2 builders who never spoke to each other · contested
Decide between the famous name and the real user
Borrowed status and ordinary customers pull in opposite directions on the same page. Recognisable logos and well-known users make a purchase feel normal and take the embarrassment out of an awkward category, while quotes from people the reader resembles speak in a register no publication can reach. Pick the one your particular buyer would believe if they saw both.
Where this splits
Dry drops prestige press endorsements for reader quotes in one teardown and credits celebrity association in another, and Jarvis reports big-company names lifting clicks.
2 claims against 1
Harry Dry · Paul Jarvis
Use recognisable names to make the purchase feel normal
- 01Replace the ask in a recommendation with the names of recognisable companies already using the product.
- 02Use famous users to strip the embarrassment out of a stigmatised product, since the association makes buying feel normal.
Use quotes from ordinary customers the reader resembles
Swap prestige-media endorsements for quotes from your actual customers, who speak to prospects in a way an outlet cannot.
What it returned
Nassim Taleb dropped the standard broadsheet praise from his book in favour of lines from readers, against publisher advice
Paul Jarvis contrasts a plain try-this-link sentence with one naming IBM, Github and Buffer among thousands of companies, and says the second version pulls more clicks.
Sources
- Real MarketingHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · 1) Taleb's social proof · undated · dissenting
- How Chamaripa turned celeb heights into shoe salesHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · How Chamaripa turned celeb heights into shoe sales · undated · dissenting
- Best practices for promoting your affiliate links - Fathom AnalyticsPaul Jarvis · usefathom.com · Best practice #5: Write something in your newsletter (bonus: use social proof) · 2022-08-09
the second source
Three plays a week, for the phase you are in
No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.
More in copy
- Keep the personality that drives some people off7 unconnected
- Interview buyers and write the page in their sentences6 unconnected
- Re-aim one durable claim at today's worry5 unconnected
- Answer the predictable objection with a specific4 unconnected
- Say the thing only you could have said4 unconnected
- Tighten the headline until only your segment fits4 unconnected