Make it Easy for People to Buy From You
When you're writing sales copy, you need to make it easy for the reader to act on your information. Help them visualise how your products or services will fit in with their lives.
One of my favourite books is The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell.
I first came across this book in 2011 when I picked it up in a hostel in Malaysia, and I couldn't put it down. I’ve since bought my own copy, which I have read several times, and I highly recommend it.
One of the chapters is about an experiment carried out on a university campus. The aim of the experiment was to see if scare tactics would make students more likely to get their free tetanus shot at the campus medical centre.
Students were split into groups and given information pamphlets about tetanus, the benefits of the vaccination, and how they could get their vaccination.
One group was given the ’low fear’ version of the pamphlet, which contained factual information. The other group were given the ’high fear’ version, which contained graphic images of people with tetanus.
After reading the pamphlets, students were asked to complete a survey. As expected, the students who had been given the 'high fear' version said they were more likely to get their vaccination.
But when the researchers followed up on the experiment, it turned out only 3% of students had been to get their vaccination, and there was no significant difference in the rate of take-up between the high fear and low fear groups.
So the experiment was repeated, but with one small change.
