Copy Tip 37: Three Ways To Use Comparison Tables
The first way we looked at contrast was to take a price and state it in a different way ($320 per year versus less than 88 cents per day).
The second way we looked at contrast in pricing was to compare the product price to other ways of getting the same content (CD package versus cost of attending live event).
Take note: these ideas, including today’s tip, can be combined in your copy!
In today’s Copy Tip, I want to share another popular way to contast what you have to offer versus alternatives and competitors:
Show the differences in a summary table
By doing this you can help build the perceived value of what you are offering.
Here’s an example of what I mean that I saw online yesterday, comparing features:
This comes from Outskirts Press, a custom book publisher. In their copy, they say this:
Outskirts Press offers you the best of both worlds by combining the advantages of independent self-publishing with the advantages of traditional book publishing. Before, during, and after publication you will receive the assistance of a dedicated group of publishing professionals, all the while maintaining all your publishing rights and setting your own retail price, royalty, and author discount.
And the table appears below the copy to really highlight just how you are combining the “best of both worlds”.
It’s very easy to see in the table what they’re talking about — all of the features of their offer that combine the best of traditional book publishing and self-publishing.
While you might have seen this used plenty of times already, it’s a good reminder of what you can use to help your prospect understand about your offer and why it is compelling and should be responded to!
Standard vs Deluxe
Another example of how you can use a comparison table is to highlight the extra value in your premium product offer.
For example, if you have a product with both a standard and deluxe option — you can show both products side-by-side in a table to highlight the value … and also highlight how much extra value is in your premium deluxe version.
Total Value With All Inclusions
In this example, you can compare the price of your product “package” to the total potential value of each individual component within the package, if purchased separately.
It’s another way to demonstrate overwhelming value for what you are offering your prospect.
This is an example of a Copywriting product (originally authored by Jeff Paul, and offered here by Mal Emery, which I also have resale rights to) …
Realistic Value
One caveat with this approach — the values you use must be realistic to your prospect.
For instance, I saw a table used on a sales page yesterday attempting to illustrate how the cost of eye surgery was perceivably smaller when you add up the costs each year using prescription glasses and contact lenses.
They included $1536 of costs for the “competition” each year — new glasses, new designer sunglasses, contact lenses and cleaning solution.
The first thing that came to my mind was that my costs were much less than the example — it seemed way over-valued to me (here I was starting to defend myself, and they haven’t even got me to a consultation).
My contacts and solution cost way less than they suggested, and I don’t buy new prescription glasses and sunglasses every year (hey, my Italian Vogue glasses frames and super-thin coated lenses I wear actually cost way more than their example, but that is not an annual purchase!).
So that unrealistic value was a hurdle to me as a prospect: it can leave a prospect asking, “if they get this wrong, what else do they get wrong?”
Had their copy raised that objection, and provided an answer, it would have been much more effective.
For example…
In a sales letter I recently wrote, one of the bonuses in it was literally worth $30,000 to a student.
Could I value that bonus at $30,000? Well, yes, there is a documented example, and there are in fact others where the estimated value is even higher. But is that realistic to a prospect? Maybe not.
So, when I explained it in the copy, I mentioned that it’s not the same value for everyone.
I mentioned that even if this value was halved, it’d still be $15,000 value. Or let’s halve that again, and it’s still worth at least $7,500 to you. Or let’s be really conservative and say the value of ______ is worth at least $5,000.
Is that more convincing than just putting a $5,000 value on this product bonus? I certainly think so, as the testimonials demonstrate several examples where students value the bonus many more times higher than this.
Despite most of those using this bonus finding it worth much more than $5,000 — setting a lower realistic value ensures the prospect isn’t starting to think you’ve over-estimating the value of what you say (for this AND everything else). And with the explanation, the prospect sees how you’ve arrived at this figure.
Copy Tip 36: Fruit-Based Pricing Strategy
The summer fruits are simply delicious at the moment.
Last week, Mel and I were given bags of nectarines and apricots.
And today at our Rotary lunch, we had a special fundraiser with lots of donated fresh country orchard fruits, tomatoes, cucumbers and free range eggs. (A very generous donation: about a dozen big boxes all filled nearly to overflowing! It helped us raise over $750 for our local Rotary projects).
Well, I missed out on a box in the raffle but picked up one in the auction — so home we came with cucumbers, peaches, plums … and there’s more in that box I haven’t even discovered yet!
