Be Specific When You Market - Part 2- Adult B2B Marketing Tip

Evaluation: The Specificity Challenge

Last week we talked about being specific in your marketing, just like an attorney is in a case. Here's more:

Here's what you need to remember: Advertisers LIE with generalities and tell the truth in specifics. Now I'm not saying that anytime you see a generality the advertiser is a bold faced liar. What I'm telling you is that the advertiser doesn't have a good inside reality, is a lazy communicator, or is trying to pull one over on you. It's like the whole Papa John's "puffery" thing: Best Ingredients, Best Pizza. It's a lie. It's simply not a quantifiable truthful statement. Let me give you a few examples.

Let's say you ran a men's formal wear store and determine that one of the things people hate when trying to rent a tuxedo is the lack of style choices. Your idea is to create a great inside reality by carrying an enormous selection of tuxes your customers can choose from. So then you're planning to run an advertisement. It doesn't matter where - whether it's radio or direct mail or newspaper or the yellow pages. The principles are the same. What do you say in the ad? Here's one possible thing you could say: "Biggest Selection Of Tuxedos In The City." What's the problem here? You should know by now...remember the evaluation questions we've already gone through! I would hope so! Who else can say that? Do you really believe that? "Biggest Selection Of Tuxedos In The City" sounds like hollow puffery at it's worst - even though it may be true! So let's use the specificity challenge to make it better. What if you came up with a different headline: "We always carry over 4,550 different tuxedos in 62 different styles, 28 different sizes, and 21 varying colors - in price ranges from $19.95 to $895." Now that's specific. It's not lazy communication. It's powerful, specific communication.

Remember I just said that advertisers lie in generalities and tell the truth in specifics. Think about the way these two different headlines are perceived by the prospect. The first one, "Biggest Selection Of Tuxedos In The City" is immediately mentally written off as puffery and the claim is given little - if any - credibility. The second headline, on the other hand, is immediately accepted as absolute fact and wholly truthful. Could you really make the claim that "We always carry over 4,550 different tuxedos in 62 different styles and 28 different sizes and 21 varying colors - in price ranges from $19.95 to $895" if it weren't true? Of course you couldn't. Here's the important thing to remember: these two different approaches to this ad were written for the same company! See how you could leverage your advertising dollars to work harder for you if you'd just learn to say it well?

This law of specificity needs to permeate your advertising writing - headlines, sub-headlines, body copy, offers. All of your claims need to be specific and quantifiable. Whenever you write anything, you need to use the law of specificity evaluation. Always compare what you've written against these filters:

• What specifically?
• Why specifically?
• How much/how many specifically?
• How much/how many typically?
• Compared to what?

These questions will help you to put the right amount of specificity into your writing.

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