Diffusion of innovation and promotion letters

At all times, it is important for a technology company to maintain existing customer relationships and establish new ones. For example, new customers can be attracted by letters.

Unlike the press release, which is sent to the media with the aim of using the news to publish an announcement or an article, the letter is a form of direct communication with the target audience. The letter guarantees that the message will reach a specific person in the given form and format.
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There are many types of letters used in different situations. For example, we often write letters in English to bloggers asking them to test Windows or mobile OS software and write a review on their blog. Here we will focus on another type of message - an advertising letter, the purpose of which is to attract a customer to the site.

The purpose of the letter is to receive an answer in the form of the recipient visiting the site and downloading the program. How to write a letter in English to achieve this goal? First, a little theory.



Theory of the spread and assimilation of innovation

In the communication sciences, there is a theory of the diffusion and assimilation of innovations , which was developed in the thirties of the last century and supplemented by Stanford University professor Everett Rodgers. The results of his research were published in a monograph called Diffusion of Innovations (“Diffusion of Innovations”).

Under the distribution and assimilation of innovations, Rogers and other researchers imply a process during which innovation through certain channels is distributed among the members of the social system; innovation is an idea or an object that people feel new.

At the heart of this theory are the results of studies of the distribution of hybrid corn in Iowa, which were conducted during the Great American Depression. The researchers plotted the adoption of innovations by farmers, who started using seeds of hybrid corn for sowing, which promised to increase crop yields by 20%. After interviewing hundreds of farmers, researchers managed to build an innovation adoption chart and understand why the vast majority of farmers needed more than ten years to switch to a more profitable crop.


According to the theory, the process of dissemination and assimilation of innovations consists of five stages.

1. Awareness - at this stage, a person first finds out about the existence of a product, service, idea, but does not have complete information about it. Information is transmitted through some channel of communication, usually the media, but sometimes through interpersonal contacts through writing.

2. Interest - at this stage a person has an interest in innovation and searches for additional information about it. Usually this stage takes place in the mind of a person who weighs the advantages of a new product, service or idea in relation to his own life.

3. Evaluation - a person studies innovation, tests an idea or a product on other individuals, tests the product himself and, based on his assessment and opinions of other people, begins to lean either towards reception or towards rejection of innovation. However, the adoption of innovation is still reversible.

4. Assessment (Trial) - at this stage, the person continues to assess the consequences of his decision, because needs confirmation of its correctness. Even if at first the individual decided not to accept the innovation, new information or economic necessity may eventually force him to accept the innovation.

5. Assimilation (Adoption) - a person includes a new idea in the system of his views or makes the final decision on the further use of a product or service.

Thus, according to this model, it is possible to influence a person first of all at the stages of awareness and interest. Often people learn about a product, service or idea through the media, for example, newspapers, magazines. Indeed, the main reason for writing and sending a press release is to create a situation of awareness, the first step to pushing people to purchase goods.

A letter can also be used to create a situation of awareness of your product or service. Unlike a press release, a letter is a form of direct appeal to potential consumers, which will necessarily reach a specific person (if it does not fall into the spam filter). But it will be read or deleted immediately, depending on its form and content.

How to write a letter in English to read it? Here are some recommendations.

1. Use a short, eye-catching headline.

First, the title for the "Subject" field must consist of a maximum of 40 characters . Such a header will be correctly and completely displayed in any email program.

Secondly, the heading should not be written in the form of a general question requiring an unequivocal answer.

For example:

Summer sales are down?
Spending more than you earn?

The risk in using common questions is that we leave the reader with a choice: answer “Yes” and read on or “No” and delete the message. However, the recipient often does not himself realize that he may have a problem. For example, many perceive the fall in sales in the summer as a completely natural process. Therefore, it is better to use a statement that focuses on profit.

For example:

Grow up summer sales hands down
Slash down spending to save earnings

Thus, you state a fact that is important for everyone (make money, save time, more amenities, avoid trouble, etc.). This title is of interest to any reader, and your message will be read, even if they do not consider this to be their problem. The same principle should be followed when writing a press release, product page or promotional article.

2. Introductory paragraph explaining the benefits of your product.

In the first paragraph, give a clear definition of what you offer, and tell about the benefits and consumer benefits for the reader, constantly emphasizing them throughout the letter. At the end, summarize the main points.

In the product description and benefits, avoid words that do not carry the content load.

For example:

“Designed for Windows, our program is a feature-rich, yet easy-to-use tool that can increase your computational productivity. Using this box, you can’t start working right out of the box, with the minimum or even no learning curve ... ”

Your message should be specific, realistic, credible to the reader, so instead of empty epithets like “robust”, “powerful”, “easy-to-use”, use specific facts, figures and logical conclusions . They will help you convince the reader of the undoubted benefits of your product.

For example, instead of describing your product as “robust” or “comprehensive”, you can write “99.98% protection . ” The more specifics and numbers you use in the letter, the more convincing and compelling your message will be.

The use of numbers refers to the reception of a conviction, known in PR as the “ herd instinct ”. This technique is based on the desire of people to be "like everyone else." The meaning of using numbers is to show the extraordinary popularity of your product and universal support. As a result, the reader will try to keep up with "all."

3. Contents of the letter, call to action.

The second and subsequent paragraphs can be focused on the details. You can also “ humanize ” your message by giving an example of a user who has been helped by similar programs. Include reviews from real buyers. At the verification stage, it is important for the reader to know the opinions of other people.

Remember, the most effective are short messages. The unspoken rule is the size of a single screen, which is about 20-25 lines . It is also recommended that the length of the lines does not exceed 75 characters . The call to take an action - click on the link, download, buy - must be on this first screen. If you have compiled a long letter that you need to scroll when reading, then many may simply not finish reading. Accordingly, they will not see your call to action, and the letter will not fulfill its goal - to attract the reader to the site.

Call example:

If you are interested, you can take a look at the frame rate, even at full resolution video. Contact me if you have any questions.

If you have a complex product with numerous features that may also interest the reader, then you can tell about them after the call to action.

Finish the letter with a postscript, which will again mention the reason why the reader should answer your call by visiting the site or downloading the demo version.

4. Create a special page on the site for readers following the link in the letter.

At the stage of interest, a person needs more detailed information about your product. Therefore, in the letter, you must specify a link to a special page to which interested readers will go. The purpose of this page is to strengthen the reader in deciding to respond to the appeal in a letter and download a demo version of the product or even buy it.

In order to convince the reader to do what we want, it is necessary to use not only words, but also visual images. Therefore, your page should contain, in addition to detailed product information, screenshots or links to pages with screenshots, video presentations, links to the page for download and purchase, a page with documentation, a link to the contact form. Pages to which the visitor will go should have links back to the page from which he came. Place links only to relevant pages so that the visitor does not “wander” around the site.

Sample page:

Photo Collage Maker page

At the stage of testing and evaluation, the opinion of other people is of particular importance. Therefore, it is advisable to place on a special page testimonials of your clients, links to testimonials from representatives of computer publications and other materials that will help consolidate the existing opinion and predisposition of a person to your product or service.

Conclusion

In a study on the spread of hybrid corn in Iowa, scientists discovered several reasons for the slow adoption of innovation. Farmers had to buy seeds with bushels from a monopolist company, and the price was too high for that time (this is the period of the Great Depression). In addition, when using hybrid corn, it was not necessary to select seed for the next year, a habit that farmers had difficulty parting with because of emotional dependence. Finally, cases of agricultural innovation at that time were extremely rare, and farmers were not used to them yet. In the following years, such innovations became widespread and turned into quite a common phenomenon.