If I ever launch my AIDA University, a 4-year, overpriced curriculum teaching people how to persuade, the mandatory reading for the first semester will include the book Made To Stick.
In that book, authors Chip and Dan Heath tell you how to create a message that sticks.
Basically, they say that you should turn your message into a simple, unusual, concrete, and emotional story.
Which is all good and fine but— are simple, dramatic stories really the only kinds of sticky messages?
Clearly no. I imagine that, in the interest of making their own message sticky, that is, simple and concrete, the Heath brothers decided to stick to teaching just one sticky format.
But I’ve been keeping track of different kinds of sticky messages. Today, I’d like to share them with you.
If you have an idea you want to go out into the world, then here are 12 ways, 12 little disciples, that can preach your message from the housetops:
1. Story, particularly drama
Well ok, yes, this is familiar enough, and it’s what Chip and Dan Heath talk about as well. (Bear with me. I have different ones after this one.)
2. High stakes
Classic example: Stansberry’s “The End of America” video sales letter, which was one of the two or three biggest direct response campaigns of all time, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars through a single VSL.
3. Visuals
Here’s one that made Rich Schefren’s Internet Business Manifesto stick:
4. Exercises
The first thing that comes to my mind is the following old chestnut, used as a sticky message to illustrate lateral thinking or the absence of it:
5. Quizzes
Is your “fat loss type” an I, G, C, or T? What’s your Myers-Briggs? Are you a Pisces or a killer whale? Take our quiz to find out what this says about you as a marketer.
6. Metonyms
A metonym, as I learned once but keep forgetting, is “a figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated, as in the use of Washington for the United States government.”
A great pop culture example of using a metonym to get the point across and to persuade the other side comes from the movie Ford v. Ferrari.
In that movie, Matt Damon, playing car designer Carroll Shelby, is explaining to Henry Ford III why Ford’s sports driving team sucks.
Damon points to a little red folder that one of Ford’s underlings is currently thumbing through (the folder is the metonym, albeit nonverbal) and says:
“As I sat out there in your lovely waiting room, I watched that little red folder, right there, go through four pairs of hands before it got to you. Course that doesn’t include the 22 or so other Ford employees who probably poked at it before it made its way up to the 19th floor. All due respect, sir, you can’t win a race by committee.”
7. Parallel case studies
… which are a subset of dramatic stories, but which occur often enough and are successful often enough compared to regular stories, that they warrant including.
A famous example is the Wall Street Journal “Two Young Men” sales letter, though wise marketers (eg. Andre Chaperon) have been using the same format online as well.
8. Authority (scientific research)
Scientists from MIT report that this kind of message is very sticky, in fact 38% stickier than the average.
9. Demonstration
“It slices, it dices, it makes julienne fries.” Good if you get to see the demonstration on TV… better yet if you see it live… best if you can actually experience it directly on yourself.
10. Outrage/saying the “wrong” thing/playing against type
This is what a huge chunk of classic direct response headline complexes are about. Think “Lies Lies Lies” by Gary Bencivenga… “What THEY Don’t Want You To Know” by Eric Betuel… or “Why Haven’t TV Owners Been Told These Facts” by Gene Schwartz.
11. Rhyme, alliteration, or co-opting phrases that already exist in the mind
This is a broad category but it all comes down to wordplay of one sort or another that our brains seem to enjoy:
– “If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit”
– The “Big Black Book” series of big Boardroom blockbusters
– “The Plague of the Black Debt,” which along with the End of America above, is another of the two or three biggest direct response campaigns of all time
12. Metaphor or analogy
An analogy is like a listicle, in that it organizes under one umbrella a number of related points, some of which are strong, and others, which can be disguised and hidden among the stronger ones.
If you have other good categories of sticky messages, write in and let me know. I am putting together a new book in which this kind of stuff will feature. I will appreciate your help, and maybe what you send me will wind up in the book.
Meanwhile, if you haven’t done so yet, you might enjoy my most recent book,
“10 Commandments of Con Men, Pickup Artists, Magicians, Door-to-Door Salesmen, Hypnotists, Copywriters, Professional Negotiators, Political Propagandists, Stand Up Comedians, and Oscar-Winning Screenwriters”
In that book, you can find lots of simple, unusual, concrete, and emotional stories.
But you can also find demonstrations (check out the very first sentence of the intro)… outrage (that’s the whole point of featuring con men and pickup artists in the title)… co-opting phrases that already exist in the mind (“10 Commandments”)… authority… quizzes… high stakes… and even visuals, at least such as can be done with words (specifically, the opening of Commandment V).
For all that, and more:
https://bejakovic.com/new10commandments