Persuasive Copywriting: Using Psychology to Engage, Influence and Sell

by Andy Maslen

copywriting is any writing designed to get a result; some conceptual – copywriting is behaviour modification. But none, I think, comes close to encompassing the sheer variety of

channels, approaches and purposes involved in contemporary copywriting.

How should we define an activity that includes the algorithmically driven process of attracting software robots (‘bots’) to ensure a hi...

Copywriting is the commercial activity of creating, maintaining and deepening profitable relationships using the written word.

It altered nothing. People are the same. The human

brain is the same. The products we are promoting are the same.

It altered a few things that affect the presentation and consumption of copy, but left the underlying psychological principles of influence untouched. This is th...

many copywriters from time to time write copy designed to be read by a company’s employees rather than its customers.

At its heart, copywriting is about understanding how other people feel and showing them alternatives

to the lives they lead. Better, richer, more fulfilling lives; lives free from anxiety, doubt and insecurity; lives with problems minimized or solved altogether.

Your arguments were impregnable, your logic impeccable, your suggestion… resistible. Something was missing. And that something was emotion.

‘This brand of talcum powder is 30 per cent finer’

‘You’ll be a good Mom when you powder junior’s butt with our talcum powder’

Somatic Markers are bodily states such as anxiety, marked by increased heart rate, sweating and fearful feelings, and associated with stress hormones like cortisol; or joy, caused by the release of hormones such as serotonin.

Emotion drives action. Information drives analysis. We want our reader to act.

We are delighted to announce that you have been specially selected to receive a fantastic discount off our amazing new range of office furniture.

This style of writing clogs up our inboxes every day of the year.

I saw Led Zeppelin live at the Knebworth Festival in

1979. It was fantastic.

My first date with the woman who became my wi...

I have had dinner with her under the stars at Uluru. Th...

I was present at the births of both my children. Those experiences were amazing. I do not find I experience those emotions when selecting accounting sof...

If we describe mundane objects as breathtaking,

what word do we use when writing about Niagara

F...

If everyday sales promotions are fantastic, how do we describe a new piece of music or pa...

Let’s agree to use adjectives for their intended purpose, which is to add information, not emphasis.

We will talk of a limited-time offer. A one-off opportunity. A members-only discount. These phrases suggest scarcity or exclusivity, and will start our reader’s emotional brain firing.

You are not the only game in town. So even if your website ranks first on Google, once your reader clicks through, you are in exactly the same position as a website that ranks 17th.

If the writing is boring, or just plain bad, there are hundreds of other sites they can click away to instead of yours.

Once our reader becomes aware, however briefly, that they are reading junk mail, advertising, spam, marketing-speak, or just plain business writing, they lose interest both in the writing and the pitch we are making.

The prerequisite for making a sales pitch and the A in AIDA. Their problem has often been that laughter, tears, or ‘OMG you have to see this’ became the goal.

‘I loved that car, until this happened.’

She looks beautiful, doesn’t she? Keyed, crashed and left to rot in a barn. Then one man did something amazing.

31 people who wished they’d stayed in bed. Number 19 will make you blush to your boots. The hottest boyband stars hit the Oscars after party. Who is that with the First Lady? Literally THE cutest animal pictures on the Internet. I cried at the baby lemur in the teacup.

One of these people weighed 17 stone just a year ago.

You need to find an emotional connection with the customer, not with the product.

As a local utilities manager, you really don’t want to make the front page of your local newspaper because you’ve flooded a playground with liquid sewage.

My sales copy focused on how much easier the customer’s life would be with the device.

Let us do the hard work for you.

Having a product that will make our reader’s life easier is one thing. Making them sufficiently interested to read about and, we hope, buy it, quite another.

Recommending Wikipedia is a double-edged sword, but for an excellent article on curiosity visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity

Write down the reasons why your prospect might not do what you want them to. Then add emotion-driven reasons why they might change their mind. Use this template if it helps.

interesting, describing life with the product, rather than

the product itself.

Do you know why people buy from you? It’s not because of what you provide. It’s because of what you promise.

‘After you’ve bought from me…’.

We all love being entrusted with a secret (some of us even keep them). And having been entrusted with it we feel more powerful than we did before. Power is one of those things most people crave, even if they don’t, won’t or can’t admit it.

If you have a product or service that has a definite advantage over the competition, you have a ready-made angle. It’s called DLS and it stands for ‘dirty little secrets’ and it goes like this:

‘You can show the reader how you make their life easier through examples, rather than listing benefits.’