Hypnotic Writing & Selling's Swipe Files

Control the Mind of Your Prospects - And Influence Them to Buy What You're Selling
Mark Joyner, CEO, Aesop.com 

How to Trigger a Successful Sale Through the Power of Psychological Triggers
by Joseph Sugarman

And now Advanced Hypnotic Writing!

A desire to buy something often involves a subconscious decision. In fact, I claim that 95% of buying decisions are indeed subconscious.

Knowing the subconscious reasons why people buy, and using this information in a fair and constructive way, will trigger greater sales response -- often far beyond what you could imagine.

I recall a time when I applied one of these subconscious devices by changing just one word of an ad, and response doubled. I refer to these subconscious devices as psychological "triggers." A psychological trigger is the strongest motivational factor any salesperson or copywriter can use to evoke a sale.

There are 30 triggers in all -- many of them are very subtle, and many of them are the exact opposite of what you would expect. I will reveal a few of them to you in a moment. Each trigger, when deployed, has the power to increase sales and response beyond what you would normally expect.

There are triggers, for example, that will cause your prospect to feel guilty if they don't purchase your product. Let me give you an example. Whenever you receive in the mail a sales solicitation with free personalized address stickers, you often feel guilty if you use the stickers and don't send something back -- often far in excess of the value of the stickers. Fundraising companies use this method a great deal. You receive 50 cents worth of stickers and send back a $20 bill.

Another example are those surveys that are sent out asking for you to spend about 20 minutes of your time filling them out. Enclosed in the mailing you, might find a dollar bill included to encourage you to feel guilty, and entice you to fill out the survey. And you often spend a lot more than one dollar of your time to do that.

Guilt is a strong motivator. I have to admit that I've used guilt in many selling situations, in mail order ads and on TV -- with great success, I might add.

I call one of the most powerful triggers a "satisfaction conviction," which is a guarantee of satisfaction. But don't confuse this with the typical trial period you find in mail order, i.e., "If you're not happy within 30 days, you can return your purchase for a full refund." A satisfaction conviction is different. Basically it takes the trial period and adds something that makes it go well beyond the trial period.

For example, if I were offering a subscription, instead of saying, "If at anytime you're not happy with your subscription, we'll refund your unused portion," and instead said, "If at any time you're not happy with your subscription, let us know and we'll refund your entire subscription price -- even if you decide to cancel just before the last issue."

Basically you're saying to your prospect that you are absolutely certain that they'll like the subscription, that you are willing to go beyond what is traditionally offered with other subscriptions. This in fact gives the reader the sense that the company really knows it has a winning product and solidly stands behind the product and your satisfaction.

Is this technique effective? You bet. In many tests, I've doubled response -- sometimes by adding just one sentence that conveys a good satisfaction conviction.

I received an e-mail from a company, a subsidiary of eBay, requesting my advice. They had an e-mail solicitation that wasn't drawing the response that they had expected. What was wrong?

Looking over what they had created, I saw several mistakes, many of which would have been avoided if they knew the psychological triggers that cause people to buy. Let me give you just one example.

In the subject line of most e-mails that have solicited me, I have been able to tell, at a glance, that the solicitation was for a specific service or an offer of something that I was clearly able to determine. Examples such as "Reduce your CD and DVD costs 50%," Or "Lose weight quickly," pretty much told me what they were selling. Was this good or bad?

The problem with those subject lines is that the reader was able to quickly determine: 1) that it was an advertisement; and 2) that it was for some specific product or service.

Most people don't like advertising. And most people won't make the effort to open their e-mail solicitation if they think they are getting an advertising message -- unless they are sincerely interested in buying something that the advertisement offers.

The subject line of an e-mail is similar to the headline of a mail order ad, or the copy on an envelope, or the first few minutes of an infomercial. You've got to grab somebody's attention and then get them to take the next step. In the case of the envelope, you want them to open it. In the case of an infomercial, you want them to keep watching, and in the case of an e-mail, you want them open up the e-mail and read your message.

The key, therefore, is to get a person to want to open your message by putting something into the subject area of your e-mail that does not appear to be an advertising message -- one that would compel them to take the next step. And the best trigger to use for this is the trigger of curiosity.

There are a number of ways you can use curiosity to literally force a person to take the next step. You can then use this valuable tool to put a reader in the correct frame of mind to buy what you have to offer.

Once again, all the psychological triggers apply to every form of communication -- whether it be advertising, marketing or personal selling. And to know these triggers is the key to more effective communication, avoidance of costly errors that waste time and money, and most importantly -- extraordinary sales results.

Joe Sugarman, the best-selling author and top copywriter who has achieved legendary fame in direct marketing, is best known for his highly successful mail-order catalog company, JS&A, and his hit product, BluBlocker Sunglasses. Joe’s new breakthrough book, “Triggers,” reveals 30 powerful psychological triggers that influence people to buy what you're selling.

