Today, I want to talk to you a little bit about copywriting – an often
overlooked and undervalued part of your internet marketing arsenal.
Primarily, I want to give you a quick and easy set of guidelines that
should help you construct your messages so they CONNECT with
the reader on a deeper level, and MOTIVATE them to take the
action you want.
The reason I think this is a GREAT time for you to learn a little
about this is because our industry is going launch-crazy right now.
Everyone who’s anyone is trying to push one product or another
and that’s a great opportunity for anyone who wants to learn
marketing.
Why?
Because you have a TON of messaging coming from the best
and the brightest marketers out there. This is a GREAT chance
to get a crash course in what works and what doesn’t – and WHY.
What I want you to get out of this article is a new way to look at
all that messaging and analyze it and learn from those
uber-successful marketers.
I want to give you a simple way to break any promotional
message down so you can see WHY and HOW it works, so you
can better apply the same powerful tactics in your own messages.
So if that’s something you’re interested in, read on. 
NOTE: Even if you think you’re a swell copywriter already,
you should still give this a look – consider it a refresher
course – so you can make sure you already know this
stuff inside and out.
Emotion: the “Old” Brain
Starting at the beginning, any time we message a prospect, our
goal is to get them to DO SOMETHING for us. Whether it’s
clicking a link, or watching a video, or filling out a form – it doesn’t
matter. We want an ACTION. However, in order for us to get
them to take that desired action, we need to CONVINCE them
that they WANT to.
In order to MAXIMIZE your message’s ability to get people to
WANT to do something for you, then to actually DO it – you
need to address two aspects of the reader’s brain.
You need to appeal to EMOTION in order to create a desire for
some kind of change – and you need to appeal to LOGIC to help
them justify that desire and take action.
It’s VITALLY important that you structure your messages in that
order, too. Appeal to emotion first, THEN appeal to logic.
Here’s why:
Our emotions come from a deeper, older part of our brain in
terms of evolution. When you use storytelling to relate to people,
when you talk to them about their struggles and pains, when you
sympathize with them – those are all appeals to the Emotional part
of the brain. It’s a pretty simple system that controls those
emotions – you could even say it’s primitive.
But it’s SO POWERFUL. People can practically be ENSLAVED
by their own emotions. They often get the better of us, and they’re
incredibly reactionary and almost impossible for most people to
control. People frequently throw logic and reason right out the
window if they are emotionally charged enough.
And THAT’S why you want to appeal to emotion EARLY in your
messaging. Emotion is a shortcut “inside” your prospect – if you
get them to relate to you, if you show them that you know how they
FEEL deep down, it triggers a powerful CONNECTION. You have
their attention, and you have a rapport with them.
Love, envy, frustration – are all examples of powerful emotional
responses. Appeal to those feelings – connect with those inner
states in your prospect, and it will be very easy to create in them
a DESIRE.
Most of the time, it doesn’t even have to be a REASONABLE desire.
As long as you can effectively connect with the RIGHT emotions
in your target audience – if you can NAIL the way they REALLY feel
and speak to that, you can make them WANT almost ANYTHING.
It’s like a magical spell.
But here’s the hard part.
Once you have the prospect under your emotional spell, you
need to break it. It simply can’t be helped. You see, if you keep
them in that wanting stage, where they’re emotionally engaged,
they won’t ever do anything. You want them to take an ACTION
now that you’re tugging on their emotional strings.
Any time you do that, you’re going to snap them out of their
excited emotional state and you’re going to wake up another
part of their mind.
This part of the brain is the VILLAIN of our story here, and you’re
going to have to learn to deal with him if you ever want to have
successful messaging.
The Lazy Skeptic
That’s what I like to call this part of the brain – it acts like a
“gatekeeper” to protect us from acting purely on emotion all the time
(which is generally pretty bad for you). We all have this mechanism,
and it does serve a useful purpose by keeping us out of trouble.
However, as marketers, he’s a BIG problem for us.
The reason why is because he will use his powers of
LAZINESS and SKEPTICISM in order to keep that emotional
part of the brain from acting on the desire we created earlier.
“Why should I bother?”
“This can’t possibly be true.”
That’s the voice of the Lazy Skeptic – and I KNOW you’ve
heard him whispering in your ear many times. I sure have.
But even though he’s an obstacle, it’s okay, because I’m going
to tell you the perfect weapon to defeat him.
See, the Lazy Skeptic evolved much later than the emotional
part of the brain. He functions logically and using reason, and
that’s the way he can sort of talk you out of impulsive decisions.
