Persuasion

Why You Should Be the Least Expensive Option in Your Space

by

I can’t count how many times potential clients have told me “you’re too expensive.”

After a while, it can make you doubt your strategy. And yourself.

In my case, I had 2 factors working against me:

1) Much cheaper competition. (Not that every copywriter charges less. But enough do to create a lowered expectation in the minds of many prospects.)

2) More significantly, lazy positioning on my part.

Because the way you position your pricing is just as important as the dollar amount.

We don’t have to get into the weeds here (We may go deeper in a future email. That’s a good reason to subscribe now)…

But I’m going to make an off-the-wall suggestion.

You should be the least expensive option in your niche.

That doesn’t mean you should have the least expensive price tag…

It means you have to flip the script for your would-be buyer.

It’s not about how much he’s about to spend. It’s how much he’s going to SAVE when he buys from you instead of the other guy (or doing nothing at all).

  • Save money on buying a higher quality option instead of having to keep buying replacements
  • Save time because your product/service works and doesn’t break or breakdown
  • Save energy because he has a more complete solution
  • Save embarrassment because he doesn’t have to explain why things aren’t going according to plan
  • Save frustration because he’s FINALLY getting what he wants

When you buy from or hire the best, it only hurts once.

Show your target audience how much they can save and price becomes much less of an obstacle. 

P.S. Set your prices like your life depends on it. Because in a way, it does.

3 Copy “Nudges” That MOVE People

by

What does it really take to get people get off their butts and take action?

New data coming from the push for Covid vaccines reveals critical insights into 3 critical elements of a message that moves people.

Regardless of your feelings about the vaccine, these insights can help you crank up your conversion rate in any scenario where you need to be persuasive

Not in the mood to watch a video?

No problem.

I’ll give you a brief overview of the 3 copy “nudges” right here.

[Bonus] Tip #0: Make sure you’re communicating with your audience.

Don’t expect them to know what you want them to do or when to do it.

In the video, I mentioned a 23% increase in “conversion” just by sending a text message telling people their vaccine was ready. I saw another study in which the SMS message nearly doubled the number of people who were vaccinated.

Tip #1: Your messaging must have a call-to-action.

If you want someone to MOVE, tell him to move.

Don’t count on your offer “selling itself.” Don’t simply provide information and expect your reader to take the appropriate action spontaneously.

Tip #2: Make the desired action as simple and easy as possible.

Any additional difficulty or complexity – real or imagined – will decrease the likelihood of your reader doing what he needs to do.

The closer you get to offering a magic pill, the better in most cases.

Tip #3: Increase motivation by implying ownership, e.g. “claim your widget.”

Humans are reluctant to give back or lose out on what’s theirs. (It’s called the endowment effect.)

We’re also prone to going along with the default selection when given choices. (It’s called default bias.) Show people their options, and make your desired action the default. You’ll likely see an increase in conversions.

The studies done show with statistical certainty that this stuff works. But they also show that different audiences require nuanced messaging.

No one-size-fits-all messaging.

Now, how do you plan to work these 3 copy nudges into your marketing?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Emotional Copy Sells. Here’s How You Do It

by
Emotional copy focuses on "body, bank and boo"

Your life is about to get a little easier, my friend.

Starting today.

I’m going to remind you about something you may already know…

Then I’ll share a distinction you may have never thought of. One that could seriously simplify your sales and marketing efforts.

Let’s dive in.

As a student of the persuasion game, I’m sure you already know that emotions drive buying decisions.

If you have never heard this before, today’s your lucky day. Because now you know.

If you thought the air-tight logic of your sales argument is what seals your deals, today’s your lucky day. Because now you know better.

(If you feel the need to cling to this theory, check out where you swipe your own credit cards. You’ll see your feelings’ fingerprints all over the receipts.)

Here’s an old video covering this in greater detail, along with 5 specific emotions worth targeting.

