I hardly ever read books on copy writing, because I prefer to go right to the source. So I read books on human psychology. You see, to persuade people to do what you want them to do -- whether on a first date or in copy writing -- it pays to mug up on the psychological triggers that compel people to act.



You are reading this now, because of a psychological trigger I used in the title. The trigger that started you reading this was the fear of losing sales if you weren't using this particular word. So what is that word? The word is "because" and here's why it's so amazing.

Its astonishing power was discovered -- not by a copywriter but a lady psychologist -- to be the most compelling word you can use. Here's how she found it.

Harvard Social Psychologist, Ellen Langer, went up to some people standing in line to use a Xerox copier and said, "Excuse me, I have five pages to copy. May I use the Xerox, because I'm in a rush." All the people, bar one, were quite happy to allow her to go ahead.

Later, she asked a similar number a slightly different question, "Excuse me, I have five pages to copy. May I use the Xerox?". This time, only about 2/3 of the group were happy for her to jump right in.

Finally, she asked a third group, "Excuse me, I have five pages to copy. May I use the Xerox, because I have to make some copies?"

This last group mirrored the first group in their almost total acquiescence to her request.

Can you spot the reason?

In the first and third experiments, which met with almost 100% success, she used the magic word: "because". In the less successful -- but still pretty good -- middle experiment, the word "because" was absent.

So there you have it: one little word makes a 50% difference to the response. That's the awesome power of persuasive copy writing through psychology.

So make sure your sales letters are rich in the words "because" and "the reason why". For example, let's say you're selling an e-book. This has several benefits to the reader, in particular "instant gratification" (another psychological trigger), but if you are dealing with the price, you can minimize that by comparison (yes -- you've guessed it, that's another one!).

Here's an example of both sets of words in action . . .

If this was a hard bound book, not only would you have to wait several days for delivery, it would also cost you over $100. But, order it today and you can be discovering these amazing secrets just minutes from now for just $30, because it's available as an instant electronic download, and the reason why we can let you steal it at this rock bottom price is because we have no inventory or shipping costs, so we are delighted to pass the saving over to you in the form of this amazingly low price.