Greenguy's Board - View Single Post

Simon · 2008-09-12, 08:06 AM

If someone told you to sell the sizzle and not the steak, it may have been because their steak wasn't all that good. The wiser rule to follow may be "It's the sizzle that sells the steak." What I mean is there has to be a good steak there or you're wasting your time creating sizzle. And if there is a good steak there you can sell it a lot of ways besides just its sizzle. (worth a read) (also worth reading)

Toby and NY Jester mentioned something important that may get missed so I want to point out that using text that calls out for action is a good thing. And you can add to the impact by setting things up with questions first. For example, asking the reader if they like, or want to see something, followed by a call to action telling them to do something in order to get what they just answered 'yes' to in their mind.

Be careful though, about using the "Join Now!" type of approach if you haven't built your own tour (as Toby mentioned) or some powerful selling pages before having the surfer click that one. Why do I say that? Because I'm a strong believer that the 'join' word is best used to link to a Join page. I'd caution against sending a surfer to the main paysite entrance (or worse, the warning page) from a link which says Join Now but requires or even gives them the option to scroll and click through several more pages before getting to the actual Join page.*

But there are plenty of other good call-to-action phrases you can use if you're not sending them to the Join page. Take a look at what the surfer will see first when they click your link to go to the paysite tour. See what that page says to the surfer. See if it answers any questions. If it does, what do you think you can do? Yep, you guessed correctly, you can now ask the surfers a question on your freesite and promise them the answer is just a click away on that paysite tour page.

Boiling it down, my suggestion is to tailor your link text to target as closely as possible what will happen on the surfer's screen, and in his or her mind, when they click that link and are shown the next page.

--
(For those who know about cognitive dissonance, the idea is just to avoid creating any whenever you can, particularly regarding the concept of Joining a site.)

2008-09-12, 08:06 AM	#17
Simon That which does not kill us, will try, try again. Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Conch Republic Posts: 5,150	If someone told you to sell the sizzle and not the steak, it may have been because their steak wasn't all that good. The wiser rule to follow may be "It's the sizzle that sells the steak." What I mean is there has to be a good steak there or you're wasting your time creating sizzle. And if there is a good steak there you can sell it a lot of ways besides just its sizzle. (worth a read) (also worth reading) Toby and NY Jester mentioned something important that may get missed so I want to point out that using text that calls out for action is a good thing. And you can add to the impact by setting things up with questions first. For example, asking the reader if they like, or want to see something, followed by a call to action telling them to do something in order to get what they just answered 'yes' to in their mind. Be careful though, about using the "Join Now!" type of approach if you haven't built your own tour (as Toby mentioned) or some powerful selling pages before having the surfer click that one. Why do I say that? Because I'm a strong believer that the 'join' word is best used to link to a Join page. I'd caution against sending a surfer to the main paysite entrance (or worse, the warning page) from a link which says Join Now but requires or even gives them the option to scroll and click through several more pages before getting to the actual Join page.* But there are plenty of other good call-to-action phrases you can use if you're not sending them to the Join page. Take a look at what the surfer will see first when they click your link to go to the paysite tour. See what that page says to the surfer. See if it answers any questions. If it does, what do you think you can do? Yep, you guessed correctly, you can now ask the surfers a question on your freesite and promise them the answer is just a click away on that paysite tour page. Boiling it down, my suggestion is to tailor your link text to target as closely as possible what will happen on the surfer's screen, and in his or her mind, when they click that link and are shown the next page. -- (For those who know about cognitive dissonance, the idea is just to avoid creating any whenever you can, particularly regarding the concept of Joining a site.) __________________ "If you're happy and you know it, think again." -- Guru Pitka Last edited by Simon; 2008-09-12 at 08:10 AM..