For a final assignment for some mentees some time ago…

I gave them an eBook in the survival space, along with a brief…🎧

Then told them to write a new lead for it.

After review, one thing I noted was that while most of the leads were quite good…🧐

A lot of them were missing urgency.

That’s a big deal…👌

Because in a market like survival…

It might seem like you’re selling prevention (it’s called prepping for a reason, right?!?)…

But you’re not.🤷‍♂️

Why?

Prevention doesn’t sell.

It’s the same reason it’s hard to get people to quit smoking…

Intellectually, they know smoking is bad for them…

But they also know that the negative outcomes are further down the road.

Same with diet..

People know a crappy diet will lead to negative health outcomes later…

But when you’re young and seemingly healthy…

It’s just hard to care.

There are actually studies about this, too…

Our brains are pretty much incapable of projecting too far into the future…

So warning someone of a potential harm to their future self tends to not hold much sway.

And this comes back to urgency.

When you’re selling something in survival…

The argument is not “what would you do if X happened? If you don’t know, and you’re freaked out, it’s okay. I’ll share how to be prepared inside this video!”

It’s:

“Something bad has a HIGH probability of happening in the very near future and you’re going to be f***ed unless you know about it, unless you follow the advice I give you.”

So you’re not actually selling preparedness…

You’re selling a coherent and credible argument that things are about to be bad…

And only after that do you sell the prospect on a product that will help prevent that impending doom.

Got it?

And what’s kind of interesting is how this is actually very similar to financial offers…

Except here’s the distinction:

While there are successful financial offers that focus on how some catastrophic event like a market meltdown or recession will screw everyone except a savvy few…

Many other financial offers make the inverse of the survival argument.

In other words, they say:

“Something good has a HIGH probability of happening in the very near future, and you’re going to blow it unless you know about it and then follow the advice I give you.”

For example…

In a financial promo, the argument might be…

“Some game-changing technology will transform a trillion dollar market, and you’re going to miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime shift, and all the riches that come with it, unless you watch this video.”

That’s a pretty common structure in finance…

But again, the key here is urgency.

The reason health copy tends to be so much “easier” to write winners for is all about urgency too…

Depending on the specific market…

You’re generally speaking to prospects AFTER stuff has already gone wrong.

So you’re not talking to the Red Bull-slamming, cocktail-binging, processed-food-loving Gen Z kid who still feels pretty good most days…

You’re talking to the 40+ person whose heart is already giving out…

Or whose waistline is already expanded…

Or whose blood sugar levels are already out of control.

That’s a much easier market…

And again, the reason why is the urgency of their problem.

A 20-year-old doesn’t normally wake up at 2 am in the morning, their heart racing, thinking about how they should really cut back on sodas…

But a 50-year-old does wake up thinking about what will happen if they don’t get _______ under control.

Make sense?

 

– SPG

P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link