After I watched this video (and even during), my marketing cap, of course, flipped right on and I immediately applied the art of winning an argument to the art of copywriting! The first words in this video are “Arguing is Hard” and some might, well, argue, so is copywriting! So…is winning an argument just as hard as winning a person over to spend money with you? Hopefully by the end of this blog post you will be able to win and argument and apply those same solutions to your online selling skills. Let’s see how the two are similar…

Winning an Argument vs Selling Online

Tip 1:

Winning an Argument: Influence Your Opponent Without Proving Them Wrong.

How This Applies To Copywriting: The last thing you want to do is offend anyone who visits your salesletter or buy page. If you want to change someone’s opinion or mind about something they’ve been doing forever, then the last thing you want them to feel is dumb or stupid for doing things one way (or the hard / wrong way) their entire lives. For example, if you are writing copy to help guys pick up women, don’t insult the guys who have been going about the process all wrong. You know what you really want to say, which is “stop fucking talking about yourself all the time and start asking her questions and listening to her responses” – that would obviously be the wrong approach. But if you say something like, “Look, I get it. You are a rock star! You have a great career and maybe even a six pack…but that will all come out later. This is a better approach to get her to see the amazing dude you are…” Automatically, you are now getting the person reading to agree and nod his head yes, as opposed to making him run the other way! Now, I am no pick up artist, but you get what I mean. You need to start by saying something completely agreeable and even reason with the person as to why they’ve been making these mistakes. Get them on YOUR SIDE by knowing what their problem is even better than THEY know what their own problems are!

Tip 2:

Winning an Argument: Actively Listen.

How This Applies To Copywriting: Sure, there are ways you can listen to your customers. While visiting a salesletter is not a 2 way conversation, you should already know what your customers / prospects are saying and even thinking and this should reflect in your copy. The way you know these thoughts and feelings is by reading social media, forums and asking your customers questions and reading their responses. Know your customers and know their issues….they will love you for it. Customers are getting lots of offers thrown at them everyday.  They are going to respond more to the offers that really tap into their problems.

Tip 3:

Winning an Argument: Keep it friendly and show empathy – (smile and show their side of the argument)

How This Applies To Copywriting: This is similar to tip 1 where you should try to get on their good side while you lead them on a different path in your copy. Showing empathy is a great tactic to use in your copy. Show them you understand where they are coming from. Saying things like, “I get it. You spend hours writing Facebook comments on your pages and you even comment on related pages, but you are lucky to get 1-2 clicks back to your website. I know this because I was just like you. Getting little to no traffic everyday and feeling like I was getting no where. I wanted to quit…but here’s what happened…” Be descriptive in showing how you can relate to exactly how they are feeling!

Tip 4:

Winning an Argument: Give Your Argument Validity – Explain the specific details that will be used to produce the outcome that you want.

How This Applies To Copywriting: This is easy. The more proof factors that you can use in your copy, the more the person will likely join your side. Use Proof Factors like:

• Statistics
• Screenshots of numbers, sales, and results
• Testimonials of happy customers
• Immediate benefits the customer will experience

These are all strategies that will slowly convert your prospect into a buyer.

Tip 5:

Winning an Argument: Stay Calm.

How This Applies To Copywriting: I equate staying calm with having confidence in yourself.  If you don’t have confidence, that will be evident in your copy. This doesn’t mean to be overly cocky, although some marketers might disagree with me. Make it seem that you can take or leave that customer with statements like, “2000 happy customers already took me up on this amazing offer, and it would be great if you were one of them to start reaping all the benefits product xyz has to offer”. Don’t be wishy washy. Don’t use words like: maybe, would, could, perhaps – these are all weak words so STOP USING THEM!

Tip 6:

Winning an Argument: Make it black and white – Give your opponent and proposition and a clearly negative counter proposition to choose from bringing them to the conclusion that you ultimately want!

How This Applies To Copywriting: This is like going for the kill at the very end of your copy. Making statements like, “Now, you can go about posting to Facebook the manual way taking you or your outsourcers HOURS to post to Facebook and other social media sites wasting tons of time and money, or you can just use my simple tool that will get the work done in 5 minutes and you can go and play with your kids” – while this is going for the kill, it does work.

Your Turn

=> Share your thoughts – can you think of more argument skills that are similar to copy? Or do you dare to disagree and argue with me???