Week 12-The last week of the Psychology of Persuasion Course Review
The last week of the Psychology of Persuasion CXL.com course has come around so quickly and at this point I realized that I made a rookie error that I wouldn’t want others to repeat.
Fortunately, I’ve always been able to write and send off my blogs on time though I hadn’t properly factored in revision time for an exam that will be tough and at this stage I’ve not gotten around to it because I’m still working on the exam for the end of the Product Messaging module.
Each course has a multi choice exam at the end of about 23 questions. So far so good but the pass rate is at 90%, which means that I can only afford to get one question wrong. I’m currently taking and retaking the exam for Product Messaging because it is tough.
I would highly recommend using the first 11 weeks of the CXL course on working your way through the videos which would work out to about 5 hours of videos and blog time per week and then use the last week for revision and possible retakes for the exam.
Psychological Backfiring.
I looked at this part of the Psychology of Persuasion course this week which is about when applying psychological methods can go wrong. It is based on the research of Dr Brian Cugelman and Dr Agnis Stibe. When studies backfire, it can reduce credibility.
A famous example of this that I remember is on the ‘heroin chic’ look in the 90s when it was literally fashionable to look like a heroin addict as a model by being very thin with dark eye makeup.
It also applies to every ad that has gone wrong. Some of the ways of preventing this from happening is through being aware of the things that can go wrong. Testing your psychology and considering the long-term impact of advertising and understanding the complexity of backfires.
How to Conduct a Copy Teardown.
This aspect of copywriting is about looking at a web page objectively to see how it can be made better in order to convert more people to clients. Momoko refers to Robert B. Cialdini hierarchy.
One of the most important aspects is motivation because that is what will bring a potential customer to our site and also what will get them to buy the value proposition is also important.
On the other hand, there is friction or people’s objections. Similarly, there is anxiety though these include the worries that people may have. Robert B Cialdini’s principles actually go up to 7 elements as follows:
- Social Proof
- Authority
- Liking
- Scarcity/Urgency
- Reciprocity
- Commitments/ consistency
- Unity (Us vs them)
As mentioned earlier many of these principles are covered in Robert B. Cialdini’s book, “Persuasion”.
Claude Hopkins is another big name in advertising who was a pioneer in copywriting back in the 19th century. He was the original conversion copywriter which is so impressive because this was before the times of the internet and tested printed copy to find out what did and didn’t work. He stated to be specific and have a target market. If your copy is generic it will end up being forgettable.
Momoko Price like me is a lover of spreadsheets and includes a framework for carrying out a sales page funnel. She also references Joanne Wiebe’s Copyhackers’ Course, which is on my list of courses.
Introduction to Message Mining
This is a great way of finding out what our customers want as they will say in their reviews and they will speak authentically about what they do and don’t love about your product or service. It is a more introverted way of carrying out research. One of the well-known examples is Amazon as there were so many reviews on there. I like Goodreads for examples of book reviews and Trustpilot for company reviews.
The advantages of this method are taking key messages and also “swiping copy” thought I like that Momoko makes it clear that she is not talking about plagiarizing copy.” This aspect of the Psychology of Persuasion course reminds me of an aspect of another course that I did which recommended looking at reviews on books as that can show what people didn’t like about a book.
Crafting Effective Unique Value Propositions
Momoko starts the course by describing what a Unique Value Proposition is and why it is so important. She went back to the formula and looked at the customer’s motivation. I’ll admit here that I watched this video a few times as it was pretty tricky to grasp.
A key point is “What’s in it for me?” or the reasons why a customer would buy from a supplier. Although Momoko referenced a show that I hadn’t come across before being in the UK I did think back to a colleague who was able to spot the negatives in anything. Although this was frustrating at times, it was also useful because she had the ability to spot flaws in anything before a customer might so this could be addressed sooner.
We as suppliers or copywriters need to look at how out product or service overlaps with what our client wants or better still needs.
Momoko references again Copyhackers and I love that she does this, it shows how brilliant CXL.com is to reference another company. She states that if you’re working for a new company it is important to get the message right and to be prepared to work on this message.
Writing the First Draft
This is something that I definitely need to practice. Also presented by Momoko Price the page should start with the Unique Value Proposition and end with the call to Action. She used Petdoors. Com as her example and she uses a template which can be used as a guideline.
There are a range of things that people will and won’t want for their product and in this case of the pet doors it’s about why people will buy a product. The testimonials can then be changed from what “I want” to what “you want”.
This is the last of the blogs that I’ll be writing for this course and now it’s down to revision and the hope that I will be able to pass this course. The lectures have been brilliant though the last two of the four tests are tough.
Tags: #CXL, #revision, #backfiring, #Momokoprice, #Cialdini
