One of the first lessons I ever learned about advertising was that you have to get your point across quickly, before your audience loses interest. There's a big problem with this, though: many sales messages are too complex to get across in just a few seconds or paragraphs. This is especially true when it comes to selling new technologies or sophisticated business opportunities -- two "biggies" in Internet business.
So what can you do? On one hand, you want to make your message short and easy to understand, but on the other hand, you don't want to over-simplify your sales pitch. This can be quite a puzzler.
The best tool I've found for making my point when it comes to explaining complex ideas is to use a comparison. If you try to explain a new concept from scratch, you're never going to be able to keep the audience's attention. With a good comparison, however, you are not starting from scratch -- rather, you are using your audience's prior knowledge about something else to make a statement about your product or service. In essence, you are just taking what your customers know already, and then "tweaking" it a little bit to help make your point.
There are at least two ways that you can use comparisons in your persuasive messages:
1) Comparison and Contrast: This is probably the most common form of comparison. You simply use people's knowledge of some product and service and then show how yours is different and better. This allows you to focus your valuable "message time" on the benefits and advantages of your offer.
For instance, if you were trying to market a new software program, you could say, "Our program works just like a word processor, but allows you to edit, modify, and upload web pages as well. It's the power of an HTML editor with the ease of a word processor!" By phrasing it this way, you can do a lot of explanation in just a few words. You are also doing the one thing that we all desire -- you are distinguishing yourself from your competitors.
2) Analogy: Analogies are also very good for explaining complex subjects. In an analogy, you help people understand your idea by showing how it is similar to something else. This, of course, will only work if you use something that the audience is already familiar with -- if you don't, you're only doubling their confusion!
An analogy that we've all heard is the one about fishing: "By providing information to you about marketing (or promotion, or copywriting, or whatever), we are showing you HOW to fish rather than just GIVING you a fish" -- the reason we understand this is because we understand the difference (and advantage) of being able to provide for ourselves over a long period of time, rather than just having a one-time benefit. By using the analogy, you don't have to go into a tedious explanation of what you mean (as I just did!).
These two forms of comparison may seem fairly obvious on the surface, but, like an iceberg (see what I'm doing?), there's a lot more substance below the surface. Just remember a few simple tips when using comparisons:
* Use points of reference that are well known to the audience. This will make your explanations easier to understand. "Our system is organized in the same way as the 18th century Ottoman Empire" is probably NOT the best analogy to use.
* When using a comparison and contrast, express differences as being advantages. That is, don't just show how your product or service is different; show how it is BETTER.
* When using analogies, compare your product or service to something LIKED or RESPECTED by the audience. Not only will this help you explain your message -- it will also help create the right attitude towards it. "Our product has been copied by our competitors, just like Crystal Pepsi was!" might get your point across, but it probably won't make your product any more desirable.
Please realize that these tips are just a starting point. As with any persuasive strategy, you will have to study your own situation and target audience to figure out the best way to use comparisons in your sales messages. Whatever the situation, however, you should remember that understanding the experiences, knowledge, and attitudes of your audience is always the first step in reaching them. Good fishing!
Ron Sathoff is a noted speaker and manager of DrNunley's http://InternetWriters.com Ron works with business speakers and writers, helping them with their copy-writing, marketing, and Internet promotion. Reach him at ron@drnunley.com or 801-328-9006.
