Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You ByWP Engine

Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting.

Start getting more from your site today!

Rainmaker.FM

The Digital Commerce and Content Marketing Podcast Network

  • Home
  • Shows
  • Hosts
  • About
  • Home
  • Shows
  • Hosts
  • About
  • Member Area
  • Log In
Menu
  • Log In
  • Free Training
7-Figure Small with Brian Clark
Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer
Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing
Get More Clients With Smarter Email Marketing
Hack the Entrepreneur
Members Only
Rainmaker.FM Elsewhere
Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites
StudioPress FM
Technology Translated
The Digital Entrepreneur
The Missing Link
The Showrunner
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
Youpreneur with Chris Ducker
Zero to Book
Rough Draft
hosted by Demian Farnworth

050 The Curious Secret to Building Trust and Credibility

  • Social:
  • Link:
  • Embed:
https://rainmaker.fm/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/rough-050_4.mp3
Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes
Previous Episode:049 My Second Most Favorite Copywriting Formula in the World! More Episodes Next Episode:051 Want Copy That Actually Works? Start with Mass Desire

All Episodes:

October 21, 2015

102 The Beautiful Message Joseph Campbell Was Really Trying to Tell Us

October 8, 2015

101 The Greatest Storytelling Guide This Side of Saturn

September 1, 2015

100 The Episode That Explains the Future of Rough Draft

August 31, 2015

099 A Better Way to Find Big Ideas (That Make You Stand Out)

August 27, 2015

098 How to Grab Great Ideas (Without Using Your Hands)

August 26, 2015

097 The Problem with the ‘Hell-For-Leather’ Writing Movement

August 25, 2015

096 Why These Famous Time-Management Techniques Are Ruining Your Productivity

August 24, 2015

095 Freaking Out Over the Thought of Writing a First Draft? Try Scaffolding

August 20, 2015

094 How to Avoid Obscurity by Misusing Language

August 19, 2015

093 A Creative Email Trick for Becoming a Plain Spoken Writer

August 18, 2015

092 Let This Stupid Machine Read Your Copy Out Loud

August 17, 2015

091 This Free App Will Help You Write Bold and Clear Copy

August 13, 2015

090 Four Writing Lessons I Learned from This Depressing Music Project

August 12, 2015

089 The Clear-Copy Rule of Writing for the Web

August 11, 2015

088 Three Ways Writers Must Adjust in a World Dominated by Social Media

August 10, 2015

087 How This Social Media Thing Kicked Web Writing Right in the Feels

August 6, 2015

086 An Elegant Story on Outsmarting Career Obsolescence

August 5, 2015

085 Raise the Stakes! 13 Writing Ideas That Really Work

August 4, 2015

084 The Two Things That Make a Dull Product Irresistible

August 3, 2015

083 Proof That Stories Can Increase the Value of Even ‘Worthless’ Items

July 30, 2015

082 Could Podcasting Make You a Better Writer?

July 29, 2015

081 When Do You Abandon the Editing Process?

July 28, 2015

080 Four Ways to Get Attention by Rocking the Boat

July 27, 2015

079 A Brief Introduction to the Art of Catching Hell

July 23, 2015

078 Six Storytelling Lessons from a Famous Urban Legend

July 22, 2015

077 Vexed by Your Bankrupt Vocabulary? Listen to This

July 21, 2015

076 Why Writers Need to Develop a Sense of Humor

July 20, 2015

075 Listener Challenge: Could You Read 100 Books in a Year?

July 16, 2015

074 How to Get Massive Attention with a ‘High-Concept Pitch’

July 15, 2015

073 A Lesson in Swagger from a Wooden-Legged Civil War Soldier

July 14, 2015

072 Six Ways to Becoming a Completely Original Writer

July 13, 2015

071 The Oldest Writing Trick in The Book

July 9, 2015

070 Eight Things Every Writer Should Know about Landing Pages

July 8, 2015

069 The Fascinating Truth about Boring Topics

July 7, 2015

068 How to Craft an About Page That People Actually Read and Share

July 6, 2015

067 The Psychology Behind Winning Email Subject Lines

July 2, 2015

