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.
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