10:18am
Boston Seaport
A few years ago, for the Persuasion Play Podcast, I interviewed magician Paul Gertner. Paul lives here in Boston, where I am today for the world’s best B2B marketing conference (B2B Forum ftw!)
Magic, it seems, is a common interest among direct response copywriters, myself included.
Why? What is it about copywriting that draws more wanna-be magicians than, to put it in Justin Willman’s terms, the “plus-ones” that don’t care about magic?
Initially, I think it’s the misdirection.
Magic tricks “work” because the performer draws attention away from what’s really happening, and something unexpected happens.
Copywriters hope their writing does the same:
Read this… and magically you’ll decide to buy!
That’s not how persuasion works, exactly.
But it’s not completely wrong, either.
The misdirection in copy often boils down to a story that supplies ideas to the reader/viewer which might otherwise be rejected.
“I can’t lose weight” >> “How Jane from Topeka Lost 30 Pounds Without Dieting” >> “Oh maybe this new method will work for me too”
But once we copywriters get past the magical overlap of misdirection and copywriting, we tend to find other ways to make magic happen.
Things like atmosphere in our ads helps to set the tone of success, or exclusivity, or status –– and helps lead the reader, a character, to take the next logical step in their story. (Mercure’s Quiet Persuasion is an excellent guide to this.)
Or tapping into the desire behind the desire and putting words to our reader’s vague feelings.
Or ascribing meaning to concepts and ideas so that they’re suddenly crystal clear.
For example:
“Can India Stop China?” was a winning financial headline from Doug D’Anna years ago.
The copy went into geopolitical events that, alone, most people didn’t consider.
But by putting the information into context, there was suddenly a clear opportunity for investors.
In his book Magic and Showmanship, author Henning Nelms says every conjuring theme has 4 elements:
• Who is involved? The Personalities
• What is being exhibited? The Phenomenon
• Why is the routine being performed? The Purpose
• How is the purpose achieved? The Proof
Lots of overlap between those ideas and marketing, is there not?
Nelms takes this further, that a “trick” is some foolery that everyone knows has an underlying, often boring explanation…
To an “illusion” which puts everything into a new context, and causes people to search for answers beyond reason.
And that’s where the magic really happens.
Just as fans of magic, and those who perform their own tricks, overlook the importance of the 4 elements above and never really elevate their tricks into illusions…
So too with many copy concepts, which hide in plain sight, overlooked by nearly everyone.
We think it’s the perfect bullet. Trick. Or the perfect argument. Trick. Or the short punchy sentence. Trick.
And those all contribute, sure. But maybe not as much as we’d like to think.
Where magic and marketing really overlap is when marketers and copywriters look for the hidden levers that turn a piece of copy into an experience that goes beyond the mechanics.
Do that, and you elevate your copy from a “simple trick” to an “effective illusion.”
Want help with marketing that creates an experience and moves people to action? Reply now and we’ll see if we’re a fit to work together.
Gotta go. Hope you’re awesome today.
Jeffrey
PS. Are YOU into magic? Or are you the “plus-one” that might get dragged to a show but aren’t really interested in being there?