In his keynotes and recordings, world-class motivational speaker and sales trainer Zig Ziglar often talks about the importance of having meaningful, specific goals. He asks, “What would you rather be in life, a meaningful specific or a wandering generality?”
Marketers and business owners would do well to heed Ziglar’s admonition, because nothing will hold the attention of your reader and advance your selling proposition as well as specific and meaningful benefit-oriented copy.
Despite that fact, many sales letters and direct response mailers I receive – especially those from small businesses – just don’t do the job.
For example, I recently received a sales letter from a commercial real estate broker. Here are the opening few paragraphs:
Few decisions are as important to your company’s future success as where you choose to locate your company and under what parameters.
Fewer decisions still are as difficult to make and feel secure that you made the right choice. And yet few you will make can be made with as much confidence as relocation with the help of BKP Commercial Tenant Advisory Services. That is because with BKP as your exclusive representative, you can be assured you are not only seeing all your options, you are entering into the most economically favorable transaction.
Let’s overlook the overuse of the word “few” and the fact that the opening lacks any real attention-grabbing power. The major flaw in this notion is that it doesn’t offer any meaningful specifics.
In fact, nothing in this paragraph – or the entire letter for that matter – explains how it is that working with BKP can assure that I am seeing all my options.
Does BKP have a national up-to-the-minute database of available space that can be queried and searched? If so, they should tell me.
Are they part of a nationwide network with access to up-to-the-minute lease rates in all 50 states across 873 local markets? If so, they should tell me.
Specific answers to my questions will help BKP stand out, not unsubstantiated claims.
To make sure you do rise above the clutter attacking customers and potential customers, specify exactly what you mean when you use words and phrases such as quality, quality products and services, customer-service-oriented, value, etc.
These words and phrases without specifics are meaningless. Yes, they may look good on your stationery and in your e-mail and on your Web site. But without defining them with meaningful detail, they have no value.
For instance, in his book, “My Life In Advertising,” Claude Hopkins tells of the time when his agency landed the Schlitz Beer account:
“All brewers at that time were crying ‘Pure.’ … The claim made about as much impression on people as water makes on a duck.”
So what did Hopkins do? He toured the Schlitz brewery and witnessed the beer-making process, observing the many detailed steps that went into making sure the beer was pure.
In the book, he recounted what happened next:
“I came back to the office amazed. I said: ‘Why don’t you tell people these things? Why do you merely try to cry louder than others that your beer is pure? Why don’t you tell the reasons?
“ ‘Why,’ they said, ‘the processes we use are just the same as others use. No one can make good beer without them.’
“ ‘But,’ I replied, ‘others have never told this story. It amazes everyone who goes through your brewery. It will startle everyone in print.’
“So I … told a story which had never been told. I gave purity a meaning. Schlitz jumped from fifth place to neck-and-neck with first place in a very few months.”
By the way, Budweiser had a campaign a few years back that reminded me of this story. It was the “born-on date” campaign. I thought at the time, “I’m sure every brewer could make that claim if they wanted.” But Budweiser made it a point to do so – and anyone else who used this approach after them would only look like a copycat.
More recently, I received an excellent sales letter from Amica Mutual Insurance Co.
It seems that Amica wants to give me a quote on my car insurance, and I’m going to take the company up on its offer. I have options.
I can “choose to get great coverage and exceptional service at a low price – for a better all around value.”
A few lines later Amica defines what it means by value: “Value is a combination of what you get, what you pay, and how you’re treated.”
Early on in the letter they talk about how they’ve been “making quite a name for ourselves by employing a simple, but often-forgotten principle of good business: putting the customer first.”
A couple of short paragraphs after that they offer up proof. “Our commitment to superior service has earned us a prestigious distinction. J.D. Power and Associates has rated Amica ‘Highest in Customer Satisfaction among National Auto Insurers’ for seven years in a row.”
Then, for good measure, they include several testimonials from satisfied customers. This is a very effective letter. In my book it beats a suave, talking lizard hands down.
One final thought from Ziglar. “Every choice you make has an end result.”
And so it is with your sales copy. Every word, phrase, sentence, paragraph and page leads to success … or failure. For the most profitable results, forego generalities and infuse your copy with lots of meaningful, detailed, benefit-oriented, response-producing specifics.
Ernest Nicastro, a direct marketing consultant, copywriter and lead-generation specialist, heads up Positive Response (www.positiveresponse.com), an award-winning marketing firm specializing in B-to-B marketing and lead-generation.
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