Why Complexity Is Deadly In Advertising
Not long ago I received an email of someone trying to sell me SEO or something and there were a few things about that email that immediately struck me that I wanted to point out.
First it was filled with grammatical mistakes.
Second, the line spacing was non-existent.
And third, they ended the email with “Put in your phone number to book a call, book a call using the calendar or simply reply back to this email.
This message outlines perfectly one of the cardinal sins of marketing and sales in general — being unclear.
Customer Confusion
You might know it as “Ockham's razor” where the simplest answer is most likely the correct one.
The reason why this is important to advertising is because the more factors you inject into your campaign, your advertisement, your poster or etc — the worst the result.
Most ads that fail simply because they don’t give the prospect a clear action to take.
‘Click this link to book a call” “Call this number for a free consultation” “fill out this order form” etc.
You might be in a position where you’re managing staff.
Let me ask you, how often do things get done if you don’t tell someone explicitly what you want?
In my experience, rarely.
Once while hiring staff, we put on the job listing simple instructions to follow:
——
[“Follow these instructions at the bottom of the page.”]
Write a letter answering the questions below.
Make sure to insert [keyword] somewhere into the letter, then hand write your signature on the bottom right corner.
Get an envelope, address it to [blank]
Send it by Priority Mail with USPS, make sure it gets here on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday (Not Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday).
——
Seems easy enough?
Well, you wouldn’t believe how many people came to the office in person, gave a phone call asking about the instructions, or forgot the keyword.
People aren’t so good at following complex instructions but there are very good at following simple ones.
This is especially important in advertising because if you succeed in grabbing your ideal prospect’s attention, the count down timer starts.
You need to tell the customer explicitly what you want them to do next. If you leave the customer to make their own decision on how to contact you, or where to find your product or whatever, you will quickly lose their attention and the sale.
Simple and to the point is alwaaaaays better, because a confused customer does the worst thing imaginable…
Nothing.
Happy hunting,
-Jason Anderson
