Persuasion: The Reason Apple Doesn't Give Store Directions

We've all seen and heard a business promote itself on our local TV or radio station. They shove their store hours, phone numbers, and address in the face of their audience. They’ll occasionally even turn toward giving directions. Something called the “door in the face technique.” Thus eating up all of their advertising space. Why? They believe the only thing holding their consumers back is a lack of information. In other words, they assume their audience can’t connect the dots and get from point A to point B. With that in mind, they invest countless time and money into ensuring their audience knows precisely how to find them. This is one of the biggest marketing mistakes a business owner can make. On the surface level, there appears to be nothing wrong with this approach. After all, most business owners only see their customers when they walk through the front door. Naturally leading them to believe that is the beginning of the process. However, in reality, it's just a continuation. The customer's journey begins long before they step foot in the store. And long before the business owner becomes personally involved. It starts with persuasion. It’s the art of convincing your audience not to find you, but rather think of your business as a great choice they need to find. When you use persuasion, you won’t need to advertise your phone number or store hours. Your audience will find all the information they need on your website. That's what Apple understands arguably better than any other business on the market. Apple knows how people are influenced, and why people are persuaded. This understanding allows them to create advertising campaigns that speak to their customers on an emotional level, which results in more sales and loyal customers. Now, we must consider using the same persuasive techniques to achieve results. So, how can you start persuading your consumers? That’s what we’ll discuss below.

How To Get In Touch, Rather Than Why

You likely understand why you should use persuasion techniques to get in touch with your audience. However, that still leaves a critical piece of the puzzle. **How?**How do you redirect your marketing efforts and ensure you’re persuading your audience? Look toward the biggest brands. Big brands, like Apple, already understand how to connect with their audience. No Apple commercial that has ever made it out of their doors has given directions to their stores. You don’t see Tim Cook on the screen saying, “Come to Apple, on the corner of main street and something-or-the-other.” They simply don’t do it. (Not to mention it would be awkward seeing Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in an ad when it’s usually some celeb.) Every advertisement from Apple or other brands such as Volvo skips directions. Instead, they focus on one thing—value. Value is easily the most important component in marketing. Prove to your audience that your product or service will add value to their life. They’ll jump through the necessary hoops to contact you. Think of all the memorable commercials you’ve experienced that listed off their convenient hours, directions to their location, and friendly, knowledgeable staff. Drawing a blank? Me too. However, if the commercial just told you a story about a customer facing a problem and the win they got working with you, you’d remember that. Even assuming you didn’t Google the industry, you’d be able to pick their name out from the crowd. That’s the power of focusing on value. That’s how you become genuinely persuasive. Book a call with the Wizard of Ads®. We can discuss how to connect better with your audience. Click here.

Spend More Time Persuading Consumers = Less Worry

It starts by using more persuasive words. Words such as “easy,” “free,” and “results” are some of the many powerful words you may want to use. For a complete list of 26 of the most persuasive words in marketing, visit this article from LinkedIn. When you use persuasive rhetoric in advertising, your business will be better off. You will spend less money and effort on ads, as each dollar spent will go further. You can also enjoy being less anxious about whether someone will walk through your front door.

Apple Doesn’t Give Directions to Their Stores

Let’s watch some advertisement examples, together. It’s called the Best Apple Commercials in 2021. Wait, don’t roll your eyes. Take five minutes and watch the video. It’s worth it. You’ll see my point. There’s a reason they are the best advertisements. Each commercial in that video has one thing in common. There are no directions. They don’t include their main office’s phone number or address. No matter how crazy the plot of these commercials become, they follow a similar pattern—benefits, benefits, benefits, brand. That simple pattern is one of the most persuasive strategies. It captures your audience’s attention. It informs them of what you offer. They infer the value. Then finally, it gives them what they need to continue their customer journey on their end. In Apple’s case, it’s the simple image of, you guessed it, an apple. Using a symbol or a name instead of directions allows your audience to continue if they want. Another thing to note is how selective Apple is with its words. Apple doesn’t slap a paragraph on the screen, short of Star Wars movie intros, nobody will read those. So, they keep it simple. They often only have one word on the screen at a time, giving all persuasion words individual impact. That’s how good advertisements should be. You'll do great if you can mimic that same rhetoric in advertising your business. Even outside of persuasive ads, in blogs, you want to follow that same method. Create persuasive articles by using impactful persuasion words regularly instead of filler.

The 95% Law of Influence

All of this brings us to one rule you should follow above all else. Invest 95 percent of your effort into telling your audience why they should contact you. Not how. That builds the credibility of your brand, and it helps the audience trust you. Once they do, they’ll seek you out on their own accord. All that you need to do at that point is ensure that your brand pops up when they hit search. Not too hard, right? Here’s how you can invest that effort:

• Discover what your audience wants and address it with persuasion words.

Apple and other big brands, like Nike, know what their audience wants to see and hear. Apple’s audience wants sleek, high-functioning technology that isn’t complicated to use. Nike’s audience wants a product to help them surpass their limits and be great. They want to just do it. Meanwhile, other brands are trying to convince their audience with all the boring bits. Whatever your audience wants, find it and leave out all the boring bits.

• Speak about an entry point that is a no-brainer.

It makes sense that “free” is one of the most persuasive words. Everyone likes free, and everyone likes a good deal. Mention those in your advertisements.

• Use Positive Mental Images.

Another thing that Apple does well is paint in a positive light. Most of their commercials are visually appealing and mentally light, capturing our imagination much more.

Become a Preferred Brand

An individual's preferred brand is the brand they consistently choose over others. Most consumers develop their preferred brand after a few trial runs. But the majority of brands don’t even make it into the competition. No consumer will try every brand in a given industry. At most, they may try five brands and find the one that works best for them. You need to be among those five with persuasion-based marketing. From there, it’s only a matter of how good your product or service is compared to the competition. With that in mind, you may want to ensure that your business as a whole is ready. That way, it can match your new advertising and outperform your competition. Then achieve the highest goal in business—being a preferred brand. If you can do all of that, you can relax and enjoy your business with less stress and anxiety. If you would like help becoming a preferred brand, book a call with Wizard of Ads® here.