How to Write Persuasive Copy

Today I’m going to tackle a question asked by anyone who’s ever tried to write copy:

How can I make my writing more persuasive?

In other words: how do I convince someone, in writing, to do the thing I want them to do?

I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but there’s no magic formula to writing persuasive copy. Everyone responds to things differently, depending on their history, values, and beliefs. So what works to persuade YOU might not work to persuade someone else.

Example: I’m not a huge fan of “hard sell” copywriting, like you see in infomercials. I just don’t trust it.

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But there ARE people out there who respond to infomercials and the Home Shopping Channel and the like. I’ve never personally bought anything sold in an infomercial, but that doesn’t mean infomercials don’t work. They just don’t work for me.

So with that in mind, what can a writer do to make sure their copy is persuasive to everyone?

1. Know your audience.

To start, you need to get rid of the notion that copywriting is a one-size-fits-all product. If you want your message to resonate and really persuade, you have to target that message to a specific audience. That audience might be defined by:

• demographics (things like age, location, job title, or income)
• psychographics (things like likes/dislikes, motivations, beliefs)

…or a combination of the two. The audience might be really familiar with your product, or they may have never heard of you before. Do as much research as you can, and come up with the most accurate representation of your audience.

Why? Because before you can persuade someone, you have to know who you’re talking to.

Now you might be saying, “but I don’t know who my audience is!” or “my audience is everyone!”. Which is fine… but it’s not true. Regardless of what you’re selling, your target audience will share certain characteristics. Examples:

• If your product is only available in certain countries, you wouldn’t target the whole world.
• If your product is designed for women, you wouldn’t target men.
• If your product is a piece of software that only works on Windows computers, you wouldn’t target Mac users

…and so on.

Think about it this way: even huge brands like Coca-Cola run ad campaigns targeting different audiences, with different messaging depending on that audience.

You cannot write persuasive copy if you don’t know who you’re talking to.

To be more specific: you can’t write persuasive copy if you don’t know what your audience will RESPOND to. You have to know what their pain points are. You have to know how to make them trust you. You have to know how to build their desire to buy what you’re selling.

And you can’t do any of that if you don’t know your audience.

2. Be likable.

There are a million books that can teach you the art of persuasion, but two that I highly recommend are How to Win Friends and Influence People and Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion. These are both great books, and definitely worth reading… but if I had to boil them down to one sentence, it would be this:

People will like you (and believe you) if you make them feel important. 

Everyone wants to be heard and understood. Everyone wants to feel respected. If you can make people feel important, you’ll also make them like you, because they’ll believe that YOU like THEM.

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…and if you like them, you obviously have good taste. 🙂

But you can’t be insincere: most people can see right through that, like a friend who only calls you up when they need a favor.

So how do you make people like you?

Dale Carnegie says you can make anyone like you by following six easy steps. When it comes to copywriting, I think these three steps are most applicable:

1. Show a genuine interest in what they have to say.
2. Talk in terms of the other person’s interest.
3. Make the other person feel important — and do it sincerely.

The key here is not just to make people think you like them, but to actually, genuinely LIKE them, and that you have their best interests at heart. If you want people to like you, you have to treat them like a good friend: be trustworthy, dependable, honest, respectful and interested.

Let’s break that down a bit more.

3. Gain trust.

There are so many advantages to having people’s trust. For starters: they believe what you say. For another: they stick up for you in the face of conflict. Trustworthy people are seen as authentic, consistent, compassionate, kind, and humble. These are all qualities that you want people to apply to your brand, too, right? So here’s how to build trust with your audience:

Show that you understand.

They say that it’s easier to make a successful negotiation if both parties share some personal information at the start of the meeting. Let people know who you are, and why you are selling the thing you are. Explain to them the story of how the product came to be. Explain that you understand the problems they’re facing.

And most importantly: show, don’t tell. Don’t say “everyone wants to lose weight”. Say “I know how embarrassing it is to go to your favorite store and learn that their biggest size is still too small for you.”

