You cannot sell anything if there is no desire for it. It doesn’t matter if there’s a need, it’s desire that motivates.
Let’s take the strongest need of all, food (there’s more on that in the first link of the week below).
We all have a need for food. As the need increases we start to feel hungry, and so, the desire increases too.
But we can also desire things we don’t need, and if that desire is strong enough, we cannot stop ourselves from buying (and as soon as we’ve bought, that’s the point where buyers remorse most often kicks in).
This tells us one important fact. Unless the desire supports a need, it’s hard to sustain a long-term business from it.
There are countless stupid examples of this from the Pet Rock to the Useless Box (https://youtu.be/jh86qheC2Es) – the Uselss Box beats the Pet Rock hands down (but it’s still useless).
That means we need to think about both the need for something as well as the desire for it.
As copywriters, our initial need is to find clients. But what’s our desire? If it’s weak, we’ll never be motivated enough to go out and look for them.
We’ll find countless excuses why this or that method doesn’t work for us, and unsurprisingly, we’ll end up with no clients.
Whilst you contemplate that, understand it’s the exact same thing for our clients. They want more customers (and more customers spending more money more often), but unless they’re convinced copywriting is a major part of the exercise, they’ll have no desire to hire you even if you do eventually find and get in contact with them.
This is actually good news. Why? Because you finally know what you’re missing: a way to write copy that builds desire upon the basis of a need.
And how do you do that? You keep reading and thinking about everything I write in the Science of Copywriting group. And then you apply it, every, single, day.
Next week we’ll go deeper into this.
Last Week
Last week was so much fun. The first piece of the week, called DESIRE, explained the little understood difference between desire and need (see above, and the link below).
Also, ‘Own It’ showed how a single motivator can give you new angles when creating your big idea for your next piece of copy.
And for those who really like to get down to it, read ‘JUST’. Every word matters.
Desire
https://www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofcopywriting/permalink/1189041304760139/
Own It
https://www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofcopywriting/permalink/1190596914604578/
Just
https://www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofcopywriting/permalink/1192413427756260/
Automation
https://www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofcopywriting/permalink/1192442157753387/
With my love,
Quentin Pain
Science of Copywriting
PS. As I said in Automation (link above), there’s one striking difference between those who get what they want and those who don’t and if you’d like a hand in learning how to do that, take advantage of the amazing offer to join the ICA right now and get mentored for the next 52 weeks for almost nothing: https://internationalcopywritersassociation.com/enrol/