Posted by: Daniel Levis
May 14, 2008
Issue #417

How to Promise Sweeter … Juicier …
Doubly Delicious Benefits …

Dear Web Business Builder,

I’m sitting here in my backyard enjoying the late afternoon sun. To my side sizzle a few steaks on the barbecue.

About 50 yards in front of me extend lush woodlands for several miles, teaming with deer, rabbit, raccoon, grouse and other wild fauna.

Singing birds and chirping frogs serenade me through the clean country air as the evening unfolds.

On days like this I feel like I’m living in paradise. Especially when I think back to the hustling, bustling area where my wife and I used to live … with its 24-hour traffic … rancid exhaust fumes … incessant noise … and sardine packed neighborhoods. The contrast helps make our new life doubly sweet.

Why am I telling you this?

Because as in life, so in copy. When you take pains to compare and contrast, you make your copy doubly sweet.

Allow me to explain …

The human mind thinks in relative terms. We have this overwhelming compulsion to compare and contrast almost everything we encounter. We’re unconsciously thinking, “What’s that like?” and “How’s this different?” That’s how our minds work. We relate things.

And this gives YOU an enormous opportunity to magnify the selling power of every feature, advantage, and benefit you promise your prospect.

How buying decisions are made …

Every purchasing decision is influenced by contrast and comparison. When considering your sales promise, your prospect will look for the contrast between his current situation and the one you assure him he can achieve with the help of your product. And then he will compare the difference between the two with the money you’re asking. If a sale is to take place, the gap must far outweigh the price.

That’s why unless your price is unusually low, you should generally never reveal it until every last feature, advantage and benefit has been explored. And the contrast between cost and value becomes readily apparent.

The power of contrast also comes into play in the way price is presented. Imagine picking up a brick. If feels heavy. Now pick up a cement block first, and then pick up the brick. Now it feels light.

The same is true of price perception. If you can present credible evidence that your product is comparable to more costly alternatives, your price seems less. Conversely, the contrast between value and price seems more. 

This concept of contrast can also be applied very effectively when selling optional add-on items. It often makes sense to hold back on presenting these “accessories” until AFTER the main sale is made. If presented as isolated items, their price seems significant … as add-on items, trivial. You see this concept leveraged all the time in sales-savvy retail environments.

When you buy a car, they try to sell you undercoating after you commit to purchasing the vehicle. When you buy consumer electronics, it’s only after you commit to a purchase that they trot out the extended warranty. If you’re shopping for a suit, it’s not until you’re obviously committed that the salesperson shows you some ties and shirts.

In some stores, salespeople are trained to show shoppers the most expensive items in a line of products first. That makes the mainstream items seem cheap. Such is the law of contrast.

Which of these two presentations of benefit
is more convincing, exhibit #1, or exhibit #2?

Exhibit #1

And for you mechanics and engineers, let me tell you why fire injection must give you these results.

A fire injector fires on the surface of an electrical conductor. This is the most efficient way to get a big powerful spark into your cylinder.

On fire injectors, there is no air gap and no electrode to burn away. That means maximum gas explosion which means full power, full economy, and no raw gas to wash the oil protection from cylinder walls and pistons.

A fire injector never needs cleaning or setting. It actually “breaks in” and becomes more efficient with use. It will actually outlast your car, delivering maximum efficiency without servicing or replacement.

A fire injector gives you a heavy, powerful flame that will not blow out at pressures far heavier than those created by even the highest compression engine …

With fire injectors, regular gas will give you up to 8 more gas miles per gallon, up to 31 more horsepower, plus easier starting in all weather. Add these savings together and see for yourself why I say that fire injectors will pay for themselves every single month that you drive your car.

And fire injector installation is guaranteed for the life of your car without cleaning, servicing, or replacing.

As you can see, the copywriter has done a wonderful job of pulling benefits out of the product. You might feel quite smug had you written this copy. But watch how much more convincing it becomes when the power of contrast is applied.

Exhibit #2 (As Gene Schwartz actually wrote it.)

And for you mechanics and engineers, let me tell you why fire injection must give you these results.

A spark plug jumps a spark of electricity across an air gap. This is the most wasteful and power consuming way to get electricity from one place to another and it limits the size of the spark.

A fire injector fires on the surface of an electrical conductor. This is the most efficient way to get a big powerful spark into your cylinder.

On ordinary spark plugs, the air gap between the electrode and the firing point is always getting bigger because the electrode is always burning away. This means you have misfiring which means loss of power plus wasted gas plus raw gas to damage the cylinders and piston rings.

On fire injectors, there is no air gap and no electrode to burn away. That means maximum gas explosion which means full power, full economy, and no raw gas to wash the oil protection from cylinder walls and pistons.

A spark plug accumulates filth and carbon because of inefficient firing. This means you need regular cleaning, setting, and expensive replacement!

A fire injector never needs cleaning or setting. It actually “breaks in” and becomes more efficient with use. It will actually outlast your car, delivering maximum efficiency without servicing or replacement.

A spark plug gives you a thin skimpy spark that actually blows out under pressure of less than 120 pounds.

