Introduction to The Brainy Business Podcast
Melina Palmer: Welcome to episode two of The Brainy Business. Understanding the psychology of why people buy.
Melina Palmer: This episode is the much anticipated top five wording mistakes businesses make. I know I’m ready. Let’s get started.
Announcer: You are listening to The Brainy Business podcast, where we dig into the psychology of why people buy and help you incorporate behavioral economics into your business, making it more brain friendly. Now here’s your host, Melina Palmer.
Melina Palmer: Hello, everyone. I’m Melina Palmer, and I want to welcome you to The Brainy Business podcast. First, thank you so much for being here for episode two of the podcast. Very, very excited to be able to be sharing this information with you and I hope you will be staying sticking around for a long time and listening to all the episodes as, they come out. Whether you have downloaded and gotten this one on the day it came out July 6, with the first three episodes or you’re tuning in later, I just want you to know that I appreciate you spending time with me and listening and learning about how our brains work and how people make buying decisions, and that you’ve chosen this podcast instead of one of the many, many, many others that you could have gone with. So again, thanks so much for being here today.
Why These Top 5 Wording Mistakes?
Melina Palmer: This topic that I’m going to be sharing with you, the top five wording mistakes businesses make, was the most highly requested topic when I did a survey of likers and followers of The Brainy Business Facebook page, which you can find now. It’s just the app. the brainy biz, b I z. All the social media is the brainy, brainy biz instead of full word of business because it was too many characters for Twitter, unfortunately. So we had to, I had to make it all work. So the brainy biz is the Facebook page. And if you don’t already like it, I would, love for you to do so and share in the great discussion and check out the live video tips and things that come up there. But when I asked the group, in anticipation of the podcast coming out, what would you be most interested in seeing? What should be, what has to be in the top, the first three episodes and some version or another of this wording mistakes businesses make was the most commonly asked for, which is why it has made it to be episode number two.
Common and Easily Fixable Wording Mistakes
Melina Palmer: So what are these top five wording mistakes? And first, I just want you to know in a little bit about my background. So yes, this is based on behavioral economics messaging, but also in my experience in marketing and branding, which I’ve been doing for over ten years now. And I’ve seen a lot of advertisements as a consultant and as a marketer, evaluating other messaging that I see, trying to figure out why it works or doesn’t. Before, I was actually studying brain and behavior, and now being able to apply those to concepts, you know, this is really based on what I see around me all the time. And if you’ve made any of these mistakes, it’s important to know that you’re not, you’re not alone. You’re in good company. There’s a reason they’re the top five wording mistakes, which is because they come up all the time. People are making them a lot, everything from, solopreneurs to big businesses. These top five mistakes happen all the time. And the good thing is they’re easy to fix and to change. And I’m going to give an array of examples from different industries and whatnot and how you can apply that in your business. Ideally, you’ll be able to come up away with some really good tips. And actually, I would say if you have done some of these, and if you haven’t, I mean, I would honestly say if we, if I go through this list and you have never done any of these, email, let me know, let me know if you’ve never done any of these, because I want to talk to you, because I’m sure everyone has done at least one of these at least once. It’s, they come up all the time. So if, if you have, know that that’s actually a really good way to be able to then take the tips in this episode and look at how you can apply the learnings that I’m talking about to the piece where you know that these exist, and then you’ll be able to immediately make them.
Melina Palmer: Better and translate them.
Melina Palmer: And I would love to see them. If you do apply any of the tips here and create a, stronger
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Melina Palmer: piece that you’re happier with and whatnot, definitely share it. I would love to see it. So what are these top five wording mistakes? I have them in two categories. So the first is too literal. The second is too boring, too much, too vague, and, too confusing.
Mistake 1: Being Too Literal
Melina Palmer: All right, if you’re ready, we’ll go ahead and get started with our first category of too literal. And this could also have maybe been called too outdated, but essentially, I use the example of a nail salon that I go to in my hometown. I get my nails done regularly. It’s a nice, ritual for me. And the, when I moved to this area about 18 months ago, I needed recommendations because I didn’t want to be driving the 50 miles to or even further to the salons I had been going to before we moved to be on, a, you know, every two weeks to get my nails done. And so when I was asking people for recommendations, this one location came up a lot. And they, like I said, highly recommended. And I know why. When I’ve been in there, they do a fantastic job. They’re very nice. They’re also affordable, and they offer beverages, including wine and mimosas every time you’re there. And it’s in a, you know, safeway parking lot, outdoor thing. You know, it’s not like it’s inside of a, a, big spa or something like that, but they also have sodas and water and things like that, and they give you massages while your nails are drying. They’re just really top notch. But I have been distracted every single time I go. And for me, I, before I knew I was going to be doing the podcast and have a good outlet for this, every time I went, I was seeing this sign and thinking, ugh, I have to share about this because this is just such an example of something I see all the time, and it is so obviously wrong, but it’s something that actually, it’s obvious to me, your subconscious picks up on it, but it’s not something that would always register.
