Copywriting and Direct Response Masterclass: Born To Write Copy?
In 1986 there were exactly six persistence hunters alive and hunting on the planet.
A bunch of US researchers in various fields had postulated it was possible to run after an animal until it was too exhausted to run any more - an easy kill, and perhaps the only way humans could have gotten steady access to meat for the 1.
8 million years before they developed weapons.
The fossil record indicated a steady diet of meat for that entire time.
Their guess was it was a one in a billion chance that someone like this was alive.
Humans are the greatest endurance running machines ever created.
No animal alive can out run us.
Actually, no animal gathers to run between three and five hours for fun.
Some people think marathons are fun.
Back to our six persistence hunters, Khalhari Bushmen that had rejected their traditional career path at the time - farm hand or bordello worker.
They decided to maintain the way of their ancestors which included persistence hunting.
Lewis Liebenberg was a uni drop out who was interested in what caused the 'big bang of the human mind' he figured something out on the Savannah had triggered the human mind to be able to do maths physics, but also create humour, language and most importantly our imagination.
He stumbled upon these six bushmen and managed to install himself in their tribe for years.
It wasn't until many years later that Liebenberg realised the significance of what he stumbled across to the evolution of mankind.
In order to run after an animal until it is too tired to run anymore you need to be able to track.
Liebenberg learned how to track, which he describes as so much more than reading marks in the sand.
It requires imagination.
You need to be able to imagine being the animal you are tracking in order to be able to hunt it.
Feel what it feeling imagine why it is doing what it is doing.
Sounds a lot like empathy for someone you have never met.
Now we are getting close to copywriting Empathy is a distinctly human trait.
We can imagine being someone else and understanding how they feel.
In face to face selling this is easy.
We have the emotional reactions of the person we are selling to as feedback.
Writing copy doesn't provide us with the same feedback we need to be able to track how customers might respond to our words, so that we can navigate them to the sale.
There is a common misconception that copywriting is about knowing some 'word tricks' in order to get the sale.
It isn't.
It is about forging an emotional connection and then getting a buyer to want to take action.
This is why we can all pick good copy when we see it.
There is the part of our brain from the good ole days when we ran down antelope by day and ate it by night that can empathise and knows that we are on the money.
A bunch of US researchers in various fields had postulated it was possible to run after an animal until it was too exhausted to run any more - an easy kill, and perhaps the only way humans could have gotten steady access to meat for the 1.
8 million years before they developed weapons.
The fossil record indicated a steady diet of meat for that entire time.
Their guess was it was a one in a billion chance that someone like this was alive.
Humans are the greatest endurance running machines ever created.
No animal alive can out run us.
Actually, no animal gathers to run between three and five hours for fun.
Some people think marathons are fun.
Back to our six persistence hunters, Khalhari Bushmen that had rejected their traditional career path at the time - farm hand or bordello worker.
They decided to maintain the way of their ancestors which included persistence hunting.
Lewis Liebenberg was a uni drop out who was interested in what caused the 'big bang of the human mind' he figured something out on the Savannah had triggered the human mind to be able to do maths physics, but also create humour, language and most importantly our imagination.
He stumbled upon these six bushmen and managed to install himself in their tribe for years.
It wasn't until many years later that Liebenberg realised the significance of what he stumbled across to the evolution of mankind.
In order to run after an animal until it is too tired to run anymore you need to be able to track.
Liebenberg learned how to track, which he describes as so much more than reading marks in the sand.
It requires imagination.
You need to be able to imagine being the animal you are tracking in order to be able to hunt it.
Feel what it feeling imagine why it is doing what it is doing.
Sounds a lot like empathy for someone you have never met.
Now we are getting close to copywriting Empathy is a distinctly human trait.
We can imagine being someone else and understanding how they feel.
In face to face selling this is easy.
We have the emotional reactions of the person we are selling to as feedback.
Writing copy doesn't provide us with the same feedback we need to be able to track how customers might respond to our words, so that we can navigate them to the sale.
There is a common misconception that copywriting is about knowing some 'word tricks' in order to get the sale.
It isn't.
It is about forging an emotional connection and then getting a buyer to want to take action.
This is why we can all pick good copy when we see it.
There is the part of our brain from the good ole days when we ran down antelope by day and ate it by night that can empathise and knows that we are on the money.
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