There is a huge difference in effectiveness between implied and stated marketing messages.

Imagine you are a meat smoking product and want to let the shopper know that your’s is the best smoking grill. Here are the options you are competing with (what you’re seeing below is just page 1 for my search):

If a visitor manages to reach your site, as a marketer, you better make sure you convince them to buy from you and not click the back button on their browser to check out the other options available.

How to Use Stated and Implied Marketing Messaging

The stated way to show that is this graphic:

Here is the implied version of the same graphic:

What’s the Difference?

In the stated version you are spoon-feeding the shopper the answer. Shoppers hate to be spoon-fed. They want to be in control of the shopping experience.

In the implied example we’ve made just one tweak (removing the Xs). Now we’re not stating our smoker is the best, we’re just subtly implying it. The shopper now needs to slow down just a little to connect the dots and come to the implied conclusion on their own. Guess what happens when the shopper comes to a conclusion on their own?

If you like this article about implied versus stated there is a 98% probability you will also love our conversion copywriting framework.

I’d Like to Share a Secret

The fact that you did a search for versus stated marketing tells me you are the type of person who is interested in understanding the psychology of online shoppers. That’s good to hear because it’s what we’ve been thinking about for the last 13 years.

After 100s of failed experiments 🧪 and giving up more than a few times we hit on an idea that changed everything: Focus on Converting Healthy Skeptics.