A Psychology Trick Used To Dive Into Your Prospects Mind
In my last post, http://controlbeatingcopy.com/breaking-down-a-next-level-headline, I told you about how you need to “dig a little deeper” into the psyche of your prospect to figure out what they’re REALLY thinking.
Not what it appears they’re thinking, or even what they say…but what’s hidden deep-down beneath the surface of their mind.
I told you in the last post how I was going to give you an example using my fiancee, so here it is:
One day I was asking my fiancee what body part she liked on guys - whether it was abs, chest, shoulders, arms, etc.
She told me she liked muscular arms, so I decided to act like a little kid and ask “why”?
After about 30 seconds, I ended up asking her exactly what part of arms she liked…and she said she didn’t really know, just that she liked them.
So, knowing that she really did know and just couldn’t put her finger on it, I rolled up my sleeve and asked her to show me exactly what she liked the best.
She ended up pointing to the part of my arm where my shoulder comes down into the middle of my arm to form the “V”.
But guess what - that’s not even your arms…that’s your shoulder!
So she in fact didn’t like nice arms, she likes nice shoulders…
Now, do you see where the psychological trick came into play? I know I’m talking about body parts and nothing with marketing, copywriting or advertising, but it’s nevertheless a great psychological trick.
At first, she didn’t know exactly what she liked…just that she did.
But I knew that deep-down she knew so I kept prodding…I kept asking questions.
Just like a 4 year old kid asks “why” repeatedly until they’re satisfied.
This is what you need to be doing when researching your ideal client.
You need to be going into forums, reading the same magazines as them, asking people you know personally who fit the description, actually calling them up on the phone…and asking “why, why, why”!
And not only why, but all you need to do is simply keep digging a little deeper. Make them think. In fact, when you’re interviewing the person - make them think so much their head starts to hurt!
Amazing things can happen when you just push a little harder…
Jeremy
Breaking Down A “Next Level” Headline
I recently listened to 2 great marketers talk about how to create “next level” headlines. Headlines that not only get your prospects attention, but dive deep into the psyche of the reader and pull their hidden emotions out from under them.
The headline below is one of the headlines they talked about, and instead of making you listen to the entire conversation..I’m going to rip apart this incredible headline and show you all the psychological triggers that made it such a success.
The headline:
How to buy any 1 of these river oaks homes
with 0 down payment - even if you can afford to pay all cash
At first glance, this headline seems to be a good one but nothing spectacular - right?
But think about it…the people they’re targeting are those who don’t have a lot of money. The first part of it, “how to buy any 1 of these river oaks homes with 0 down payment” is very intriguing because the people looking to buy those homes probably don’t have much (or anything) for a down payment.
So there’s a huge plus right there.
But the second part of the headline - “even if you can afford to pay all cash” - is what makes it pop.
Can you figure out why? Turn your head away from the computer and give yourself a second to think about it.
Get it yet?
How bout now?
Ok…I’ll get to it - hopefully you’ve thought about it and came up with your own conclusion.
Here is why it’s such a great headline…
The people looking to buy these houses don’t have much money - as I said before. And, what to people hate to admit?
That they don’t have much money!
It’s embarrassing. It’s humiliating. It causes more stress than almost anything else on Earth.
By saying that “even if they have enough money to pay cash” it eliminates the embarrassment factor.
Because if they kept only the first part of the headline, they would be admitting they were broke. And like I said, nobody wants to do that.
But by saying, “even if you can afford to pay all cash” it allows the person who doesn’t have money to call and say to themselves “you don’t know if I’m a cash buyer or not - I might be rich but you don’t know that or not!”
Do you see how powerful that is?
Finding a next-level headline takes considerable time and dedication to finding out the hidden emotions that cause your prospects to buy.
Think a little deeper. Research them more. Ask your ideal prospect exactly what fears and motivations they have that would cause them to buy a product like yours.
Many times, they won’t even know! That’s why you need to keep asking “why” - just like a 4 year old child.
In my next blog post I’m going to share with you how I did this with my fiancee when we were talking about what body part she likes best on a guy. The funny part is - I actually had to tell HER what she liked because she didn’t know!
How’s that for understanding your prospect?
Until next time…
Jeremy
P.S. Have a story you want to tell about how you dug a little deeper and found some hidden motivations in your prospect? Let us know about it!
Cute Fiancee Quiz Turns Into A Great Business Question And Lesson
Last night my fiancee Katie and I felt like going out somewhere low-key, so we simply went for pizza followed by a trip to our local Barnes & Noble.
I always love trips to Barnes & Noble…I head straight for the business section and get to check out the lame books people come out with (although every once in awhile I find a good one).
Anyway…since we’re getting married next September Katie is very much into the “wedding scene” so she immediately scrambled over to the wedding section.
She asked me to look with her, so of course, as a good fiancee should, I agreed.
Long story short…we ended up buying a book for each other named “Do You Know Your Groom?” and “Do You Know Your Bride?”
These books were about $6 each and contained 100 questions about each of us. We had to name the other’s favorite teachers, favorite M&M, the maiden names of their family, etc. They were different for each of us.
You get 10 points for each question correct and partial credit where needed - up to a max of 1,000 points.
So…why am I telling you all this?
Listen, I’ve put in hundreds and thousands of hours being with Katie to figure out all the questions I got right (I got an 850/1,000 by the way - she beat me with a 938).
If you want to make a relationship work, you need to put the work in.
If you want to make your business work, you also need to put the work in.
And that means knowing your customer like they were your spouse.
If I gave you a list of questions about your customer, how many do you think you could honestly get right?
Here’s a quick 10:
- What part of the country are the majority of your customers from?
- What income range?
- Male or female?
- What kind of job do they have?
- What magazines do they subscribe to (this one is very important when marketing to them)?
- What motivates them to buy?
- What fears, frustrations, and worries do they have?
- What part of their life do they want to improve on the most?
- What kind of websites do they visit?
- What do they do in their spare time?
How many of those questions do you know?
If you think you know them, are you sure?
Have you done surveys, called people, asked in forums, or other kinds of research to find out - or are you making assumptions?
Knowing your customer is more important than almost any other aspect of business, yet it’s one thing that 99% of business owners completely overlook.
If you don’t know your typical customer to a T…how do you know where to advertise? How do you know what to say when you advertise?
Take a block of time each week - or each day - to start profiling your customer. Start spending a few hours each week researching your customer, trying to find the gold nugget which will dramatically boost your response rates.
As for now…sit down for 1/2 hour today and simply make a list of 10-20 questions you think would be important for you to know about your customer. Think deep about these, because seemingly unimportant things may turn out to be your real golden nuggets.
To the life you’ve always dreamed,
Jeremy Reeves