7 Persuasive Copywriting Techniques That Make Customers Pull Out Their Cards

Good copy is written persuasive argumentation meant to sell something. Here are 7 tactics to make your copy more compelling so you can make more sales with each send.

If you thought that the best copywriters all come from the writing world, you’d be wrong.

Some of the best copywriters came from sales, law, or philosophy before they ever wrote a marketing email.

They already knew how to build a case, dismantle an objection, and lead someone to a conclusion without it feeling like a push.

Yeah, they do need to hone the actual writing portion. But a little bit of practice puts them right into “solid copywriter” territory.

Copywriting is about persuasion, not words. These three careers (and others like them) force you to develop those skills to succeed:

• Sales: Get people to buy from you (most analogous)

• Law: Persuade a judge/jury/the public of the merits of your case

• Philosophy: Demonstrate why your point makes more logical sense

In the course of doing so, they learn plenty of persuasion tactics they can deploy where relevant to strengthen their arguments.

I use many of the same tactics in my own copy. So do my copywriting friends.

Here are seven of the best — what they are, why they work on the human brain, and how to use them deliberately when writing your emails (or other copy).

What’s In This Article:

• 1. The Reductio ad Absurdum

• 2. Making the Skeleton Dance

• 3. Steelmanning

• 4. Value Reframing

• 5. Specificity

• 6. Analogy

• 7. Burden of Proof Shift

• Write Copy That Actually Moves People

• Other Ways I Can Help You

1. The Reductio ad Absurdum

Socrates would follow someone’s reasonable-sounding claim to its logical conclusion to demonstrate its absurdity.

In doing so, he shows how their argument falls apart and thus won’t work for, for example, how family structure in his ideal City/Polis would work.

This is called reductio ad absurdum (reduce to absurdity) tactic, and it applies to marketing as much as to philosophical debates.

For example, I wrote an email for a health/fitness supplement brand calling out “Big Protein.”

Some supplement brands inflate their protein powder’s protein count by doubling the serving size — 20g protein/scoop becomes 40g /serving by defining a serving as two scoops.

Looks impressive on the label. But follow that logic:

If doubling the serving size doubles the protein count, why stop there?

Make the serving size the entire bag. 30 scoops. Suddenly you have 600g of protein per serving. Best protein powder on the market.

Obviously absurd. But that’s what the competitors are doing. It’s just hidden until you, the persuasion expert, follow that to its logical and silly conclusion.

This worked for Socrates as much as it does for copy because it doesn’t feel like an attack. It’s more of a question/dialogue.

You’re just asking: If we take this reasoning seriously, where does it lead?

And when the answer is somewhere ridiculous, the reader arrives at that conclusion themselves — far more persuasive than being told what to think.

Use it against misleading marketing claims, flawed conventional wisdom, or any “best practice” that sounds smart until you actually think it through. Great way to “throw stones at common enemies” and go after common but not-so-good practices in your niche.

2. Making the Skeleton Dance

Every product has a skeleton in its closet. Something that, if the customer learns about it… they *GASP* might not buy.

Most brands try to hide it. All that does is give the customer an unpleasant surprise and make them annoyed or angry.

The better move is to drag it out into the open and make it “dance” — show why the bad is actually a GOOD.

For example, say I run a leather goods brand and charge more than others due to quality, domestic sourcing, etc.

I might say, “Yes, we’re the most expensive option on the market. We’re also the only ones who still source our leather from American tanneries and hire skilled American workers to craft our belts.“

You’ve disarmed the objection before it becomes a wall and managed to make it another reason to buy from you vs. your competitors. It’s a clever positioning tactic.

My Perfect Price Hike Formula campaign template uses a “reverse” version of this very tactic. We show why we HAVE to raise prices if we want to maintain all the high standards our customers enjoy.

See? No one likes price hikes, but I turned it into a good thing.

When you acknowledge a flaw or hard truth the reader was thinking, you signal that you’re not trying to spin them.

The reader can safely assume you’re not hiding anything going forward. They feel more confident placing that first (or second, or third) order.

3. Steelmanning

A “strawman” is a cheap rhetorical tactic (and, for some, a logical fallacy) where you set up the weakest version of someone’s argument and knock it down. Often, it’s not even an argument the other person made. It’s putting words in their mouth. It’s a bad faith argument in most cases.

