboard, by lying or exaggerating, just
make sure that the reader actually sees this particular problem
face to face — and fully acknowledges it.
During the agitation process you want the reader to mentally (if
not physically) start to sweat and get that cold rush of paranoia
filling up his belly. He needs to know that this problem isn't
going to "just go away". Ideally you want him mentally
wringing
his hands in despair.
Take literally every single problem you talk about to its logical
(and painful) conclusion. Just like when you set up the problem,
take as much time as you need to get your point across.
Finally, the solution. This is where you whip out the answer to
that deep, peace-of-mind-killing fear that you've just created:
your particular vitamins.
You could go through every problem you put in the agitation part
of the letter and prove how your vitamins can prevent all those
terrible things from happening.
Again, you must be truthful about this. Not only is this the honest
and ethical thing to do, but there are laws in place to crack down
on frauds. So you'd want to throw in relevant statistics and
documentation whenever possible. Make your case so air-tight
there's no room for an argument to breathe.
Make sure you talk about all of the things your vitamins do and
how your specific vitamins can relieve the anxiety that you nursed
along during the agitation part. I like to do this with bullet points and toss all the wonderful
benefits I can at the reader in bite sized "nuggets" of
information.
That way it's easily read and absorbed by the mind.
Some of the best sales letters I've seen are just a series of
benefits hidden inside a bunch of bullet points. So shoot those
suckers off until you run out of ammo!
I really love the “problem–agitation–solution” sales letter
formula.
Try it in your next sales letter and watch it bring in more sales
and put more money in your pocket (or at least whatever left over
money the crooked politicians let you keep after taking their
share, that they “earned” in taxes).
Why Crooked Politicians Are The Best Marketers In The World …
Copyright © Vantage Net, Inc. 2003
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