Posted by Garrick Guelph (176.9.122.104) on May 15, 2012 at 20:57:58:
In Reply to: office 2010 posted by tjfjwqvj on May 13, 2012 at 09:23:48:
Give your copy the "moron" test. I learned this during my days at a huge company-to-enterprise newsletter publishing organization. We'd give our head...
Keep in stephen pierce mind there could be a very good A current chat with a buddy reminded me of a copywriting lesson I learned lengthy ago in a spot far-far way (Philly): Never ever insult your audience. Less difficult mentioned than done? Perhaps. But we know there's a fine line amongst insulting your audience stephen pierce and totally alienating them. Thank God there is a answer:
Give your copy the "moron" test. I learned this for the duration of my days at a big organization-to-organization newsletter publishing firm. We'd give our headlines a test to see if we could put an insulting name at the end of them - in turn killing off the headline.
Here's an example:
Have You Complied with HR 1091?
Try adding "moron" to the end of that question. Flows pretty nicely does not it? It is nearly like you're a school teacher with a ruler standing more than the reader.
You can modify it to:
HR 1091 Calls for Compliance by Jan. 1
Employing this fact-based strategy lets the reader ask his or her own compliance questions. Give the info or the germ of an thought and let the reader to follow up on his or her own. We want to inspire thought and then subtly direct action.
Even though I gave a headline as an example, you can apply the "moron" test to any part of your copy, specially the questions.
What's the difference between an insult and a gentle nudge in your item or service's direction? I've observed a couple of campaigns (by way of e-mail) exactly where it's apparent the purpose is to shame the reader into action. An e-mail I lately received from expert e-mail marketer Stephen Pierce of the Entire Truth read, "Have you done this but?"
Moron could simply be added to the finish of that question. And though he did not want to insult, he did want to get the reader's attention - and that is just what he did. The nicely-written letter that accompanied that subject line was a gem - no doubt winning Stephen tons of sign-ups for his teleseminar.
The Bottom Line
With the prevalence of books from the "For Dummies" series you will have to weigh whether or not your audience has no qualms about getting called a moron (or a dummy as the case might be). So measure your audience's reaction to distinct tones of voice and approaches. Use these steps to create a test group of subscribers to attempt out your much more creative e-mail newsletters and campaigns:
1. Randomly collect 15 to 20 names from your list and only send them your much more alternative campaigns while sending the rest of your list more traditional data.
2. Ask you test group for feedback on the stephen pierce campaigns.
3. Monitor the group's actions. Do they unsubscribe, click via or just open your e-mails?
four. Integrate some of your far more effective ideas into the classic details you give the rest of your list.
This way you have a relatively safe location to test out your tones of voice. With this technique you can find out whether your list loves - or hates - the whole moron/dummy approach to marketing and advertising.