This is Hands Down The Most Crucial Skill a Copywriter Must Possess

See that picture of a daredevil flying like an eagle, just above his bike? Well, the skill I’m going to talk about here is about as important to a copywriter as a good bike to that guy!

This skill is so crucial, you’ll definitely fail as a copywriter if you don’t do this, just like that guy would be seriously injured if his bike fail.

Know what is it? Let me give you a hint: All other fundamental skills you learn as a top notch copywriter, skills such as writing a compelling headline, manipulating perceptions and clear writing require you to do this right first before they will have any effect.

Know what is it yet? Let me tell you what is it: It’s also what Eben Pagan advised to be step 1 in your efforts to market your product.

Now, you’re probably gonna think, “DUH!” after I revealed it but please do yourself a favor and hang on with me. It’s more complex than it sounds like.

It’s your ability to think like your customer (believe me, it’s harder than you think). Why is thinking like your customer so important?

If you don’t think like your customer, your sales copy will go in the wrong direction, and any copywriting tricks that you use to enhance your copy will only drive you further and further away from the people you’re aiming at.

If you think like your customer, you can go straight to the “hot point”, push it and BAM! A sale. It’s really that easy if you do it right.

Eben Pagan, in a seminar I attended, said, “If you can describe a person’s problems better than they can, they automatically credit you with the answer.”

Robert Collier, in his book The Robert Collier Letter Book, advised copywriters to “Enter into a conversation they’re (prospects) already having in their own mind.”

In fact, it’s so crucial, a top marketer (I’ve forgotten his name. If you know who, please tell me because I want to give credit where it’s due.) termed it. And it’s called “negative capability“. Negative capability is the ability to negate yourself and actually put yourself into other people’s shoes.

Now, this is not something you can master overnight. I suggest you spend some time, say 10 - 15 minutes a day, to practice.

And in that time, you sit down, and just think like your customer. If you’re this person, facing this problem, what would you feel? Put aside all your beliefs and all your bias. Don’t judge any of those feelings.

Hint: You should discover that most of those feelings are irrational.

For example, if you’re a religious person, you should put away your morals when you’re doing this. The reason being you want as many ideas as possible. If you feel morally obligated to exclude it in your marketing later on, feel free to do so but for now, just write it down.

You’ll soon come up with a long list of needs, wants, problems and desires - the most obvious ones being the least likely to be spot on.

Let’s say in the golf market, a lot of golfer’s desire is not to improve their performance - although they do want that - their real desire is to impress their friends and more importantly, their boss by playing better. (See what I mean by irrational?)

Get the difference? So if you go on and on about improving performance, you’re not going hitting their “hot spots” and you’ll not make a compelling case for them to buy whatever you’re selling.

Can you see how important negative capbility is now? What do you think? Is it really that important?

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Tagged as: copywriting tips, direct response copywriting, online copywriting, understanding your prospects, web copywriting