In the wellness space, lead with your customer's dream state
When I first started copywriting, I had a lot of resistance to the idea of probing people's pain points. PAS (problem agitation solution) is a copywriting framework that works incredibly well in most copy mediums. But I had a problem with agitating the problem.
Which is part of why I immediately fell in love with writing quizzes.
On Chanti Zak's team over the last couple years I've written tons of long form quizzes for clients across industries but one thing stays the same: Quizzes present a chance to key into your ideal customer's dream state just as much as probing their pain points.
Quizzes are also celebratory and entertaining. Like any good horoscope reading or even Seventeen magazine from the 90s, they need to make your quiz-taker feel seen for their strengths before they tell you what you can improve.
It didn't take long for me to forget about probing the problem, because I realized (with the help of copy firestarters and legends like Ry Schwartz, Chanti Zak, and Dawn Petrin) that when you write copy, it's not just about pain state, it's not just about dream state. It's about knowing intimately who you're writing for and "coaching the conversion" to use Ry's perfect term for it. It's about understanding their struggles so well…and offering a solution that was most often created just for them by a compassionate entrepreneur who gets it.
At least those are the people I write copy for. Because if I don't believe in it, I won't take any part in it.
Key takeaways for your copy?
Choose subject lines and headlines that amp up the dream state like this one:
We do a lot of VOC as copywriters that focuses on understanding the moment of highest tension in a customer's journey. But let us not forget the moment of highest pleasure! Paint a portrait of exactly what your prospect wants life to look like every day. Then start an email in media res with all the pleasure… get visceral about how awesome life is from here.
I was once writing for a coach who lives in the jungles of Costa Rica in a community of yogis and I started an email with her life as the dream state. Cheers-ing with oat-milk lattes impromptu dance parties, earthing, everything wild fun and free you could imagine… that I knew her prospects were looking for too.
Wellness influencers are amazing at highlighting the dream and helping that dream feel attainable. Melissa Wood Tepperberg always gets me when it comes to dream state and I've bought so many products at her recommendation.
The extraordinary OG conversion copywriter Joanna Wiebe recently shared an awesomely powerful new copywriting framework that focuses on the solution, and shares this super actionable tutorial here. She mentions that this is a great time to get out of the pain state, because so many of us have problem fatigue with the pandemic. The time to focus on problems will return, but right now dream state is where it's at. And it's not to say don't write the problems too, because you still need to create urgency, but it's a new kind of balance that you might really enjoy working into your copy.
Wellness customers are seeking solutions that elevate them. That take them out of the mundane. That make the everyday more magical.
If you're wondering exactly how to talk to them, sign up for my email list and grab my magic words list right here. The list adds extra energy to your words. So pour some tea, look over that list, and then write an email to your ideal customer that helps them live into the possibilities they might not see for themselves… yet.
When you meet your people in their dream state, you invite them to take that picture off the Pinterest board and make their wildest dreams exquisitely real.