Since I am an optimist, I see the good and positive side of just about everything. I’m rarely negative. Although I always encourage people to have a positive outlook, I want to take a moment to mention there are times when you might want to be a bit negative. I’m not talking about having a negative attitude. I’m talking about the fact that almost every product has something negative about it, but if you face it head on, you can successfully deal with it.

The Good

Usually, a copywriter will try to hide all the negative points about a product or service and hope that the reader doesn’t realize the downsides to the offer. BUT that’s not always the best course of action. Your prospects are smart and they usually figure out the negatives anyway. And when they do, they may start to lose their trust in you … especially if it looks like you tried to hide something from them.

If there is something negative about your product, don’t be shy about pointing it out. The reader is going to figure it out anyway, and you’re going to get points for revealing it. You’ll be seen as trustworthy if you show you are being straightforward.

If you’re selling courses on trading the stock market, point out that a person can lose money trading. Everyone knows that anyway. If you don’t point it out, it looks like you’re hiding something. So bring it out into the open. Of course, you are also required to have legal disclaimers that make this clear, but putting it right in your sales letter, in your own words, will help to take the “sting” out of the required legal disclaimer.

The Best

Even better, you can turn the negative into a positive. For example, you can explain that your investing system has a risk-control feature, and that this feature helps keep losses to a minimum. In this way, you’ve solved the negative feature and turned it into a positive selling point.

If you state that your product is not for everyone, and there are certain limitations, then the person reading will see that you are being honest and not making outrageous claims.

For example, say you are teaching a new language with CD recordings. You can tell prospects that they must commit to listening to the CDs for 30 minutes a day, and that if they are not willing to commit that much time to it, then they are not likely to learn the new language. Most logical people would see that you are making a reasonable request. They would see that your admission that they must study for 30 minutes a day to be successful shows that you are a reasonable company to deal with and that you want them to succeed.

Instead of depressing response because people won’t want to study for 30 minutes a day, it will probably increase response among those who are serious about actually learning the language.

If your product requires buyers to do something in order to get the benefits of the product, tell them what they have to do, and they will be able to begin imagining how they will arrange their time to use your product correctly.

If you have a fitness gym, and your fitness program requires customers to work out for a minimum of 45 minutes every single day, tell them that. There’s no point in attracting customers who aren’t going to exercise 45 minutes a day, if that is the requirement of your program. People who won’t exercise that much will just stop coming to the gym anyway.

Another way to turn a negative into a positive is to point out that your product is not for everyone. It might be too expensive. It might be available only in limited quantities. This generates exclusivity.

If something is restricted to only a certain group, it could boost response, even if the “group” isn’t really all that exclusive. For example, consider the headline, “Lower insurance rates for Oregon drivers aged 38 to 45.” If I saw that headline, I’d think “I’m that age, and I live in Oregon,” so I would read the ad because it looks like it applies to me.

Sometimes I have to tell my kids they can’t have a chocolate chip cookie before bed (usually after they’ve already brushed their teeth). That makes them want it even more! They beg over and over and over. And it’s not like they’re hungry. They really don’t need a cookie. They just want it cuz they can’t have it.