Author Archive
10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Using Flash
Adobe Flash has been habitually misused by design-centric website developers — so much so that a few of us at FutureNow tend to wince when it’s even mentioned in passing.
It’s not that we don’t like Flash. When used purposefully, Flash has the potential to dramatize a product or service’s benefits in ways that static pictures and text can’t quite match.
The micro-site for the Sigma DP-1 camera (choose language preference to start) is a good example of Flash done right.
Notice how the choreographed presentation of text and pictures dramatizes the benefit of having a DSLR image sensor in a compact camera body. And notice how the site’s designers capture your attention from the beginning of the presentation and lead you to a place where you can then interact with the camera’s features.
Sigma’s Flash presentation creates persuasive momentum, then leverages it by bringing viewers to an interactive website where they can drill down into specifics.
For an example of Flash used within a website — rather than as an introduction to a website — I recommend taking a look at this page from the Leo Diamond website. No, it’s not the prettiest site out there, but the Flash tools provide visitors with a better feel for diamond carrot size and color than either text or static pictures could. And it works.
Flash can be an effective tool when used intelligently and sparingly. But before you decide on using it, ask yourself the following questions:
1. What will this allow me to convey that text and static images wouldn’t?
2. Am I actually conveying benefits or just adding sparkle and glitz?
3. Is there a way to make this more interactive and not just a push-presentation?
4. If I can’t make it interactive, what can I do to hook the viewer right from the start, so they don’t skip the presentation? (You ARE going to provide a “skip” option, right?)
5. What pathways am I providing to the flash viewer when they are done with the interactive tool or presentation?
6. Are there clear links and pathways forward that will lead to conversion?
7. Will the static content allow visitors to drill down into the topics most important to them?
8. Does it address the visitor’s true concerns?
9. Will you capitalize on the persuasive momentum from the Flash presentation?
10. Do your calls to action continue to build on that momentum?
If you can answer those questions, it might be smart to use Flash sparingly.
. .
About the Author: Jeff Sexton is a Persuasion Architect, and on June 2nd, he’ll be taking the day off from helping clients fuse style and substance to teach FutureNow’s Persuasive Online Copywriting seminar in Manhattan.
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Written by:Jeff Sexton
How to Find Your Website’s Voice (Even if it’s a Blog)
In our “Ask the Experts” post, Dina asks how to find her voice — her copywriting voice, that is — for a blog:
“Copywriting for a lifestyle blog is a mystery. How can a blogger create compelling copy that resonates in the short opportunities available, i.e. tagline, front page, about page, social media profiles so that readers subscribe?
“Long copy strategies just don’t work on my baby boomer marriage blog. There’s not enough room to describe the content, show personality and be keyword-rich without sounding crazy.
“What style of writing works best in a blog situation?”
As social media evolves, businesses of all sizes are struggling to maintain a balance in tone between website, blog, and anywhere else their content and brand are represented.
You may already know how to find your website’s voice, so let’s unpack Dina’s question a bit and see if it applies to your social media strategy as well…
Hi Dina!
First, subscribe to Brian Clark’s Copyblogger. He’s got concrete advice on web copy and content creation in general, and he’s the best of the best when it comes to copy that’s specifically tailored to blogging. In fact, one of his writers just did a post about “How to Create a Rock-Solid Tagline“.
Second — Before we, or anyone, can help you find the right tone for your blog, it’s essential to understand its goal.
How are you measuring success? You say you want to generate subscriptions, but to what end? Do you plan on monetizing the blog — and if so, how? Question your own assumptions. You’re suggesting that there are only a few “short opportunities available” to ask people to subscribe, but don’t forget that each post can present an opportunity to subscribe.
Your About Us page should be about more than just “keyword-rich” copy; it should tell your story. Take a look at Nike’s About Us page. Powerful, isn’t it? Sure, they hit all of the essential, dry corporate facts, but those few sentences that stick out let you know why people care about their brand. Your About Us page shouldn’t need to be as dramatic as Nike’s, but it should reflect your blog’s purpose. Remember, you’re asking people to subscribe to your blog, not search engines.
