Have you ever heard of decoy marketing? If not, then you want to be sit up and pay attention here because this copywriting tip will change the fate of your business for the good.

I first heard of decoy marketing in an insightful book titled "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely. In the book, Dan talks about... well, how irrational we humans. As much as you and I like to think otherwise, we are no exceptions. To truly understand the power of decoy marketing, let me just explain to you the psychology that made it work.

As humans, our mind cannot process any data in absolute terms. Meaning, our mind works by making a series of comparison to judge a products value. For example, unless you're an avid collector yourself, you wouldn't know how much an antique sewing machine would cost... simple because you didn't know of any other antique sewing machines.

You have nothing to compare it to... and so you can't come up with a number.

Now, let's say you go to an antique shop and saw that its price tag is $500. What that does is that since that's the first number you are exposed to a number that is associated to the sewing machine, you would naturally accept it as it is.

And the next time you see another antique sewing machine, and its price tag is let's say, $1000, you would gasp at how expensive it is...

Because you compared it to the first machine.

So what has it got to do with you? Loads!

By using decoy marketing, you can easily inflate your price... or at least influence your prospects to choose the higher priced choice. To explain it, let's use an example.

In "Predictably Irrational", Dan Ariely used the example of a subscription option for the Economist.

Option 1: $59 online 1-year access.

Option 2: $125 1-year print edition

Option 3: $125 for both online and 1-year subscription.

Now, in a test he did, Dan found that when you removed option 3, 68% of the people chose option 1 for obvious reason - it's cheaper.

The interesting thing happens when you add option 3: 84% of the people chose option 3! What happened there? Well, that's decoy marketing in action - the decoy being option 2.

The reason, he explained, is due to the fact that our mind judge the value of the option though comparison. Option 3 seems like a no-brainer - it's the exact same price as option yet includes digital version. Under comparison, it's the best deal.

How can you your business use this kind of information? There are a lot of application of this and one of the way is the one outlined here. If the Economist is using, I'm pretty sure it can benefit your business immensely too!

Now, would you like more in-depth lessons on copywriting tips such as decoy marketing and learn how to wield its true powers? Due to space and linking limitations I can't complete it here but I've set up a website where you can continue to discover the details.

Andre Thomas was a freelance copywriter for 8 years. He now works at home as an internet marketer around his family. You can find his latest best-selling web copywriting at his website.