The question that naturally comes up is…

How do you create emotion with copy? – especially when your product or service is “boring”?

Which is just one way we make sales and marketing more complicated than it needs to be.

The solution is simple.

Talk about topics your ideal customers are already emotional about. The stronger the emotions, the better.

To make it even simpler, I refer you to Body, Bank and Boo.

Everyone already has strong feelings, positive or negative, about their:

  • Body (physical, mental and emotional health)
  • Bank (making or saving money, other work-related stuff)
  • Boo (love life and other relationships)

They already have:

  • dreams and desires…
  • pains and problems…
  • fears and frustrations…

…about their Body, Bank, and Boo.

Get familiar with your should-be customers. You’ll discover which Body dreams… which Bank problems… which Boo frustrations they have the strongest feelings about. Which they’re most desperate to address.

See how that works?

You don’t have to be very creative. You don’t have to be a Donnie Bryant-level copywriter. And you don’t have to resort to overhype or dishonesty to get your prospects in the buying mood.

They’ll tell you how to get them in the mood.

Get to know them and then show them how you can help them get the Body/Bank/Boo result they’re already emotionally invested in achieving.

Every effective sales and copywriting strategy is a variation on that.

My advice? Keep it simple… and keep leading the way.

Have a productive day!

Donnie

P.S. Trying to generate emotions in your copy ex nihilo is almost like trying to divert a freight train hurtling down the track.

Why put yourself through that?

Tap into the momentum that’s already there. It’s easier, and more likely to take you smoothly to the desired destination.

Body, Bank and Boo.

Simple.

The Biggest Lesson Clayton Makepeace Taught Me

by

Many of the biggest names in the copywriting world gathered yesterday to pay tribute to Clayton Makepeace, who passed away almost exactly one year ago.

His death hit me pretty hard because he was such an instrumental part of my journey.

Not only was Clayton a great copywriter (one of the all-time greats) and brilliant teacher (his copy cubs are some of the best in the game, too)…

He was one of the most interesting guys I’ve ever hung out with.

Since I wasn’t invited to speak at today’s tribute, which was organized and hosted by another legend, Carline Anglade-Cole…

I’m going to share a game-changing lesson he taught me right here.

Now, to be fair, I wasn’t invited to speak at the tribute because:

1) I’m barely a big name copywriter in my own house and
2) Clayton was only my mentor from a distance.

Plus, I only hung out with him once, when I was invited to speak on a hot seat panel during AWAI’s “Makepeace Method for Writing Million Dollar Sales Letters in 7 Days or Less” workshop in 2016.

Here’s a picture of Clayton and me on stage at the event, along with David Deutsch and Parris Lampropoulos (who both spoke at the tribute).

By the way, I’d like to publicly thank John Forde for helping get me on stage with these titans.

Now, let me share the lesson Clayton taught me that impacted me more than any other.

No matter how you rate your copywriting skills, this concept can revolutionize your ability to persuade in print or in person.

It’s…

“The Triumph of Hope Over Experience“

Your should-be clients have dreams and desires. In many cases, those dreams and desires do not match up with the reality they’re face every day.

They dream of having six-pack abs… even though they see their gut bulging more every week.

And they want to get that six-pack without exercise or dieting. A magical fat-burning pill will do nicely.

They dream of their husbands putting their socks in the hamper instead of leaving them on the bathroom floor… even though their experience tells them not to hold their breath. (Pun intended)

Experience tells them their dreams and desires are out of reach.

But they still have HOPE and their hope consistently triumphs over their experience.

Hope is what drives them to keep trying – and buying – new things to get closer to those dreams and desires.

Your job as a persuader is to pour gasoline on the embers of their hope. Do it right and your prospects will appreciate you selling to them.

And here’s a brilliant tip:

His experience can be the path of least resistance to the promised land he hopes to reach.

Show him an experience he’s already personally familiar with.

Then connect that experience to a fact he knows (or at least suspects) and could easily prove.

