From Headlines to Psychological Triggers as Taught By Joe Sugarman
Copywriting is the largest component of selling you’ll ever do online. The content and copy on the pages on which your prospects land on is ultimately the deciding factor if your product or service is going to sell.
Joe Sugarman is the author of the book “The Adweek Copywriting Handbook“. You can read his biography to see what a copywriting maverick is all about. He has been a tremendous influence in my copywriting learnings and experiences.
Below is a list of f key copywriting components that Joe covers in his book, and key components that you should be applying to your sales letters, websites, and any other online medium on which you intend to sell your products and services.
I encourage you to read his book if you’re delving into the copywriting world.
Here are a few of his teachings on prominent copywriting must-haves:
Headlines
Headlines are the largest components of good copy. They leave the strongest impression on prospects because often readers go through content not necessarily reading everything but instead skimming through. Without a catchy headline or post title (for blogging), chances are you’ll lose a lot of prospects who aren’t interested in delving deeper after a headline hasn’t grabbed their attention. In fact, you’re headline should already incorporate elements that cause your reader to be stirred to action and be inclined to purchase. A good rule-of-thumb is that headlines are considered to hold 70% of importance in grabbing the attention of readers, which makes good sense because if readers aren’t enticed to read your articles– they probably won’t.
Benefits
What’s in it for the consumer? How is your product or service going to generate revenue or cut costs for them?
Consumers are ultimately concerned with how a product or service is going to benefit them. If there is no benefit, there is no reason to buy.
If you’re selling SEO services, focus on benefits like increases in profit, increases in traffic, higher conversion rates, and the ease of having a website mostly maintain itself why consumers are buying your products and services without much direct one-on-one salesmanship.
This is why content is valued so highly. If a consumer can get all the information they are looking for simply by being engaged in your rich content, you can be sure they will be enticed to purchase if you lay out the benefits.
Proof and Results
Testimonials are a powerful tool to convince prospects that your products and services actually work. Use things like quantitative representation and case studies. If you’re selling a weight lose product, show pictures of past clients who have used your solution, demonstrate how their lives have chanced and how using your product has cut considerable time spent on other weight lose regiments.
Demonstrate that your product is a solution and demonstrate proof of how it’s been a solution for others. After all, “the proof is in the pudding!”
Guarantee
People are often sceptical to try something new. Guarantees are created for assurance. Let your prospects know that you are so confident in your product or service that you are willing to put your business at risk because you believe in its value that much.
Offer your products and services with a guarantee. For instance, you can use things like: if your client base does not increase by 100% in 3 months of SEO work, you will get 100% of your money back.
Call-to-action
The key to doing business online is that there is an element of immediacy. You’re objective should be to sell your products and service fast since prospects are actually coming to you. You don’t have to spend efforts chasing after them.
There are three tactics you can use for a call-to-action
1. Scarcity. Scarcity creates immediacy because it pushes people to make a purchasing decisions fast if they know that time is running out, or that the product is running out. Time constraint puts stress and inclines people to make a decision faster.
2. Bonus. Think of why people love to eat at buffets; it’s because they know they can get an unlimited amount of food for a fixed price. If you offer your prospects something extra for the same amount they would otherwise buy it regular price, it entices them to make a faster purchasing decision.
3. Offer. Make them an offer they can’t refuse. This is closely tied to the bonus; but you could use the word “Free” instead. Make your prospects feel that they are gaining something more by purchasing at that exact moment instead of putting ithe decision off until another time.
Rule of Thumb – If you’re a salesman, and you’re in the door of your potential customer, the most important thing is to leave the house with a signed contract or agreement. The last thing you want to do is leave without one because once you’ve stepped out, chances are you won’t be invited back in and your competitor is going to get the sale by offering a better price.
Psychological triggers
There is a whole literature out there that discusses specifically the topic of psychological triggers that cause people to take action and specifically to buy. In fact, Joe Sugarman covers it extensively in his book. While Sugarman discusses various triggers in detail, the two that I like to list here are greed and fear. The reason for this is that they are the most penetrating and immediate emotions that cause people to take action.
Greed stems for people’s desire for power. Especially in our western world where we value personal advancement. So greed works when you can spin your product and service in a way that ties in with someone getting something out of your product that will make them better and stronger.
Fear is a universally felt emotion and with it you can trigger your prospects to take action if they feel that they lack something; and if they do, you can use this to your advantage by showing how your product or service could secure them from that fear.
These are basic components you should always have in the back of your mind when creating copy. Copywriting is a game of psychology, so understanding things that have influence is an important part of being a successful copywriter.
Happy copywriting!
Cheers,
Anna @ Toronto
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