By
Robert W. Bly
“Promise, large promise, is the soul
of an advertisement,” wrote Samuel Johnson.
Today we know he was right: to break
through the clutter and generate a profitable response, direct marketing must
make a big promise.
Some examples of big promises from
recent direct mail packages:
“Retire overseas on $600 a month.”
“Free money reserved for you.”
“John F. Kennedy had it. So did
Princess Diana. Michael Jordan has it now. It’s the reason why millions of
people adore them. Look inside to find out what it is and how you can get it.”
Testing shows that, at least in
consumer direct marketing, small promises don’t work. To get attention and
generate interest, you have to make a large, powerful promise.
But there’s a problem: What happens
if the reader is skeptical … because the big promise is so fantastic, it sounds
too good to be true? In that case, use a “Secondary Promise.”
The Secondary Promise is a lesser benefit that the product also
delivers. Although not as large as the Big Promise, the Secondary Promise
should be big enough so that, by itself, it is reason enough to order the
product … yet small enough so that it is easily believed.
This
way, even if the reader is totally skeptical about the Big Promise, he can
believe the Secondary Promise and order on that basis alone.
For
instance, a recent investment promotion had a big promise in its headline:
“Crazy
as it Sounds, Shares of This Tiny R&D Company, Selling for $2 Today, Could
be Worth as Much as $100 in the Not-Too-Distant Future.”
That’s a really big promise – having
a stock go from $2 to $100 is a gain of 4,900%. On a thousand shares, your
profit would be $98,000.
The problem is, in a bear market,
this gain may, to some readers, be too high to be believable.
Yet, in this case, it was the truth:
If the company’s medical device won FDA approval, a 50-fold increase in share
price was not out of the question.
The solution: a subhead, placed
directly under the Big Promise in the headline, made a Secondary Promise:
“I
think this new technology for treating liver disease is going to work. And if
it does, the stock price could easily increase 50-fold or more.
“But
even if it doesn’t … and the company’s treatment is a total failure … the stock
could still earn early-stage investors a 500% gain on their shares within the
next 24 months.”
The catch was this: Even if the treatment
did not win FDA approval, the company would still make a lot of money (thought
not as much as with the treatment being approved) using the same technology in
a different application. So even if the Big Promise didn’t pan out, the
Secondary Promise was enough to make the stock worth owning.
There are many techniques you can
use to prove your Big Promise when your reader is skeptical. These include
testimonials … case studies … test results … favorable reviews … superior product
design … track record … system or methodology … reputation of the manufacturer.
All are good. But the trouble is
this: If the Big Promise is so strong that readers are inclined to dismiss it
as false, you find yourself arguing with them and going against their ingrained
belief when you introduce all this proof.
I would still present the proof, but
an easier way to overcome doubt concerning the Big Promise is to always
accompany it with a Secondary Promise that is desirable yet smaller and more
credible.
The Secondary Promise is your “back-up” promise. In a package with
both a Big Promise and a Secondary Promise, the Big Promise will attract
readers because it is so large – and if you offer enough proof, many of those
readers will believe it.
What about those prospects who are
not convinced? Without a Secondary Promise, they simply toss your mailing
without responding.
But when you add a Secondary Promise
and make it prominent (which means featuring it in the headline or the lead),
many of those who reject the Big Promise as being unbelievable will find the
Secondary Promise credible … and appealing enough to sell them all on its own.
Actually, with a Secondary Promise,
prospects who don’t fully believe your Big Promise can still be sold by it. They
think: “Hey, if this Big Promise happens to be true, this is a good product to
buy; but even if it isn’t true, the product is more than worth the price just
for the Secondary Promise – which I am sure is
true – by itself. So either way, I can’t lose.”
And if you use both a Big Promise
and a Secondary Promise in your next promotion, neither can you. And that’s a
promise.
About the author:
Robert
W. Bly is a freelance copywriter and the author of more than 50 books including
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Direct
Marketing (Alpha). His e-mail address is rwbly@bly.com and his Web site
address is www.bly.com.
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