The writer wields the power to drive conversions, catalyze growth, and forge meaningful connections. In the world of B2B marketing, crafting your enthralling copy isn’t limited to weaving sentences together. It’s also about blending language with businesses’ needs, pain points, and aspirations.
In this resource, we learn the great Joseph Sugarman’s psychological triggers in copywriting. Our goal? To empower you with the tools to enchant your readers, earn their trust in your brand, and ultimately boost your business’s results and sales!
Joseph Sugarman: Get to Know the Legend of Copywriting
If you’re looking for writing inspiration and advice to help boost your business results, Joseph Sugarman is the person to learn from!
Joseph Sugarman was a well-known copywriter and entrepreneur who had a significant impact on the marketing industry. He’s most notable for his innovative approach to creating advertisements and copywriting techniques that are engaging and effectively persuasive.
He authored several books that copywriters today treat as their bible. These books include The Adweek Copywriting Handbook and Advertising Secrets of the Written Word. Through his books, he shared his insights and expertise into the art of copywriting, helping copywriters to connect with their audience on a deeper level.
As an entrepreneur at heart, he kickstarted the JS&A Group, which became known for the BluBlocker Sunglasses. Sugarman’s innovative long form copy and dedication to customer service were the driving forces behind the company’s remarkable success
Enchantments to Learn: Sugarman’s Psychological Triggers
Storytelling is an essential aspect of copywriting and 43 percent of B2B marketing leaders agree it’s one of the most important skills for marketers to have in the future.¹ Here we’ll explore how we can apply Joseph Sugarman’s psychological triggers for B2B marketing so that you can create better content that’ll hit the mark with your target audience.
1. Boost your B2B credibility: proof in practice.
Credibility is very important when it comes to B2B marketing. You need to establish your staffing firm’s credibility with clients and candidates by providing your audience with proof that your services work and your team fulfills the promises they make.
So, how do you establish this credibility? Social proof! Start by sharing glowing testimonials from your satisfied clients. Take the extra step to conduct interviews and surveys, giving your clients a platform to share what they loved about partnering with you. Of course, always give them a heads-up that you’ll be showcasing their positive experiences.
But that’s not all! You can also create case studies, comparing why your services are the best in the industry. If your staffing firm has received awards, talk about these achievements as well!
2. Create satisfaction conviction.
As a marketer, it’s your job to create a strong conviction that your services are worth the price. Building this conviction requires a combination of the product’s performance, its clearly communicated value, and exceptional customer support.
Enter satisfaction conviction. Take for example a 30-day refund policy. It’s not just a guarantee; it’s a statement of confidence. By offering this, you’re essentially telling your customer you’re absolutely sure they’ll like what you’re offering them. In fact, you’re so sure they’ll like it that you’ll go the extra mile if they don’t.
Sugarman was a firm believer in satisfaction convictions. He understood it can tip the scales for people on the fence about making a purchase and nudge them to take the leap and end up loyal, satisfied customers.
3. Be factual and exact.
Being exact and specific is important in establishing your claims as believable. You can do this by including concrete details, numbers, and examples in your writing. Minimize vague statements and provide specific information about what your services can do and how they can benefit your clients instead.
For example, if you want to promise clients you can build them a full finance team of experts quickly, then you can specify:
- How many months it will take for you to find people to hire
- How you will identify experts among all the candidates who will apply
- If there are any recruitment technology you will be using that will make your process fast
Being specific will set your client’s expectations and avoid disappointment along the way.
4. Build a consistent structure.
Buyers are creatures of habit; they like to stay consistent with their beliefs and past actions. To resonate with them on a deeper level, align your messages with the customer’s existing beliefs or commitments. How do you accomplish this? Start by highlighting how your offerings harmonize with their core values or seamlessly complement their prior decisions.
For example, if you’ve been working with a loyal client company for some time now. You’ve consistently delivered candidates who effortlessly integrate into their work environment, a commitment they greatly value. Now, you can offer them a structured arrangement where they can ‘test drive’ a candidate to ensure a perfect fit within their team.
If, by any chance, the candidate doesn’t align, they can swiftly return to you for a seamless replacement – a strategy that aligns effortlessly with their previous positive experiences.
