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Copywriting Master Formula by Robert Stover

Hold on to your hats, this is going to sound complicated but it’s worth putting the little grey cells to work by understanding the Copywriting Master Formula.

What I particularly like is that it has the buyer’s decision making model at its centre and how, through copy, you can help the prospective customer make a sensible decision.

Getting into the buyer’s mind is a very sensible way to think about copywriting and is a very different approach to something like AIDA (Attention – Interest – Desire – Action) that will talk about first creating great headlines to attract attention by interrupting the buyer.

The Formula

It was developed and promoted by copywriter Robert Stover.

Copywriting Master Formula

What do the letters stand for?

P = problem

I = Implications of the problem

C = causes of the problem and why the buyer needs to understand the cause if he or she is going to feel confident about making a decision to buy.

S = the solution or the options for solutions

C = the criteria for making a decision – I love the idea of helping prospective customers set criteria and it underpins a lot of the work on customer value.

P = preference for a particular solution

A = action

R =  results and benefits

J = judgement

This is the core of the decision making process involved with buying that leads to the first purchase and the decision to buy again and refer or to stop buying and warn people.

Around the outside, setting the scene and framework for the decision are three extra factors:

P/E = proof and evidence (all the way along the decision making chain from problem to the benefits of the solution).

O/R = objections and refutations – the things that cause us to stop making a positive decision.

E2 = expertise and ethos – do we have confidence in the seller?

The Training

I helped Robert and as a reward, he gave me free access to the training.

I think it is excellent and it makes a refreshing change from many of the other copywriting courses I’ve taken that leave me feeling a little dirty.

Do you know what I mean when the emphasis seems to be on hype, hype and more hype. It seems that some want you to make magic pill type promises that, to my reserved British mind, lack all credibility.

The videos go into plenty of detail and I’ve taken a lot of notes. To get the maximum benefit, I need to review these a number of times, condense them further, try to learn the important aspects. Then apply the ideas and go back to listen to Robert on the videos again to make sure that there aren’t any special nuances that I missed the first time.

I had one issue. As one of the original students, even on a freebie, I was getting frustrated with how slowly Robert released the content. The intention was to record one video for eight weeks but we finished up with fourteen videos over a much longer period.

That’s not a problem now that the videos have been produced and if he reads this, I’d urge him to take away the weekly update. When you’re on such a novel course like this, you want to get on with the learning quickly and then try out the ideas.

Conclusion

It’s very, very good and a refreshing change from most copywriting courses I’ve seen.

The downside is that it can’t be your only course because it doesn’t go into how to write the necessary components of a sales message. For that, I’m very impressed by fast Effective Copy from David Garfinkel and Brian McLeod.

An Alternative

The Copywriting Master Formula is relatively expensive and the model is complicated. It may be much more than you want to spend.

A book that I think has a similar feel in that it looks at supporting the buying decision is The Brain Audit.

>>> The Brain Audit By Sean D’Souza

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