3I
’ve heard of Cancer Research UK and trust it.
4
Cancer Research UK is a very good cause.
5I
’d like to leave a legacy to Cancer Research UK.
6
This seems like an excellent offer.
7
There isn’t any catch.
8
This looks like it’s for someone like me.
9
The form seems easy to complete.
10
The solicitor will handle any complex paperwork.
11
I need to phone a local solicitor.
12
My solicitor is already on the list.
13
Any solicitor on the list can do this for me.
14
I’d better do something before the offer closes.
That’s 14 points, and you can probably think up a few more. As an aside,
it’s quite common for agencies to be given what we call “kitchen sink”
briefs like this. My advice: Don’t be tempted to try to get too much for your
money. (And don’t be offended if your agency comes back to ask what’s
the main point — be happy they’ve noticed.)
Find the navigation point
So if leading with all 14 points is out of the question, where do you start?
My answer is that this is when you have to steel yourself and
not think
about gaining attention. Likewise, you must avoid the temptation to focus
— for the time being — on the offer.
Instead, engage NEW AIDA thinking. Good salesmanship recognizes
that the communication is most likely to fail over a navigation issue. So to
set off on the right track to enable this insert to generate an above-average
response, I’d be looking for a navigation point.
At
such a juncture I always find it salutary to picture a friend of mine
who moved to Britain from Texas a while ago. His name’s Hal. I think
Americans are generally used to a higher standard of customer navigation
than us Brits. In an unfamiliar sales environment (it can be as simple as a
café where it’s not clear whether you go to the counter or take a seat and
STEP 1: NAVIGATION
27
wait to be served) Hal’s got a great turn of phrase: “Okay, but... waddawa
do here?”
When marketing provides no answer, he walks. I can just hear him mut-
tering the same thing at home, moments before he bins his mail, or at his
desk, as he wrestles with and then exits yet another uncooperative website
— when all he wanted was the navigation point.
Waddawa do here? In order for the Cancer Research UK insert to sell,
what the customer needs to do is phone a local solicitor. They must cross a
bridge from thought to action. It’s the communication crux.
And there it is, number 11 in my list: “I need to phone a local solicitor.” This
should be the starting point for thinking about the design of the message.
Let navigation lead design
So how does the Cancer Research UK insert shape up?
Take
a look at Figure 9. This is what the customer sees on opening the
first fold of the insert. Not a repeat of the offer. Not a claim about how
much they will save. Not a list of the supporting benefits.
Instead, what the customer sees first is what to do. Bingo! An entire dou-
ble-page spread is given over to listing all the local participating law firms,
with a simple call to action: Choose a solicitor, phone for an appointment.
I wouldn’t expect a customer to read this spread in any great detail. But
at a glance they’ll get the idea, knowing that they can come back to it later.
(I think, if anything, they are most likely to check if their present solicitor
is on the list.)
Uncertainty minimized, the way is clear. The customer can relax and
read more about the offer. The next fold opens out the insert in its entirety
— Figure 10 — and what I like about this is the continued emphasis on nav-
igation. Through a mix of position and typography, the eye is led to a fur-
ther explanation of what to do.
The layout of this Cancer Research UK insert is not “natural.” Nine
times out of ten in a leaflet such as this you would find the navigation point
on the back, or at the end in minuscule type (or missing completely).
Happily, navigation has been allowed to lead the design. Great.
DOES YOUR MARKETING SELL?
28
STEP 1: NAVIGATION
29
Figure 10
The inside spread of the Cancer Research UK insert, with a strong
continued emphasis on navigation. Reproduced by kind permission of
Cancer Research UK.
Figure 9
The answer to “waddawa do?” The first fold of the Cancer Research
UK insert opens to deal immediately with navigation. This layout
achieved twice the response of the control against which it was tested.
Reproduced by kind permission of Cancer Research UK.
And navigation
leading
the design doesn’t mean navigation
dominating
the design. (The offer is on the outside, front and reverse — exactly where
it should be.) It is just that the communication sequence has been con-
structed to act in harmony with the recipient’s thought process.
When I spoke to the marketing team at Cancer Research UK, initially to
ask permission to use their insert for a magazine article, I wasn’t surprised
to hear the response rate: It was
double
that of the control against which it
was tested.
Check if your customer already
knows what to do
Yo
u’ve probably noticed Figure 11. It relates
to the consumption of services of a sort. For a
customer involved in this particular buying
process, navigation information can be kept
to a minimum. It also highlights the role that
a visual can play in achieving speedy
navigation.
Figure 11
Little explanation required! Navigating the “forearmed” customer
can be quite straightforward.
However, the point I want to emphasize here is that you will often be com-
municating with a customer who
already
has a pretty good idea of what to
do (or what to think about).
