The Power of Specifics

How much would you be impressed if your telephone or cable company said they’d be “on time” for your home service appointment?

Well sure… it sounds okay. But it’s so vague; your eyes would probably glaze over.

“Whatever… I’ll probably end up sitting home waiting half the day.”

Now suppose instead they said “Your serviceman is currently scheduled to arrive at 10:43 AM”.

I bet that would catch your eye!

It sure did mine.

During a recent trip to Maine I saw that promise made in a commercial for “Bob's Discount Furniture Delivery”. Type your order number into their website and you’ll get a very specific message such as…

“Your furniture is currently scheduled to arrive at 11:34 AM”.

Wow. That got my attention, even though I wasn’t the least bit interested in the commercial and certainly not in ordering or receiving furniture.

Now who knows, it could just be a lot of hot air. Maybe they are late as often as any other company.

But if the goal of an advertisement is to snap you out of your everyday somnolence, as copywriter John Carlton has said, this one worked.

It’s a testament to the power of specificity.

General numbers and phrases imply lack of real knowledge… hedging… maybe even bluffing or lying.

“We should be there in a couple hours.”

Translation: Yeah, right.

Roy H. Williams, in "Secret Formulas of the Wizards of Ads" says, "The simple truth is that nothing sounds quite so much like the truth as the truth, and most people seem to know the truth when they hear it. The truth is never full of loopholes and generalities. The truth is made of specifics and substantiations. It's solid. That's why it's easy to spot in a world full of paper-thin lies, half-lies, and hype."

If you’re writing about a stock advisory service, don’t say “Our service produced impressive gains last year.”

Say “Between February 12 and November 23, 2007 we picked gains of 78%, 143% and 353%”.

If you’re writing about improving health, don’t say “Our program will make you feel better.”

Say “With Acme supplements, you’ll hop out of bed smiling at 5AM… you’ll be able to lose up to 15 pounds in 12 weeks or less… and you’ll love the new vitality you’ll enjoy from our 18 unique and fast-acting ingredients.”

Of course, your product or service has to deliver on those promises. If it doesn't, you might make the first sale, but you'll immediately lose credibility. And even if customers don't return it for a refund, they won't buy from you again.

And adding specific details is more work. You have to dig deeper. Spend more time. Make a bigger commitment.

But just think about what kind of payoffs it can bring you. You could double your response rates to your sales promotions. Your pay-per-click ads could attract thousands more visitors to your site. You could increase your email list size by 25%. And all that could mean hundreds of thousands - even millions - of dollars in extra income for you or your clients.

Side benefit: You'll get a kick out of seeing your writing really coming to life!

Who knew you could get all that just by adding a few specifics?

Avoiding Yet Another New Airline Fee

If you didn't like it when airlines announced $25 fees for "2nd checked bags"... here's worse news...

American Airlines will now levy a surcharge for ANY checked bags.
AP reports AA "will start charging $15 for the first checked bag, cut domestic flights and lay off possibly thousands of workers as it grapples with record-high fuel prices."

For now, competitors are saying they have no plans to match this increase.

We'll see how long that lasts!

Want to avoid these fees altogether? Here you go...

http://charliebyrne.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-to-save-50-on-your-next-airline.html

Me? Not Late... Just Running Late

"Peter's running late... but he wanted to let you know he's on his way."

Poor Peter. Something must have happened to him...

But he's doing his best... after all, he's "running". That sounds urgent.

Funny phrase, that "running late" is.

Kind of absolves you of the blame... almost makes your situation passive.

Oh no, I'm not late. I'm just "running late".

That's not so bad, is it?

Copywriting Challenge #1 - Can You Top This Copy?

Ready to go on a mission to save the world? AND get your “name in lights”? PLUS win a genuine Early to Rise hat and T-shirt?

Good, because I’m looking for some volunteers. Now mind you, I’m not talking about stopping global warming, ending the war, or turning “green”.

I just want to make the world safe for… readers. Yes, it’s time to put an end to The Plague of Bad Copy that threatens the planet.

Take a ride around your town and you’ll see it on signs everywhere you turn. Self absorbed… inner directed… and completely without benefit to the reader.

Here’s an example of one I came across just the other day outside a local strip mall.

