THE THREE-SECOND RULE

You have 3 seconds!

After that, you've wasted precious marketing dollars.

Says who?

Mark Joyner, author of The Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less.

According to Joyner, "There are 86,400 seconds in a day. You have exactly 3 of them to capture the mind of your prospect."

This means your bank's newspaper ad has only 3 seconds to grab the attention of the reader and get him or her into your offer and copy. So, you better have a great visual, or a great headline, or better yet a great offer in your headline, or a really great interest rate shown in big, bold type.

Otherwise, your ad will NOT get noticed…let alone, read.

And, you had better employ one or more of the required "shortcuts" in your ad to ensure the reader makes the right decision about your ad – which is to stop turning pages and read your entire ad.

A "shortcut?"

A MARKETER'S SECRET WEAPON

According to psychologist Robert Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, "Very often in making a decision about someone or something, we don't use all the relevant information; we use, instead only a single, highly representative piece of the total." What Cialdini refers to as a shortcut or "trigger feature."

A good example is the standard principle that "expensive = good." Eyeing two watches placed side by side, one priced at $200 and the other at $20, without doing any research on makers, component quality, or technology employed, we immediately assume the $200 watch is much better than the $20 watch. The price is a trigger feature. It's a short cut that tells us we will get the better quality watch if we are willing to pay $200.

On a daily basis we depend on such trigger features to save us a lot of time and effort making decisions.

As Cialdini writes, "You and I exist in an extraordinary complicated stimulus environment, easily the most rapid moving and complex that has ever existed on this planet. As the stimuli saturating our lives continue to grow more intricate and variable, we will have to depend increasingly on our shortcuts to handle them all."

There you have it. To deal with today's saturated advertising environment and vast array of products and services from which to choose, your customers and prospects need – and depend on – these shortcuts to make quick decisions.

Therefore, while turning the pages of his or her daily newspaper, we know that your banking ad has only 3 seconds to catch the attention of your very busy prospect.

Scanning each page, your prospects are going to immediately call on one or more of Cialdini's shortcuts or trigger events to determine whether or not to stop and read your headline and hopefully the rest of your ad.

SHORTCUTS FOR BANK ADS

Examples of these mental shortcuts for bank and credit union deposit ads include:

1. Cleary visible and recognizable bank name and logo. Top of the ad is good. Bottom of the ad not so good. If at bottom, make it large. Plus, smaller banks and credit unions generally pay higher savings rates and offer lower loan rates than those shaky big banks.

2. Ad layout screams "simplicity." Simple ads are quick reads. Complex ads take too much time "so I'll return to it later," thinks your reader. NOT!

3. Immediately obvious that only one product is being sold. Multiple product sales take too long to explain and create a "choice" dilemma during the decision-making process.

4. Side-by-side rates. If there is a teaser or special promotional rate being offered, the standard or normal rate will be immediately to the right of it, in the same size type. Or one above the other as seen in the collage in the sidebar.

5. APY or APR clearly visible. When an interest rate is shown for a savings product, it is always followed by the APY or average percentage yield. When the rate is for a loan product, it is always followed by the APR.

6. Little or no disclosure copy at the bottom. Long disclosure copy means there are too many strings attached or unpleasant information associated with this offer or product. While no mice-type or short disclosure copy means this is a simple, straightforward, easy-to-understand offer and/or product.

THE CONFUSING AD

Unfortunately, the folks who were involved in creating and approving the Washington Mutual (WaMu) ad shown in the sidebar aren't aware of these important mental shortcuts.

Absent these important shortcuts, odds are very few of The Sacramento Bee readers stopped to read this ad.

Your editor is one of the few exceptions, but purely for work-related reasons.

After two complete reads, I felt this ad for a special rate on a Money Market Savings Account is so confusing that I scanned and sent it to three of my financial marketing friends for their interpretation. I had to make sure that it wasn't just me who was struggling to determine exactly what WaMu was selling here. 

After a morning of e-mails flying back and forth, the collective conclusion was that it, indeed, is very confusing.

And the four of us read it thoroughly…unlike what your prospects would do upon encountering this ad in their morning newspaper.

The WaMu Money Market Savings ad appeared in the January 4, 2009, issue of The Sacramento Bee.

In the top three-quarters of the ad – where the sale occurs – the word count is:

Bank name = 4

Headline = 16

Rate box = 20

Body copy including call to action = 36

Total = 76

In the bottom quarter – the disclosure block – the word count, including the rate, is 274.

In other words, 78% of the copy is devoted to the disclosure copy while only 22% is used for selling.

