Creating Buzz!
Dear Web Business Builder,
Direct response can make you rich.
It may take a little time, but it’ll get you there.
Want to get there faster? Then listen up …
Creating a direct response on your website is the core driver of your business, make no mistake. But if you want to put rocket fuel in the tank, you need to develop buzz around your offering. And that means meeting a fundamental human need that most marketers overlook. I’ll tell you what that need is in a moment. First, reflect on this …
As consumers, we all like to think of ourselves as rational human beings — cool, calm and collected about our purchasing decisions. We think we weigh the facts and come to decisions. But this is hardly the case.
In reality, without even realizing it, we look around at what other people are saying and doing, and fall in line.
For proof, consider this famous study conducted by social
psychologist Solomon Asch back in the 50s …
Asch assembled 123 male participants.
Each one was put in a group with 5 to 7 “confederates” (Asch colleagues pretending to be participants).
Each participant was shown two cards. First one with a single line on it, and then another with three lines on it labeled a, b, and c. Next the participants were asked which of the three lines on the second card matched up with the first card.
Each group of participants was “tested” with 18 different sets of cards, and the real participant was always tested last.
In the first few tests, the confederates all chose the obvious right answer. Beginning with the third test, however, they started deliberately selecting wrong answers on some of the tests. Of the 18 tests, the confederates all answered incorrectly on 12 of them.
The idea of the study was to see how often the real participant would go along with the group, even though the group had obviously chosen the wrong answer. Incredibly, the real participants went along with the obviously deluded majority 32% of the time.
Imagine how that 32% inflates when the answers are less black and white, such as making a choice between two or more competing products. Or a choice between doing nothing and buying.
Another interesting study sheds additional light on this
curious quirk of human nature …
In the 70s, a social psychologist by the name of Henry Tajfel defined what he called “minimal groups” — groups of people with no real affinity. No shared interests, culture, or tradition, no history whatsoever.
Tajfel assembled a number of teenage boys from different places in a lab and showed them slides of two different paintings. Based on which painting a boy preferred, he was then slotted in one group or another. In one group were the boys who preferred a painting by Paul Klee. In the other group boys who preferred a painting by Wassily Kandinsky.
Being teenage boys, few cared much for art. So you would expect their membership in one group or another would be meaningless, right? Here’s what happened next …
Under the pretext of doing a study on decision making, each of the boys was then taken into a private booth to decide how to divide a monetary reward among the rest of the boys. None of the boys knew each other. And they had absolutely nothing to gain (or lose) from dividing the award disproportionately to one group or the other.
Yet, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the money was indeed awarded disproportionately. The boys displayed all of the same biases you’d expect to see had they been part of a real and meaningful group.
Once again, the idea of belonging to a group — even one held together for only a few minutes under the slightest pretext — holds this weird, inexplicable pull over people.
The common thread running through
these two experiments is this …
Individualism is largely an illusion. Our brains are programmed for groupthink. The various groups we belong to — or wish we belonged to — dictate our beliefs, attitudes, and actions to a far greater degree than we realize. And we can easily be tricked into deferring to “minimal groups” without even realizing we’re part of them.
My point here, and I do have one, is that if you want to light a rocket under your sales, you’ve got to go beyond selling products and services. You’ve got to sell a social identity. Owning your product should help satisfy one of your prospect’s greatest human needs — the need to belong to something greater than themselves. The more meaningful the glue that creates this shared sense of belonging, the better. In other words, your business should stand for something. And be important enough, and interesting enough to get people talking … spreading the gospel.
Allow me to explain …
Human beings are programmed to be together. Sociability is our species’ key evolutionary strategy. We are happier together. Our brains develop through interacting with one another. We gain our sense of self largely through our membership and status within the tribes we belong to. As a species, our ability to get along … to work together … to act as one has allowed us to dominate the planet.
That’s why so many people felt such intense pressure to conform to the group’s erroneous conclusions in Solomon Asch’s famous experiment. That’s why so many of the boys in Henry Tajfel’s experiment instinctively supported their “tribe” even though it was no tribe at all.
Without a sense of belonging, our very identities are in jeopardy. The groups we belong to are part of that identity. So we support them. We defend them. And we talk about them.