Let people know what you’ve done; where’ you’ve come from; what’s in it for you; what’s in it for them. Future Now’s About Us page isn’t perfect, but hopefully we’ve been both honest and persuasive — two things that are essential to our blog’s voice as well.
In your case (Dina runs a lifestyle blog about boomers getting married), here are a few questions that might help you find the right voice:
- What is the overall emotional stance that your blog has towards its subject?
- How does your blog view marriage?
- Write down some adjectives or perspectives to help.
- If your blog where an actual person, who would it be? Is your blog:
- Another girlfriend to talk to about marriage?
- A marriage counselor?
- A sincere talk show host?
- A close friend of the opposite sex who you feel comfortable asking sticky questions?
- A favorite aunt who has been there, done that, and gotten the t-shirt?
- Is there a favorite quote you have on marriage that sums things up for you?
- Is there one particular moment in the life of your blog that would capture its essence in a nutshell?
- Do certain words or phrases keep popping up in your blog, and would they help show your style/voice?
It may seem silly, but this stuff works.
Third, once you’ve established your blog’s voice, make sure it resonates in the details. Comment directions, error messages, category titles and the like are all good places to indicate your personality. But most of all, headlines are key. Make sure the post titles reflect both your brand’s personality and voice.
Finally, to the degree possible, make sure the content on the blog matches its editorial voice as well. This may be harder to do with multi-author blogs, but having a central blog voice can help. Send the style and voice guidelines out and simply ask for your writers not to stray too far from it. When some of them (quite inevitably) do stray, you can simply make it your policy to brand the post slightly differently than normal, so the readers know that not everyone shares the guest blogger’s perspective.
When in doubt, you can always ask your readers what they think.
. .
Editor’s Note: These are all things we’ve tried to do while finding our own voice at GrokDotCom. It’s not easy, particularly when offering what one hopes is constructive criticism, to be percieved as actually having been constructive. Of course, subscribing to a blog feed or a newsletter does not mean you subscribe to everything its authors say or how they say it. And as Seth Godin points out, “Sometimes, the web is more of a cocktail party than a club meeting.” Very true — and doubly so for those of us who offer advice.
On that note, we’d like to hear your thoughts on how GrokDotCom’s voice has evolved over the days, months, or years you’ve been reading. Don’t worry about hurting our feelings, either. We’d only be hurt if you thought we weren’t listening.
Feel free to share your comments below or email Robert (that’s me) directly. Thanks!
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Written by:Jeff Sexton
Top 7 Tips for Optimizing Low-Traffic Websites
On our “Ask the Experts” post, one reader asked how to go about optimizing a low-traffic website.
We get this question a lot.
Marketers — particularly small business owners and do-it-yourself-ers — want to know if optimization is worth it. They’re short on time and they’re dealing with limited resources. They can’t wait six months to fix something that’s broken now. They don’t have the luxury.
If you’ve realized optimization can’t wait, and you don’t have the budget to hire a firm, consider these…
Tips for Optimizing Low-Traffic Websites
1.) Get a testing platform — Any testing platform will do, but if your budget is tight, we recommend using Google Website Optimizer. It’s free to use and FutureNow has developed several free resources to help you get started.
2.) Stick to A/B split testing — For a low-traffic site, you’ll want to stay away from multivariate tests and stick to simpler A/B split testing. Multivariate testing involves optimizing more than one page element at a time, often with more than one variation per element on a given page. For example, you might be testing four different headlines, three different pictures, and two variations of your body copy on a given landing page. That means you’ve just created 24 (4×3x2) different page combinations for your test. Getting enough traffic to come up with a statistically valid results could take a low-traffic site an exceedingly long time to do that. Assuming you had 50 visits per day and a brilliantly high current conversion rate of 10%, that still means it would still take more than two thousand days (about 6 years!) to get any data worth looking at. Meanwhile, A/B testing only a few combinations can give you statistically valid data within a month or two. Again, low-traffic sites should stick to A/B testing. (This white paper can help you determine whether it’s too little or too early to A/B test.)
