In chapter 7 of the book Great Leads, master copywriter Mark Ford talks about one of the most powerful ways to kick off a sales message.

This type of "lead" is not about shoving benefits down the reader's throat.

It's not about agitating the reader's problems or "pain points".

It doesn't talk about price, urgency, or scarcity.

Instead, it's a little-known, rarely used, almost obscure copywriting technique. And yet, the best copywriters frequently reach for it, because this type of lead can be used to sell almost anything — often with fantastic results. So what is this magic copywriting technique?

Well, it's a secret.

Literally.

People are curious creatures, and if you dangle a secret in front of them, they will follow you until they find out what the secret is.

Mark Ford gives an example of a sales letter that talked about "Chaffee Royalty Programs".

What are these programs?

The sales letter doesn't tell you right away.

All it will tell you is that many smart people have used royalty programs to get rich for a long time. How celebrities like Paul Newman and Michael Jackson have taken advantage of them too. And how the rare opportunity to invest in them will be opening up again soon.

The sales letter goes on and on, drawing you in, until you find yourself intrigued and emotionally invested.

When it becomes exposed that "Chaffee Royalty Programs" are actually mining dividend stocks, you are already sold, even though dividend stocks are hardly new and mining is hardly exciting.

Mark Ford calls this process "transubstantiation".

Basically, you give an old product a new name, and you use some of the sweet value of the new name to rub off on the old product.

I thought about this today, when I saw, once again, ICO ads in my Facebook feed.

Only they were no longer called ICOs, or token sales, or token generation events (come on people, everyone knows what you're up to), they were simply called...

Crowdsales.

I saw crowdsale ads for the Miner One ICO (I've done some sales copywriting for them so they track me across the Internet now) and a company called Provocome (I have no idea why they are targeting me, aside from my general interest in ICOs).

Now, I have no idea how long it will take for Facebook to catch on to this "crowdsale" hack.

But even once they do, the transubstantiation secret of Mark Ford will probably be useful in advertising ICOs on Facebook for a long time, just in a smarter, less direct way.

John Bejakovic

P.S. Need help writing long-form ads or sales emails for your ICO? You can reach me here:

http://bejakovic.com/contact