🪜What’s “laddering” & how to smack your competitors with it?

If you ever doubt your buyers buy irrationally, just remember the NBA player who was making $300k per game but allegedly risks it to bet measly amounts.

Now that that’s off my chest, today’s Feature Story shows you how to use “Laddering” in your marketing. It’s something Professor Scott Galloway made up, but I like it because it lets you go ‘double-barrel’ on your brand’s best features.

After the Feature, you can dabble in the following sections: 

• The Knowledge Base  

• Self Help (no degree)

• Facts & Stats (social commerce king)

• Get Hacking (move the *)

Appetizer: When are buyers the most irrational?

Now, let’s stick our noses in today’s Feature Story…

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Feature Story

What’s Laddering?

There’s a more traditional definition of ‘laddering’.

Look it up if you have a pile of free time and wish to doze off.

The definition we’re talking about’s below…

“Laddering is an attempt to de-position a competitor by highlighting one of your strengths, which just happens to be your competitor’s weakness.” ~Professor Galloway

It’s basically a made-up term (like all words at some point in history). Why do I like it?

You Can Double Your Words’ Effectiveness (without extra words)

Galloway, who can be brilliant when he’s not allowing politics to drive him insane, gave two examples of laddering. 

I’ll mention his, but I’ve got a few examples of my own first.

Inbox Hacking vs. Morning Brew

If I were trying to give someone reasons to read Inbox Hacking instead of Morning Brew, I’d say…

• Inbox Hacking has a tribe of loyal readers, not 4 million faceless subscribers. 

• Inbox Hacking ain’t for everybody - Morning Brew’s for anyone with a pulse.

• No marketing jargon here unless we get bought by HubSpot ‘suits.’

Laddering can be a backhanded compliment to your competitors. You don’t have to mention them by name unless you want to.

Next example below.

Walmart De-positions Amazon

• Our leaders are salt-of-the-Earth, and never been photographed shirtless on a yacht.

The flip side is…

Amazon De-positions Walmart

• Our customers shop in their pajamas too, but not in public. 

Clayton, Georgia De-positions Asheville, North Carolina

• Only takes 15 minutes to walk our little downtown, but you’ll trip over zero hypodermic needles.

• Our mountains are smaller, but no high-rises to block your view.

Local Landscaper De-positions TruGreen (national brand)

• We know every customer by name. Giant companies know every excuse by heart.

Professor Galloway’s Examples

Apple vs. Other Big Tech

• In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Tim Cook announced, “Privacy is a human right.”

The idea is Apple’s the good guy that guards your data like it's their grandma’s. The opposite of Facebook and other big tech corps. Pretty much a lie, but it worked for Apple.

Galloway (bald man) vs. His Podcast Co-host Kara Swisher

“I’m the host with good hair.” ~Kara Swisher

Certain comedic set-ups with deep contrast can guide you on laddering messaging too.

Laddering Help from 3 Comics

The examples below show extreme contrast. That’s the key to making your brand the hero, and competitors the monster. 

It’s all about hyperbole, in case you couldn’t tell by Tim Cook’s “human right” quote🙄.  

#1 "I've been watching the Olympics. I feel like such a loser. The announcers are like, 'At 3 p.m. Eastern, Michael Phelps won the gold medal in the 500-meter freestyle and a gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke.' And at 3 p.m. Eastern time, I woke up from a nap and took a leak." ~Unknown comic

#2 "Just the day-to-day life of being a woman honestly looks too hard. Just hair—what a woman has to deal with: cut and color and goo and potions. It's like, what does a guy have to do with his hair? Not have a mullet.” ~Rita Rudner

#3 "Anybody here think they could move to Austria, learn the language, become famous for working out, then be a movie star, then marry into their royalty, then hold public office? How many lifetimes would you need? I'm on my third attempt at Rosetta Stone Spanish!" ~Bill Burr’s take on Arnold Schwarzenegger

Hope you took notes on all that. Now we gotta keep moving into The Knowledge Base below…

Self-Help

The smartest person I’ve ever had the privilege of talking with said this…

“All these degrees are B.S. Anyone can help another person just by caring and being a great friend.”

This person held two PhDs. But she knew more about loving people than any book can teach.

Facts & Stats

Bonus: Over 51% of all social commerce transactions worldwide happen on __________, making it the top platform for peer-to-peer & resale commerce online. Answer at end of email.

Get Hacking

A specific strategy to implement today

Yes, you want to be honest when showing an ad in your newsletter or video or podcast.

However, a big, obvious asterisk as a disclaimer is a distraction. Distractions keep people from seeing your ad.

So, stick the disclaimer further away from the ad. Not to hide the fact it’s an ad, but to avoid distracting people. 

Stacked Marketer and 1440 both do this nicely in their newsletter. Stacked Marketer often puts the “*sponsored” at the bottom of a bullet list of “extra news.”

Another hack for this? Use the copy “*indicates sponsored content, if any.” 

“If any” sounds like there may be no intrusive ad at all. Like the writer’s doing readers a favor by keeping all the ads out he possibly can (SuperHuman newsletter does this - see below).

Thanks for reading Inbox Hacking. Please share it with your peeps - it’s sugar-free but stings a bit.

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin

Bonus answer from Facts & Stats section: More than 51% of all social commerce transactions worldwide happen on Facebook Marketplace, making it the top platform for peer-to-peer and resale commerce online (SQ Magazine).

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” ~Sun Tzu 

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