Right now Seth’s cachet is great, so it’s easy for him to use this kind of copy. The real sales letter, though, was likely much longer — and customized for each buyer. How so? It consisted of any number of combinations of Seth’s books, blog posts, videos, etc… all of which will have combined to pre-frame the buyer when they arrive at the sales page.

In many ways, this is simply a much more subtle version of Jeff Walker’s Product Launch process.

I’ve been using short copy to motivate “easy next steps” in a chain to increase sales for clients for a while. Often it has proven both easier and more effective than longer copy.

In one of the industries I dabble, there was the Preeminent Guru that would merely send out a beautiful, but terribly written and conceived, email — and would pack 1500 people into an event at $2200 each.

After looking at Seth’s short pitch, I’d say the same dynamic is at work. Scarcity. It assumes that the scarce object is already seen as valuable or it doesn’t work. If folks are not educated to the value of the scarce object in advance, just using the scarcity appeal will fail.

This all gets back to knowing where your audience is in relation to your objective. Are they educated? Do they perceive value? Are they motivated? If the answers are NO, NO and NO - then you’ve got to walk them through those steps either in a series of short copy steps, or long copy, or video to get there. Then you can use the scarcity card.

Side note: The minute the Guru stops being “all that” this approach stops working. Then they’ve gotta start selling value again and have a popularity rebirth. I’ve seen the cycle repeat several times in different industries.

It’s good to be King.