Use honesty to your advantage
Because we live in the real world where something always goes wrong, we instinctively don’t trust perfection and believe there must be a hidden fault.
🧁 Apply behavioural science to your copy by admitting a flaw.
Share a tangible example of where you ‘fall short’: what makes us human is our vulnerabilities – the audience will appreciate your honesty and feel compelled to help.
Learn the art of gentle persuasion
The way you present information affects how readers interpret it.
🧁 Apply behavioural science to your copy by framing information in the right way.
Hook the ‘innovators’ and ‘early adopters’ with exclusivity: ’Only 3 available’ or ’Only 1 in 10 people can…’.
Hook the ‘late majority’ with social proof: ’Join 2,000 subscribers…’ or ‘In studies, 9 out of 10 executives…’.
Hook the ‘laggards’ with loss aversion: ‘84% of digital transformations fail when you don’t do…’ or ‘The chance or receiving a regulatory fine is 73% unless…’.
Always use the power of 3: when presented with 3 options, we can’t help but be drawn to the middle one.
Make sure your message is seen and remembered
Copy should always be easy to read, easy to do, easy to remember, easy to believe. But when people can only process 7 bits of information (+/- 2) focus on minimalism to bring impact and authority.
🧁 Apply behavioural science to your copy in the way it looks.
Use the brain’s natural short cuts: people are more likely to believe something if it’s written in bold, or remember it if it rhymes.
Make an impression within intense verbiage: for example, ‘kill’ ‘eliminate’ ‘explosive’ ‘fierce’ ‘excessive’ ‘almighty’ ‘judge’ ‘adventurous’.
Facilitate skim reading: use headings to convey the key messages and use hyperlink text as call-to-actions to encourage conversions.