And then connect that fact to the dream/desire you’re appealing to in your copy.

Take this oversimplified example:

Copy: 90% of people live paycheck to paycheck.
Reader: “Yep, I’m broke and so is everyone I know.”

Copy: The 10% of people doing well have totally different mindsets and habits than the broke folk. But no one ever told you.
Reader: “That makes sense! My role models were broke, so they couldn’t show me the right way. So it’s not my fault”

Copy: Once you learn just a few mindset hacks and simple habit stacks, you’ll be ready to join the rich and famous 10%.
Reader: “Take my money!”

See how that works?

You’re building belief in the new transformation you’re selling on the foundation of one (or more) of his established beliefs.

And get this.

Even if the reader has tried a similar product… the fact that he’s reading your copy means he HOPES you’re going to be the one who finally helps him realize his dreams and desires.

A lot of copywriters skip this step. They go right from “You’re broke” to “here are mindset hacks and habit stacks to help you get rich.”

Again, that’s oversimplified, but you can see how powerful the concept is.

We could go deeper, but we’ve covered enough ground for one article.

Add this lesson from Clayton to your persuasion repertoire. It can make a world of difference for you (and your should-be clients).

I Believe… Help My Unbelief

by

The odds are stacked against you as a marketer.

Your should-be customer or client has developed a sophisticated system for NOT buying from you.

(The system is deadly effective, even though he was hardly aware that he was building it.)

One of the main components of this system is disbelief. No surprise, right?

But what most marketers don’t consider is that disbelief comes in two flavors:

1. Disbelief about your or your product/service

and

2. Disbelief about his own ability or worthiness to experience the transformation you promise.  

In other words…

Your prospect can believe that you help save marriages… and disbelieve you can save HIS marriage.

To neutralize this part of the anti-buying system, you have to

1. Prove that you can deliver a result

and

2. Prove that you can deliver a result FOR HIM.

I want to talk about #2

How do you do it?

Identify the B.S. stories he tells himself… about himself.

A significant percentage of your prospects will never buy from you — not because they don’t want what you’re selling or because they don’t believe you’re good at what you do…

… but because of their limiting (dis)beliefs.

A Prospect's reason for not buying is the B.S. stories he tell himself 57.1% of the time.
*All figures are estimates

Some generic B.S. stories include

  • “I’ve failed before, so trying again is pointless”
  • “I’m not smart/handsome/wealthy enough”
  • “People who look like me don’t/can’t do that”
  • “I haven’t paid my dues yet”
  • “I don’t deserve to be rich/happy because I did XYZ in the past”

You can uncover more specific crippling B.S. stories by talking (or having your team talk) with people in your target audience.

Get on the phone.
Send surveys (but take responses with a grain of salt).
Spy on them online (social media, Reddit, Amazon reviews, etc.).

You’ll gain fascinating insight you can to overcome objections in your copy.

Showcase People Like Him Who Got the Result

Once you know some of the B.S. stories, find examples about people who contradict those stories.

The more unbelieving prospect see himself reflected in your marketing messages — including his dreams, challenges, and B.S. stories — the more your message will resonate…

And the weaker his disbelief will become.

Leverage A Unique Mechanism

Position your offer as a special, proven approach your prospect has never seen before.

Show him why it’s different — and why other solutions fail.

Your unique solution helps him understand why he may have struggled in the past. And it can give him hope for future success.

Make it Ridiculously Easy to Take the First Step…

Offer a sample. A free or low cost trial. A 7-day challenge.

One of the main reasons people fail is because they never MOVE. Get them to take the first step and you unlock optimism and even confidence by default.

That confidence can force your prospect to re-examine his disbelief — especially if you…

Give Him a Quick Win

Provide information or action steps that will give him some forward momentum.

It only takes a little… and you can deliver it right inside your marketing copy if you like.

This give the prospect more confidence and trust in you. More importantly, it builds confidence and trust in his own ability to reach his goal.

