The E-Factor: Two Ways to Instantly Get More Back from Every
Promotion - by David Garfinkel - Killer Copy Tactics

Allow me to introduce you to the mysterious “E-Factor.” It’s
mysterious because it has two meanings.

Both meanings will help you get more business from any promotion
you do. So without further ado, here’s how you can use the
“E-Factor” to make more money:

- Put “E-Factor” in your testimonials and copy

Did you realize the very best source of new business is almost
always a prospect who has been referred to you by a friend or
trusted business advisor? It is. Think about this in your own
life. When you need an accountant, or an attorney, or a doctor,
or for that matter a hardware store in a new town, you’ll
probably turn to someone you know, whose judgment you trust, to
refer you to the service or product provider you’re looking for.

OK. But what does that have to do with direct mail and Web
promotions?

A lot. People are always on the lookout for sources of advice
they can trust. However, since you can’t always rely on giving
every prospect for your business personal recommendations from
the prospect’s friends, neighbors and advisor’s they actually
know and trust, you do the next best thing: You give them copy
with recommendations from people who seem like the people they
know and trust.

How? By putting testimonials and case studies in your copy
involving people who will fill the role of trusted friends and
advisor’s.

Many marketers do this but they don’t get the desired effect.
Why? Because they haven’t put enough productive effort into the
research that pays off. This is in-person research - especially
one-on-one “casual” research, as opposed to formal focus-group
research - with their actual customers, and people who are a lot
like their customers.

This high-payoff research gives you in-depth working
understanding of how your prospects think and act in the world -
and how they look at things and make decisions. When you have
this understanding and you weave it into the language of your
descriptive copy and your testimonial quotes, it’s called
“empathy.”

“Empathy” - that’s the first meaning of “The E-Factor.”
Increase empathy in your copy and you’ll increase sales.

- Profit from the second meaning of the “E-Factor” as well

There’s another, equally important meaning. Before I tell you
what it is, let me give you a big, fat hint. In his book The
Entertainment Economy: How Mega-Media Forces Are Transforming
Our Lives, author Michael J. Wolfe points out that American
consumers put 8.4% - about one dollar out of every 12 - into
some form of entertainment. Currently, that adds up to $480
billion a year.

As a side note, Hollywood productions - films and TV shows -
bring in the second largest amount of money from overseas back
into the U.S. economy, after aircraft sales.

Yes, the other meaning of the “E-Factor” is entertainment. It’s
huge. And it applies to marketing and selling. As the late
(and great) David Ogilvy reminded us, “People will not be bored
into buying.”

But beware. Many a copywriter less talented and, more
importantly, less thoughtful than Mr. Ogilvy has made the fatal
error including humor, fantasy, drama or thrills in a promotion
in such a way as to not specifically move the sales process
forward.

And that’s dangerous. Even deadly, sometimes. Here’s why: When
you include entertainment, people’s attention will invariably be
drawn to it over anything else. And when entertainment does not
directly support moving the sale forward, then it automatically
detracts from the sale.

There are dozens of examples. The lying Isuzu salesman. Sales
went down. “Plop-plop, Fizz-fizz.” Sales went down. I’m sure
you have your favorites of entertaining ad campaigns that
bombed. Now you know why.

Entertainment isn’t bad. But not painstakingly linking the
entertainment to the forward motion of the sale is bad. Very
bad.

So, how do you add entertainment value in such a way as to
increase the sales effectiveness of your promotion? Several
ways:

- Tell a dramatic story where your product is the hero and
saves the day for the human involved. My favorite example of
this is the newspaper ad for Joe Karbo’s legendary book “The
Lazy Man’s Way to Riches.”

In the ad, Mr. Karbo talks about his “Lazy Man’s Way” which he
promises to reveal in the book he’s selling. He tells how,
before he knew the “Lazy Man’s Way,” he used to work 18-hour
days, 7-day weeks and was still perpetually in debt. But after
he learned the “Lazy Man’s Way,” he became financially
independent by working less and in fact became very wealthy.

This incredible ad combines drama with sales power in an
unbeatable way. And it worked! The ad sold 3 million books by
mail order!

- Use humor that adds emphasis to the value of your product or
service. When you get past the laughter, most humor in ads just
shows off the cleverness of the creative team who created the
ad. (You might say it also shows off their lack of concern for
creating sales.) A positive example, where the humor shows how
the product is so worthwhile, is the old (and very successful)
series of Seinfeld commercials for the American Express Card.

- Use exciting, colorful language in testimonials when
customers are talking about the virtues of your product. But
make sure it’s believable. And don’t make fun of the fact that
you’re selling something, any more than you would go to target
practice and fire the first shot into your own foot. At all
times, keep your eye on the target - increased sales!

So let’s review. How can you use this information to make more
sales in every promotion? Take stock of its Empathy and
Entertainment Value. Be single-minded. Take out everything
that takes away from the sale, and keep in - or boost and
strengthen - everything that furthers the sale. Build the
strongest possible promotion at every point along the way - and
watch your response rate soar!

© 2000 David Garfinkel. All rights reserved. David Garfinkel
is widely recognized by many “marketing gurus” as their secret
weapon. That is, he is known as “The World’s Greatest
Copywriting Coach”; because, he can, like no other, teach you
how to turn words into cash. David is also the author and
narrator of Killer Copy Tactics, the Web’s first and only
totally interactive audio/visual learning system for writing
Killer Copy Tactics.

You can learn more about this course at: Killer Copy Tactics



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