Aki Lau's Key Ideas from Copywriting Secrets
by Jim Edwards

• Use as many of them as you can in your copy to “tie down” the prospect
• Get creative in how you use these reasons

• People want to hear about themselves
• No one cares about you in your sales copy
• Make your sales copy all about them (your prospect)

• If your headline sucks, nobody reads your sales letter, nobody reads your ad, and nobody watches your video
• A well-written headline targets people emotionally, usually around either a fear or desire

• How to get…..
• How to ….. in as little as ….
• How every … can ….
• 5 quick and easy ways to …..
• 3 fast ways to get … and avoid ….
• 5 quick and easy ways to get …. even if…
• Which of these … mistakes will you make?
• ….. mistakes all …. need to avoid
• …. mistakes every …. needs to avoid

• Warning : here’s what every … needs to know about ….
• Warning : don’t even think about trying to …. until you read this
• Here’s the perfect solution if you want
• Here’s the perfect solution if you want … even if …..
• My proven …. method to ….

• Acknowledge the different audiences who can use your product or service
• Identify those audiences and commit to putting the right messages in front of them
• Each traffic sources should have its own targeted approach
• Don’t be lazy and fail into the trap of one-size-fits-all with your sales messages

• Hot traffic source: somebody who is on your email list or follows you on social media and knows your name
• Warm traffic source: somebody who is looking for a solution to a problem, but they don’t know about you yet
• Cold traffic sources: someone who doesn’t even realise there’s a solution out there but knows they have a problem

• F.R.E.D stands for Fears, Results, Expectations, and Desires
• Fred is your ideal customer, your new best friend
• See Fred as an avatar

• PQR2 stands for problems, questions, roadblocks, results
• Your Fred wants to have the result, but there is a gap
• Your sales copy will bridge the gap for Fred

• Define your Fred
• Go from a large niche down to sub-niches then to micro-niches

Identify Fred’s top two problems

Identify Fred’s top two questions

Identify Fred’s two big roadblocks

Identify Fred’s top two desired results

• People buy the benefits not the features
• Benefit is what something does for you, while feature is what something is
• People buy on emotion and then justify with logic

• Summarise what people will see in a video
• Give people a preview of your blog post
• List the benefits
• Give people reasons to keep reading and to make a decision
• Summarise what they are buying

• Give people a reason to act
• Build curiosity so you can create pressure inside people to get them to buy faster
• Grab people’s attention so you can address their specific wants (and needs) to make more sales
• Convey important information quickly so you can get your message across fast to maximise every advertising dollar you spend
• Carry the load of explaining what your product is and what it will do for them

• Feature + Benefit + Meaning
• It (feature) so you can (benefit) which means (meaning)
• Feature = what it is
• Benefit = what it does
• Meaning = what it means to the buyer/ reader/ prospect
• which means you will/ you can/ you don’t have to

• When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion
• Meaning creates emotion
• A strong “why” creates emotion
• You’ve got to find that emotional connection and amplify it
• The more emotions you can tie your product or service to like, love, fear of x, hate, hope, the better off you are

Love for … (family, self, country, community, etc)

Fear of …. (failure, making mistakes, death, loss, etc)

Vanity

Pride

Longing for … (fulfillment, peace, completion, etc)

Greed

Freedom

• The enemy of great is good
• The mindset of good enough makes you stop improving

• Headlines
• Offers
• Prices
• Bonuses
• Email subject lines
• Calls to action
• Order button test
• Colours

• You never test more than one variable at a time
• If you are not testing start testing immediately
• Test for actions like purchases, clicks, or subscriptions
• Automate your testing, don;t do it by hand if at all possible

• Use quotes from your company, colleagues, or friends
• Use celebrity endorsement (if possible)
• Use statistics to proof the claims you are making
• Give your product away to people in exchange for an honest testimonial

formula 1: Problem/ agitate/ solve

formula 2: If you want 3X benefit, then do this

formula 3: The before/ after/ bridge

• You define the problem they face
• You agitate it, make it worse, ,make it hurt
• You solve it by presenting your product or service as the solution

• List 3 different benefits in your copy
• e.g. if you want to train your dog, teach him some great tricks, or even just have a lot more fun with your pet, then you need to check out “The 10 tricks you can teach your dog in a weekend course”.
• e.g. If you want to reignite the fire with your spouse, if you want to get back in touch with the feeling you had when you first got married, or you simply want to reconnect with your best friend in the world, then check our “Marriage Revitalisation Secrets”.

