Ear Doctor Normalizes Waiting

I caught a radio ad recently for an ear doctor who encouraged listeners to get their hearing checked.

She said most people will rush to the eye doctor if they have fuzzy vision.

But when people notice their hearing get fuzzy, many will put off a checkup. Sometimes they’ll wait for years.

Don’t wait, she said. If you wait too long, minor hearing loss becomes major.

Good point, Doc…

…but bad marketing.

By highlighting people who wait for their checkup, you imply that waiting is normal.

We humans want to be normal. We want to join the crowd.

So if you describe a crowd that waits to visit the ear doctor, we’ll join ‘em. We’ll wait, too…

…even if you tell us that waiting is a bad choice.

So what’s the poor doctor to do?

Encourage listeners to get their hearing checked…

…without telling them about the crowd that puts off checkups.

Better yet, make hearing tests the “new normal.”

Tell listeners about the “crowd” that rushed to get their hearing checked. Tell them how you’ve treated hundreds (or thousands) of people whose lives improved following the test.

Emphasize how those people made the “smart choice.”

That’s the crowd you want your listeners to follow.

Marketers and behavioral economists call this “social proof.” 

Smart communicators use social proof to make their copy more persuasive.

Highlight the wrong crowd, and you encourage the wrong action.

Use social proof to highlight the right crowd, and you encourage the right action.

By the way, you are not encouraging the “right” action if you trick people into acting against their interests.

Unfortunately, some marketers use social proof and other persuasion methods to “trick” people into buying stuff they don’t need. 

This gives all marketers a bad name, and it gives “persuasion” a bad name, too. 

Using social proof and other persuasion techniques is not a bad thing…

…unless you use them for a bad purpose.

If you intend to provide value and to offer something for those who need it, there’s nothing wrong with making your copy as persuasive as it can be. 

Social proof is one way to make your copy more persuasive. See the p.s. below if you want to discover other ways…