52 Persuasion Triggers

by Alex Cohen

Posted: 12 years ago 19 replies

COPY WRITING

Persuasion triggers stir up an emotion and/or help create a certain state of mind.

If you're new to copywriting, and you critique sales letters for self-education purposes, you should find this list of persuasion triggers helpful...

1. Agitate Problem
2. Authority
3. Bonus Pile-On
4. Celebrity
5. Common Enemy
6. Comparison (contrast)
7. Consistency
8. Consumption
9. Credibility
10. Curiosity
11. Damaging Admission
12. Dare
13. Demonstration
14. Education
15. Empathy
16. Establish Value
17. Exclusivity
18. Expertise
19. Familiarity (repetition)
20. Future pacing (involvement)
21. Gradualization
22. Guarantee
23. Harmonize (Yes momentum)
24. Herd mentality
25. Honesty/Integrity
26. Instant Gratification
27. Intimination
28. Justify with logic
29. Languaging
30. Likeability
31. Linking
32. Logical fallacy of false dilemma
33. Mental engagement
34. Nostalgia
35. Objection resolution
36. Open Loop (Zeigarnik Effect)
37. Patterning
38. Personality
39. Personalization
40. Presupposition
41. Proof of claims
42. Rapport
43. Reason Why
44. Reciprocity
45. Reframing
46. Regret
47. Satisfaction conviction (risk reversal)
48. Scarcity
49. Simplicity
50. Social proof
51. Specifics
52. Storytelling
53. Takeaway (Halbert style)
54. Technical explanation
55. Trivialize price

Enjoy!

Alex

#persuasion #triggers

incblitz

12 years ago

Hi there... just a quick question... Dan Kennedy and John Carlton mention...
"clicks on the dial"...

Is this it?

From my understanding, "the lazy mans..." is a click... "free report reveals..." is a click.

Or am I confused again? LOL

Thanks
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Alex Cohen 12 years ago

Think of "clicks on the dial" as strategies and tactics used to succeed in business.

Think of "persuasion triggers" as ways to invoke emotion in a sales piece.

Alex
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Bruce Wedding

12 years ago

Originally Posted by incblitz

You're confused.

What Carlton referred to was simply Halberts bag of direct marketing techniques. Read about them here.

http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/...Update9-07.pdf

The only relevance they have to you, IMHO, is to develop your own bag of techniques to market products and to be able to select the right one. I don't think calling them "clicks" was Carlton's best analogy ever.

Now, to your examples, marketing with a free report for lead generation is a 'click" by these definitions.

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John Carlton

12 years ago

"Click" was the perfect analogy, Bruce -- I noticed, while watching Halbert do Hot Seats, that his brain seemed to do some sort of hyper-speed whirling, pausing for just a heartbeat on different suggested tactics, then rushing off to another. When he "hit" on the answer that best fit the situation, his brain just clicked into place and lights and bells went off (ding ding ding)... and he would deliver the often-repeated advice we're all now familiar with. Almost verbatim each time. (This is where his notoriously-consistent stories on certain subjects come from.) I wrote "Halbert's 20 Clicks" report based on what the options possible (after co-hosting a dozen Hot Seat intensive seminars with him) -- it was meant to be an "inside" report just for Gary and me (so we could check off which stories we'd already relayed in any long seminar, and remind us of others we were overlooking)... but it got nabbed and leaked almost immediately. Which was fine -- Gary made no secret of his list of tactics. But that's the genesis of the term. Those of us lucky to work closely with him could almost hear the click when he decided which story to tell. The guy was a walking archive of advertising wisdom. Dearly missed...

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Bruce Wedding

12 years ago

Originally Posted by John Carlton

Hi John,

Don't take offense about me saying it wasn't your best analogy ever

I did read the article and I understood your analogy. It was great the way you describe it here and there. I think where it weakens is when you start using "clicks" as a noun. That's the source of confusion. You're going with a lock/tumbler analogy so I think "combination" would be better as the noun, while still keeping the "click" in the story.

Anyway, we've both got better things to do than debate an analogy LOL

Keep up the good work. I've got some waves calling my name.

Thanks

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BrianMcLeod 12 years ago

Originally Posted by John Carlton

The guy was a walking archive of advertising wisdom.

And here I sit thinking the same of you, pal.

It's a treat to have you pop in here, John.

Hope you'll continue to poke your head in from time to time.

Best,

Brian
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- Jonathan 2.0 Banned 12 years ago
  
  Yeah - Thanks for coming to our little corner of the World John. : )
  
  Would love you to post some more.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  sparklers 12 years ago
  
  I love saving lists like this. Whenever I get a writers block I come back and review. Thanks!
  
  Thanks
  
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alcymart 12 years ago

Nice list Alex, thank you for sharing

Bernard
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Kris79 12 years ago

Very nice list.

But try to put all triggers into one sentence
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- Steve The Copywriter 12 years ago
  
  Lol Kris,
  
  Wonder if anybody will give it a go?
  
  Steve
  
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- MoneyMagnetMagnate 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Kris79
  
  Very nice list.
  
  But try to put all triggers into one sentence
  
  It could be like a Bulwer-Lytton for copywriters contest!
  
  "Create the Absolute Best Worst Headline Ever!"
  
  Thanks
  
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benbro 12 years ago

This is an awesome list. Thanks for the heads up. I've been making it a habit to disect emails and other stuff that comes across for a minute, but this will definitely help me identify which box the copy fits into. Thanks!
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DanEitreim 12 years ago

Great list! I have problems with putting emotion into my sales copy and this should help.

can I ask where you got the list? I'm interested in further research.
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chrisChandra 12 years ago

That's a pretty good list to go through when copywriting. I'm a newbie I'll definitely use this as a check list. Thanks!
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mark healy 12 years ago

Alex do you know any resources so i can go into depth on each of these triggers.?
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- Alex Cohen 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by mark healy
  
  Alex do you know any resources so i can go into depth on each of these triggers.?
  
  Joe Sugarman explains 30 of them in his book, "Triggers".
  
  Various articles and blog posts around the web discuss the others.
  
  Alex
  
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jerymac001 Banned 12 years ago

[DELETED]

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- jeffster 12 years ago
  
  Thanks for the list. These should come in handy as a reference next time I need to write some sales copy.
  
  What is meant by number 28 - Languaging?
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Alex Cohen 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by jeffster
  
  Thanks for the list. These should come in handy as a reference next time I need to write some sales copy.
  
  What is meant by number 28 - Languaging?
  
  Languaging is when you give a feature, a benefit, or a product a catchy and descriptive name.
  
  Makes the feature, benefit, or product sound more important.
  
  Alex
  
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