Creating the slippery slide will cause people to “traffic” your ad-to go through the entire text of your ad and then decide if they want to buy.  Creating the slippery slide effect is not that difficult the once reader is well into your copy.

One way to increase readership is by applying a theory I call “seeds of curiosity.”  It goes like this. At the end of a paragraph, I will often put a very short sentence that offers some reason for the reader to read the next paragraph. I use sentences such as:

  • But there’s more.
  • So read on.
  • But I didn’t stop there.
  • Let me explain.
  • Now here comes the good part.

These seeds of curiosity cause you to subconsciously continue reading even though you might be at a point in the copy where the copy slows down.

Seeds of curiosity can be used at the beginning of an ad where you mention some benefit or payoff that you are going to reveal somewhere in your copy. In short, the reader has to read the entire ad to find it.

I brought out another very important fact about direct response advertising. “You can’t spend that kind of money without testing. That’s one of your problems too. You just mailed to too big a list.

  • You could have picked just 5,000 names and not 50,000 names for your mailing.  And then you would have known if the mailinq was successful without risking too much money.

Emotion Principle 1: Every word has an emotion associated with it and tells a story.

Emotion Principle 2: Every good ad is an emotional outpouring of words, feelings and impressions.

Emotion Principle 3: You sell on emotion, but you justify a purchase with logic.