“ALL TENANTS OPEN DURING CONSTRUCTION”

“Tenants open”? Why should I care about “tenants”?

Obviously the mall owners created this sign to appease their renters…

But what they really should be doing is appeasing their “tenant’s” customers. You and me.

Wouldn’t something like this be more likely to attract shoppers:

“All Our Friendly Shops Open While We’re Sprucing Up!”

I bet you can come up with even better suggestions.

Sure, we can’t expect every retailer and landlord to be professional copywriters - or even well-educated Early to Risers.

But why not lend them a hand - and have a little fun at the same time? So here’s what I propose…

Send me a digital photo of the worst copy you can find. I’ll post it and ask our readers in ETR to suggest better alternatives. Then we’ll take a vote, and maybe even send a copy of the winning entry to the offending “author” if we can track them down.

By the way, here’s one of my favorite examples of a GOOD store sign. I came across one outside Gray’s Papaya in New York City a few years ago:

“OUR HOT DOG – The Thunderous Pop When You Bite Into It – The Saline Tang of the Pink Flesh – Oh YES!! (Please I’m Getting Hungry Already!).

Now that’s got some appeal, don’t you think? It’s almost… erotic, dare I say.

A bit more inviting than “tenants open during construction.”

OK So here’s what to do right now.

Think about better copy for that sign outside the Mall that is open during construction.

Then, post your copy in the comments section below. Next week I’ll take a vote from our readers in ETR, and the winner gets their name in lights and a genuine Early to Rise hat and T-shirt with our compliments.

Meanwhile, when you come across a bad sign in your town, email it to me at Charlie@ETRFeedback.Com.

We might just make it the subject of our next Copywriting Challenge!

Is Your Web Developer Chasing Away Customers?

Most web developers and programmers couldn't care less about your site visitors. They're largely technical nerds more interested in bits, bytes and "cool" stuff.

So it's up to YOU to make sure what THEY produce is user-friendly.

Example: Phone number entry fields on forms. How often has this happened to you...

Enter Phone No: __________

So you enter the digits and here comes an Alert Box:

"PHONE NUMBER MUST NOT CONTAIN DASHES!"

or

"PHONE NUMBER MUST CONTAIN DASHES!"

or God only knows what else.

Doesn't this drive you crazy? It should.

It's a sure sign that a real moron programmed this application.

Why?

Because it's just as easy for an app to trim the input string into the desired storage format itself, as it is to demand the user do it.

If your site features user interaction, make sure your web developer isn't making your users jump through hoops just to provide basic information.

If he is, kick his butt or better yet, fire him.

Irish Blessing - Or Is It A Curse?

I'm fortunate to live exactly one mile west of the Atlantic Ocean - and I love my morning runs to the beach. But the other day I ran right into a little problem...

Normally I leave the house, run a mile east to the beach, a mile south along the Atlantic, and then retrace backwards, for a total of 4 miles.

On Wednesday I left the house late and so I knew I'd only have time for 2 miles - one out and one back. So I head out, run due east 1 mile (going very fast, I was feeling great) and turn around.

Uh oh!!! I'd been running with a west wind at my back. I was wondering why everything seemed easy… too easy.

When the going was good, I'd used up all my reserves with no thought to the future. Now, with the wind in my face, I was suffering.

I have a feeling there's a business lesson here…

The Irish blessing says "May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back."
Sure, go full out if you know that wind is never going to die.

But in the real world, sooner or later it will - and you better be ready for that.

So whether you are Dutch, Italian, Irish or anything else…

Make sure to use the good times to do a little bit of planning… for the bad ones that sooner or later surely will follow.

How to Save $50 on Your Next Airline Trip

Looking to save $50 on your next airline trip?

Here's how...

United Airlines and others are now charging an additional $25 for a second bag.

MSNBC reports "Five of the seven major U.S. airlines (Continental, Delta, Northwest, United, and US Air) plan to charge most customers $25 each way to check a second bag starting May 5. Of the largest carriers, only American and Southwest have decided not to go along — for now. Airtran is adding a $10 second bag fee for travel on or after May 15. Spirit Airlines already had a $10 fee if paid online, or $20 at the airport."

