THIS is why your sales copy isn't converting

The world is full of pain, fear and desperation but there is also happiness, love and hope. The problem with advertising in these days is, that it manipulates people to do very questionable decisions, which are in the end not good for us all. For instance we advertise that unhealthy fast food is very good and everybody should eat that. When they don't eat it, they will not be popular anymore or even die or get sick. Advertisers and competitors don't care anymore about other person's wealth or the world at all. It is an insane competition machinery, which doesn't work and will destroy us and the world sooner or later.

What kind of IM do you do primechecker?

I do agree that advertising plays on our insecurity. Even colleges play on people's insecurities and fears in their TV commercials. It's everywhere. I never even noticed that.

That makes me wonder how blunt sales copy can be and still be effective.

A great book that elaborates on this is Cashvertising... chapters include...

1. The Fear Factor—Selling the Scare
2. Ego Morphing—Instant Identification
3. Transfer—Credibility by Osmosis
4. The Bandwagon Effect—Give Them Something to Jump On
5. The Means-End Chain—The Critical Core
6. The Transtheoretical Model—Persuasion Step by Step
7. The Inoculation Theory—Make Them Prefer You for Life Contents
8. Belief Re-ranking—Change Their Reality
9. The Elaboration Likelihood Model—Adjust Their Attitude
10. The 6 Weapons of Influence—Shortcuts to Persuasion
11. Message Organization—Attaining Critical Clarity
12. Examples vs. Statistics—And the Winner Is...
13. Message Sideness—Dual-Role Persuasion
14. Repetition and Redundancy—The Familiarity Factor
15. Rhetorical Questions—Interesting, Aren't They?
16. Evidence—Quick! Sell Me the Facts!
17. Heuristics—Serving Billions of Lazy Brains Daily

randybishop said:

You've heard the common advertising refrain, "Sex sells". It is true, but there is something that motivates people to buy more and is the core reason of why we buy.

Fear.

Fear is what propels all of us on an instinctual level and it drives all of our decision making processes.


"Advertising is based on one thing, happiness. And you know what happiness is? It's freedom from fear.
It's a billboard on the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you are doing is okay. You are okay."
-Don Draper, Mad Men


Take a look at the three biggest evergreen markets that will be profitable forever: Health, Wealth and Romance and you will find fear as the underlying motivator:

Health: Fear that I will become sick and die.

Wealth: Fear that I will not have have enough money to survive or prosper.

Romance: Fear that I am not going to find a mate and procreate.

Your job as a marketer is to find these consumer "pain points"(i.e. fears) that they are willing to spend money on to combat. Even if the solution is temporary. You may ponder why people play the lottery every week when we all know the odds of winning are less probable than being struck by lightning. You may surmise that those people are just dumb and don't know the odds, when in reality they are buying freedom from fear. Their fears could be: They are always going to be poor, they are always going to be stuck is a dead end job, they are never going to be able to buy a house, etc. For that short period of time before the lottery numbers are picked and they lose again they are buying hope. For that brief time before they don't win, they COULD win and they fantasize about the possibilities.

This may sound a little cynical, zeroing in on fears, but as humans this is how we operate. We are in an endless cycle to try to escape pain and pursue pleasure. Pain and pleasure are the 1-2 punch of converting a sale. Identify the pain ("consumer need") and provide a solution. Also, the second part, the pleasure the product that you are selling is freedom, relief, and joy the product provides.

Your ability to sell the customer your product hinges upon your ability to describe the pain your product solves, and why anyone should care, in just a few words ("Killer Headline"). Then be able to persuade a prospective customer to purchase your product using your simple explanation ("Persuasive Sub headline"). Then round out your sales page with explanations, photos, benefits and testimonials.

Not identifying your customer fear is fatal to your sale. It means that you do not fully understand why your customers would or should buy your product. Many great marketers go through numerous iterations of sales copy before they figure what motivates their customers. It can take time to find the fear.

Click to expand...

Beautiful representation of ALL writing. A quantum leap in success is the realization that people react faster to fear, not pleasure, and everyone is afraid of something.

Brings to light the fact that selling (great writing) is the crucial factor to unbelievable achievement.

Good advice OP, most Tv ads play on some kind of fear. Cleaning products play on our fear of germs for example and sell in thier millions, cars on safety etc.

how can we write a stunning sales pitch????

This is so true...
Anyway just offer a moneyback guarantee so people can fight the fear of losing their money for a crappy product....