What It’s Like to Write Financial Copy – Part 4 (Writing the Promotion)
Like I said before, writing for financial publishers is just different than writing copy in other niches.
To start with, there are two basic types of financial promotions:
1) Front end
2) Back end
The front end promotions sell the “entry level” financial newsletter offered by the investor. This is a monthly write-up about a specific stock that the investor expects to take off, and it’s up to the reader to decide to buy some shares – or not.
The front end offer is usually for under $100. For that price, it can bring in a lot of new customers. However, the company pours a lot of money into getting the promotion out to as many people as possible, so they almost never make a profit. The idea is to bring in new customers and upsell them to the more expensive newsletters.
That’s where the back end promotions come in. At about $2,000 or more annually, these premium newsletters tend to focus on specific types of stocks, such as small caps or growth stocks. They deliver opportunities that may be a bit riskier – but also more lucrative for readers.
These back end newsletters are where the financial publishers make their money. And it’s where you can see some pretty amazing royalties.
The promotions themselves can take many different forms, depending on the Big Idea. For example, you could write a…
• Single stock promo: This is where you tell the story of a company or industry that’s about to explode – and tease a stock that could make the reader a boatload of money. The only way to get the details about the stock, though, is to subscribe to the newsletter. So, you sell them on the stock by showing them what a great opportunity it is to make potentially huge returns – and then you sell them on the investor/newsletter.
• Multiple stock promo: Same as above, only you tease a group of stocks that have something in common. For example, the companies could be in the same industry or have similar technologies.
• Prediction promo: This is where the investor makes a market prediction and teases a stock that should shoot up as a result. Again, you have to buy the newsletter to get the details on the stock.
• Track record promo: This focuses on the investor’s track record to entice people to subscribe to his newsletter. It might also tease stocks he’s considering recommending.
So, you can see that there’s a lot going on in a financial promo. That’s why the VSL scripts can easily reach 50 pages. You draw the prospect in with an enticing story. You tease the stock that could make them as rich as Midas. You tout your investor’s track record. And then you make the newsletter look like the only way for them to achieve their stock market dreams.
You shore it all up with tons of proof and comparables (where you show similar stocks performing well under similar circumstances).
You can see why it takes time to learn to write a strong, compelling financial promotion. And speaking of writing the promo, here is something both Clayton Makepeace and Terry Weiss taught me…
Write more than you think you need to.
In other words, completely flesh out each sentence and each paragraph. Fully explore every thought and idea. Write until you literally have nothing more to write. You can always pull back in future drafts, but you need to dig into each and every point and deliver as much as possible.
If you’ve got examples, use them. And layer on the proof. Just write more than you think you need to. Sometimes, the copy will get cut back. But many times, the copy chief will ADD to your copy – and go even deeper! So, really… you can’t write too much.
And that, my friend, ends this mini-series on writing for financial publishers. These posts were completely based on my own experience, but I hope they helped you get a sense of what writing financial copy is really like.
Is financial copywriting right for you? That’s something only you can decide.