Guest Post By Michel Fortin
I do believe what Dan Kennedy says, when he says clunky copy outsells clean copy. But not all the time. And recently, a university study proves this point.
People have a tendency to forge not only a lasting opinion based on first impressions but also a blanket opinion that pervades all other areas as well. The adage, “a first impression is a lasting one,” is not only temporal (i.e., the initial opinion remains consistent and nearly impermeable for a long time) but also spatial. That is, a first impression is also a universal one.
Illogical? Yes. But it’s human nature.
They unconsciously assume there’s a parallel between one part and the whole, in other words. It’s what I call the “unconscious paralleled assumption,” or UPA for short. I wrote about this extensively in the past, where people make split-second judgments about your entire business just based on a fraction of what they see, encounter, hear or perceive.
Here’s an example: if you walk in a department store and see a dusty shelf, you form a negative opinion about the store. Based on the law of first impressions, you will assume that the store never cleans its shelves. And that opinion will stick with you for a very long time.
It will require a lot of work, not to mention time, on the part of the store to change that opinion — or at the very least, to assuage those negative assumptions.
Moreover, you will not only think that the store doesn’t take care of its appearance, but also believe that they equally don’t care about their clients, their products, their staff, their promises and so on. In other words, that single dusty shelf will probably lead you to assume that the store has poor customer service, shoddy products, lousy return policies, etc.
Now, Dan Kennedy says clunky-looking copy outsells clean-looking copy. What he’s referring to are fancy designs, dazzling graphics and stylish cosmetics that seem to have required an exorbitant investment to create. I agree with that. Copy will always be the most important element of your website.
You want to sell. Not dazzle or entertain.
But I’ve written and designed clunky copy for clients who’ve asked for it. That is, inconsistent fonts and typestyles. Varying sizes and colors. Very little to no padding around tables. Erratic design and flow. And poor, cheap to no graphics whatsoever.
The thing is, it doesn’t work all the time. It works primarily for those marketers who are known, have established credibility and have been referred by other people. But this doesn’t bode well for new marketers and unknown website owners who duplicate this seemingly lackadaisical attitude toward design.
Lately, it seems most direct marketers, particularly new ones, are lazy and tend to use Dan’s rule as an excuse to pay little attention to the cosmetics. While I agree that the copy is the most important part of a salesletter or website, I equally believe that in some cases, and perhaps most cases, good design increases response — as what Clayton Makepeace said:
“If you’re a business owner, marketing pro or copywriter, good graphic design is absolutely essential to producing peak response to your sales promotions. I’ve seen poor design cut sales by half or even more. Conversely, I’ve seen stronger graphic design bump response by 20% or even more.”
Personally, I’ve always been a proponent of good design, as credibility is important to me and my businesses. And I’ve tried — or tested — clean, symmetrical, proper, appealing copy for my own websites as much as I can. Because I prefer to inculcate credibility, trust and professionalism in the minds of my readers.
And design plays a huge part.
For example, a year ago I ceased taking on new clients. I just recently re-opened the doors to accept a few new clients but in an agency-style fashion. Thing is, most online veterans know me. But since I’m taking on new clients, the design is therefore playing an important role.
Coincidentally, a recent study proves what I’ve been teaching for years. Dealing specifically with web design, the study, revealed in a BBC article and conducted by Carleton University in my own home town of Ottawa, Canada, revealed how people make split-second decisions about websites they visit.
I particularly liked this passage:
The researchers also believe that these (quickly formed first impressions) last because of what is known to psychologists as the “halo effect”. If people believe a website looks good, then this positive quality will spread to other areas, such as the website’s content.
Since people like to be right, they will continue to use the website that made a good first impression, as this will further confirm that their initial decision was a good one.
I would add that they would also frequent other websites and buy other products from the same vendor or marketer because of that first impression. Does this mean to go out and spend a huge chunk of change on dazzling graphics, fancy animations and stylish designs? No. I did say “clean,” not “clever.”
Copy will always be the most significant element on which you must focus. But don’t do so at the expense of other elements that will stifle that powerful first impression. Because poor design can immediately deter your readers and make your offer suspect — or stop people from reading your copy in the first place, which is where the sale is made. They will ask themselves, “How can he take care of me when he can’t even take care of himself?”
In fact, according to the study, a first impression, being a “split-second decision,” is not too far from the truth. It really is a split of a second. The study concluded that people make a decision not in a few seconds, as originally thought, but in a 20th of a second.
People don’t read at first. They scan. What they see the moment they hit your website is more important than what they read. So it goes to show that your appearance communicates as much as your copy does — or at least prepares the reader for what they are about to read. And it does so very quickly.
What does your design say about YOU?
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Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, marketing strategy consultant, and instrumental in some of the most lucrative online businesses and wildly successful marketing campaigns to ever hit the web. For more articles like this one, please visit his blog at http://www.michelfortin.com/ and subscribe to his RSS feed.
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