Too Much Choice – Is It Really Possible?

Had a conversation at work the other day about choice as it pertains to radio ads --- whether or not it’s a good thing to give a listener multiple choices of action. I’ll expand on what that means later.

However what that conversation did was to remind me about a video I watched online from a TED conference --- all about choice.  A talk by Barry Schwartz, that I initially found surprising, with some information that seems counter-intuitive.  Here’s a link to that video from PsyBlog -- http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/09/barry-schwartz-on-why-too-much-choice.php .

To boil down the main points of this discussion – it is argued that choice can actually be a negative and in fact having too much choice causes a kind of paralysis, rather than action and satisfaction.  Sounds odd, because in our world we are used to having so much choice.  And we are constantly told that choice is good. 

But walk into any grocery store and you’ll encounter shelf after shelf of products. Look at the cereal aisle.  How many cereals do you have to choose from?  20, 30, maybe more?  That’s wonderful, right?  Actually, no.  See there’s this funny/curious thing about people – we don’t like to make the wrong choice. 

In fact, we’ll go out of our way to justify the choices we do make.  So, given too many choices, and no good reason why one is better than another – we end up in a state of paralysis.  Frozen and unable to decide.  No matter what we choose, we fear we’ll make the wrong choice.  Sometimes it’s just easier not to make any choice at all!  Maybe this is why people who don’t have as many choices in their daily lives are actually happier than those who have the freedom of vast choice.

So what does this mean to your marketing?  First of all it re-enforces the thought that you should keep your message to one clear thought in any radio ad.  Don’t confuse people with choices – and cause them to freeze into a state of inaction.

But most importantly – you need to give them one, clear method of doing business with you.  If you want them to come to your store – give them a location.  (Best said in a style with landmarks – 333 Right Ave, next to the supercenter for example). 

If you have a website, that would supply the listener with your address and phone --- just send them to the website.  And lastly, if you have no other choice, use your phone number. (My least favourite option since it takes so long and is so easily forgotten)  But never use all 3 in one ad!  You will cause the listener to stop focusing on your message and force them to consider which choice they should make, address, website or phone number.  Suddenly they’ve gone from any consideration of why they should do business with you – to a state of frozen paralysis.  In truth they will now have heard nothing you said, and will be more focused on how to contact you.  I can’t tell you the number of times we get calls or emails that say I heard an ad about something I may be interested in – but I did not catch the phone number and website – not only because they go by so fast – but I would suggest that because there were 2 or more choices of “call to action”!

So once again, we’re back to the “KISS” rule.  Just keep it simple.  I know it sounds wrong – but sometimes  too much choice can be a negative.

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A Little Advice From an Apple

I found this quote in an online article from the Wall Street Journal, about the way that Apple does business…

“According to several employees and training manuals, sales associates are taught an unusual sales philosophy: not to sell, but rather to help customers solve problems. "Your job is to understand all of your customers' needs—some of which they may not even realize they have,"

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576364071955678908.html#ixzz1PpRfBKll “

And as it turns out this is not only advice on how you could run your business, but more importantly--- also great advice on how you should create your radio ads.  Stop trying to sell – and simply help your customers solve a problem.  If you can do that, you’ll more than likely achieve the sale as a result.

The problem with most advertising is that it tries to answer questions no one is asking!   By giving the listener the who, what, when and where – when all they really want is an answer to the question “WHY?”   Why should I choose you?  How can you help me?

If you can solve the “why” they’ll give you their attention (and their money).  But drone on endlessly about how many years you’ve been in business, and load your ad with platitudes about your experienced staff and superior selection – they’ll tune you out and go back to whatever it was they were thinking about before your message came on. 

And they’ll do it with lighting speed!

 Thanks to the miracle of the internet and Google searches we’ve all become expertly honed at deciding what we’re interested in and what we’re not.  Give us information we don’t want, or didn’t ask for and we’re gone.  On to the next most interesting thought.  Which is really bad news for you Mr Advertiser.

So stop trying to sell, and stop cramming your ads full of “we-we” (as in we do this and we do that and we’ve been doing it for 35 years…) and figure out how you can solve their problem.   Then package that solution in a straight-forward ad, with some powerful and energetic verbs and you’ll get the listeners attention. 

And these days – that in and of itself is a huge success right there!


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It’s Your Story – So Own It 

How do you differentiate your business in your radio ads?  Listen to most ads and you’d think the secret is to tell everyone how long you’ve been in business, where you’re located and then go on endlessly about how wonderful you and your products are. Oh and if you really want to impress us, throw a list of all the product lines you carry – nothing impresses us more than a list!

Okay, I know what you’re thinking…they’re your ads, you’re paying for them – so you’re going to talk about yourself and your business!  Well, if your business is so successful you can afford to buy ads just to brag, and you don’t need any more customers – then go right ahead.  Now if you are in same boat as the rest of us and you always need new customers -- as a general rule talking about yourself is not a good way to market your business in radio.  Truth is your customers really don’t care about you or your products – unless you or that product can help them solve a problem – they’re stuck in their own heads and their own lives.  So they want to hear about themselves.