3.) Don’t make hasty conclusions — Be patient. Wait for the tests to fully complete before jumping to conclusions. Once they do complete, take a deep breath. On any given test page, the “Chance to Beat Original” and “Chance to Beat All” percentages are crucial — and potentially misleading if you’re not up on your statistics. Basically, anything less than 90% is simply a trend that might be reversed from one week to the next. We’ve actually seen these kind of reversals happen, where a positive change (with 70% chance to beat original) flipped negative from one week to the next. Think of it this way: If you randomly flip a coin, you could get 3-4 heads in a row over 4 flips and conclude that heads was the clear “winner” over tails. Not smart. Only after many, many flips is it safe to assume you have a clear winner (or a very weird coin).
4.) Know what you’re looking for — Make sure you know how to get a hypothesis worth testing. In other words, you should know ahead of time how to interpret the results. Don’t randomly test this image or that headline. Do so because you have reason to believe the headline “should” better appeal to buyers with a given buying motivation, or because the picture “should” resolve a particular concern. That way, you have a basis for interpreting the results. That doesn’t mean the results will be absolutely conclusive (it’s possible that people really do have your hypothesized motivation but your headline was merely a bad execution of the concept), but you’ll have a way to interpret the results and do further analysis if needed. Intelligent testing essential, especially when you don’t have much traffic.
5.) Test one click at a time* — Shorten the distance between the Experiment Page (where you’re running the test) and the Goal Page (where you count conversions). This will yield conclusive results in less time. A quick e-commerce example: Use the shopping cart as a Goal Page for a test being run on a Product Page (as opposed to using the Order Confirmation Page as the Goal Page).
6.) Ensure success with Pay-Per-Click* — Purchasing traffic to validate changes to your site is like buying insurance on the effectiveness of your web design. If your PPC ads are well targeted and attract more (and more qualified) visitors, your test results will be more accurate. With enough visitors, testing is like letting visitors design your site for you.
7.) Prioritize your optimization efforts — Optimizing for usability and conversion is usually easier than optimizing for persuasion. Before a site can persuade, its basic elements must work. Go for the low-hanging fruit, then work your way up the Hierarchy of Optimization.
Got questions on how to optimize your site? Feel free to contact us or leave a comment below.
. .
*Indicates a tip that has been added to the list.
[Editor’s Note: Today is your last chance to register for the Persuasive Online Copywriting seminar, happening tomorrow, Friday the 28th, in San Francisco.We’re keeping class size small and there are only two or three tickets left, so hop to it!]
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Written by:Jeff Sexton
5 Ways to Optimize Your Website Credibility
In response to our “Ask the Experts” post, Nathan wanted to know how to test and optimize for Trust and Credibility online. It’s a great question and a huge issue, so forgive me if I link off to a lot of resources before getting down to practical “how to” information.
First of all, take a look at Dave Young’s screencast on “Building Trust and Credibility Online.” Dave does a fantastic job of breaking down specific techniques he used to build a website capable of inspiring confidence. Once you’ve taken a look at that, I humbly suggest you look at my series on Inspiring Online Credibility.
After reviewing those articles, I would recommend these five things to virtually everyone:
• Test your contact info. If you’re not already prominently displaying your contact number, test making your phone number larger and showing it clearly on the top-right corner or right-hand column.
• Test different images. Your images should actively help to evoke credibility. Let visitors “see for themselves.” (Dave’s screencast goes into specific ways in which a roofing company uses videos to inspire confidence.) Generally, stock images won’t help you in this regard.
