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Are you stressed? Upset about work? Read this.

Are you dissatisfied with your home life? Stressed about money? Have a big purchase looming you’re dreading? Did you eat that cake the other day because you told yourself you deserved a break? You certainly deserved it, unlike Karen in the other room. She could probably stand to take the stairs more, right?

See, I just took a wild guess on all of these claims, but I bet I nailed every one of them for you. That’s because humans aren’t that different from one another. We hear this a lot and many of us cringe at the idea of being lumped in together.

“I’m not easy to advertise to.”

“I don’t see advertisements much anymore.”

“I’m not swayed by these trends.”

Yeah, you are. All of this comes back to three primary gut reactions people have to problems:

  1. People feel stagnant. Often people know they’re stuck either with a specific problem or one really big problem. Instinctively we think everyone else is moving past this problem. This makes everything worse and more frustrating.
  2. People feel unsure. There are too many options or too much time is involved in tackling the current day or a big problem. Or, none of the options are good enough. This makes everything feel confusing.
  3. People feel unsuccessful. Either we’ve tried solving a problem once or repeatedly and it’s not worked. This makes everything feel impossible and meaningless.

The good news is everyone has these problems. It’s not just you. The bad news is good advertising, usually through copywriting, picks at these strings running through the back of your head.

If you’re selling something, tell people who it’ll move them ahead or bring some certainty to a problem. That buying this car will make you a little more successful. Or hiring us to do this work will mean it’s done right and you don’t have to worry about figuring it out yourself.

Put another way more bluntly: much of the benefits of a product come from saving someone either time or money. Alternatively, it can be some combination, like saving time and making money. But you get the idea.

Couple that with the understanding every time you talk about a common problem you’re speaking directly to someone’s soul and it makes purchasing more comfortable.


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About JUSTIN HARTER

Justin has been around the Internet long enough to remember when people started saying “content is king”.

He has worked for some of Indiana’s largest companies, state government, taught college-level courses, and about 1.1M people see his work every year.

You’ll probably see him around Indianapolis on a bicycle.

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