Why Dakota Robertson DM'd me

Yesterday I hopped off my flight home from Sicily.

Ahhhhh it feels good to be back in the UK getting blasted by rain, cold and wind. Who needs the sun anyway…

But it wasn’t all bad news.

Because as soon as I took my plane off “Airplane mode” (I was a good little boy on the flight) and checked my Twitter DMs, I was greeted with quite the SURPRISE…

Did not expect that one.

I won’t act like I wasn’t gassed - I’ve followed Dakota for a long time now and been a big fan of all his stuff.

But it did get me thinking…

I’ve got 2 options for this email today.

I can either 99% of other creators would do and start shouting about my extra-special “networking” strategy that helped me connect with Dakota (a.k.a spout a load of complete and utter horse shit).

Or I can double down on the thing that ACTUALLY made him reach out to me in the first place - providing upfront value to my audience and mentees and let the (hopefully) good word spread itself.

I think I’ll stick with the latter…

Which means this email is going to have fuck all with Dakota or BS “networking” strategies.

And instead, it’s going to focus on REAL, copywriting advice that will actually help you sell your offers, products and services.

So…

Here’s where the MEAT AND POTATOES of this email starts:

An object at rest stays at rest.

That is Newton’s First Law of Motion.

And not only is it true with physical objects, but it is also true with your customers.

In fact…

Unless you give your customers a reason to act NOW, they will not act.

So…

How do we JOLT those fuckers into action?

That’s what this email is going to look at.

First, we’re going to look at all the “normie” ways to give your audience a big ol’ kick up the backside and perform the ever-so-challenging task of moving their finger two centimetres across their screen to click “Buy now!”

And then I’m going to show you a much more SUBTLE (but much more advanced) way to get your customers frothing at the mouth.

And we have a LOT to cover.

So let’s dive in…

Section 1: Scarcity (“Going, going… shit - you missed it. Better luck next time…”)

1) Tell people who your offer is NOT for

Don’t open your offer up to everyone and their dog.

Make it crystal clear in your copy who your product or service is NOT for. 

This works on two levels. 

First, people HATE being excluded from shit. This alone will trigger a “reverse psychology” effect in people’s minds where they buy almost out of SPITE (“See! Told you this was right for me!”). 

Second, it will make your copy BITE like a fucking pitbull for your ideal customers. Why? Because it shows them you’ve built something TAILOR-MADE for them (rather than the generic, recycled garbage 99% of creators vomit out). 

Example: Here’s an excerpt from Justin Welsh’s $897 Creator MBA Course where he does this: 

==========

Who this course is NOT for:

❌ You equate success with just buying a course.

❌ You’re not willing to do the unsexy work that’s required to run a business.

❌ You’re expecting me to just tell you exactly what to do every minute of every day.

….

Yada yada yada (Justin’s sales page doesn’t actually say “yada yada yada” btw…)

===========

Pro-tip: See how Justin paints the attributes of someone who would NOT buy the course as a cave-dwelling troll? I advise you to do this too. This, again, triggers their “I don’t want to be like that!” response. (Kinda similar when a job interviewer asks you “what’s your biggest weakness?” You’re expected to be honest but also not make yourself out to be a fucking Neanderthal that lounges around the office picking bogeys out of his nose all day).

BONUS: If you’re selling a subscription-based offer like a community, coaching cohort, SaaS, then threaten to Blacklist people who sign up and then leave (“You’re free to join at any time. But once you leave, you won’t be able to rejoin for 12 months”). This will repel the sneaky fuckers that are looking for a “snatch and grab” operation on the materials you’ve lovingly pulled together. Plus, it will attract people who are genuinely serious about getting results (which is great for you - you need proof your product or service works!)

2) Limiting spots

Example: “Only 4 spots available”.

This one is ya bread and butter.

And I won’t patronise you by explaining it further. (If you bore witness to the bogroll pandemonium during the COVID era, you should be well acquainted with the idea that stuff “running out” makes people want it more…)

Works best for: coaching offers, workshops or other events where adding more people degrades the quality of service everyone gets (in case you’re interested, the proper word for this is “attritional” - don’t say you don’t learn anything from these emails…)

For example…

No-one wants to join a workshop with 147 people blasting the Zoom chat harder than a and where they’ve got less chance of getting a question in than being able to eat boiling hot soup onboard one of those packed-to-the-gills Japanese trains.

3) Removing your product from shelf

Ever have your favourite toy snatched away from you as a kid?

I know I did.

Cried. Whinged. Would’ve done literally anything to get it back.

No different with your products.

When you announce you’re removing your stuff from the shelf (forever), it triggers that oh-so-wonderful FOMO response in your reader’s mind and gets them to pull the trigger.

Pro-tip: give a legitimate reason why you’re removing the product or service (it no longer fits your offer stack, you’re merging it with another higher-tier offer etc). 

Literally did this last week with a $29 E-Book to help people and earned $1,200 in under 48 hours. Not bad for 2 quick emails and a tweet while sunning it up in Sicily. And I’m still getting DMs from people on Twitter saying how useful they found the stuff inside… #value

Right.

That’s how to make ‘em quake at the knees that you’re running out of stock.