WHY THE WAMU AD FAILED

Okay, using the six shortcuts listed above, let's see how the WaMu ad scores:

1. MAYBE = There's a clearly visible bank name at the top. Oops! There are two bank names showing. Is that good or bad? This immediately introduces doubt…especially in today's ongoing "bailout" environment.

2. NO = Forget simplicity. At first glance it seems simple but what's that big rate doing at the bottom of the ad next to that massive amount of disclosure copy?

3. NO = The second giant rate at the bottom of the ad immediately introduces doubt that only one product is being sold. "I'll have to go down there and read all that mice type to see what is being offered to see if it's different than what's being offered in the body of the ad," thinks your prospect. This is the most confusing aspect of this ad.

4. NO = The much higher 2.25% rate can't be an introductory or teaser rate. The two big rates aren't even close to each other…suggesting two different products are being offered.

5. NO = Why is the APY symbol missing on the top rate? There's always an APY or APR symbol following the rate in a financial ad. Something's wrong here.

6. NO = There's way too much disclosure copy. There must be a lot of strings attached to whatever is being sold.

This newspaper ad clearly flunked Cialdini's trigger feature or shortcut requirement.

By now I was aggravated that a large bank like WaMu would waste its money on such a confusing ad…an ad that most readers would fail to stop and read because it lacked the necessary mental shortcuts.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE BRANCH?

With the newspaper ad in hand, I walked into my local WaMu branch on Thursday morning, January 8, to ask questions about the ad and the product being offered.

Upon arrival mid-morning, I'm the only customer in the branch. Looking a bit lost, I am quickly called to a desk occupied by two branch employees – one the manager.

Feigning confusion about the 2.25% rate shown at the top of the ad, I am informed that this is an Introductory Promotional Rate. "Then why didn't they simply call it that?" I thought to myself. This high rate should have been a "trigger feature" not a source of confusion as seen in the sidebar copy.    

They further explain that you get the 2.25% rate for 90 days from the date of account opening. After 90 days, the rate reverts to whatever rate is in effect at the time. Today, January 8, the rate would go to 1.00% on a $25,000 balance and 1.25% on a $50,000 balance. Therefore, the blended rate at the $50,000 level would be 1.50%.

Hence the legal necessity of showing the second rate in equally large type. Unfortunately for newspaper readers – and the bank – it creates confusion appearing at the bottom of the ad.

Had the creative team simply displayed the blended rate of 1.50%APY next to a more clearly identified 2.25% Introductory Promotional Rate, readers would have quickly spotted a mental shortcut and perhaps read the rest of the ad.

Asking about the missing APY next to the 2.25% rate, I am told that it is causing a lot of confusion among their customers and prospects who have inquired about the high rate in the ad.

One of the employees comments that the reason they couldn't show the APY is that this is an Introductory Promotional Rate and only lasts for three months. Hoping to satisfy my concern, he mentions that it is explained in the disclosure copy at the bottom of the ad.

I immediately inform him that no one reads disclosure copy. He quickly agrees with me that, yes, very few people ever read the disclosure copy.

Next, I mention that I went to the bank's website for more information and am disappointed when none is available. I am told that branch-only promotions are not included on the bank's website. That's a big mistake in today's Internet-dependent consumer society.

Not to belabor my concerns about the ad, I thank them and get up to leave. What happens next only confirms my negative thoughts about their promotion.

As I am walking to the exit door with the branch manager, I notice for the first time a hand-drawn promo for this product on a giant white easel board. The sign is placed such that it is not visible upon entering the branch unless you turn right which no one entering the branch does as the main lobby and sales area is to the left.

Because it is poorly hand drawn, the sign is not only unattractive, it's difficult to read.

Almost immediately, the manager notices that the promotional sign shows the 2.25% rate as an APY in two places. He thanks me for coming in and raising the issue and quickly runs over and, using his hand, erases the erroneous APY copy. He blames it on his operations manager. So even the branch people are confused about the rate and the promotion.

USING THE RIGHT AGENCY IS CRITICAL

Making notes while sitting in my car in the parking lot, I am irritated that a large bank like WaMu would approve such a confusing ad. And I wonder how much marketing oversight is being provided by its new owner – JPMorgan Chase.

The next thought to enter my consciousness is that this is what happens when you allow your general media agency to create newspaper ads for you. They are not fans of the direct response approach to advertising.

And apparently, the creative folks at the WaMu agency are unaware of Robert Cialdini's research and the importance of using trigger features or shortcuts in newspaper ads, direct mail, and other media.

Remember, you have only 3 very short seconds to grab your prospects' attention and get them into your ad or direct mail copy.

Using mental shortcuts can help you accomplish this!