Melina Palmer: Consciously for people, and probably most of.
Melina Palmer: The time it doesn’t because, and I know that because I see this all the time and more than just in my nail salon. So they have a sign outside of their building that’s hanging up loud and proud, saying they were voted best of the south. Sound 2000. 920 1020 eleven. If you’re not listening to this when it is airing live on July 6 and you’re listening to it later, you might not know what year it is. So I’m going to tell you right now, it is currently 2018. And so having the third year in your list there being seven years ago, that is not a great message. That is, that is not helpful information for you to be having out there.
Melina Palmer: In the way that it’s worded.
Melina Palmer: Because our subconscious brain, even if somebody doesn’t realize they’re paying attention to that sign outside of the building, your brain, your subconscious is picking up on all that’s there and doing all these associations of what, what could be affiliated there. And, you know, what do you think your brain is asking itself when it sees this?
Melina Palmer: The most common question your brain is.
Melina Palmer: Probably asking is, well, what happened these last seven years that you don’t have a new sign. How far downhill have you gone in seven years that you weren’t voted the best of the south sound in any of them or that you didn’t feel the need to update your sign or all of these different aspects and it could be something legitimate. Maybe the organization that put them out there that you won through doesn’t do that anymore. Maybe you did win in some other years, but they weren’t in a row. And so you feel like this looks the most impressive, that it was three years consecutively there and then you don’t want to say, you know, 2000, 910, 1115, 1718. But some of the, sometimes that isn’t a sign. And again, that is too literal. What people need is to have the message framed properly for their brain. And, the problem that comes up when I ask people about this is they say, well, that’s still true and it was a good thing, so it can’t hurt, but it absolutely can. And, the better way to message this is to buck up and buy a new sign. It’s like a $100 maybe to change out your sign and just have it say, voted best of the south sound three years in a row. It’s still true, it’s accurate, but it doesn’t have to be those years because that’s not helping you.
Melina Palmer: And in this case, it’s a hindrance.
Melina Palmer: Once you get past. So in 2011,
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Melina Palmer: that was a great sign. In 2012, it’s acceptable because I’ll probably give you the benefit of the doubt and think that the numbers haven’t come out for the next year yet, and maybe you’ll get that same grace in 2013, but 2014 and beyond, no. People are worried and concerned and, especially when it comes to new business, I’m not going to go in there if I’m not getting a referral. And even if I am, I’m just concerned. I’m expecting then, so I’m coming in expecting that the experience might have gone downhill than even what I’ve seen in Yelp reviews or any other research I’ve done, because there’s this long gap of time where I assume you haven’t been.
Melina Palmer: Doing as well as you did once.
Melina Palmer: So again, that thought of it’s still true, and it was good thing then. So it can’t hurt to have this old messaging up, and I don’t want to pay for a new sign when nothing has changed. And the truth is, the environment has changed, the everything around you has changed when those years have changed. And keeping that old sign up, which was effective then is damaging your reputation now. It makes you look careless and like I said, like you’ve gone downhill. And just in reality, especially if this is a physical location that has been hanging outside. So in this case, this sign has been outside their building for seven years. It just is dirty and dingy and it becomes white noise. People don’t notice it anymore. If you think about your drive to work and, you drive by the same businesses and things every single day or whatever, when you’re taking your kids to school or whatever it is, do you notice the same sign that’s on the window of a business that’s been there every single day for years?
Melina Palmer: No.
Melina Palmer: It doesn’t stand out to you like.
Melina Palmer: It did the first or the second.
Melina Palmer: Time, but if they were to change it, and it was going to be a bright color or something different or an interesting shape, and it’s very different than everything around, it’s going to stand out and your brain is going to be drawn to it, but that old boring sign is not going to have the same impact. So knowing that literal translation that worked once, finding a new way to frame it, is what’s going to help you to stand out and be more effective. And, one more note on this. Just because the window cling hasn’t fallen off of your building doesn’t mean that it still looks good. Consider having an objective party coming in to see if whatever’s around is still effective, or if it’s just extra stuff that they don’t want to be looking at. It’s. We have a hard time being objective in our own businesses. That’s a reason why people hire me to look at things in general as a consultant, because I have a perspective of asking the question and say, why do you still have this here? Why do you have an award that you won for being green and energy efficient ten years ago in the lobby of your building, when again, it makes it look like nothing has happened since. So being able to say you have been multiple years versus the exact years, because you feel like you have to be as precise and accurate as possible. You still want to be truthful in everything that you’re saying, but being so finite and literal can make it to where it’s actually a negative message if you’re not careful.
