Morning NHB,

You know…

…Lately, I'm in a copywriting kind of mood.

It has something to do with the seasons, like winter. It's cold and crispy, and a hot cup of coffee contrasts with the weather. It fights to break through the resistance of the cold…

…Much like the words do when we put them down in a sales process, they contrast, fight, and resist being ignored.

And yet the thought that often comes to me as I write copy is that if we have to push against something to get through, then something is resisting it.

So, instead of fighting with the resistance, why not work with it.

Why not join it, enable it, and convert it to our side, because after all…

…The real conversion in a sales process isn't converting someone to something; it's about converting that resistance on our side, so the only thing left to do is to automatically convert themselves.

A bit of akido if you will.

There are many techniques for doing this, but one of the most powerful ones you can employ as a copywriter is the concept of mentally binding someone.

Once the mind is mentally bound to a thought, opposing it would mean opposing itself, and we both know that they'll oppose you, me, the world, ideas, thoughts, and concepts, but…never their own, how could they? A mind does not go against itself.

To understand this on a deeper level, I wrote a post some time ago called "negative admittance", where I mentioned how every offer forces them to admit something negative about themselves.

So, say you're selling a weight loss offer. Well, for someone to buy it, they have to first admit that they have weight to lose and that they're either out of shape or fat, hence why we minimize the level of negative admittance the conversion rates go up quite a bit.

Instead of having to lose 300 pounds, "they only has to lose 5-10 pounds", and if they want to lose more, they can just extend it; how much is up to them.

See that? Now, they're not overweight and don't feel that bad. Compare that to someone telling them they can lose 50-100 lbs. On the surface, it makes sense because if one can quickly lose 50-100 lbs, then surely they can lose 5-10; it'd be nothing. And while true, it doesn't work that way, the subconscious mind will push back, hence the concept of negative admittance.

This works in everything, if they have to make a bunch of money, it implies they don't have money. If they don't have a girlfriend, they must admit they are not wanted or good enough to have a girlfriend to buy.

I discovered this concept while running a men's dating offer some years ago, where they would not buy because the male ego is often very fragile, and we were breaking it in close. Once we removed the negative admittance, it started converting.

You can also look up my post on the "double spend problem," a quantifiable version of this.

Now, as there is negative admittance, there is the opposite, positive admittance, mentally binding the thought.

Once you mentally bind a thought, they cannot go against it as it will force them to go against themselves, causing the only option to go through, which is to buy or take whatever action you want.

The way it works, somewhere in the copy, usually near the close…

…All you have to do is start feeding the ego what it wants, which is to be better, smarter, and stronger than anyone else — so it can protect itself based on the four motivating traits of survival, reproduction, safety/security, and status.

We first start out with a positive, followed by a negative.

We feed it all these traits at once, and the way we do it is to simply start flatting it via language that goes something like this:

"You've seen ___, you've seen example after example of ______, and you know how ______ works, you saw others ______ and you know that ______…

…Every top-level copywriter is measured by one thing and one thing only: their ability to generate sales through their copy….

…And that's why every good copywriter hired these days can do everything, and that's close…

…But the best of the best also know how to use mental binds in their closing copy, so the prospect has no choice but to move forward; otherwise, they have no choice…

…And you also know that if a copywriter can't close sales, they're nothing more than a content writer because without being able to sell, your copy is nothing more than mere content.

So this is a quick and easy example of a mental bind for copywriters.

I'll break it down for you, at first we focus on the evidence and pull in imagery into the mind so we can establish the strength of our argument and position, hence the "You've seen____" line.

Then we start saying what EVERY (absolute statement) good copywriter can do these days, which is close, but the BEST use mental binds (which is this post), then we go into the negative if you can't close, then it's not copy, it's mere content.

Now, that is the STRUCTURE to give you an IDEA of what it looks like, and as always, you should take that structure and expand it / work it, and make it work for you.

I've used these binds in countless offers, but the most notable one was a parenting offer where we used it in the upsell that absolutely crushed and 3x'd the conversion rate.

Here's what I did: I used the structure of good parent bad parent. In essence, it went something like this:

• You’re not a good parent if you don’t hit upgrade.

• But if you do hit upgrade, then you’re a good parent

So only good parents upgrade, bad parents don't. I can't share the word-for-word copy due to respecting the privacy of the offer, but in a sense, it went something like this:

"And the parents who don't truly deeply care of love their children don't tend to __, or __ or ____ because they ___ which puts their kids a distant second to their priorities…

…Whereas good parents prioritize their kids, make them #1 and always look for ways to better their kid's lives, and that's why all good parents end up upgrading to ______, because ________"

That's not the copy as is, but it's the structure of it.

Damn, that one hit…after reading it, if you didn't buy it, you'd feel like the worst parent ever, but when you did, it made you feel like the best parent in the world.

That's the power of mental binds in copy.

This can be used in any copy format, including VSLs, TSLs, Webinars, Book-a-call offers, Emails, ads, etc…

…Once it clicks, it clicks, and you'll start using it everywhere.

Now that you've seen how it works, you've seen examples and know that it worked for others and that it's going to work for you…

…You're smart enough to start using them otherwise you wouldn't have read this far.

See what I did there? A mini-mental bind .

They're subtle but powerful, so start using them and watch your conversations increase.

All the best,

Alen Sultanic

P.S. Here's a link to the NHB FB Group Post about this.