Marketing And Copywriting

Let's face it. When it comes to crafting compelling sales copy that pulls in profits, you have to be able to do more than strike the emotions. Yes emotions are important, but you've also got to PROVE your claims. How do you do that?

Just as magic tricks use a sleight of hand to create an illusion, you can use a sleight of mind to create a magic trick of belief.

Here are 5 dirty, sneaky, and secret ways to do it;

1. Appeal to authority- you cite an expert in the field. People accept your claims when an expert says something positive about your service or product. You can even use a quote an expert did about a particular KIND of product or service. Just make sure that you portray it accurately.

You can use quotes by famous people to make a point. They often add a sense of subconscious authority to your sales copy.

You can also cite a celebrity. This could be a famous expert in ANOTHER field. A lot of people will still find it easier to believe you, based on someone else's opinion who is a known celebrity.

2. Dilemma - Another way to strengthen your marketing efforts and copywriting is to create a sense of doom. Example; "If you don't invest in a well thoughout marketing plan for your business, you'll either end up losing sales or you'll end up throwing thousands of dollars down the drain."

This suggests that consequences of a decision will ONLY be negative.

3. Comparison - You can use a comparison to prove your point. Example, "Customers are like bees, you just have to open the jar of honey and they will come buzzing to you."

Based on the assumption that bees are attracted to honey, you paint a picture that you've got the honey.

4. Generalizations - People categorize, stereotype and generalize. We ALL do, whether we like to admit that or not. It's our human nature. It's how we make sense of the world and create our belief systems.

Use this to your benefit. For example if you were thinking about the sales copy for an alternative health vitamin, one of the assumptions that market may make is; "Doctors don't know what they are doing, just look at all the commercials for the Fen-Fen lawsuits and Prozac lawsuits."

Or here's a sweeping generalization. Let's say you're writing to a market that believes in get rich quick schemes and wants something for nothing. "I've heard that people will buy almost anything on Ebay. So you can just put up a page and sell whatever trash you want to get rid of."

5. Sympathy - This is a sneaky way to get someone's emotions involved through sympathy. It distracts the person from resisting your sale by pushing their emotional buttons. Politicians use it often with something like this, "Fifty Million school children don't get a nutrious lunch every day. Vote for John Doe, and they will." The mere thought of children not getting enough food is a calculated way to distract from the possible inadequacy of a politician.

Remember, you want to be ethical here, but at the same time, you cannot change people's beliefs. Beliefs are built on emotions and NOT logic. The logical part comes after the emotions and people will twist facts to fit their belief systems. Do Not go against this. People will fight you tooth and nail on this.

Your job is NOT to change that, but to harness that on to your product or service. Creating your proof is more about already held assumptions and beliefs than about finding logical facts. This doesn't mean that you just make up facts. No, you want to use actual TRUE facts about your product or service, but you need to creatively weave them with the thread of your customer's current beliefs. This is where the creativity comes into play.

Working with these guidelines will definittely give you a profitable advantage in crafting your sales letters and marketing materials.