A “steelman” is the opposite. You elucidate the strongest version of the argument you’re about to counter.

Now that you’ve presented the best case for the other “side” (in this case, a brand/common opinion/something else) in good faith, you can show why the argument still doesn’t hold.

Sounds counterintuitive. But, like Making the Skeleton Dance and similar tactics, it builds trust.

A reader who disagrees with you feels heard when you accurately represent their position.

Even if they’re loyal to another brand, you gain some respect at the very least. That’s worth something. But hey, you might win their business.

Meanwhile, a reader who already agrees with you feels more confident after watching the strongest counterargument get addressed and still come up short. They’re more assured that they’re buying high-quality stuff from a good, honest company.

Either way, your point lands harder because you’ve shown the full picture without leaving anything out or arguing in bad faith.

An example:

If you’re making the case that email marketing outperforms social media, don’t just say “social media is unreliable because algorithms change.” That’s true, but weak. It ignores all the benefits of social media, obvious and subtle.

The steelman looks something like: “Social media can build massive audiences quickly, costs nothing to start, and creates viral potential that email simply doesn’t have. For brand awareness and top-of-funnel reach, it’s genuinely powerful.“

Then you make your case for email.

Makes more sense — email is NOT a miracle marketing channel. It serves its purpose, just like social media. So if you’re selling email marketing courses, books, etc, you’re appealing to people who need help with THAT part of their business. Social media may be the better tool for ANOTHER audience.

Now the reader knows you understand the alternative and still arrived at a different conclusion rather than dismissed it out of arrogance or ignorance.

Harder for them to dismiss you.

4. Value Reframing

Price is not some absolute thing existing in a vacuum. It is ALWAYS relative to something else.

Whatever “something else” is determines the price’s reasonableness as the prospective customer perceives it.

So a “price” objection is not that something costs too much. Rather, you must raise the perceived value using copy until it’s higher than the price tag.

For example, $500 sounds expensive. But compared to what? It’s expensive compared to “nothing” (in an abstract sense) or, more tangibly, “I am paying nothing right now.”

But what if spending $500 now on, say, ads, earns you $600 extra/month in sales? You regain your investment + more.

A $500 expense to save just $100/month for a few years may be “cheap,” even after accounting for time value of money.

The concept here is not bombarding them with value, but showing them what NOT acting is costing them. It works especially well for higher-ticket products where the upfront number creates hesitation.

It’s also why I am against constant discounts. Instead of organically building/reframing the value, you’re “brute forcing” it by lowering the price to the customer’s perceived value.

Or, more simply…

You’re devaluing your product.

NOTE: People do something similar called “value stacking” in sales pages before announcing the price. It basically involves sharing everything the offer provides (plus benefits and dimensionalization), then introduces the price (often with a few “false prices” like “$1,000? Nope. $500? Lower. $250? Yep, just $250” to further set the mental context and show just how affordable the product is, relatively speaking.

5. Specificity

Gary Bencivenga, the world’s greatest living copywriter, says that EVERY claim should have proof to back it up.

I agree.

A vague claim like “best moisturizer on the market” is boooooring. Anyone can write that on their product at any time for any reason. Customers don’t even register that kind of thing half the time.

No one actually knows what that means, either. “Best?”

Best at what?

“Healing/clearing your skin!”

Yeah duh. But what does that actually look like?

Well, how about we instead say, “94% of users saw visibly softer skin within 7 days in a third-party clinical trial?”

Hmm. Much more persuasive. I now know that a specific portion of users (a large portion) saw concrete results that I also seek within a specific (and pretty short) timeframe. Feels less risky to buy.

Or maybe, “dermatologist-tested on 200 women over 60 days, with 89% reporting reduced fine lines?”

Again:

A large but specific portion over a specific timeframe achieving a defined result. I even included the total number of women so the reader could do the math and see that 178/200 reduced their fine lines.

Specificity works because it implies measurement and actual lived experience. You took time and effort to get data. That’s harder than dashing off “best XYZ,” AND it’s harder to fudge (false data may look less realistic). Vague claims lack that accountability.