066 All Great Writing Boils Down to These Four Emotional Appeals

July 1, 2015

065 A Mildly Spooky Illustration of “Reason Why” Copy

June 30, 2015

064 A Mild Warning for All Headline Writers

June 29, 2015

063 How Every Creative Must Think about Marketing and Advertising

June 25, 2015

062 Do Millennials (Really) Hate Long Copy?

June 24, 2015

061 These 4 Sales Principles Can Improve Anyone’s Writing

June 23, 2015

060 How to Use the 5 Stages of Audience Awareness to Dominate Online

June 22, 2015

059 Why The Most Hated Headline Structures Work So Well

June 18, 2015

058 This is the Most Fun You’ll Ever Have “Explaining the Mechanism” …

June 17, 2015

057 The Doomsday Cult School of Specificity

June 16, 2015

056 How to Sweep Away Skepticism with a Dramatic Demonstration

June 15, 2015

055 Meet the Tragic Poster Boy for the Emotional Brain

June 11, 2015

054 A Straightforward Research Method for Finding a Potent Hook

June 10, 2015

053 What You Don’t Know about Your Product Can Kill Your Copy

June 9, 2015

052 Three New Ways to Write a Headline (and When to Use Each)

June 8, 2015

051 Want Copy That Actually Works? Start with Mass Desire

June 4, 2015

050 The Curious Secret to Building Trust and Credibility

June 3, 2015

049 My Second Most Favorite Copywriting Formula in the World!

June 2, 2015

048 How to Get Lazy People to Care about Your Ideas

June 1, 2015

047 My Favorite Copywriting Formula … Ever!

May 29, 2015

046 How to (Rapidly) Build an Audience with Content Syndication

May 28, 2015

045 Solve Your Online Proofreading Problems With This Simple Trick

May 27, 2015

044 The Profanity Princess on Finding Your Voice

May 26, 2015

043 The Oddest Story About Overcoming Obscurity You’ll Ever Hear

May 21, 2015

042 10 Odd Books That Will Improve Your Writing

May 20, 2015

041 How to Read a Book in 2 Hours

May 19, 2015

040 The Shocking Way to Master Any Book

May 18, 2015

039 Nine Copywriting Books for Web Writers

May 14, 2015

038 The 8 Rules of Ruthless Editing from David Mamet

May 13, 2015

037 Revealed: The Perfect Blog Post Length

May 12, 2015

036 The Aggressive Work Ethic of Highly Creative People

May 11, 2015

035 The 10 Rules of Rough Drafts

May 7, 2015

034 5 Ways to Create the Perfect Ending that Your Content Deserves

May 6, 2015

033 6 Simple Rules For Writing Effective Dialogue

May 5, 2015

032 Use Internal Cliffhangers So People Never Stop Reading

May 4, 2015

031 226 Transitional Words and Phrases Every Writer Should Know

April 30, 2015

030 The Great Paragraph Hoax

April 29, 2015

029 5 Ways to Write a Seductive Sentence

April 28, 2015

028 How to Be Smart in a World of Dumb Verbs

April 27, 2015

027 How the Perfect Article Is Framed by White Space

April 23, 2015

026 The Best Articles Always Have This (and a Great Headline)

April 22, 2015

025 The Anatomy of a Hyperlink That Woos Readers

April 21, 2015

024 The Beginner’s Guide to Writing Bullet Points That Work

April 20, 2015

023 How to Create Exquisite Subheadlines

April 16, 2015

022 Four Safe Ways to Find Your Writing Voice (and One Dangerous One)

April 15, 2015

021 The Two Kinds of Knowledge Every Writer Needs

April 14, 2015

020 The Crazy Thing Writers Do to Become Exceptional

April 13, 2015

019 How to Answer the Most Important Question About Becoming an Exceptional Writer

April 9, 2015

018 Four Things That Can Make Writers Famous

April 8, 2015

017 A Small Gift for Your Dark Days as an Obscure Writer

April 7, 2015

016 Steal This Episode

April 6, 2015

015 David Sedaris’ Guide to Writing Brilliant First Sentences

April 2, 2015

014 Six Proven Ways to Open an Article With a Bang

April 1, 2015

013 How I’ll Make You Read Every Single Line of This Article

March 31, 2015

012 The Ugly Truth About How People Read Online

March 30, 2015

011 The 3 Pillars of Great Web Writing

March 26, 2015

010 How to Use RSS to Write Better Headlines

March 25, 2015

009 How to Write Headlines that Get Results

March 24, 2015

008 Where Headlines Have Gone Horribly Wrong