Crafting Compelling Messages: Features vs. Benefits
Melina Palmer: The other example that I would go into for too literal is this understanding of features and benefits, which if you’ve ever done any work in marketing, or taken class, or read a book on marketing, I’m sure features versus benefits has come up. Essentially, the features are the list of things that are attributed to the account, product, service, whatever. It happens to be one of them that comes up a lot would be something like 24 hours claims, 24 hours call center, something like that. That’s a feature. And because everybody else offers it, it just doesn’t stand out. It doesn’t matter. People don’t stop and go, ooh, 24 hours claims. That’s great to know. But think back. Do you remember a commercial from, oh, man, it’s been years now, maybe five years or something. Five years ago where the woman is coming down the stairs, it’s in a dark room, and she can hear her husband talking on the phone. he’s sort of like snuck out of the room and he’s saying, oh, yeah, well, okay, how much?
Melina Palmer: What’s that gonna cost me?
Melina Palmer: What’s that like? And she flips on the light and says, who are you talking to? And he says, it’s Jake from state Farm. And she says, jake from state Farm at three in the morning, you know, and who is this?
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Melina Palmer: And he says, of course it’s Jake from state Farm. And she asks what he’s wearing because she thinks it’s a joke. And he says, he’s wearing khakis. Ha, ha ha. So it was funny. and a little bit of a humorous take on this. But what do you learn from that? If you’re up in the middle of the night because you can’t sleep, because you forgot to update your insurance policy, or you are a night owl, or you’re taking long hours because you have too much going on and the only time you could call to get something fixed is 03:00 in the morning, State Farm is there. They’re able to take that call. They’re able to help you. And that is a relatable experience that you’re able to take from the why. Why do I care that you have 24 hours call center or 24 hours claims department? What does that mean to me? And what’s the why of your customer versus the literal thing of 24 hours claim service? You know, they were able to take and dedicate an entire commercial to this one feature that, they offer as a company. Obviously, State Farm has a lot of stuff that they offer, but they were able to really bring this concept to life in a way that people can relate to and understand instead of getting to that literal definition of having 24 hours claim support. The problem is features and literal translations of what it is that you do or awards, you’ve won whatever it is. They rarely break through the clutter and they don’t get remembered when you’re too literal. It’s just noise. So use interesting, catchy wording to break through the clutter and help people to remember you and understand the point that you’re trying to make and why it’s important to them.
Mistake 2: Being Too Boring – The Cotton Candy Grape Phenomenon
Melina Palmer: M and that concept actually leads me to the next mistake, which is being too boring. And it’s maybe not fair to say I can’t think of anything more boring than grapes, but I am going to tell you a story about grapes. I’m going to talk to you about the fruit grapes. And when you think about them, you likely think that there are green grapes and there are red grapes and there’s wine, and maybe your kids drink grape juice or there’s grape soda. But when it comes to, if you’re in the fruit and vegetable section at the store, you are thinking you want red or green, seedless or not, and that’s it. There aren’t other varieties. Grapes are grapes. Who cares which farm they came from? It doesn’t matter. But what if it did matter? What if, similar to different varieties of apples, there were different kinds and flavors of grapes? What if someone, a, farmer somewhere, had come up with a, genius new grape that is actually an organic hybrid and it has a really deliciously sweet flavor? How would you message that? If you were going to say, if you were this farmer and you had come up with these extra sweet grapes, you might just call them extra sweet grapes or surprisingly sweet grapes or something along those lines, which is different than regular grapes, I suppose, but it’s still kind of boring. It’s just a thing, you know, sweet grapes. Grapes are sweet. Some are tart. And, you get this issue in the brain where I don’t really know where you’re starting from, and you don’t know where I’m starting from. My brain is trying to associate, you know, extra sweet compared to what? And does that mean there’s extra sugar? Does that mean they’re extra bad for me to where I might as well just go eat some chocolate and, hey, chocolate sounds good. I’m going to go over there.
Melina Palmer: Right?
Melina Palmer: Your brain makes these associations and jumps really quickly where you don’t even realize it, that your subconscious brain is just sort of all over the place. And honestly, in a world where you might say something like extra sweet, your brain might make the association to get extra, gum, the brand of gum or something like that, to where it’s already left, this grapes world. And because it’s a boring name, it’s not going to stand out. You’re not going to talk about it. Even if you bought the extra sweet grapes, even if they’re your favorite, you’re probably not going to go tell everyone that you bought extra sweet grapes, and you’re not going to call your mom and say, score. I just got extra sweet grapes at the store today.
Melina Palmer: Amazing. Yay.
