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Michel (pronounced Michael) Fortin is a prominent Web copywriter. He’s written an interesting ebook titled The Death of the Salesletter. In it he makes some pretty good comments about how the social Web is forcing change on the online direct marketing business.
I’m not sure if we’ll see an end to those one-page web sites that look like sales letters, but they do seem to be more and more ridiculous as the weeks go by. I especially hate it when I go out looking for an ebook or info product on X, but have to wade through tons and tons of copy convincing me that I need this thing (I already know I need it! I looked for it! Can’t I just skip to the end?) and then at the last moment I’m weighed down with 17 bonuses that have nothing to do with what I want.
Listen. I don’t want your bonuses. I just want the thing. I don’t care if it is 100 pages, 10 pages, 10 minutes, 73 hours, or a video of an interpretive dance troupe. If it solves my problem, it’s good. If it doesn’t I don’t want it! Perhaps you can give me some way to get a sneak peak before I buy it? Or a way to discuss with others about the results they got from buying the product? Before I shell out my $99?
How about some of that instead of a bunch of hoopla, overblown rhetoric, and lists of meaningless bullets? And can we please cut out the cheesy stock graphics? I don’t need to see another image of dollar signs or girls in bikinis. (Okay, maybe we need more bikinis.)
See that? I’m telling you how I want to buy! I’m trying to intrude on your marketing process. I may be the only guy out there saying it, but eventually there will be others saying the same thing. And eventually, the sellers will listen and give me what I want….
An easy way to handle all this is to change the experience. Perhaps when I arrive at a landing page you can ask me to segment myself. Am I interested in X or Y? Then on the next page, ask if I’ve used product Z before or something like it. Then deliver me to a page with highly targeted copy. Perhaps you could have some questions at the top of that letter that involve my interacting with a set of radio buttons (are you married, single, divorced? latin, white, black? male, female?) that kicks off some Ajaxian sorcery that loads different copy at different points of the letter.
Perhaps I’m there because I got an email from you. Maybe I’ve visited other promotions you’ve sent out? Perhaps you’ve kept track in some way, and maybe you can alter my experience in subtle ways? Like maybe you already know that I’m a male small business owner in my late 30s who jogs regularly? I don’t know how that might change things, but we’re bound to figure something out to get me to the sale.
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