Becoming A Freelance Copywriter and Professional Copywriting – PSYCHOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES TO MAKE UP THEIR MIND

It’s always a good idea to have an idea of how the mind works so you can adjust your sales copy accordingly to appeal to certain mind sectors. Let’s just start with some basic information so you get a good idea of how the mind works. The brain does two major things – stores information in your memory and processes information that allows you to use/apply your knowledge to make decisions and solve problems. Next we’ll look at what side of the brain does what.

Your left brain works with logic, words, parts and specifics, analysis of situations in detail, and sequential thinking. The left brain interestingly enough has a sense of time and a sense of your goals correlated with your position in relation to those goals. Talk about a finely tuned instrument. The left brain also governs/runs the right side of your body.

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Your right brain works with emotions, pictures, wholes and how all the parts all relate together, putting stuff together (that AH-HA moment), and simultaneous/holistic thinking. This side of the brain doesn’t wear a watch like the left side does, and in fact can lose track of time. And like the left side of your brain, the right side governs/runs the left side of your body.

Brain functions can be broken down even further into what does each side of the brain to task wise. So let’s take a look at what the left side does.

The left side of your brain deals with tasks like being logical, sequential, analytical, objective, focus and details, and numbers. So if you happen to be bad in math, blame the left side of your brain – or the right for not governing the numbers part of you.

Becoming A Freelance Copywriter and Professional Copywriting: LEARNING HOW THE MIND WORKS CAN WORK FOR YOU

The right side of your brain deals with tasks like being intuitive. Trust your hunches. They’re usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level. It also deals with colors, rhythm, and the overall picture, pictures and is random.

We’ve all heard about limited attention span, and in marketing that sometimes seems to be the norm for customers. What this means is that only part of your memory can be activated at any one time and it will be a single area located in the most easily activated part of the memory. This will also be the most familiar one, the one used most often. The more often it is used it becomes even more familiar. Think repetitive marketing campaign, top of the mind awareness, copy crafted to appeal to certain senses that becomes familiar to your customer over time. People need to be told about a product or service at least SEVEN times before they buy it/try it. Think repeat customers here.

We talked a little about mental patterns earlier in this book and about Neuro Linguistic Programming. Mental patterns simply refer to memories formed in your brain to record your experiences as you see, hear, feel, smell, sense or taste them. The more often you do this your brain builds a pattern of it – a familiar pattern.

When you experience a situation again, or something similar, the memory is activated and you go on autopilot. So you can see if you did an email campaign to blend with your website copy and all the other areas we have outlined where you can use keywords and phrases, the more people see it (the site or email or etc.) the more familiar you become. This goes right straight back to relationship marketing. Nice tie in isn’t it?

Ok now you have a pretty fair idea of how the mind works. Let’s go just one more step further. You already know about the language of the brain being pictures, sounds, feelings, tastes, and smells – in other words input from your senses that is your imagination when it is processed. Your brain can only work with positive information that it receives from your five senses. Your brain can’t work with inputs you haven’t experienced or otherwise called negative information.

Here is a very important point to remember when thinking about your customers. They can’t reflect and act at the same time. They need to be focused on one thing or another (reading your website copy, email etc) and thinking about it or taking action and buying something. Trick is to be able to switch them from one to the other quickly and effortlessly. Good thing you know about Neuro Linguistic Programming and how the mind works.

You now know the brain is divided into two hemispheres and that each specializes in different functions, processes different kinds of information and deals with different problems. Left works with logic and analysis, the right with emotions and imagination.

Let’s put that into perspective when thinking about customers. And here is why you want to know what they do for a living. A manager would be a left brain person (appeal to his/her logic and love of analysis). A leader would be right brain (appeal to his/her emotions and imagination). A producer – that would depend on the kind of work done. If the work done is verbal, logical, and analytical – that is left brain. If the work is intuitive, emotional, and creative – that is right brain. Can you be a combination? Yes, but usually one is more predominant that the other.

Becoming A Freelance Copywriter and Professional Copywriting: REPETITION

You read earlier that people need to be told about a product or service at least SEVEN times before they buy it/try it. So repetition really is the key to making your product known. You don’t have to be annoying about it, but find creative ways to keep your message in front of your audience. If the means changing your website copy, pictures, specials etc, then do it, and do it with something bordering on the obsessive. Just always keep your main selling point as your focus.

was a professional advertising copywriter and author who was also an airplane Quinn also worked as a freelance copywriter operating in.…Pat Quinn as a freelance copywriter

Here’s an example of what we mean told in a short story. See what you remember about the story after you have read it.
Once upon a time there was a cat named Charlie. Charlie was the most handsome cat in any farmyard for miles around. Charlie was so handsome that the local Veterinarian, Dr. Roth fell madly in love with him. But Charlie, who was such a handsome dude, thought he was too handsome for Dr. Roth. So Charlie decided to join an acting company, run away from the farmyard and become the next Morris the Cat. Charlie knew his dreams would come true.

Try not to look back at the story. Can you recall the name of the Veterinarian? Maybe yes, maybe no – but one thing is for sure, you remembered the cat’s name because it was repeated SIX times. There’s nothing like a 2 x 4 over the head right? But you get the point, repetition STICKS in the minds of your readers/listeners/watchers.