An obviously you’re the person best equipped to help him do it.

Now, there’s something to be said for not convincing anyone who’s not already sure he wants to work with you.

But no matter how you approach your own business growth, it’s helpful to identify the disbelief and B.S. stories that hold your prospects (and customers) back.

You can work that knowledge into your marketing or use it to improve results inside your paid offers.

I hope this helps you grow in one way or the other.

Have a productive day.

P.S. Overcoming a prospect’s disbelief in this way is part of  “killing them softly” with their own song.

Did You Try Balancing Your Broom on Monday?

by

If you’re anything like me, you were utterly fascinated by the broom-balancing boondoggle that swept the internet earlier this week.

(Forgive the pun.)

You probably saw pictures and videos from astonished people who wanted to test out the claim that the earth was tilted “perfectly” on February 10th.

If you hadn’t heard about this, do a quick search and you’ll find a ton of posts and articles. Apparently the hashtag #broomstickchallenge even trended.

Only problem is, the whole thing was a hoax (which you’ll also see tons of posts and articles about).

#broomstickchallenge persuasion

Did your B.S. meter pick up on the hoax or did you know better because of the depth of your scientific knowledge?

I’ll admit, I was only 90% sure the whole thing was Oscar Meyer-level bologna.

So… let’s turn this into a teachable moment. Because anytime something gets this kind of viral attention (and action), there are lessons you can learn.

I see 3 major persuasion principles at play. Let’s discuss.

When “Proof” Arm Wrestles Common Sense

One of the factors that powered the broomstick ballyhoo was the claim that NASA made the announcement.

As you know, our brains instinctively defer to authority figures… at least when it comes to topics we aren’t experts in.

NASA is a pretty reputable authority. And most of us aren’t experts on the earth’s rotational tilt or the effect it has on gravitation.

Interestingly, it would have been incredibly easy to find out if NASA was behind this announcement. And I think most people knew they could verify the story. That’s what made it so easy for them to trust without looking any deeper.

Secondarily, social proof — once it picked up steam — may have been even more convincing than the NASA angle.

Because of a cognitive bias called the “availability cascade,” we have the natural tendency to believe almost anything we’ve seen or heard enough times.

It’s hard to go against the crowd… and it’s less work to trust what everyone else is saying.

So the lessons are that:

  1. It pays to become known as an authority or expert in an area other people are not.
  2. Leverage social proof whenever you can — and when there’s visible, growing support for/acceptance of a proposition, see if there’s a way to use that momentum to gain traction for your own idea/offer.

Seeing is Believing… When You’re Told What You’re Looking At

Think about this…

The #broomstickchallenge starts with the little-known and unlikely-seeming fact that brooms can stand upright.

The argument goes like this: “Hey today’s the only day in this decade that the earth is perfectly tilted. Lemme prove it. Go grab your broom.”

So the hoax tells you how to “prove” the claim for yourself… by pointing you to THE ONE THING that seems to prove it. (I guess you could have used an egg, too. But there’s more work involved.)

This is similar to the way magicians direct your attention toward a specific object or action so you don’t notice the mechanics that make the trick work.

You must point to the broom specifically or the argument falls apart.

If the earth is perfectly tilted, shouldn’t you be able to make a sharpened pencil stand upright on its tip, too?

There’s a lesson here, too. You can “educate” your potential buyers to and almost define their buying criteria for them.

Point them to something that you know they’ll see. When they see it, they’re more likely to believe everything else you said… and do what you recommended they do. Just like a magic trick. (More on that concept here.)

Or, simply show your should-be buyer what you want him to see. Demonstration can be very convincing.

Take It Easy, Man

The perfect tilt of the earth, if it were true, could have been demonstrated in any number of ways. But the craze wouldn’t have caught on if “proving” it wasn’t a low-risk, easy thing to do.

The #HandstandOnTheRoofChallenge probably never would have gone viral.

When you’re selling a product, service or idea, you must be mindful of risk and perceived risk.

