The vast amount of sales information that comes our way each day is staggering. Billboards, commercials on TV and radio, sales calls, junk mail and pop up ads on the internet all vie for our interest. Like the Lord calling to Moses out of the burning bush, each of these endeavors to get us to "turn aside" for a moment, get our attention and relay a message.
We have developed coping strategies for this information overload. We ignore billboards, go to the kitchen or to the bathroom during commercials, hang up on salespeople and submit our phone number to donotcall.gov, block spam on our email account, and sort our mail over the trash can.
How can a marketer cut through all the sales noise and relay a memorable message?
One technique is to use lists, and the following list suggests why.
(1)Lists are easy to read. Despite information overload, many of us don't want to miss anything important. We are looking for that key, that secret, that tip that will make all the difference in our lives, our diet, our health. Just don't bury it in a paragraph of text. Put it in a list. We'll see it quickly and easily.
(2)Lists are neat. We deal with so much disorder in our lives, in our homes, on our jobs, that we crave organization; we want order. If the message is messy, we won't stick around.
(3)Lists are memorable, at least short ones are. We can remember three benefits to having our own business, three symptoms of the flu, three signs your teen is in trouble, and so on. We slap a short list on the refrigerator of our minds, and then we can recall that small bit of information at a later date.
(4)Lists are easy to build upon. Once we can see a blueprint, the supporting details make sense. We begin to agree with the argument, and are won over to the sale.
(5)Lists help the writer as well as the reader. Was there some benefit we forgot to relay? Check the list. Was there a step missed or forgotten? Check the list. Have we asked for the sale? Check the list.
Billboards, commercials, junk mail and pop-ups are so much sales noise that they may not get the message delivered. But format your argument into a list, and the customer may turn aside to see what you're burning to say!