“I don’t want to insult their intelligence,” said a client to me recently. “Do you really think we need to tell them what to do again?”

Yes you do, I thought.

“Yes you do,” I said.

Why?

Because buying is stressful (cast your mind back to Christmas). You want reassurance. You want to be told that you’ve made the right choice. You need reasons to go ahead and not just turn on your heel and flee the store. Or close that web page.

You want to know what to do next. So why are your customers, readers or prospects any different?

They’re not.

So make it easy, make it clear and say it again. And again.

Just this week, I realised once more the power of signs when I was working out at my gym.

First, I saw this one:

And then this one:

Button number 1 is a polite, well-behaved button. Sensible, low-key and probably not very effective. Button number 2 screams Emergency!

Which is exactly what it should do.

More is less

Good signs are clear, obvious and easily noticed. It could be a button on your site, a big bright heading in a letter, a bold underline instruction on what to do next in a brochure.

But be careful.

Where it comes to signs, there’s a fine line – and if you cross it, you get diminishing returns. If you have too many signs, they overwhelm people, so they blank them all out.

Let’s go back to the gym. Not the one above, but another I used to go to. It did signs – lots of them.

Please put your towel in the bin provided. Please replace weights carefully. Please dry off before entering the changing area. Please shower before entering the pool. No running or jumping in pool. Male and female changing rooms swapped today only. Goggles must be worn. Training tops are obligatory. Sign up a friend and get 20% off.

See how easy it is to miss an important sign?

Before you know it, you’re a man, in the men’s changing room, but it’s full of naked women (read it again – slowly this time).

When it comes to signs, less really is more. And a few simple rules will make your signs stand out:

• Be focused: work out your key messages and stick to them. Don’t give people too many choices or they won’t make any choice.
• Repeat yourself. You should include your call to action regularly in your copy – at the bottom of every web page, in your headers and footers, in call-out boxes and headlines. Make it crystal-clear what you want people to do, and say it as often as possible.
• Make it easy. How often have you been on a site and got caught in a loop or trapped in a dead end? It happened to me just the other day. I was ordering a USB drive, but wanted to double-check the spec before I completed the order. But I couldn’t go back to check, like I do when I’m ordering a book on Amazon. All I could do was click Pay now. So I didn’t. I simply found a more user-friendly site and bought there instead.
• Give them more. People are often looking for reasons to use you. Why wouldn’t they be? If you’re the company, the brain-frying, mind-boggling, toe-curling, buttock-clenching search is over. Give them lots of reasons why they should look no further – and make them as prominent as possible.
• Pretend you’re them. Or put another way, take the ‘tourist test’ (walk around your own town/city, slavishly follow the signs, ask for directions and follow them to the letter). When you’re inside the mind of the reader, customer or prospect, things look very different indeed. So go with the flow, and anticipate their questions, problems and needs.

Waving, not drowning

I did press one of the emergency buttons – the smaller one. I didn’t mean to, but my hand caught it as I prised myself out of the leg-extension machine.

I froze, and waited for the flashing lights, alarm bells and solicitous staff running to my assistance, first-aid box in hand.

It didn’t happen. In fact, nothing happened. Which goes to prove another truth when it comes to signs.

They’re only as good as the people behind them.

Happy New Year.

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2. The power of You
3. The power of storytelling
4. The power of numbers
5. Add more power to your PowerPoint

Four things happened to me this week.

OK, more than four things, but since you haven’t got all day, I’ll give you the short version.

Extra strong – with wings

First, I hung out at Starbucks, which is better than any serviced office I’ve ever seen.  You can stretch one cup out all afternoon, as you huddle over your laptop.

But this time, I decided to leave my comfort zone. No, not my favourite armchair by the window. But my coffee.

You see, I normally opt for a grande, skinny, decaf, sugar-free hazelnut, extra-hot latte - enough to give any barista RSI as they scramble to tick all the boxes.

But this time, I decided to change. A regular coffee seemed an appropriate departure, so I consulted the board. Americano, I thought. That’ll do the trick.

But wait…what about Freshly Brewed Coffee? It was much cheaper, and that was enough to tip the balance.

So that’s what I ordered. And instantly regretted it.

Americano is basically a diluted espresso, made on the spot from achingly fresh coffee beans. Whereas Freshly Brewed Coffee is, well, not really fresh.

The barista pivoted round, flipped the tap on a big silver urn, and filled the cup with tired old dregs.

So that would be Freshly Stewed Coffee.

Lesson 1: don’t stretch language beyond its limits.

Next stop Paris

From there, where else could the week go? Upwards was the only way, and yesterday, Eurostar put a smile on my face.

I live in Cambridge, and every week, like it or not, the local freesheet newspaper lands on my mat. Usually, it goes straight in to the recycle bin.

But not this time.

