About 7 years ago, some intrepid copywriter had the brain fart of inserting medical research citations into their alternative health copy.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Citations are the superscripts which denote the specific study where the copywriter pulled the claim, statistics or benefit. Someone\u2019s reading your copy and they want to know where you got the information for a specific claim, so their curiosity takes hold and now they\u2019re off running down some research rabbit hole–INSTEAD of continuing to be persuaded by your compelling copy.<\/strong> P.S.<\/strong>\u00a0Years ago, I would analyze Eugene Schwartz ads for fun. About 7 years ago, some intrepid copywriter had the brain fart of inserting medical research citations into their alternative health copy. Citations are the superscripts which denote the specific study where the copywriter pulled the claim, statistics or benefit. Looking back, it was a brilliant idea and in the cases where I tested, while sometimes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,302],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conversiongods.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Looking back, it was a brilliant idea and in the cases where I tested, while sometimes conversions were suppressed, most of the time,\u00a0it boosted conversions anywhere from 3 to 15%.<\/strong>
But at the time? I had strong doubts.
Why?
Because while superscripts made the copy more believable\/credible because they\u2019re implied proof element, they could also disrupt the flow of the reader.
Think about it:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Of course, that would be bad and show up in suppressed conversions.
So over the years, while I know they work, I\u2019ve tried to temper going too far overboard with citations.
But a recent experience has given me cause to change my perspective yet again.
You see, normally I insert somewhere between 5 and 10 citations in a sales letter or VSL just for show, documenting the studies where I pulled the claims.
But now I\u2019ve decided on doing it\u00a0with every single claim, benefit and statistic.<\/strong>
I\u2019ve done this before when the client has specifically asked but like I said, I haven\u2019t done it all the time for the sake of readability.
Why the change of course now?
In a word,\u00a0lawyers.<\/strong>
In my experience,\u00a0lawyers have been pretty incredulous with the research I uncover.<\/strong>
Actually, they\u2019re blown away.
So much so, when some of them review the copy, if I don\u2019t have a strong claim cited, they think they\u2019ve caught me in some fib that I\u2019m trying to sneak past them.
They\u2019re eager to point it out to the client, thus earning their keep in the client\u2019s eyes. \ud83d\ude09
However, when I produce the research documenting the claim,\u00a0they\u2019re still incredulous<\/strong>–and they read the research studies themselves to see if I\u2019m doing any wordplay or copywriting trickery.
All in all, it\u2019s a big waste of time on everybody\u2019s part.
So lately, I\u2019ve just decided\u00a0stick ALL THE CITATIONS in the copy<\/strong>\u00a0and let the chips fall where they may.
In weird a way, I consider the lawyers\u2019 questions as a sort of backhanded flattery.
Like\u00a0\u201cThis claim can\u2019t really be true, can it?\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
I know I\u2019ve done good if they try to call me out.
But I\u2019ve decided if I cite comprehensively, they can just follow the breadcrumbs back to the studies to see for themselves.
For instance, there is an incredible yet overlooked herb that I was recently writing about. I had discovered scientific research that clearly stated the herb outperformed its pharmaceutical counterpart for a specific ailment.
(If you write copy in the alt health space you know,\u00a0that\u2019s like hitting the jackpot<\/strong>.)
At the time, I didn\u2019t insert the corresponding citation into the copy and I should have anticipated this…\u00a0I got pushback from the lawyer when I submitted the copy.<\/strong>
This scenario has started happening more than I would like.\u00a0I\u2019ll uncover some great research and the lawyers push back and say something to the effect of \u201cyou can\u2019t say this.\u201d<\/strong>
Then I send over the links to the relevant research to back up the claim, and what do I get back?
Crickets.<\/strong>
So even though citations may disrupt the readability somewhat, I\u2019m going to start inserting them next to every claim, benefit and statistic.
And it\u2019s not any more work really. I\u2019m doing the research anyway, right?
It\u2019ll save a ton of time going back and forth with the lawyers.
And who knows? We may even get more of a boost in conversions. \ud83d\ude09
Now if you\u2019ve got testing results which either confirms or contradicts what I\u2019ve said, or even just a comment, I\u2019d love to hear it.
Just go ahead and hit the reply.
Nil Obstat (“Let nothing stand in your way”)<\/em>,
–Matt<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
It\u2019s a great copywriting exercise.
I bought some pdf of Eugene\u2019s ads and I dissected them sentence by sentence, looking for what made them so persuasive.
In one exercise, I\u2019d take a highlighter and\u00a0highlight every single promise.<\/strong>
You\u2019d be amazed at how many promises Eugene packed into a single full page ad.
Sometimes I counted as many as 25 different promises!
Now imagine, taking those 25 promises and inserting a superscript next to each one of them.
You can see how they could potentially disrupt the readability. Could prove intimidating.
But it could just as easily go the other way–providing overwhelming proof of the efficacy of the product.
So we\u2019ll test and then we\u2019ll know.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"