Hurt and Rescue Your Customers

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Scott Bywater


There's a saying in the direct marketing world called "hurt and rescue" which sounds kind of harsh. But I wanted to take a minute and walk you through the process of how it works now.

As in reality, it's actually hurting people for their own good in most cases.

What most people don't realize is that we are selling all the time. I have a three year old toddler, who is very excited about going to the Wiggles today ;-) and I am in constant negotiation with him to go to sleep, etc.

Now anyone with kids is probably going to face challenges when they come into their teenage years. What's more, we all love our kids.

So let's see how the "hurt and rescue" method can be applied to someone you love...

Your child is a teenager and you find some drugs in their school bag.

You say: What's this?

Your teenager says: It's nothing. Just some hash. Everyone does it?

You say: What the???

Now you have a few options at this point. You can go off your head, start screaming and ranting like a lunatic and scare the life out of your teenager.

You could let it go.

Or you could strategically apply the "hurt and rescue" approach.

Here's how I would do it...

I would tell a story about someone who lost their mind as a result of smoking drugs - a real story about drugs being linked to mental illnesses, etc.

I would pull out real stories from newspapers giving percentages of the people getting addicted.

I would go into research mode and find out every single bad thing I could about this drug based on real studies.

And I would basically try to scare the living s**t out of my teenager.

Why?

To link a greater degree of pain to smoking the drug than the pleasure (sensations, acceptance, etc) he gained from it.

And once I had hurt him, then I would go into rescue mode.

I would find a mentor. I would show him there was a better way which would provide him the same pleasure without drugs.

Can you see why the "hurt and rescue" model is ethical and in the best interest of your customer?

Let's say you sell tires... point out the danger of not having good tires, get statistics on how many people die each year as a result of not having good tires... scare the life out of your customers. And then rescue them with your solution.

Makes sense?

You bet it does. One of my old friends said he didn't like the way copywriting used fear to get people to take action, but if it's real... if it's going to help save lives... if it's going to protect your child... if it's fear used to do good... I have absolutely no problem with it.


About the Author:
Scott Bywater is an advertising copywriting expert and the author of Cash-Flow Advertising. To gain access to all of his copywriting tips on how to get more customers via his eye opening "Copywriting Selling Secrets" newsletter, simply head on over to his web site at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/


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