Paris – An all hours guide, the cover (which wasn’t really the cover, but a advert wrap) said. Pull out. Fold up. Pocket it.

The inside is crammed full of useful listings – places to eat, relax, and boogie on down. The back has a handy map. There are even Cambridge-Paris train times (via King’s Cross/St Pancras).

And coolest of all, a handy origami-style diagram showing you how to fold it all into a pocket map.

Brilliant. Just brilliant. Why?

It’s targeted, it’s personal and it’s useful. Even if I don’t want to go to Paris tomorrow, I’ll keep it for when I do.

And so Eurostar has achieved the Holy Grail – an advert I’ll never throw away.

Lesson 2: think smart, think targeted, think like a reader.

Bag for life (not)

Tesco delivered my internet shopping this week, all  neatly packed in carrier bags. Re-use this carrier bag and collect Green Clubcard Points, each bag cried out at me.

If only I could.

At least half of the bags had the handles knotted – double-knotted. And they’d been lifted into the crate at the store, then out of the crate on to my doorstep, then again to my kitchen.

Each time the knot got a little tighter. In the end, the only way I could open them was with scissors.

You see the green problem.

When I pointed it out to Tesco customer service, they said they’d put a note on my account.

But what about all the other shopping packed at that store? In fact, at every store countrywide? How many bags were being wasted, I wondered.  Surely they could feed it back to somebody who could change things?

Silence. Then they said they’d put a note on my account.

So I dropped it. Some battles you can’t win.

Lesson 3: make sure everybody in your company shares your values.

Game over

This week I ordered a DVD – La Vie en Rose (it’s known as La Môme in France).

It’s the fourth French film I’ve ordered in as many weeks, so play.com have a pretty good idea of my tastes. Perfect for marketing purposes.

Or so you’d think.

On the invoice that came with the DVD, they’d conveniently printed a list of other bestselling and upcoming titles.

Clever. But also not so clever.

For their titles included Knocked Up: Extended and Unprotected Special Edition, along with Hellboy and Superbad. Oh, and Death Note: Limited Edition.

It would have been a simple bit of database programming to pull out the upcoming French titles.

Lesson 4:  try selling what your customers are buying. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

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Remember the last time somebody sent you a killer brochure?

No, neither do I.

Brochures often tend to be dull affairs – the sort of thing you skim through, decide they’re not worth the effort, and file. In the bin, usually.

It’s a shame, because brochures are a great opportunity to engage the reader, tell your story, make a promise, and move the sales process along.

Next time you plan one (you do plan, don’t you?) try following these tips.

1. Work out where it comes in the sales process

This is so obvious, it’s easily overlooked.

If a brochure is sent out in response to an enquiry, it needs more information than if it’s a leave-behind (which is, not surprisingly, left behind after a sales meeting).

If it’s part of a sales pack, you want to reinforce your message without repeating yourself, so you need to strike a balance.

It’s always worth remembering that marketing collateral often gets separated, so a brochure that did have supporting material may just end up on its own.

So it’s a good idea to make sure a brochure can stand alone, and still make sense when somebody picks it up in six months’ time.

2. Lead with a strong headline

Ask a question, tell them something they don’t know. Intrigue them (but not too much). Tell a story, and make sure you have a good opening.

Often, brochures simply say: here we are. This is what we do. This is how we do it. This is how long we’ve been doing it for (as if longevity was a guarantee of quality). These are all the qualifications/awards we have (ISO 9001, Investor in People – sound familiar?). And these are our contact details.

Would you respond? Yes, but probably by putting it in File 13.

3. Make it an easy read

Pretend for a moment that you’re the reader, not the writer. Look as objectively as you can at your brochure.

Can you scan and get the essence of the message? Is the information nicely broken up into manageable chunks, or do you just see a mass of text? And are you going to commit the time to reading it, or take that split-second (that’s all it takes) decision to dump it?

That’s how a reader reads.

So make it easy – use headings, bold, bullets, boxes and enough white space. Organise your information logically, and in bite-sized pieces.

In short, write like a reader.

4. Balance copy with graphics

Need to tell people how much they’ll save? Show them, with a chart.

Do you offer free delivery within a 15-mile radius? Then include a map.  And if you’ve got a difficult process to explain (or even a simple one) include a diagram.

Graphics and photos reinforce the message, and make it easier to get your point across. And to make sure it sticks.

It’s really important here to use relevant graphics. Don’t just go to your favourite stock photography site and download something generic. If you can, use pictures of your offices, your people, your products.

5. Remember the call to action

Can you imagine a salesperson saying, “Well, that’s it. Thanks for listening to me. Here are my contact details,” and walking away?

Of course you can’t. So why is it that so many brochures do it? After all, your brochure is a salesperson on glossy paper.

So get it selling.

