The Naked Marketing Guide to Compelling Copy that Closes Sales

The Naked Marketing Guide to Compelling Copy that Closes Sales

Reader Comments (37)

  1. I picked up Danny’s ebook yesterday, and devoured it, cover to cover. I know I’ll be reading it over many more times as I get my marketing fine-tuned. Have also passed the link on to others.
    I love this guy – his steps really are seductive attraction marketing at its best. Thanks, Danny!

    • Thank you so much for the kind words, Nicki, I really appreciate it!

      I’d love for you to report back and let us know what you end up doing with the contents of the manifesto – would you share that with us? πŸ™‚

  2. I like it! I think some people are afraid to be sexy. They’re not comfortable expressing their authenticity for various reasons. When you’re starting a business, it’s beneficial to ‘toss out’ anything in your subconscious mind that’s helpful. You’re an adult — you can do what you want. Your business is yours to run no matter how you see fit. This includes marketing. I’ll use myself as an example. I had a boring, corporate looking writer website. That’s not who I am. In fact, I left the corporate world behind in 2004 to pursue graphic design. I’m a creative type and love everything from art to film making. My website, which is a part of my marketing strategy, needs to reflect my personality. Since I changed my website, I’ve had more interest from clients in the ‘communications’ industry, greeting card, and the arts & entertainment. Live and learn.

    • You’re absolutely right Amanda, personality needs to shine through. I checked out your website, and I really like the style – just a simple glance tells us so much about who you are and what you’re like to work with! πŸ™‚

  3. Danny, you really are everywhere, aren’t you? What a pleasant surprise! πŸ™‚

    I love the first date analogy. Excellent titles draw me in, but the articles have to be equally good or I’ll click away. I’m not saying it’s easy to draw readers’ attention and keep it every single time (in fact, I’d argue that it’s extremely hard), but we could all make a conscious effort to improve our “dating” skills!

  4. I enjoyed the “Naked Marketing Manifesto.”

    Good stuff in there and I’m sure it’s going to help lots of people.

    You know your stuff Danny and you do what you say you’re going to do…action speaks louder than words.

    Good stuff,
    Jared

  5. just finished reading this book and I can recommend it. It’s a breath of fresh air, and whether you’re new or old to marketing, we can all do with some reads like this

    Matt (Turndog Millionaire)

  6. Hi Danny,

    I love the metaphor! It strips down marketing to the bare essentials (there, I said it. All pun intended ; – ) I really connected with the “sexy” aspect of naked marketing. It reminded me of some sales techniques I adopted over some years designing high end AV systems for upscale New Yorkers that I’ve since applied to my writing to make it “sexier?” Here’s one:

    Say you have a man and a woman renovating a Manhattan townhouse for many millions of dollars. Now they start thinking about the technology aspect of the project. You learn that he’s interested in the toys (the killer home theater, the big stereo, the sexy touch panels). She cringes at all of it, thinking only about all that unsightly, complicated equipment ruining her sleek, elegant new design.

    So you forget about him for a moment. You focus on her and talk about things like lighting control and how you are going to eliminate that horrible bank of multiple light switches she sees on the plans all over her beautiful Venetian plaster walls and make them magically disappear into one simple, beautiful control switch. Presto! And how that one one very powerful, yet simple little switch is going to control her entire home with one button. Pure elegance! And sexy too!

    And you top that off by telling her she won’t see one bit of his macho, beastly 9.2 THX Ultra surround sound theater with monster subwoofers. It’s all hidden away behind walls. Then you give your card and let them sleep on the idea. You don’t even have to talk to him. She’ll take care of everything when no one’s around.

    It’s all about knowing your audience and giving great conversation before asking for the night cap. And everything you just told them is true! You can sleep at night without worrying about that uncomfortable morning after.

    By the way, I just got your email invitation for the Naked Marketing Manifesto. Can’t wait to check it out!

    Great post!

    Mark

  7. I think that these ‘natural’ talents are hard to find, especially in this age of digital clutter. I wonder if there’s an actual study showing a test on which exact words drive people to click on that buy button. Just curious, really. So, this is not a dating advice? I love the metaphor you have used here.. and those in business are still struggling with the art of seduction and creating desire where their target market is concerned. It makes me wonder if those who have successfully mastered this art turned out to have successful personal relationships as well.

    • Hey Shaleen, I think there’s definitely a correlation between success in business and personal relationships, because at the end of the day, we’re all people, regardless of the context that you’re in.

