Think Like A Hooker: What Internet Marketers Can Learn From Bodice Rippers
Still struggling with marketing copy? Take a tip from the streetwise ladies of the evening...
I think of writing marketing pieces very differently than I once did. It used to be a job, now that I've rethought it as being like attracting a sexual partner (oh yes, it is), that makes it fun for me. To create hooks, think like a hooker. And if you've never heard of Xaviera Hollander's The Happy Hooker - well, I'm dating myself but it was a very popular book in the 1970's from one of the first modern prostitutes to speak about her profession. She's an inspiration to me because she took something that most people in that time would think of as a shameful secret, reveled in it and made a 7 figure career out of her memoirs and experience by the end of the day. And her income was all from talks she gave, not her previous line of "services" per se. Hence our inspirational graphic. (which Posterous won't let me reproduce, unfortunately. Click the movie poster link above for a peek - Ed) ;-) So what does a hooker sell? Hookers sell sexual release at the most base level, yes, but they also sell a fantasy - whatever that fantasy might be for each client. So think like a hooker and how you can sex your talk titles and other marketing pieces up a bit. A hooker out on the corner dresses up to sell the insinuation of sex after all - sizzle, not steak. And like sex sales, the art of writing marketing pieces is remarkably similar to writing a Harlequin Romance. Why do women buy bodice-rippers? Because, in marketing research I've read, they're unsatisfied in their own love lives. Or they have lots of sex, but not the romance, gentleness or caring that they crave. The picture on the cover of a Harlequin Romance is 80% of what sells the book, the title is the other 20%. Those pictures in case you haven't seen them, are usually a brawny handsome man in the act of ripping a fantasy heroine's bodice open and kissing a breast - hence the nickname - or in a second version, the man is down on his knees in front of the woman looking up entreatingly and adoringly. At a certain point in most women's lives they just want to be completely pleasured without a hitch, or completely adored and worshipped. These two states give us clues as to how to market what we are selling too. Pleasured and worshipped also equals respected, listened to, self-confident - a lot of the things we are all selling in our speaking engagements, products and workshops. With this in mind, how can we use the lessons of bodice-rippers to sell our talks? Though titles are only 20% of what makes a reader buy, and these aren't the most stellar marketing copy, a look at Harlequin headliners through the ages is revealing:
- Dangerous Obsession
- Vivian's Dark Passion
- Rebecca's Shocking Secret
- Sassy Cinderella
- Saved By A Texas-Sized Wedding
- Semiautomatic Marriage
- Gateway to Happiness
- Land of Heart's Desire
- If Only They Could Forget
- Nurse Sally's Last Chance
- A Time To Trust
- Walk Into Tomorrow
- To Begin Again
Now these titles aren't precisely copywritten to perfection, but all promise a fantasy:
- We learn salacious gossip and are titillated in the process ('obsession', 'dark passion', 'secret', 'happiness' & 'desire' titles)
- We see how someone got a second chance (the "saved", "last chance", 'begin again', 'walk into tomorrow' titles) and how we might as well
- An "oo, I want that" reaction ('semiautomatic marriage', 'time to trust')
- A rags-to-riches experience (Sassy Cinderella) that could be our own
In any case, whether the book or our speech lives up to what the buyer wants to get out of it, the book is sold or speaking gig booked. So go ahead and live a little. Think like a hooker out on the corner. How are you going to dress your product up to sell it? Promise the fantasy! Heck, you're going to deliver after a fashion, right? So taking this POV to get your point across is entirely in integrity. Consider your average purchaser of a sex worker's services - ie "the fantasy". A gentleman cruising the available sex workers will say "Yes! A blonde hottie in a in a school uniform with a ponytail! Just what I've been looking for!". Nevermind the worker more than a decade away from her school years - the illusion has been created and successfully purveyed. A real service is performed, paid for and the customer presumably walks away satisfied. In his heart he really knows the woman isn't a wayward student but the window dressing was so provocative it "got him in the door" so to speak. Reflect - what gets your clients "in the door"? For me, clients mentioned again and again that my services gave them an "Unfair Advantage Over The Competition", so that's become my new tagline. It's also the one thing I would never have said about my services because the word "unfair" is not what I'm about. BUT....it's what every client I've ever had has said about how cool what I do for them has been. And at the heart of it, an advantage, that has the one-up edge of being something their competitors would never think of, is what they all want. "Unfair advantage" is not what I'm selling, but it's what the consumer believes they got out of the transaction - and they love it. So who am I to quash their fantasy? Far from it - I want to encourage their fantasy if it gives them an entry to the valuable talks and other services I offer. This is harmless, and actually benefits the purchaser as they consume my talks, products and services. Again - what gets your clients in the door? What do the people YOU purvey services to want? What do they deeply desire in their heart of hearts that has to do with what you offer, that they would never perhaps tell others of, but secretly desire? They may not even know they want this thing until YOUR talk title brings it out of them. "Yes!" they'll say "By golly, that IS what I've been looking for - for years!"
Cook that offer down into ten words or less, tart up the lipstick and thigh-highs about it and throw it in the comment box below with a link to what you're selling. Free publicity, you can't beat that with a stick.
And if your offer is sexy enough, it just might get you some interested clientele...
Mine? But of course:
Maryam Webster
"Everyday Bliss For Busy Women: The Complete Overwhelm Solution"
and also in business: "Your Unfair Advantage Over The Competition"
(http://maryamwebster.com ...though currently booked out the wazoo)
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