Tell people what to do next – call you for more details, get online and have a test-drive, organise a meeting with one of your sales team, take up the offer of a FREE consultation.

Tell them what to do, and at least some of them will do it.

Don’t tell them what to do, and you know exactly what’s going to happen.

Related posts:

1. Three tips to sharpen your writing
2. Five ways to improve your writing
3. Two simple ways to make your writing better
4. How to write a brief (the easy way)
5. Signposts, reminders and the power of repetition

I went to see an exhibition in London last weekend at the Mall Galleries – the Photographer of the Year, run by Digital Camera Magazine.

There were some wonderful images of people, architecture and animals. Beatifully framed and expertly lit – just the sort of thing my friend S would like.

Unfortunately, the exhibition finished the day I was there. So I sent her the link to the website.  She could browse at her leisure, and tell me what she thought.

Except she couldn’t.

“I need to register to access anything,” she wrote in an email.

Registration? What registration? All she had to do was click the black and white portrait of the girl and she’d be through to the galleries.

But she didn’t. Instead of hovering and seeing the giveaway hand cursor, she looked around, saw boxes marked Username and Password – and promptly gave up.

All it would have taken is a simple sign saying Click here next to the girl.

So much for point and press.

OOBE or not OOBE

The takeaway is clear: what’s obvious to you is not always obvious to them.

I came to the site with years of web experience. S, on the other hand,  is a cyber novice, and likes to see nice neat pointers that tell her what to do.

If it’s signposted, she’s OK. If it’s not, she gives up.

That’s why as a copywriter, marketer, or just about anyone else who’s putting messages out there, you should indulge in a little out-of-body experience every time you put virtual pen to paper.

It’s not just a call to action you need. It’s a call to action that’s obvious to your reader.

Any colour – as long as it’s black

It’s also about not giving people too many choices.

Just recently, I was on a site that shouted BUY NOW! A little way across the page, there was DOWNLOAD FREE SAMPLE! And out of the corner of my eye, I saw FIND OUT MORE!

Now the thing is, I really wanted to do something. But bombarded by choice, I took the path of least resistance.  I simply closed down my browser, and resolved to go back later (I didn’t).

Admit one (idiot)

As I left the exhibition, I saw a sign that said Photographer of the Year – Free Entry. So why had I paid £2.50?

And then I realised. Two exhibitions were sharing the gallery space, with no boundaries between them. I’d come to see the photography show, but paid to see the print show.

I’d walked in, seen the sign on the counter, and only three words had registered.

Admission. Adult. £2.50.

They told me what to do. I did it.

But don’t tell S.

Find out more:

• Give your readers something to do, on seomoz.com.
• How to call to action on seosmarty.com includes a fascinating insight into the colours to use for your call to action.
• Digital Camera magazine’s Photographer of the Year 2007 (do remember to click the girl’s face).

Related posts:

1. Tell me what to do
2. Signposts, reminders and the power of repetition
3. 5 tips for writing a killer brochure
4. Don’t know what your clients want? Ask them.
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Just the other day, this leaflet dropped through the letter box. The local council is thinking about installing these gizmos at bus stops around the county.

So while you’re waiting in the rain with a dozen other bedraggled people, you can see that the number 52 is still 15 minutes away.

To help pass the time, you could press the yellow circle to get community information. Or catch up on the latest police notices, the leaflet tells me. How calming.

The important point here is that they’re asking me what I think before they launch the scheme.

Don’t keep it to yourself

It’s very tempting to wait until you’ve got every angle worked out before presenting an idea to your clients.

Why? Because if you don’t, maybe they’ll think you don’t know what you’re doing. Or worse, that you’re making it up as you go along.

But wait – you are making it up as you go along. With their input.

Many years ago, when I worked for a large software company, we launched a reseller incentive. If salespeople sold X, they got £Y.

But in our enthusiasm, we forgot to consult the resellers on the exact details. And it turned out that our incentive scheme clashed with their internal commission structure and the distributor incentive schemes.

It wasn’t a success.

So the next time round, we brought them all together and got their help to design a scheme that worked for everybody.

Open kimono

Involving clients in important decisions and getting their feedback on your future plans is a great way to make them feel valued. And it saves you the head-scratching frustration of wondering whether you’ve got it right.

But if you are going to ask, make sure you’re doing it for that right reasons – and that you’re approaching it with an open mind.

Somehow, I think the council has already made its mind up about the bus signs. The clue is on the reverse side, where the languge is relentlessly positive:

“Constantly striving to improve…brand-new…always current and up to date…wide variety…match all bus users’ needs…”

After all that, who would dare to tick the ‘No’ box?

Apart from me, that is.

Related posts:

1. Prospecting? Watch out for existing clients.
2. Talk to your clients right now
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4. Try to see it my way
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