      To answer your question, there’s tons of research into exactly what text will get people to click, but the trouble is that there’s a faulty assumption underlying it all, which is that there’s a single magic word that will always work. The truth is that it’s different for each and every audience, so you’ve got to take the time to really get to know yours and see what they’ll respond to best.

  8. Hello Danny,

    Downloaded the naked marketing manifesto eBook now by paying a tweet.

    I really like the date analogy as well as the whole post. Thanks for sharing it. Now i’m going to read your manifesto… πŸ™‚ Because after reading this post, I’m so excited to know what’s in Naked Marketing Manifesto.

    Thanks,
    Romy Singh

  9. Hi Danny,

    Naked Marketing is maybe the best “short” explanation of how clever marketing works. And if someone doesn’t download it… Well, you just should download it πŸ™‚ Great job, really.

    But there was one thing I’ll disagree with, I’m sure you won’t mind πŸ˜‰ The part where you talk about when to sell features or benefits.

    I’d put it like this, “Sell features when they automatically translate to benefits in your prospects’ mind.”

    Maybe I misunderstood what you meant. But the calculator example is a case where the features translate to benefits, right? And that happens even if you don’t do it for them. Just as with a ruler; you want a ruler, because you need a straight line and you want to accomplish that with a ruler (as you said in our interview πŸ˜‰ ), so you look for a ruler, not a straight line.

    But what about a can of coke (one example in Naked Marketing)? I do believe you sell it with benefits, not features. Or would you sell it by telling the prospect, “It has 145% sugar, 0.5% natural substances, and it tastes a bit like oranges.”? No, you’d tell them, “You’ll feel refreshed and alive.” and you’d associate all the things they want with your coke, even if they have nothing to do with it. Or…?

    Let me know what you think. Maybe this is (again) one of those things where we mean the same thing, but use different expressions πŸ™‚

    Regard,
    Peter

    • Hey Peter, thank you for the kind words, and the endorsement!

      And of course I don’t mind disagreement – I like them! No, you didn’t misunderstand, and you’re bang on – we speak about features when your customer is looking for the features, because that’s the language they’re going to relate to best for understanding the benefits. Thank you for pointing that out, you’re absolutely right. πŸ™‚

      The coke is a bit different, though, because we’re mixing up brand and direct response marketing. When you’re advertising the Coca Cola brand, you talk about how it makes you feel refreshed and alive. When someone is at a supermarket getting a drink, though, they just care about the size and temperature of the can or bottle – that’s direct response, and at that point they want the features. πŸ™‚

      Does that make sense? What do you think? Do Brian or Sonia want to weigh in? πŸ˜‰

      • Okay, lets say you’re at the supermarket. You see two different bottles of cola: Coca Cola (which happens to be your favorite soft drink) and a new brand you’ve never heard of. The new brand’s bottle is slightly bigger than the Coca Cola bottle, it costs only half as much, and it’s cool unlike the Coca Cola bottle. Which one do you buy?

        Sure, some people take the one that’s cool and cheaper, but I’m guessing most people buy the brand before the features (sure, the situation is different if you’re especially looking for a cool drink instead of a soft drink). Maybe I’m wrong. I’ll have to build a supermarket and A/B-test this. I’ll get back to you when I have the results… πŸ˜‰

        Or do you disagree? πŸ˜€

        • Hey Peter, I don’t disagree; I think we’re saying the same thing with different words.

          At that point, they aren’t selling benefits; it’s just a can of Coke, versus a can of whatever. It’s the same thing as with selling features; they’ve gotten it to the point where people know what coke means, just like a tech expert knows what a 2 terabyte RAM system might be – the features translate directly to benefits in their minds.

  10. love the metaphor! It strips down marketing to the http://www.high-definition-camcorder-s.com bare essentials (there, I said it. All pun intended ; – ) I really connected with the β€œsexyβ€? aspect of naked marketing. It reminded me of some sales techniques I adopted over some years designing high end AV systems for upscale New Yorkers that I’ve since applied to my writing to make it β€œsexier?β€? Here’s one:

  11. Hi Danny,

    Yes, the metaphor works for me. I also really like the way that you use Naked Marketing as the examples in the text. This makes your casual conversational tone even more powerful.

    Best regards,

    Robin
    @robindickinson
    Cheeky biz toonist πŸ˜‰

  12. @ Danny… Thank you for checking out my website! I’m happy with my website’s theme and found business cards to match it.

    *I just realized I left out the word “not” the third sentence of my comment. Comment should read, “When you’re starting a business, it’s beneficial to β€˜toss out’ anything in your subconscious mind that’s NOT helpful.” Oops!
    I wonder if I could use my comment to show a potential client ‘raw’ typescript. Hmm….

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