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.

FURTHER READING

We hope you enjoyed this Implied versus stated marketing.

We’ve spent the last 13 years in our marketing lab, experimenting with ways to optimize conversion rates and grow sales. If you’re interested we’d like to share the key lessons we’ve learned:

— The most important page on your site is the product page. Why is that and why focus on product pages?

— On the product page (also called PDP) the most important element is the product description. This is where we present our product sales pitch (also called product story). This product story presentation needs to be perfect. We have just one chance to convert this visitor (only 15% of visitors ever return). Learn how to construct the perfect product story.

— The opening of your product description really matters. We call it the art of the start and it’s covered in this article: The Art of The Start.

— The Myth of the Perfect Product Page

— Once the basic product story has been developed you need to rewrite it to influence the psychology of the buyer you are trying to convince. Because shoppers are exposed to so many ads they rely on a mental checklist to decide if they should consider a brand, or not. We’ve identified these 9 checklist items and developed a conversion copywriting process to influence them. That knowledge is revealed (with examples) in our most important article of all: Conversion Copywriting: How to Craft a Product Story That Converts.

ABOUT FRICTIONLESS COMMERCE

We deliver an unfair advantage to technical product DTC brands (for example, Dyson) by improving advertising effectiveness by 20% in 90 days. This is achieved using a buyer psychology conversion copywriting framework. All paid traffic eventually reaches the product page and this is where we strike. Our process.

If you like doing the hard work yourself, our founder Rishi shares conversion ideas on LinkedIn every day. Connect with him here.

If you want to make your life easier and still increase conversions, jump on a call.