A couple of weeks ago, we blogged about how to create killer landing pages that convert visitors into new customers. We listed some tried-and-true elements that seasoned copywriters have used for decades (in sales letters and then later in landing pages) to drive engagement and boost sales. One of them was to use “liberal amounts of text formatting, esp. bold, italics and ALL CAPS.”
We’ll say it again: use liberal amounts of text formatting, esp. bold, italics and ALL CAPS.
Maybe you’re skeptical that something as simple as text formatting can make you more persuasive. Well, don’t take it from us. Take it from Science. In 1969, the psychologist Robert Zajonc published an article summarizing his experiments in how people react to the presentation of words. After showing his subjects an assortment of made-up words—kardirga, saricik, biwonjni, for example—Zajonc found that people attribute positive connotations to words that are repeated more frequently and set in boldfaced type. Zajonc dubbed this phenomenon the mere exposure effect.
Zajonc’s research has seen renewed popularity recently with the publication of Daniel Kahneman’s new book, Thinking, Fast and Slow. (Nobel-winner Kahneman was one of the first economists to look at economic phenomena through the lens of human psychology, creating the field known as behavioral economics.) Here’s an excerpt from Slate.com’s review of Kahneman’s new book:
Psychologists have devised other ways to make a message more persuasive. “You should first maximize legibility,” says Daniel Kahneman, who describes the Zajonc experiment in Thinking, Fast and Slow, a compendium of his thought and work. Faced with two false statements, side-by-side, he explains, readers are more likely to believe the one that’s typed out in boldface. More advice: “Do not use complex language where simpler language will do,” and “in addition to making your message simple, try to make it memorable.” These factors combine to produce a feeling of “cognitive ease” that lulls our vigilant, more rational selves into a stupor. It’s an old story, and one that’s been told many times before. It even has a name: Psychologists call it the illusion of truth.
Faced with two false statements, side-by-side, readers are more likely to believe the one that’s typed out in boldface. (See what I did there? I used repetition as a rhetorical device.)
Now look, I’m not suggesting that you pack your landing pages or whatever with false statements and baseless hyperbole. That would unethical. But I am suggesting that you use text formatting to reinforce your messaging and bolster your argument. That would be smart.
Read more: The Effect Effect | Slate.com
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Mike Lacher recounts an epic tale ‘in which I fix my girlfriend’s grandparents’ wifi and am hailed as a conquering hero.’
Lo, in the twilight days of the second year of the second decade of the third millennium did a great darkness descend over the wireless internet connectivity of the people of 276 Ferndale Street in the North-Central lands of Iowa. For many years, the gentlefolk of these lands basked in a wireless network overflowing with speed and ample internet, flowing like a river into their Compaq Presario. Many happy days did the people spend checking Hotmail and reading USAToday.com.
But then one gray morning did Internet Explorer 6 no longer load The Google. Refresh was clicked, again and again, but still did Internet Explorer 6 not load The Google.
Continue reading at McSweeneys.net…
Paul Graham, founder of the startup boot camp Y Combinator, has noticed a pattern among the most successful entrepreneurs he’s worked with—they’re all resourceful and easy to talk to; the unsuccessful ones, in his experience, require constant hand-holding and are hard to talk to.
In much the same way that all you have to do is give the right sort of founder a one line intro to a VC, and he’ll chase down the money. That’s the connection. Understanding all the implications—even the inconvenient implications—of what someone tells you is a subset of resourcefulness. It’s conversational resourcefulness.
Like real world resourcefulness, conversational resourcefulness often means doing things you don’t want to. Chasing down all the implications of what’s said to you can sometimes lead to uncomfortable conclusions. The best word to describe the failure to do so is probably “denial,” though that seems a bit too narrow. A better way to describe the situation would be to say that the unsuccessful founders had the sort of conservatism that comes from weakness. They traversed idea space as gingerly as a very old person traverses the physical world.
Maybe nothing! Maybe a lot. Either way, this article from the New York Times’ small business blog is worth a reading now and/or saving (to your Instapaper account) for later. Serial entrepreneur Jay Goltz provides a handy 10-item diagnostic checklist—checklists kick ass, btw—starting with a category that’s near and dear to our hearts:
Marketing
1. Targeting. Do you have a strategy to reach your best potential customers with your sales and marketing efforts? A shotgun approach is too expensive and inefficient for any company, especially a small one. What percentage of the people you approach actually buy a product or service like yours?
2. Advertising and Public Relations. There are many choices for where to place an ad and how to execute a public relations campaign. The problem with many small businesses is that their marketing activities are driven primarily by which salespeople happen to call on them. Ineffective advertising or public relations can be not only a tremendous waste of money but a tremendous waste of opportunity. If you are doing things the same way you did them 10 years ago, you are probably getting less response.
3. The Message. Lots of companies still use this line: “We will exceed your expectations.” I even saw it on the back of an ambulance. (I don’t know about you, but I have pretty high expectations when I call an ambulance! Are the technicians going to give me a haircut after they bring me back to life?) It was a good line when someone first thought of it. Now, it is old. It is tired. It needs to retire. You need to exceed people’s expectations by coming up with your own line. Maybe it is not a line at all. Maybe it is a message. Whatever it is, it should say something about your company that means something to potential customers.
Great stuff.
How to Diagnose What’s Wrong With Your Business | NYTimes.com
One of the cool things about Twitter (and other social media) is that you can give your brand a personality. You can engage your audience—even your detractors—on a personal level. The above exchange is a great example of that. Kudos to @BubbaGumpCo.
(Disclaimer: Learn more about comedian Rob Delaney at your own risk. This blog assumes no responsibility for the content of his Twitter feed … )
