Copywriting Academy 6: Five ways to mess with people’s heads

Words are powerful things. Importantly for copywriters and their clients, words can make people behave in new ways – from buying new products to changing the way they live, work and play.

Of course, much of the talk right now is about joining a greater 'conversation' with customers – on blogs, on forums, via Twitter. All well and good. But it’s important to remember that ultimately we want these conversations to be profitable.

I know, I know, today this is an almost sacrilegious point of view. We are in the era of free. Lovely idea (even if it’s slightly dented by the fact that the book costs eleven quid on Amazon) and as soon as I get my mortgage provider to sign up, I’m there. But the brutal fact is that businesses need to make money to be successful.

For us copywriters, this means persuading customers to buy stuff. If you are not comfortable with that fact, this is probably not the job for you.

In this academy, I’m going to round up some of the tricks successful copywriters use to get inside people’s heads and, ultimately, influence their behaviour. Of course, this can tread a fine line between influence and manipulation – let me make this clear: there is no point trying to deceive your audience into buying a crappy product. Any short-term gain will be totally outweighed by the long-term consequences. However, if you’ve got a good product then these five techniques can give you the edge in changing customer behaviour.

1. Because

I need you to pay particular attention to this first one because it will change the way you write.

There is something about the word 'because' that compels people to comply with your requests. This was borne out in a series of studies where experimenters tried to jump the queue in supermarkets. Those that simply asked had limited success. However, those that used 'because' – as in, 'Can I go in front of you because I’m in a hurry' – achieved remarkable results.

The thing is, it didn’t really matter why they said they wanted to go in front. They could say something like, 'I need to go in front of you because I need to' and would still succeed more often than those that omitted the word.

2. X = Y

The proper name for this is complex equivalents. Essentially, it equates X with Y where no actual relationship exists. So we might say "James is really well connected, he’s always on Twitter." In doing so we imply that James is well connected because he is always on Twitter but this is not necessarily so.

3. Lost performatives

In this technique, we make a value judgement while leaving out who’s values we are talking about and how we arrived at the judgement itself. So we might say. 'It’s vital that today’s marketers have an intimate knowledge of Facebook' or 'It’s important you consider how Twitter is driving your customers forward.' While both statements may be true, who says that it is vital or important? Why?

4. Embedded commands

Don’t read this section. In fact you probably haven’t had time to really stop and think about how these techniques will dramatically improve your effectiveness. And I certainly won’t ask you to subscribe to the Twelfth Day newsfeed to find out.

This approach hides commands within other text, text that either softens the call to action or which provokes a counter response in the reader (as in 'Don’t read this section' above).

5. Mind-reading

As you’re reading this, you’ll be asking yourself, 'Is this guy for real? Can I really affect my readers so deeply with just a bunch of simple techniques?' But as you read on you’ll come to understand that it really is that easy, that writers have been doing this for centuries.

Mind-reading is the process of placing thoughts in your readers' heads, thoughts which lead them towards the thinking and behaviour you wish to change.


These are just five techniques to whet your appetite. There are many, many more of these approaches – you'll find more in many of the online copywriting courses that promise to unlock your powers of persuasion for a thousand dollars. Alternatively, you'll also find them in guides to hypnotherapy, NLP and cognitive psychology.

Do I use them? Sometimes. Do they work? Yes. Are they always appropriate? No. You’ll just have to try them for yourself.

You can see all the posts in the copywriting Academy series by following this link.