• Test your Point of Action assurances. Do you have privacy policies, hacker safe icons, guarantees, etc? Are you placing these assurances next to the appropriate calls to action? (Bryan offers some ideas in this screencast.)
• Test your ‘About Us’ content. Do you recognize the power of the About Us page?Are you letting visitors see into your values, motivations, and history and track record? Are you making visitors aware that there are likable, committed, stand-up people behind your organization?
• Substantiate your claims. Visitors are rightly skeptical of unsubstantiated claims. If you make a claim (”best value,” “most reliable,” etc.), prove it. Proving what you say will build credibility. Determine your most important claims, then support it by avoiding the 7 deadly claims.
I hope this helps, Nathan. Best of luck to you. Let us know how it goes!
. .
[Editor’s Note: Got a question for FutureNow? All you have to do is “Ask the Experts“.]
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Written by:Jeff Sexton
How to Pitch “Value” to Everyone But Paris Hilton
Consumer Reports almost never endorses the same products a niche enthusiast magazine would. They rarely pick the same car that, say, Car and Driver might. Likewise, most serious skiers — like those on Ski Magazine’s editorial staff — tend to select different skis as “best buys” than the ones Consumer Reports chooses each winter.
Why is that?
For one thing, Consumer Reports tries to objectively calculate the “sweet spot” on the Quality-to-Price Ratio. Enthusiasts, on the other hand, generally give more weight to subtleties, refinements and other semi-intangible qualities; things like aesthetics, ergonomics and brand affinity. Such things aren’t as big a factor for Consumer Reports when they’re trying to help you find “the most [whatever it is] for your money.”
Enthusiasts go beyond the point of so-called diminishing returns because, to them, the return doesn’t feel diminished.
The Perceived Value Curve
In case you still don’t know what I’m talking about, I graphed it…
Consumer Reports thinks in these terms. They look for products that sit neatly on the inflexion point; that spot on the curve just before it gets too steep. They do this because their audience wants an objective, substantiated and dispassionate analysis of the product for which they might — just maybe — exchange their hard-earned (and devalued) dollars.
They’re looking for those 85%-as-good-but-half-the-price products because, for them, there’s no joy in spending a dollar more than they can objectively rationalize.
From “Consumer” to Enthusiast
Unlike the Consumer Reports crowd, enthusiasts are more conscious of a product’s refinements, or lack thereof.
The enthusiast’s minimum standards are higher than average. Audiophiles can distinguish between a CD recording and a 192-bit encrypted MP3 file. Driving enthusiasts appreciate the smooth clutch and slick jolts of a great manual transmission. Wine connoisseurs can anticipate the blackberry notes and soft minerality of their favorite Cab Franc.
This is why acquiring a taste for expensive wines, stereos and cars can sometimes “ruin” you for lesser quality goods, because as Kathy Sierra insists, “Learning increases resolution.”
Enthusiasts continue to perceive noticeable — and substantially increased — benefits well beyond the normally perceived point of diminishing returns. So, if can’t substantiate your product’s superiority in a no-nonsense Consumer Reports-style manner, your best bet may be to write copy that evokes the Enthusiast’s experience.
When you create a high-resolution experience with your Web copy, you help the average, uninitiated consumer picture themselves as enthusiasts.
The Fuji F30 Camera is a good example. The F30 is compact digital camera with rather unimpressive specs (6 megapixels with a 3X zoom) that’s supposedly been supplanted by the newer F40 and F50 models — but it’s STILL selling for between $220 and $300, which is as much or more than either the 12 megapixel F50 or the 8 megapixel Canon SD850.
Why is it commanding so high a price? Because enthusiasts have embraced the little camera for its unmatched ability to take high ISO and low-light photos. It’s the only pocket cam that’s able to take really great low-light shots. And as soon as you “sell” a consumer on that ability, the lower megapixel count stops mattering so much. A smart copywriter would focus in on this “hidden” ability of the F30 in order to raise its perceived value.
