25% More Buyers from Changing a Couple of Words

byDABK

1K followers

13 years ago

The following is a paragraph from an article that's got to do with politics. The part that I'm interested in here is marketing (especially article marketing and writing sales letters):

[quote] In a 2003 field experiment, they sent subjects an appeal to contribute to Habitat for Humanity to help build a house for a needy family. Two letters were sent, and they differed by just three words. One said the needy family “has been selected” from an enclosed list. The other said the family “will be selected.” People who received the first letter (about identifiable victims) gave 25 percent more than those getting the other letter (about statistical victims). [end quote] Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/your-money/framing-prevents-needed-stimulus-economic-view.html

Again, agree with the article writer or disagree, I don't care right now. All I wanted to point out that a direct marketing test occurred and that changing 'will be' to 'has been' changed how people viewed the offer and how they responded significantly.

What I wanted to draw your attention is this: words matter like heck, if you know what they connote and invoke. Which means, study people, study psychology. And use other people's studies.

Which means, how are you going to write from now on your articles, your sales letters? Will you still write:
click here to buy
or will you make something like this
It's often on sale; might even be on sale as you read
clickable?