The motive behind it? From Fortune Magazine:

"United has also made some moves that, while they may not be popular with customers, are at least mitigating the effect of fuel-price increases... "We will continue to build on this work charging customers for services they use and products they value while rewarding our best customers for their business and their loyalty," CEO Glenn Tilton said... "An example is the $25 fee for a second bag that we initiated, which we expect will generate over $175 million annually for United."

Everyone's shopping for low fares, so airlines will continue to look for non-fare based incremental revenue.

But even if you're going on a long trip and even if you're mixing business and pleasure, do you really need that second bag?

Not if you follow this advice from Michael Masterson and Early to Rise. Here's what Michael, a VERY frequent traveller has to say:

Pack Faster and Travel Lighter - By Michael Masterson

I travel a lot. So does K. Neither of us ever checks luggage. And I, at least, never spend more than 15 minutes packing. Here are some tips to make preparing for your next trip easier and faster.

1. Choose one or two colors. Reducing your wardrobe to a single color (and one contrasting highlight color) greatly reduces the number of items you need to bring. My choice is black and white or black and gray.

2. Pack only one pair of shoes. Shoes are the most space-consuming item in your bag. If your main color is black, bring black shoes. Wear one pair on the plane - a comfortable pair that can double as gym shoes - and pack a dressier pair that (1) will look fine with a suit/dress, and (2) you can wear to walk in the city.

3. If you're a man, you only need one jacket. A blazer or conservative sports coat is best. Wear it, don't pack it.

4. Make your travel pack... [Read the rest here and you'll never end up like the guy in the photo...]

A Time of Inconvenience

I’m having a great time this weekend at ETR's Profits in Paradise conference in Orlando.

The weather's gorgeous, the speaker's dynamite, and the attendees are having a BLAST picking up TONS of great wealth-building advice.

So it's all been good so far. Except, that is, for one MAJOR disaster...

Morning room service doesn't start until 6:30AM.

You see, I'm up at 5 (hey at Early to Rise we practice what we preach)… And as a certified caffeine addict, I need an immediate fix. Sure, I can make one of those mini-pots of Joe in my room, but that mystery brown liquid doesn't really even deserve the "c__fee" designation.
So what's up with that 6:30 "mid-day" breakfast time???

Is our hotel setting this time for the convenience of their guests? Or is it for the convenience of their staff and management?

Here at ETR we try our best to keep our reader's convenience in mind. A few examples:

* We heard complaints that folks couldn’t print out our newsletter. Some prefer to read on paper. So we went to considerable time and expense to make it easy to print out the daily eletter.

* When we plan our conferences, instead of timing them during the week (handy for us), we build them around weekends (convenient for our readers).

* We’ve upgraded our customer service desk to ensure faster and more accurate help with any issues.

Make sure your business decisions are about (and convenient for) your customers and not YOU.

Of course I’m no so naïve as to believe you don’t have to keep expenses in line and optimize and streamline processes and procedures. But…

Don’t have early arriving restaurant staff park in the best parking spots.

Don’t close down bank teller windows at lunchtime.

And please don’t start room service in the middle of the morning!

Nietzsche versus the Harvard Business Review?

I'll admit it.

I'm sometimes suspicious of academic business commentary.

Just imagine how often this scenario plays out: A bright, well-off high-schooler gets accepted to a top Ivy League college. He majors in (say) economics, graduates and goes on to post-grad work and eventually moves into academia as a professor.

Next thing you know, reports on business are coming out from "respected Harvard professor so-and-so".

Sure, he's STUDIED business for years, but the sum total of his hands-on business experience? Zippo!

Nietzsche called this the difference between “wissen” and “erfahrung”. Rough translation: the difference between book-smarts and street-smarts. At Early to Rise we've found that the street smart advice usually ends up with a higher correlation to actually making money and being succesful than theory and academics.

And so I was pleasantly surprised to open this month's Harvard Business Review and find good “street-smart” advice on managing hypergrowth from Alexander Izosimov.

He’s not a professor but the CEO of Vimpel Commuciations, Russia’s second-largest mobile phone company.

Yes, HBR does run plenty of intellectually interesting and occasionally useful articles from the academic elite. But I’ve noticed I find myself reading the ones from seasoned business executives more often.

