When I was working on Madison Avenue at Grey Advertising, or a little while before that actually, I came across the most amazing anecdote.
An ad writer visited a company and told the CEO, who disliked advertising, but saw it as a necessary nuisance, that he had a guaranteed way to force the CEO to read an entire ad he wrote, from beginning to end, without skipping a single syllable.
The CEO, a Mr. John Trussle, thought this was absurd. He laughed out loud and had trouble regaining his composure. He thought the ad writer was nuts.
"You can write an advertisement I will read all the way through?" John Trussle replied. "I don't really like ads. I find them intrusive and boring. I'll take you up on your challenge. Write me an ad that I will read in its entirety. I bet you can't do it."
The next day, the advertising copywriter did some research, wrote the ad, and visited the CEO again, ad copy in hand.
The headline said, "Everything You Need to Know About John Trussle."
***********************
An ad writer visited a company and told the CEO, who disliked advertising, but saw it as a necessary nuisance, that he had a guaranteed way to force the CEO to read an entire ad he wrote, from beginning to end, without skipping a single syllable.
The CEO, a Mr. John Trussle, thought this was absurd. He laughed out loud and had trouble regaining his composure. He thought the ad writer was nuts.
"You can write an advertisement I will read all the way through?" John Trussle replied. "I don't really like ads. I find them intrusive and boring. I'll take you up on your challenge. Write me an ad that I will read in its entirety. I bet you can't do it."
The next day, the advertising copywriter did some research, wrote the ad, and visited the CEO again, ad copy in hand.
The headline said, "Everything You Need to Know About John Trussle."
***********************
Let this little story keep you in remembrance of a simple fact.
Customers don't care about you.
They care about themselves and their problems, needs, and desires.
Make your website content "you oriented" -- focus on your customer, not your company.
Convince your web traffic that you understand them, speak to them like a close friend, talking about them. Once you relate to the customers, then they might get interested in hearing a little more about you. But not until you connect with them, on their level, in their language.
Pin It
Pin It
No comments:
Post a Comment