We live in the age of distrust. Our bullshit detectors work at full speed and anything fishy gets caught. Any claim you make without showing proof is destined to fail. We’re all skeptics. Even if you mean well, people find it hard to believe you. Here are a few principles and a 3-step sequence you can use to make your writing more believable.
Principle #1: Don’t use superlatives, be specific
I was delivering a conversion optimization workshop the other day, and one person asked about how to talk yourself up on the website. “Should I say I’m the best?” The answer is no. There’s nothing that makes people more skeptical than hype.
Compare these statements, and pick the claim you believe more:
- “Fastest pizza delivery in town” vs “We deliver your pizza in 10 minutes“.
- “We have the best italian restaurant” vs “Our restaurant has won 6 Golden Spoon awards in the Italian Food category“
- “Cheapest web hosting plans” vs “Our monthly plans start from $1.99“.
- “Best tasting coffee, guaranteed” vs “Major competitions have voted Esmeralda the consistent winner five years in a row“
I bet you found the second option more believable in each case. People don’t believe superlatives, they believe specifics. I understand the urge to want to use superlatives, but always translate them into specifics. People are not idiots. They won’t believe you’re the best just because you say so.
Principle #2: Back up any claim with proof
Your restaurant makes the best omelet in town? Says who? When you praise yourself, it’s not very believable. When a neutral third-party says something good about you, you can use that as a reference and instantly make your claim much more believable. This is why you need to use
- customer testimonials (full name + photo or video),
- neutral expert opinions,
- third-party reviews,
- verified (scientific) studies
to back up any claim you make.
Principle #3: Use simple language
Read this:
In the present report the results of a series of experiments are described in which wine and beer drinkers were tested to measure their peripheral competency.
Did you get that? Me neither. If you want people to believe you, they need to understand you first. Forget jargon and corporate speak. People have a natural tendency to believe people like them. If you speak to them like they speak, you have a far greater chance of success.
see this example:
Complicated language confuses and frustrates people, and neither one helps your sales. The text on your website is there for people to read and understand – with ease. It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing B2C or B2B marketing, there’s always an actual human being reading your stuff, so the text has to connect with that person. If you use overly complicated language – it just shows you’re out of touch and don’t really understand yourself what you’re doing. Note: don’t confuse this with using technical language. When a gene technology company talks to professionals in its field, there’s no need to dumb it down. Know your target customer. Do this: Go over the texts on your website and read them out loud. Imagine it’s a conversation with a friend. If there’s a sentence you wouldn’t say to a friend, re-word it.
Principle #4: Make it about them
It’s about your customers. They want to make sure you’re on their side and care about their problems. If the CEO of Goldman Sachs would say: ‘invest all your money with us, you’ll get rich’ – how many people would believe he has their best interests in mind? Not too many. People believe you when they can be sure you’re putting them first. In the 2008 Democratic primaries, Obama campaign focused on “we” (Yes we can), Clinton focused on “I” (The Strength and Experience to Make Change Happen). According to the "The language of trust" book , one analysis found that Obama used the word “we” 6x more than “I”. In Clinton’s case, it was the opposite. We know how that played out.
After a public scandal about people overdosing on Tylenol, they had a responsible dosing campaign. It said something like ‘if you don’t use our product responsibly, better don’t use it at all’. Lots of people thought the campaign is going to flop – but it didn’t. People felt that Tylenol put people before profits, and they ate it right up. Crisis averted. What’s in it for me? Every visitor on your site cares the most about themselves (and their family). They don’t really care much about you. Hence, avoid language that’s about you and make it solely about them and how they can benefit.
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