“Is Your Baby At High Risk for Choking? Find Out Tonight At 11!”
We’ve all heard the sensationalized promo spots for the 11 o’clock news. Something terribly dangerous, incredibly pressing, and something they neglect to mention up front, choosing instead to let your family hazard several more hours of danger so that you’ll do what they want you to, which is tune in.
The newsletter mistake I want to address isn’t life or death in the literal sense, though it could easily mean the demise of your subscriber base. I subscribed to a newsletter by a fellow copywriter who has published a few books on the business. In my circles, her name is fairly well known. This wasn’t the first mailing – I don’t recall what was, I may not have read it – but it was one that stuck with me none the less.
The newsletter had one article, which should have been fine. It talked about web usibility and appeared to be fairly in-depth. Basically she pointed out that too many sites make it needlessly difficult to buy from them, and don’t even realize it. She painted a few figurative horror stories, included a real life example where she had attempted to purchase something, and came to the crescendo of Could this be happening to you?
“Are you obstructing near-sales? Probably.”
Okay great. She’s outlined the problem. It’s certainly a pervasive and relevant one. Her advice?
“Assume a cautious buyer and address every question and concern so hesitation cannot get a foothold.”
Sounds good. How?
“Here’s How:” Buy my new home study system! Or my tutorial package. Prices go up on Sept 9, order today!
I just got duped into reading a long-form sales letter! I haven’t un-subbed because I’m dying to see if she has the audacity to do this every month.
I’m not saying that you can’t use newsletter content to promote a related product. In fact, if you can make it fit, it’s ideal. But you have to give some kind of real information in your articles! Deliver thinly-veiled sales pieces and you’ve lost your subscribers for good.
This woman does this for a living! How did this happen? She very easily could have provided some advice. Ten Tips to Ensure Your Site Isn’t Blocking Sales! That would have been valuable, informative, given some integrity to the newsletter, and placed her as the expert who readers could trust with a more in-depth product (like her home study system or tutorials.)
It would have cost her nothing – not even time if there were a few paragraphs from the course she could have pasted in. Heck, she should be giving away the first chapter free! Unless the course is sub-standard, there’s nothing to lose. Then again, a money-back guarantee is mandatory (talk about a “block” to the sale), so if the course was shoddy she’d be sunk no matter what.
We all make mistakes and learn along the way. But I’ve subscribed to a handful of new marketing/copywriting newsletters and in the very first week I’ve found three instances of blatant bad form.
The concepts I’ve talked about in this series of posts aren’t new, and they’re hardly secret insider stuff. So how is it that, when it comes to internet marketing, even the pros still make mistakes?
