The power of an irresistible offer
Tony Policci

If you don't have an irresistible offer, the best copy in the world will be useless. Want the secret to creating such an offer? Here it is.

You must make the reader think, " Man, I'd be an idiot to say no to this.”

Sounds simple? It is... The tough part might be creating an irresistible offer. Start by thinking out of the box.

Tell The Whole Story

Let me share with you how marketing great, Claude Hopkins used this advertising secret to rocket a so-so beer brand from fifth place, into a tie for first place in just a matter of months.

Claude Hopkins was one of the greatest advertising pioneers who ever lived. He believed that "Advertising is salesmanship" and as such, it should be measurable and justify the results that it produced. Claude was a strong believer in "Reason why copy" and the principles that he discovered and documented are as true to day, as then.

It does not matter what type of advertising medium you use, from print advertising to the Internet, the fundamental taught by Claude are universal and timeless.

Schlitz Beer hired Hopkins to increase their falling market share. Every beer manufacturer at this time was screaming "Pure" in their ads. In fact, companies were spending a fortune just advertising this four-letter word as big and as bold as they could.

They even took out double pages ads to put that word in even bigger letters. All this shouting and no explaining was making zero impressions on the buying public. Nobody ever explained what 'pure' really meant until Hopkins came in.

The first thing Hopkins did was to take a factory tour. On this tour he was shown plate-glass rooms where beer was dripping over pipes. Inquiring the reason for this, Hopkins was told that those rooms were filled with filtered air, so the beer could be cooled without any impurities.

Next, he was shown huge expensive filters filled with white-wood pulp that provided a superior filtering process. The manufacturer then went on to explain how they cleaned every pump and pipe, twice daily to assure purity. And also how each bottle was sterilized not once or twice, but four times before being filled with beer.

Then Hopkins was shown the 4,000 foot deep artesian wells dug to provide the cleanest and purest water available, even though the factory was right on the shore of Lake Michigan. (At this time Lake Michigan was not polluted and could provide clean water.)

Finally, Hopkins was lead into a laboratory and was shown the mother yeast cell. It was a product of 1,200 experiments to bring out the robust flavor. And he learnt that all the yeast used in making Schlitz beer was developed from that original yeast cell.

After his tour Hopkins exclaimed, "Why don't you tell people these things?"

The manufacturer's response was: “Because every beer manufacturer does it the same way.”

And to that Hopkins replied, "But, others have never told this story..." And he went off to create an advertising campaign explaining to people what makes Schlitz beer pure.

Once again he told the same story any brewer could have, but he gave a meaning to purity. And this is what took Schlitz from 5th place to a tie for 1st place in market share.

What's the point? Don't overlook the hidden power of obvious. It may be obvious to you and everyone else in your industry...but not to your target market.

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