That’s just as much about your offer as it is about the copy.

In your copy, assure him of his high probability of success. Give him simple information he can use to justify his purchase to anyone who may ask him about it. Remind him this product was designed specifically for people like him — and the people who buy it are the admired by peers, live longer, etc.

(As long as those things are true.)

Your offer can reduce risk by including a strong guarantee. Make it easy to cancel or request a refund.

Balancing a broom is easy and no one gets hurt doing it.

Try to make it that easy to buy from you.

P.S. Did you know that versions of the #broomstickchallenge have been around since at least 1975?

There’s another lesson: when you find something that works, double down on it.

The marketing method that works better than any other in ROI terms — one that you should definitely double down on — is email. The Make Email Great Again summit officially goes live on Monday, February 17th.

If you haven’t done it already, I encourage you to sign up here to learn secrets and strategies from some of the world’s best email marketers (myself included).

A Gentleman’s Guide to Indoctrination

by

In my previous post, I said that you should…

“Always be indoctrinating.”

The question is, how?

This goes deeper than what most copywriting and marketing experts talk about: influencing individual choices. How to get readers to read this… click that… buy the other thing.

Indoctrination isn’t telling people what to decide. It’s shaping and molding what they believe.

Let me tell you a little historical anecdote.

Alexander the Great conquered much of the known world during his reign. As he continued his conquest, he reached a point when he realized his army was stretched too thin. They were too weak to defend themselves.

The only option was to retreat. But once Alexander’s enemies noticed his retreat, they’d surely pursue and defeat him.

Alexander had an idea.

He ordered his men to make several giant breastplates and helmets that would fit 8-foot tall soldiers. When his army retreated during the night, they left the oversized armor behind.

When the enemy force found the armor, they were convinced Alexander commanded an army of Goliaths. That wasn’t a fight they were looking for.

Alexander lived to fight and rule another day.

I hope you caught the point of this story.

The giant armor changed what Alexander’s enemy believed about Alexander — and his own luck. 

Granted, that’s not a textbook study of indoctrination, but it illustrates the critical point: that we can intentionally shape what other people believe.

Specifically what they believe about us.

If that sounds creepy to you, remember: you’re not installing harmful beliefs. You’re trying to improve someone’s life.

Remember this, too… SOMEBODY is indoctrinating your customers and prospects (and your children, for that matter).  

Shouldn’t that somebody be you?

Here’s where you get started.

Foundation on the Familiar

It’s relatively easy to get people to believe something they WANT to believe. And people readily accept and adopt beliefs that feel familiar… that confirm (in some way) what they’re already convinced is true.

In the story above, Alexander the Great’s army was already known for being brutal and seemingly invincible on the battlefield. After seeing the giant armor, it all made sense.

“No wonder Alexander has conquered the world!”

Your indoctrination attempts shouldn’t make a full frontal assault on an entrenched worldview. Rather, you want to introduce a new idea that feels right and fits into the preexisting beliefs.

As an oversimplified example, which of the following statements fits is likely to be more easily accepted by the average American?

Losing weight is easy when you [fill in the blank]…

or

Losing weight can be hard, but that’s because of [fill in the blank]…

Dealing with “categorization”

People automatically, often subconsciously, filter new facts and ideas into mental categories.

They already have entrenched network of perceptions, beliefs and feelings about those categories.

And it can be hard to compete with those existing beliefs.

As a master indoctrinator, there are two ways to deal with this:

  1. Create a new category. If a person can’t fit you or your product or service into one of their predefined boxes, they’ll have to make a new box.

    Now YOU get to directly inform what he believes and how he feels about the new category — where you stand alone.

    Sometimes this is as simple as communicating with people who just haven’t formed strong opinions of your category yet.

    For example, 95% of the people on the planet seem to have no idea what a copywriter is. It’s a blank slate I’m forced to define at every family gathering.
  2. Modify the existing category. If you already know what someone believes about a topic, you can help them see the inadequacy or outdatedness of his definitions.