Melina Palmer: For me, the difference is, what if you were walking through the grocery store and you saw a display in the fruit and veggie section that looked like cotton candy? They had big pictures of cones, of fluffy cotton candy in front of the grapes into one specific section of grape. And when you pick up the box of that
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Melina Palmer: container of grapes, and it’s next to, plain green grapes, but these green grapes have a pink label on them with picture of cotton candy on it, and they’re called cotton candy grapes. Well, I’ll tell you what happens, because these have been around. They are a thing, and people are going bananas for cotton candy grapes. That’s what’s going on. If you search cotton candy grape watch now, there are actual websites dedicated to cotton candy grape watch 2018.
Melina Palmer: People on the search and trying to.
Melina Palmer: Find where they can get cotton candy.
Melina Palmer: Grapes, because apparently they have hit the.
Melina Palmer: Shelves early this year, and people are so excited about them that they’re out almost, you know, six weeks earlier than they usually come out, and they are selling out like crazy. And in the first year, I did some research on this when the farm, the guy who created them, who, by the way, tested over 100,000 hybrids of grape to be able to come up.
Melina Palmer: With this one, and he did them.
Melina Palmer: In test tubes, and they’re actually just different varieties of grapes that come together and tasted sweet and delicious and, have a vanilla sort of a flavor to them. And he thought they tasted like cotton candy, but they’re like a. Like a pluat, if you’re familiar, where it’s plums, and apricot mix to make this new fruit. So essentially, he did the same thing with grapes because he thought that, you know, fruits already sweet and people should love and want to have fruit that is organic and delicious. And so he was trying to make, a more delicious grape. So in the first year, I think he said it, said there were two acres, and then they had to upgrade and do 100 acres. And it’s just been going on and on and on that there’s a lot that goes into growing these grapes, but everyone loves them when they come out, and it goes crazy for cotton candy grapes. And I can tell you. So in prep for this episode, and we, actually, it was my daughter’s birthday this week. We, went through, through and did a search and bought some cotton candy grapes, which the weekend before, my husband was excited because we saw them and he wanted to try them. We talked about them, and there was, there were pallets of them at Costco. And then we went, I went back on Thursday, and they. There were none.
Melina Palmer: None at Costco, none at Fred Meyer.
Melina Palmer: And there were only three left at Trader Joe’s, where there had been a.
Melina Palmer: Ton before when we went there.
Melina Palmer: So I actually looked at cotton candy grape watch to see where I could find them. And we all tasted them together and were excited to be able to taste and see what we thought. And they really do taste like cotton candy. But the question is, what if we hadn’t all been prompted with that cotton candy imagery and suggestion? Like I said, what if they had just been called extra sweet grapes? What if they had been called vanilla grapes? Because like I said, the, the hint of vanilla is one of the things.
Melina Palmer: He said that came up that made.
Melina Palmer: Him think about that cotton candy flavor, because that’s prominent, apparently, in cotton candy. Would we all have come to the same conclusion of, yes, they taste like cotton candy, and you’re thinking about cotton candy. If it hadn’t been placed in our minds first, would I have maybe thought, oh, they kind of taste like frosting or, oh, they taste extra sweet, or they taste like vanilla, or they taste like cupcakes or any other sweet item? Or would I have just thought they tasted like a grape because it’s a grape.
Melina Palmer: Right.
Melina Palmer: And what happens here in this setup is priming. So we have all been primed with the concept of cotton candy, with the imagery, with the pink label, with the word cotton candy grape to make us so we all, you know, stand around, you’re going to take a taste. Does it actually taste like cotton candy? And it placed the suggestion there that even if we wouldn’t have gotten there, very likely we wouldn’t have all said it tasted like cotton candy. But now we did, and we think that, and I’m sure we will end up buying them again year after year and get the kids to eat them. And I have heard they taste great frozen, so people want to get them.
The Power of Expectation and Anticipation
Melina Palmer: The other concept that comes up in this case of something really interesting and not boring wording is the concept of expectation. In his book, Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely has a really great quote on expectations. And this comes after a study where he’s talking about a study they did on coffee. So they had the same coffee in two different setups. In one, it was just a really bleh, blah display where you had, kind of like if you were at a rest stop
00:25:00
Melina Palmer: coffee bar with not a lot of condiments per se, just, you know, your, your plain sugar and your cream and the coffee in dingy sort of cups and stain table and whatnot. And in the other setup, it was up more upscale cups. It was very well cleaned and maintained. And they had extra condiments like cinnamon and nutmeg available to put in the coffee. Well, I’m sure you could expect that the coffee itself was exactly the same. But in the two different tastings, people said that it was much better experience. They would like to have these ones in the cafeteria versus the other, when it had the extra condiments and looked better than when it looked bad, they thought it tasted worse. So the quote is, you know, when we believe beforehand that something will be good, it generally will be good. And when we think it will be bad, it will be bad. And that is because of this expectation more than the flavor itself. And in the case of something like cotton candy grapes, where you hear so many people talking about how amazing they are or anything, and, there’s this excitement that’s built up around it and websites dedicated to trying to search and find cotton candy grapes, this expectation, they must be good if everyone is so excited. And your brain also builds this expectation of this grape has to be so sweet. They couldn’t say, it tastes like cotton candy if it doesn’t taste like cotton candy, right. It must be this super amazing, fantastic experience. You build this expectation and you really.
