In a recent critique for a coaching client, the issue of “gap analysis” arose. Gap Analysis is something I learned in sales, and it was heavily taught by sales trainers like Brian Tracy, such as in his course “The Psychology of Selling.”
Gap Analysis is an immensely powerful selling technique. It’s also an important feature of copywriting. In fact, most people will know a variation of it, which is often called “Problem-Agitate-Solve,” a term coined by top copywriter Dan Kennedy.
I prefer “Gap Analysis” because it drives home the relationship between those three elements. So what is Gap Analysis and how can you apply it to your sales copy?
A gap is the perceived difference between the problem and the potential outcome. That is, you have to describe life with the problem and life without it.
Your product, which is your solution, is the bridge between the two. Showing the benefits enables you to position your product as the bridge over the gap.
Once the gap is established, your words can widen the gap by aggravating (or blowing up) the problem, or by pushing away the solution.
Yes, I know this might sound contradictory, but you should make your prospect feel uncomfortable and raise their level of discomfort. You do that by exacerbating their problem or pushing the solution as far away as you can.
Specifically, you should widen the gap as much as you can. Your copy should make your prospect as uncomfortable as possible and any solution for the problem it solves as unattainable as possible.
Why? Because once you widen the gap, then when you do present your solution it will be so compelling, in itself, that it becomes more desirable.
You’re turning a desire into a necessity.
Your product becomes like a cool, refreshing oasis in the middle of a scorching desert, appearing only after walking for miles under the sun’s blistering heat.
Gap Analysis is a powerful tool that should be included in your copywriting toolbox.
Granted, you must identify your prospect’s problem and focus on the benefits of your solution. But clearly defining the problem and the solution is not enough.
You must give your readers a common vision of what relief from the problem will mean to them on a personal level. It’s an essential step in the sales process, the one that fosters desire and increases the urgency to find a solution.
As luck would have it, a large part of its power is in it’s simplicity. The process consists of only four steps:
- Introduce the problem.
- Introduce the “other side”.
- Widen the gap.
- Bridge the gap.
Here’s a very simple example.
You qualify the reader by introducing their current situation into the conversation. Talk about the “now”. Relate to the current issues facing your prospect. You can discuss how bad things are or at least how bad things are as it applies to the problem you are introducing.
Once the problem is introduced, you will want to present the other side. That way, you also introduce the gap. For example, you say things like:
- “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”
- “What all of us dream of is…”
- “Would you like to know how to…”
“… Avoid, leapfrog over, or solve [problem], and achieve [benefits] and picture enjoying [benefits of solving the problem]?”
Now that you’ve created the gap, you can work on widening it.
You can make the problem appear bigger by focusing on it, exacerbating it, and making it more real and concrete. Or you do so by making the solution seem unachievable and describe the frustration of not having access to it.
To push away the solution even further you can remind them of how great it would be if they get benefit, benefit, benefit. You can do that by painting pictures of them enjoying the benefits of solving this problem (or not having it in the first place).
You also emphasize how urgent it is to solve the problem. Use vivid descriptions and mental imagery to enlarge the effects of the problem going unsolved.
Then you can move on to the final step.
Now, with perfect timing, you release your solution. It’s at this point that your solution will be far more in demand. By finally bridging the gap, they can grasp more fully how achievable “the other side” really is, and increases their desire to buy your solution in order to reach it.
It’s applying the law of contrast, really.
If I offer a solution to your problem, you may be apathetic about it, regardless of how fantastic the solution is or how great its benefits are. Why? Because the problem is not as important to you.
Even if the problem is important to you, you may be shopping around for alternate solutions, or the solution may not be as desirable since solving the problem is not at the top of your mind at the moment.
(When do you think about seeing your doctor the most? Before a problem happens in order to prevent it? Long after a problem has happened and is now in the back of your mind? Or while the problem is happening and hurts you the most?)
But you will be a lot more excited about the solution if the problem is at the top of your mind at that moment, and if you know how bad (or how bad things can be if left unsolved) the problem really is.
That’s the power of Gap Analysis.
Also, with the help of Gap Analysis you apply the law of contrast in another way.
Since paying for your solution is a problem in itself (money is security, and nobody wants to lose their hard-earned dollars), then by widening the gap the problem of not owning your product is now a lot larger in comparison to the smaller problem of paying for it.
In other words, by blowing up the problem, you are also shrinking the problem of making a decision to buy. You are reducing the price in their minds — that is, the psychological impact of the price.
Of course, you can and should lower price sensitivity by increasing the value of your solution. But by using Gap Analysis and the power of contrast, you make the pain of paying for your solution a lot more bearable in contrast to the pain of not owning it.
Ultimately, by now it’s probably quite clear how important it is to introduce both sides of the gap. It’s the only way to provide your readers with a complete picture of how impressive an impact your product will have on their lives.
Remember to use your target market’s most basic desires as emotional highlights to your descriptions. It’s important to elicit an emotional response in your reader and “widening the gap” has the potential to do so.
The whole of this process works to build your relationship with the reader, and by extension the reader’s relationship to the product.
By presenting the gap effectively, you connect with your reader by realistically relating to their current predicament as well as their desires, while inflating both at the same time. When you reveal your product, they are ready for the solution and are predisposed to accept it.
Obviously, you will want to practice and perfect this technique. Just follow the four steps outlined.
It will help if you keep a solid picture of your target market in mind so that you remember to choose and use words, phrases, situations, and stories that your reader will be able to relate to.
You’ll soon find that “widening the gap” is a natural part of your copywriting repertoire.
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