Would you like to see some influence in action?

Over the coming weeks and months I’ll be interviewing people whom I consider to be masters at influence and persuasion in their particular fields of expertise, and I’ll be using some very dubious techniques learned from Japanese prisoner-of-war camps to extract their best-kept secrets just for readers of Internet Influence Magic. That’s how far I’m willing to go to get great quality blog posts for you!

Fortunately, our first guest spilled the beans pretty quickly, so there will be no visible scars.

First up, is expert copywriter Stephen Dean. Copywriting is all about writing compelling ad copy and sales letters that influence people to buy your stuff. So, as you can imagine, Stephen has a lot of useful tips for you and me…

(1) Let’s talk about your favourite subject - you. How did you get into copywriting?

In a way, I was discovered. I was writing my own copy for some of my own products, and people noticed that what I was writing got attention and was easy to read. They started asking me to write their copy.

At one point, I decided to send out a simple offer to people stating I would write their copy for dirt cheap. I didn’t have a lot of experience then, so I didn’t feel comfortable charging more. And that led to me getting more projects than I can handle.

As time went on my skills advanced and I increased my prices. Even though this technique is frowned upon, I now see this model all over the place. There are a ton of new copywriters learning exactly the way I did.

(2) On my blog right now we’re discussing the law of influence called “social proof”, the concept that when people are uncertain what to do, they tend to follow what others are doing. How do you apply this concept to your copywriting?

Social proof is why testimonials are so important. It’s hard to get good conversion rates without them, because people want to see that others have taken the plunge first.

It’s just like kids lining up at the side of a pool before they jump in, waiting for someone else to see what the temperature is like. (And eventually pushing another kid in.)

If you know others are taking action, and having success, you can feel much more comfortable moving forward.

And the testimonials need to be as believable as possible. A picture of the person giving the testimonial is very important. And video or audio testimonials are great. I’ve actually seen some testimonials decrease response when there was no effort to show the person was real, even though it was a valid testimonial.

There are other ways to use ’social proof’ in copy.

There’s even a headline template that implies following the crowd, “Thousands have ______ even though they never thought they could!”

(3) Another law of influence is “authority”, i.e. that people tend to pay more attention to what they perceive are authority figures. How do you apply this in your copywriting and blogging?

The easiest way to make yourself an authority is to find an audience and teach them something they didn’t already know. And this can mean taking on the subject from a different angle than other “authorities.”

That’s exactly what I try to do with my copywriting courses. When I started creating them, there were plenty of outstanding copywriters offering courses on how to write copy. But their courses were often aimed at copywriters or people who want to become a copywriter.

So I made it a goal to target people who just want to write some decent copy for their site. They don’t want to dive deep in to Robert Collier or Claude Hopkins books, they just want to make some sales ASAP. I think my approach gives me a unique angle. And because of that, my market will continue to view me as the authority on do-it-yourself copywriting.

And being first to use that ‘unique angle’ is important too. Michel Fortin credits being the first to write a sales letter that pulled in over $1,000,000.00 in sales in one day for a lot of his ‘fame.’ A handful of copywriters have done it since, but people will always remember Michel for doing it first.

(4) I know that “scarcity”, another law of influence, is often used by copywriters to create a sense of urgency. What tactics do you feel work best in this regard, and do you have any particular examples you could share with us?

Scarcity is a big part of copywriting, and unfortunately ignored by a lot of beginners.

If I look at my purchasing history, I can think of several purchases that I only made because it was clear I wouldn’t get the same deal later. I pay $100/month for search engine rankings data, that’s not even a large part of my business, simply because I was told the price would be rising to $1,000/month soon. (And it has.) If you want to make the most sales possible, you MUST limit the offer in some way. Above, the time of the offer was limited.

You could also limit the quantity (say, the number of people who could get access to the rankings data).

And another way is to limit the offer. For example, “the first 50 people who order get a free T-shirt.”

All three methods have their day in the sun. The easiest method to implement is probably just having a weekend sale, or a 24 hour special like James Brausch likes to do.

(5) You’ve been running a blog for a while now, and many of my readers have blogs too. As a successful copywriter, is there any advice you can share with my readers to help them boost their blogs’ readership?

Just like in copy, you have to remember to make your posts about the reader more than about you. I posted an autobiography on my blog a bit back, and several readers told me my usually very interesting blog just got a lot more boring… It’s not that you shouldn’t talk about yourself, but you need to remember to involve the reader as well. Lot’s of “you’s”, and less “I’s.”

And try to approach writing your post titles like you would write a headline. The only way for the reader to know they should come back, is if they like your content. So you need to catch their attention with a good title, just like you would in ad copy. Pull them in to your content, hopefully they’ll like it, and subscribe to your feed.

(6) Thanks for sharing, Stephen. Last of all, it’s plug time. Are there any products or services of yours that my readers should know about?

Right now I recommend checking out my products in this order…
http://www.2hoursalesletter.com to have a complete introduction to the copywriting process.

http://www.7copysins.com to try and preempt the rookie mistakes you’re likely to make.

And http://www.copyboosters.com to continually improve your conversions and end up with a darn good sales letter.

And my blog is the best place to learn more about me and copywriting, http://www.stephensblog.com

Thanks, Stephen!

Thank you, Paul. Great questions, and I hope everyone reads Cialdini’s “Influence!”

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