Melina Palmer: Can’T imagine that it’s going to be.
Melina Palmer: Bad because it wouldn’t exist. how would they have broken through the grape commodity clutter if it was just a sweet grape? Somebody had to be, have been doing quality control and not allowed them to.
Melina Palmer: Put that on their label or whatever.
Melina Palmer: It happens to be.
Melina Palmer: your brain is making all these.
Melina Palmer: Associations behind the scenes and creating extra expectations for you, making you that much more excited and thinking it’s going to be good and influencing the likelihood that your perception will be that it actually is good.
Melina Palmer: The last thing I’m going to say about cotton candy grapes, and I think I could probably do an entire episode dedicated to them, is this concept of anticipation. So we all, you, likely know that dopamine is responsible for enjoyment in the brain. And it drives a lot of our behavior that if, you know, people tend to say if you get something you like or something goes well, you get a rush, a flood of dopamine. But studies have shown, actually, the anticipation is where the dopamine is released versus getting the treat itself. There was a study done on a group of monkeys where they had a signal that went off, letting them know that it was time to press a bar. And if they press the bar ten times, then they got a treat. And in the first example, the first structure, the first study, they, every time they hit it ten times, they got a treat guaranteed. And what you would expect, theoretically, is when you receive or taste the treat, is when the dopamine comes. But actually, what the study showed is from the moment the signal went off through all ten times that they hit the bar was when they had the dopamine release. And the minute they got the treat, it actually shut off. So there was a lot of the dopamine came in association with the anticipation.
Melina Palmer: Not the reward itself.
Melina Palmer: And secondly, then, so there was an additional piece of the study where there was a 50 50 chance that they would get a reward. So one time there was the signal, they pushed the bar ten times, they get a treat. The next time there’s a signal, they push the bar ten times, they get no treat. And so what happened? The dopamine release doubled when there was this extra anticipation of, am I going to get a treat or not? And so building this sort of excitement and anticipation about what it’s going to be like, what am I going to get? How’s that going to be? That anticipation creates additional dopamine release, which makes you more likely to enjoy the experience as a whole and want more and want to experience this than to have no anticipation and just have a, one for one, a thing that you get. So cotton candy grapes, again, are fascinating and a really great example of taking a commoditized thing that could be very boring and just slightly changing the wording and the explanation and the imagery to have a huge impact for this particular
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Melina Palmer: grower on something that they could just be like everyone else. But actually, now people know their name, they’re looking for them specifically. I know there are requests for them.
Melina Palmer: To turn it into a wine, which.
Melina Palmer: Would be very interesting if you’d have to really like a super sweet wine. but sodas and things like that, all sorts of things that they could be doing. And they have now allowed themselves to stand out in a world of grapes, which is pretty hard to do. As a side note, before I step into here, the next topic, the next, wording mistake I just want to note, I’ve referenced a few studies and books and things like that, as I will in every episode, and I’m not going to call it out every time, but essentially, if I reference a study, if I talk about something, I will put it in the show notes. I try not to say after everything, and that’s in the show notes, and that’s in the show notes, but assume that it’s there. If you go to the show notes and are trying to learn a little bit more, if you want to read the study or you want to learn more about what was actually put together, it should be there. If for some reason you were expecting a reference that’s not there, please do email me. Melina@thebrainybusiness.com, and I would be happy to put some things together for you. I try to reference everything that I need, think needs a reference without being too overwhelming for you. But if you’re missing something that you think should be there, please let me know.
Mistake 3: Providing Too Much Information
Melina Palmer: All right, so, speaking of things that are too overwhelming, the next wording mistake that, businesses make is including too much. Oh, too much. There is too much everywhere. We have all been to that website, seen that ad in a magazine or on TV, and thought, nope, I am not reading, listening to, paying attention to that, because there is just way too much there in tiny font and big words and yuck. And that is because our brains get overwhelmed incredibly easily and way quicker than you would think. And honestly, if you tuned out at all through some of this, I would say, listen to this one. This m is the most amazing. I love this study. I think it’s fascinating. But I would also say the top mistakes I have here are not necessarily in order. So it’s not like the first one is the most common or anything like that. However, I will say this, too much wording is potentially the most common offense. so you should listen. You’ve probably done this. And if you have a question of, is this too much wording? It probably is. If you think, are there too many words? There probably are. So, okay, I’m going to give you an example here that will show you just how ridiculously influential, overwhelmed brain has on our decision making ability. So there was a study that was done, and there were two groups that were in this lab environment, and so they had. The first group was asked to remember a two digit number, and the second.
