The Golden Key: Unlock Groundbreaking Marketing Campaigns On-Demand

This month's Copy Code Notes will cover the most pivotal step in the copywriting process. This step is the ONLY way to unlock an endless source of ideas for new campaigns, strategies, and copy.

Even with A.I. tools, you can't expect to find long-term success in copywriting without going through the process we'll discuss today.

Most of you won't carry out this vital phase of copywriting correctly. You simply won't take the time. So I wanted to make it REALLY easy, clear, and quick for you to do.

I will warn you... it is extremely risky to take shortcuts on this step. Everything we cover today is designed to give you the essential building blocks needed to write high-performing copy. If you do decide to take shortcuts, you'll at least know what to focus on after reading this month's edition.

All of the best copy you could possibly want is actually waiting to be discovered in the fundamental (yet often poorly executed) step we'll talk about today.

I'm talking about Research.

You may think you already know everything about your audience, product, and competitors... but if your copy isn't performing well... if you're not taking market share from competitors... then it's clear that you actually don't know everything about your market.

If you're willing to be honest with yourself, you either haven't done enough research or you haven't done the right research.

Why Most Marketers Skip It (and Why That's Good for You)

Your competitors will likely skip this step! This is GREAT news for you.

A mentor of mine refers to research as the "very necessary but very unsexy" side of effective marketing.

There are 3 main reasons why most business owners don't do enough Research:

• They don't know how to do it the right way. They don't know why they're doing it, what they should be looking for, or where to look.
• They believe research is something that can be 'completed.' Research isn't something you do once. It's an ongoing process of investigating specific aspects of the market (which we'll cover below).
• They think they don't need to do it at all.

Personally, I love the fact that most of you won't research the right way. It gives me a MASSIVE advantage.

Gary was talking about copying winning Sales Letters by hand — a vital step in a copywriter's daily routine (we discussed this in last month's Notes). But his sentiment is appropriate here too: most copywriters won't hand copy letters, and most marketers won't do research.

I actually hand-copy sales letters that have an Angle or Tone I want to replicate for an offer I'm working on. It's part of my research process.

In this month's Copy Code Notes, I'm going to break down the Research phase for you on a very high level. It's up to you how thorough you want to be. But these particular Notes are designed to help you complete the Research phase as fast as possible.

With that said, today you will learn:

• The Risks of Skipping or Half-Assing Research — why cutting corners will automatically make your marketing perform worse than a competitor who researched the right way.
• The Only Goal of Your Research — and why 'proven' templates will fail.
• What to Research to Achieve Your Goal — present your solution in a way that resonates with your target and stands out from all your competition.
• Useful Research Tools to make life easier (beyond simple YouTube/Google searches and competitor website analyses).
• PLUS — the exact research template I use to develop copy for clients, why I built it the way I did, and how to use it.

The Risks of Skipping or Half-Assing Research

If you've ever tried to sit in front of a blank page and come up with a Big Idea, Intriguing Hook, or strong Market Position... you know it's almost impossible to just magically come up with a good one on demand.

Great ideas aren't something you create. They're something you find... and you find them in your Research.

You never know where a great idea will come from. It should surprise you when you finally find it. It could come from the story behind how your product was created, an incredible testimonial from a customer, or a breaking news article that changes the Market Sophistication Stage. You NEVER know.

This is a major reason why Copywriting Coaches always stress being diligent in your research. This is where "the fodder, the nuggets, the gold for your marketing campaign comes from," according to Todd Brown.

The best copywriters are like detectives or investigative journalists. We find all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for our clients and competitors alike.

Why do we dig so deep? Because we're looking for Big Ideas, Hooks, and strong Market Positions. We understand they could come from LITERALLY ANYWHERE, and there's no way to know where they're hidden. So you have to look carefully.

Now, finding Big Ideas, Hooks, and strong Market Positions is NOT the goal of the research. Rather, they are uncovered as a natural byproduct of researching the correct way.

The Goal of Your Research Is Simply This

To understand and capitalize on the unique product-market-timing relationship that exists at the moment.

