Literally every copywriting book ever written will tell you this:
You have to know your customer.
But what if I told you that you can’t ever truly know your customer, unless you’re studying controls?
(Oooo … I went there … now how am I gonna back that up?!)
Here’s the deal…
The controls in your market — past and present — are the best possible resource for two CRITICAL bits of information about your customer:
- What have they already seen?
- What worked on them in the past?
And as a copywriter, you have to have the answers to those questions, or you won’t stand a snowball’s chance in Texas … in August. (It’s already 87 degrees here, y’all.)
So why are those two questions so important? Well, how are you going to write something new and interesting if you don’t know what your prospects have already seen? And how are you going to know what triggers them to buy if you have no idea what triggered them in the past?
You can’t. And if you try to write copy without knowing those things, you’re flying blind.
Btw, that’s true no matter what kind of copy you write!
In fact, I think that’s one of the biggest misconceptions about studying control copy: that you only need to do it if you want to write long-form sales copy.
Not true … you need to do it if you want to write ANY copy that converts. Whether that’s long-form, email, VSL, a Facebook ad, whatever.
It’s not just about the medium, it’s about knowing your audience.
Now, just reading some controls is a good start, but to truly study them — and therefore truly understand your customers — you have to know what you’re looking at. What was the writer doing? Why did it work?
There’s an art to breaking down these controls, and that’s what I’m going to help a select group of copywriters learn how to do, starting next month.
You might have heard me talk about this program already … but there are some new updates I’m really excited about…
First, Control Freaks will now be a 12-week intensive, versus month to month. Why? Because I want to fast-track you in the world of control copy, so that in just 12 weeks you’ll be FAR ahead of any writer who doesn’t know how to do this stuff. To do that, we’re going to study more controls together, at a faster-yet-manageable pace.
Second, during the Control Freaks 12-Week Intensive, all of the controls we study will be in markets that are booming right now in this crazy, Covid-19 world.
(Pretty good markets to study right now, right?)
And of course, the program still comes with Office Hours, where you can send in your copy to get my personal feedback.
I’ve updated the product info page to reflect these changes and the new program pricing.
The only thing? We’re starting in a couple of weeks. So if you want in, fill out an application ASAP.
If you even think you might want to join, I suggest filling it out now.
