By Yanik Silver of www.instantsalesletters.com
Do you remember the stupid beer commercial a few years back with the tagline "Why
Ask Why?" Well, completely unknown to the ad agency --they had almost stumbled onto
a breakthrough marketing concept.
Telling people the reason why you are doing something is one of the most powerful
influencers of human behavior.
Robert Cialdini, Ph.D. in his book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" talks about
an experiment by Harvard social psychologist, Ellen Langer, that concluded people like
to have a reason for what they do.
Her experiment consisted of people waiting in line to use a library copy machine and
then having experimenters ask to get ahead in line. The first excuse used was "Excuse
me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I'm in a rush?" This
request coupled with a reason was successful 94% of the time. However when the
experimenter made a request only: "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox
machine?" this request was only granted 60% of the time. A significant drop.
Okay now for the shocker.
It may seem like the difference between those two requests was the additional
information of "because I'm in a rush", but that's just not the case. Because in a third
experimenter, the experimenter asks "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the
Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?" There's no reason mentioned or
new information presented, just the words "because". This time a full 93% of the people
said yes simply due to the word 'BECAUSE'! And it didn't even matter that there was no
reason given. Just the word because triggered a magic response.
Using this psychological 'trigger' can massively increase your Marketing success.
Here's an example: John E. Powers, one of the top copywriters in the 1900's, wrote this
ad for a Pittsburgh department store in severe financial trouble:
"We are bankrupt. We owe $125,000 more than we can pay, and this announcement will
bring our creditors down on our necks. But if you come and *buy* tomorrow, we shall
have the money to meet them. If not, we shall go to the wall."
Instead of yelling 'SALE' like so many other stores would, there's a legitimate reason
given why people should spend their money at this store. And this ad was said to be
responsible for saving the store. Another ad written by Powers, for a different merchant,
proclaimed "We have a lot of rotten raincoats we want to get rid of." This sold out the
entire inventory of raincoats by the next morning.
Max Sackheim, famous for the long-running ad "Do You Make These Mistakes In
English" and originator of the book-of-the-month concept, says this: "Whenever you
make a claim or special offer in your advertising, come up with an honest reason why,
and then state it sincerely. You'll sell many more products this way."
And this powerful strategy works just as well today.
Using this secret weapon for a medical equipment company, I helped them produce a
massive 1,073% return on investment simply using "reason-why" copy.
The premise was how can we sell a product for the incredibly low price of only $477?
(Regularly this product sells for about $695 -$895.) Then the ad went on to explain that
the reason why the price was so low was because the manufacturer wanted to gain
market share and get nurses and doctors accustomed to using their product. It was a
huge winner and a big money-maker for the client.
So how can you apply all of this to your business? Easy. Let's say you have a slow time
of year and you want to increase your business during this period. Well, write a simple
letter to your customers making a special offer, only good during your slow period.
Maybe you'll throw in an extra free bonus, an extra service, or a special discount simply
because it is your "slow time" and you need to pay your staff anyway.
Let people in "behind the scenes" at your company..
.
* Are you overstocked on merchandise because for some reason customers only want
the deluxe widget -but you ordered tons of the basic one?
* Did you have a flood and you need to liquidate (pardon the pun) your inventory?
* Do you need to raise cash so you can pay for your nose job?
Whatever the reason. Tell them the truth. For some reason everyone wants to be
mysterious about their business. If you're lowering the price nobody thinks you're doing it
just because you're "such a nice guy". So let people in the reason why.
I know this probably goes against every grain of business sense, but I promise if you
give people a good, believable reason why they'll respond with open wallets.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*
How Much Is One Good Sales Letter Worth To Your Business?
Yanik Silver has created the ultimate no-brainer, fill-in-the-blank sales letter
writing resource. In less than 3 minutes you can create a winning letter
guaranteed to sell your product or service...WITHOUT WRITING! Check out:
http://www.instantsalesletters.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment