NextDay-Copy — Copywriting — Words, Triggers, Resources & Software

We’re talking about Robert Cialdini’s remarkable work, “Influence: Science And Practice”. In this book, Cialdini discusses the 6 principles he found that are found commonly among “compliance professionals.”

If you’re a marketer — that includes you.

As a marketer, if you aren’t tapping into reciprocity, you’re missing a bet.

Reciprocity greases the wheels of societies.  Researchers have found the power of reciprocity operating in every culture where they’ve looked.

Why?

Well, researchers figure that it’s what makes societies “go”.  While I don’t recall Cialdini saying so, you could say that it’s the precursor to monetary systems.  It provides a cohesiveness within groups and gives them advantages.

Some experimenters discovered that if they sent Christmas cards to random  people, they invariably got a Christmas card in return.

When people were given a small favor they responded more positively — by about two times — to requests made to them.  Most importantly, this is done whether or not the responder likes the person doing them a favor.

The Hare Krishnas are a great example of this.  Formerly a fixture of American airports, the Hare Krishnas famously gave people flowers and got donations in response.  Cialdini goes into detail about how they use reciprocity to get those donations.

And no, I’m not going to describe it here.  You need to get the bookand read it — he explains it much better than I can (and still stay within the copyright laws.)

Yesterday I mentioned picking up a book by Hotchkiss that was under a copy of Cialdini’s “Influence”

Cialdini, a Professor emeritus at Arizona University, recently came out with the 5th edition of his book named “Influence: Science and Practice”, which is designed as a textbook.

He also has a differently-named: “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”

This is an incredible book, and while I know a few marketers I respect that don’t have it and haven’t read it — they would be far better marketers if they did.

However, they’ve probably become familiar with these principles — what I call the Cialdini principles — through other marketers.

What Cialdini talks about forms the backbone of Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula.  And from what I hear, also of much of Frank Kern’s stuff.

Cialdini studied people he calls “compliance professionals”.  That is, people whose jobs are involved with getting people to do things — notably such people as car salesfolk, hare krishnas, and even waiters & waitresses.

And he came up with 6 principles that appeared consistently.

Ones that operate at a nearly instinctual level.

Meaing…they’re darn nigh irresistable.

So…we’ll talk about them tomorrow.

Meanwhile — I recommend you pick up a copy!

This isn’t a review of this book.

In fact, I am just beginning my journey with it.

While looking at one of the many stacks of books in my house, a copy of Cialdini’s Influence caught my eye.  And above it, two much older books.

One of them was George Burton Hotchkiss’ book “Advertising Copy.”

I don’t recall how I came by it.  I do haunt used book stores, both online and off.

(Including the “mother of all library book sales” — the one run, monthly, by the Palo Alto library.  I dare a booklover to go there and walk away empty-handed.  A bag of books — they sell them by the bag at the later points in the weekend — is far more likely.)

This tome has much to recommend it.

Not that it needs my say-so.  A biography I found reports that “Advertising Copy” was listed in the top 18 books on advertising in 1933 by a reputable trade journal of that time, “Printer’s Ink”.  If you’d like to read more about Hotchkiss, you can find the biography here.

One of the refreshing aspects — sometimes missing from the background of many would-be copywriters — is the background and respect for literature.  In fact, Hotchkiss claims that advertising copy is actually a subset of English Composition.

While many copywriting courses pooh-pooh English literature, and that you don’t need to be an English major — and that it, in fact, could hurt you — it’s a bit of mis-direction, I think.

i’ve heard no less than John Carlton sing the praises of E.B. White’s “Elements of Style.”

And if Gary Bencivenga doesn’t have a few ounces of literary blood running through his veins, I would, indeed, be surprised.

Because at least a sub-goal of both literature and copy is to involve the reader.  And to leave the reader with something memorable.  And the means to do that — by rhetorical devices — is therefore common to them both.

Some people talk about conversion rates of salespages.

Someone over on Bruce Wedding’s new copywriting forum, however, pointed out that what’s really important is the ROI — the “return on investment.”

If your salesletter converts at 10% but has a refund rate of 90% — just to put things into sharp contrast — how much was the salesletter worth?

To be sure, if you had such a high refund rate something would be very amiss!  Something clearly wasn’t meeting the expectations of the buyers!  And the buyers didn’t find value in what they got.

Did you catch that?

Yes — you just learned the ways in which you can reduce your refund rate:

1. Meet buyer expectations

Whoa! Wait a second!  What are the buyer’s expectations.

Well, they come from two primary places — first, the mileau in which the buyer lives and secondly, the expectations you build in the buyer through your copy.

That mileau — that’s where market research comes in.  It is mileau of the buyer — what they are reading, what they see on tv, what their preacher talks about, what’s on the news — that builds his or her expectations.  Oh, and, of course, their upbringing.

Artfully done, you can contradict the buyer’s expectations from his mileau.  But it must be done very carefully.

Primarily, though, the buyer has certain expectations based upon your copy.  If the person buys and finds that things are not as they expected — you get refund requests claiming that the salesletter was misleading.  And if there is too much of a gap — you may find the FTC knocking on your door.

For instance, if, through the use of testimonials, the buyer thinks he should be able to put up websites in 7 minutes — those testimonials better not be from experienced webmasters with 10 years’ experience!  The FTC frowns upon this and considers it mis-representation.  Your testimonials should either be of “average” users — or there better be some well-placed disclaimers.  (And no, that grayed out text at the bottom of your website really may not keep your butt out of the sling.)

When you have a great product, you owe your prospects your best effort in convincing them, realistically, of the results they can get.  Pull out all the stops — even a bit of exaggeration is tolerated!  After all, when we are excited — we tend to color up our language and make things much more dramatic.

But most importantly, if the buyer gets what they expect (or more), then your sales should stick and your refund rates should be low.

Well, you’ve stopped the reader in their surfing tracks — you’ve gotten their Attention

Using a compelling story (generally), you’ve drawn the reader into your copy — that is, you’ve engaged their Interest.

And now, Desire.

Each of these steps simply deepens the reader’s experience with you on multiple levels.  It deepens their attention (focus), deepens their interest, deepen their engagement and the relationship they have with you.

If you haven’t heard this before — copy is seduction — pure and simple.  Learn more about the art of seduction and you can learn a great deal about writing copy.

You could think of copy as stimulating the the prospect’s buying erogenous zones.  Except we copywriters generally call these “triggers.”

I should have stated earlier that copywriting formulas are “skeletons”, and you build up your copy by adding the copywriting equivalent of muscle and nerve and sinew.

So what are these copywriting muscles, nerves and sinews?

Well…features and benefits.  “Greased slide” copy.  Testimonials.

Desire is where you really kick things up a notch and get them imagining what it will be like for them to experience the benefits of your product or service.

And once you have built up this up, quickened the pulse of your reader with excitement, you take your copy to the next step:  Action — which we’ll talk about tomorrow.

So once you have the prospect’s attention, what do you need to do?

You need to engage them, in order to grab their interest.

How do you do this?

One is by telling a story … and there are a few things about stories that are important.

It has to be relevant to what you are saying.

And you have to use it to build a relationship.  To engage the reader and involve them in your story.

Another way to engage the reader is to amplify the problem that your product solves.

Let them know what that problem is costing them.  And what a solution to that problem will give them.

The bigger the contrast you can create between the problem and the solution, the more likely you will make a sale!

At each of the AIDA steps, you are deepening the involvement of the reader.

First, you have their attention.  Then you stir up their interest.  We;ll next take it one step further, where we create desire.