People say they “came to their senses” or “thought better of it”
when they listen to that Lazy Skeptic voice.
And that’s the key to defeating him.
You need LOGIC to silence him, and you can use his own traits
of laziness and skepticism against him.
Here’s what I mean.
When you break the emotional spell you’ve cast on your prospects
by asking them to take an action, use LOGIC and FACTS and
FIGURES to justify that action.
Help them to validate that snap emotional decision by backing
it up with common sense. Make them understand that what
they want to do is perfectly reasonable, and that EVERYONE
in their situation would take that same action.
When copywriting teachers tell you to write tons of bullets of
features and benefits when you’re selling a product – that’s what
those bullets are really for: ammunition to help gun down the
Lazy Skeptic.
You want to also turn his own powers against him. Appeal to
the inherent laziness in everyone by talking about how easy
it is for the prospect to take the desired action. Appeal to their
sense of skepticism by agreeing that it SOUNDS too good to
be true, but it isn’t.
Guarantees and Testimonials are both tools in the same arsenal
here, helping you overcome the prospect’s inner doubts.
Deep down, they WANT to act on the desire you planted, you just
need to help them realize it’s SAFE to do it. That it’s OKAY to do
it. It even helps if you can prove OTHER PEOPLE have done it
with success.
Logic for Dummies
Now, some of you may be worried about having to use logic, and
I know that can sound all academic and intimidating, but it’s
really not.
You’re not trying to win a debate – you’re just trying to help your
prospect see that the desire you created in them makes sense.
A lot of times, if you were very effective with your emotional
appeal, you barely have to try.
Sometimes all it takes is “because”. “Do this because it’s cool.”
“You know you want to.”
However, be aware that the more complex and risky your
requested action is, the MORE justification you’re going to
need to help your prospect act on their desire.
- High Prices
- High Risk
- High Investment
Those are all factors that the Lazy Skeptic is going to have a
problem with, but face them head-on, give reasons WHY those
steps need to be taken, and you’ll do fine.
- “Our prices are high because of our incredible quality.”
- “We have a no-risk guarantee.”
- “It takes only minutes a day.”
See, generally speaking, even though the Lazy Skeptic is more
complex and “smarter” than the old emotional brain – he’s still
kind of a dummy. It really doesn’t have to be a world-class PHD
Thesis to convince him to stand aside – it just has to pass for
common sense.
As an added bonus, I’ll give you a “secret shortcut” when
coming up with logical appeals.
Use as many comparisons and analogies as you can when
justifying your prospects desires and validating the action
you want them to take.
The reason is, they act like short-hand that the not-so-smart Lazy
Skeptic can quickly absorb and understand.
For example, if you’re selling something and you have the lowest
price, don’t say:
“We have the lowest price.”
Say, “Our price is 10% lower than the nearest competitor.”
Don’t say “Our course is easy to read and learn with.”
Say “Our course is so easy to learn, it’s like downloading the
information directly into your brain.”
These kinds of comparisons and analogies aren’t just cute talk,
and copywriters don’t just include them to be clever.
They work by providing SUPERIOR justification.
Your prospect will be saying in his inner voice – “I really want this
product because it will make me feel good. And it’s okay to get
it, because it’s the cheapest one out there, and lots of other
people are buying it too!”
The job of your messaging is to help your prospect complete
that inner conversation between the different parts of his brain,
so that from his point of view, he’s just acting on his own
deep desires.
In actuality, through careful appeals to Emotion (Old Brain)
and Logic (New Brain) – you’ve gotten him to act the way
YOU wanted him to.
Now, once your prospect TAKES that action, you need to
make sure you DELIVER on the expectations you’ve set up.
You NEVER want to let a prospect’s Lazy Skeptic get to say
“I told you so.”
But that’s a WHOLE other article for another day.
I hope this somewhat weird and metaphysical ramble helps
give you some insight into the inner workings of good
copywriting, and I hope it helps you get more people to do what
you need them to do. And I hope that means MORE
BUSINESS for you!
Until next time,
Keep Stomping.
~Andy Jenkins
P.S. Please note that I’m NOT a psychologist or brain expert or
anything – the stuff above is DRASTICALLY simplified for the sake
of making this easy to grasp and use. Even if you KNOW
something I said above is over-simplified or just plain inaccurate
from a scientific standpoint – just know that it’s based on REAL
experience writing and testing THOUSANDS of pieces of copy.
As far as a rule-of-thumb goes, I use it, and it works for me
every time.
P.P.S. Did you like this article? Do you want to see more? Do
you want to know about something different? Let us know by
leaving a comment.
