You must grab attention quickly. That is just more important than ever before because we’re competing with people on their phones, we’re competing with multiple screens, we’re competing with people multi-tasking. I know that when I’m at home, my wife and my daughter are multi-tasking. They’re on their phone and they’re watching TV, and they’re having a conversation at the same time, so that’s why it’s really important to get people’s attention.

What we pride ourselves with here at Script to Screen is coming up with unique ways to catch people’s attention. For example, one of the latest programs, we have produced is a teeth-whitening product, and instead of talking about all the features of the teeth-whitening product out of the gate, and the benefits out of the gate, what we did was, we had people use the product for about thirty days, and within that time, we got a really good, strong before and after. What we did originally was we had people take their photographs and we put it on an iPad, and they slid from the before to the after really quick, and we got their reaction, and they went, “Oh, wow!” Or, “Oh my, gosh! I can’t believe it.”

So many great reactions to how their teeth looked before and after, and right out of the gate, we showed those before and afters, and we layered that with their amazement and just how they went over the top about how amazing they felt about how their teeth look, and that gets people’s attention, not only did they get people’s attention in the infomercial, and the commercial that we produced, but we also took that concept into social media because as you know, on Facebook and Instagram, you have even less time as you’re going through your feed, some things got to capture your attention. The first thing you see is that amazing before and after, and that bar sliding back and forth that shows dingy, white, dingy, white, and it was so arresting that people would stop. So, that was one of the tools that we used to get people’s attention, and it worked. So, I would say that the number one thing you need to do is grab people’s attention.

Number two, is you must have a simple message. I can’t accentuate this enough. You must have a simple message. I realize some products and services have detailed features and benefits, and you want to say everything, and that’s fine, but we really try to keep it just very minimal and very, very simple. You know, I always say that, if you confuse your audience, you’re going to lose your audience, so you must keep it simple. So, pick out exactly the unique selling point, and exactly the feature and the benefits they’re going to make the most impact to your audience and focus on that.

If they need to get more information, let them go somewhere else and get more information. Keep your message simple, and keep pounding that over and over again. When I say pounding it, I just mean ways of accentuating even more and telling it with stories and testimonials, other ways to support that, but keep that message simple because you want them to walk away with one simple concept about what your product, or what your service does that’s different than somebody else, and why it’s better, and you want to do it in a very simple, concise way. I just can’t emphasize that enough, how important that is. Keep your message simple.

Number three is you must think like your audience. My father-in-law always told me, “If you build the house that you like, the consumer will recognize it, and lets you keep it.” That analogy comes from the homebuilding business because if you’re in the business of building homes, you want to build those homes and sell those homes. But if you build homes that you like, the consumer may not like it unless you keep it, and that’s not good as a homebuilder. Same thing with direct response, the same thing with commercials, you have to think like your audience.

What does your audience want? And if you don’t know, find out. Do polls. Do interviews. Do find out everything you need to know about what your audience wants, and then create your selling message around what exactly they want. Again, if you’re creating a message about what you want to hear, that may not be the most effective way to sell to your audience. Make your message be what they want to hear and curtail your selling points to exactly to their needs.

You know all these points are very important, but this one is really important because you have to really provide information about what your customer wants, and I’ll give you an example. We’ve done a lot of work in the past with Jake Steinfeld and Body by Jake, and Jake was such a master at this. Jake would get into, and he knew exactly what his audience wanted, and he had empathy to that because he was, when he was a younger child or a young man, you know, he was a little out of shape, he wasn’t the strongest guy in the room, and he kinda felt kinda scrawny, to be honest, and he would even say that himself. So that’s why he really focused on physical fitness and that’s why he got strong, he got healthy because he knew what it felt like to be that way. So, he curtailed his message to what his audience wants because he knew his audience wanted to be fit, he knew his audience wanted to be in better health, but he could, he could speak from empathy because he was there himself, so speak exactly in terms of the way that your audience wants, understand what they want, find out exactly what they want, and put your message to answer those questions. That’s another one of those things that we do so well at Script to Screen is we really think like our customer, and make a compelling message that the customer wants, and what they wanted, they’re going to buy it.

Number four is really important, as well. You must be seen as an expert. If you are selling a product or a service, you have to be seen and you have to be have that air about being the expert of what you’re doing, and I don’t care what it is. I don’t care if it’s makeup, I don’t care if it’s fitness, I don’t care if it’s coffee machine, I don’t care if it’s skincare. You must be seen as the expert, and you must take that leadership role because people want to buy from people who are experts, and people who know their answers, people who have the answers, so whatever you do, it’s how you talk, it’s how you position, it’s the people that you bring in around you, and maybe you bring in some expert testimonials, and maybe you bring in experts that validate what you’re saying, but you must be seen as the expert. People want to buy from the best and you have to do everything you can to be the expert. Portray your expert knowledge and when you do that, people would feel comfortable, they’ll trust, and they’ll buy.

And number five is, tell a story. Now, you may not always be able to tell a story on what you’re doing, but when you can it’s really important. Why? Because when you tell a story, it engages people emotionally, it engages people intellectually, it just engages people in so many different ways, and they kinda paint a picture and put themselves in that scenario. So, let me give you an example. Several years ago, we did an infomercial for the Titleist Fairway Wood, which is a golf club, and instead of just talking about all the features of this golf club, and all the benefits of this golf club, what we were able to do was put together a story about how golfers at this training center, at McKinney, Texas were getting expert instruction, they were using these golf clubs to improve their game, and one of the clubs that they were using was a Titleist Fairway Wood, and as they got better as golfers, the Titleist Fairway Wood was part of that journey of being better. So, we wrap the whole story around this training center in McKinney, Texas, and how people would use this fairway wood and get better, and lower their scores, and that was the story we told throughout the whole infomercial, so you understood that we didn’t just make this club up out of nowhere, there were some heritage behind it. There was a story behind it, and people’s personal experiences behind using the club made that much more enjoyable, and that much more effective as a selling message and as a golf club for them.

Another way that you could tell a story is most recently, we worked on a campaign for Keurig, and as a matter of fact, that campaign is on the air right now, and Keurig had a story to tell that a lot of people didn’t know. How such… How can such amazing coffee be part, come out of this little pod, this little K-Cup? Well, instead of just saying it’s a great coffee, we told the story of, you know, where the beans were from, the partners like Starbucks, and Caribou, and Dunkin Donuts, and Peets, and all these amazing roasters. How they trusted their beans to Keurig, and then how they roasted them, and how they grinded them, and put them into the K-Cup, and how each one is specifically made for each K-Cup, and how the water temperature, and the extraction process into the K-Cup made an amazing cup of coffee. We had to tell that story that people didn’t know, so instead of just saying, we make great coffee and we went, partnered with great people, trust us, we love our coffee, we told the story about how great that coffee was and what its origins were and the partners behind, and the quality of it; therefore, when somebody looked at that K-Cup, they understood that a lot went into this cup, and that story got them connected on an emotional level. So again, whatever you can do, tell a story. It really helps you connect with your customer.