Melina Palmer: Group was asked to remember a seven digit number.
Melina Palmer: Not too much difference in between those things, you would think, but they were asked to remember these numbers. And then they had to go through a series of rooms. And then when they got to the final room, then they were to recite the number to the person there. And in a stop along the way, they were to choose their snack that they would want to have, a snack that they were going to have, presumably in the final room. And you wouldn’t think that there was going to be any difference or influence here. But what they found was the people who we’re remembering the two digit number, we’re more likely to choose the healthy fruit salad as their snack.
Melina Palmer: And the people remembering the seven digit.
Melina Palmer: Number, only five more digits, note, were more likely to choose chocolate cake as their snack and what happens there. So when your conscious brain is bogged down with, information, too much information for it to be easily remembering, it can’t block and help with you making good decisions, essentially. And so sticking to your diet or things like that, when your brain is overwhelmed or making a decision of any kind, you know, in that case, your brain is thinking, I have to remember these numbers. Remember, remember, remember. And your subconscious says, chocolate cake.
Melina Palmer: Oh, yeah, that looks delicious.
Melina Palmer: I want that. At least that’s what my brain would say, I’m sure. And so then you think, oh,
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Melina Palmer: yum, I want chocolate cake. Your conscious brain is too busy remembering these five extra digits to stop you from impulsively ordering chocolate cake instead of fruit salad. And then you end up having made this bad decision. And in the context of a business, if your website has too much information, if when somebody is interested in buying from you and you just sort of word vomit on them, or if you have brochures that are just full of stuff, words and things where there’s just so much and you feel like you have to put everything out there because.
Melina Palmer: Eventually they’re going to want it and.
Melina Palmer: They’Ll never pick up something else, stop doing that. No, just don’t, don’t do that. Because really, all that you need to do. And one of the things that I have said for years and years, and anyone who’s worked with me one on one already, or my old staff, would be able to say this very simply, that the thing that I always say, you know, the point of marketing is to get people interested enough to go to your website, pick up the phone or come into, in my case, you know, it could be a branch for a credit union or something like that in my old work. But the thing that you are trying to get them to do is to take the next action, to be interested enough to do something. And if you’re putting everything possible on your brochure. They won’t even care enough to read it to be able to make an action and that too much. We go, oh, I’ll have to look at this later, and have to look at this later, or, oh, I have to go talk to my husband. I’m going to go think about this tonight, whatever that is. If you’re getting that response a lot, it’s because you’re giving people way too much information for them to make a decision. Their brain is overwhelmed and they can’t process and make a choice. You need to make it easy for them to understand what’s going on, what they need to do, and the action that they should be taking. And too much information is a, back button on your computer, or you say, nope. Or you flip the magazine onto the next page because there’s no way you’re going to pay attention. And think back to that example I gave about Jake from State Farm, where, again, they took one point, that 24 hours call service, that someone is always here for you, and put it into an entire commercial dedicated to that. And I bet somebody said, no, we also need to talk about this and that and the other thing. And we also have these great high rates and whatever it is, you know, all these other things they wanted to say. But it was more effective to just have one message that you’re trying to get across to get someone interested enough to learn more so that this mistake we’ve all made in some fashion, I’m sure of it, but too, too much gets your brain too overwhelmed. And, you know, the stores are sold out of chocolate cake around you, or donuts or whatever it happens to be. So you’re just feeding business to those, unhealthy places. Maybe if they had the option of cotton candy, grapes, they would have chosen those instead of chocolate cake. That would actually be an interesting study. I might have to. I’ll put that in the to study pile for myself into the future.
Mistake 4: Being Too Vague – The Snickers Study
Melina Palmer: Okay, moving on to our next example. The next mistake that the businesses make that I see all the time is being too vague. And the specific example I’m going to give here is based on a study that was done in a grocery store. And if you have ever heard me talk about the one word that made a really big difference in advertising, I’ve talked about this in, in some of my videos on YouTube and in all sorts of, different live videos on Facebook and things like that. So here we are. You’re gonna get to hear the study itself and there is, of course, a link to this one in the show notes. So in this case, it was in a grocery store and they were. It was an advertisement on an end cap display, and half of the group saw one ad and half saw another, and there was only one word difference between the two. So in one case, the sign said Snickers, buy them for your freezer, and the other said Snickers by 18 for your freezer. Of which I think everyone can agree that 18 is a ridiculous amount of snickers to be offering to people who is wanting to go and buy 18. Unless you’re buying for a lacrosse team, most people are not buying 18 at a time, let alone twelve or ten or whatnot. So it seems like a really high number. It seems like it’s really arbitrary. And in a world of messaging, you would likely make the argument that them is plural
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Melina Palmer: to where them could be anything, them could be 100, somebody could get as many as they want, whereas 18 could be limiting. And people are going to ask how we came up with this number, and it’s arbitrary, and I’m going to have to defend this, that and the other, and it’s just easier to say them, you know, buy them for your freezer. But what happened in the case of this test was a 38% increase in the sales of Snickers bars when the.
