How to Make More Sound Like Less (And Vice Versa)
What sounds greater? 90 days or 3 months? Half a foot or 6 inches? 4 quarters or one dollar?
Herschel Gordon Lewis brings up this question in his On the Art of Writing Copy - a book Shaune Clarke sent me in the mail some months ago with a sticky note: “This is great stuff.”
Lewis points out that we usually assume numbers have more impact… e.g. 90 sounds like more than 3, right?
Right.
But do our readers pay attention to the number?
Lewis’ take: Reader’s “feel” the UNIT of measurement, not the quantity of units. Our minds hear either “You got DAYS to try out our product - if you’re not happy send it back for a full refund” or “You have MONTHS to try out our product…”
Whether he’s right or wrong… I don’t know. He cites no tests. But test-worthy I think it is. Let me know if you put this to a thorough A/B trial and what results you get back.
Have a great weekend,
P.S. What’s more important to you? The quantity or the unit of measurement? To leave a comment, please type it into the comment box…
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3 Responses to “How to Make More Sound Like Less (And Vice Versa)”
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September 28th, 2008 at 4:17 am
I’ve sort of bypassed the issue entirely by providing a lifetime guarantee. I figure if my products truly do stand on their own two feet (which I’m confident in), then it’s only fair that I back it up with the best guarantee possible.
I haven’t tested, but I have read that the longer the guarantee period the lower the refunds.
To date, the only refunds have been duplicate purchases, and two others not related to quality / dissatisfaction issues.
Of course, I’m also in a niche market where I have a lot of things helping rather than hurting. I don’t have to sell on “Make Money” or trends or fads… I don’t have to worry if I sell a Twitter ebook, and in 5 years Twitter is dead and so people want refunds.
My content is timeless, and as a result, people can use it as easily now as they can in 20 or 30 years. That certainly reduces the risk of offering a lifetime guarantee.
Now, if I had to choose a shorter guarantee, I’d probably test the following hybrid situations:
1) 60 days
2) 2 months
3) 51840000 seconds (that’s 60 days)
4) 51840000 seconds (that’s 2 months)
It sure sounds ridiculous, but then again the world was once flat… so unless we’re willing to try something bold, we’ll never find breakthroughs and instead only follow the crowd with existing knowns and variations of those knowns.
September 28th, 2008 at 6:09 am
Hi,
I personally like finite figures, being very pedantic by nature. I prefer to read 90 days as opposed to months. However, the general “herd” on the street feel more comfort in verbage of “months”.To them it sounds as though they are getting a better deal.
September 29th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
quantity is better than unit of measurement
thanks for asking! Robert