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• Copywriting: The ability to communicate in a persuasive, influential manner, and communicate that into media 

• Craft a properly structured and compelling message BEFORE approaching problem-solving 

• Gun-to-the-head copywriting 

  • Prepare answers to likely questions 

  • Anticipate what you might be asked 

    • Have structure to your answer 

      • Short and concise 

      • Have all the elements that drive to a YES

• The drivers of a message that move someone not just to like/remember/react to it - but to ACTION 

  • Buy now

  • Schedule now 

  • Respond now 

• Most sales messages are so generic that they don’t move people to buy 

  • No matter how similar we are, we still wake up every morning with different interests and agendas. 

  • We think we’re unique and different

    • Same with businesses 

    • The broader the message (i.e. Lose 2 dress sizes in 28 days) 

      • Anybody overweight could respond to this message, BUT we can find 4 identical overweight women and 1 is worried about her husband, 1 about her class reunion coming up, 1 sincerely concerned about health 

        • They all have different motives 

        • The tighter we can get with our message to that person the better the results

          • Most marketing messages are cast very broadly, very generically 

            • The real downside of this is that we can currently target more effectively, more easily and cheaper than ever 

              • i.e. Facebook 

              • People will actually TELL YOU what motives are meaningful/most relevant to them

                • SHOULD then lead to 4 different landing pages, tailored to the person visiting it 

• TV infomercial 

  • Called “broadcast” for a reason - it’s broad 

• Everything now online allows you to narrow-cast 

• The drivers are universal, regardless of delivery 

• Everything you do is either successful manipulation, or an unsuccessful attempt at manipulation 

  • Advertising

  • Your spouse

  • A peer group

  • Culture 

  • The question is not will the customer be affected by psychological manipulation

    • The fact is yes. 

    • The question is, are you going to be on the right side of the cash register?

      • And are you going to deliver good value for the monetary exchange that you create?   

• If your stated ambition is to do extremely well financially, you cannot shy from the issue of manipulation 

  • It’s a synonym for strategy 

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THE SEVEN EMOTIONAL TRIGGERS

• 1. Shame

  • Nobody wants to be ashamed of themselves, or the car they drive, or the home they live in, they job they have, their physical shape, etc. 

    • Nobody wants to live in loser town 

• 2. Emotional Pain

  • ​Practical pain: I don’t have enough money and my car is being repo’d and I’m getting evicted 

    • But the emotional attachment to those conditions that either move a person or do not move a person  

      • People are often not moved by practical pain. Only when it’s personal emotional 

• 3. Anger/ Rage/ Resentment

  • ​Everybody’s mad at somebody

  • ​Everybody feels they’ve bene short-changed by somebody 

  • Everybody is resentful of something 

  • All political issues driven by this - i.e. immigration (they’re taking my job)

    • ​Set up an enemy 

      • ​If your enemy is my enemy, then we’re buddies 

      • You can simply remind them of who their enemy is 

        • ​They’re already mad at somebody 

          • ​The question is Who, and How can we align our sales message to where they already are in relation to this person/situation? 

          • Example: Fundraising: Just poke the things the liberal donors are already mad at and position yourself on the same side ​

• ​4. Mysticism 

  • Almost everyone believes in and wants to believe in magic, secrets, conspiracies against them 

  • i.e. Overweight people are eager to believe there is a conspiracy in the food industry and in the media since they were watching cartoons and eating Fruit Loops 

  • Very smart people hand their money over when they’re told, “You can’t understand the model I use; it’s too sophisticated, it’s secretive, it’s in a secret cave… “ 

    • It’s human nature 

  • Put mysticism into the formula

• 5. Revenge/Vindication/Redemption ​

  • Everybody feels they are downtrodden in one way or another

    • They’ve been put down, disrespected 

    • Tell their story, the story we’ve all bene through. I.e. “I started my business, invited my friends/family over, next thing I know it’s 8pm, I’m standing there alone, everyone disappointed me..”