A fire injector gives you a heavy, powerful flame that will not blow out at pressures far heavier than those created by even the highest compression engine …

With ordinary spark plugs you are using, or should be using, premium gas which costs from 4 to 8 cents more than ordinary gas, and despite this, you’re getting inefficient, wasteful gas consumption.

With fire injectors, regular gas will give you up to 8 more gas miles per gallon, up to 31 more horsepower, plus easier starting in all weather. Add these savings together and see for yourself why I say that fire injectors will pay for themselves every single month that you drive your car.

Ordinary spark plugs have to be replaced regularly. In some of the new high compression cars, a set of plugs will burn up in a couple of months.

Fire injector installation is guaranteed for the life of your car without cleaning, servicing, or replacing.

Inefficient/efficient … misfiring/maximum gas explosion … loss of power/full power … wasted gas/full economy … damaged cylinders/protected cylinders … accumulates filth/never needs cleaning … and on he goes.

Do you see how much more force the copy has when contrast is applied side by side to each benefit? It’s like a before and after picture isn’t it? There’s literally twice the selling force!

How else can you use contrast to sharpen benefits and enlarge and sweeten your promise? Old/new … good/bad … winner/loser … fast/slow … your features/competitive features … with/without … before/after … rich/poor … happy/sad … fat/thin … pros/cons … what is/what could be … the list is literally endless.

Another example:

Where before, you sat staring at a blank screen … now you flip through your Steal These Secrets swipe file of million dollar controls and almost instantly … you’re bristling with new inspiration and ideas.

Where you once struggled with gut wrenching decisions about how to structure your sales arguments … often writing yourself into a corner … now you simply consult your “top secret” playbook to pick and choose the perfect blend of proven ideas.

And when in the past, writing “good enough” copy was like slitting your wrists and offering your blood up in sacrifice to the marketing gods … now you’re cranking out money sucking monster ads, sales letters, and web pages like there’s no tomorrow.

Would that make you a hero?

Bottom Line:

Contrast and comparison are powerful tools that allow you to add considerable punch to your copy. Here are four models for you to consider.

• Contrast your prospect’s life with and without your product.
• Compare the value of your product to much more costly alternatives.
• Contrast the benefits of your product with the drawbacks of the status quo and/or other alternatives.
• Compare your prospect’s current situation with other painful, undesirable, and unflattering objects or circumstances.

One last example:

Banish, forever, those orange peel thighs!

Say “Goodbye” to cottage cheese knees and upper arms!

Bid “Farewell” to those saddlebag hips and buttocks that have been making you burn with shame every time you have to be seen in sports clothes, or a bathing suit, or even walking around in front of your husband or lover!

Oh my, that’s so good it’s almost evil.

Until next time, Good Selling!

Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE™

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8 Comments »

1. Comment by Jay Estis — May 14, 2008 @ 9:52 am

   Daniel,

   By far one of the best lessons on copy I have read in quite some time! That’s the type of useful information I need to sharpen my pen.

   Thanks!

2. Comment by Glen Kohlenberg — May 14, 2008 @ 10:25 am

   Thank you Daniel perfect timing for an ad I am writing for a seamless gutter company. Man you opened my eyes to something beautiful. Thanks again

3. Comment by RAY EDWARDS — May 14, 2008 @ 11:03 am

   The reason why BEFORE and AFTER pictures and copy sctructure works so well.

   Great article.

4. Comment by Phil Spinelli — May 14, 2008 @ 1:18 pm

   And contrast and comparison intermix with
   problem, agitate and solve. A great selling formula.

   thanks

5. Comment by Captain Punctuation — May 14, 2008 @ 9:34 pm

   Daniel, brilliant as always,  my good man.

   Therefore it pains me to mention that the proper usage is "teeming" aka "abounding or swarming with something".   Unfortunately this minor misstep completely unsuspended my disbelief, immediately snapping me back to the sobering misfortune that is Captain Punctuation’s reality.

6. Comment by Ken Varga — May 16, 2008 @ 9:25 am

   Dan,  It’s all about benefits.  Every customer asks themselves, "What’s in it for me."

   Ken
   http://www.kenvarga.com

7. Comment by Sarah Clachar — May 16, 2008 @ 10:09 am

   Daniel,
   Great tips.  It’s one thing to present a clear, fleshed out image of what you’re promising - it’s another thing to make it sparkle, leap out and grab your prospect by contrasting it to the alternative reality. 
   And as Clayton has successfully done in his promotions, contrasting the price of the product to the value you’re getting by comparing, for example, the price of surgery with the price of a product that can help you avoid surgery through maintaining good health, is extremely effective. 
   And then compare that price to the cost of something people are used to paying for each day that seems trivial - a paper, a bagel, etc.  And you again put the price in context and make it seem light as a feather, not as heavy as a brick.
   Sarah Clacharhealth copywriter

8. Comment by SteveN — May 18, 2008 @ 7:39 pm

   Gentlemen and Ladies,

     I’ve been introduced to your site today and feel as though I’ve entered a greater school of wisdom in writing persuasive copy than any previously glimpsed. I shall endeavour to invest wisely in your products – and write with a voice that sounds more like we’re standing on the street waiting for a bus to rescue us from the blistering cold.  Giggling with Thanks!

   SteveN

   PS. I would be so thankful for anyone’s critique about my website, SteveNewdell.com