How to turn sleazy copywriting tactics into trust-builders
I was working in-house, writing an email to invite people to a webinar.
The webinar host reviewed my copy and dropped a comment in the subject line: “Let’s add that seats are limited to drive attendance.”
I replied: “Can do — didn’t realize we were capping attendance for this one. Do you know how many seats we’ll be offering?”
Webinar guy: “We’re not actually limiting attendance. Just a sales tactic.”
Me: 🤨
As a lowly mid-level copywriter at the time, I didn’t have much sway. We ended up using a subject line saying something like, “Don’t wait! Seats are limited and fill up fast.”
It performed fine — maybe even better than it would have if we told the truth.
But it just felt… icky.
So what?
Most of us run into this debacle at some point. That line between what’s ethical and what’s effective can get real fuzzy in the marketing world.
So what’s the right move? If you know a certain message will work, is it worth exaggerating, telling a white lie, or bending the rules to use it?
The actual truth: It depends on who you ask.
My truth: Nah. Absolutely not.
Because your audience is smart. They see shifty sales tactics all day in their inboxes, social feeds, and commercial breaks — and they can spot your BS from a mile away.
The minute they realize you’re trying to play them, you lose ALL the credibility and trust you’ve worked hard to build.
A few examples of tactics that push readers away:
Fabricated urgency — Saying there are “only X left” when you know dang well that you won’t be running out of product, seats, time slots, etc. any time soon.
(Example: webinar guy.)
Blaming the reader — Making your audience feel like they’re doing something wrong, they’re failures, and the only way for them to succeed is to give you money… but in reality, they could totally figure it out on their own.
(Example: a Meta ad that targeted me saying “you suck at copywriting.”)
Fake time limits — Telling a lead their offer will expire in “X days/hours” when it’s actually an ongoing deal they can claim at any time.
(Example: that same Meta ad gives me a 2-minute countdown every time I click it)
(I know because I clicked it ONE TIME and now it never goes away. And every time, I have 2 minutes.)
How to use annoying tactics without actually being annoying
There’s a reason these techniques are used so often, despite their questionable ethics.
They do work.
But we don’t have to be sleazy to take advantage of them. Here are a few examples:
Urgency — Instead of lying about how much availability you have, say things like:
“Join our webinar before your competition does”
“Don’t wait — you know you’ll probably forget in 5 minutes”
“We don’t know how long we’ll keep this in stock”
Highlighting problems — Instead of making your readers feel like crap, say:
“You know you’re capable of doing awesome things. Now you can prove it.”
“You’re already killing it. Imagine how much farther you could go with X?”
“You deserve better than X, and you know it.”
Time limits and countdowns — Instead of adding unnecessary stress, say:
“The sooner you [buy this thing], the sooner you’ll [get this outcome]”
“You’ve already waited long enough to [get the result you deliver]”
“You’ll wonder why you didn’t do this sooner”
This article was originally shared in my embarrassing, brutally-honest newsletter: Sloppy Copy.
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