Roy Williams gives an example of copy that does just that:
“The prettiest camera in this price class has a shutter speed of 1/15th of a second. But the shutter speed of the ugly Canon PowerShot S500 is a superfast 1/60th of a second, allowing you to take fabulous photos in low-light situations. Your indoor photos will look rich and vibrant when all the others look dark and grainy. And your nighttime photos will make people’s eyes bug out. Beautiful contrast and luminance, even without the flash. This camera can see in the dark. Take a picture of your lover in the moonlight. It will become your favorite photo ever. And that superfast shutter speed is also very forgiving of movement. That’s why no one ever replaces their PowerShot S500. Go to your local pawnshop and see if you can find one. We’re betting you can’t. But you will see several of that “prettier” camera available cheaper than dirt. So if you’re looking for a great price on a sleek-looking camera, that’s probably where you should go.”
Who wouldn’t want a camera like that?If copy alone won’t do the trick, think about staging live events, webinars, streaming videos… whatever it takes to show a glimpse of the hi-res experience. (Here’s another example from Kathy Sierra.)
Don’t lower prices. Stay ahead of the curve by building perceived value with your Web copy.
. .
[Editor’s note: Jeff Sexton can show you how to add value to your website. Join him on March 28th in San Francisco for the first-ever West Coast edition of our popular crash course on Persuasive Online Copywriting.]
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Written by:Jeff Sexton
The 7th Deadly Claim — “Best Value”
“Best Value” can be a useful label, but it’s a lousy claim if you can’t back it up.
“Best value” makes a bold promise. It says to your website’s visitors, “I’ll prove to you that my product/service/whatever is worth far more than the asking price.” If you’re going to make this claim, you’d better have the proof waiting for them on the product- or service-description page.
Don’t be shy, though. If you can prove the “best value” claim, it’s a great way to simplify the customer’s selection process. High-speed decision-makers (Spontaneous and Competitive types) will likely read “best value” as your attempt at saving them time. For slower-paced customers (Methodical and Humanistic types), it helps kick-start their quest to find the very best value.
Whatever the visitors’ temperament, they’ll expect you to prove your claims, so before we talk about how to substantiate “best value” claims, let’s review the elements that evoke “value.”
As Roy Williams explains,
“The value of an item – in the mind of a consumer – is simply the difference between the anticipated price and the price on the tag. When the anticipated price is higher than the price tag, it’s a ‘good value.’”
A Bargain @ Any Price
“Best Value” should be supported in two steps:
1) A detailed description of the item — (build up the anticipated price)
2) The actual, lower-than-expected price — (surprise the visitor and entice them to buy)
Do BOTH parts well and you’ll be golden. Here’s how:
Since “value” is subjective, you’ll need to support it with an objective, factual statement. Don’t tell me your hot chocolate is a great value because it’s the “richest and most flavorful.” Tell me it contains 70% cocoa powder — twice as much as any other brand. Don’t tell me your pizza is the “cheesiest.” Tell me you use a full pound of genuine buffalo mozzarella flown in from Naples for every large pizza. You get the picture.
Then, after substantiating your product’s wonderful qualities, show me that the price isn’t much more than a typical hot chocolate, pizza, or whatever. Do those two things and people will be persuaded to click the Add-to-Cart button or fill out your lead form.
The Quality/Price Ratio
The problem for most companies is that they don’t do BOTH well: Either they don’t do enough to persuade customers of the product’s value, or they price their high-quality item even higher than what they’ve been able to substantiate to the market.
Most businesses don’t offer higher quality at slightly higher prices. They offer higher quality at proportionally higher prices, then try to sell it to us as “value.” But value is actually the ratio of (Perceived) Quality-to-Price. So, higher quality at a proportionally higher price doesn’t represent better value.
If I’m considering a cheap-o $10 knife and you offer me twice as much knife for $12, that’s a good value. If you offer me twice as much knife for $20, your $20 knife may not feel like a bargain.
