Persuasion 101 – Part I: Psycholgical Inertia


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Your primary job as a copywriter is to get someone to do something. Maybe that something is to buy a product or call to speak with a sales agent—or maybe it’s just to get them to click a link. But the copywriter’s role is one of persuasion. This is the first article in a two-part series that will help you get a better grasp of persuasion.

 

You Can’t Make Anyone Do Anything The Don’t Already Want to Do.
This might sound a little discouraging at first…but if you stick with me, you should be feeling better than ever about being a copywriter soon.

“How,” you might be asking. “If you can’t make anyone do anything they already want to do, why bother writing the copy? And if they already WANT to do it, then the copy is unnecessary!” And you’re right.I know it seems discouraging.

But here’s the good news: the converse is also true. You can’t stop someone from doing something they truly want to do. Think about it…when was the last time you tried to talk someone out of something they truly had their heart set on? How’d it go.

Psychological Inertia
Any psychologist will tell you: in order to change, you have to really want to change. And that applies as well to changing your mind as it does to changing your behavior. This psychological inertia will thwart even the best copywriter if he’s lost his focus on one key point.

Your job isn’t to make them DO something… it is simply to make them WANT to do it.

In the next post I’ll explain exactly how to do that.

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