Melina Palmer: Number 18 was used instead of the.
Melina Palmer: Word them on the exact same display, on the exact same sign with the same look to it. Just changing the word them for the number 18 was a 38% increase in sales. Let that sink in for you. That is huge. And so what happened here is that when you see the word them, one, somebody might not have even consciously registered what was on the sign because it’s just another thing and more words they saw maybe snickers, and then stopped and thought, oh, yeah, I’m going to get a Snickers or two or three. Maybe. If they did see the word them, I’ll get two or three and they’ll pick them up and then go on their way. Whereas if somebody was to look and see the number 18, their brain will stop, because that’s really interesting, you know, going back to the, you know, cotton candy, grapes of not being boring. So 18 is a lot. It’s a really big number. And they might think something along the lines of 18. I’m way better than everyone else. I don’t need 18 snickers bars, I’ll just get six. And if you notice in the them world, you end up with two or three. And in this case I’m saying, you know, I’ll just get six, you know, as you round yourself down. So this concept is our brain will latch onto an anchor that it’s provided, even if it’s arbitrary, even if it’s actually associated with something else altogether. Our brains are really funny the way that they kind of tag onto numbers and that that will hold in the space for a while. So in this case, you go 18 and go down versus in the world of them, you have nothing to move off of. And so you are going to go to last time you bought a snickers, or thinking that you probably shouldn’t eat them, and not wanting to have your, you know, significant other give you a hard time about buying more snickers bars or whatever it happens to be, or knowing that you don’t want to cheat on your diet or whatever it is. So, in the case of this wording example, in your business, look for times when you can get to something specific that’s not really tied to something, literal. So we’ll go back to number one. If you have noticed here, a lot of these examples have some crossover and there are ties between all of this. The thing, one of the things I find so fascinating about the field of behavioral economics is how much nuance there is between all of these concepts. So you can’t just say, I know about anchoring, and so I don’t need to know anything else.
Melina Palmer: I’m just going to do anchoring, and.
Melina Palmer: It will always work. It should.
Melina Palmer: You know, the anchoring is something that our brains do.
Melina Palmer: But what about if you’re doing something wrong in another way? Then it could be overpowering the benefit you could get from something like that. And so, understanding how these concepts work together is really important as well if you’re trying to be implementing some of these, which is why I didn’t just give you the one wording mistake people make, because a lot of these work together to help you to be either effective or a lot less effective if.
Melina Palmer: You were doing all of these things incorrectly.
Melina Palmer: So in, as an example, if you were to put in this the number 18, but it was buried in a lot, you know, way too much text. You know, people would never get to it versus just a sign with very large letters that have this information on it.
Mistake 5: Being Too Confusing
Melina Palmer: So move on to the last concept here for you of the wording mistakes that businesses make, which is being too confusing. Confusing. And in this case, it’s not. This is where you, as a business, need to put in the work to understand what your ideal client or avatar, whatever you, whatever term you like to use, your target market, whatever that is. What are you wanting them to do? And when I work with clients on this, the thing I always say, and when I’m asking here, what you want to ask yourself is if they can only get one thing, there’s only one item that can come out of this.
Melina Palmer: Piece that I’m putting out there.
Melina Palmer: I only get them to do one thing. What do I want that to be? And not the 25
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Melina Palmer: features I want to list about the product, but what is it that I want them to do? And how can I make it easy for them to understand what that is and then take the next step? I don’t need to get them from.
Melina Palmer: A to z in this one piece.
Melina Palmer: I need to get them to take a step. And then the next piece they get.
Melina Palmer: To will get them to take another.
Melina Palmer: Step, and then the next will get them to take another step until to move them slowly through the process. Because a lot of times people need some guidance, and by a lot of times I say pretty much always, people need guidance to get to what they’re supposed to do. And our brains are busy and they’re quick to move on if what is there is confusing, and people aren’t going to be searching for how they can.
Melina Palmer: Pay you money and buy the thing.
Melina Palmer: Unless they already really, really, really want it. And oftentimes it’s, you know, they’re doing research on a lot of different competitors and what they might be needing, and if your site’s confusing or your materials are confusing and they don’t know what they should do next, how to contact you and which way is best to get a hold of you, they’re going to move on. So understanding what they’re supposed to do and then help them through it. And that concept of a drip, I guess, has been really popular now in the world of lead magnets and drip email campaigns. So what do I want you to do in this first email that you get, and then what will you do when I send you the second one.
Melina Palmer: And what will you do in this.