This is why 'proven' copy templates don't perform well (or will stop performing eventually). Templates are only useful as a means to give your copy a cosmetic structure. A template is only 'proven' to be effective for a certain solution that was presented to a specific prospect during a particular market environment. Templates don't account for the unique relationship between your market and your solution RIGHT NOW.

Only by knowing in immense detail what motivates prospects today, can we identify what to say to them and how to say it so they trust us and buy.

By knowing in immense detail what our product or service can uniquely offer to today's market, we can identify how to position it in a memorable, lasting way that cuts through the noise.

By knowing in immense detail what competitors are doing today, we can identify how to beat them tomorrow.

If we aim to achieve the primary goal of our research, we will stumble upon several "eureka!" moments along the way. Let's break down each ingredient needed to achieve our goal and ignite the creative side of our marketing minds!

What to Research to Achieve Your Goal

There are three main components in your Research:

• The Market (AKA your ideal customers)
• The Product
• The Competitors

In Your Market Research...

You're looking for who your prospect is, what they want to gain, what they want to avoid, and how they talk in each stage of their possible Market Awareness Level. The more precise you are, the better.

This research goes deeper than what you'd traditionally consider your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). ICPs will usually tell you whom to write the copy for (what industry they're in, where they live, how much money they make, etc.). They normally don't discuss what to say or how to say it.

Establishing your ICP is important. However, when we talk about Market research here, we're more interested in the psychology of your ICP so we can speak to them on a personal level. Each reader should feel like your copy is speaking specifically to him and him alone.

Here are some questions to ask when researching your Market:

• Is your ideal customer aware of their problem?
• Do they know solutions to their problem exist? If so, do they have a favorite type of solution?
• What language do they use to describe their fears, hopes, and dreams?
• What magazines or blogs do they read?
• What public figures influence them?
• What do they believe about the world?

Your Market Research will tell you where your prospect's attention lies and how to capture it.

In Your Product Research...

You're looking for how your solution (product or service) uniquely solves the problem your prospect is facing. Saying it's "vegan" or "100% natural" may be effective during the early Stages of your Market's Sophistication. But you'll have to be more precise during the later Stages.

Here are some questions to ask when researching your Product:

• What are the Features and Benefits (functional, emotional, and dimensional)?
• What result can I promise to those who purchase the solution? Are there any authorities that testify to the promise?
• What is the mechanism of action that provides the benefit you promise?
• Where do they source the materials for the solution? Why are the materials sourced there?
• How soon does the solution deliver results? How easy is it to use? How safe is it?
• Are the results I promise guaranteed?
• What associations can be made just by looking at the solution's shape and branding with no information about it?

This research tells you what claims you can make about your solution and how to make those claims believable.

In Your Competitor Research...

You're looking to identify the current Stage of Sophistication the Market is in. (We'll discuss Market Sophistication in a future edition of Copy Code Notes.) In short, we're dealing with the ever-changing marketing environment. Here, we want to become familiar with the 'noise' being generated about your type of solution and how to cut through it.

Here are some questions to ask when researching your Competitors:

• What are your competitors currently promising your market?
• How do they mitigate the risk of buying from them, if at all?
• What types of content seem to be performing well for them?

Again, you're going for precision. This research tells you how to stand out from competitors so your prospects begin to doubt that any solution (other than yours!) will give them the results they're looking for.

Useful Research Tools That Make Life Easier

AI tools have made the research process much faster. As of today, AI still makes lots of errors (factual, grammatical, strategic — all kinds). With that said, AI is not a good substitute to replace ALL your research tools. It is, however, a very good method you can use to enhance your research tools. I use a combination of AI assistants to help me maximize the efficacy of the following:

Market Research Tools

Forums are a great way to learn about your audience. You can use a Chrome extension like "Discussions button for Google Search" to search forums and message boards for the exact topic you're looking for. It adds parameters to your search so Google specifically looks for your keywords inside forums:

You can search "attorney marketing frustrated," for example, to discover what marketing challenges lawyers struggle with every day. Facebook Groups your prospects are in can be super useful to get an idea of what pain points they care about, how they speak, and what topics interest them.

