How adding just one sentence to a letter nabbed this organisation a 15% higher response rates, and a £5.6 Billion pound difference to their bank balance.
What would a 15% higher response rate to your next sales letter do for your business?
In real terms, what impact would it have on your bank account?
For this organisation, this 15% increase brought in whopping £5.6 BILLION.
And all it took was a slightly altered sentence and a piece of personalisation.
That was it.
That one sentence change was worth £5 Billon.
The organisation…
The tax man; HMRC.
Part of HMRC’s recent trials explored the impact of changing just one sentence, based on local comparisons.
It found that replacing the sentence “Nine out of 10 people in the UK pay their tax on time” with “The great majority of people in [the taxpayer’s local area] pay their tax on time” increased the proportion of people who paid their income tax before the deadline.
This clever one sentence trick, putting ‘social proof’ firmly into practice as a gentle nudge really worked.
(Social proof, from the idea of normative social influence, stating that individuals will conform in order to be liked by, similar to or accepted by society). (Normative social influence on wiki)
Most of us wouldn’t think that an organisation which takes £500 BILLION annually from us would need to work on their copy.
But, they, like you – need to find ways to encourage more cheques to come their way.
Which highlights the importance of measuring and testing.
If they weren’t measuring how well their letters to taxpayers where performing, they’d never know they had room for improvement.
While your businesses marketing may be plodding along nicely, could it be doing better?
Is a weak sentence in your copy acting like a hole in your bucket of leads?
Drop me an email for us to have a chat about your business’s marketing.