23 Psychological Triggers That You Should Build Into Your Copy
I just read "The Adweek Copywriting Handbook" by Joe Sugarman. I was so impressed by the material that I decided to share some of the highlights from Section 2 of his book.
The following is a list of 23 psychological triggers that Sugarman outlines in his book. You can greatly improve your copy by adding just a few of the items to your typical material. Some are more useful than others... but decide for yourself:
The 23 Psychological Triggers
So there it is. If you want to learn more about these topics (and there is a lot more to learn), then I recommend picking up "The Adweek Copywriter's Handbook" by Joe Sugarman. Admittedly, I didn't include some of the points that he made because I thought that they were either semi-unethical or weak compared to the ones listed above.
Hopefully you can apply even one of the list items to your copy.
The following is a list of 23 psychological triggers that Sugarman outlines in his book. You can greatly improve your copy by adding just a few of the items to your typical material. Some are more useful than others... but decide for yourself:
The 23 Psychological Triggers
- Feelings of Involvement / Ownership. Make the customer imagine that they are holding your product. Use "involvement devices".
- Honesty. Point out product/service flaws but show why they flaws don't matter. Be unusually honest in your copy. Build credibility and trust.
- Credibility. Validate low prices and unusual guarantees. Raise objections that your customer may have and then settle them immediately. Anticipate disbelief and prove yourself.
- Proof of Value. Provide value to the customer by educating them on the intrinsic value of what you are selling. Compare your prices to similar products and prove how you are doing a better job than those similar products.
- Justify the Purchase. Focus on the prospects wants and needs. After you have sold them on an emotional level (#1), you must sell them on a logical level.
- Greed. People crave a bargain. Give them one.
- Establish Authority. Get expertise, or hire an expert to back you up. People trust an authority.
- Satisfaction Conviction. Raise an objection that a prospect might have and then counter it with a guarantee that goes above and beyond the usual. The best guarantees make the reader say, "How can they do it? They're just going to get ripped off!".
Surprisingly, Sugarman states that the longer the return window for a given item, the lower the return rate is! (Ex. 30 day money back guarantee = 10% refund rate, while a 90 day money back guarantee = 2.5% return rate!)
- Nature of Product. You MUST be an expert in your product or service. You have to understand the essence of what you are selling. Learn everything you can.
- Prospect Nature. Likewise, you MUST understand who you are selling to. But of course, *everyone* knows this. But few people actually seem to do it.
- Linking. Relate what the customer already knows to your product. Provide for them a comfortable environment that reminds them of something positive.
- Consistency. Make the very first action taken by the prospect a very simple action. Everybody wants to appear consistent with what they have already done. If they have already done a tiny thing for you, they might be more likely to keep doing things for you.
- Harmonize. Recognize what the market wants and then provide whatever that happens to be. Pattern yourself with what works. Use the popular lingo.
- Desire to Belong. Highlight who already owns the product or uses the service. If the group is desirable, prospects will want to be apart of the group who "belongs".
- Desire to Collect. People seem to have an emotional need to collect a series of similar products.
Curiosity. This is MAJOR. It is one of the strongest motivational factors in selling information products. You must tease the reader. Don't give away the whole story. Build this into your headlines, your copy... everything! This is especially useful in the bullet point lists that you sometimes see where the author is listing problems that you can solve... "Find out how one simple household ingredient can be used to fuel your station wagon for days!" (Okay, a bit of an exaggeration there).
- Scarcity. Use things like low supplies and future price increases to build a sense of urgency into your copy. Use this near the end of copy. Be genuine with scarcity and don't make up artificial scarcity... people sense that sort of deception.
- Instant Gratification. Prospect will buy when they are promised instant gratification. Get the product or service to your customer as fast as possible to maximize this effect.... and let them know how fast you are going to give them what they want after they purchase.
- Simplicity. Offer a single thing instead of multiple things. Focus on one primary thing. Keep everything simple and easy to digest. Don't leave the reader in the dust with fancy vocabulary or high-brow cultural references.
- Human Relationships. Be personal and warm in your copy, if it suits your brand. Use "personal pronouns" like "I" and "You". Avoid sounding like a corporate presence. People buy from people.
- Story Telling. Weave a story into your copy. This works well with curiosity... Ex. "how will this story about an ice cream truck relate to the microwave that they are selling?"
- Avoid Being Obvious. Remember Simplicity... but don't treat your prospect like an idiot. Provide suspense. Make the prospect think. People appreciate what they work hard to get.
- Specific Facts Provide accurate, specific facts and figures. Avoid general statements such as "Our company made a lot of money on duck statues". Instead, say "Our company sold exactly 1,422 duck statues and we made $5,503 in profit." People treat exact numbers with greater importance because it appears more credible.
Curiosity.So there it is. If you want to learn more about these topics (and there is a lot more to learn), then I recommend picking up "The Adweek Copywriter's Handbook" by Joe Sugarman. Admittedly, I didn't include some of the points that he made because I thought that they were either semi-unethical or weak compared to the ones listed above.
Hopefully you can apply even one of the list items to your copy.
Aspiring copywriters: if you need 1:1 advice from an experienced copy chief, head over to my Phone a Friend page.