Note: I have a busy morning, so today’s email is a re-send of one of my favorite Dan Kennedy “truisms”
One of Dan Kennedy’s best marketing truisms is that “your life and your customer’s life are not the same – and you’ll lose a lot of money if you think they are”.
For example…
Let’s compare my life to the life of a guy who works construction.
– The guy who works construction is up at the ass crack of dawn every morning. Compare that to me who rolls out of bed whenever I feel like (usually about 8ish)
– They work outside in the elements all day. In the summer that means 100 degree heat. In the winter that means freezing their balls off when it’s 30 or 40 degrees. Compare that to me, and I sit in a climate-controlled house all day that is somewhere between 70-73 degrees.
– They work hard, manual labor for 10+ hours a day. They’re breaking concrete and building housing structures. There is a real chance for injury. Their body’s are probably always in pain. Compare that to my day, and I’m sitting at a comfy desk typing away for a few hours a day.
– When it’s lunch time, they’re not focused on eating something healthy. When I had construction workers at my house for the last 9 months, their lunch everyday was either fast food or they got pizza. Compare that to what I eat (mostly ribeye steak) and you see a very different way of looking at food.
– When their day is over most of them usually have a beer (or a few beers). I noticed this when they were working on my house. As soon as 6 o’clock hit, they would work the last hour or so knocking down a few beers. This was normal for them. Me on the otherhand, I probably drink 7-8 times in an entire year. I’m mostly a special occasion drinker. Drinking every night is not a normal part of my day.
I could keep going with differences here…
But you get the point.
If I was writing copy to these guys, it would be really STUPID of me to assume that my life is similar to their’s.
Cause they’re not similar.
In fact, they couldn’t be more different.
And if I was selling some type of mass-market product (credit repair, pain relief, biz-opp) there would be plenty of guys like them buying it.
And the things that would motivate them to buy, would be VERY different from what motivates me to buy.
I mean just look at their day…
If you sit at a computer all day, it’s hard to even fathom what a day in their shoes is like.
But that’s what good copywriters have to do!
You have to get inside their heads…
And you have to understand on a deep level what it’s like to live a day in their shoes.
Cause that’s how you figure out what they’re upset about…
Or what they secretly long for…
But you first need to understand that their life is probably completely different from yours.
And the more successful you become, the more true this is.
So just remember…
Your life is NOT like your customer’s life.
That’s a simple idea…
But it’s one that can make you a lot of dough if you truly grasp it.
– Justin
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