Been ruminating on this one for a little while now but it’s probably one of most profound discoveries of my life. It all began with a little book about music and it’s had such a deep influence on my copywriting and small business, indeed my whole outlook on life, I'd like to share it with you all now.

Here’s what happened…

About 8 years ago I bought book “Man and Music In India” by Roshmi Goswami and was introduced to a staggering thought from within it’s pages… that every note sounded by a musician is actually a container for spirit of musician.

Now breaking that open further I began to see that (I’m a musician myself; drummer, guitar player) as notes of a musician could be filled by very soul or spirit of musician himself or even God or demons (if you believe in them) so notes were almost like little boats that each musician filled with their persona unique to them and by plucking, singing, striking note they in essence ‘launched’ it out into waves of sea of sound where it eventually reaches ‘port’ of it’s destination - audiences hearing ear, who gladly receive and enjoy it (or otherwise if a bad musician).

In my mind’s eye I saw each musical piece therefore (stick with me here - it’s worth it I promise) as composed of thousands of little boats (the notes) sent out to sail across sea of sound by vibration (the waves) to audiences listening intently on other side of that ’sound sea’.

For many years I thought about this and then realised (sorry I’m a bit slow on uptake sometimes!) that this didn’t just apply to notes in music but more deeply and profoundly it actually applied to very stuff of life itself - WORDS.

As such every single every single word you say or write is a container, a ‘little boat’ as it were… that actually contains YOU! The question is what fills your ‘little boat’ before you launch it out to sea?

If light bulb has not gone on yet it will, just keep pondering bigger picture above - perhaps of a lone master violinist or a sitar and tabla player deeply intwined in an intricate Indian raga and before long you’ll understand exactly what I’m driving at… and it’s deep, very profound.

When you apply above metaphor to words you see little boats not as notes just being “containers for music and spirit of musician” but rather words as little ships themselves that contain YOUR very essence, spirit, soul and persona.

Every time you speak or write a single line you release a little ‘Armada’ of these little boats out onto sea of existence itself - if speaking, then out onto splashing waves of ’sea of sound’ - if writing, then even more deeply into sea of ‘heart to heart direct communication’ itself… without a sound, directly to target.

What’ s so profound about written word is it’s ability (when writing is good) to bypass all defences humans erect against other human’s intrusion and drop directly into emotional and decision making part of heart to evoke powerful responses. That’s also good if you want to sell something to someone.

Quick example…

My wife didn’t even know I really had feelings for her in first months of us knowing each other and she’d moved to another town 65 miles away - I wrote her a letter; it was pretty powerful (I was terrible at controlling my emotions then and splurged clumsy letter full of poetry and undying declarations of love etc!) and she phoned me saying she was surprised at my feelings for her; within 8 weeks we were married and that was 17 years ago.

Prior to letter I’d just been a fleeting aquaintance and if I’d tried face to face I’d probably have blown it being so nervous and all but; words carrying my spirit, passion, persona bypassed all her natural resistance and… melted her heart!

At opposite extreme though, you've some sites which don't even have a single decent headline anywhere that captures visitors attention, let alone leads them into captivating copywriting that'll get them a sale.

Although it's true to say human emotion hasn't changed in last 10 years online, consumer and buyer reactions have undoubtedly become far more sophisticated over past decade. Further, with something like 43% of all web shopping carts being abandoned at point of sale it's crucial we understand and react proactively to this new buyer sophistication.

In short, todays online buyers are both pretty wired and wised up. Unless you understand this and adjust your offering accordingly your headlines are very likely to drive prospective clients away rather than entice them into your copy for a second look if they've even a sniff of hype about them or just plain bore them silly.

Either of above extremes is obviously counter-productive but rather than opting for a bland 'middle way' approach to your copywriting or headlines, here's a sure fire way to generate intensely gripping copy that rivets even ultra sophisticated buyers to every word you publish. It keeps them spellbound all way down your pages until they've executed your desired marketing action - either opting in, clicking through to a new page or making a purchase without dumping cart.

If you want these type of results then use "The Psyschology Of Scarcity" and you'll soon have these new 'sophisticats' under your marketing spell and more importantly, get them buying what you sell. Here's exactly how it works...

The basic underlying principle is widely known of course, and springs from proven psychological response people give when they're denied or given limited access to something they intensely desire.

Basically, when people are told they can't have something they want it all more. As a result incredibly powerful emotions are released which go on to drive actions often deemed irrational under normal circumstances. As marketers we can take advantage of this almost primitive reaction (ethically of course) to bypass even sophisticated buyers resistance and go on to make sale.

Here's a further demonstration to show powerful this is...

Imagine for a moment tonights TV news announces a grave national emergency and petrol (gas) is to be be strictly rationed to one just full tank for your car for an entire month... but this rationing won't start until one weeks time. However, you are not allowed to stockpile petrol because that's bad.

Now I don't know about you honourable folks but almost instantly a picture of my storeroom stacked to ceiling with Jerry cans full of petrol popped into my mind! I'm not saying I'd do that if this was a true scenario but I'd probably have a couple of cans laid aside, just for emergencies of course. At pumps and service stations there would be a stampede, because psychology of scarcity would release these deep emotional responses. This actually happened here in UK two years ago and there was mayhem.

Now let's see if we can insert a mechanism deep into our headlines and online copy that'll immediately invoke exactly same kind of emotional responses within those who visit our sites. If we can then all sophistication in world won't stop our visitors from reaching for their credit cards to buy what we sell.We're looking for response that comes directly from gut - that's not filtered out by sophisticated mind. That's where we aim our copy at, heart not head.

The type of mechanisms we've found work best in invoking these emotion driven responses are as follows...

1) Strictly limit amount of product you are selling in each promotion, put it right up front in headline or first sentence where everyone can see it and strictly adhere to your statement. If you say you've only got 100 widgets to sell, then pull promo when you reach that point or people will see whole thing as a facade. Here in UK richest sofa and 3 piece suite supplier uses this technique very well, although now after 2 years we're all beginning to see through these 'promo weekend specials', so be wise when you use it.

Make your product scarce... because then you make it valuable and desired in others eyes.

2) Set time sensitive deadlines that really do expire - Set a deadline for promo to finish and give a special discount on product if purchased before that time. When you reach that day pull promo headlines, ad, lot. People will heed what you say and buy far quicker next time you set a deadline. I've done it myself, got to a site with expired deadline and missed out, next time I payed far more attention to their pitch and website gained credibility in my eyes.

3) Use number limits for recruiting headlines - when recruiting people for sales teams, affiliates etc use figures that limit amount of people you 'appear' to wish to recruit. For example use a headline portion including "We urgently require 5 key individuals for our new IT project...". At same time as limiting opportunity here you also give each individual a glimmer of hope that they'll be among 'chosen few' to land rare but rather plum project.