There is your audience.
There is the language.
There are the words that they use.
-Gene Schwartz
With the re-election of Donald Trump this past November, I went back to the post I wrote when he was first elected in 2016 to see if it was still relevant.
I believe it is…but I’ll let you decide.
The 2016 post stemmed from this quote Trump made on the campaign trail:
“I’m going to build a wall on the border with Mexico. And I will put a door in it.”
The wall with a door is still around.
[NOTE: This is not a political post; it is simply an exploration of the power of appropriate messaging to a particular audience. It has nothing to do with whether you support Trump or not, and there are some additional lessons within it. Please don’t accept or dismiss this post based on your political affiliation…and I encourage you to share your insights with me.]
The Gene Schwartz quote at the beginning of this post sums up my thesis pretty well…as does this one from Gary Halbert:
The most important thing is a hungry market.
Not a brilliant burger.
When I embarked on the journey to work on my first book, The Advertising Solution, with Craig Simpson, I knew the six legends we were profiling were all excellent copywriters.
But when I took a deeper dive into their work, I realized they were much more interested in knowing their audience and market first–with the actual writing being a “necessary afterthought.”
Well…an afterthought performed by masters.
The copy is the least important element of a promotion…until it’s not.
That led me to create this 5-minute video in 2016 with a different spin on the “40/40/20 Rule” (List/Offer/Creative)…and if you never heard me on this topic (or read about it my second book, Overdeliver), it’s relevant to today’s post…so I invite you to check it out.
If you have heard me on this topic (which is likely), consider it a rerun with purpose.
The video is titled, “When 41% is a majority.”
And it is also not political.
My favorite Gene Schwartz quote on the topic of a hungry market:
“You cannot lose touch with the people of this country, no matter how successful or potent you are; if you don’t spend at least two hours a week finding out where your market is today, you are finished!”
Maybe that’s why Gene, the most prolific copywriter of his generation, and a true intellectual in every way, read everything he could get his hands on…but his favorite publication was The National Enquirer (while not shying away from scholarly journals and everything in-between).
Gene knew that his best shot at connecting with almost any market was to know as much about them as possible; and the only way to do that was to read everything they were reading, understand everything they were experiencing in modern culture…and living in their shoes…both figuratively and literally (if possible).
This includes “copywriting by walking around” …which is a lot easier today than it was for Gene because he didn’t have that thing called The Internet.
He had to leave his house to walk around.
It should be noted that Gene lived on Park Avenue in a Penthouse in New York City…and had one of the most impressive modern art collections in the country.
He had to work at becoming what he calls a “Market Maker” since most of the time, the audiences he wrote for didn’t mirror his own life and experiences (by a wide margin).
Gene did for himself what he recommended to others…which enabled him to write to anyone, no matter what their interests or status…the not-so-wealthy and the affluent…with an incredible track record of success.
To say he was simply “curious” would be a mammoth understatement.
He lived into his market.
There is also another secret the greats knew besides researching their audience intensely:
They learned how to talk to them in their language, using words that they use, and never straying from that path, with the goal of being memorable (and unforgettable) to their audience.
Gene Schwartz, Gary Halbert and any copywriter who has had comparable success, never used language that was not in sync with the market they were writing for…and it took a lot of time and tremendous effort to make sure they got every word and every sentence perfect.
Top copywriters make it their top priority to match list (audience) and copy (messaging) to fit hand in glove…and never use big words when small words will do.
This is far more than dumbing down their copy to fit the audience.
It’s about making every word appropriate for their audience.
In the wall with a door example, that is also a technique where the words create an image in the listener’s mind…” picture words” as Gene Schwartz talked about in his other lost masterpiece, The Brilliance Breakthrough.
See the P.S. for more about that.
Maybe the Trump campaign had that book on their reading list? 🙂
In summary, I love this quote from David Ogilvy to drive home the point further on using language that is laser focused on your audience:
“Never use jargon words like re-conceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally; they are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.”
There is a time and a place you can get away with words like that…assuming your readers use those words too.
But to all marketers and copywriters, I issue this warning:
Use words and phrases that are unknown or unfamiliar to your reader at your peril.
It only takes one misplaced word or sentence to lose them in a sales letter…forever.
