Back in 1997, Pizza Hut sued Papa John’s Pizza.
They claimed that Papa John’s slogan — “Better ingredients. Better pizza” — was misleading advertising.
After all, who’s to say that better ingredients do indeed make for a better pizza? It sounds like some kind of tomato-industry propaganda.
Anyways, the initial ruling was in Pizza Hut’s favor. On appeal, however, Papa John’s won out.
The court decided that Papa John’s slogan was mere puffery — meaning an empty exaggeration that didn’t influence buyer behavior.
I thought of this today because I finished up the sales letter for my new book on essential oils.
And as usual, I sent it over to my trusty proofreader and copy editor.
AKA my mom.
“It’s good,” she said, “I just feel like it might be a little too broad.”
“You mean it’s too long?”
“Yes,” she replied. “It reads nicely, I’m just not sure that anybody would read all this.”
And she’s definitely got a point.
Even though this sales page features some valuable information (thanks Gary Bencivenga) and a bunch of curiosity-baiting bullet points, I’m not sure I would read it all myself if I were my own potential customer.
No surprise there.
In fact, for many of the online purchases I’ve made in the last year or so, I did not read the sales page. I was already sold long before I got there, and I just scrolled straight to the end to the “BUY NOW ” button.
I expect the same to happen with my customers — because they can only get to this sales page from my emails, and I expect them to be pre-sold thanks to those emails.
So is the sales page mere puffery in that case?
In other words, is it just empty advertising that doesn’t influence buyer behavior?
It might well be.
After all, several respected marketers I follow have had successful product launches by sending people straight to the checkout, no sales page in sight.
It’s something I might try in the future, as I get more experience selling to this particular audience.
For now though, if you want to get an idea of the kinds of emails I will be writing to actually sell this course, sign up below to get a free copy of my upcoming book.
It deals with email marketing for the health space, including for info products like the one I’m launching. Here’s the link: