“Research is what will make you rich”
The copywriting of sales letters and VSLs has become pretty formulaic now, especially with the arrival of AI.
So if copywriting is NOT the key differentiator for success in
direct marketing anymore, what is?
It’s research.
Research is the new killer copywriting.
If you can do deep research and find a unique and compelling new reason/new discovery/new mechanism/new idea regarding the product or service you are selling …
… this deep dive professional research will be the biggest difference maker for sales letters, VSLs and Ecom pages that convert great, scale on cold traffic and make fortunes.
You have to research to find the compelling “big idea” that will move your target audience to buy from you.
It’s not the copywriting.
It’s the research.
For example, I was recently hired to write a VSL for a dietary supplement that improved vision.
Previous VSLs for this product had failed (because they relied mostly on copywriting talent and not on deep research also)
I did intensive research for nearly two weeks and discovered that one of the herbs in this supplement had two very powerful things going for it:
- A human clinical study showing it improved glare and nighttime vision significantly
- Was first discovered by a pharmacist in a European country when he was gardening
These two interesting facts would NOT have been found out during “routine” research that is the norm in copywriting.
They required a deep dive and extensive time.
Now I understand exhaustive research is not the most thrilling work in the world, but unglamorous slogging can product glamours outcomes. Not many people want to work extremely hard these days, so this is your advantage in research.
Anyway, I wrote a VSL that featured these two facts from my deep research.
The results? This VSL is a huge home run winner that will scale on cold traffic and sell over $10 million of this nutritional supplement.
The research was the key. Copywriting based on standard research would have produced a generic headline like “Herbal Formula can help reduce glare and improve nighttime vision”.
My headline based on deep research was like* “Reduce Glare and Improve Your Nighttime Vision up to 58% as shown in a clinical study with a Secret First Discovered by A Swiss Farmer in 1894”.
Do you notice the specifics here, and how it is dripping with curiosity so you just have to find out more?
(*I cannot reveal the exact headline due to a signed agreement I have with the client.)
“Research is what will make you rich.”