The copywriting myth that drives me up the f*cking wall

What’s the ONE thing that pisses you off most about Twitter?

I’ll go first.

Copywriters.

More specifically, copywriters saying…

“Sell the benefits, not the features.”

Oh. My. God.

This one drives me up the fucking wall.

Every single day I see some moron on Twitter preaching this while sitting on his high horse acting like he’s got the whole game figured out (spoiler alert: no-one does, including me).

And why does this piss me off so much?

Because the person saying it might as well be wearing one of those big cardboard cutouts you see at Halloween parties, and, on it, in bright red paint is the phrase:

“I take everything I hear at 100% face value and am completely and utterly incapable of thinking for myself about whether there is a BETTER way to do things.”

Because it’s like…

Yes. OBVIOUSLY you sell the benefits and not the features.

But…

Why are you acting like it has to be one or the other?

You can’t show the benefits and then explain HOW the features result in those benefits, huh?

And even then, you think you’re done?

What about the obvious objection you will trigger in your reader’s mind whenever you make ANY claim?

You’re just going to let them sit with that one, are you?

Oh you are? Nice.

Have fun with that.

Because if someone was to say to me “I’ll get you [benefit]” and then not tell me HOW they were going to do it (and then also give me ZERO proof or emotional appeal to back that up)?

No way in hell I’m buying.

So, I prefer to…

Lead with the benefits.
Explain with the features.
Handle the main objection with either PROOF or EMPATHY.

I’ll show you what I mean with this fascination from my free Twitter blueprint I pulled together a few weeks ago…

• Instantly DOUBLE the number of followers you gain every week by optimising your Twitter profile (yes, one simple tweak to my profile genuinely doubled my follower growth overnight)

Do you see how that works?

I show the benefit (2x your followers per unit of time).

I explain how I’ll get them that benefit (by optimising your Twitter profile).

And then I THINK to myself (key word there: THINK)…

What about this claim will make my reader think “Bullshit”?
(i.e. what about this claim are they most likely to NOT believe?)

In this case…

Doubling your follower growth is a BIG claim.

So…

In my reader’s mind they’re probably thinking “this is unrealistic” (even though I genuinely did 2x my follower conversion rate overnight with one tweak to my profile)

They’re thinking “he’s just made up a number there to make it sound better”.

How do I handle this?

I double down on my claim to show I am serious about it and then I stack it with EMPATHY.

I’m implicitly saying to the reader…

“Look, I already know what you’re thinking - a ridiculous claim you’ve heard 100x before. I get it. I understand why you might think this is BS. But I did genuinely do this. Don’t you wanna find out what it was?”

And because I’ve handled the objection that is at the FOREFRONT of their mind, they’re now 100x more likely to buy into my claim.

Again…

This is just an example.

But the thought process I go through whenever I write copy looks something like this:

1. What is the ONE big benefit this will give the reader? (i.e. what do they ACTUALLY want)

2. What feature of my system or offer will help them achieve this?

3. What is the one big objection they will have to my claim (and how can I EXTINGUISH this with PROOF and/or EMPATHY)?

Less catchy than “sell the benefits, not the features”.

But do you want catchy?

Or do you want to make money?

Right.

Rant over.

Happy hump day (which I only learned shockingly recently was called that because it’s the middle of the week and you’re “over the hump”. I honestly thought it was some sort of sexual innuendo lol).

Talk soon,

Harry

PS. I am DELETING my Ultimate Guide to Storytelling in the next 48 hours.

I’m going sell you it in my next two emails.

Why?

Because it is one of the few low-ticket courses on X that will genuinely help you become a writer people can’t shut up about. That is what I want for you. (I hope you can see that from these emails).

If you’re struggling to convert followers into die-hard fans who BUY…

Storytelling is your answer.

If you don’t realise this yet, you will in the next 2 days.

I advise you give yourself a headstart on everyone else.

End your storytelling confusion here.