What’s the difference between getting somebody to say “yes” to your request 60% of the time versus 93% of the time?

Sometimes it’s just one word. Because.

According to Psychology Today, a 1978 Harvard study found that 60% of people waiting in line said yes when asked, “Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the Xerox machine?”

The surprising part? 93% of people let someone cut them in line when asked, “Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make copies?”

Yep, that tiny change drove a 33% increase in conversions.

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​🤓 Brainy Breakdown

Humans hate losing.

That’s because (😉) the emotion that comes with loss feels 2x more powerful than the one from gain.

You can get more attention on your ads by speaking to your audience’s fear of losing.

Instead of saying, “Keep more of your customers” in their Facebooks ad copy…

ProfitWell says: “Sick of losing customers to cancellations?”

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By highlighting potential losses first and then following up with a gain-focused call-to-action, ProfitWell covers their bases and (likely) earns more clicks.

Brainy principles used: Loss Aversion and Negativity Bias​

📖 Brainy Resource​

You probably don’t have time to study 100s of the latest scientific papers in marketing. So you under-optimize, and leave money on the table.

An ex-Googler was sick of this, so he created Ariyh: Academic Research In Your Hands.

​Ariyh comes right to your inbox with 3-min practical marketing recommendations from the latest science. Not opinions.

​Subscribe for free to join 16,000+ evidence-based marketers.

Here’s an example of what you’ll get with Ariyh every week:

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💡 Brainy Spotlight

What’s the #1 storytelling rule of all time?

You have to start with a killer hook.

If you don’t draw readers in…you’ll lose them to the next stimulus that flickers across their screen.

What defines a great hook?

Neal O’Grady, a Why We Buy reader and our partner in the Un-Ignorable Challenge, explains the 9 ways to write attention-grabbing hooks.

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​Read the other 8 strategies for writing a compelling hook here. (You’ll also get 2 examples per hook from some of your favorite internet celebs).​

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​Until next time, happy selling.