This piece written by John Carlton, has mailed as a letter and run as a magazine ad for over seven years. It's an all-time favorite for many copywriters &...View More
for good reason. As John stated in a forum post, "I kinda got on a roll in the late 90s in that market, really nailed the psychological sweet-spot of the audience, and pretty much never missed (no matter what the DVDs were about)." If you look at a variety of John Carlton's ads in the self defense niche such as his cage fighter ad: http://swiped.co/file/cage-fighter-ad-by-john-carlton/, you start to understand what that sweet-spot was. The self-defense niche requires a no-holds-barred, hardcore tone. John makes the reader feel like you have an in-your-face fighting master telling you "I don't care how small, skinny or wimpy you are. I can teach you to take on the biggest, baddest tough guys & make them look absolutely silly. You'll never fear losing a fight again, your confidence will skyrocket & you'll look like the coolest, most badass dude on the block if.......you learn these super secret, undercover fighting techniques that come from & are endorsed by these famous fighters & self-defense authorities." Although that's a very gross generalization, I think it's beneficial to spot patterns like these to get the most out of his copy, which is incredibly effective (& fun to read). Underneath the spot-on tone & messaging, there's a formula that you can use for a variety of niches. In fact, the messaging I mentioned above really translates to "No matter what your setbacks or weaknesses are, you can achieve your desired result in a BIG way, reap these amazing additional benefits & be completely thrilled with this area of your life if you follow these "secret", "never-before-revealed" techniques. They're EASY to implement & you'll achieve INSTANT results (like these people just like you that did). Did I mention, this is endorsed by the best in the biz & is backed by a zero-risk guarantee."
