Attention, Interest, Desire, Action… in 1898, Elias St. Elmo Lewis provided businesses a sales funnel and a model for message developers with his four-step formula for developing advertising.
- Attract Attention
- Maintain Interest
- Create Desire
- Move To Action
And while you might argue—and I might not disagree with you—that advertising formulas run the danger of producing, you know, formulaic advertising, how can you argue that, for more than a century, St. Elmo Lewis’ formula has helped more professionals market more goods and services that any other process?
It’s time for a change.
We’ve hurtled headlong into an era of rapid distraction. Our attention muscles have atrophied, and we’re more skeptical than ever. A few weeks back, I quite inadvertently articulated a new process that our company has been using intuitively for years to get the point and back it up more quickly. I’ve revised it a bit over the past few weeks to this:
1. Relevance
2. Authenticity
3. Captivating
4. Elephant
5. Stories
6. Credibility
7. Action
8. Relevance
9. Social Proof
The RACES & CARS process accelerates your message development with speed and power. While not necessarily always sequential, the process serves as a wonderful scoring rubric for creating emails, ads, landing pages, sales videos, and more. Let me quickly explain it to you.
Unless you’re talking to me about what matters to me (RELEVANCE) right out of the gate, you’ve lost me because there are way too many distractions in my world. You have to immediately open with why and how does this affect the consumer.
When talking with consumers, it’s equally critical—as we’ve discussed—to talk in the language of your customer (as opposed to your own technical terminology or in a language of clichés and brochure-speak) and letting them see the real you (AUTHENTICITY).
You’re fighting for attention, and I don’t believe creativity is the right “c” word. I believe it’s CAPTIVATING. How can I get you to stop thinking about what’s on your mind and switch to my message?
We’re increasingly skeptical, so how can we anticipate and overcome the ELEPHANTs in the room? I have a call with a client on Friday who’s launching a new promotion, and the sole purpose of our conversation is an elephant safari. What are the “yeah, buts…” potential customers give you? How do you overcome them? Your message developer needs to be regularly updated on all the “yeah, buts…”
As I wrote about Tuesday—and I will write about again tomorrow—we connect to each other through the symbolic language of STORIES. Too often, I’ve witnessed business owners attempt to communicate in grand, sweeping statements, but we don’t live our lives in grand, sweeping statements. We live our lives and connect to one another through small stories of little moments. It’s what made the show Seinfeld so successful. They claimed the show was about nothing; it was about those little stories that connect us.
Stories increase CREDIBILITY! When you ask an employee, “Tell me a story from the last week where you got to use [Core Value]?” You’ll see her eyes light up, and she’ll tell you a story that shows you walk the talk of that value. Hearkening back to ELEPHANT, you’ll also want to be sure and cite your sources for statistics and quotes. If you simply say, “4 out of 5 doctors recommend us…” We’ll assume those four doctors are either your friends or in your pocket.
Now that you’ve worked so hard to persuade someone, we want to make it as simple as possible for them to take ACTION. Once they have the confidence they need to do whatever it is you want them to do next, how do they do it? Make sure you’re clear as polished glass.
Then you come full circle (RELEVANCE)… back to a potential customer imagining herself as having benefited from dong business with you…
Finally, I want to know who else has benefited from this (SOCIAL PROOF). Give me testimonials or reviews from people just like me whose problem—my problem—you’ve solved.
There you have it: RACES & CARS. Please drive safely!
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