Conversion fails for simple reasons.
Labour pains vs. Baby
Which of the two would attract you if you were a woman?
You're saying baby, right?
But look around you
Every stupid marketer on the planet is selling his product or hisservice.
They're talking about the benefits of their service or product.
They're talking about the process involved in using their product or service.
Let's get one thing straight
You're not selling a product or service.
You're not even selling the benefits and features.
You're selling the want factor.
The want factor is something that I want
So let's take chocolate.
Am I buying chocolate?
Am I buying the features of chocolate? Or the benefits?
Or am I buying the feeling I get when I eat the chocolate?
And yet, marketers don't sell what people want
They sell their wonderful process.
They sell the ‘labour pains'.
No one cares about your process. No one cares about how you have this grrrreat marketing program, this wonderful system to write better, this whatever it is you're selling.
They only, care about the baby
They only care about profits.
They only care about customers.
They only care about results.
They give a damn about your wonderful method.
So how do we know that to be true?
Give them the customers without the ‘marketing system'.
Give them the results without the ‘wonderful strategy'.
Give them the profits, and watch as they toss you aside, and rush towards the mucho dollars!
But marketers are ignorant. So they continue to sell the ‘labour pains'.
They brand their products and services according to ‘labour pains'.
They write their copy and put in graphics that emphasise ‘labour pains'.
They make their presentations and create their marketing material around ‘labour pains.'
And customers don't care. It's not like customers look at you, and think you're a dope. They just don't care about what you're selling.
Emphasise ‘labour pains' and you get nothing
Emphasise ‘baby' and watch the reaction change instantly.
———————
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– There are less than 20 articles on the blog.
– I get less than 1 visitor a day – on average.
– I have less than 30 subscribers.
– Of those subscribers, I've gotten 6 conversions.
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Not bad for a *very* small list, eh?
This goes to prove that it's much better to have strong conversion.
rates than lots of visitors and/or subscribers.
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[next_step]
Evan, the beer campaign, from what I remember, brought out the fact that their water was sterilized or something – and it was something that every beer manufacturer did. But they were the only ones who mentioned that they did this. It was more a ‘unique selling point’ thing than a problem/solution or feature/benefit type of thing.
Sean – this is the first HTML eZine issue I noticed. Looks great!
I see what you mean, but they were in a market at the time where every beer manufacturer was saying “our beer is PURE” as loud as they could. Claude Hopkins took a tour of the Schlitz factory and decided to do a USP (uniqueness) rather than say what every other company was saying.
So, he came up with “Schlitz beer bottles – Washed with live steam” (even though all manufacturers did that, but never mentioned it). This gave them an edge – it put meaning behind the overused ‘purity’ feature.
Beer is a commodity – you need a USP to differentiate yourself, and a niche to own. Touting beer as a solution to something isn’t enough on it’s own – being an addictive drug with wide cultural acceptance, it really doesn’t need to focus on the results.
Actually there was a famously successful advertising campaign in the US for beer which was about exposing the process of beer making. Schlitz? I think it can work.
Perhaps the exposing of process is needed to make it credible that the seller can deliver the ‘baby’. I’m not clear about how it works.
Hi Trisha, yes. My point was that talking about the process was a way of selling stuff.
They weren’t promoting the relaxation, conviviality etc but talking about their process. My point was that they weren’t selling the ‘baby’ but the process that produced the product.
Evan: It seemed like they were selling the process, but it was a factor of uniqueness in that case. In most cases, what we tend to do is tell our clients what we’re going to do. So we give them the steps that we will follow etc. But the client is rarely interested in the methodology. They’re more interested in the result.
However in the case of the beer, there was no perceptible difference between one beer and the next in the marketplace. To make this point of difference, they harped on the process. But even when describing the process, it wasn’t the process that was important, but the fact that the water came from the artesian wells—hence tasted better.
Trish: Yes it’s the first HTML we’ve put out. I still want to do the one we worked out about 2 years ago (still have that design), but yes, needed to start somewhere 🙂
It’s a great start. Including a cartoon and the bolding is a huge leap forward. I’m allergic to the full-width horizontal lines, but I’m a fussy designer. 🙂
It’s good to be pedantic 🙂
It’s a blessing and a curse… 🙂
Sam Adams is doing something similar by showing the process they use for each individual type of beer and the “story” behind a flavor.
Beer aside – touting the end results works, but what if your end results are similar to other end results that others have? Would services like graphic design or copywriting suffer from the same need for differentiation?
I can see how this works for my end clients – but looking at other copywriters I see everyone saying the same thing.
(loved the HTML email!)
