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Hope your Bracket’s still intact after yesterday’s games. Mine? No idea, too busy hammering out today’s edition of Inbox Hacking, which gives you a bite-sized way to persuade potential buyers in subtle ways.

After that, you can digest This Week’s Marketing Wrap-Up.

Persuasive Advertising

Being direct and clear is a must for your advertisements. Clarity should be the main goal of all your marketing messages.

Just don’t let chances to be subtly persuasive slip by. 

The best example I’ve seen of that in a while is below (with extra examples coming up).

This example is from a financial advisor:

“The clients I started attracting with my flat fee had larger portfolios, which makes sense, as they’d prefer not to give up a large percentage of their portfolios nor lose out to commissions.”

Breaking Down That Subtly Persuasive Advertising

Here’s what’s so slick about the example above…

• It tells the reader that super-wealthy people have chosen this financial advisor (authority principle & social proof)

• Promotes one of the advisor’s main unique selling propositions (flat fee)

• Shows two major downsides of not choosing this advisor 

The message isn’t pushy. 

It doesn’t tell readers how this financial guru is the best on Earth. Doesn’t shout about how smart he is. The message simply states what happened when he launched his firm because he was offering a smarter way for wealthy folks to have their assets managed.

What happened wasn’t just that other rich people (like his target market) were attracted to this guy’s firm. SUPER-RICH people with “larger portfolios” were attracted. The subtle message to “average-rich” folks is to follow the lead of wealthier people you aspire to be like and avoid being a dummy who pays a percentage-based fee or pays advisors who get financial product commissions.

How Can You Take Action Using Similarly Subtle Marketing Tactics?

Easy. Just think about selling in every sentence you write. From blog posts to email newsletters to subject lines to headlines, etc.

The goal is to sell something, despite today’s marketing environment of “give everything away for free.” 

So, be more intentional about selling in everything you write. Just be subtle about presenting the selling points. This isn’t easy. Re-read the financial advisor example again. You’ll see it isn’t an obvious thing to write. 

It’s pretty brilliant and I bet he didn’t come up with it until he’d been in business a couple years.

Now, let’s look at 6 other subtly persuasive marketing examples. Not cleverly persuasive. There’s a difference. I like clever. However, clever isn’t always clear. Subtle and clear is a powerful combo that we marketers don’t use enough.

6 Subtly Persuasive Advertising Examples

#1 Amazon's logo features an arrow pointing from A to Z, hinting at its massive product range while also resembling a smile—a nod to customer satisfaction.

#2 Calm’s landing page (from Google Ad link) is as uncluttered as it gets. The subtle message is the viewer won’t be overwhelmed while figuring out how the Calm app can help them shed stress.

#3 Charles Miller of Copyblogger has the following section in a blog post about how to build a personal brand. 

“My niche is personal branding, and here’s how I answer each of those three questions:

• What’s the problem I’m solving: Building a monetizable audience.

• Who I’m serving: High net worth entrepreneurs.

• How much is it worth for high net worth entrepreneurs to build a personal brand? In many cases, millions of dollars because they can use their personal brand for customer acquisition for their businesses

He uses his own service as an example of what that article is teaching. It’s a great example, plus a subtle pitch to his target market who are reading the article. 

#4 Tostitos' logo includes two figures sharing chips and salsa, subtly promoting social connection through its snacks.

#5 KFC hid a one-dollar bill in their Snacker Ad. Nice subtly persuasive way to show off a great deal while giving observant consumers a cool “find” they could reveal to their friends.

#6 MarketingProfs, promoting an event below.

“Be kind to your fellow PRO members! Because this is a limited-capacity event, we ask that you only register if you plan to attend and fully participate. If you know you can't make it live, please don't RSVP... wait until the recording is ready to watch.” 

The subtle message is that only serious marketers need to register for this event. It subtly shoos away people who won’t make the event better while automatically improving the event by firing up participants to participate. The message also questions whether the reader is a serious marketer. Anyone with an ounce of pride would register instead of admitting they’re not serious!

Bottom Line

Be clear in ads, but also use every chance you get to be subtly persuasive. 

Work on the last part and you don’t have to be shy about selling.

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Please share Inbox Hacking with a fellow marketing genius or business owner. I appreciate you reading and sharing. 

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin

“I don’t know the rules of grammar. If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language.” ––David Ogilvy

Bonus: Watch: Keep relationships strong and your brand doesn’t have to be “better.”