Izosimov should know about rapid growth: He’s helped roll out cell phones in Russia as market penetration jumped to 120% (yes some have two) from 12% - and his company’s market cap jettisoned to $40 BILLION from $600 million in the same period.

His recommendations sound very much aligned with what Early to Rise and Michael Masterson in Ready Fire Aim advise when managing a rapid expansion period.

1) Sell First and Ask Questions Later. Don’t waste time on perfection or the opportunity will pass you by.

2) Don't Try Too Hard to Innovate. They call it the bleeding edge for good reason.

3) Organize Like McDonalds. Get standard structures and procedures in place so your infrastructure doesn’t bog you down.

4) Push Decisions Out to the Front Line. Paralysis by excessive corporate analysis is death.

5) Foster a Can-Do Culture. Enable an action-oriented company. Don’t punish rapid failure. Learn and move on quickly.

If this kind of advice makes sense to you, check out Izosimov's full article. And if you don't already have it, get a copy of Ready, Fire, Aim - I guarantee the best $20 you'll ever spend.

[Note: An earlier version of this post was released while it was still in draft form. Whoops! If you saw that, I apologize for any confusion and probably several misspellings, no doubt including Nietzsche. – CFB]

JetBlue's Web Usability Mistake

Will you join me in a little experiment today?

When first planning a trip and searching for airline flights, how many passengers do you indicate in your initial search?

One? Two?

Maybe the whole family - 3 or more?

Or how about zero?

Personally, I always start out looking for 1, because at first I'm really just price and schedule shopping.

I can fine tune later.

But one number of passengers I'd NEVER book for? Zero.

So why is that the default on JetBlue's main booking page?

I'm guessing here that many folks - maybe 50% or more - are like me and start out looking for a flight using just 1 person... then change it later once they've found a good deal, right date and time, etc. But ZERO?

Hey, I like Blue a lot. Fly them all the time.

So after I enter my From:, my To:, and the out and back dates, I'm ready to see what they've got to offer:














BUT... Click Search at that point and here's what you get:

That's not very friendly!

Web usability icon Jacob Nielson says "In forms and applications, pre-populate fields with the most common value if you can determine it in advance."

I say, "Here here!"

Isn't it preferable, if you MUST "inconvenience your customers" (by forcing them to fill out a form), that you irritate say 50% rather than 100%?

If you've seen other goofy form defaults, let us know about them in the comments below.

Give Your Customers (Even "Enemies") What THEY Want

It's tough being a Florida Marlin. Maybe even tougher working in their Marketing Department. But they recently made one astute change that caught my eye...

You see, this major league baseball team suffers from a common South Florida affliction: Competition for attention in an over-saturated market.

Here amidst the beaches and palm trees, there's always "something else" to do. And so they've been drawing small crowds pretty much since they opened their franchise.

Problem "B" for the Marlins? Fan loyalty.

Nearly everyone in SFla is from somewhere else. And that means you've got Yankee fans, Mets fans, Red Sox fans... and just a few Marlins fans.

In fact, when one of these teams visits (as the Mets did this week), sometimes half the ballpark is filled with "enemy" fans (like Mr Met, yours truly).

In past years I've been surprised browsing their souvenier stands. They've got tons of Marlins hats, shirts, pens - you name it.

But wouldn't it make sense, I thought, to offer goods from the visiting team?

Given how many prime "prospects" you've got just walking past... wallets open... ready to buy.

Looks like they've finally decided to give their customers what their customers want.

At Opening Day this Monday I was glad (I guess) to see a full array of Mets merchandise. My wife even bought (yet another) Mets shirt.

Sure, love your own products - but swallow your pride when necessary - and don't fall prey to Not Invented Here syndrome.

Web 3.0 ("Semantic Web") and Microformats Preview

Interested in previewing Web 3.0 technology?

Better yet, want to create your very OWN "Web 3.0-enabled" web page right now?

OK - then just follow along with these easy steps...

1) Get latest version of Firefox browser if you don't already have.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

2) Get the "Tails" add-in which lets you view Microformats (data structures embedded in the XHTML behind the page).

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2240

3) Get a Blogger account or use one you already have to create a new post.

