The Control-Beating Project Pre-Flight Plan – Roy Furr

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I created this training as a solution to a personal challenge.

For the first time ever, I’ve started working with a junior copywriter on a project.

I actually modeled the relationship based on how best-selling fiction author (and former copywriter) James Patterson works with coauthors on many of his projects…

• I do initial research and come up with the Big Idea…
• I outline and structure the promo, based on my initial research…
• I hand off my prep work to the junior writer…
• They write the first draft of the copy, following my outline…
• And I come back in the end to add my voice, and do any other edits…

Here was my problem — my challenge…

Most of what makes a really great promotion is the THINKING that happens before a single word of copy is written…

So how could I, as the senior copywriter on the project, convey my thinking about EVERYTHING involved to the junior writer?

Not just the Big Idea and outline… 

• What you ALWAYS need to know about the market, the audience, and the individual prospect before you write a word of copy…
• Those critical details you need to know about the product and offer that should go into every piece of copy — and that, if presented in the right way, can totally fan the flames of desire in your prospect…
• All the questions you need to ask about how the campaign is structured, how prospects will see your copy, and all the other copy needs that — when you’re aware of them — can be used to PRE-suade your prospects to be more receptive to your selling messages…

And that’s all BEFORE you even start to flesh out your big idea and develop your selling narrative.

YES, my sentence-by-sentence writing ability, perspective on structuring promos, and all that jazz is valuable. Yet it’s really this thinking that’s been my secret to success as a copywriter…

I dug into my private vault of tools and resources I’ve only shared with a small handful of high-paying clients…

(I believe the minimum amount anyone has paid me up until this point to see this resource is $1,500.)

At one point in the past I’d actually sat down and codified all my thinking on all of these research and preparation steps I consistently use to write control-beating copy for the best marketers in the biz.

I’ve been using this thinking so long that I now do it automatically.

And for my projects, that works — mostly (although I’m going back to using these tools to improve by making the unconscious conscious once again).

But I needed a way to pass off this thinking — either the finished result of ME going through it, OR to give it to someone else as a tool they could use to get the functional equivalent of my thinking on their own.

So I revamped and reworked a set of copywriting tools I’d created in the past. And added minor tweaks to bring them up-to-date with my most current thinking (such as the big idea types taught in High-Velocity Copywriting).

And I’ve been using it with this junior copywriter.

PLUS, there’s an added benefit. Using these tools made it clear there were some unanswered questions on our project. So I shared the documents with our client, through Google Drive, and indicated where I didn’t have a clear answer to some questions. So they went in, answered my questions, and efficiently passed off the critical details for the campaign. It was smooth, natural, easy — frictionless!

(And while this is created explicitly for the kind of long-form direct response copy I write with clients, this same thinking is so fundamental to any response-accountable marketing that you’d be making a mistake to discount it if you goal is more leads, customers, sales, and profits.)

It was clear in starting this project that these tools were far more valuable than meets the eye…

I realized I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t share these tools — and give you explicit training on how to use them…

Whether you’re writing copy for yourself or for clients, understanding all the thinking that goes into GREAT marketing campaigns will help you create bigger winners.

These tools — a series of worksheets (or optionally, a mind map) — are a shortcut to that thinking.

Like I said, I’ve actually started using them on all my projects. Not just with the junior writer. (I even took one step back to take two steps forward, and went back to use them on a project I’d already started.)

They’re just a fast and easy way to make sure you’ve covered all the bases of this critical thinking. And maximized your personal chances of success, in creating a big winner.

“Every battle is won or lost before it’s ever fought.”
— Sun Tzu, The Art of War

I’m not always a fan on war metaphors, but this is particularly relevant. (Or, you can choose the sports equivalent — “Every game is won or lost before you step on the field.”)

I can’t underscore this enough.

By the time you actually get to the WRITING of marketing/advertising/sales copy, you’ve pretty much already decided what the response is going to be.

Make a million bucks? Be a big breakthrough? Beat the control? Whether or not that happens is decided before you’re actually cranking out copy.

It’s in all this thinking… Understanding your market… Understanding how your product or service solves their need and fits into their bigger goals… Knowing how you’ll connect with them and appeal to them… That you are able to create big winners.

Get that right, everything else is downhill.

Get it wrong, and the uphill battle is almost unwinnable.

The Control-Beating Project Pre-Flight Plan will help you get it right. You get the worksheets, the mind map, AND training for how to use them.