Take
the fundraising mailing shown in Figure 12: “Save the caper-
caillie.” This was sent to me by the RSPB, of which I have been a member
for many years. During this time I have received scores of similar appeal
mailings, and occasionally I have responded.
My experience profile (as a recipient) is probably quite similar to that of
other potential donors. This means that initial navigation can be dealt with
in a taken-as-read fashion. You could say
implied
, rather than
express
.
I already know why the RSPB exists and about the phenomenal con-
DOES YOUR MARKETING SELL?
30
servation work it does. Like a million other members, I pay an annual sub-
scription, which I think of as a general donation. And — as I said — I’m
familiar with the society’s frequent one-off appeals.
So I don’t really need any upfront help with navigation in the “waddawa
do” sense. I know what the organization wants me to think about. I know
what it wants me to do.
In turn, the RSPB knows it can concentrate on making the communica-
tion of the central concept (“magnificent capercaillie nearing extinction”) as
powerful and emotive as possible. It can cut to the chase and lead with the
crisis. Since I know it’s an appeal, I don’t feel conned into reading it.
Obviously, if the mailing were targeted at new members or first-time
recipients, a bit more emphasis on navigation would almost certainly be
beneficial.
STEP 1: NAVIGATION
31
Figure 12
Navigation “implied” rather than “express.” RSPB members are famil-
iar with regular fundraising mailings, so emphasis can shift to mak-
ing the communication of the central concept as powerful and
emotive as possible. Reproduced by kind permission of the RSPB.
Don’t assume that ad seekers know what to do
Hold up a typical copy of
Yellow Pages
(if you can) and you’ve probably got
15,000 display ads in the palm of your hand. I doubt your customers read
Yellow Pages
for entertainment purposes. Almost certainly they’re ad
seekers.
What does NEW AIDA thinking prescribe? Surely your customer
knows what to do? Surely you can forget about navigation altogether?
My answer to this is no. Definitely not. Your customers might be ad
seekers, but that
doesn’t
mean they know what to do.
Consider this: As a teenager, for several years I worked part-time in a
local DIY store, where I learned among other things to cut large sheets of
glass to size. Bizarrely, it seemed, customers would see our ad and then
turn up expecting to buy glass.
We
Saturday lads used to joke among ourselves about this. You
wouldn’t believe the number of times a customer couldn’t even tell you the
dimensions of the window his son had broken that morning.
13
And if he
knew the size, he often forgot the thickness (which can be just as impor-
tant). Then had he checked his shed to see if he needed nails, and putty,
and undercoat, and exterior gloss? (Customer: “I need
nails
?”) This
predicament led to many lost sales. Customers often couldn’t be bothered
to come back into town equipped with the right information.
I’ve made it sound like it was the customer’s fault for not being able to
buy glass. But you know that’s an attitude stemming from poor salesman-
ship. The lesson is that even an active ad seeker benefits from a few words
of direction: The instructions should have been in the ad.
I’ve taken two examples from the Mortgage Brokers’ section of a recent
edition of
Yellow Pages
. They provide an interesting contrast and might
help you to assess your own communications.
In Figure 13 is an ad for a firm called Financial Tactics Ltd. I like this. It
leads with a dominant image and a headline that unravels the visual mes-
sage. (More about this in Step 4, Attention.) The web address reinforces
the accessible tone: Why call it financialtactics.co.uk when you can say ask-
foramortgage.co.uk? For the confident ad seeker, it’s a clear and engaging
piece of communication.
DOES YOUR MARKETING SELL?
32
No
w look at the ad shown in Figure 14 overleaf. At first sight this is
heavy with words. But what immediately struck me is its emphasis on
navigation.
Put yourself in the shoes of a first-time customer and read the sub-
heads. It reminds you that this stuff should have been on the curriculum at
school. The novice homebuyer faces a maze of uncertainty — and here’s an
ad that guides them through it.
All credit to the Mortgage Advice Network. You could say it’s done a
navigation job for the whole category. But while it might be inadvertently
helping its competitors, I’m sure the bulk of extra leads that this perceptive
ad generates will flow its way.
STEP 1: NAVIGATION
33
Figure 13
For the confident ad seeker, Financial Tactics Ltd provides a simple
navigation message. © Reproduced by kind permission of Yell Ltd
and Financial Tactics Ltd. ® YELLOW PAGES is a registered trade-
mark of Yell Ltd.
DOES YOUR MARKETING SELL?
34
Figure 14
This ad tackles head-on the navigation hurdles experienced by the
first-time customer. © Reproduced by kind permission of Yell Ltd and
Mortgage Advice Network. ® YELLOW PAGES is a registered trade-
mark of Yell Ltd.
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