How to escape the fatal trap of this marketing copy?

Such inhumane operations can only be avoided by constantly reminding yourself during the process!

A few days ago, a netizen added me as a friend on WeChat, and immediately said: I supply corporate printers, and sales are not good recently. How can I increase sales?

I refused.

On the one hand, this way of asking questions is really bad; on the other hand, this is a big and general question that I really can’t answer. It’s enough to organize a project analysis meeting.

I only gave him one piece of advice: first figure out where the possible problem is, do some elimination, and then solve it or consult for it.

1. The Self-Perspective Trap

This reminds me of an interesting story I saw a while ago:

Shannon, a famous American mathematician, had a very beautiful and artistic girlfriend.

One time when Shannon's girlfriend had her birthday, Shannon didn't send her flowers or necklaces or jewelry. He felt that these were not enough to express his feelings. Instead, he gave her a math book that he liked very much as a gift.

As a result, because of this incident, he broke up with his girlfriend and Shannon was dumped.

The story is very interesting, very typical straight male thinking.

Shannon chose a self-perspective on his girlfriend's birthday. He thought that he liked mathematics very much and his girlfriend would definitely like such a gift.

In fact, Shannon's original intention was to please his girlfriend. The fault was not in his heart, but in his thinking.

This is a typical self-perspective trap, which will cause endless harm!

Just like the netizen who asked me the question, he also fell into the trap of self-perspective and thought that what he cares about is what I care about.

People are naturally concerned about themselves when it comes to something, and are more inclined to express their feelings, standing from their own perspective rather than "looking at the matter from someone else's perspective."

For example, Shannon thought that if he liked math, his girlfriend would like it too. Instead of standing from the girlfriend's perspective and analyzing what her girlfriend would like, if he stands from the user's perspective, the birthday gift he chooses should be something that his girlfriend cares about and pays attention to.

2. Big Taboos for Marketing Copywriters

For example, many companies doing marketing and writing copy always like to tell users repeatedly: "Our product is very suitable for you now", "Our brand is so awesome", "My product has launched some new features"...

They think it’s okay because they have already assumed that the user is interested in them in the first place.

This is the self-perspective, which is contrary to marketing thinking.

Marketing thinking should be to understand users, understand needs, and be familiar with the consumer decision-making process, from discovering user needs to meeting user needs.

But what many people often do is describe their own subjective feelings and look for answers in their own brains, ignoring what consumers care about in their brains.

That definitely won't work.

What you talk about is always what you care about. You always stand from your own perspective, not that of the consumer. This is a fatal trap.

This is not the end, there is something even more terrifying - not only do we tend to express our feelings from our own perspective, we also like to force others to accept us, and we believe that we have the ability to persuade others.

Don’t deny it, think about yourself every time you quarrel with others!

All of this is a taboo for marketers and copywriters, but this is human nature. The reason why many marketing and copywriting fail is that they always play from their own perspective and try to use the facts in their own minds to convince users and change their cognition.

But whether doing marketing or writing copy, the core should be to utilize the facts that exist in the minds of consumers and use his brain to defeat his brain from the user's perspective.

So, when I think about a problem, I often keep overturning my own ideas, because when I re-examine my thinking and ideas, I find myself in a self-perspective trap.

This thing cannot be changed, after all, this is human nature. We can only try to switch ourselves to the user's perspective, but this is anti-human thinking.

For example, if I am in the decoration business, from my own perspective, the advertisement I would write would be:

"For Shenzhen decoration, choose Laozei Decoration"

Switching to the user's perspective, we need to think about what the user cares about, what he is concerned about, what he is interested in and what he is not interested in, and the final ad we write may be:

"I just owed a mortgage for buying a house in Shenzhen. Fortunately, I only spent 99,000 yuan to complete the decoration." "My neighbor's house is 70 square meters, but it is decorated like a 120 square meter mansion."

This is obviously much better.

The question is, how do we jump out of this and think from the user’s perspective?

3. How to escape from the trap?

Lao Zei recommends a method: assume failure!

What's the meaning? For example, many people spend a lot of time making a report plan and feel good after completing it, but after handing it in to their boss, they are scolded.

Because when he makes a plan, he always considers himself and always assumes that the boss will care about the contents of the plan, but in fact the boss doesn't care at all.

Another approach is to first assume that the boss doesn’t want to read these contents. This way, you will jump out of the trap of self-perspective and actively think about “Why doesn’t the boss want to read these contents?” “What contents will the boss pay attention to?” “How to write the contents that the boss cares about?”…

This is the assumption of failure, only in this way will you force yourself to switch to user thinking to find solutions.

The same principle applies to marketing and copywriting.

Assume that users don’t care about you at all, assume that users won’t read the copy, assume that users don’t understand, assume that users are not interested, assume that users don’t believe you, assume that users won’t buy, assume that users won’t recommend...

Only by assuming failure can we think about failure and reduce failure. How anti-human.

For example, if you are doing advertising, you need to write marketing copy to sell a product.

When you are thinking about it, you can first list some ideas and frameworks from your own perspective, and then you must: assume that users are not interested in your product!

This will make you think:

• Why are users not interested in my product?
• What are his needs now?
• Can my product introduction meet his needs?
• Can he perceive the value of my product?
• Do I directly introduce the product features, or do I tell the user the actual and psychological benefits that the product can bring to him?
• Does he have any alternative solutions?
• Does the copy grab the user’s attention from the beginning?
• Does the copy contain clear sales logic?
• How can I get him interested in the product?
• Why should he choose my product?
• …

Okay, after polishing, your marketing copy is able to attract users’ attention and make them interested in your product. Will they then pay for it?

We can continue: let’s assume the user doesn’t want to buy yet!

This way you will continue to think:

• Why are users interested in my product but not interested in buying it?
• What possible concerns does he have?
• Don't you trust me?
• Are you still concerned about the effect?
• Do you think there are price barriers?
• Are you worried about the risks in purchasing the product?
• Do you think other people’s products are better?
• How can I allay these concerns of users?
• Why did he have to buy it now?
• …

Only in this way will you re-examine your product marketing copy again and again, switch from your own perspective to the user's perspective, and look for solutions from the user's mind.

Think what he thinks, worry about what he worries about, and worry about what he worries about.

Don't assume failure. It's very difficult to always stay in the user's perspective. Of course, this method is not only applicable to marketing and copywriting, but basically applicable anywhere. It forces you to think from another person's perspective and think in reverse.

Author: Mumu Old Thief

Source: Mumu Laozei (ID: mumuseo)