Have you ever noticed how much of the conversation that goes on around you is idle chit chat? We have this incredible need to flap our gums about pretty much nothing. Probably 50% of conversation falls into this category. Why?
It’s our way of bonding with the people around us. Its primary purpose is the building and reinforcement of social relationships. Gossip and rumor are particularly interesting to us …
We are eternally fascinated with hearing the latest scuttlebutt on who’s doing what with whom — or to whom — and who’s not to be trusted. The interesting thing about rumor and gossip is that the people (and companies) we talk about are either with us or against us.
We instinctively pick sides.
So what’s the secret to creating positive
buzz around your company?
It’s not about your product or service. It’s about what your product or service symbolizes. It’s about the values and ideologies it signifies for product owners.
If you look at any of the most successful, most enduring brands in the world, you’ll see that the companies who possess them usually have one thing in common. They stand for something. They have values that transcend the profit motive, and they communicate those values. That’s the secret sauce that creates natural buzz around their products. And it’s the same secret sauce that’ll spike the conversion on all of your web pages.
Take Apple for instance. This is a company that people talk about. If you own an Apple, it’s because you’re an Apple nut. Owning an Apple says something about you. It communicates your identity. You’re a rebel, committed to personal and creative freedom, and liberation. For you, there’s something not quite right about Microsoft users. They’re outsiders. Part of what’s wrong with the world. Not to be fully trusted.
These people don’t see Apple as just another company out for their money. Apple’s mythology is filled with anecdotes that communicate its unusual values and ideology.
For example, when Steve Jobs wanted to lure Pepsi Co. golden boy John Sculley away from a big corner office and fat pension to work at Apple, he’s rumored to have sealed the deal with these simple words, “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to change the world?” Yes, Apple users actually think they’re part of a group that’s changing the world.
Or take Harley Davidson. Here’s another company people talk about. Why? Because owning a Harley is part of their social identity … it stands for something. It distinguishes them as part of the tribe. Harley nuts even speak their own language.
If you don’t know what “apehangers,” “flames,” “nitrous,” and the “love ride” are, you’re obviously an outsider.
What it really boils down to is passion …
In today’s oversupplied world, it’s no longer enough to find out what people want and give it to them. Competent marketers are already doing this. The trouble is, people often don’t know what they want until you put it in front of them.
Companies that create buzz are bold innovators who do the market research, and then create unique value propositions in spite of it. Customers rally around those value propositions because they are the genuine product of a magnificent obsession held by their creators — a passionate commitment to a cause that transcends money — changing the world in some meaningful way.
This takes bold honesty, courage, and conviction on the part of the business. It may well mean breaking the rules, traversing new ground.
Spreading a magnificent obsession also takes powerful personalities and compelling stories that communicate the shared sense of identity, values, and search for meaning that brings people together around a common cause. It’s your responsibility as a web copywriter to give voice to those personalities. And bring their stories to life on the pixeled page.
The more connected the world becomes
the more isolated we all are …
People today are crying out for connection. The Internet is taking away from them the need for physical contact and interaction. And that pent up desire is finding new expression in peer-to-peer, any-to-any technologies where everybody is a publisher.
We see it happening all around us on sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and thousands of other communities across the Net where gossip, chit chat, and minimal groups abound and spread in the twinkling of an eye.
Wise marketers will take this article to heart and capitalize.
Until next time, Good Selling!
Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE™
Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant and direct response copywriter based in Toronto, Canada and publisher of the world famous copywriting anthology, Masters of Copywriting, featuring the selling wisdom of 44 of the “Top Money” marketing minds of all time, including Clayton Makepeace, Dan Kennedy, Joe Sugarman, John Carlton, Joe Vitale, Michel Fortin, Richard Armstrong and dozens more! For a FREE excerpt visit http://www.SellingtoHumanNature.com
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7 Comments »
Join the Discussion!
Let us know what you think. Or ask us anything. Or offer your own sage advice.
The only rule: RESPECT THIS HOUSE! Postings that contain abusive language and/or personal attacks will be cheerfully VAPORIZED. One cross word and – POOF! – your well-thought-out post will be gone in a puff of smoke.
– Clayton
Comment by Bob Clarke — June 11, 2008 @ 10:12 am
I didn’t have time to finish the article Daniel … but I had to!
