Demand Curve - The Growth Newsletter #167

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The Growth Newsletter #167

Wallet Opening Words that increase conversions

Copywriting is one of the most important skills.

This newsletter dives into simple but powerful ways to increase conversions.

Let's just dive right in 🐰

– Neal

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Use Wallet Opening Words to increase conversions

Insight from Katelyn Bourgoin and Phill Agnew's Wallet Opening Words.

Tiny word changes can massively impact how people feel and react.

Phill Agnew (host of Nudge) and our UNIGNORABLE partner, Katelyn Bourgoin, coined “Wallet Opening Words.” Powerful words that cause people to reach into their wallets.

Here are some of my favorite lesser-known ones that are simple to implement:

Because bias

Simply telling people WHY you’re making a request is powerful, even if it’s meaningless.

An experiment showed that 60% of people allowed the researcher to cut in line at the photocopier by saying, “I have 5 pages. May I use the xerox machine?”

Simply adding "because I'm in a rush" raised compliance to 94%. Surprisingly, adding the obvious "because I have to make copies" reached 93% when it was 5 pages, but had no change when they said it was 20 pages.

Specific prices

Specific numbers are more believable and memorable than round numbers. So a 57% off sale is better than a 50% off sale.

A study found that beggars received +60% more donations by asking for oddly specific amounts rather than the typical quarter, dollar, dime, etc.

Framing

A classic psychological bias is called, "what you see is all there is.” We often take what is presented and evaluate it without considering all our knowledge about the world.

A powerful way this manifests is that you can control how someone perceives and experiences something by framing it a certain way. For example:

If you know the job your product does for customers (an indulgent snack), you can better frame it as being really good at doing that job (an unhealthy lassi). If you tried to frame your lassi as a healthier alternative to a milkshake, all the people seeking an indulgent snack would go buy a milkshake.

Authority

Would you rather talk to a customer support rep or the founder? Which would you more likely believe and reply to?

It turns out that letters from a dentist’s office received a 54% reply rate when signed by the dentist, but only 18% when signed by the dentist’s secretary.

Emails that come from the founder will always perform better than emails that come from Bob the SDR. This donation request coming from Obama was the most successful email of his 2012 presidential campaign:

Present tense

People commonly write in past or future tense on websites and in emails.

But, the present tense is far more powerful. A study found that customer reviews using the present tense received 26.4% more upvotes and increased purchase intent by 12.3%.

Studies also found that languages that use present tense to describe future actions (i.e., “I buy that tomorrow” rather than “I will buy that tomorrow”) are better at saving for the future.

Words are powerful

Just because you run ads or send emails that flop doesn’t mean that no one wants your product or service. The words you choose are critical.

Here are some helpful copywriting resources:

• Above the Fold Playbook: This will walk you through rewriting the most important part of your website: the beginning.
• The Growth Guide: This free guide to growth marketing walks you through writing copy for your landing pages and ads.
• My copywriting articles: I have written a few free articles on copywriting, ranging from copywriting frameworks and 10 ways to hook people.
• Wallet Opening Words: This newsletter is a snippet of 5 of the 26.5 techniques Katelyn and Phill cover in WOW.
• Julian’s Guide to Writing Better: My cofounder Julian spent months developing his free writing guide after his content received millions of views.
• The Hook Vault: A collection of 400 of the top Twitter/X creators' top tweets. A great resource for studying sharp copywriting.

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Something fun

Kurt Vonnegut comedically shares 3 of the most common shapes of stories people love. (He even prophesies that someday you'll be able to plug these shapes into a computer, because they're so formulaic.) 

How we can help you grow

• Read our free playbooks, blog articles, and teardowns—we break down the strategies and tactics that fast-growing startups use to grow.
• Enroll in the Growth Program, our marketing course that has helped 1,000+ founders get traction and scale revenue.
• Become UNIGNORABLE. The April 22nd cohort of our audience building course is coming. The pre-sale sold out in 10 minutes. Join the waitlist.
• Need help running ads? We’ve built the ads agency for startups.

• Get your product in front of startup founders by sponsoring this newsletter.

Thanks, everyone! Have a beautiful weekend (and Happy Easter if you're celebrating).

Neal O'Grady

Justin Setzer