The way out of this used to be to stress the intangibles of the product. Not long ago, the copywriter would build perceived value above and beyond the substantiated value by talking about, say, the fact that the knife was professional quality. That it was the same knife used by Charlie Trotter, Emeril Lagasse, or the like. The copywriter might wax poetic about the balance of the knife and its feel to the hand. He’d stress the added pleasures of using a more expensive knife over time. He’d hint at the increased social status that only brand-name cutlery can bring.
That used to work very well. But thanks to our depressed economy, our heads are hardening by the day, and those sorts of value-added extras no longer add as much value — not lately, anyway.
In this type of climate, you’ll have to prove that the value added by your product provides genuine Return on Investment — (show how jeans last 2x longer and, therefore, are worth 1.5 times as much) — or you’ll have to master yet another two-step process.
The Value Margin Two-Step
Now, before I get into that, I want to emphasize that I’m NOT preaching a discount or price-cutting mentality; on the contrary, I’m recommending you substantiate your product’s value and maintain your profit margins.
Only when your best efforts have failed should you consider Plan B:
1.) Increase the saleability of the product rather than its perceived value. In other words, allow your value-building efforts to increase the number of people who are willing to buy at a lower-than-usual price, rather than trying to use it to increase the price you charge.
2.) Decrease the buying pain enough to cause a favorable “anticipated vs. real” pricing structure. This could mean price-cutting, resizing portions, restructuring payments, reducing surcharges, etc.With any luck, doing both of these things will increase sale volume and keep you from having to lower your prices as much as you otherwise might. That’s probably not what you want to hear, and, as a copywriter, it’s not necessarily what I want to write, but it’s the truth. If you’re used to charging a high premium on intangibles there are going to be fewer people willing to pay the usual premium to get such things in the coming year.
Copy can’t fix everything. Each business must decide where to draw the line.
Show your value. Prove it. Convince hard-nosed customers. And if that stops working — or isn’t an option — go for Plan B.
In the meantime, read the other deadly claims at your own risk:
- “Superior Customer Service“
- “Easy to Use“
- “Most Experienced“
- “We’re #1“
- “100% Risk-Free“
- “Cutting Edge“
- “Best Value“
[Editor’s note: Want to improve the value of your website? Join us on March 28th in San Francisco for the first-ever West Coast edition of the Persuasive Online Copywriting seminar, our popular Web writing crash course. Jeff Sexton and Holly Buchanan will be your instructors. Class size is limited so that attendees can get real advice and actually learn something.
As a bonus leap year discount, you’ll save an extra $100 if you register by 2/29.]
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Written by:Jeff Sexton
The 7 Deadly Claims (Part 6) — “Cutting Edge”
It seems corporate siblings experience the same divergence of personality and temperament as real siblings.
Even though Black & Decker owns DeWalt, their Web copy couldn’t be more different. In fact, the contrast between the two brands illustrates both mediocre and powerful ways to handle the sixth deadly claim: “cutting edge” (aka, “next generation,” “revolutionary,” etc.)
Both companies have followed current trends by releasing a line of tools powered by lithium-ion batteries. Lithium batteries provide much greater energy density than other rechargeable battery formulations, which means you can fit more power into a smaller battery. This can allow tool manufacturers to create lighter cordless tools, provide more run time, or increase the voltage rating of a tool (or some combination of those benefits, depending on design goals).
Moreover, lithium batteries won’t self-discharge: If you charge your battery and leave it in the garage, it will still be charged by the time your spouse’s nagging finally forces you to complete that home improvement project you’ve been planning to get to “this weekend” for the past six months. 
This innovation means a company could legitimately claim that lithium-ion batteries represent the “next generation” of cordless tools. But handle with care. The claim may be true, but that doesn’t guarantee it will be persuasive to — or even believed by — the reader. The copywriter still needs to substantiate this claim.
