Manipulate Your Visitors With Reverse Psychology

By Rich Hamilton, Jr
Posted Friday, July 23, 2004

Many people say that it is easy to write a sales copy and that there is really nothing to it. Well, all I can say is they are wrong! For many, writing your sales copy is difficult. Having the ability to write sales copy is an attribute that not many people have. When writing a sales copy you need to realize that there are a lot of psychological principles that are involved in the process. Reverse psychology on the other hand, is even more powerful when it is used properly.

In this article I am going to go over how reverse psychology works, how to apply it to a sales copy and when the best and effective time to use it is.

How Reverse Psychology Works

Reverse psychology is nothing more than a mind game you play and the object of the game is to confuse and distort the minds of others. I know it may sound complicated, but really it's not. In fact, you've probably used it and don't even realize it. Let me give you an example of how it works, so that you can fully comprehend it.

If you have children, you can probably relate to this. When you tell children not to do something, what's the first thing they do? They get into whatever it is that you just told them not to, why? Because you have accelerated their curiosity and desire to see what you have. If you were to apply reverse psychology, you would tell the child that they could have it. It wouldn't be fun anymore, you've taken away their desire to have it and as a result, they wouldn't want it. Moreover, you have accelerated the need to know why. Why are you giving it to them?

This does not only apply to children, this also applies to adults and they will react in the same way. If you were to apply the same scenario to an adult, they would react in the same manner as the child did.

Applying To Sales Copy

When is the best and most effective time to apply reverse psychology to your sales copy, it is in your opening statement, when establishing your credibility, and in your guarantee. These are just a few important elements of your sales copy that are the most effective areas to use reverse psychology on your visitors.

Not many people use an opening statement in their sales copy. The opening statement is a only a couple of sentences that are before your attention grabbing headline. The opening statement is used to set the stage for your attention grabbing headline.

One of the first opening statements I used in my sales copy was: Before you think about listening to another so-called expert, you need to read this first... It seemed like everyone was using this opening statement, so I used reverse psychology and came up with: The so-called experts are getting nervous.... This made my conservation rate triple, because people wanted to know why the experts were getting nervous.

When you are establishing your credibility, every sales letter always talks about how successful they are and not how they got there. People are reactive towards realistic situations, in my sales copy I talked about how in debt I used to be and how I had no money to market with. This insured my visitor that I knew how they felt. I've been there and you can promote your web site without paying a cent for advertising, because I did it.

Other people would rather brag how much money they are making, people don't react well to braggers. Just because someone makes a lot of money, doesn't mean they know what your talking about, or doing for that matter. People love stories, it pulls them right in, especially if it's a story they can relate to.

Another area where reverse psychology works great, is in your guarantee. Having a strong guarantee is the most important element of your sales copy, without it no one will buy from you, period. When you are presenting your guarantee, make it risk free and reverse the risk.

Comfort your visitor by reversing the risk, insure them that you have more to lose out of the deal than they do. How? Well, you are the product creator, your name and reputaion are on the line. If you create a poor product, then it will reflect on your credibility.

About The Author
Rich Hamilton, Jr is the CEO/President of (www.ElitesMarketing.com) and the Author of Inside Internet Marketing (www.InsideNetMarketing.com). Stay up to date with the internet marketing world by subscribing to our free newsletter, The Elite - The Internet Marketing Edge, (www.ElitesMarketing.com/subscribe.html)