The last lesson was fairly tactical. “Do this,” “do that,” “don’t do that other thing.”
Now we want to know why. We want to start finding the underlying patterns that form the basis of the tactics and techniques, so you can tie them together in your mind and properly internalize them.
Without these underlying patterns or principles, your rote knowledge of tactics is like being stuck in the Chinese Room.
The Chinese Room is a thought experiment which shows how genuine artificial intelligence is impossible in principle, because computers are syntax machines — they process rules, but cannot understand them. The thought experiment imagines a man who only speaks Spanish, trapped in a room filled with a comprehensive set of Spanish instructions that let him convert English sentences into Chinese. He is handed English sentences through a slot in the wall, and he uses his instructions to convert them into Chinese and then post them back. People on the outside might think he speaks excellent English and Chinese, but the truth is he speaks neither. He is just running through rote instructions.
Knowing copywriting tactics without knowing the principles behind them is like being the man in the Chinese Room. Performing seemingly very clever tasks without any knowledge of the underlying “language.” You’ve learned that doing X produces Y result. But just like if you set the man in the room free, he cannot actually speak Chinese, if you’re thrown into a situation where you need Z result instead of Y, you won’t know how to achieve it.
You need an “equation” to be able to translate X = Y into ? = Z. If you’ve just learned the “sum” by rote you’re outta luck.
This is why I stress learning principles — the “equation” of copywriting — at the same time you’re learning tactics. Fortunately, copywriting principles aren’t math. They can be distilled into a simple 4-part “cipher.” This cipher describes the basic patterns that all good copy embodies.
The 4C Cipher
There are four fundamental patterns which good copy always exemplifies: four driving forces which give it its power, and explains why it works.
Together, I call these the “4C Cipher.”
Because marketers can’t resist mysterious names. And...well, you’ll see how the 4C Cipher is an application of the 4C Cipher later. Let’s not get all recursive before we’re ready, ok?
For now, let’s just say that the 4C Cipher is a way of describing the psychological factors which most strongly influence decision-making.
I first started piecing this cipher together when I was looking for a better way to teach headline-writing. I had already developed my SHINE formula (Specific, Helpful, Immediate, Newsworthy and Entertaining) to improve on the somewhat rusty 4U formula (Unique, Useful, Urgent...and...what was the other one? Not ugly...not ungainly...oh yes, Ultra-specific — pshaw).
I thought SHINE was pretty good — but when I saw the results my customers were getting from it, I was disappointed.
Their headlines were not nearly as strong as I hoped they would be.
I started thinking a lot about what the differences were between us. Why was I able to use SHINE to produce strong headlines, while other people weren’t? If they knew their headlines should be specific, helpful, immediate, newsworthy and entertaining, how come they seldom wrote them that way — despite the many examples I’d given for practical illustration?
The problem, I discovered, was that many of the people I talked to were bewildered about how to make a headline specific, or helpful, or newsworthy, etc. Although they had a basic sense of what those terms meant, and could usually recognize these qualities in a good headline, they didn’t know how to produce them in one of their own.
It’s a bit like the difference between being able to understand a language, and being able to speak it. I’m originally from South Africa, where pretty much every adult can speak Afrikaans. But I left when I was 12. As such, I can pick up quite a bit if I hear people speaking Afrikaans. Lots of the words are familiar enough that when I hear them, I know what they mean. But they are not so familiar that I can reach into my mind and find them in order to actually construct my own sentences in Afrikaans. And more importantly, I struggle to understand the rules of the language that would help me put the words together in the right way.
I can listen, to some exent — but I can’t speak.
This is how many people are with writing headlines. Like languages, headlines are complex enough that you can’t get very far just memorizing a certain sequence of words. One headline is about as useful as one phrase. You need to be able to “generate” your own words as needed.
You may have the vocabulary — but you need to know the rules of the language. You need the equation, the algorithm, to correctly form headlines with the desired qualities.
This means you have to understand the psychology of what makes some sentences good headlines, and some not.
I spent a long time zeroing in on the specific factors that go into this. I wanted to reduce the key psychological factors in copywriting to the minimum number of basic principles, so that I could create the simplest possible reliable “algorithm.” I wanted the fundamental essence of what makes good headlines. I was sure this was the cipher that would help people unlock the formulas that were supposed to teach them good headline-writing skills — but didn’t.
The result of this thinking and analyzing and Venn diagramming and jotting and testing and what-have-you is the 4C Cipher. Four overarching, broad principles.
In the process of working them out, I also discovered that they don’t just apply to headlines. In fact, they apply to calls to action, to fascination bullets, to subject lines, to ledes, to guarantees, to everyday email campaigns...in other words, to everything. They’re easy to spot in headlines, because they are distilled into a single sentence. But these principles apply to all copywriting, and all marketing.
And the first of them is aptly explained in calls to action.
But before we get there, there is a very small but very important distinction that I need to emphasize:
The 4C Cipher is not a formula for putting words together; it is a system for putting thoughts together.
This might seem like a semantic difference, but you will soon come to realize that it is anything but. There are two important things to understand about this:
Everything comes down to thought sequences because marketing takes place in Sam’s mind. The whole process of writing copy and using it in campaigns is a process of adjusting Sam’s mental innards to the point where he thinks he should give you as much money as possible, as often as possible, because in exchange you are going to give him something he wants.