    This can be risky, because people really likes to hear that his understanding of the world is wrong.  

    But think of any diet program you’ve ever heard of. Atkins, keto, eating for your blood type. They’re all championed by people trying to update your thinking about how the body processes food.

    (Now think about the fact that marketers seem to have more influence over the way we think about health than scientists or doctors!)

You can control the narrative about your business by controlling which mental category your audience puts it in.

Leveraging Authority

Becoming recognized as an authority might be the most effective thing you can do to power your indoctrination efforts.

People are eager to defer to authorities and experts, often without realizing it.

I’ve talked about authority several times in the past, so I’ll just mention one thing.

Your personal story — how you came to experience and understand the idea you’re trying to share — is likely to carry more weight than scientific studies (which make fantastic supporting arguments).

Your story makes you an authority, whether or not you have credentials or position.

Time Domination

To a certain extent, you have to outcommunicate competing systems of thought.

Our brains are biased towards information they’ve heard recently and repeatedly.

You’ve heard that a lie told often enough is believed. But it’s not about the lie. It’s about the repetition.

A few things you can do to gain a greater share of your indoctrination subject’s time:

  • Frequent communication via email, YouTube, social channels. You don’t have to use them all, but the more you use, the more you’ll dominate time and the more opportunities you’ll have to reinforce your ideas.
  • Be present in the physical environment. Get a book, a t-shirt, a printed checklist, something physical into homes or offices. When you can do that, you’re in a rare group — and as a result, people convince themselves you’re more important. 

    Here’s a serendipitous example…

    We recently bought a new home, and we received this jar opener in the mail this week as a “welcome to the neighborhood” “gift.”

    Progressive wants a physical presence in our new home.
progressive indoctrination
  • Impact ONE THING that’s part of the daily routine of the people you’re influencing. Now you own part of their day.

—

Obviously, we could cover a lot more ground, but I hope you’re already starting to get ideas to start or enhance your indoctrination work.

Now, go make the world better in a way that ONLY YOU can do it.

Someone’s Been Indoctrinating Your Customers…

by

Who decided breakfast is the most important meal of the day?

Have you seen scientific proof?

Don’t Google it. Take a moment and search your memory.

No one proved this claim to you… but there’s a good chance you accept it as truth.

What happened is this: you heard this statement early in your life… you heard it often… and from authority figures.

Maybe you never questioned it. (Most people don’t.)

I was shocked when my youngest son brought this chart home from school…

… because this is not education. It’s indoctrination.

And — cue exaggerated rage — who are these people to tell my son which meal is most important????

(As you might have guessed, the chart came from the vendor that sells lunch to our school district. Trying to grab a bigger share of the 8am market.)

I’m sure most parents didn’t think twice about it. Why should they? It lines up nicely with what they learned in school. 

There’s a useful persuasion principle at work here:

Someone is indoctrinating your children… and your prospects. It might as well be YOU.

The success of your business depends on the success of your indoctrination efforts. You must either:

  • successfully indoctrinate your should-be buyers — to define how they think about or make decisions in your area of expertise, or…
  • align your message with the indoctrination that’s already in place.

If your marketing or sales pitch has to convince someone that breakfast isn’t the most important meal of the day, you’re in trouble.

It’s worth spending time to find out what your ideal clients already believe (and why), and what they NEED to believe in order to make your product or service the obvious choice.

Time to do your research!

Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Always Be Indoctrinating. Otherwise, you could lose ground to the other voices trying to compete with you.

2) Build yourself up as an authority. That puts oomph into your statements, neutralizes some degree of skepticism/criticism and helps your message “stick.”

Don’t just BE an authority. Be KNOWN as one.

3) If necessary, re-position your product/service/self so it’s in a category all by itself.

When people see something familiar, they automatically put it into a category — and that category almost certainly has someone else’s indoctrination already installed.

