Don't Be Misled By the Order of Things
The last word in a phrase can be more important than the first
What’s the key to getting in shape? Diet and exercise. Everyone knows that phrase. But which of those two things is more important? Well, that depends. Want to lose weight? Diet is more important. Want to get stronger? Exercise is more important. So if the latter is your goal, you might to consider reversing the common phrase and talk about “exercise and diet.” It will help.
Perhaps that seems a little silly to you. Here’s another silly little thing: Every infomercial price ends in 95 or 99. It’s almost a cliche of the genre, like “but wait, there’s more!” But have you ever wondered why?
The short answer is such pricing generates more sales. The long answer involves cognitive psychology and something called left-digit bias. Because people tend to focus on the first thing they see, and because US consumers read from left to right, $19.99 is processed as closer to 19 than 20 — even though it’s 99 cents away from the former and 1 cent away from the latter. Of course, we DR marketers help them see it that way by making the left-side digits larger.
Switching back to words, this week I want to tell you about another common phrase that may be misleading because the last word is more important than the first. The phrase: “features and benefits.”
For those of you who are keeping score at home, we’re on step four of my formula for scripts that sell. So far we have covered:
A simple yet powerful way to make sure you nail your problem opening
The three questions every advertisement should answer right away
Why paying off the problem is important, and my favorite technique for doing that
What’s interesting is that we still haven’t gotten past the first 30 seconds of your typical DRTV commercial. Even this step in the formula usually falls within that timeframe. This is the part of the commercial where you prove your product is the ultimate solution to the opening problem by describing and demonstrating all of its “key features and benefits.” But as I’ve already hinted, there’s something important here that you need to know: Benefits have significantly more selling power than features.
This goes back to a famous quote that I’ve shared before:
Let’s say your selling Professor Levitt’s hypothetical drill on Amazon. What he’s saying is that instead of just focusing on the key feature of that drill (“equipped with a 1/4-inch tungsten carbide drill bit”), you also want to turn that fact into a key benefit (“quickly and easily makes perfect 1/4-inch holes in any material”).
I mention Amazon because that’s the place where I see the most room for improvement in this regard. DRTV commercials usually get it right. But Amazon product pages are far too often loaded with technical details while being light on reasons to buy. This ‘feature rich’ copy no doubt makes the Amazon algorithm happy, but it’s the cure for insomnia for human readers. Smart marketers should be able to apply a little creativity and achieve pages that boost search rankings and also sell better than your average instruction manual or packing list.
On that note, this week I’m going to combine my Promising Products feature with a critique of how well the particular product’s landing page is using benefits-oriented copy. You’ll not only learn about two items that are winners, you’ll also get to see how I would dial up the selling power of their copy … and you’ll get it all for just $5.99!
Chart Watch👁️
Granitestone Armor Max
Pitch: “Four durable layers of ultra-nonstick”
Offer: 4-pay of $49.99 for the set, 4-piece deep steam & fry set, 6-piece knife set
Marketer: Emson (🏆 2022 True Top Marketer)
Producer: Hutton Miller (🏆 2022 True Top Producer)
This one popped up at #21 on last week’s DRMetrix report after six weeks on the air. (Premium subscribers learned about it at the end of July.) It’s the 13th Granitestone project Emson has put out since the brand launched in 2018.
Watch this commercial — and learn. No one dramatizes a problem like the HM team. They even bring a little humor to the process that winks at the audience and avoids the eye-rolling ‘DR cheese’ trap. The whole spot is a clinic, but having just written about the art of the problem opening, I wanted to call that part to your attention in particular.
As for the product, I really have nothing to say. Now it’s four layers of nonstick? Sure! Why not? Every other variation on this theme seems to have worked. This one could, too. If there’s a saturation point, we don’t seem to have reached it yet. I’m sure many retailers are sick of pans, but consumers seem to have an endless appetite for them (pun intended).