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Brick No111: How to use the f-word
By Matt Weston, Friday 12 November 2004 You needn't brace yourself for a potty-mouthed crash course in swearing etiquette. I don't mean THAT f-word. Nope, the f-word I'm trailing won't offend your ears, but may well offend your spam filter (which is why you'll see it bleeped out as fr*e or f^ee) . . . an innocuous everyday word that spammers have hijacked with billions of emails because it is the single easiest way to solicit a reply. Fr*e trials, samples, coupons and giveaways CAN multiply the response you get from your advertising. And many of you follow this approach: Web designers offer no-cost, no-obligation consultations (and in my favourite case a fr*e, home-baked chocolate cake). Toymakers offer gratis samples to distributors. And rising damp experts give away diagnostic booklets. They CAN - used rightly - help you build a list of qualified enquiries, teach interested customers more about your product, and hook people into the habit of using your service (a la AOL 60-day trial discs). Claude Hopkins hit on it 80 years ago when he wrote, "A sample gets action" . . . four words that explain the very difference between giveaways that drive sales, and giveaways that destroy them. When the f-word doesn't work Take another look at Wanda Loskot's list of the best 100 headlines ever written. Every headline transformed top-line sales. But whereas 21 start with "how" or "how to", precisely 2 include the f-word. What gives? The answer is that if you LEAD with your fr*e offer, make it your headline, or make it the central plank of your sales message . . . you run the very real risk of destroying sales. As Claude Hopkins put it: " . . . we do not advocate samples given out promiscuously. Samples distributed to homes, like waifs on the doorsteps, probably never pay . . . The product is cheapened. " Give samples to interested people only. Give them only to people who exhibit that interest by some effort. Give them only to people to whom you have told your story. " Don't make the mistake of making your giveaway more important than the story you need to tell (the benefits and advantages your product or service offers). Again: "A sample gets action." It shouldn't be used to manufacture interest, only to tip an interested or wavering customer into responding. If you introduce your fr*e trial or sample too early - before you've even got your prospect ready to learn more about the product you're trying to get them to pay for - you run the real risk of sweeping up enquirers who are sold on your giveaway, not your product. Bric-A-Brac Only 24 hours left to register Only one item in the Bric-A-Brac today, and that's a final shout for our National Reader Meet-Up next Friday 19 November. The meet-up is part of the Business Start-Up Show at ExCel, London. We already have 177 readers attending, but there's space for another couple of dozen in the bigger room I hired. Directions to ExCel by tube, rail, road, air, river, and limo. You MUST register by 5pm tomorrow (Saturday) to get your tickets in time to attend. Register in 30 seconds here. I've not made a song and dance of this but registration is fr*e, and the organisers of the Business Start-Up Show are kindly paying for sandwiches, tea, coffee etc. Remember to sign up: back to top |
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