The Four Corners of Getting Attention, with Roy Garn

Published by: David Garfinkel on 08-03-2020

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The number one thing you’ve got to do as a copywriter is first, get people’s attention.

Sounds obvious, I know. But how many times have you had to write a headline and you spent hours, not knowing where to start?

It happens to all of us.

I found an old book in my personal library that can help you out. It’s called “The Magic Power of Emotional Appeal,” by Roy Garn. It was a best-seller, way back in 1960.

And so this is part of our Old Masters series.

And it turns out the author boiled it all down to four specific ways that get attention. After doing a lot of research and field testing. We will reveal all four ways today and give you some ideas on how to weave these emotional appeals into your copy.

This is a book about what makes people tick.

And once you have deeper insights into what makes people tick, it’s one hell of a lot easier to figure out how to get their attention.

Here’s an important quote from the book:

“The people with whom you live, work, and interact rarely want to think; they emotionally enmesh with what they feel. These individualized feelings are emotional activators, as well as barriers to communication.”

Now, let me add, when you can tap into the right feelings for the right reasons, you can own the attention of other people, including your prospects.

This may be the best book I’ve ever read about human nature.

It’s out of print, so if you hunt it down, I ought to give you a heads up:

If you are very analytical and/or you’ve had a lot of advanced education, you might find it tedious and/or rambling. I’ve taken that part out and slanted it hard towards copywriting. It wasn’t as simple as it sounds. But once you get below the surface, you realize it’s actually pretty deep and insightful.

Just not presented in the book in a structured and logical way. It’s extremely conversational and emotional.

Here are some hints about what we cover in today’s show:

1. The first attention-getting emotional appeal speaks to the primary unconscious objective of every living being.

2. They’ve written songs about it, they’ve got huge buildings and institutions devoted to it, they even made a movie with Paul Newman and Tom Cruise about the color of this emotional appeal.

3. People with dirty minds only think of one or two things when they hear this emotional appeal. But it actually goes much further than what they’re thinking of.

4. This one’s so obvious it’s easy to overlook. But it’s reasonable to say that this appeal has sold more expensive goods and services than anything else in the world.


The Magical Power of Emotional Appeal, by Roy Garn: https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Power-Emotional-Appeal-Situation/dp/B000FJEPRU




Keywords: attention getting sales copy

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