This week I’m in Fort Worth, Texas, after speaking at the NIOSummit: the Non-Profit Innovation and Optimisation Summit. Its purpose is to help non-profits use digital marketing, psychology and copywriting to help them connect with donors.

It was an inspirational event.

I love helping companies reach their target market, and to be in a room with organisations that are trying to bring help, aid, education and hope to those who need it, made it even more special.

Not to mention the craziest conference party I’ve ever attended which included:

• Pig penning
• Armadillo racing
• Mechanical bull riding

 

I was disqualified from the mechanical bull… (for putting my hand down – I should make that clear).

Now, a theme that cropped up more than once in the conference was the idea of removing friction and resistance from the customer (or in this case) the donor experience, and I wanted to write about that today and ask you:

Are you writing for the fastest part of the brain?

My good friend and fellow-speaker (I’ve warmed-up the stage for him twice this year), Michael Aagard, mentioned a concept in his talk about the two systems we have in our brain.

He learned about this from Bart Schutz, who wrote a great article about using this psychology to increase conversions.

In simple terms, it works like this:

We have two systems in our brain. One is intuitive and works quickly, easily influenced by emotion. The other works slower and is more analytical and reliant on processing information.

Guess which one is in the driving seat?

System one.

What does this mean for your copy and marketing? It means people are looking to make easy, quick decisions.

They don’t want to have to figure out your marketing.

This makes no sense to me…

I love British Airways. I always feel well looked after and I love their selection of entertainment (and bar service).

I am not one of those people who love the solitude of a plane ride to get some work done. I wish I was, I’ve tried, but get easily distracted.

I love to settle in, and watch as many TV and films as I possibly can. Nowhere else in my life is it really acceptable to watch 10 hours of movies and shows back-to-back… but on a flight to Dallas, on my own, my story-hungry brain is free to run wild.

On this trip alone I watched:

• The Ones Below (1 hour 40 mins)
• The entire season of Happy Valley 2 (5 hours)
• 3 episodes of Billions (Just under 3 hours)

I loved them all.

There’s only one thing I don’t like about British Airways, and it’s a small, but recurring problem I have with their website:

I’m logged in, so where do I find my bookings?

Must be here… right?

Oh… wait – friction!

Can’t I get to my booking in 1 click?

So why can’t you give me this on the home screen?

 

So, here’s my question to you:

Are you making your sign-posts obvious?

Your prospect may be tired, or in a hurry, or furtively comparing your solution to a number of competitors.

Are you making them work to find out pertinent information? Or are you making the experience an effortless journey?

Not sure? Here are some tools to help:

• A friend – ask them to find something important on your site or a piece of key information with your copy – how long does it take?
• The 5-second test – Take a screenshot of your site, website, direct mail piece, upload it and find out exactly what information absorb in just 5 seconds
• The 6-foot test – (introduced to me by my friend and NIOSummit speaker Angie Schottmuller.) Stand 6 ft from your computer screen. Is the key message, or focus-point on your home page or landing page obvious from that distance?

That’s all for today, I’ve heard there’s a rodeo happening tonight so I need to get booted-up (to watch and not partake, obviously).