When you create a new category, you get to set definitions “early… often… and as the authority figure.”

Have a productive weekend!

P.S. How does one go about this business of indoctrination? In my next article, I’ll fill you in.

“No, YOU have a consistency problem”

by
copywriting consistency habits

Habits are hard to break. Harder than freezer meat.

That’s one of the reasons marketing can be hard work.

The difficulty of a marketer’s job is rooted in the dark nature of habitual behavior.

The habitual behavior of your should-be buyers, to be specific.

Let me explain what I mean.

You’ve probably read Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence — or you’ve at least heard of it. So you’re probably familiar with the principles of commitment and consistency.

People like to be seen as consistent. They want to feel consistent.

Marketers try to leverage that fact by seeking “micro-commitments” and “progressive series of agreement.”

There’s value in those concepts.

But listen…

These are attempts to produce consistency. The truth is, your prospects are already consistent.

Freezer meat consistent.

Therein lies the problem — and the opportunity.

Your potential customers are consistently, habitually doing the same things over and over again.

Buying the same things over and over again.

If they’re buying from you, hallelujah! If they’re buying from the other guy… ouch.

More than that, they’re avoiding doing the same things over and over again — and consistently rejecting the same kinds of offers.

So, let me ask you a couple questions:

1.
Do you think it’s smarter to get someone to micro-commit their way to consistently buy from you…

Or should you target people who are already consistently buying the types of products you sell?

2.
Should you spend all your time chasing new customers and weeding out the ones who stubbornly refuse to commit to what’s clearly the best option for them?

Or does it make sense to focus on (or develop) hyper-responsive buyers who already have habits that make you say “Hallelujah”?

Think about it.

Then do something about it.

3 Persuasion Lessons You Won’t Find in Copywriting Books

by
stack of copywriting books

“What’s the biggest mistake copywriters make that destroys their conversions?”

When I’m out speaking, doing workshops or online trainings, that’s one of the questions that comes up almost every time. 

It’s hard to give just one ultimate copy faux pas. There are so many… and they can be extremely costly.

Some are obvious:

  • Focusing on your company or product instead of your prospect
  • Writing about features instead of benefits
  • Using technical jargon and stuffy, corporate language when you should write conversationally.

Other mistakes are much less obvious. I want to talk about three of them today. 

You’re not likely to find these mentioned in copywriting books. In fact, you probably won’t learn about them in many higher-priced courses, either. 

They’re hard won on the battlefield of direct response… where seemingly small slip-ups can cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in lost revenue.

Why is no one teaching these persuasion lessons? 

Because they’re not sexy. And they’re not easy to sum up in tweet-sized sound bites. 

But if you’re willing to dig a little deeper than most of your peers, this hidden wisdom can change everything for you.

Lesson #1: Your USP’s Magnetic Power Doesn’t Come From You

Copywriting and general marketing books often make a big deal out of finding and communicating your unique selling proposition (USP) or unique value proposition. And rightly so. Establishing your business, product or service as unique in the marketplace is important. 

But we’ve tried to make USPs simple, even mechanical.

A + B = C

Target Audience + Problem + Solution = USP

In the process of making formulas like these, marketers have completely missed the point.

No matter what it seems like, the most important characteristic of a USP isn’t its uniqueness. Customers don’t buy a product simply because it’s different.

Today, there are more options than ever before to solve every conceivable problem or satisfy any desire. 

People buy because a product or solution is uniquely suited to fulfill their specific desire.

A USP is not what’s magnetic. The attraction comes from within the would-be buyer himself.

To quote psychotherapist Anthony de Mello, “We see people and things not as they are, but as we are.”

Customers see your products as THEY are. Their desires and beliefs dictate how they perceive your business and your USP.

Here’s what that means for you. 

When writing sales copy, it’s usually a mistake to spend too much time focused on what you (or your client, as the case may be) think is unique about the product.