Psychological Triggers
 

I Almost Flunked English But Went On To Make Millions of Dollars Writing Sales Copy
by Joe Sugarman

The Guinness Book of World Records listed Joe Girard as the "World's Greatest Retail Salesman" for 12 consecutive years. He holds the singular distinction of having sold an average of six cars a day over his career. Recently, Joe Girard told me:

"Joe, I can sell in person to individuals in a personal way - in fact, I can sell more cars per day than anyone else. Yet, I can't do what you do -- you sell millions of products to masses of people through the sheer power of print."

Salesmanship in Print

When you look at it from Joe Girard's perspective, it's hard to deny the awesome power of writing good sales copy - which I call "salesmanship in print" -- a power that anyone can take advantage of. You don't need good looks, a charming personality or even great intelligence. In fact, you don't even have to pass English.

This is why it baffles me when people desperately rack their brains trying to find ways to make money -- when the greatest opportunity is staring them right in the face. What's even more mystifying is that those very same people, when presented with ingenious approaches to writing copy that sells, take the skill for granted and don't use it to make personal fortunes for themselves.

Flunking English

Not many people know this, but I almost flunked English back in high school. In addition, I don't know many big words, unlike the rest of my advertising and marketing colleagues -- and my writing style is quite unsophisticated to boot. Yet, by learning to incorporate into my sales copy all the things about how the human mind reacts to certain words and phrases that I've learned over the years, I have made millions of dollars for myself.

The most important lesson you must remember is this: If you learn nothing else but the proper use of psychological principles in writing sales copy, you will always make more money than you'll ever need.

The Million-Dollar Grapefruit Farmer

If you're one of those people who believes that you're not a good enough writer -- and that you couldn't possibly learn to write ad copy that sells -- I want to tell you the story of a man who attended one of my seminars. This man was a grapefruit farmer who had never written sales copy prior to attending my copywriting seminar. In fact, he expressed his doubts that he would get anything at all from the copywriting lessons he learned. Yet, by the end of the seminar, he was able to write direct mail copy to sell grapefruit by mail which, over a period of ten years, has earned him millions of dollars.

Success Leaves Clues

For many years I specialized in "space-age" products, and my claim to fame was in building and selling "the better mousetrap" -- from state-of-the art smoke detectors to chess computers to new-fangled calculators -- and more recently -- to BluBlocker® sunglasses.

But you don't need a space-age product to make a million dollars. In fact, that is the downfall of most people who enter the marketing field. They find a product, fall in love with it, and try to get the market to buy it. With an unproven product, you could lose a lot of money in the process.

Instead what you should do is find a product that's already selling well -- and use compelling copy to sell it better.

Harmonize with the Marketplace

One of the psychological principles I describe in my book, "Triggers," is simply this: Your product needs to harmonize with the marketplace.

Here's a tip that you would definitely find useful: When you're looking for a product to sell, go to the library and flip through the back issues of magazines -- particularly the tabloids. Note those mail order ads that are running week after week, month after month. There's only one reason why those ads keep running -- they're making money. Those products are already proven to sell well -- they've demonstrated that they harmonize with the marketplace.

Even if there are many companies that are already competing in those product categories (example: weight loss, hair restoration, and wrinkle products, etc.), don't worry. If you apply good copywriting guidelines, your marketing efforts will fare better than those who are making money, despite their poor sales copy.

"Splish Splash I Was Takin' A Bath"

Take a clue from Bobby Darin, a popular singer of the '50s. Darin was a young singer in New York who, for a long time, tried unsuccessfully to break into the music business. He would go from record company to record company trying to convince them to
make an album of him singing popular jazz oldies. He was rejected.

So one day, Darin sat down and wrote a song that fitted or "harmonized" with what the public was buying at the time. What was popular at the time was good old rock and roll sung by black artists -- it was called the Motown sound.

The song he wrote was called "Splish Splash" and the words started out, "Splish splash, I was takin' a bath/ 'Round about a Saturday night." It had a good old Motown rock and roll sound -- and it became a smash hit, selling millions of copies.

Darin recognized what the market wanted, and he created something that harmonized perfectly with the prevailing market. From his earnings, he himself produced a record in the music genre that he really loved -- popular jazz oldies. His song, "Mack the Knife" went on to become a multimillion-selling single and made Bobby Darin famous.

To summarize, you must first have a product that harmonizes with your market. If you haven't made a substantial amount of money from your marketing efforts yet, sell only products or services that have a ready market -- this is the path of least resistance. Afterwards, with the money you make, you can blaze new trails with other products of your own preference.

Joe Sugarman, the best-selling author and top copywriter who has achieved legendary fame in direct marketing, is best known for his highly successful mail-order catalog company, JS&A, and his hit product, BluBlocker Sunglasses. Joe's new breakthrough book, "Triggers," reveals 30 powerful psychological triggers that influence people to buy what you're selling.

And now Advanced Hypnotic Writing!

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