Now we’re gonna make ‘em act FAST with some cunning pricing hijinx…

Section 2: Urgency (“Get it NOW or your bank account will SUFFER!”)

1) Stepladder prices

Example: First 5 people to buy get it for $50. Next 5 people get it for $100. Next 5 people get it for $150. And so on…

Why it works: You’re able to offer a big discount on the initial pricing points to get people in the door. This builds some traction around your product and stops it flopping harder than when beer-gut Bill tries to do a dolphin dive at the hotel pool. This also gives you the chance to collect early testimonials and ram these in front of your audience to trigger herd mentality (rave reviews and proof of results are, after all, the name of the copywriting game).  

Pro-tip: Every time you get close to a new “boundary” (e.g. there’s only 1-2 slots left at the $100 price point), you can re-stimulate scarcity by announcing this to your audience. 

I’ve used this Stepladder pricing strategy with a client to slam $20,000 in revenue without even having a product to sell (pre-sale for a SaaS still in development stage). 

2) Future price increases

When you know the price of gas and electricity is going up, you get on the blower and do whatever the fuck you have to do to lock in a contract at your current price.

No different with your copy.

Announce future price increases, and you’ll trigger that “fuck, I don’t want to pay more later!” response in your reader’s mind.

Example: “The next time I open doors, prices will be $150 instead of the $75 you can snag today. Don’t punish your bank balance because you dilly-dallied.”

Pro-tip: Learned from Daniel Fazio ($6M/ARR Marketer) that price hikes or roughly DOUBLE work best. I’ve found this to be true from my own experience. Less than double and you won’t give people a big enough kick in the teeth. More than double and it sounds like BS.

3) Limited-time discounts

I can’t be assed to explain this one - you’ve all been to a supermarket before.

Example: “33% discount ends in 6 hours.” (obviously you can word it better than that…)

Works best for: holidays (Black Friday, Christmas, New Years etc.), birthdays or any other time when there is a legitimate reason to be offering a discount. Don’t be the guy that has a “90% once-in-a-lifetime never-to-be-seen-again DISCOUNT ENDS SOON!” banner plastered over his landing page. Tacky (and scammy) AF.

Pro-tip: Maybe you could also use this tactic at the end of a FREE (or low-ticket) offer? I’ll leave you to ponder on that thought as your “homework”...

Now, those are all the normie ways to jolt your customers into buying NOW.

But they’re all a bit “obvious”.

People have been clubbed over the head with these tactics for so many years now that they no longer pack the same “punch”. 

So I want to leave you today with one much more ADVANCED copywriting tactic that will subtly trigger your audience into buying (without them even realising what you’re doing).

And this is what I call…

Pincer movement copy.

To pull this off, you need 3 components:

1) “New” opportunity
You present a big, imminent problem the reader is facing. And then you show them a new and exciting way to solve this (rather than the same boring shit they’ve heard 100x before).

2) Closing window
You (subtly) show the reader that, while this opportunity is currently ready to rip, it won’t be around forever. They need to act NOW.

3) “Hand of God” element
You show the reader that this “opportunity” is simply a force of nature. You have nothing to do with it. You’re simply the messenger.

And rather than try and explain this further, imma use a quick example to illustrate it in action with, you get it, the illustrious Mr. Dan Koe…

• New opportunity: The Future of Work is the Creator Economy and you can earn hundreds of thousands by writing about your genuine curiosities online (most people have never considered this before they come across Dan’s content - it’s NEW).

• Closing window: 62% of labour jobs will be phased out in the next 5-10 years. This presses the PANIC button in the reader’s mind as they realise their “safe” job really ain’t gonna be around all that long.

• Hand of God element: This is part of natural evolution away from the individual consciousness towards the collective consciousness via social media. It’s out of our hands and an inevitable fact of life.

Why does this work?

The New Opportunity makes it desirable (it offers them the chance to get something they want).

The Closing Window triggers the “fuck, I need to get in on this NOW” mindset.

The Hand of God element makes it feel like you aren’t pulling the strings - some external force of nature is. The result? Instead of being sceptical of you, they’re actually grateful to you for alerting them to this amazing opportunity (and hence much more likely to buy!)

Side note: idk why I’ve been breaking down Dan’s shit so much recently. Need to find another big creator’s content to break down next time, lol.

And now, onto the final question…

Is all this copywriting “trickery” ethical?

It depends.

Do you have a good product that provides 5-10x the value you’re asking people to pay you?

Is it going to improve their lives by a larger degree than the money they’ll be handing over?

Then, yes - triggering their emotions to get them to buy is not only ethical, but your moral responsibility.

On the other hand… if you’re flogging a product of service with less value than a sack of shit, then I want you to take a long hard look at improving your product before you start using these tactics in your copy. No amount of scarcity or urgency tactics will save you (long term) if your product is rotten from the core.

After all…

The difference between manipulation and persuasion is the size of benefit. 

Never forget that.

Talk soon,

Harry

PS. Enjoying these in-depth copywriting breakdowns?

Reply “Copy” and I’ll keep pumping ‘em out (takes you 2 seconds to reply).

If 15 (or more) people reply I’ll pump out another one with my next email.