Another way to do this is to address a customer’s potential objections before they have a chance to make them. Common objections might include “this won’t work for me” or “I don’t have the money”. If you understand your audience enough to know their objections, you can control the conversation and gain their trust.

Explain why you’re an authority on the subject.

Why are you and/or your business qualified to help anyone with this specific problem? Let the audience know your qualifications. If you can prove you’re credible and knowledgeable, people are more likely to believe what you have to say. You can do this a few different ways:

• State your credentials. If you’ve been a doctor for 20 years and you’re selling a medical product, your credentials are a valuable trust indicator.
• Use testimonials and endorsements. People love to get second opinions. Having other people verify your claims builds amazing amounts of trust.
• Use facts and statistics. If you use facts from credible, trusted sources, people are more inclined to trust what you have to say.

Be genuine.

Like I mentioned before: people can tell when you’re not being sincere. If you don’t believe what you’re saying, no-one else is going to believe it either. So, don’t say that your Acai Berry Powder cures cancer unless you really, truly believe that it does (and can actually back that claim up with facts and statistics). To do otherwise isn’t just shady, it’s potentially illegal.
One of my favorite words in the English language is veracity, which means “the quality of being true, honest, or accurate.” In copywriting, you should always strive for veracity. Customers will respect you for it… and they’ll lose trust in you if you don’t do it.

4. Engage the emotions.

You know what the customer wants. You know what their problems and pain points are. So now: how is your product going to make their life better?

Make them SEE it.

Studies have shown that when people visualize doing something (for example: working out), the brain acts as though that thing is happening: to the brain, visualizing is the same as doing. Use that to your advantage! Incorporate sensory details – touch, taste, feel, smell, sound — into your copy to help the customer really imagine how much better things will be after they buy your product.

Another great technique — and a good way to bring sensory details into a piece of copy — is to tell a vivid story that relates back to the customer’s pain points, or shows how your product can change their life. Stories are POWERFUL. They engage our emotions. They make us FEEL. And if you want to write persuasive copy, you’re going to have to engage the customer’s emotions.

Here’s a really effective example of a story that also sells a product:

The most important thing about the story is that it has to build desire in the customer: either a desire to make something positive happen or a desire to avoid a negative outcome. Which desire works better? It depends on your product and audience.

5. Compel them to act.

Okay. So, you’ve learned how to get to know your audience and get them to believe what you have to say. The final step of persuasive copy is compelling them to act right now – not tomorrow, or a week from now, or next year. Now.

In my experience, novice copywriters tend to gloss over this step. They worry their offer isn’t compelling or persuasive enough, and so they downplay the call to action, hoping that it will make them appear more humble. Or, on the other hand: they think their offer is so good that they don’t NEED a strong call to action.

But it doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t matter how good your copy is: if you don’t have a strong call to action, no-one’s going to act!

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So, how do you make people act on your offer? I’ll tell you:

Use anxiety to your advantage.

FOMO, for those of you who don’t know, means “fear of missing out.” It’s a term for the anxiety people feel when they’re worried they’re missing out on an opportunity. We usually apply it to social media, but it works for sales too.

If you’ve followed the steps above, you’ve crafted a really compelling offer and targeted that offer to the right people. So now, you have to make them anxious. Make them feel like a deal this great can’t last forever.

Again: I’m not a huge fan of “infomercial-style copywriting”… but infomercials do this really well:

Buy yours in the next 10 minutes and you’ll get this nifty travel-sized version!

…and so on.

It’s in our nature to want to act on things we perceive as good opportunities. Why? Because it makes us feel important! And when people think they’re getting a good deal, they feel proud of themselves… especially if they think they’re getting something that other people can’t have.

So if you act like your product is scarce — like there are limited quantities, or it’s on sale for a limited time — it compels people to act fast. No-one wants to miss out on a good deal.

But again, you need to be genuine. Don’t extend a sale indefinitely. Don’t say something is exclusive if it really isn’t. Don’t be insincere: people can see through it.

Conclusion

There are a ton of other things I could say about persuasive copy… but like all things writing, the best way to get better at writing persuasive copy is to practice!

I guarantee that these tips will make your copy 100% better — or your money back!