But if you’re bound and determined to talk about you – then please don’t fill your ads with boring ad speak, like lists and years in business – tell us a story.  And not just any story – your story! You’ve got a unique one – because only you are you.   So share some of that story with your customers. 

Here’s what I mean – I’ve worked with a very smart business owner who told stories in her ads.  Stories about how she found specific artists she featured in her gallery/store.  Stories that centred around questions her grand kids asked her things she had in her home (the same kind of art she sold in her store).  Stories about special orders she’d done for some of her customers – stories only she could tell, that she could own.  Stories that other customers could remember and comment about.  Stories that told you about who she was, why she did what she did and the passion she had about the products she sold.

Oh, and by the way – these story ads worked very well for her, as they resonated with people who were listening to the radio.

So if you’re going to talk about yourself in your ads, make sure those ads tell your story – go ahead take ownership of the business you own and tell the world about it – but do it in a way that tells us a bit about who you are, and why doing business with you is so special.

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Are Your Ads Trying To Be Everything To Everybody?

In a recent article,

Marketing Beyond Advertising’s Tom Wanek said:

“Powerful marketing messages make a statement  by choosing who to lose. Weak marketing messages attempt to please everyone, and in the end, please no one.”

It’s a pretty common mistake, made in a lot of radio ads.  Trying to say too much in your ads.  And it’s a very easy trap to fall into. 

First of all, you as a business owner, know a lot about your business or service.  You’re proud of it – and you should be – so it’s only natural to want to tell everyone all the things you do.  But here’s something you need to hear – and I’m sorry this is going to sound a bit rough.  Listeners just don’t care.

See everyone is self-centered.  I know we try to claim we’re not, but we’re hard-wired that way.  Self-preservation is one of the most basic of humanity’s driving force.  And I believe that forces us to think about our welfare a lot more often then we consider.  And if that is true, when we’re listening to radio ads we’re trying to gauge how the message we’re hearing is going to impact our lives – in essence “what does this have to do with me”? 

But if you’re not talking to me, because you’ve forgotten that I am indeed an individual, with different immediate wants and needs than everyone else, but you’re still trying to lump me in – well in truth, you’ve lost me (and a lot of others too).

So in actuality, instead of reaching everyone, you reach no-one.  So how do you actually talk directly to those who would be interested in your product?  Eliminate those who wouldn’t be interested! I know you think you don’t want to do this – but you do.  Regardless of what you sell or market, there are just going to be people who are not interested in what you have.  So lose them -- purposely!

How?  Choose one aspect of your business – aimed at a very specific part of your consumer base, and then talk to them exactly as they talk.

That means if they talk about your product using jargon – you should use jargon too.  And don’t worry for a second that it alienates a lot of the people listening, because they were never going to be your customer anyway, and if by some miracle you were to get some of them to come in, they’d only waste your time asking a lot of questions that your targeted customers would never ask.

This is the key to making a powerful, laser-guided ad.  That’s in essence what the quote at the top of this post means. 

So go ahead, say it proud.  Say it powerfully.  And say it in the language your target customer is going to understand.  And lose everyone else. 

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The KISS Principal Applies to Not Only What You Write – But Also How!   

This is especially true when trying to write ads.  I don’t know how many times over my tenure as a copywriter I’ve actually said “your ad should be about one thing – and one thing only”.  In fact, there are times I’m convinced that if I had a nickel (maybe a quarter with inflation) for every time that I’ve said those words, that I would not need to be an ad writer anymore. 

However, as I recently discovered and will explain further, it’s not only advice that I should be giving to others, but it’s something I should remind myself of as well when I’m trying to construct an ad.

See, just like I would like to tell most advertisers and business owners, that they really know too much about their product to be objective when it comes time to decide what to write – I should also remind myself that I know a lot about the craft of writing radio ads, and that I need to keep it simple too!

As you may or may not know, I am a graduate of the Wizard of Ads – which simply means that I spent about 4 mind-blowing days in Austin Texas learning a lot about advertising, human nature, physics, and how to deconstruct the creativity of art, music, photography and poetry and use those techniques to write more effectively from Roy Williams.  And if you know about Roy, then you likely know about his weekly blog post called the Monday Morning Memo. 

Like many others, those who’ve been to Texas, and many who have not – I read his Memo every Monday.  In a recent Memo I was reminded about the basic lesson of the KISS principle as it relates to writing an ad.  If you go to the website (www.mondaymorningmemo.com) and look through the archives you’ll find the whole Memo called “Japanese Summer”.  I suggest you read it.

He does an extremely good job of explaining how important it is to keep it simple and how valuable hiring or having a good ad copywriter is to creating effective ads.  But here is the nugget that I dug out of the ground, dusted off and am trying desperately to put to use.

