copywriting - persuasive graphics use

Reading time: 2 – 2 minutes

Check out this persuasive use of graphical elements in a recent Robert Kiyosaki promotion.

What I like about this is the messiness of it. Artistically speaking this piece has what is called “informal balance” – which means the parts on the left visually balance out with the parts on the right.    In this case we’ve got a big thing on the right, the book, and a bunch of busy stuff and lines on the left.

Messy layouts can work very well in direct response.  The idea is to stimulate the prospect and keep re-stimulating him.  If you make everything orderly and pretty, he tunes out or dozes off!

A lot of website designers are talented at making nice-looking websites, but they seldom understand the dynamics of messy visuals in direct response.   Look at the junk mail you get, especially sweepstakes promotions and stuff like that.  It’s very messy.  It jiggles your eyeballs to look at it.  The designers who do the big sweepstakes mailings know what they are doing so pay attention to that stuff.

Personally I like cereal boxes and toy packaging too, because it’s designed to get kids to beg for the one specific toy or cereal, out of many choices.  The accelerating world of information we live in today presents so much choice and variety it makes your head spin.  Get on the other side of it, as a marketer, and take a critical look at how your own graphic design and copy is breaking through the confusion consumers feel today.

If your stuff doesn’t grab people in under 2 or 3 seconds, they tune you out and move on.  You don’t  want them thinking “oh, that’s pretty”  you want them thinking ,”Wow!  Let me check this out,”.

The post author, Loren Woirhaye writes sales copy and creates marketing systems for business clients who want to slash customer acquisition costs and position their businesses For 20%-30% sales growth in the next 12-18 months. He writes regularly about marketing and life at his Entrepreneur Blog.