4) Go here, create an hCard for yourself (Personal Contact Info) and paste the HTML into your Blog:

http://microformats.org/code/hcard/creator

5) Go here, create an hCalendar for some future event of yours and paste the HTML into your Blog:

http://microformats.org/code/hcalendar/creator

6) Publish your blog page and open it up in Firefox. The Tails add-on will have a separate panel on the left side. You should see these Microformats displayed there.

Below are the visible entires for the hCard and hCalendar I created for this post. If you are viewing in Firefox and Tails, you should see the Microformat Tags on the left side right now (if not, see screen shot below).

You should be able to mouse over them and see options for easily exporting into your Contact mgmt program, your Calendar program, etc.

Here's a MicroFormat hCard:

Charles F Byrne
Early to Rise
245 NE 4th Avenue
Delray Beach, FL , 33444
USA

This hCard created with the hCard creator. End of hCard.

Here's a MicroFormat hCalendar

November 9th – 12th, 2008 ETR 2008 Bootcamp– at Delray Beach, Florida
This hCalendar event brought to you by the hCalendar Creator.

End of hCalendar
----------

And here's how it looks when you open up this very post in Firefox with Tails.

Note the yellow/orange tags on the left side.

There's our Microformatted data!

Hey, it's not much but this really works.

Here I've clicked on the hCalendar "export" and now I've got a dialog box opened up.

If I like, I can now import this event into my Outlook calendar, all with the click of the mouse.

Ski Lodge More Efficient Than Doctor's Office!

I'd arrived at Lake Tahoe's Heavenly Valley ski area Friday around 2PM - and I only had the next day to get in some quick skiing before business meetings on Sunday.

Looking to get an early morning start on the slopes Saturday, I decided to stop by the base lodge and rental shop to check things out in advance just after I'd checked in to my hotel.

I was delighted when I found the rental shop offered a very nice feature: early "online" registration. All too often, Saturday morning at a ski rental area means waiting on long lines and filling out endless forms and releases.

But this shop had a computer terminal and I simply entered all my info (age, height, weight, shoe size etc), saved it to their computer, and printed out a reciept.

When I arrived at the shop Saturday morning at 8AM, I handed them my papers and was on the slopes just minutes later (that's a photo of me an hour later, at the peak of Heavenly, with Lake Tahoe in the background).

Contrast this efficient and customer-friendly program with the ridiculous scene that occurs in so many doctors and dentists offices every day all across the country...

"Oh, you haven't been here in 6 months? Fill out these 8 pages of forms. I know, we have the old ones with 99% of the same information but I need these all new."

Arghhhhhh.

So you spend 10 minutes filling out the same crap and then some clerk spends 20 minutes typing it in and probably getting half of it wrong. So the insurance company then spends 30 minutes processing a bad claim.

Would it be too much for medical professionals to have some kind of online or computer data entry forms for their patients? Just set up some system on a table in the corner when you first check in?

Seems like it would be a win/win to me.

JuiceBlendz.Com Blows It - The Insanity of Image Advertising

It still amazes me to see companies just THROWING money away on image/brand advertising.

Most recent example....

Last night Peggy and I go to the NHL hockey game at Fort Lauderdale's Bank Atlantic Center, 18,000 people in attendance. Arrive at the arena and each seat has an empty styrofoam drink cup in the seat's drink holder.

We sit down, pick it up, and look at the cup. It's colorful on the outside and says something like "Juice Blendz Smoothies".

I look inside the cup, surely expecting to find a 50% off coupon or some other response device. Nothing.

I look on the outside of the cup again. Maybe there's some print "Bring in to store for free smoothie".

Nope.

I have to really look hard simply to find any useful information at all. Finally way at the bottom in small type I see "JuiceBlendz.Com". That's it.

Wonder how much JuiceBlendz spent on this promotion? One thing is for sure - whatever they spent, they'll never be able to quantify their ROI.

If they'd added a simple direct response device, they could have done that - and they'd have meaningful data for improving future campaigns based on the results. And they could have collected email addresses too, by driving their prospects to a website.

Instead, today they have nothing but a vague idea that they spent some money on a campaign.

It reminds me of the classic line... roughly this...

"50% of my advertising budget is money well spent, and 50% isn't. Problem is I don't know which 50% is which".