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THE LEVISON LETTER
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Action Ideas For Better Direct Mail,
E-mail, Web Sites & Advertising
Published by
Ivan Levison, Direct Response Copywriting
February, 2001
Volume: 16 Number: 2
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Copywriters should understand
the prospect’s pain points
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How's your breath?
Is it sweet and pleasant? Or when you talk, do people
wince and
stagger backwards?
Now, as you can guess, I'm not really worried about
your
personal hygiene. But I AM concerned about how effectively
you're selling your product or service. Which is why
I'm going to take a quick look at an old Listerine mouthwash
advertising campaign that I think will prove instructive. Here's
the story . . .
Years ago, when Listerine's ad agency first got the
account, they
obviously could have positioned the product in an infinite
number of ways. (Just as you can position YOUR product or service
in an infinite number of ways.) They could have positioned
Listerine as the inexpensive mouthwash, the premium
mouthwash, the great-tasting mouthwash, the super-powerful
mouthwash . . . You get the point.
Which way did the agency go? They chose to position
Listerine as
the mouthwash that could prevent "halitosis."
Yup. They found out that the scientific word for nasty
breath was
halitosis and then began a campaign designed to convince
everyone that they were at risk for this dread disease. If you had
halitosis, everyone would talk about you behind your back. The
only way to avoid being a pariah was to keep rinsing with
Listerine. The advertising agency used the tag line:
"He said, that she said, that he had halitosis!"
The result? Listerine mouthwash flew off the shelf.
Yes. Fear and pain are wonderful motivators, and those
of us
who market high-tech products have it a lot easier than the
makers of Listerine. We don't have to manufacture pain. Our
users have to deal with it every day!
Everyone from the humble home user, who has to suffer
crashes,
to the IT professional, trying to keep a network humming, knows
pain first hand.
What I want to suggest is that when you're selling prospects,
acknowledge the pain they're in, show them that you understand
what they're up against, and explain how you can help them
solve their toughest problems.
Where's a good place to start?
How about right at the beginning of your letter or e-mail.
That's
the perfect place to let your readers know that you identify with
their problems. Let me give you just two examples of how you
can use pain to create an immediate bond with your readers.
(Example #1 was written for individual PC users. Example #2,
written back in 1997, was addressed to MIS professionals.)
Example #1:
Dear NAME:
Imagine that you're sitting in front of your computer,
surfing the
Web, jumping from site to site . . .
Suddenly you land at a Web page that's loaded with valuable
information you know you want to save and use. What options
do you have?
You can print out the page, but that doesn't get you
very much.
You can create a bookmark and go back on line every
time you
want to check it out -- a royal pain in the neck.
Or you can use new DocuMagix HotPage!
That's right. HotPage is a powerful companion to Netscape
Navigator that lets you put all the information in Web pages to
work for you!
Example #2:
Dear NAME:
If you're an MIS professional, you face two extremely
difficult
problems:
Problem #1: Deploying mission-critical applications
to hundreds
or thousands of users is a nightmare. It wastes endless hours of
precious time and costs your company a ton of money.
Problem #2: Your remote users are getting poor performance.
If
they're accessing mission-critical applications over remote node
and branch office connections, they're going s-----l-----o-----w.
That's why it's so important for you to take a WinFrame
Test
Drive right now.
You see, WinFrame extends mission-critical Windows
applications to remote users over existing enterprise networks,
corporate Intranets, and the Internet. Best of all, you can deploy
these apps to hundreds, or even thousands of users in a matter of
minutes. That's right -- minutes!
The take-away message this month? Don't start your letter or
e-mail by talking about how great your company or product is.
Begin by demonstrating that you understand your readers' pain
and you're halfway to a sale!
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How To Get In Touch
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Ivan Levison
Direct Response Copywriting
14 Los Cerros Drive
Greenbrae, CA 94904
Phone: (415) 461-0672
Fax: (415) 461-7738
E-mail: ivan@levison.com
Web Site: http://www.levison.com
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Copyright 2000, by Ivan Levison, All Rights Reserved.
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