Growth Labz founder Will Wang recently went on James Schramko’s podcast SuperfastBusiness to chat about his copywriting framework that has proven to yield fantastic results for clients, frequently tripling sales with some results reaching up to 10X.
One of the most interesting points Will raised was the method of writing copy like a master storyteller, writing content that gives the reader a feeling of immersion as they would reading their favorite novel.
A fitting example touched upon a lot during the conversation was the seminal series of books and films, Lord of The Rings.
Will further detailed his framework using some highly entertaining Lord of the Rings references which boiled down to 10 key points, or as he likes to call them “puzzle pieces”, that have proven to get results when incorporated into his copywriting campaigns.
Without further ado, let’s jump in.
10 Steps for an Effective Copywriting Framework
Show the Story
The first step is essentially letting your audience know exactly what the story is about. Lord of The Rings begins with a grand exhibition of a rich, immersive world full of wizards, dragons, and elves. It’s an unforgettable collection of fantasy characters and locations.
Therefore, the target audience immediately knows exactly what they’re in for. So number one on the list is writing copy that is clear, concise, and tells everybody exactly what you’re about.
Moving on to Perry Marshall’s 80/20 principle, when you’re copywriting you’re not trying to sell to 100% of the market. Instead, there’s a sweet spot that lies in the 20% of people that will make up 80% of the sales. That’s the group that you’re really trying to resonate with.
Emphasise with your Audience
You’ve got your narrative and outlined it clearly to your audience. Now step two is getting them to stick around.
An effective way to really emphasize with your audience and get them to keep reading is to use emotion. People will be drawn to something that they feel resonates with them on an emotional level. If one feels that the writer really understands their situation, personally and emotionally, it serves to be a much more effective message.
Speak to your audience, make them feel something, and let them know you know where they’re coming from.
Climb the Mountain
As mentioned by Will in the podcast, the concepts behind numbers one and two have been utilized and understood around the copywriting world for quite some time.
However, step three is where things start to deviate a bit from the traditional copywriting techniques. This step is all about climbing the mountain.
Going back to Lord of The Rings (we’ll be doing this a lot), the Fellowship tries to scale an extremely treacherous mountain in their quest. It was difficult, the odds were stacked against them and it resulted in a great struggle.
This is where you tell the audience in your copy that you understand what they’ve tried, where they’ve failed, and what difficulties they’ve faced.
You know what they’ve been through and you’re here to offer a solution.
Reveal the Enemy
Your audience has tried to climb the mountain. They’ve failed, and this is the step where you tell them why.
Step four is calling out the enemy and putting yourself on their team. This method stems from traditional copywriting where a common enemy is outlined while explaining to the reader that it’s not your fault, taking a bit of the pressure off.
It’s telling you that there’s someone or something out there feeding you misinformation, telling you the wrong thing and that’s most likely a big reason as to why you’re failing.
Give your reader a sense of relief and position yourself as their friend, mentor, or companion. Then you can move forward together.
Sense of Hope
Now for the fifth piece of the puzzle, it’s time to give your reader some hope. For this, we will utilize a copywriting term called a ‘unique mechanism’
You’ve outlined who the enemy is in the previous step, the audience knows that they’ve been fed some misleading info and that their past failures aren’t their fault.
Lord of The Rings, like all incredible pieces of art, is masterful at making you feel emotions ranging from joy to despair and so on. Will mentions the particular sequence where music comes in with pipes in the background and it lifts everybody up, giving them all a sense of hope.
That’s the feeling you’ll give your reader with your solution. That’s what will make you different, that’s the unique mechanism.
Alternative Way of Thinking
Will mentions that sometimes when it comes to implementing steps five and six, they can frequently be combined and interchangeable.
Basically, step six is about introducing an uncommon truth while giving the reader hope that the solution is on the horizon. Sit at the round table with them and discuss how they’re going to go into Mordor, destroy the ring and save Middle Earth.
Discuss what works, what you’ve tried before, and then introduce the uncommon idea that can potentially change their method, approach, or way of thinking. This, according to Will, is a puzzle piece that he can pull in and out of the story as required.
If you can achieve this as a copywriter, then you’re well on the right track to success.
Show them the Promised Land
The seventh step is one of the most important puzzle pieces.
This is where you’ve outlined the enemy, understood the trials and tribulations of the reader’s journey, and introduced yourself as a companion.
Now it’s time to show them the ticket out.
Will stresses that the step is so important as this is the point where you help the reader really visualize what the other side looks like.
Drawing from the legendary scene in Lord of the Rings where Frodo and Sam are almost at the end of their journey and Frodo is about to give up, if not for Samwise Gamchi, the king of pep talks. He paints a beautiful picture full of rich imagery of what life back in The Shire will look like if they succeed, and it works.
Do the same thing with your copywriting. What’s their life going to look like? What are they going to be doing when we’ve solved this massive issue in their life?
It’s not hard to see why Will says this is an extremely powerful thing to do when you incorporate this into your copywriting.
Be the Guide
The previous steps have indicated at times that the reader has been misled. So what exactly makes you different from the other gurus selling a dream? How can you lead them and give them foresight?
Step eight is all about showing them that you’re the right guide to lead them to success. The guide that they actually need. It’s time to utilize social proof to strengthen your case.
Testimonials will come in handy along with case studies and examples.
A useful thing to remember is to position yourself as the guide, not the hero. Clients don’t want to be another trophy on the wall for the hero, they would rather be quietly guided to the trophy themselves.
