One of the first lessons I ever learned about advertising was
that you have to get your point across quickly, before your
audience loses interest. There's a big problem with this, though:
many sales messages are too complex to get across in just a few
seconds or paragraphs. This is especially true when it comes to
selling new technologies or sophisticated business opportunities
two "biggies" in Internet business.
So what can you do? On one hand, you want to make your message
short and easy to understand, but on the other hand, you don't
want to over-simplify your sales pitch. This can be quite a
puzzler.
The best tool I've found for making my point when it comes to
explaining complex ideas is to use a comparison. If you try to
explain a new concept from scratch, you're never going to be able
to keep the audience's attention. With a good comparison,
however, you are not starting from scratch rather, you are
using your audience's prior knowledge about something else to
make a statement about your product or service. In essence, you
are just taking what your customers know already, and then
"tweaking" it a little bit to help make your point.
There are at least two ways that you can use comparisons in your
persuasive messages:
1) Comparison and Contrast: This is probably the most common form
of comparison. You simply use people's knowledge of some product
and service and then show how yours is different and better. This
allows you to focus your valuable "message time" on the benefits
and advantages of your offer.
For instance, if you were trying to market a new software
program, you could say, "Our program works just like a word
processor, but allows you to edit, modify, and upload web pages
as well. It's the power of an HTML editor with the ease of a word
processor!" By phrasing it this way, you can do a lot of
explanation in just a few words. You are also doing the one thing
that we all desire you are distinguishing yourself from your
competitors.
2) Analogy: Analogies are also very good for explaining complex
subjects. In an analogy, you help people understand your idea by
showing how it is similar to something else. This, of course,
will only work if you use something that the audience is already
familiar with if you don't, you're only doubling their
confusion!
An analogy that we've all heard is the one about fishing: "By
providing information to you about marketing (or promotion, or
copywriting, or whatever), we are showing you HOW to fish rather
than just GIVING you a fish" the reason we understand this is
because we understand the difference (and advantage) of being
able to provide for ourselves over a long period of time, rather
than just having a one-time benefit. By using the analogy, you
don't have to go into a tedious explanation of what you mean (as
I just did!).
These two forms of comparison may seem fairly obvious on the
surface, but, like an iceberg (see what I'm doing?), there's a
lot more substance below the surface. Just remember a few simple
tips when using comparisons:
Use points of reference that are well known to the audience.
This will make your explanations easier to understand. "Our
system is organized in the same way as the 18th century Ottoman
Empire" is probably NOT the best analogy to use.
When using a comparison and contrast, express differences as
being advantages. That is, don't just show how your product or
service is different; show how it is BETTER.
When using analogies, compare your product or service to
something LIKED or RESPECTED by the audience. Not only will this
help you explain your message it will also help create the
right attitude towards it. "Our product has been copied by our
competitors, just like Crystal Pepsi was!" might get your point
across, but it probably won't make your product any more
desirable.
Please realize that these tips are just a starting point. As with
any persuasive strategy, you will have to study your own
situation and target audience to figure out the best way to use
comparisons in your sales messages. Whatever the situation,
however, you should remember that understanding the experiences,
knowledge, and attitudes of your audience is always the first
step in reaching them. Good fishing!
About the Author
Ron Sathoff is a noted speaker and manager of DrNunley's
http://InternetWriters.com Ron works with business speakers and
writers, helping them with their copy-writing, marketing, and
Internet promotion. Reach him at ron@drnunley.com or
801-328-9006.