honesty

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Conversational selling with grandma

Imagine you’re tasked with writing a short sales page, pitching a home security package.

The package includes security cameras, motion detectors and an app for a phone or tablet. There’s a panic button function too.

But here’s the twist…

Once you’ve done writing, you’re going to read this sales copy to your grandma.

And you’re going to read it while sitting across the kitchen table from her, looking her in the eye.

You can’t deviate from the script or improvise. You can’t make excuses and say, “But hey, this is my grandma.”

I want you to think about how you would write this sales copy with the prior knowledge that you WILL be reading it to your grandma.

If you want to avoid any awkward moments while doing that, here are 5 tips that might help.

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Scribbled marketing ideas
It’s getting harder and harder to figure out who can be trusted online.

Those friends or followers of yours on social media… are they real people or are they bots?

That news item you just read on Facebook… is it true or is it an out-and-out lie?

According to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer:

“Globally, nearly seven in 10 respondents among the general population worry about fake news or false information being used as a weapon, and 59 percent say that it is getting harder to tell if a piece of news was produced by a respected media organization.”

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Conversational with real people

There’s something happening in the world of online copywriting.

I’m seeing more and more companies push the boundaries when it comes to honesty and transparency in marketing.

And I know many copywriters – some very experienced, and others just starting out – who feel very uncomfortable with being asked to mislead their readers with half-truths.

What’s happening here? Are we suddenly becoming more and more dishonest?

I don’t think so. But I do believe copywriters are finding themselves put on the spot by the rise of automation and analytics.

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Dark side of copywriting
This morning I received an email with this subject line:

“I woke up with this insane idea…”

It seems today is the final day for some killer deal being offered by that company.

Not a solo business. A medium-sized company. A big campaign.

And this morning’s email wasn’t a quick, personal note, dashed off at the last moment. It was a long promotional email, with tons of details and formatting, and a carefully constructed final offer.

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They don't like adversarial copywriting

For decades we’ve used military jargon as part and parcel of how we talk about our craft as copywriters.

Consider some of the language we use with our colleagues and clients.

Target audience. Overcoming resistance. Finding the right triggers. Killing the competition. Guerilla marketing.

Language matters. It makes a difference to how we think about our work. It makes a difference to how we think about the consumers we “target” with our writing.

There’s a them and us mentality. It’s still there. Copywriters on one side and consumers on the other.

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Disarming through conversation

When someone tries to sell us something, we prepare ourselves for the onslaught.

We raise our defenses. We hide behind filters. We prepare our rebuttals and get ready to say NO.

Why such an extreme response? Because we are used to the sale process being adversarial.

And we know that an experienced salesperson has a hundred tricks and schemes in his playbook. He’s been doing this for years. He has been trained to win, to demolish objections, and to close the sale.

It’s little wonder we go on the defensive.

Of course we do. We’re under attack.

At least, this is the way things used to be.

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