Break Through the Hype
Let’s take a look at Black & Decker and see how they do. If I go to the Black & Decker homepage and click on the rotating Flash banner touting the VPX System™, I’m taken to a page that contains the following copy:
- Breakthrough Lithium-Ion technology - holds charge longer, so it’s ready when you need it
- Includes: VPX Screwdriver, Cutsaw and 3 LED Flashlight
- All 3 tools powered by 1 VPX 7V Lithium-Ion Battery [included]
- VPX Batteries interchangeable with all other VPX products
- VPX Chargers include Daisy Chain Cord to power multiple chargers on one outlet
So, they’ve claimed their battery technology to be a “breakthrough,” and they do a decent job of explaining the main benefit to the casual home user. Not bad, but they might want to make room for a bit more copy and to bullet point at least one other benefit of their new Lithium-Ion batteries. I’d also want to hyperlink the phrase “Breakthrough Lithium-Ion technology” so readers could click-through to find more information. As it is, I had to use the left-hand navigation to find this information by clicking on “The Power.”
This page does a nice job of illustrating the size and weight savings offered by the new battery, and the copy reiterates the “holds a charge longer” claim — though I’d strongly recommend they substantiate it by comparing the VPX charge-holding capacity to older battery technologies, so readers can know exactly how much longer they can let the batteries sit idle.
Overall, Black & Decker does a fair job of handling their claims of “breakthrough technology,” and at least the copy points out the benefits of the new battery formulation. Still, it would be much better if they dramatized the benefits.
Also, by marketing the technology against yesterday’s competition, Black & Decker fails to persuade. Chances are they’re not really competing against older battery formulations, as most consumers are likely comparing them to other Lithium-powered tools. Yet their copy ignores this entirely. They should at least address the issue of how their lithium-powered tools stack up against the competition, don’t you think?
B & D may or may not be the “best” lithium-powered tools, but the VPX System probably does represent good value for the money for the casual home user. It would help if they made that case outright. (Check out this Amazon page and accompanying reviews for one of the VPX drills. Better than the brand’s own site, isn’t it?)
Saw, Don’t Tell
Now let’s take a look at the copy for the new lithium-powered DeWalt Nano™ products.
First, note how DeWalt compares the new technology against their old Ni-Cad powered tools and other Lithium-powered tools. Also notice how DeWalt actively dramatizes the benefit of its new technology by showing how it translates to increased cycle life and faster task completion.
Finally, notice how DeWalt never mentions “cutting edge” or “breakthrough” or “next generation.” They simply talk about how they partnered with a pioneer in new battery technology and how their new (and exclusive!) battery chemistry was developed at MIT. Then they let the geeks among us drill down to the technical details on battery technology. Though they never really explain how the batteries make use of nano technology, rather than drawing attention to a would-be unsubstantiated claim, DeWalt shows us how their tools are cutting edge.
Want to see what this looks like on TV? DeWalt’s approach is basically the online equivalent of Dyson’s “airblade technology” commercial:
- “Superior Customer Service“
- “Easy to Use“
- “Most Experienced“
- “We’re #1“
- “100% Risk-Free“
- “Cutting Edge“
- “Best Value“
[Editor’s note: Is your website losing its edge? Sharpen up your virtual sales pitch at our Persuasive Online Copywriting seminar on March 28th in San Francisco. Jeff and Holly will be your instructors for this first-ever West Coast edition of our popular one-day copywriting crash course. Class size is limited so that attendees can get real advice and actually learn something. You’ll even get $100 off if you register by 2/29.]
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Written by:Jeff Sexton
A Political Branding Hook That Sells
“I’m different! Really, I am! Different and better. Trust me!”
Doesn’t the stench of such desperate insecurity ooze from most marketing copy one reads? Everyone wants to be unique, yet precious few brands are willing to show their warts for fear of rejection.