Mmmm, stone fruits … it’s a great time of year for them and they’re scrum-diddly-umptious!
Now I bet you’re wondering how that ever relates to copy?
I mean, there IS a connection here, yes?
Of course!!
After 36 copy tips there’s always a connection!
Yesterday we started talking about contrast. And specifically, taking a price and using it in a different way — but still stating the same amount — to help change the perception of the price to your prospect.
I used this very successfully a couple of years ago for a client, just like yesterday’s example.
In that project, I took a $347 subscription and also had the copy: “that’s just $29 per month, or 95 cents per day” — with a picture of coins totally 95 cents. This is the image I used:
That approach helps put the offer in perspective: it was for the education market, and I showed all 3 prices to use contrast: breaking down the price to easily imagine how affordable it would be in a school’s budget.
(And the project worked brilliantly for my client, they loved it! So much so I use the testimonial in the right-hand column at the moment on this website — it’s the testimonial from Michael Grose).
Today, I want to talk about another method of “contrast” that is also used in copy as part of a pricing strategy.
It’s used to show value between two otherwise incomparable products. It’s called …
Apples to Oranges
(This is my fruity connection!)
I first picked up this tip from Dan Kennedy as a great way of minimising the impact of price.
He had an example in his excellent must-read book The Ultimate Sales Letter about using this price minimisation tactic for a series of tapes of a seminar.
Now, as an example, some business-based CD’s can be priced at a fairly small amount of money, just $10 or $15 each in a series.
So if you’ve got a product on CD yourself, but have it priced say at $297 — then comparing it to another CD product (an apples-to-apples comparison) like a $15 CD would not help your cause!
You know of course there’s lots more value in your CD to your prospect than the little cost to make each copy, so to illustrate that high value you can compare the price of your CD package to other things.
For example, if you have three CD’s that each go for an hour and your normal consultation fee is $800 per hour, then if you compare $297 to 3 hours of your time valued at $800 — $2,400 — then you can show a real “bargain” in terms of what the prospect might pay you for hearing the same content in an appointment.
Or if your 3 CDs are based on the recordings of a workshop you ran — you can (as Dan uses in his example in the book) compare the $297 investment in the audio course to:
- the actual ticket price of attending the workshop;
- plus your travel and accommodation costs; and
- plus the time away from your business and family
let alone also including the value of now having the convenience of listening to the material over and over again, in your car, or any place you choose … and putting a value on all of that can easily reach the thousands, again helping to minimise the perceived price of your CDs versus the overwhelming value contained on them.
When you also then use real scarcity, price instalments and valuable bonuses, your price starts to seem much more scrum-diddly-umptious than it might have without using these pricing tactics.
It’s a fair way to use comparison to make the price seem insignificant.
After seeing these pics again, I’m off for some more fruit … yum!
Aaaah, Compliance!
I’ve started working with a new client recently in the financial services/life insurance market.
We sent off a direct mail piece today to the legal compliance department for their “inspection” and feedback.
I’ve gotta say — based on previous conversations — I was prepared to dig in and battle to make sure we didn’t lose the direct response nature of what we were doing.
Another friend in the industry has told me many times about the battles he’s had to get things approved.
The legal stuff, the red tape. Gobbledygook. Legal mumbo jumbo. Fine print.
They’re not necessarily limitations, but in some businesses they are essential considerations!
So off went the proof to the client.
And then to compliance.
Stand tall I thought, be prepared to advocate! Defend thy words!
The email came back an hour later.
I was slightly hesitant to open it and read their reply.
Click. Open. Read.
Alas, my fears were unfounded!
Other than one small sentence to add in (my choice of the body copy or the fine print), all was fine!
Phew!
In some ways, it’s a great backup for my client — to “cover their a***” legally and make sure they’re not stepping out of bounds.
All that regulation and red tape to adhere to: enough probably to wrap the planet several times!
At the same time, as a copywriter, it becomes essential to get to know the ins and outs of an industry. For example, I’ve worked with the travel industry for 10 years in May, so there’s a lot of inside stuff I take into account when creating advertising and marketing projects (many times we even get to keep out clients out of trouble for potential problems that would have otherwise slipped through).
Just another consideration in this wonderful profession!
Now … let’s see how they go with my next project!
Copy Tip 35: Contrast
Yesterday, we sweltered a little in the Melbourne summer weather, which has increased somewhat since the Australian Open tennis started on Monday, must be because of the tennis!
