NLP and other psychological tactics in sales copy

http://www.warriorforum.com/copywrit...r-hogwash.html

I use NLP language patterns in my copy.

For example:

[Bad news], but [good news].

This coaching program is not easy, but it will help you get the results you desire.

Notice how the phrase "is not easy" feels better than "is hard." And how you were reassured when the good news followed the bad news.

Notice the action verb "notice" made that last sentence seem true.

This stuff works!

100% of successful copywriters.

Thinking like the prospect and stoking his emotions are essential.

Alex

I often use future pacing in writing.

I think NLP works if you use it right.

I have used NLP for a number of different things not related to marketing and have had amazing results(mainly phobias, addictions, anxeity, just to name a few).(and I won't call this "psuedo-psychology" as much as I would call it viable alternative to modern-day psychology.. esp. when someone's been going to a shrink for years and years and still has the same issue they did when they started and a single session of NLP "cures" them of their affliction.) I do still use it for my email swipes and sales pages and have always had great outcomes, but the "persuasive" aspects of NLP are just the tip of the ice-berg. It can be used for SO much more...

Pre-loading, reciprocity, agreement, and appeals to emotion.

Pre-loading: Something like "We'll revisit the alchemy of turning words into gold, but first..."

Reciprocity: The more I give, the more they feel obliged to give back.

Agreement: "We've all been in that awkward in-law conversation. You know you hate each other but need to maintain civility for reasons well outside of your current grasp" - getting the reader to nod in agreement is the best case scenario here. The more they say yes, the better the chances of making a sale.

Appeals to emotion: Self explanatory.

I just love how NLP takes things that have been around forever and slaps a name on it to "make it NLP."

Notwithstanding NLP as a science has been widely discredited by tons of respected scientific bodies (aka it's a load of crap), the stuff that does work has been ripped off from people who figured it out a long time beforehand.

That aside, we're sales people. We use psychology all the time, particularly behavioral psychology.

-Daniel

I like to use voice to text in creating sales copy. It makes it easier for copy to come across as more natural conversational. Notice how much written copy is very different from good audio/video/in person pitches.

Robert Cialdini's 'Influence the Psychology of Persuasion' is required reading for every copywriter. None of it is about writing but instead behavioral economics, the act of reciprocity, scarcity, being part of an exclusive group etc. If a copywriter's not using psychology then they're writing to inform, not to sell.

NLP is fine and all. I use it.

But best to focus daily on just being a flat-out gangsta in the fundamentals of selling.

--- Ross

It's not really all that complicated. I myself have a BA in psychology, and the thing I always notice is that people always over analyze the hell out of everything.

If you look at normal human relationships, people use marketing techniques flawlessly completely subconsciously without even realizing it, because the whole focus of marketing in the whole point of it is to build trust, build a connection with the reader, and build a relationship.

If people don't believe a word you're saying, that no matter what you write on your page it's irrelevant, and most of what 99.9% of marketers misses the fact that they need to be focused less on what they're testing, and more on whether or not they're communicating things like trust, rapport, openness, and building a connection where the person will feel like they can really relate to the marketer, and like the marketer really wants to help them, because 99% of marketing basically just says I'm telling you things that are going to make you want my product so you'll give me money.

People build trust and communicate flawlessly (generally) in relationships in their everyday life; we have no trouble finding friends or partners to connect with, the one we going to marketing we start putting on masks and façades because we have ulterior motive, but we don't want to say that we have an ulterior motive, so we sabotage ourselves because we blindly follow what marketers tell us, and don't fully understand the subtext behind what we're doing.

Most of the stuff found in "Influence" by Cialdini works in copy.

As far as NLP, this was designed as a therapy tool not as a sales method but it works in the right cases.

I've read quite a bit about NLP, but I honestly still isolate exactly what it is.

Someone tell me... in a sentence.

Mark

P.S. An example of pure NLP copywriting would be nice.

NLP is a hybrid form of psychology created somewhere in the 60s. It was designed for creating rapid change in people with fobias and other problems. However, in the last 10 - 20 years, it got very popular in the sales circles because some of the tools used there can be used for persuasion too.

Consider it as a better alternative to psycho-analysis. I have a NLP practitioner degree but it's way overhyped. It teaches you some good self-help concepts (as beliefs are possibility filters) and some tools for selling but it's nothing new under the sun.

A large part of NLP comes from hypnosis, to be more precise, from Erickson. This is why NLP can be considered "hypnotic selling". The only problem is that most patterns play more on the tonality, body-language and the delivery as a whole and less on the words used.

Anthony Robbins swears that NLP is the best thing since sliced bread so does Jordan Belfort. As far as I'm concerned, I consider it a good tool to have but it's not "THE" tool for an extraordinary life.