When used properly, almost NOTHING will increase the conversion rate, sales and profits of your direct response sales copy more than ….
CURIOSITY!
The legendary David Ogilvy even said curiosity was his secret weapon.
Curiosity is extremely powerful because it is based on humans’ insatiable desire to know the unknown, to discover the answer, to close the open loop, and to to finish the story.
Curiosity can be used on many parts of your advertising structure, including:
1. Curiosity about the story idea. For example, How A California Mom Ended Her Digestion Problems With An Old Secret She Learned In Japan
(The prospect is curious to know, “What Is The Old Secret She Learned In Japan?”
2. Curiosity about the mechanism name: For example, How A 7-Second Body Push Technique Is Ending Digestion Problems For People Worldwide
(The prospect is curious to know, “What Is the 7-Second Body Push Technique?”)
3. Curiosity about a name of an ingredient in the product: For example, How This Natural “Deep Sea Cleanser” Is Ending Digestion Problems For People Worldwide
(The prospect is curious to know, “What Is this Deep Sea Cleanser?”)
The key to using curiosity effectively is NOT to reveal the actual details too early in the advertising and give away the secret.
If you reveal the actual secret too soon in the copy, you have closed the curiosity loop and most prospects will be disappointed and will lose their interest.
This would be like revealing who the murderer is 3 minutes into a 60 minute episode of Law and Order, or who the villain is on page 10 of a 300 page “who done it” mystery book.
You wouldn’t do that because people are not wired to like that.
The longer you keep talking about the curiosity and its benefits, the more the desire builds, and the more intensely the prospect wants what you are selling.
In fact, many of the most successful direct response sales letters, video sales letters and ads of all time and even today never, and I repeat never, reveal what the actual details of the curiosity item are. You have to buy the product to find out.
Curiosity is all around us in successful direct response advertising:
** The legendary headline from Boardroom Reports was “What Never To Eat On An Airplane”
** Fascinations and Bullets are 100% curiosity – these tease the benefits with curiosity like “The household spice that can help you lose 5 pounds quickly”
** Native online ads work 100% on curiosity like “the 2 healthy foods seniors should never eat”
Curiosity in advertising is proven to work great. It can skyrocket your conversion rate if used properly.
That’s because it gets attention, elevates dopamine levels, arouses excitement, is fun, keeps people engaged and satisfies our inherent genetic need for completion and closure.
Use more curiosity in your direct response copy and your conversion rates will increase.