subject: Internet Marketing Tips: Making Fear Work For You [print this page] Internet Marketing Tips: Making Fear Work For You
Hey there guys! Hope you're doin' awesome these days.
Have you ever noticed how many ads- print, radio, TV, Internet- capitalize on a person's fear/s to rouse them to action? Medicines for hypertension take advantage of the sudden possibility of a heart attack to encourage hypertensives to buy their product. Weight-slimming cosmetic clinics make the most of a woman's fear of being a social outcast to promote their services. Pest control companies take advantage of our inherent fear of the creepy crawlies to make us buy their bug sprays or utilize their pest control services.
Their tactics almost always work. Why? Because it is natural in us to take action to keep the threat at bay. It is second nature for people to take any and all means possible to curb the danger or reduce the pain. That's why ads that communicate this way are so friggin' successful.
Not always, though. While this is a great strategy that almost always produces the desired results, it only does so when comprehensible and precise steps are given informing the target audience how to reduce the fear. Unless this is made clear in your ad, you can expect them to deny that such threat exists. When this happens, they won't do anything to buy your product.
Go ahead and let your headline scare the hell out of them. But make sure you phrase it in such a manner that you have the solution in hand. Let's say you're marketing medication for heart attack. What do you think the reaction of your potential clients would be if your headline said: "You don't want to meet your Maker when your kids are only 3 years old." A shoulder shrug is most likely or a vehement denial: That surely won't happen to me!
Compare this if it read: "If you don't want to meet your Maker yet when your kids are still 3 years old, click here and we'll tell you how." The prospect of delaying death is appealing to anyone, even more to those who have pre-existing heart conditions that can tear them away from their very young children any time. This is one helluva sentence that tugs at their emotional core and gives them specific instructions on how to avoid the danger.
Of course, that's only the beginning. When they do click, you've got to follow through with the step-by-step instructions on your landing page. This is where you really do more "scaring" and more "instruction-giving" at the same time.
That's how you make "fear" advertising work for you.