5. Create a need to belong.
Humans have a natural need to belong, to be a part of the bigger picture. Show that you recognize this by creating a sense of belonging in your marketing. Highlight how working with you makes them part of an exclusive group. You can also emphasize that others like them are already benefiting from your offers.
For example, if you want to attract fresh graduates, you can say you’ve hired people like them who are now earning generous salaries because you connected them to the best employers in a certain industry.
Related Reading: Leverage Your Staffing Firm’s Intelligence as a Marketing Cornerstone
6. Trigger FOMO through a sense of urgency.
FOMO is real and it is affecting people, especially those who are significantly online. Not convinced? According to McKinsey, 32 percent of female and 22 percent of male Gen Zers said social media had a negative impact on FOMO.²
FOMO encourages immediate action by creating a sense of urgency. Limited-time offers, and time-sensitive phrases can make your customers feel that they need to act fast to grab your offered opportunity before it slips away.
Discounted prices for a limited time are a classic way of triggering FOMO, but you can also offer unique productized services that they can’t purchase after a certain date. For example, you can offer custom staffing solutions for the first ten clients to contact you within the next two months if you aren’t already offering that on a regular basis.
Related Reading: Recruitment Marketing Pro-Tip: Leverage Logical Progression of Behavior
7. Expose a possible fear you can alleviate.
Fear is a strong emotional trigger you can tap on. Show them the negative consequences of not acquiring your services. You can also highlight potential problems you can prevent. But use this strategy with caution as you don’t want to scare away your potential customers.
For example, in the nursing industry, there is currently a shortage of nurses. You can talk about this and why it is happening, and then offer solutions on how you can staff a facility with the best candidates in the market.
8. Emphasize that exclusivity can be gained.
There is an allure to exclusivity and rarity. Through this strategy, you can highlight the unique or rare aspects of your product to appeal to more people. This can help create a perception of value and make your customers feel that they’ll gain something special from you.
Some common strategies include newsletter signups and requirements to create an account. You can offer e-books on your latest research about trends in the staffing industry to people who sign up for your newsletters and email marketing campaigns.
9. Harness guilt to encourage impact.
Guilt is another powerful emotion you can harness through your writing. You can use guilt to highlight an issue or problem that your product can solve. You can write copy in a way that makes a person think that they can do more without saying they aren’t exactly doing enough. This sense of guilt can motivate them to take action.
Make your copy more impactful by providing data to support it. For example, if you’re a staffing agency that prioritizes staffing women, you can write about the lack of diversity in certain industries and how it negatively impacts the few women in these specific fields. You can then encourage people to hire more women for specific roles by highlighting the benefits of working with them.
10. Catch attention through creativity.
Keeping your customers mentally engaged is also important in copywriting. This usually involves capturing their attention through intriguing questions, persuasion triggers, and thought-provoking statements.
When you keep your readers mentally engaged, you can increase the chance they’ll continue reading or interacting with your content.
Related Reading: The Psychology of Candidate Decision-Making: What Makes Them Say Yes?
Create magic through compelling copy.
Breathe life into your B2B copy by understanding businesses’ needs and empathizing with their challenges. Through this, you can translate your multifaceted solutions into compelling narratives. Let your headlines stop people from scrolling, your body copy inspire and inform, and your call-to-actions entice people to act.
UNLOCK FRESH B2B MARKETING TRICKS WITH ALLIED INSIGHT
Your copy and content should do more than just convey information; they should be the driving force behind establishing your brand’s undeniable value. With the right approach, you can attract a broader and more loyal audience, all eager to embrace your staffing services. Let Allied Insight unveil the marketing secrets to make it happen.
Our team of full-stack marketing experts is poised to provide you with the solutions you need to fortify your brand. Our services encompass MarCom Strategy and Delivery, the Art of Crafting Brand-centric Competitive Advantages and Productized Services, and more. Schedule a chat with us today to get started on creating your best-ever marketing content!
References
1 “The B2B Marketing Benchmark.” LinkedIn, business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/amp/marketing-solutions/images/lms-state-of-b2b-marketing/pdf/the-b2b-benchmark-report-2023-final.pdf. Accessed 10 Aug. 2023.
2 Coe, Erica, et al. “Gen Z Mental Health: The Impact of Tech and Social Media.” McKinsey, 28 Apr. 2023, www.mckinsey.com/mhi/our-insights/gen-z-mental-health-the-impact-of-tech-and-social-media.
