The Secret to Successful Copywriting – A New Pair of Shoes

The secret to successful copywriting is to get the customer to believe their life will be improved if they buy your product.

When I write copy, I imagine the feeling of walking out of a shoe store in a new pair of sneakers because at that instant, my life got better because of the product purchased.

When I was a kid we received a new pair of shoes two or three times per year–one pair for back-to-school and another pair for our birthday.  The secret to getting the third pair was trashing the other two enough, and at the right time, to embarrass Mom.  I developed a foolproof plan for this.

1. Wait for an invitation to another family’s home for a party or dinner.
2. When the day comes, stay inside the house until the last possible moment and then dash out to the waiting car in your soiled shoes making sure to leave no time for your Mom to tell you to go back and change.
3. At the party, position yourself next to the hostess while she is talking to your Mom.   Gently nudge the hostess’s elbow so she drops whatever she is eating or drinking.
4. Gallantly bend down making sure at least one filthy shoe is fully exposed.  Hold the pose to the count of five for maximum viewership and then pick up whatever the hostess dropped.  Voila, shoe shopping within the week.

Nike and Adidas came onto the scene about the same time I hit puberty.  They introduced crazy colors, stripes, swooshes and a variety of new materials.  Overnight, black, white and red canvas shoes were X’d off of any self-respecting teenager’s wish list and would remain off for 20 years.

Going out for a movie on Main Street with friends in junior high ended with a trip to the nearby shoe store display window–which was often more exciting, and sexier, than the movie we had just seen.

Instead of dreaming about the movie I would dream about the shoes.  They would give me the ability to run faster, jump higher and always get the girl.  No matter that none of those things ever happened–the feeling was present from the time I identified my next pair of shoes until back-to-school, my birthday or an invitation to another family’s home.

Even after I had worn them out, I kept the old shoes arranged neatly in my closet along with the dreams each pair had promised me.

A pair of royal blue Nike waffle trainers with a bright yellow swoosh spotlighted in a shoe store window has provided me with inspiration to write copy that has sold a mountain of goods.

Perhaps the promise of a new pair of sneakers should not be to “run faster, jump higher and get the girl” but instead to “inspire copywriting that sells.”  Nah, that promise would never sell a single pair–even though it’s true.