We’re bombarded by hype from an early age. Television commercials make sure of that.
But that also means that we learn to tune out from most hype at an early age too. Not totally – especially if the hype is under the control of a master copywriter who knows how to press all the right buttons to almost compel us to buy. But certainly often enough for our built-in anti-hype defence mechanism to kick in and protect us from a good number of potentially rash decisions.
Which is why under promising and over delivering works so well.
Hard sell doesn’t work as well any more.
One book I recently read an excerpt from on Amazon said that their company let all phone calls go to voice mail and rarely returned calls because around 95% of them were just salesmen cold calling in the vain hope of finding a buyer.
Another (big) company I’m aware of has answering machine messages that tell callers they need to email – they don’t accept inbound phone messages, even from customers.
The web is going the same way.
Whenever I reach a page that’s obviously full of hype – auto-play videos, countdown timers, claims I’ll make a gazillion dollars by yesterday or reach my ideal weight by next week whilst still eating all the chocolate and ice cream I want, you know the kind of page – I click the back button or close the tab.
Which almost certainly triggers a “please don’t go, I’m sorry” exit pop up.
Those kind of pages almost certainly over promise and under deliver. It would be very difficult for them to do anything else because the claims are so unreal and are one of the reasons the FTC and the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority exist.
Consumers are getting wiser and checking out reviews before they buy that kind of product.
But when you flip the idea round and under promise what you’re selling, some interesting things start to happen.
Your potential customers drop their guard, at least a bit. Because they’re not used to sales pages not really trying to sell.
If you throw in what copywriters call a “damaging admission” and admit that whatever it is you’re selling or giving away isn’t perfect, that works well.
We know nothing’s perfect. If nothing else, our computers and phones with their constant new updates and operating systems have taught us that.
So why pretend that you’re delivering the only product or service on the planet that is perfect?
Especially when you know it isn’t!
Under promising what you’re giving or selling the customer is probably one of the best ways of selling.
Because when they get your product or service, they’ll be pleasantly surprised that you’ve given them so much more than you said you were going to.
This happened to me recently with a product I promoted:
The product claimed to be a complete training on creating digital products.
It delivered that.
But it also delivered how to keep people who bought your product happy, how to create articles to promote your product, how to build a list and how to create a sales funnel.
Which is an awful lot more than the original promise.
Maybe too much more – there’s a risk of overwhelm – but it gets people on your side and talking positively about the product you’ve just sold them. Because even if they don’t use everything they’ve just been given, it’s such a pleasant surprise to find something that over delivers.
Put your thinking cap on and work out how you can implement this in your internet marketing. Then you’ll find out that word of mouth can be a very positive way to generate traffic and sales.