Copywriting framework
4 Ps — Promise · Picture · Proof · Push
The direct-mail skeleton that still ships product.
The 4 Ps — Promise, Picture, Proof, Push — sequence a page the way a good salesperson works a room. Make the promise the reader wants to hear. Paint the picture of life after. Prove it's real. Push for the small next step.
How 4 Ps works
- Step 1Promise
One line the reader would trade attention for. Concrete, not clever.
- Step 2Picture
The reader living in the after-state. Sensory detail beats adjectives.
- Step 3Proof
The evidence that closes the credibility gap: numbers, cases, dogfooding, receipts.
- Step 4Push
The smallest possible next step. Zero-friction beats persuasive.
Landing pages, book launches, cold outbound, high-ticket sales pages.
Don't use 4 Ps when the reader is not yet aware of the pain — the promise lands as noise. Warm them up with AIDA or PAS first.
4 Ps in real copy
Stop running in circles and ship work that matters. Six-week cycles, no backlogs, no daily stand-ups. Basecamp's own process. Free HTML book — no email required.
Stop guessing at what makes your best posts land and turn that pattern into a rulebook. A one-page formula card you can hand to any writer on your team. Extracted from 40 of your own top-performing posts. Free audit — paste one post to see.
See 4 Ps in action
Real copy that rides on this skeleton — reverse-engineered block by block.
Extract 4 Ps from any text — automatically
Paste a post that already worked into Get Text Formula. The analyzer detects whether it rides on 4 Ps (or another skeleton), maps every block, and hands you a reusable template you can fill with your own message.