The sales-boosting magic of demonstrations

July 4th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Tags: Copywriting · Internet Marketing · Persuasion & Influence

There’s a virtual hurricane of images barging through your prospect’s brain every minute. He’s worried about the electric bill, remembering himself to pick up the wife’s dress from the dry cleaners, mentally insulting his boss for not giving him that long-awaited raise, planning taking the kid to the doctor, you get the idea.

And still, it is your goal to make him forget all that long enough to create a desire for your product or service and entice him to buy. How do you do it? Is there a secret to why some ad campaigns sell millions of dollars worth of product while others fail miserably? Yes, there is…

The secret is involvement.
Involvement is one of the most persuasive selling elements in your toolbox. When you get someone involved in whatever it is you’re doing, you get his undivided attention. And this gives you the chance you’re looking for to make the sale.

But how do you get someone involved? Ah! That’s easy… you do it by crafting a good demonstration of whatever it is you’re selling.

You see, when you watch someone put up a good product or service demonstration, your mind instantly snaps out of the day-to-day worries and pays attention. A good demonstration gets you involved and makes you want to hear more about the product – and once you’re involved you just can’t look away!

Involvement is the reason why late-night infomercials are so hypnotic. Infomercial writers spend long hours figuring out how to best communicate the product’s benefits through visual demonstrations. Next time you’re up late, study a few of them and my point will be, err, demonstrated.

You don’t need a 30 minute infomercial to demonstrate your product. In fact, legendary adman Rosser Reeves proved it by demonstrating the main product benefit of M&M’s in a single 20” television spot: “The melt in your mouth, not in your hand.” This campaign single-handedly sent Mars Candy sales into orbit.

But TV is not the only way to demonstrate a product. No sir. You can construct a good demonstration in virtually any medium available: radio, the web, newspapers, magazines, brochures, anything goes!

In fact, you can demonstrate a product or service without the help of props or external visual images. You can do it with your copy alone…

Creating involvement with copywriting.
With words alone, you have the power to create ANY image you want in your reader’s mind. Read that last sentence again and let it sink in. It’s a very powerful statement.

Why? Because when you learn how to craft mental images in your reader’s mind, you’ll have the power to make your readers actually demonstrate your product to themselves in their mind!

Always keep in mind that the goal of your writing is to conjure an internal representation (a visual image) in your reader’s mind. And that image you create can be either dull, fuzzy, vague and without feeling or action-packed, clear, crisp and bursting with emotion.

Allow me to demonstrate:
Which of these two ads is more likely to stir your interest?

1) You’ll get six of the most delicious peaches you’ve ever eaten, hand-picked by my grandmother from her own backyard!

2) Picture yourself slowly sinking your teeth into the tastiest, juiciest, flavorsome, most mouth-watering pink peaches you’ve ever tried! You’ll get not one, but half a dozen of these ripe and succulent beauties… Each one carefully hand-picked this morning by my charming 73 year old grandma from the golden sun-drenched orchard in her very own backyard.

Sure, the second one is longer… but it sure does paint a picture right? The point is to craft an image in the mind, so never edit your copy short by mincing one of the most persuasive elements in your copywriting arsenal: reader involvement through mental images.

You’ve got homework.
Right now, while it’s all still fresh in your mind, go over your existing sales communication and find a way to add demonstration and involvement. Think of both: a way to add a visual demonstration to your sales process and a way to improve your copywriting to create involvement through mental imagery.