Anyway, it hit 41.1 Celcius (106 F) near home yesterday afternoon — making it rather hot. And, gulp, my office is without an air conditioner (our other office shared by my wife and our part-time staffer Alissa has the air conditioner, I just have a fan). So in my office on days like yesterday, the temperature can hover around 33C/92F — pretty warm indoors too.
So what’s this little discussion about the weather got to do with copy?
Plenty! And here’s why …
During the afternoon, I was sitting in my office when Alissa came out of the air-conditioned office into the corridor.
She mentioned to me that it felt quite warm to her, compared to the cool office she’d been sitting in for the afternoon.
But for me, as I hadn’t been sitting in the cool office, I didn’t notice the warmth as much (even though we were in the same place) … and that’s how the “contrast” in the change from cool to warm got Alissa’s attention and reminds me to share this tip with you.
Just like with the weather and how you can contrast and compare — and feel different in the same environment — you can do the same thing in your copy/marketing.
Example of Contrast
One very effective place you can use contrast is to minimize the impact of pricing in your offer.
It is used quite a bit, but that doesn’t say it still can’t be used just as much.
Let’s say your offer is for a yearly subscription valued at $320.
Now, on its own, $320 may SEEM to be a lot to some people.
To overcome that perception, you can state exactly the same price in a different way . That can make it seem like a smaller investment.
Stated another way — that subscription is worth “less than 88 cents per day” over the course of a year.
So you might find the contrast from “$320″ to “88 cents” much easier to use in persuading your prospects to take action.
There are other ways to use contrast — from both a writing point of view and graphic point of view — and we’ll cover those next, but this contrast tactic can help you increase your response.
Copy Tip 34: My Writing Formula
Last copy tip we discussed a well-known writing formula, A.I.D.A.
As I mentioned though, I don’t use this exact formula in my writing. I use another one.
And in it’s simplest form, it’s called P.A.S. …
Problem – Aggravate – Solve
For me, I’ve expanded a bit on that for my own purposes.
Mine is P.A.S.C.A. …
Problem – Aggravate – Solve – Credibility – Action
That’s an effective writing formula (P.A.S.) that I’ve picked up from premier Australian marketer and millionaire-maker Mal Emery.
Whatever way you open your copy — with a story, with an if/then formula, or another way … the aim of this style of writing is to introduce a problem the prospect faces, raise the temperature a little on how that problem is affecting their life (the aggravation), and then offer a solution.
I add in credibility — to make sure my offer is completely credible, and a strong call to action … building in effective techniques like using urgency, risk-reversal guarantees and effective pricing strategies to maximise my response.
And knowing my prospect and getting to know their emotions, fears and frustrations, I can build empathy and rapport about why the prospect should listen to me … and why my solution to their problem should be their obvious choice.
We include the “aggravation” to really stir up the emotions about what can happen if a prospect doesn’t take action — it helps make your irresistible, compelling offer more effective — prospects can find emotional and logical reasons to act NOW.
Aggravation
One “classic” example that comes to my mind is the story about the character Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens’ classic novel A Christmas Carol.
When the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet To Come (Future) show Scrooge just how he’ll end up based on the way he currently acts … he begs for once last chance — which he gets as he wakes up on Christmas morning — and suddenly changes to be much more generous and kind.
That’s really “aggravation” in action … really highlighting the problem, stirring up the emotions and showing how staying the same way can really be the wrong choice … putting the prospect — Scrooge — right in the picture to see, feel, hear and intensely experience the problem when it is magnified, and in his case “begging” for a chance to repent and change his ways.
(In fact, master motivator and personal development/peak performance leader Tony Robbins has an effective strategy to instigate change known as the “Dickens process” … where you imagine yourself in the future, both as you are, and as you want to be … and really feel the difference … and discover for yourself why taking action NOW is so worthwhile).
Once you’ve done that, along comes the “solution” — your product or service — that is the obvious choice for the prospect to make to get rid of this problem.
Credibility
You then use credibility elements to back up your solution … to persuade the prospect why your solution is the best choice to make.
For example, your credibility might include elements like proof, testimonials, case studies etc. that back up your claims and positioning, to really reinforce your offered solution.
And then of course you must ask and spell out how a prospect should respond (take action!), and why they should respond NOW. More about credibility and action in future posts.