You will be able to outline any piece of persuasive copy in four parts before writing a sentence.
Most people start writing a page by writing the first sentence. They get a paragraph in, realise they have not mentioned the price, add it, remember a good review, paste that in somewhere, and end with "contact us for more information". The result has all the right pieces in an order that makes sense only to the writer. A reader arrives, cannot tell whether it is for them, and leaves before reaching the good part.
The fix is to decide the order before you write a sentence. One structure works for almost any persuasive piece, from a landing page to a two-line ad: problem, solution, proof, action. Once you can outline in those four parts, you will rarely stare at a blank page again.
Open with the reader's situation, in their words. This is how they know the piece is for them, and it is why the voice-of-customer file from lesson 1.4 comes first in this course.
For Priya's free trial lesson, the problem might be: "He knows the work at home. Then he sits the test and goes blank." A parent who recognises that will read the next line. A parent whose child does not have that problem will move on, and that is fine. You are not writing for everyone.
Keep the problem short, one to three sentences on a page and a single line in an ad, because its only job is recognition. Resist the urge to explain the problem at length or to make it sound worse than it is. Lesson 4.2 covers why exaggerating it backfires.
Next, say what you offer and how it changes the situation you just described. Lead with the benefit and use the feature as the reason, as in lesson 3.1.
For Priya: "In a class of six, the tutor checks every child's working as they go. Mistakes get caught on Saturday morning, not on the exam paper." The reader learns what the product is, a small class, and what it does for them, catching mistakes early, in two sentences.
The solution section is where you describe how it works, if the reader needs to know. For a tuition class, that might be the schedule and what a lesson looks like. For a product, it might be the two or three things that make it different. Pull these from your benefit and proof sheet, starting with the benefits ranked highest in lesson 3.4.
Then give the reader reasons to believe you. Proof here means the kinds from lesson 3.2: a real review, a number from your records, a credential, a guarantee or a demonstration.
Place each piece of proof right after the claim it supports. If you have just said that the tutor checks every child's working, the next line should be a parent saying so, or a short video showing it. Readers judge a claim at the moment they read it. A testimonial three screens later does not help the doubt they had back there.
A long page will have several claims, each with its own proof, while a short ad may have room for one, so choose the proof that answers the doubt your reader is most likely to have, which your voice-of-customer file will tell you.
End with a single, clear next step. Tell the reader exactly what to do and what will happen when they do it.
"Book a free trial lesson for this Saturday. We'll confirm by WhatsApp within one working day." The reader knows what they are asking for, what it costs (nothing) and what happens next. Compare "Contact us for more information", which asks them to start a conversation with no idea where it leads.
Ask for one action only. If you offer "book a trial, download our brochure, or follow us on Instagram", you have made the reader choose, and many will choose to do nothing. Lesson 4.3 is about calls to action in detail.
Before you write any piece of persuasive copy, write four lines, one for each part. Each line is a note to yourself, so rough wording is fine.
Here is Priya's outline for her trial lesson page:
Problem: "knows it at home, goes blank in the test", from five parents Solution: classes of six, the tutor checks every child's working, mistakes caught in class Proof: parent review about careless mistakes, short video of a tutor checking working Action: book a free Saturday trial, confirmed by WhatsApp within one working day
That outline took her four minutes. Everything she writes from now on for this offer, the page, the ad, the email, will follow it, at different lengths.
The four parts stretch and shrink. On a landing page each part might be a whole section, as you will see in lesson 5.1, while in an ad each part might be a phrase. In a WhatsApp reply to an enquiry, the problem is the parent's own message, so you can start at the solution. The order rarely changes: the reader needs to recognise themselves before they care about the solution, and believe the solution before they will act.
For the activity, use your writing kit. The problem line should come from your voice-of-customer file and the proof line from your benefit and proof sheet. If you find yourself writing the problem in your own words, go back to the file and look for the customer's.
Outline the copy for one product in four lines, one for each part, using phrases from your writing kit.
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