Repeating things so often isn’t saying that your readers have faulty memories. It’s just human nature that sometimes things need to be pounded into their heads. Remember, they (and you) can only think of one thing at a time.

Your website copy should not be as repetitive as the little story you just read. But, you do need to figure out your key selling point to hammer home to your customers. Example: if you are having a sale, you need to emphasize that. If on the other hand you want your name out there and get it known, you need to repeat that at least twice in anything you do.

Will people find your repetition annoying? If you botch the writing job, yes they will. But if you do a nice clean script with good flow and use the keywords in repetition in a smooth flowing way, they won’t find it annoying. Another thing here would be to try and use keywords that aren’t complicated and convoluted. Keep it straight, clean and simple.

You also should know that most people read websites with half an eye, unless they are keenly interested in them or are looking for precisely what you have. So repetition in your site copy will stick with your viewers/surfers later – sort of like subliminal messages. So bottom line is repetition is one of the smartest marketing strategies you can use to get people to remember your name and message.

What if your site traffic is decent, you have ads all over the Net and in lots of free classifieds? Will this be enough to make sales? Answer is no it won’t be enough, because where is the repetition?

People on the Internet are just bombarded with thousands of ad messages a day. In most instances we just hit the delete key and don’t even read what the ad(s) said. Or, the get caught in the spam filter. Do you recall every ad you saw when you surfed on the Net today? No? Well, no one else does either.

Becoming A Freelance Copywriter and Professional Copywriting: What you would remember is seeing the same message over and over again right?

What you WOULD likely recall, and more so if you are interested in the subject, is things like those free 10 day mini-courses. This is definitely something you could consider for your website as well. The promotion for it would be done in your well-written copy that people can’t resist. Oh they may resist the first few times, but after having seen what you are offering, and having read the message several times, that would make up their minds.

That process usually goes like this. See the ad the first time and have no intentions of buying the product or service. BUT, the information you are offering for free about the product or service they DO want. They sign up.

Now you have an opt-in customer that you will send information to in installments. You of course make sure the information in the mini course is well scripted, fresh, useful and informational – something people can actually make use of. You will offer people a full course as well and you will provide your visitors with that information in each email. By this time the customer has seen your name, message and key selling points at least 7 to 10 times (depending on the length of your mini course) and they figure it’s a good product and – right, they buy it.

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They buy it because saw it for seven to ten weeks and were able to figure out/see your offer had good value thanks to the information you sent them on a weekly basis. By the end of the course, you have credibility with your customer(s). There aren’t many people that will buy a product on the Internet the FIRST time they see it (unless it’s the last Harry Potter book). If you have a good product/service, stick to website marketing that sells – do it the right way and don’t use one-shot ads. Use the opt-in names you capture at your site and send them a free introduction course.

The bottom line here is, stay in touch regularly, and always have great information, tips, and news to share. Do your homework and know your customer’s birthdays and the birthdays of their children. Understand their profession and what is of interest to them. You will become an inbox repetitive regular – you have successfully used relationship marketing to make sales etc.

Here’s something else to consider as well. By positively reinforcing the behavior of your customers (the behavior being visiting your website and/or buying) you will retain them as loyal customers.

In other words, a consequence (positive reward) is presented (to your customers) dependent on a behavior (visiting your site/buying product/service). Positive reinforcement can be as little as sending your customers something they will value highly in their line of work (and that could be killer information) or offering a mini course that will change their outlook about your product/service.

You could also offer discounts, better buys on bulk purchases, to die for customer service that no one else can beat or a newsletter that has everyone talking because it’s so darn good.

Becoming A Freelance Copywriter and Professional Copywriting: Other Techniques That Work Every Time

We’ve touched on neuro linguistic programming earlier in this book as we were talking about language patterns. This is an awesome tool or technique to have in your arsenal for writing sales copy. It gives you that edge a lot of other writers don’t have. If you’ve spent any time reading sales copy on the Net, they you already know what is and is not good. Sometimes that is intuitive, but mostly good copy screams good copy. Bad copy – well, it too speaks for itself and guess what? Bad copy drives people away.

NLP language patterns have always been a long time. This came about as the consequence of research into why two people who have the same experiences react to them differently. Of course you react differently, but that isn’t the point. The point is that not only are your reactions different, the language you use to describe your reactions is also different.
People then tell you how they perceive various circumstances using the language of their lead and back up system – auditory, visual or kinesthetic.

This really isn’t magic. If you pay close attention to what your customers are telling you – read the language they use, hear the language they use – you will know what lead systems they are using and you can write your sales copy to suit their neuro linguistic patterns.

Becoming A Freelance Copywriter and Professional Copywriting – Here’s another benefit to using your customers language patterns, in emails, phone calls, notes, etc. Yes, and in sales copy. Roughly 96% of your customers will be visuals and will respond to those kinds of words that strike a visual chord (make them SEE something). If you use their language you will in sync with them and can use their system to communicate with them. In a world where it’s hard to communicate with others and be understood, using neuro linguistic language patterns is a bonus you can bank on for a good online freelance copywriter.

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