I'm trying to figure out the effects of reverse psychology and how could it be used in sales copy. During the process, I think that I managed to write one of the worst pieces of copy in history. You can check the copy here Basically right now, it would be great to hear some feedback on how to improve it without altering its overall tone. Remember this is an experiment, so if you have any wacky ideas don't hesitate to shoot them up. Best regards, George
The reserve psychology must have had the opposite effect on me because I'm confused... Were you trying to write the worst copy ever as an experiment to see if it would work? Or were you doing an experiment and just happened to write what you think is the worst copy every? So by improve it, do you mean make it worse? Like I said, I'm so confused. After a long puzzled look at the title, I took another long puzzled look at the copy. I had to read it a few times to get what you were talking about and the humor in the post. That's not what you want. I've read copy that makes me want to buy their product even though I had absolutely no use for it. That's what you always want to strive for. Even if it's not exactly that, work towards it. I wouldn't exactly call what you were writing "reverse psychology." It was more like sarcasm. And I laughed a little after about the third time reading it. But your offer doesn't follow the "reverse psychology" theme and that decreases the effect. You go from sarcasm to real and back to sarcasm. You should keep the tone the same all the way through. Grammatically speaking...you missed hyphens between "one legged" and "one eyed." You should have a comma after "chargebacks." There's my two cents.
Well, in 1995 (might have been 1996), I made a banner that said "don't click here." My CTR averaged 28% and shot as high as 50%. As far as poorly written copy goes, it can work. When I wrote my first direct mail sales letter, I was in high school and wrote like you know what. I spent about $25ish to mail it to 100 people. $100s came back in. And, to sound like a broken record, what works and does work depends on your target audience. If they're highly educated, poorly written letters and "tricks" are less likely to work. If they're blue collar workers with maybe a high school "education," they are more likely to work. Just like how more educated people (college bachelor's degree or higher) are less likely to be heavy drinkers of soda, while the less educated are.
This is one of those times when you go with the odds in your favor. Most will not click on bad copy. And of the ones who do, how many will actually buy? Many are curious, like with the "do not click here" ads. Of course they are going to click on it. I have. I quickly backed out of the site, too. I clicked on it, JUST to click on it. Most do. So, is it smart to do it? But, like you said, experiment. You will see.
I was confused. If you run it, I'd be curious to see how it converts. Like you said, it's all about the target audience.
The experimental part was to play with the reader's expectations. When they read sales copy, people have a certain frame of mind. They expect to see you highlight the advantages and making the product look like the best thing since sliced bread. When this doesn't happen, they tend to get confused and read more closely the whole thing. It's basically an attention grabber gimmick. This is precisely the problem. I manage to get attention, but I can't divert it to something useful. A possible approach would be to use sarcasm to attract attention and afterwards slowly revert to a more conventional style. If you read it 3 times, I must've done something right . I'm not sure if switching tones is a bad idea. Keeping the reader always on the wrong foot can give you leverage. Yeah, a bit late to edit the post though. Anyway the one-legged image is a reference to Michel Fortin and his morbid fascination for this sort of stuff. He's always great of highlighting the problems that copywriters face, yet always seems to come forward with titles which beyond the shock value seem an everlasting collection of cliches. My inspiration came from a similar story, this time from PPC. This is the experiment I'm talking about. Couldn't agree more here. However ... Given the sort of competition that the sub-forum where I posted the copy has, it is worth to play with a fresh image, even if only because it stops the scan process that readers habitually have and will thus attract a second look. You of course are right. But the idea is different. An article will always attract more attention than an ad. And if you have a humorous tone to it, the readership will increase even more. It's basically a balancing act. You can have a high readership with a low conversion rate or a low readership with a high conversion. Experimenting is always smart. Who knows what I'll discover? Erm... Probably nothing new, but still I think it's worth a shot. Basically I'm trying to see how far I can go. However over the top copy does convert if done right. In a more scaled back experiment I wrote 2 e-mails trying to convert users of a trial software to actual buyers. In the first one, I went conventional (advantages, great benefits, feel good factor etc), while for the second I tried to raise the prospect of guilt of using such a good software for free. The sales to clickthroughs ratio for the first one was at about 1.5%, which is mediocre to average. For the second however I achieved a ratio of 6%. Going away from the beaten path can pay off. Regards, George