Knowing I now have 50 of these newsletters in the history books, you might think I’d have a tough time coming up with weekly topics.
And sometimes I do.
So, you can imagine my delight when I found a service that gives me a fresh idea every day. It’s called “Daily Email Habit.” Here’s how it works …
For 30 bucks a month, I get an email each morning with a new “puzzle.” It’s more of a prompt to help you come up with that day’s topic. Or, in my case, that week’s topic.
There are plenty of lemons that come through. But since I only need to find one good idea in seven, the odds are in our favor.
Let’s see if we can make some lemonade out of this one …
What recent reader question or comment (not testimonial) can I feature today?
And it’s down to the mail room we go!!
Here’s a comment from one of my treasured readers, Rob, responding to my nugget about using simple words over fancy ones:
“For whatever reason, myriad always sticks in my craw. What’s wrong with lots or many? Or give it a number like dozens or hundreds.”
Looks like Rob and I are crawmates since “myriad” sticks in mine, too. That word is not just unnecessary, it also comes with the unholy debate of whether to stick an “of” after it.
But it’s actually the back half of Rob’s comment that I want to focus on today. Because while “dozens or hundreds” are good places to start when talking about abundance or volume, drilling down to the actual numbers can be a powerful lever of influence. That’s because …
Specificity sells.
If you’re old like me and I asked you how pure Ivory Soap was, you might recall it’s 99.44% pure.
Why didn’t the good people at Ivory just say their soap was free of dyes and perfumes and call it a day? Because 99.44% tells us they did their homework. This makes their purity claim even more believable—and gives them an edge over soaps with more generic descriptions.
And now for a shameful confession …
I’ve been stalled for a few days trying to figure out how to keep the next bit of advice as tight as possible. Because I simply can’t think of an area of marketing that wouldn’t benefit from some level of detail.
Even your most impulsive buyer can still use a nudge from a few hundred glowing customer reviews.
Maybe that’s where we should start …
Specificity conveys strength in numbers
We don’t like making bad decisions. In fact, we humans are more concerned with avoiding mistakes than we are with what we’re doing right.
So, when your prospect sees how many customers you currently have, it feels like the correct choice. They think: “If it works for them, it’s likely to work for me, too.”
But rather than say “join over 5,000 customers,” be more specific with “join more than 5,821 customers who are achieving [desired benefit].” It’s not that “over 5,000” is weak. But exact numbers feel more legitimate. And therefore, more persuasive.
The only time you should consider a round number is when your total seems small compared to the entire universe. For example, if you have 2,453 customers out of a possible 20,000, then saying “thousands of customers” is the way to go.
Specificity creates urgency
If you’ve ever tried to get concert tickets the minute the box office opens, it’s because you knew there were only so many seats up for grabs.
That’s why when you hold an event—either live or online—limiting the number of attendees can drive response. But disclosing the specific number of seats available can fill the room even faster.
Consider the difference between saying “limited seating” and “this masterclass is limited to just 30 guests.” Which one do you think would make people more motivated to jump at your offer? You might even send additional emails when you’re down to only seven spots … then three … then just one spot left.
My favorite example of how to use specificity to create a feeding frenzy is from email marketer Chris Orzechowski. Knowing that competition can juice response, he ended one of his promotional emails with: “There are only 500 seats for this webinar … and this email is going out to over 14,000 people. So sign up today.”
So much better than “you snooze, you lose,” right? OK, last one …
Specificity builds value
This is especially powerful if there’s perceived overlap between you and your competitors.
I say “perceived” because even if you have similar offerings as other companies, you can still differentiate yourself by talking about whatever they’re not saying.
Go back to the beginning and think about how your product or service came to be. That story might seem mundane to you, but those little details could be the difference between somebody buying and walking away.
What are the qualifications of your staff? How much does your product cost to make? Do you have a rigorous testing and quality control process? How thoughtful is your new customer onboarding? Do you offer a guarantee so generous it hurts?
While these specifics may seem inconsequential to you, it’s the kind of information your prospects are hungry for as they evaluate you against everyone else.
That’s how Schlitz became America’s number-one-selling beer nearly 100 years ago.
If you don’t know the story, Schlitz ranked 15th in sales in the U.S. beer market when a young copywriter named John Caples got the assignment to pull this forgettable brand out of the basement.
Without anything special to write about, Caples asked to take the factory tour.
The brewmaster made little of the brewing process because they made beer the same way as everyone else. But Caples made note of it anyway.
Back at the office, the ad man didn’t write about Schlitz’s taste, color, or any other quality that beer drinkers were used to hearing. Instead, Caples talked about how their beer is cooled in filtered air and that they clean their tanks with purified water.
It didn’t matter that this process wasn’t unique to beer makers. It was unique to consumers who then saw Schlitz as operating at a higher standard than the bigger brands.
And Schlitz made a fortune.
You might say by focusing on the specifics about purity, Schlitz became the Ivory Soap of beers. Or if we dare take this comparison a bit further … the suds of suds! 🍻
You thirsty too?
Here’s a song to play you out >>>
See you next time. — Matt
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