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Copywriting has no other purpose than to influence the sale. Remember that. Even if you are writing a purely informative brochure without a lick of hard-sell in it, you want to move the reader that much closer to establishing a commercial relationship with the entity that hired you to write the brochure.

Commerce involves the moving of goods and services at some established price, true–but it also involves people. And when you involve people, you bring psychology into the picture.

When you can exploit psychological principles (or triggers) in your copywriting to influence the sale, it stands to reason that you will create more value for the person who hired you.

Note that I am not advocating tricking the customer, or using those stupid bait-and-switch techniques used by irreputable retailers. I’m talking about good old-fashioned techniques that make people act. Read on.

Generally speaking, here are some of the most powerful triggers:

People need a reason why

Studies show that if you try to cut in a line without giving a reason that you’ll be rejected. If you give the people ahead of you a reason (any reason), you’ll have 50%, 60%, or even 70% higher chance of getting what you want. Just saying “because” immediately raises your success rate.

How to apply to copywriting: use the combination of “why should you do/buy/consider this?” and “because this/that/or the other.”

Toothbrush manufacturers use this technique implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) when they tell you “[you really ought to buy our toothbrush because] 9 out of 10 dentists recommend brand x toothbrush.”

People need to complete what they start

Researchers have noted in study after study that when people start a task and are unable to complete it, a sort of tension builds that results in increased memory of the uncompleted task.

The technical name for this is the Zeigernik effect, and it’s a very powerful tool in your copywriting.

Two ways to use it:

1. Keep distractions to a minimum, and this includes links, animated banners, and other visual goo-ga’s. The reader naturally wants to complete the task–so let them!
2. Build tension strategically by giving them incomplete information and making them take the next step to get the rest of the information. For example, provide an unusual or incomplete subject line in an email to make them open the email. Or provide one good piece of information and then make them click to the next web page for the rest of it.

People make all kinds of presuppositions from things they hear or read

The next time you’re relaxing at home with your spouse, ask him or her the following question:

“Did someone pull up to the house?”

What happens? In most cases, your spouse will go see if someone has pulled up to the drive. The point is, you didn’t ask him/her to do this! You just asked a question–they filled in the blanks and went to look.

We do this when we read as well. Take a look at the following headlines:

1. What will you do with an extra 500 dollars a month?

2. Need an extra 500 dollars a month?

The first headline is a lot more powerful than the second because your brain is transfixed on the “what will you do with” part–so much so that the second part becomes accepted fact. You start thinking about making an extra car payment each month, or taking your spouse out to dinner and a movie more often, whatever. You’re not thinking about all the logical reasons you wouldn’t be able to make an extra $500 a month.

The second headline falls flat because most people would say, “yes, of course I need an extra $500 a month–who wouldn’t?” And leave it at that.

How to use in your copywriting:

1. Craft the action you want the reader to take and put it into a casual statement: “I wonder how quickly you will pick up the phone when you hear the details of this offer.”
2. Set the important parts of the statement typographically, such that it catches the eye and enters the reader’s brain: “I wonder how quickly you will pick up the phone when you hear the details of this offer.”
3. Use a strong verb or verb phrase.
4. Use the imperative voice if at all possible (”pick up the phone”, “stop right there” and so on), or use you (”you should come down to the store”).

People want to be consistent

Try this the next time you discuss something with a friend or spouse: get them to agree to any position–anything at all. Then try to get them to budge from that position once they take it.

Most people, once they take a stand on something, no matter what, don’t really want to stray too far from their original position. People want to be consistent.

How to use in your copywriting: get them to agree to something small as soon as possible. Do this by crafting a question they couldn’t possibly say no to:

“Do you care about your health?”

“Would you feel better knowing that your family and loved ones are safe while you’re traveling?”

(Please note that anyone who answers no to these kinds of questions has removed him/herself from the qualifying process, which is really good news…it means that you don’t have to waste time chasing a bad prospect.)

Once they’ve said yes once, you will need to get them to say yes to other things–in fact, you should build up the yeses such that each successive “yes” response comes as a bigger and bigger leap for them. As a silly example, you might ask them to agree that the sky is blue, then build up to saying yes to things like “I need a better body” or “I would do anything to make more money.”

As a finale, present them the offer and then remind them that they said yes. People want to be consistent, so they’ll be more likely to act. (This is also known as the trial close by professional sales types.)

Summary

Psychology is a very fascinating area of study–understanding what governs our minds makes us better salespeople, and therefore better copywriters. When you start using these techniques, let me know how it goes.

Did you catch what I just did?

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