Writing for the web

I write a lot of emails/EMs for clients in the software/hi-tech industry. Of course, at the end of the day, they’re all in the people-/customer-/user-focused industry. At least, they want to be. No, sorry, at least they say they want to be.

When you’re sending out multiple EMs to segments of 50,000 or 100,000 subscribers, you can do a lot of testing. And that’s usually good… except when it leads to overlooking common sense. CASE IN POINT: Testing offers.

Testing one offer over another is good. But what’s not as good —- for the customer, that is —- is testing an offer vs. no offer. I still laugh a little when, after a marketing manager sees that an offer led to significantly better conversions, she says, “I can’t believe how much of a difference that offer made!”

Where’s the common sense? Hello? The Gilt Groupe (see email example above) has made a hugely successful business out of taking designer clothing, knocking off up to 80% at times, sending out EMs announcing the start of sales… and selling out all their clothes within minutes.

Why?

Earth to marketing: People don’t want to pay the inflated prices companies charge. We don’t want to help some CEO buy another boat to sail around a land we may never see ‘cos we’re too busy paying off our credit card debt after years of paying full price.

THE NEW TRUTH
You don’t have to pay full price online. Obvious? Well, it is for eBay retailers, for booksellers on AbeBooks.com, for refurbishers on Woot.com, for competing travel agencies, airlines and hotels on Kayak.com. And it is for people using side-by-side comparisons of insurance companies (e.g. Progressive.com) as well as blogs, free ebooks and other totally free resources online. It’s obvious to a lot of successful companies and savvy shoppers: people don’t expect to have to pay.

That’s right: People don’t expect to have to pay.

At least, not up front. (Shop-Use-Buy) If they do eventually decide that your product is worth their dollar, then they may pay… but not at full price.

Says who? Who the hell are you, Joanna?
If blog readership is any indication, I’m fecking nobody. So don’t believe me, some angry copywriter. Believe MarketingExperiments, who just released a simple yet extremely valuable report on Finding the Ideal Incentive.

The gyst? (Lifted directly from their article on marketingexperiments.com)

• Incentives must be tested.
• There is an “ideal incentive.” Until you find one that has a significant impact on conversion, you must assume you have not yet found the ideal incentive.
• Avoid using an incentive that you have to sell.
• Determine the ideal incentive using the three formulas listed in the report, which include:

1. Perceived Value Differential (PVD)
2. Return on Incentive (ROIc) - projected dollar difference, with focus on total volume of return
3. Return on Incentive Percent (ROIc%) - projected percentage difference, with focus on efficiency or rate of return

K, so, get to the point, j-dub
The point is this: Know that you will need to give your EM readers a reason to open as well as a reason to read; that reason is, very simply, an incentive.

The discount is more important than your brand, your niche, the quality of your product or your creative campaign (tell me you’re not trying to be too creative in your EMs!). That’s why Gilt Groupe sells out on nearly every designer they sell. That’s why WalMart continues to rake in the dollars. That’s why I buy most of my groceries at Costco. That’s why sales racks at the back of Banana Republic are always crammed. And that’s why Holt Renfrew is a bloody mess during their two-day holiday sale. Oh, hey, that’s also why Boxing Week is ridunculous at every mall.

Do you need more evidence, marketers? Do you really need to test whether or not you need an incentive? Come on……

FOLLOW UP
Robert Hutchinson wrote about the importance of “The Offer” on April 17 in copyblogger: The Two Magic Words That Guarantee Limitless Copywriting Success