Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Credibility with No Pain
Jose Roxas Leveriza Writes on Internet Writing
Credibility with No Pain
CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO GAIN
TO SELL IS TO BE BELIEVED
Pinocchio cannot be a good copywriter. His nose grows longer with every line. The trick is to be believable. In fact don’t be tricky. Be truthful and tell them who you are plainly, in a straightforward manner and with no breast beating.
Credibility is a swaddle of reassurance. You sleep soundly at night because you deal with a dependable world. There’s no hidden print to jump at you and steal your fortune with a sleight of hand. Remember the one principle of sales that plays up in that final decision to fork over the change. The fear of loss is always greater. You have to pacify that anxiety in the reader.
Calm him down because everything is on the level. Don’t take it to the other extreme however. No braggadocio. Don’t try to overwhelm the buyer like some sting artist. Too much bragging with no real back up causes a drop in believability. Stay within your parameters of excellence. Let that be verifiable.
FIGURES HAVE A RING OF TRUTH
Be specific with figures. Don’t play in the ballpark of figures. Ring that cash register with the exact amounts and not approximations. Nobody wants their change eaten up by round ups to next higher amount. They want to count pennies and cents. No more and no less.
Hearken to stockbrokers pinching market shares and give exact figures and percentages. Everybody feels like a genius when increases and decreases are paraded before them in precise numbers.
They love to grasp what the before looked like and the after effect. It’s like an enlightenment when they see the improvement in exact percentage points. Sales went up 30% from last year. Or she lost three inches in the hip from the diet program. Even better, we guarantee improvement in 20 days. Time line is always a stimulant to roll the dice and bring out the wallet.
Exactness is not just numbers. It has a lot to do with thoroughness. It calls for a meticulous adherence to details. Cross your t’s and dot your i’s unswervingly. Make your copy truthful in grammar and syntax. You can’t presume to write about language aids or sell seminars about correct business correspondence if your website is ungrammatical. You will appear like the fat preacher calling for fasting as an spiritual exercise.
Don’t be lazy with the footnotes. Take the pain to give the number of the volume, the chapter, and the page. Yeah nobody ever goes down there. But reliability means being there in case you are needed. Nukes are a big threat to mankind. Who owns them get to sleep more soundly.
PROPER NOUNS LEND WEIGHT TO FACTS
It is hard enough on the eyes to stare at the screen. Don’t worsen them with blind items.The browser won’t tarry one second and play cutesy with you. He will be gone like the roadrunner. Say Bill Gates is so damn rich his fortune is bigger than the dollar reserves in the Central Bank of the Philippines. That ought to stupefy the surfer and make him stay a wee bit longer.
Whatever else, don’t be like a marshmallow and beat around the bush by hinting left and right and not getting to the point. Be factual and don’t hide behind allegations.
Don’t say some famous basketball player from the West got embroiled in a sex scandal up in in a mountain state straddling the continental divide. For goodness sake, that’s old hat.Everybody knows who Kobe is. You don’t have to be so polite like Pontius Pilate. Gosh,most everybody takes a sneak peek at the gossip and girlie magazines on the newsstand of some convenience store.
REPEAT IT TO BELIEVE IT
Keep harping on something and before you know it you would have convinced everybody including yourself. Repetition is like hypnosis. You go into a trance and believe nothing else. If the buyer stays long enough to listen to you, keep whispering into his ear the about goodness of your product.
Brainwash him in a nice way. Use novelty but always go back to repeat your claim about product worthiness. Plant a seed then go back many times to water and nurture it. Keep feeding it with data and stories to regale the buyer. This makes you loom with great credibility in his eyes.
OLD BOY NETWORK
Globalization outsourcing, and the web have undressed communities. It’s like standing naked for the whole world to see. We are stripped of our privacy. There is a whiplash to find comfort close to home. It’s like circling the wagons back in the days of the Western frontier.
Familiar testimonials that people can identify with should come in handy. Cite people close to home who have availed of your solutions. Make real people from the local scene sing hosannas about the merits of the product. The product could have helped some llama riding Tibetan but that’s not the point. What counts is the benefit it gives here and now.Who cares about far flung regions? Heal the world but please leave my privacy alone.
MORE TESTIMONIALS GIVE BANDWAGON EFFECT
People hate to be the last to know. They don’t want to be left out. Give an atmosphere of a mad dash for the sales counter. Cite testimonials about how the whole neighborhood is in on the new fad or the great discovery. Make the testimonials as original, unabridged, unedited, and street wise as possible. You can’t have some plumber talking with such fine polish as a Harvard lecturer. Make it down to earth. Give it a home flavor like hot dog and soda.
Endorsements should give accurate statistics as proof that the product works. It must not be like an incantation that sings praises but gives no proof. Say it gives you better gas mileage up to 20%. Say it prunes down your waistline up to three inches in fifteen days. Tout the savings from using the product by saying you get to free 100 dollars of your household budget to be used for shopping.
HANG THE CERTIFICATES
Don’t be shy about pointing out your good points. Stay away from shoring up the reputation. Reputation is more subjective. A criminal can be a hero in the family circle but a danger to everybody else. Be specific by giving position like professional titles and associations. Prove the length of experience by citing the track record. Link with credibility sites that are well respected. Give actual percentage of market share. Point out in detail any achievement record.
SEEING IS BELIEVING
You walked through the steps to enhance credibility. Don’t just pay token attention.Make it happen. Look credible. Appearance is the first step to credibility.
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