So what are they saying?
They are saying “copy is great” “content is king” “great writing gets results”
Oh thats boring. Let me get back tomorrow.
End results are determined by the client, really. And most copywriters don’t have a clue about that 🙂
So a client will say: I’m joining this fitness program because I want to lose weight. But the real want factor is: I want to play with my grandkids because right now I’m exhausted after a five-step walk.
The want factor isn’t something that comes up right away. It’s something you have to dig for. In The Brain Audit I explain a ‘bit’ about the Target Profile (only 20 pages or so :)) and how the profile determines the want factor.
So a hack copywriter will sit at his desk and think up some ridiculously boring statement that doesn’t have any sort of differentiation. The smart copywriter will first read The Brain Audit 🙂 and then they’ll stop writing. And take their recorder and head to the client. Their best client. And they’ll talk to them.
And the client will say something like: I don’t care if I have to pay 20% more than everyone else. What I really want is….
And at that point you get them to talk. And keep asking questions. Make a list of what’s important to them. Keep them talking and be quiet. And they’ll come up with what they really want. And when you read it back, they’ll say “yes” that’s what I want. That’s what I really want. Because at the start of any conversation, we’re vague because we aren’t sure of things ourselves. But as we get more beaten up, we’re clear.
e.g. The WeightWatchers slogan is (get this): eat all the food you want. How did they get such a weird line? Surely it’s something else. Surely someone made a mistake. They’re not at WW to eat food, are they? But they are. The people who are chubbier than thou got into trouble because they love food. The skinny women are already eating three slices of cucumber a day. So the want factor is food.
Heck, who would have thought that?
So the want factor is food.
The same applies to copywriters. You may think that the client is coming to you for great copy. No they’re not. That’s what they say. But when you drill down, it’s something else. It’s something like: “I wanna spend time with my grandkids” (yeah, same as above). But you see the issue here? You’d never guess that the end point would be: I’m the copywriter that lets you spend time with your grandkids.
See how that sucks the air out of the room? You can feel the difference, can’t you? Suddenly it’s quiet. And everyone’s listening. 🙂
Thank you so much Sean and I apologize for just responding to this excellent reply. The Brain Audit is definitely on my to buy list for the near future.
I have two long time clients that I have been meaning to do a review with of my services and the results, so this is giving me the push I need to actually get that done instead of just thinking about it. 🙂
You’ll wonder why you waited.
Thanks. Making the HTML permanent.
To me, all beer is fungible, so I need a better example to fully comprehend this concept.
Because if no one cares about anything but the baby, then products designed to (for example) boost your profits should only talk about the extra cash coming in? It seems to me it gets tricky when you start making claims about results. No one gets shut down by the FTC by stating the end result of nine months of labor will be a baby.
Or perhaps I’m just confused.
Let me get back. Long day.
It depends on what the results are. For example: in the Article Writing Course we conduct, the ‘baby’ is the fact that you’ll attract more clients. It speaks nothing of the torment of learning how to write articles.
The same applies to Weight Watchers. The ‘baby’ is the little black dress. In between there’s all that watching the calorific values of every currant, walking, eating at the right time etc.
You could take Clearasil. The ‘baby’ is not being all pimple-ridden when you’re out for a date. The fact that you have to smear all that oozy stuff on your face is a given.
The process seems important to a lot of people. It’s not. The end point is what we look at. This is why we can quickly get suckered into something that says: rank No.1 on Google for this keyword. That’s because we are able to see end points a whole lot better than the start and the ‘muddle’ (sorry, that should read ‘middle’) 🙂
Yet most of us selling products and services get fascinated by our process and that’s of no interest to the buyer. They read the process only to find there’s something happening and they’re not being taken for a ride. But as far as most people are concerned, the process is of little or no value to them. Think of the time you signed up for a workshop or seminar. And they had all these seventeen hundred bullet points. Most of us have no clue what those points are all about (In most cases, even the presenters have no clue). But we sign up anyway, mostly on the basis of one or two points. Those points give us the direction. They tell us “Oh, if nothing else happens, then I want this as a takeaway.”
The process matters. But the emphasis shouldn’t be on the process—at least not at the start. The emphasis should always be on the want factor, because that’s what people really, really want.
FTC issues are interesting, but there’s always going to be a vagueness factor in everything. And the way people get around FTC is to have testimonials of others who’ve achieved that goal e.g. Made a ton of money, swam the deepest ocean etc. That way results are not guaranteed. There’s not much room for FTC to argue with that because in life nothing is really guaranteed.
My vote for HTML and I am already for “Want Factor”