Presenting Your Facts for Maximum Effect
Written by: Eric Brantner on August 27, 2010 – 8:53 am
Recently, we discussed the importance of proving your claims by using facts. To recap, customers don’t buy into empty claims. By backing up your claims with actual facts, you can earn their trust and eventually their sale.
But is it really as easy as just peppering in a bunch of statistics into your copy? No. Facts are certainly important, but how you use the facts is even more important. In other words, it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.
How should you present your facts to get the best possible results?
- Start with facts your customers already know—You can’t expect a shopper who knows nothing about you to instantly believe you. That’s why you need to start with facts your customers already know and statements that ring true. Your goal is to have them nodding to themselves saying, “Yes, I know that’s true. That means the other facts are true too.” Start with familiarity, then bring them into the truly remarkable facts you have.
- Present your facts in a dramatic way—Let’s be honest, statistics can be a bit boring on their own. But when you present them in an exciting way, they resonate better with the customer. Duracell doesn’t just say their batteries are the most trusted. They show you how pilots trust them to power their goggles, paramedics trust them to power their medical equipment, etc. This adds drama to the facts.
- Let the customer know what’s in it for him—Customers are selfish. All they care about is how they’ll benefit from buying your products or services. With that in mind, the facts you present need to be delivered from a customer’s point of view. Technical specifications are meaningless if the customer can’t make the connection of how they help make his life better.
- Performance evidence is more effective—You can talk all you want about how your product is built better or designed to perform better, but that’s just talk. Performance evidence is where it’s really at. Performance evidence details how the product has worked in actual use.
- Use testimonials that further solidify your claims—Testimonials are a good way to get performance evidence. Your customers will share how the product actually performed for them. This lets the customer better understand how the product will work for them, and it builds trust through third-party endorsements.
Do you use facts to backup your claims?
August 27th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Nice article, thanks for sharing.
August 28th, 2010 at 3:09 am
A good way is also to refer to some external statistics if possible that proof your facts.
August 28th, 2010 at 7:26 am
PERFORMANCE EVIDENCE! Right on with this one. It's a shame so many people get taken on the "get rich overnight" promises that are all over the internet. If those people only knew there is no PERFORMANCE EVIDENCE of any of these garbage products working, they wouldn't fall for the trap.
Great points. Thanks for sharing.