Like a big juicy bug connecting with the ivories of a smiling Harley nut, it was impossible to ignore.
Now I’ve got work to do, a lot of work - thanks,
Bob
Comment by Ron — June 11, 2008 @ 10:41 am
Daniel,
Excellent article, Daniel. Couple questions for you.
Don’t you think that people are basically dumber than hammers and need the social acceptance of belonging to a group (going along with the crowd or the herd, so to speak) in order to not feel ostracized from the rest?
If such is the case, do they need to be told what to do rather than given a choice of what to do?
I’d be interested in hearing your response.
Keep up the great work!
Ron
Comment by Scott — June 11, 2008 @ 11:31 am
Hey Daniel, I’m no pro copywriter (just a business owner who writes our copy). Your recent articles on storytelling and deep psychological triggers have been extremely helpful, even brilliant, in helping me shape some core messages and sales copy for our company. Thanks for the great stuff!
-Scott
Comment by Brandon — June 11, 2008 @ 12:21 pm
Hi Daniel,
Excellent. Once again you nailed it.
I think your company "Selling To Human Nature" says it all.
Keep up the good work.
Brandon
Comment by Daniel Levis — June 11, 2008 @ 1:10 pm
Thanks guys …
Jason, in answer to your questions. About hammers. They may appear surprisingly intelligent when compared with some people. But I think it’s a mistake to believe that only dumb people are highly influenced by the need to belong.
Is it better to give people choices, or tell them what to do? As Jay Abraham is famous for saying, "people are silently begging to be led." The appearance of choice between this or that is good, but ultimately, your copy should take an emphatic stand. Tell them what to do.
Cheers!
Comment by Michelle Kapty — June 11, 2008 @ 9:57 pm
Nice job Daniel. I couldn’t have said this better myself especially since this is my focus with my company, "You’ve got to sell a social identity. Owning your product should help satisfy one of your prospect’s greatest human needs — the need to belong to something greater than themselves. The more meaningful the glue that creates this shared sense of belonging, the better. In other words, your business should stand for something. And be important enough, and interesting enough to get people talking … spreading the gospel."….
I try to live this idea out every single day. I believe that even the smartest of them all has that need to belong and to be led just as much as anyone else. After all we’re only human. Even business owners who go into another business as a customer, we too want and expect our needs to be met. No one can be underestimated or taken advantage of in any way, or assumed to be "dummer", and once you hit that emotion trigger you’ll be off and running. Think of the customers needs and not your own first.
I try to imagine myself in their spot, looking from the outside in and asking myself "why" would this be the ultimate "product or service for me? and if I don’t have all positive answers for myself then something needs to be re-evaluated and adjusted till every question and objection is turned positve. Only then is it ready for my clients.
Comment by David Grebow — June 14, 2008 @ 10:49 am
Daniel:
Nice post … touched the tip o’ the Big Iceberg.
So if the rest of The Tribe hears me sell it in their own language, they listen and may be inclined to buy, if the product or service was really liked by other members (testimonials) and if it helps cement my position in the tribe (especially if I’m a Newbie Member).
You didn’t really help me explain why one product or video or blog goes viral, but if you knew, I’m sure you wouldn’t share, since it would make you the most powerful copywriter on the planet!
You did help me wrap my arms around why we form up into tribes - tribes of all sorts - and why inside the tribe you need to speak their language, why tribes attack others and defend themselves, why tribes have their own buying and selling patterns.
If people reading this are interested in finding out more I’d recommend they also take the time to read Sway - The Irresistible pull of Irrational Behavior, by Ori and Rom Brafman.
It explains on a deeper level why we as individuals in a group make (or don’t make) the irrational decision to do things - like buy something just because we read a long form direct mail piece. Filled with several more fascinating studies about how people go along to get along …
What you really did was reinforce my belief that if you want to writer Killer Copy with Real Bullets and Dead-On words-that sell, you need to go further afield than just reading about copywriting.
You need to become a student of human behavior and really watch and listen when people buy, as well as read and highlight the related books - psychology, neuroscience, how to sell and more …
Still doesn’t explain the viral phenomenon … or How To Create Buzz.
I’ll keep looking for that and when I find it, I’ll let you know.