It’s nice to have a fancy ad – well crafted and filled with information.  But the average person just doesn’t care.  They don’t care how knowledgeable you are about your product.  All they really want to know is what will your product or service do to make my life better.  And when you tell me about it – keep it simple, cause I don’t have a lot of time and I don’t want to be challenged trying to figure out just what it is you’re trying to tell me. 

I realized when I read this Memo that I have often been guilty of being too cute, or too complicated – when all I needed to do was say it simply – say it plainly.  Then get the hell out of the way. See after more than 20 years, I’m still learning too.

It’s All About Me – But Should It Be?

Remember the 60’s and 70's? The “Me” generation.  It was all about expressing yourself, finding out who you were.  And then celebrating it. Who cares if it doesn’t “jive” with what someone thinks…”I’m just being me, baby”!  And people love me when I’m me.

Well, I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but the 60’s are over!  In fact, the whole me generation thing is now over and another phase is -- the We Generation -- is taking hold.

Funny thing is, I’m not sure that a lot of small businesses know it.  Want proof? Listen to their radio ads.  They spend all of their time talking about themselves.  We do this and my business has that, and we offer something else and have been in business since 19 – blah-blah-blah. Sorry to be blunt – but who cares? 

This is what Roy Williams – The Wizard Of Ads, refers to as “we-we” advertising.  Actually he’s a bit more graphic when he asks; are you “we-weing” all over yourself?  Well are you?

I know what you’re thinking.  They’re my ads!  I’m paying for them – and I want people to know about me and the wonderful business that I’ve built.  I’m proud of it.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be proud of it – and hey if that is the only message you want to get out to people – then feel free to shout from every radio station in the country.  Oh, but don’t be surprised if no-one ever comes through your doors,

Here’s the hard lesson for you when it comes to your radio advertising.  Potential customers just don’t care!  They may not tell you that to your face, most of them are too polite or just can’t be bothered to do it.  No, instead they tell you with their dollars.

See here’s the thing – they too are self-centred, and they only care about themselves.  Their problems, their perceived wants and desires. 

And they give their hard-earned bucks to the businesses and services who can solve their problems. Real or perceived.  Wanna be that business?   Then stop “we-weing” on and on about yourself and your business -- and start talking about their problems and how your solution fits it and fixes that problem like the proverbial glove. 

Lose the insider talk, ditch the hype or gimmicks and please stop we-weing -- just have a conversation, a truthful simple conversation with them about how you can solve their problem and don’t be surprised if they don’t just reward you with their business.   

Why Can’t We Just Tell The Truth?

 

I’ve been in this business (radio copywriting) for a long time now – let’s just say more than 20 years and leave it at that. 

 

In that time I’ve undergone a lot of changes in my writing style.  Many of those changes have come the hard way – by trying things, only to realize it did not work. 

 

And I’ve said it a lot of times lately, I’m actually glad that when I started in this business we used typewriters and not computers. 

 

You see the great thing about a typewriter is that it does not save your work to anything that can be recalled years later for inspection.  Because I would suspect that if I could look back at my earliest work, hilarious laughter would follow as well as some serious head-shaking -- when I realized just how amateur the writing really was!

 

However, one of the bigger changes that I have undergone is the deep rooted hate that I have developed for “ad-speak” and love that I have for just telling things like they are.

 

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I am still far too often forced into writing cliché-ridden ads filled with dribble like “for a limited time”, “but wait there’s more” and so on and so on. (Fill in your favourite cliché and I’ve likely been compelled to use it in an ad sometime in the past year. Although there is one I will never use without being drugged – and that’s the phrase “for your whatever needs”.)

 

 If you work in a radio station – and you’re not the owner –  you’ve likely been made to use these word combo’s yourself recently. 

 

But I should get back to the point here.  The point was supposed to be about telling the truth in your ads.  I wish more business owners had the intelligence and let’s be honest here, the balls to just do that. 

 

Over the years I’ve found that the rare few who had the wisdom and the strength to just talk to people and tell them the truth about their product or service, their passions and unabashed love for the business they are in. Without all the hype and catch phrases.  And I can honestly say that every time I’ve had that great fortune, the client has had tremendous success.  Why does this happen?  Because we all have an internal “bullshit” meter – and it rings loud and true – and the second it goes off, we stop paying attention. 

 

The best way that I have found to silence that bell, is to tell the truth.  To speak honestly and forcefully about how your business can help a listener.  Do this, in plain english, and you will blast through all the hyperbole that litters the airwaves and your message will ring loud and true. 

 

Do you have the courage to dig deep, and speak the truth and nothing but the truth about your business?  I know I’d like to write for and work with more business owners who want to do just this in their ads.  And I’d really like to hear more of it on the radio on all the other stations that I don’t work for.  What do you say – let’s give it a try!