Proof element sidebars: 

These kinds of sidebars are generally used in one of x ways …

1. To document the enormity of the problem:In the package above, for example, I used a proof element sidebar for a table showing the carnage that arterial plaque causes each year in the U.S. — the number of strokes and heart attacks and deaths.
   
   Then, I made it personal by showing the reader his/her risk at age 40… 50 … 60 …and beyond.
2. To demonstrate the wisdom of the client’s approach: Most of the time when you’re selling
   a product or service, you are, in fact, asking people to commit to doing something differently.
   
   That involves change. And most people resist change.
   
   So oftentimes, a sidebar that directly addresses this resistance can help you overcome it — by presenting this new approach as the only safe,prudent, intelligent one, and the way people
   should have been doing it all along.
3. To prove that the approach does, indeed work: Other sidebars are doing this for you — particularly your testimonial sidebars.
   
   But why not take one of your best testimonials, call the customer and have him/her tell his story in greater detail?
   
   Introduce the reader to John and Mary …show them all the ways they’re just like the reader … talk about how they were skeptical,show them how they thought, “What the heck “… and gave the product a fair try …
   
   show how all the ways it enhanced their lives… how they feel about that … and how they’d like to kick themselves for not trying it sooner.
   
   Then, I put their actual testimonial up in lights in a sidebar within the sidebar.Powerful stuff!

4. 4. To demonstrate the kinds of information they’re going to get — either in a product or
   premium.
   I don’t know who the first genius was who simply reprinted a book’s table of contents on a full page of his sales copy.

   But I do remember seeing this device for the first time and thinking, “Brilliant! Not only did it save him from having to write one full page of copy, it demonstrated the breadth of
   information in the book — and that the other things he was promising were really in it!”

   There are other ways to do this, of course. As you probably know, Boardroom is a major publisher of self-help books and newsletters.

   When I’m writing for Boardroom, I try to make sure each spread has these three devices:

   
   1 LOTS of fascinations, of course …
   2 At least one testimonial, and
   3 Proof elements — sometimes a section of text, taken verbatim from the book to demonstrate how valuable its advice is, as well as how much fun it is to read.

   4. To demonstrate the kinds of information they’re going to get — either in a product or

   premium. 

   I don’t know who the first genius was who simply reprinted a book’s table of contents on a full page of his sales copy.

    

   But I do remember seeing this device for the first time and thinking, “Brilliant! Not only did it save him from having to write one full page of copy, it demonstrated the breadth of

   information in the book — and that the other things he was promising were really in it!”

    

   There are other ways to do this, of course. As you probably know, Boardroom is a major publisher of self-help books and newsletters.

    

   When I’m writing for Boardroom, I try to make sure each spread has these three devices:

   
   
   

   1 LOTS of fascinations, of course …

   2 At least one testimonial, and

   3 Proof elements — sometimes a section of text, taken verbatim from the book to demonstrate how valuable its advice is, as well as how much fun it is to read.

    

   This is often called “value-added” material, as it gives the prospects value even before he makes a purchase. 

   They also keep prospects reading. And, they also are great ways to grab his attention and compel him to begin reading in the first place!