Surveys can often paint a different picture than your best theories. I like to use post-purchase surveys on Thank You Pages to gather intelligence about how people actually think when they shop. Typeform lets you create an engaging feedback experience; Hotjar lets you make a popup survey for free on your sales page. I LOVE surveys. The results are often surprising. I'll dedicate an entire Copy Code Notes edition to great survey results.

Friends, Family, and Strangers are great as well. Even if they're not in the market for your product, an outside perspective can give you great insights. Ask them what concerns they'd have about your product. What would THEY want to hear or see to give them the confidence to buy?

Amazon Books designed for your market can teach you a lot about what language to use. I look at book titles, chapter titles, and reviews. Back in the day, copywriters would actually READ the books their targets were likely to buy.

Reviews of products or services similar to yours will give you insights into what your customers want to hear from you. I look for people saying things like "tired of," "frustrated," "embarrassed," etc.

If you sell a service, you could check Yelp:

Replace "category" with a word that best describes the services you offer.

If you're selling a physical product, look to Amazon:

Replace "keyword" with an actual keyword for your product. The tilde (~) ensures Google will also search a variety of synonyms, widening your possible results.

Product Research Tools

ScienceDaily is a great resource for finding a mechanism of action for supplement products. Sometimes you can find a nice headline or bullet point already written for you.

Lemme search "New way to burn fat." ...one sec. brb.

[15.34 seconds later]

Alright! Check out these headlines:

• "New spin on how 'beige' fat cells burn calories."
• "Novel biological pathway could lead to new anti-obesity drugs"

HOT DOG! What are 'beige' fat cells? Intriguing! If you're selling a Fat Burning Supplement, this article could give you a logic-tight case on why yours will work better than anything else.

Back in the day, copywriters would visit the manufacturing facility of their clients and ask a bunch of questions as if they were detectives solving a crime.

Current Customers can give you great insights into what people love or hate about your product. Chances are, if your current customers love a specific feature, your new customers will too.

Competitor Research Tools

Ad Libraries are great for seeing the main message your competitors are pushing, what funnels are working, and what style of content is trending. You can search their Facebook Ads in the Facebook Ad Library, or their Google/YouTube Ads in the Google Ads Transparency Center.

For YouTube Ads I want to save, I use AdLeg and keep them in a Bookmark folder to reference if I'm ever writing an ad script. If you're scouring YouTube for marketing information, you're bound to be targeted by competitors. So when you come across a YouTube Ad you like, right-click the ad, copy the Debug Info, and paste it into AdLeg to get the video's URL.

Publications from news outlets, blogs, and online journals will give you an idea of what your industry is saying about competitors. Are they "making waves," or getting harsh critiques from the press? One time I even found a Reddit thread of people complaining about my competition. In your Google Search, try:

Back in the day, copywriters would secret-shop their client's competitors looking for any chinks in the armor. I highly recommend this strategy if you can do it.

My Exact Research Template

My personal research template is pretty intense. Filling it out will give you all the insights we just went over AND more. It consists of an 8-page Google Doc with tables to fill out, prompt questions, and checklists to get an in-depth understanding of your Product and Market. Plus it includes one Google Spreadsheet to figure out what your Competitors are doing so you can determine how to beat them.

The point isn't to fill out every last box. The point is to get in the right frame of mind so you can ask the right questions. By the time you've finished, you'll have a bunch of ideas for possible strategies. That way, when your current strategy stops working (which it will eventually), you have a mountain of data and ideas to refer back to so you can easily pivot.

If you'd like a copy of my personal Research template, I'll give it to you for free as a thank-you for reading these Notes.

Good Research is the backbone of any solid Copy Code. It's where you go to confidently find all your groundbreaking marketing ideas instead of hoping inspiration happens to strike. It's where you learn how to pivot a campaign that's not performing.

This is how copywriters craft a sales message compelling enough to work on the coldest traffic possible. It's how they make the prospect feel like he's reading something written just for him. It's how they make the product sound like a breakthrough invention. And it's how they de-position the competition and make it clear that only one product will give the prospect the results they want.

So try not to skip this step! If you don't have time, make someone else do it. Have someone else fill out a Research Template for you.

It's the Research that holds the power to disrupt the market with a campaign that could make history.