It’s the same reason a witness in court is more believable when they have details. The time on the clock, the color of the car, the exact words someone said, the people who were around, and so on all make a witness more credible and more helpful to whichever party they are used by.

The more specific claims you have, the more likely customers will buy. A few more examples:

• Testimonials: “I lost 14 pounds in six weeks” is more credible than “I lost a lot of weight”

• Timeframes: “Within 30 days” is more powerful than versus “quickly”

• Product claims: “Cold-pressed at under 40 degrees to preserve enzymes” feels a lot more professional and expert than “minimally processed”

When in doubt, get more specific.

6. Analogy

Some concepts, ideas, benefits, etc are hard to explain or demonstrate on their own.

Analogy is one of my favorite techniques to overcome this issue. It maps something unfamiliar or abstract,

I write in the health/supplements spaces a TON. So I often analogize the human body to a car.

For example, it doesn’t matter how much gas you put in your car: If your engine is small, your car isn’t fast. Or maybe if your engine is broken, then the car won’t work well or at all.

Similarly, it doesn’t matter how much food you eat or something similar if your body can’t efficiently turn it into energy for high performance.

The concept holds across both cases: The human body and a car both have systems that turn an energy source into mechanical energy. Energy source vs. what uses that energy.

The reader now better understands the point being made: Fixing your metabolism is more important than merely eating healthy foods. Just like fixing your engine is more important than fueling your car.

Plus, analogizing helps customers visualize the effects by forming a picture in their head. They can imagine someone fixing an engine and a car going faster.

That ports over to the body, visually (even if “metabolism” isn’t a fixed actual object like an engine). Food is “gasoline” that goes into their mouth, metabolism (the “engine”) is represented by, in their mind, the stomach (most likely).

Analogizing fails if the parallel doesn’t hold well. It confuses the reader and does more damage than no analogy at all since the reader notices the cracks and, depending on the analogy, perceives you’re trying to make your product sound better than it is.

Sometimes, you discover that the analogy is weak after writing it, so it can be trial and error.

Either way, this may take a bit of practice to get right. But when you get it, it’s fun and persuasive.

7. Burden of Proof Shift

As mentioned earlier, every claim you make needs proof. The need to supply proof for a claim is called the “burden of proof.”

But how about this:

Instead of defending your position, flip the burden to the skeptic. Make them defend their position.

Not aggressively, though (unless your brand personality is aggressive and “rude,” so to speak). Should feel more like genuine exploration — such as “why wouldn’t you want to know what your customers really think?”

Now, the reader’s trying to justify their inaction. They haven’t thought through why they’d resist. When you ask them to make the case against what you’re offering, they often can’t.

Lacking a good counterargument can add to the persuasive power. Works best used alongside many other techniques.

Use it sparingly. It works best when the alternative to your offer is hard to defend, not when you’re asking someone to justify a reasonable hesitation.

In those cases, the burden of proof shift feels dismissive rather than compelling. But when the status quo costs someone something, asking them to defend it can be the most efficient persuasion tool in the email.

Write Copy That Actually Moves People

These aren’t “tricks.” You’re not “fooling” people into buying. Your audience has a problem or goal, your product solves that problem or accomplishes that goal. If your product is genuinely good, they NEED it.

You’re simply structuring an argument that most effectively communicates to the reader why they need these.

You use some of the same tactics in day-to-day conversation, in fact. When you tell someone that your drink at the bar tastes really strong, you’re “making the skeleton dance.” Doesn’t taste great, but one drink will get you your money’s worth.

Or when you explain to a friend why you chose the more expensive gym over the cheap one by showing off the amount of interior space, new equipment, and extra amenities, you’re doing some value reframing.

The more you study good copy, the more you’ll start to see these tactics everywhere. The more you use them deliberately, the more natural they become.

So work a few of these into your copy. You don’t need to do them all at first (since each takes some level of skill to nail). A well-placed reductio ad absurdum or tight analogy can go much further than spamming “here’s why we’re so great” in your copy.

If you want to go deeper on the craft of persuasive email copy, Email Copy Academy is the place to be. It’s a full course on writing emails that sell, built around the principles that actually move people — created by Chris Orzechowski, industry-leading email marketing professional.

Click here to learn more about Email Copy Academy.

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