Once upon a time… a few years ago… I met a brilliant writer with the initials CW, who taught me about something she called “The Curse of Knowledge.”
If you’re not sure what the the Curse of Knowledge is, then it will be my extreme pleasure to share it with you, as it was once shared with me.
My friend CW explained it to me thus…
When I was growing up, back in the 1980’s, I had a friend named Mark (For privacy reasons I won’t use his last name here). Mark was an interesting guy, and a lot of fun to hang out with. And he was also one of the smoothest con artists I had ever known.
All these years later I can still remember the day we went to a local shopping mall, just to hang out (shopping malls were still a big thing back then).
We walked into that mall with less than $20 between the two of us. And a couple hours later we walked out with full bellies from one of the restaurants, and Mark had shopping bags with over $200 worth of brand new clothes. (not stolen… these clothes were “given” to him by the shop clerks)
Like I said, he was an interesting guy.
Over the years, we lost touch and I don’t know what happened to my friend. I figure he’s either a multi-millionaire by now… or in prison. (It could’ve gone either way) But watching him in action always fascinated me so much, that it eventually helped lead me down a road of studying social psychology, social engineering and persuasion. (I never wanted to be a con artist, but I did become obsessed with understanding how that shit worked)
Which brings us to today.
Today I’m going to share a few tricks of the con-artist trade that also resemble “honest” tricks of the copywriting trade.
So if you’re ready, let’s dive right in…
WARNING! The following list of techniques should ONLY be used for good (not evil). If you’re clever enough to merge them into your copy, you will see higher conversion rates. But if you choose to use them to deceive people it will probably come back to bite you in the ass. And any legal troubles you get into are your own fault. So don’t blame me… and consider yourself warned.
OK, this next technique worked so well that it practically blew my mind when the numbers came in.
For those who are interested in conversion rate optimizing, I’m sure you’ll be able to appreciate the beauty of testing such a simple idea.
It may not work for everybody, because it’s somewhat product dependent. But if you can implement it (or anything like it) with your business, then I highly recommend you at least give it a try…
So I’ve been working with this guy for the past few months, trying to maximize profits from his website.
My new friend sells info products (books, audio programs, courses, personal coaching and the like) and we’ve been working on increasing the average sale per customer.
Of course we mixed and matched some various up-sell and cross-sell mechanisms, with a modicum of results.
But then one night I woke up around 2AM with an idea blazing through my mind (This kind of thing still happens to me more often then I’d like. Don’t get me wrong… I appreciate my subconscious helping out, but I’m getting older and I really need my beauty sleep)
Anyway, the next morning I presented the idea to my client. And now I’m sharing it here for your consideration, education, amusement, or just so you can slam me for sharing an idea that you already knew about (it’s your call what you decide to make of it).
Well, there’s a question I’ve only been asked 1000 times. So if you’re wondering “what’s the difference between content writers and copywriters”, let me just lay down a quick answer for you, OK…?
I’m going to keep this post super short, because once you read the short and sweet answer there won’t be much else for me to say about it. So if you’re ready, here we go…
In this episode of Powerful Written Persuasion Techniques we’re going to touch on the concept of using micro-commitments. Why they work, and how we can use them to make our sales copy more impactful.
Let’s start with why they work…
When people make a commitment to an idea, or a belief, it becomes very difficult to change their minds without creating internal conflict or anxiety.
The name for this feeling of discomfort is called “Cognitive Dissonance”, and it can be an extremely powerful force in our lives.
Part of the reason it’s so powerful is because most of us like to think of ourselves as intelligent, rational beings. And few people want to admit when they’re wrong (even to themselves) about a committed belief.
In fact, when given the choice between defending a faulty belief, or admitting ignorance and changing our paradigm… Most people immediately get busy putting up their defense.
So how can we use this natural human condition to our advantage, when writing persuasive copy?
Continue reading