If there’s any field where insecurity and fear are a brand’s biggest roadblocks, it has to be politics — which is why every marketer should not only watch but study these political ads as textbook examples on how differentiation works.
Here’s an advertisement for Steve Novick’s campaign:
Novick is different. And if you didn’t see why that was a real advantage the first time, this commercial beats a phony handshake any day:
If you’ve been following my columns, you know that ethos is a big part of credibility, and credibility is king when it comes to persuading customers you’re worth it.
[Hat tip to Nate Kreuter for posting these ads.]
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Written by:Jeff Sexton
1,000 Tips for Selling Online Without Paying a Copywriter
“Why do we — as web-builders — overlook even the most basic aspects of language so frequently when we build our sites? Is language so transparent in our lives that we fail to recognize its importance?” -Julia Hayden
The answer to Julia’s second question is yes. The omnipresence of language hides its overwhelming importance from us; it’s one of those “don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” situations.
That’s why I recommend Netdisaster to anyone who wants to know if hiring a copywriter is “worth it.” Just enter the website’s URL, select “text sucker” as your preferred disaster, and let the magic vacuum do its thing.
This is what happens when you remove Amazon’s homepage copy:
Think that’s bad? Look at what happens to a product page without copy:
Pretty hard to use a website like that, isn’t it?
Intuitive graphic design is important, but let’s not forget the findings of Apple’s Human Interface Group*:
“In 1985, after finding that pretty but unlabeled icons confused customers, the Apple Computer Human Interface Group adopted the motto, “A word is worth a thousand pictures,” and a descriptive word or phrase was added beneath all Macintosh icons.”
So, the next time your boss or a prospective client fails to see the full value of Web copy, give ‘em a dose of the text sucker. This may be one situation where a picture truly is worth (more than) a thousand (persuasive) words.
Oh, right! I almost forgot the tips. Well, it’s actually the same tip 1,000 times over.
Tips #1 - 1,000: Don’t be cheap! Hire persuasive copywriters.
[*Editor’s Note: We’re not sure where the original quote is from, but perhaps Ankesh is. Also, if you’re still looking for advice on how to sell online, here’s the ultimate cheat sheet.]
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Written by:Jeff Sexton
Does Your Website “Show-up and Throw-up”?
We laugh when we see parodies of bad behavior in marketing and sales, but have you really thought about how NOT to do this with your web copy?
If a sales person avoids the dreaded “show-up and throw-up” technique by engaging in honest conversation and asking intelligent questions while answering yours in a respectful manner, then how is your Web copy supposed to be a substitute for that?
It’s as simple as ABC — and, no, I don’t mean “Always Be Closing”…
A) Hire a great copywriter or become one yourself.
B) Blueprint/plan persona-based copy.
C) Write persuasive hyperlinks that fit into your plan/blueprint.
Personas let you see your customers real. And that allows you to write to them instead of writing at them, which is huge. But more importantly, personas let you hear the other side of the conversation by giving you insights into your customers’ motivations — and that enables you to anticipate your visitors questions, which is where embedded links come in.
Every click a visitor takes represents a question they are asking you (or possibly a response to a prodding question your copy has raised). By anticipating the questions visitors are most likely to have, a smart copywriter can use embedded hyperlinks to model the interactive flow of a conversation. Your copy talks, then your visitors talk by clicking on the links most relevant to them. The more often a visitor clicks on a link and feels she’s been heard, the more she has her expectations met and questions answered, the more her website visit resembles honest dialog. And that’s effective selling.
Conversely, the more your website fails to answer — or even to acknowledge — visitor questions, the more your Web copy resembles the “show-up and throw-up” doofus in this video:
Does your copy speak to your visitors or are you just vomiting up a canned sales pitch? Are you anticipating visitor questions and concerns with your hyperlinks or are you expecting them to respond to ridiculous questions (“What will it take to put you in a new car today?”)?
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Written by:Jeff Sexton