I went through an exercise with a client to painstakingly go through every word in their promotion with issues like these in mind:
- Do your customers use the words and phrases in your copy when conversing with each other?
- Can you be sure they know, without ambiguity, the cultural or environmental references you are making throughout your copy?
- Are you guessing what they are intensely interested in or have you found out through exhaustive research?
Seems like a straightforward litmus test…but if you read some of the copy I’ve been reading through this lens, you would be surprised how little certain copywriters (and marketers) really know about their audience.
In short, know the language of your audience.
Some ways to do that:
- Hang out in forums online where they hang out and see how they talk and what words they use.
- Hang out with your audience “offline” (if possible)…seminars, stores, events etc…and observe, listen and maybe even interact.
- Survey your audience regularly.
- Read reviews on Amazon for books that they are reading and see how they write about them. Speak their words back to them.
- Create “customer panels” of the customers you are trying to find more of — and try out headlines, phrases, copy platforms to see how they respond and react.
When we work to perfectly align the language we use with the audiences we reach, the results will speak for themselves. 🙂
Warmly,
Brian
P.S. Grammar is overrated.
But choosing the perfect word or sentence for every occasion is not.
This was my premise when I decided to publish the second “Gene Schwartz lost classic” (which is mentioned above in the context of “writing copy that creates images in your reader’s mind”).
All of this is true–and more–when talking about The Brilliance Breakthrough: How To Talk And Write So That People Will Never Forget You.
And calling this book a “lost classic” is far from hyperbole (more on that in a minute).
When I released Breakthrough Advertising,many of you who are Gene Schwartz enthusiasts asked me about The Brilliance Breakthrough…which warmed my heart.
I realized reading those emails that you, my online family, were true students of the craft…and I had to deliver The Brilliance Breakthrough to you as well.
And I needed to do it affordably since at the time I started putting together this new edition, it was lost to the public.
There was only ONE used copy available on Amazon for $4,000.
Well…it was signed by Gene Schwartz to my mentor Marty Edelston…however for $4K you didn’t even get a workbook (which you get now from me).
Today on Amazon, there are three (3) copies available, one at $1,500 and two at $2,000.
Or, you can buy the “discount copy” on eBay for $1,250.
I told you it wasn’t hyperbole being called a lost classic.
Better: Buy it from me at an 85-90% discount…and I’ll throw in a workbook. 🙂
I hope you will order today.
Here’s why if you’re not sold yet:
It’s a very different book than Breakthrough Advertising, which is an advanced text, one that you need to read many times for maximum impact and usability.
That’s not to say that The Brilliance Breakthroughis a simple text…but it is far more accessible because Gene wanted to teach everyone to write more powerfully…and it didn’t matter whether you were a marketer or a copywriter.
I mentioned in a previous post that someone bought a copy of the book and three extra workbooks, not for his copywriting team but for his kids.
This book is a driver’s manual to writing powerfully…and the workbook makes it actionable.
Feel free to forward this blog post to your own online family if applicable…and on social media…so we can tell many more folks that this book is now readily available.
Back to the first line of this P.S., “Grammar is overrated.”
I received a few angry emails the first time I published this from some linguists and purists of “grammatical correctness.”
So be it.
But when you read The Brilliance Breakthrough you will see that Gene is not giving everyone permission to mangle the language.
However, all of my bad grammar is justified and in context. 🙂
What Gene is teaching is that starting with perfect grammar is not the most important consideration when you write or oversee any promotional copy.
It’s far more important to write in the language of your audience, with “picture words,” and to have a system for doing that.
That’s what The Brilliance Breakthrough is all about.
If you have been part of my online family for a while, you know I have written a lot about Gene Schwartz in the past…he was a true Renaissance Man of our industry and I even profiled him with five other legends of advertising in my first book, The Advertising Solution.
As a friend and mentor, Gene was so influential in my life and in the lives of hundreds, now thousands, of others.
His wife Barbara cannot believe the appetite for his work today, among so many young writers, marketers and entrepreneurs…much more than when he was alive.
And I take being the shepherd of his books very seriously.
I have books and workbooks in inventory…and they are ready to ship today.
Just click here.
Thank you for your continued enthusiasm and support for all I am up to…sharing classics like The Brilliance Breakthrough is a big part of my mission and I appreciate you being on this journey with me.