Melina Palmer: Next event and this next thing that you get? And just having one task, one goal for everything that you put out there so that it’s not confusing for them and it’s really clear what they’re supposed to be doing, that is key, paramount, critical to getting people to understand your business and move forward is to not be too confusing.
Recap of the Top 5 Wording Mistakes
Melina Palmer: So there we have it. The recap here, our top five wording mistakes that businesses make were being too literal, too boring. Too much, too vague and too confusing. So if you can take those tips, I would recommend for you right now to go ahead. Now that you’ve listened to this episode once, I think that you should go to a piece that you have put out or maybe a page on your website and evaluate it through the lens. And you can either walk through with the show notes.
Melina Palmer: So you could go to the website.
Melina Palmer: Thebrainybusiness.com, and look through the show notes to see what these concepts are and what I was talking about, what some of those studies were, and use them to evaluate a page on your website, maybe your landing page, your sales page, a product description page, and really think about how you could use each of these concepts to do just one change. So where are you being too literal and how can you change that? Where are you being boring? And how could you make that a little bit more interesting and just do one on each of them for that one page and see how much better it looks and feels. And it might be helpful to be looking at that page on your website and then be listening to the episode a second time.
Melina Palmer: Hey, everybody, I’m popping in here for a quick second because when I was listening to the final edit of this episode, I realized it was begging for a freebie. So I created one. If you go to thebrainybusiness.com/two, because this is episode two, there is a free cheat sheet you can use to remember the top five mistakes and work through them with an ad, web page, what have you. And again, if you make revisions, I would love to see them. You can post a comment right on that page, which again is thebrainybusiness.com.
Melina Palmer: Two.
Applying the Wording Mistake Tips to Your Business
Melina Palmer: All right, back to the episode.
Melina Palmer: There is a lot in this one. I sort of went back and forth as to whether I should do three or five. the original request was for the top ten wording mistakes, but I knew that would be a really long episode. So I boiled it down to these five here. But there’s a lot there and it’s all really useful information. But being able to take that and apply it to something where you could listen again and really dig into it, I want you to be able to use this, like I said. So in the example of cotton candy grapes, how could you apply that to your business and knowing that you can’t just put cotton
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Melina Palmer: candy in something? That was a funny comment that someone made in the, Facebook group where I’m not going to just change my business name to be cotton candy consulting and hope that it works. Or call this the Cotton Candy podcast, because that doesn’t apply here. And those the concepts of priming and things, they would actually work against me. But what is your interesting and not so literal and not vague way of messaging that isn’t confusing and understanding how you can put that together? If you wanted to talk more about that, I do offer virtual strategy sessions, so regardless of where you’re listening from, we could have a conversation, a meeting, and talk through whatever that piece is, and I could give you advice on how to help that. It’s one of my favorite things I get to do with my clients and I would invite you if you’re interested. Definitely check out the website, Thebrainybusiness.com and look at scheduling one of those. It can make a really big difference in applying these little nuanced lessons into a, piece to make it that much more effective.
Conclusion and What’s Next
Melina Palmer: So thank you again for tuning in and hanging out with me today for the better part of an hour. I appreciate you taking the time while you’re either cleaning or running or wherever you listen to podcasts driving. I know that I listen to them while I’m driving a lot. I really appreciate you choosing The Brainy Business to spend time with. If you liked the episode, especially because this is so early on, I want to ask you to please consider rating and reviewing it on iTunes or whatever.
Melina Palmer: App you listen to, however you listen.
Melina Palmer: To it, if you liked it, please. If you would be willing to take a minute to rate and review, I would really appreciate it. And consider subscribing to the podcast because that way you’ll get new episodes when they come out every Friday. You’ll have them right away with notifications and you’ll be able to know that it’s here and, that you can listen to that new episode on Friday when it comes out. Thanks in advance. If you do take the time to rate, review, subscribe, I would really appreciate it. And thanks so much for listening today. Hopefully I’ll see you here again for the next episode, which is an expansion on popular video that I had done on the YouTube channel called Do Lead Magnets Work? And Do You Need One? And if you recall on the too confusing tip, where I was talking a little bit about drip campaigns and things like that, you can probably guess.
Melina Palmer: And might already know that lead magnets do work.
Melina Palmer: So essentially it’s why do they work? And since you do need one, how to be building out an appropriate, useful lead magnet for your business. And the good news is, regardless of when you’re listening to this, because the podcast launched with the first three episodes available. It is already there for you in the player of your choice, so I would say please go ahead and check it out if you are interested. And thanks again for listening and tuning in to The Brainy Business podcast. Have a great day.
Announcer: Thank you for listening to The Brainy Business podcast. Melina offers virtual strategy sessions, workshops, and other services to help businesses be more brain friendly. For more free resources, visit thebrainybusiness.com.
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