Thoughts = ideas + emotions. Although we often express thoughts using propositions (words, sentences, etc), a lot of emotional stuff is going on behind the scenes. Emotion is a key component of thinking, and an even more critical element for decision-making, as you will remember from the value pyramid. Logical reasoning is the steering wheel that directs Sam to your offering; but emotion is the engine that keeps him moving.
With this said, let’s turn to the first element of the Cipher itself.
The first C: clarity
What I’m about to teach you will basically ruin advertising for you forever.
You’ll never be able to take most TV ads seriously as marketing again. Billboards will precipitate tirades of righteous fury. Even something as simple as the descriptions on eBay auctions will take on a new dimension in your mind.
We tend to assume that the success of our copy comes from all the difficult, hard-learned persuasion techniques it uses.
But I am here to tell you that, as long as your content is relevant, and as long as you’re actually selling something that is valuable to Sam, clarity is key.
Clarity trumps persuasion.
Rather than pulling out all the stops and employing every trick you know to persuade Sam to convert, try just explaining clearly what it is you’re selling, and how to get it.
This is your true objective: to help Sam clearly understand your offering, and accurately decide whether it is for him.
By contrast, trying to persuade him of anything at all is what I call a false objective.
The importance of this distinction will become clear as we progress. Choosing an objective you have no ultimate control over (making Sam convert) is a recipe for stressful writing that comes across as breathless and needy. Choosing an objective you have a great deal of control over (explaining your offering clearly), is a recipe for calm writing that comes across as informative, authoritative — and thus persuasive. By focusing on clarity rather than persuasion, you make the task of writing much more enjoyable, because you have a tangible and achievable goal to work toward, rather than the vague, icky, difficult need to make someone you don’t know do something they might not want to.
So not only does your writing become more effective; you also have more fun creating it — a virtuous cycle.
Persuasion techniques are useful, and of course I will teach you many of the highest-leverage ones. But if you don’t start with clear copy, then it doesn’t matter how many methods you employ to make it more persuasive. The most elite “strangleholds” and “ninja joint-locks” still won’t help Sam understand it well enough to make a positive decision.
Being able to present your message with clarity is the 20% of work that gets 80% of the results. Learning and employing advanced copywriting strangleholds and joint-locks is the 80% that gets the other 20%.
You do the math and tell me which seems like the better use of your time.
The reason for this is very simple: in any situation where you have even a modicum of targeting in your traffic — and especially for situations where Sam is well-qualified to begin with, as he will be by the time he gets to a sales page at the end of your funnel — the main reason for lost conversions is simply that Sam is not sure about something...
Maybe he wants to know more about some feature.
Maybe he isn’t certain that X will work with Y.
Or how easily he can get a refund if he needs to.
Or he just doesn’t understand how to order!
Sometimes it is simply that the headline didn’t make a promise he could easily discern or care about...so he didn’t bother reading the copy at all.
The solution to all these problems is not to be more persuasive. It is to be more clear.
Two clarity-killers
Tomorrow I will describe three basic components of clarity. These will explain what you should do to be clear. But we have gone through a lot of theory, so I’d like to finish this lesson with a small but very practical step to help you assess the CTA copy you’ve already written. Here are two things you should not do:
1. Don’t try to be clever
Everyone is susceptible to getting a bit too enamored with some idea that seems very cunning to them — but is actually incomprehensible to others. Beware of puns, in particular. If you get a bit of a chortle out of your copy, if you think it’s a bit inspired, and particularly if you’re willing to fit the message around it (rather than change it)...that’s a good sign you should lose it.
To paraphrase William Faulkner, in marketing you must kill all your darlings.
Simply put, humor or cleverness generally trades on unexpected juxtapositions of ideas. Often it takes a moment to sink in.
In calls to action, and headlines, however, you don’t have a moment.
There is a place for humor in your copy — a very strong place in fact, as we’ll discuss when we get to the third of the 4 Cs. But in calls to action and headlines, it often creates confusion, and it isn’t worth the risk.
E.g.:
Not this: Send the carrier pigeon!
But this: Send my message
2. Don’t use point-middle copy
In calls to action this is a killer. As you probably know, we notice and remember the first and last items in most situations far more than the middle ones. So always try to put the most important words (or other elements) — the main promise or point — at the beginning.
Failing that, at the end.
Never in the middle. It doesn’t get noticed there, so it’s rather ineffective.
Not this: Click here for your free consultation session to be registered
But this: Register my free consultation
Tomorrow you will learn three concrete components of clarity, and how to apply them. Then you will use them to assess the calls to action you’ve written, and expand them into the full three lines of copy you’re writing this week. For now, you have some simpler tasks to prepare for that...
Homework
This homework may seem simplistic. But it is based on my observation, both in my own learning and the learning of my students, that we easily mistake understanding something for internalizing it.
It’s easy to read through an explanation of something and nod and say, “That makes sense.” It is much harder to use that knowledge.
So to get you started in using it, here are some simple exercises that you will probably resent at first, but thank me for later:
Write out the rationale and importance of the 4C Cipher in your own words.
Explain what the 4C Cipher is not a formula for doing — and what, by contrast, it is for. Why is this important?
What is the first of the four Cs, and what makes it so powerful?
Refer back to the various lines of button copy you wrote yesterday.
Are any of them weighted point-middle or point-last? If so, you can cross those off the list of contenders.
Are any of them a little too clever for their own good? Cross off ones that incorporate word-plays, branded terms that Sam won’t be familiar with already, and so on.