The New Art of Persuasion:
What Worked Before Won’t Work Now
The rules of grammar, punctuation and even spelling that have served us for generations have disappeared on the w3 and, as copywriters, we’ve had to learn a new methodology to persuade readers to fulfill the most desired action or MDA. The New Art of Persuasion has rewritten the rules. Is your site ready?
Does your site text instill trust?
If your site is one long, sales letter loaded with hype and impossible claims (EARN 200% IN JUST 2 WEEKS!!!!), you aren’t going to convert many readers. Today’s I-net buyer of services or products is savvy and certainly isn’t going to fall for the same tactics employed by Dr. Frisbee’s Elixir and Curative. It was hype then, it’s hype today.
Trust blooms in the absence of hype – text that appeals to the reader’s intelligence and discerning good judgment. Give the reader the facts in a straightforward manner and chuck the hype. Building trust is step one in getting the reader to stay put to read more about your products.
Is your site credible?
Somewhat related to trust, credibility is believability. If visitors don’t believe what you’re telling them, they won’t be convinced – and you’ll lose points in the trust column, as well.
On-site credibility builders include things like customer testimonials, customer success stories, your success story, product benefits in a bulleted list and recommendations from and memberships in professional associations. Get this information right there on the home page, above the fold, so it’s the first thing visitors see. Now you’re building visitor confidence.
Is your site text eyeball friendly?
Site visitors tend to scan rather than read. So use a lot of headers and sub-heads to lead the reader’s eye to the specific information s/he is looking for. Web users are an impatient lot and reading through dense paragraphs of detailed text has all the appeal of a root canal. It’s just not going to happen.
Use small blocks of type. Use single sentences or even just phrases to emphasize key points. Use lists and checkpoints. Use a lot of negative space to make important text jump off the screen. And finally, throw the grammar book into the waste basket.
Write like you talk.
This is the absolute best copywriting advice you will ever receive.
When people talk they do not talk in this stiff, written style. They start, they stop, they think, they use contractions. Nobody says “I will go to the refrigerator” they say “I’ll go to the refrigerator (or fridge, even).”
Site text should be written so it’s “heard” by the reader as s/he reads. Don’t write words people read, write words that people hear. It creates a personal connection between reader and web site. “Hey, these guys are like me.”
This approach to copywriting is important to the development of long-term, customer relations. Push the hype and you won’t make a friend. Write like you talk, make the connection and build an expanding base of repeat customers. Sweet.
Define the visitors’ needs. Then fill those needs.
What do visitors need or want? Quality? Low prices? Accessible customer care? Variety? By defining your customers’ needs you’re better prepared to meet those needs through your products or services. More importantly, you define for the visitor what he or she needs. Then, you provide the solutions for meeting those needs.
“If you’re tired of harassing phone calls from collection agencies (the need defined is eliminating collection calls) let us show you how to manage your debt in just 12 months.” (There’s the solution that visitors are looking for.)
Appeal to human motivators.
Humans are motivated to action by many things – the need to love and be loved, the need to belong, status, prestige, fear, anger, greed – there are hundreds of emotions and social needs that make us buy a certain brand of car or go on a weight-loss diet.
Before you write a single word of site text, understand the motivations of the readers. What brought them to your site? What do they expect to find? And, how can your text appeal to the human motivations that compel visitors to make a purchase or opt in for your monthly newsletter?
Carefully prepare the call to action.
“Act now.” “Don’t delay.” “Pick up the phone and call now before you forget.” The call to action is a specific set of directions you expect the reader to follow. The call to action performs two important functions.
First, it motivates the reader. That’s why the call to action must be carefully crafted to fit the persuasive text that comes before it. After you’ve built trust, established site credibility and connected with visitors, use the call to action to urge readers to perform the MDA. Same tone. Same friendly approach.
Second, an effective call to action provides very specific directions so the reader knows what s/he should do next. “Dial 1-555-1234 right now for the most reliable trading platform ever developed.” Specific and to the point.
A note of caution, here. Text links, in the ubiquitous dark blue type, have become de facto calls to action. Readers recognize that blue type as a link, something they should click on. It’s presence in the middle of a page indicates an expected action. And it may not be an action you want the reader to take. Bouncing from page to page, or worse, sending a visitor off to another site, won’t do anything for your conversion rate.
Once you’ve got the readers’ attention, don’t send them off in another direction.
Add some incentive.
A call to action may motivate some readers, but an incentive of some kind will motive even more to perform the MDA. “Act now and receive a 50% discount on all of your purchases for the rest of the month!” Perfect. That kind of incentive motivates readers to action right now and it keeps them coming back for the rest of the month.
An incentive can be anything of value to the reader – a discount, free shipping, a free e-book, coupon savings or a lifetime guarantee. Just make sure to place the incentive after the call to action. That way, if the call to action doesn’t persuade, the incentive just might be the clincher.
Write for the w3.
Most site visitors have short attention spans. They get bored quickly and if you don’t grab their attention in the first 25 words, they are outta there. A gripping headline helps, but that’s just the start. Once the reader is hooked by the headline, the underlying text has to deliver the follow-through to make the sale.
It’s got to be readable, scanable and not insulting to the reader’s intelligence. However, it’s also important to remember that the average American reads at an eighth grade level so avoid a preponderance of arcane linguistics simply to impress readers with your extensive vocabulary.
Keep it simple. Keep it honest. Keep it accessible. Keep it compelling.
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