• Before - after - bridge
• Start with the before (problem, question, roadblock that makes them unhappy)
• Introduce the after ( tell them to imagine what their life will be like, show positive emotions)
• Bridge the gap of where they are now and where they want to be

• Start with the headline
• Insert your video
• Add a buy button, place right under the video
• Add 4-6 awesome, curiosity-inducing bullets under the buy button
• Give the guarantee
• Summarise what they will get
• Closing copy
• Restate the main benefits stated in the video sales-  letter

• Headline
• Shocking statement
• Define the problem
• Agitate
• Present the solution
• Use bullet to arouse curiosity
• Credibility statement about you
• Proof
• Sum up the offer and give price
• Bonuses and pot sweeteners
• Guarantee
• Call them to action
• Postscript

• An email teaser is an email that gets sent to either a single customer or a list of customers
• The sole purpose of that email teaser is to get the reader to click a link in the email itself and go to a web page
• They will then read your sales message, watch your sales video, absorb your content, read your blog posts, watch your content video
• In 99 out of 100 emails, the only purpose is to get them to click a link

• Start with a great subject line to get their attention and get them to open the email
• Salutation - to acknowledge them
• A shocking fact
• 2-4 bullets or sentences to build curiosity
• Specific call to action for what you want them to do
• Close with a personal note like “hey, I’ll see you over there, thanks Jim.”

• Actual stories you tell about your life, your business, other people, or anything that illustrates your point
• Case studies about somebody got a result, like a hero’s journey
• Examples about how something works, was applied, was put into motion, and then the result they got
• The three M’s of content (Myth, Misconception, Mistakes)
• Future pacing - explain what life will be life when they take specific actions, how will your product/ service/ software/ whatever, help them achieve those results

• It can create the need for what you are selling and increases the urgency to buy right now
• Myth, Misconception, Mistakes
• Myth - you can write about myths people believe and debunk them
• Misconception - You can clear up those misconceptions and replace them with correct views and clear understanding
• Mistakes - you point out where other people are going wrong

• Give something valuable for free that naturally leads to an additional purchase (you teach somebody something or provide something that automatically creates the need for what you’re selling)
• Tell them what to do, why they should do it, and then sell them/ what they need to do it
• Teach all the steps leading up to what you want them to purchase
• Teach them the manual or hard way to do something, then sell them the tools, or the easy button, to do it for them

• People buy from a character or a persona more easily then they buy from some unknown company
• Take a stand, to have a position, or an opinion
• Love me, hate me, there’s no money in between
• You need to be consistent in your message, opinion, and what you stand for

• The four-part formula creates a profitable promise
• The hurdle
• The prize
• The timing
• The eliminator

• Understand their obstacle
• The ability to take the action to get the result is what they see holding them back
• The actions are the hurdles

• The prize us what they want, is the result they want from taking action in the previous step

• Answer the question “when will I get what I want?”
• How long will it take?
• Reference the time it takes for them to get the prize by taking action themselves, it should be unbelievable but within the realm of possibility
• or saying how long it takes you to teach them how to get the prize

• Eliminate the excuse that holds them back
• Excuses result from past effort, pain, or failure
• Mention “even if you (the excuses), you can still achieve (the result) with my product
• Under no circumstances do you tell them it is their fault for not getting the results they want
• Let them off the hook, as in “it’s not their fault” they don’t have what they want yet

• Use the words “by the way” or “p.s” at the end of the email as a teaser
• People will be less defensive
• It goes under their “anti-sale radar”
• First deliver value, then pivot to get a signup, a subscriber, whatever you want to get done with the words “by the way” or “p.s”

• No one is born knowing how to sell
• Give people clear reasons why they should buy from you
• Target people's emotions
• People buy because of emotions, they justify it with logic afterwards
• Use bullet points always
• Always chase for greater, don't settle with "good enough"