Copywriting and Advertising Secrets Part II – “What Is Real, Neo?”

I love the Matrix. The movie simply rocks. It is filled to the brim with intelligence, awesome acting, superb plot, and a deep philosophical message.

Not to mention some kickass action scenes. Who wouldn’t love to learn to master Jiu Jitsu in 5 seconds?

One of the postulates in that movie is basically this:

What is real?

Now, this isn’t going to be a philosophical odyssey into what is life or anything like it – we’ll have some actual practical relevance (no offense, Descartes!).

But when it comes to copywriting, you’ll see how what we ASSUME persuades us, and becomes our reality through the written word.

Great copywriters know this and play upon it. For example, let’s take the simple generic headline:

“Now You Can Enjoy the Kind of REAL Results the Pros Get – With HALF the Effort, HALF the Time and HALF the Cost!”
This is a great headline or sub-headline because it is filled with words that cause us to assume certain things in the copywriter’s favor. It plays upon our assumptions by SEEMING to be specific, but is actually quite vague.

There are several “trigger words” that cause us to engage our friend called “The Assumer” – the one that makes assumptions based around these words. Can you spot the trigger words? Yes? No? Here they are:

NOW, REAL, and HALF.

Let’s dissect it and focus on the word “REAL” and see how the Matrix of copywriting can persuade us through it’s word illusions.

What does REAL mean in the above statement? Think about it. I will supply the Jeopardy theme here while you do so.

Okay, back. Did you think about it? What does “REAL Results” mean? What did you assume when you read “REAL Results” ?

If you are like any other human being on this planet, you’ll conclude it means you are going to get a result if you use the information this copywriter is selling.

Is it true you are going to get results? From the most technical baseline standpoint, YES! Of course you’re going to get results, but here’s the catch- you are going to get results whether you use the information or not. Furthermore, you are going to get results even if you were never aware of the product to begin with!


How is this possible? Stick with me here.

You get “real” results every single second of your life. When you go to work, when you go to church. When you pay your taxes.

Whatever you are doing right in this moment yields SOME sort of result. Where there is cause, there is effect.

“Please, ma cherie. I have told you. We are all victims of causality. I drank too much wine, I must take a p*ss. Cause and effect.” – The Merovingian

Even if you are sleeping at night, the result is you are being rested. When you are sitting here reading this post, you are getting some sort of “REAL” intellectual result. This is a truism. “Results” are ALWAYS happening, ever single second of your life.

Okay, I admit this may seem strikingly obvious and pointless to, uh, point out. And you may be asking what I’m getting at. But when copywriters (good ones) use words like “REAL” or “INSTANTLY” or “HALF” (such as in the above example, they are accomplishing two things:

1) They are stating a truism and using it to guide you.

2) They’re conveying a STORY or opinion NOT a reality.

For number one above – they copywriter is stating a truism, or an obvious truth. The thing is, the copywriter is using the phrase “Real Results” to make an ever-present phenomena seem specific to you. Real Results – it doesn’t mean anything. It’s simply a way to get attention and keep you reading.

Stop and think about that for a minute.

If you have thought about that for a second, you might realize that copywriters aren’t selling reality, they are selling a story or opinion.

There IS no “real.” It’s all an opinion, an illusion, much like the Matrix. “REAL Results” ? What does that mean? It means everything and nothing to everybody, which is what makes it so freaking brilliant! It works on our own assumptions (desires) and ultimately guides us toward being persuaded by the copy we are reading.

Do you get it? There is no “REAL Result”. Real, in this context, is simply what the copywriter wants you to think.

Ah, haaa! Do I see a light bulb going off over your head?


Other ambiguous words that play with our assumptions are:

NOW

TRUE (The one TRUE Path to Wealth)

INSTANT (How You Can Have INSTANT Access to…)

OVERNIGHT (”I Earned $4,326.05 Overnight” – this word often ignores the huge time investment that came before they earned this “overnight” sum…)

IMMEDIATE

GUARANTEED

TOP EARNER – if the top earner is earning $500 per month, that’s not too impressive! Yet we make the assumption that “top earner” must equate to WEALTHY.

$99.95

Hold on a second, why would $99.95 be an “opinionated” phrase? It’s quite literal and explicit.

To answer that, let’s take a look at these two prices:

SURROUND SOUND STEREO SYSTEM: $500

SURROUND SOUND STEREO SYSTEM: $499.95.

Which one do you want to immediately buy? If you’re like the rest of us, of course you’ll want to buy the second one for $499.95 even though the $0.05 difference is negligible. The second price SEEMS significantly cheaper than the first on a visual basis alone.

What is written is five cents short of $500, but our brains SEE $400. So we go for it automatically.

Do an exercise – next time you are out shopping, note how many items out there end with “95, 98 or 99″ as in $19.95, $29.97, $49.99 etc.

You will see an abundance of this attribute because it plays upon our assumptions, just as the words REAL, INSTANTLY, etc. play with our sense of what is possible.

So realize that there really is no such thing as REAL or HALF when it comes to this context of copywriting, because these words can’t be quantified in the most physical sense.

“Learn Golf in Half the Time”? Half the time of what? Half the time according to who? A year? A day? See how we make these generalized assumptions?

Now I’ll tell you something. Even though I realize all of this and I can see right through good copy… it STILL works on me! Call it a curse or a blessing – the fact remains that we have psychological buttons that, when pushed, prompt us to feel and act certain ways.

And this is what great copywriting aims to do. So start using these techniques TODAY and you’ll have… INSTANT results.

Expose the copywriting Matrix!

“You have to let it all go, Neo. Fear, doubt and disbelief. Free Your Mind!”

-Morpheus

 

I'm awake now...

 

That was a very interesting post. I hate it when people say that they earned x amount of dollars overnight but neglect the months or years they spent building up their list to get that amount of money. I immediately click away from the site when I see stuff like that.