      • Refusing/rejecting 

    • Fast forward to the moment he’s successful, inviting these same people in his circle of influence to the bon voyage party and they all come  

      • His wave goodbye is the third-finger salute 

  • A sales story gets a visceral reaction

    • ​Everybody has an equivalent story that they’d love to be able to get that same outcome with 

  • One of the top 5 motives for women’s weight loss is “being seen by the ex who dumped me, now thinner and hotter” 

• 6. Feeling Insecure / Fear 

  • Even the richest and most successful people still have insecurity about something 

    • What they do, who they are, what they look like, lack of social graces, don’t dress well, etc. 

    • Can be broadened from its core

  • Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends & Influence People is really an insecurity play 

    • “I don’t really know how to make people like me/be popular/influence int he workplace” so I stay silent and go into the corner 

• 7. Greed & Sloth 

  • Greed never goes out of style 

    • People with no need to pile on more money 

      • i.e. Martha Stewart 

      • i.e. Winona Rider shoplifting

    • Whole church congregations get conned by someone promising huge investment returns without explanations for how we’ll get them 

  • Everyone intellectually understands there’s no such thing as free.

    • ​But we don’t make decisions on intellect, but on emotions. Emotionally we really want free. 

  • Sloth never goes out of style either 

    • Take away the idea that “This is going to be hard” 

  • Greed play: You’re securing the bargain of the century 

    • You’ll do infinitely better financially as a result of this thing 

• Incorporate as many of these 7 triggers as you can without one neutering the other 

  • Rank them properly for the audience that you are appealing to 

  • Decide how overt/subtle to be 

  • Ease it into a message/story 

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7 Secret Triggers of Creating a Mind Control Ad Copy
Seven “Dark” Copy Techniques

• 1: SHAME

  • Ambition-to-escape-the-unwanted is available in a larger number of people (than positive motivation) and easier to stimulate than is ambition-for-gain-or-benefit

  • The Shame List

    • ​Left out, left behind

    • Un-Cool

    • Stupid

    • Un-cool

    • Stupid

    • Attached to a loser/losing argument

    • Embarrassed

    • Foolish

    • Incompetent

    • Weak, Impotent

    • Looked down upon

    • Unwanted

    • Pitied

    • Gossiped about

• 2: EMOTIONAL PAIN

  • Powerful sales copy inflicts emotional pain. Find it and twist the knife.

  • Methods:

    • ​“All too familiar” situations

    • Personal confessions the reader identifies with

    • Reminders of suppressed negative feelings of self

    • Negative imagination triggered of others’ poor perceptions of or disappointments with them.

• 3: ANGER, RAGE, RESENTMENT

  • Everyone is angry about something and resents somebody.

  • Bring it from a simmer to a boil.

• ​4: MYSTICISM

  • People believe in SECRETS, in conspiracies, in information kept from them, and in ‘mystics’ with mysterious, superior or unique powers….and often look to this as the answer to why they aren’t living life as they’d hoped.

  • They can, therefore, be made to look to this for solution, cures and opportunities.

• 5: REVENGE, VINDICATION, REDEMPTION

  • By somebody, your buyer feels…..and wants to say,” Well, how do you like me NOW?!”

  • The Dissed List: 

    • Under-Estimated ​

    • "Such things are not for you"

    • Dis-respected 

    • Doubted, skeptical about 

    • Not taken seriously, ridiculed 

    • Looked down on 

    • Put down

    • "Second class citizen" 

    • Excluded 

• 6: FEAR / INSECURITY

  • Fear of…

    • ​Future

    • Change

    • Harm

    • Ill Health

    • Loss

    • Enemy

    • Regret

 

• 7: GREED / SLOTH

  • Free​

  • Easy

  • WITHOUT* doing anything you don't like or don't want to do 

    • The keyword is "without" ​

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