It’s far more powerful to highlight that specific need or desire that drives your ideal customer into the market in the first place. 

Write copy that awakens that desire… that shows them you understand that pain at a deep level. This helps the reader convince himself that what you’re offering is uniquely suited for his situation. 

Force-feeding your “one of a kind” product is more likely to create magnetic repulsion — the exact opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish.

Lesson #2: Copy Should Empower Readers (Even If the Message Starts With Negative Emotions)

You may already know the fear of loss is emotionally twice as powerful as the positive anticipation of gain.

That’s one of the major reasons fear-based copy can be so effective. When done well, it grabs attention, earns buy-in from the reader and prepares them for the hope of salvation… in your product or service.

Many entrepreneurs shy away from the negative stuff in copy. They don’t want to be fearmongers and scare potential buyers away.

Big mistake. 

Those businesses lose out on sales — and they allow readers to underestimate the severity and imminence of the problems they face. 

That being said, you can go too far with fear and pain. 

Rather, fear and pain are great for opening copy and when you’re closing the sale (fear of missing out)…

But in the middle of the message, we’ve found it boosts response to add empowering content to the main body of the sales piece. 

One of the most effective ways to empower your reader… to make it easier for him to take the next step toward his desired outcome… is to add an educational element to your copy.

In my own split testing, I’ve seen conversions jump as much as 25–40% by providing valuable tips, actionable recommendations, etc., right in the sales message instead of just “selling.”

Other great copywriters, including the legendary Gary Bencivenga, have reported similar results. 

If the reader benefits just from reading the marketing message, you’ve made the sale before the sale.

Quality educational content…

  • Establishes you as an authority on the subject
  • Differentiates you from peddlers who only care about making the sale and
  • Begins to demonstrate to the reader that HE CAN DO THIS, that this can actually work for him.

When you’ve done it right, a sense of hope may begin to form in the reader’s mind: hope that the result he imagines can finally become reality.

In so doing you win an important victory — and the long-term benefits accrue for both you and your reader.

Lesson #3: The “Who” Matters More Than the “What”

I hope the overstatement here is obvious. 

The most important characteristic of sales copy is that the product or service being promoted is something prospects actually want to buy.

But more than most marketers and entrepreneurs realize, the person the message is coming from is often a powerful sales multiplier.

You need to be the kind of personality your readers like. Someone they want to be around and hear from.

Someone they want to buy from. 

Think about celebrities the media are obsessed with. The ones whose faces are on magazine covers everywhere you go. A big percentage of the population drops whatever they’re doing to pay attention to these personalities.

You can give your readers a chance to become THAT interested in you. 

Put your unique idiosyncrasies on display. 

Show the reader you share certain values, i.e., you’re in the “same club.” That kind of affinity is one of the best shortcuts for writing persuasive sales copy.

This is why many financial newsletters come from a conservative or libertarian perspective.

The newsletter audiences tend to be older and more conservative, so the copy speaks that language. 

As divisive as politics can be, it can bond people together like Gorilla Glue when you’re on the same side. 

That sort of affinity turbocharges copy. It’s hard to teach that in copywriting books because different audiences have different affinity hooks.

It’s your job as a copywriter and marketer to find them.

When you share values in common (or at least appear to), when you’re on the same side and when you’re promoting a product or service that’s uniquely suited to scratch the itch that’s been driving your reader crazy…

… the sales copy feels more like a conversation between friends than anything else. 

This can skyrocket sales today (front and back end) AND increase loyalty over time. Even if the reader doesn’t buy from you today, he’s much more likely to keep reading your adventures whenever you send them out. 

By earning this loyalty, you get to sell to the reader time after time. More sales conversations equal more sales. And yet it feels less like selling to the reader.

Dive in and Reap the Benefits

These concepts don’t necessarily work with fill-in-the-blank templates. They require some customer research… and some creative thinking on your part. 

But I can tell you, based on tens of millions of dollars in products sold, these lessons can make all the difference in the world.