History has demonstrated time and time again that individuals will commonly be recognized for landmark achievements when the reality is that the individual succeeded precisely because they had an entire team behind them.
The Challenge
Will calls this step “and my axe”. This is of course inspired by a scene from Lord of the Rings where the Fellowship is discussing the perilous journey ahead, where the path is arduous and chances of death are likely.
In response, Gimli lifts his axe proclaiming “and my axe” and everyone jumps on board.
The copy has outlined the story, the reader is aware of what’s going to happen. This is where you will be honest and stress that this won’t be sunshine and rainbows, and you’re probably not going to be a millionaire in 3 months.
However, let them know that if you stick with this, push yourself and work hard it might turn into something worthwhile.
It’s a crucial part in helping the audience self qualify for your service and if used correctly will help reduce the number of refunds, complaints, and chargebacks.
This is referred to as the takeaway. While this might lose you some clients, it is a fantastic method for filtering your sales.
Then you’ll be much more likely to get the right people that will get the most out of the program.
The Saving Grace (WTF Giant Eagles)
When Sam and Frodo fly out of Mordor at the end of Lord of the Rings on a giant eagle with Gandalf it makes you wonder why they didn’t just do this at the start of the film. Everything would have been much easier right?
The same applies to an effective program. Once you’ve talked about the journey and the hard work involved, qualified them, made sure you’re on the same page it’s time to provide with that giant eagle, the massive shortcut to help make everything easier.
Now it’s time to be their guide because you know that they’re ready to get the most of your program.
Demonstration
Now that we’ve gone through all the steps of the framework and spent some time in Middle Earth along the way, let’s have a look at this framework put into practice.
For the demonstration, we’re going to use an example of Will’s freelancing program that he’s currently working on.
Show the Story
Get their attention. Say things like ‘have you thought about freelancing, but there’s so much misinformation?
Or you could touch on some of the difficulties of the 9-5 such as ‘are you tired of fighting the traffic every morning to go to your job and feel like you’re not making a difference.
As Will says, it’s an effective way to open up the curiosity loop and pique their interest.
Emphasise with your Audience
Go into step number and stick the audience with emotion. Relay to them a message of understanding by telling them you know what it’s like to work in a draining corporate job with a young family and feel like you’re not making a difference.
Remember, number two is all about the emotional side.
Climb the Mountain
Opening up about the struggle. Will would say I tried everything to leave the corporate world, from sales to affiliate marketing, the works. I was introverted and didn’t have the experience.
It’s something a lot of us can understand.
Reveal the Enemy
We’ve all seen the absolute barrage of gurus and quick success types on Instagram with rented cars and pina Coladas selling a dream of complete financial and personal freedom. Private Jets, Mansions, Lamborghinis, you get the picture.
As Will stresses in the podcast, when it comes to these people it’s a lot of smoke and mirrors for the most part. So reveal them as the enemy to complete that fourth step.
Sense of Hope
Go in and say look, I know what you’re going through because I’ve been there. The thing is, if I’ve done it as an extreme introvert, then you can do it too. Will gives it a personal touch and it’s an inspiring and effective tactic.
Alternative Way of Thinking
It’s all about shifting their paradigm at this stage. Let them know it’s never been a better time to become a freelancer if you do it properly. The thing to realize when you are a freelancer, things will open up for you.
It’s about the little things. You might want a simpler, relaxed lifestyle. You might want the flashy cars.
What does freedom mean to you?
Show them the Promised Land
It’s time to paint the Promised Land. Will’s method to this would be to under-paint the promised land but give the reader something to aspire to at the same time.
For Will, it’s not about flashy cars like a Ferrari in the garage. It’s about spending time with his kids in the middle of the week at the beach and not having to worry about phone calls for four hours.
However, context is important, and depending on where you are marketing to, you’ll have to make changes accordingly to really speak to your audience.
The balance of what everyone else is doing versus what you are doing that’s different from what other people can’t do.
Be the Guide
Once again, how can you be Gandalf?
Come through and say you can help them on this path because you’ve walked it before and you know exactly what it takes.
You’ve got the resources, experience, and know-how to put them in the right direction. Show them some case studies and testimonials to boost your story.
Help them become the Hero.
The Challenge
This is where the CTA comes in. You’ve given them a glimpse of what freelancing looks like, what it entails.
Will says you’ve got to be completely honest and stress it’s not going to be easy. In fact, it will probably be the hardest three, six to twelve months of your life because you’re constantly challenging yourself and learning.
However, don’t forget about that Promised Land we’ve spoken about. If you keep at it and consistently keep trying, you might very well get there.
Ask them, is it worth it for you? If yes, step onboard.
The Saving Grace (WTF Giant Eagles)
Once they’ve qualified themself and they are on board, this is where the eagles come in to help with the journey.
Show them the exact systems and processes you’ve used to achieve success yourself. Add additional bonuses and incentives with the offer, making it easy for them to say yes basically.
Conclusion
So you’ve read through and hopefully learned some useful information that you can apply to give your copywriting an edge, whether you’re a professional, a business owner, or just looking to learn.
You’re probably wondering where this framework will perform best and what industries to use it in.
According to Will’s experience, he does a lot of work in the online space, a bit in tech plus services and products. However, the businesses he works best with are the ones that need a story, an explanation of what the product or service is.
High ticket, high-value services which at the end of the day, need a story to connect them to the reader.
Check out Will’s Live Working to get your first or next writing client in 7 days or less, coming up at the end of this month.
Find this episode and more of the SuperFastBusiness podcast here.
