Are You Clever or Contextual?

Mel, Jonathan Mizel coined the term "NameSqueeze", a web page where you can do one of two things: Opt in or leave. I've got several of my own. Do they work? Yep. But they're not always the best option. Dan Scheff (www.BackStageDevelopment.com) tested a "hard" squeeze page against a "soft" squeeze page, which offered the ability to navigate away. The version with navigation won. Recently I was involved in an experiment to determine the effectiveness of adding pictures to testimonials. After months of testing we discovered that the pictures reduced the response rate. Go figure. I have a theory. The theory is that pictures make a non-glitzy site look glitzy and it's a turnoff. It's inconsistent with the overall feel of the site and people don't like that. If my theory is even close to correct, it suggests that doing the right thing in the right context is vastly more important than the cleverness of any one technique. Case in point: A garden variety marketer reads some guru's "copywriters' checklist" and it says, "scarcity increases response." He figures he needs to make something up. So he sends an email that says, "Only 119 lines left...seats are filling up fast!" Let's see, how many things can I think of that are wrong with this? Well first of all it's just not true. Second it perpetuates a scarcity mentality. Third, if he gets caught, he'll get a reputation for playing these kinds of games. Fourth, what's he going to do when he really does have limited quantities? No Fake Scarcity Here! A while ago Jonathan Mizel, Glenn Livingston and I launched a special teleseminar for Google AdWords users. There were 475 seats available. They filled up in 6 hours. We could have gotten more lines (expensive...but profitable). We didn't do that. We said 475, and that means 475. Everyone else would have to wait for the MP3 and the transcript. I don't do fake scarcity. And when people find out that 475 really means 475, they're quicker about reading my emails. Admittedly I've screwed this up occasionally. The last time was when I let a guy go past deadline for joining my Renaissance Club Roundtable. And then he still didn't sign up. A week later I went soft on him again. Shame on me, 'cuz now he probably thinks I was never serious...and that's probably why he never turned in his application! I was just being sloppy and permissive...when I should have been a hard ass. Oh yeah - Roundtable costs about $30,000.00 a year. Sometimes, being a hard ass means turning down big money. Personally, I suspect that in some strange way, money has more respect for you when you're willing to walk away from it. You should practice walking away from money every now and then, it's good exercise. Perry Marshall **NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email. Instead, visit http://perrymarshall.com/support with any questions or concerns.  Update subscriber options

Perry S. Marshall & Assoc
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