March 23, 2015

007 A 12-Minute Crash Course on Link Building (Ugh)

March 19, 2015

006 An Idiot-Proof Guide to Writing Blog Posts That Google Loves

March 18, 2015

005 Keywords: Your Love Affair With the Language Your Audience Uses

March 17, 2015

004 How Search Engines Work, Part Two

March 16, 2015

003 How Search Engines Work, Part One

March 3, 2015

002 The Unbreakable Law of the Web

March 2, 2015

001 Two Challenges All Digital Content Must Conquer

June 4, 2015

050 The Curious Secret to Building Trust and Credibility

Ever wonder how you could get more people to believe you? To trust you? It’s easy, actually. And quite odd the way it works.

What’s the secret? Never tell anyone more than they’ll believe. Sounds like a moron statement, right?

It’s not.

See, the moment your claim passes the point of believability, credibility drops off like a rock. Unless, of course, you introduce the disadvantages first.

Here’s how to do that.

In this 8-minute episode you’ll discover:

  • Brilliant 60s ads selling the ugliest car
  • The wrong way most people discuss the advantages (if they discuss it at all)
  • How the ugly truth creates exclusivity
  • What happens to benefits when disadvantages are mentioned

Listen to Rough Draft below ...

050 The Curious Secret to Building Trust and CredibilityDemian Farnworth
  • Social:
  • Link:
  • Embed:
https://rainmaker.fm/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/rough-050_4.mp3
Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes
Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You ByWP Engine

Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting.

Start getting more from your site today!

The Transcript

The Curious Secret to Building Trust and Credibility

Demian Farnsworth: Welcome, to yet another episode of Rough Draft, your daily dose of essential web writing advice. I am your host, Demian Farnworth, the Chief Content Writer for Copyblogger Media.

And thank you for sharing the next few minutes of your life with me.

So, this is episode 50, and it is brought to you by Rainmaker.FM, the digital marketing podcast network built on the Rainmaker Platform — a platform that empowers you to build your own digital marketing and sales empire.

Because we all know you want to take over the world. At least put a dent in the universe.

The cool thing is you can actually give it your best college try for the next 14 days for free … that’s right, you can get your hands on the Rainmaker Platform for 14 days, without paying a dime.

Just visit rainmakerplatform.com to start your free trial. That’s rainmakerplatform.com.

Now, onto the show.

Ever wonder how you could get more people to believe you? To trust you? You want people to trust you. It’s easy, actually. And quite odd the way it works.

What’s the secret? Never tell a man or woman more than he’ll believe. Sounds like a moron statement, right? Let me explain why it’s not.

The Law of Diminishing Credibility

Pretend for a moment you’re an investment advisor.

Even if you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that a particular stock will triple in price in the next year, if you have any concern that the buyer might find what you say hard to believe, it’s best to leave that information out.

But let’s get closer to home.

There’s a very popular article on Copyblogger that bugs me to death. It’s called “How to Write an Article in 20 Minutes.”

It’s an incredible statement, but we, the readers, have a hunch, it could be true. We’re just not sure and we want Jim, the author to prove it, which he does.

However, if Jim would’ve said forty minutes, we wouldn’t have batted an eye. That’s not that big of a deal. It’s not a powerful promise.

But if he’d said fifteen minutes, we’d start to squint, wondering if there’s a BB loose in his can.

Ten minutes and he’s pushing his luck with us.

Five minutes and we know he’s a wacko. In fact, we might just read the article to see the freak show.

But here’s the deal: Let’s say Jim CAN write an article in five minutes. Even if that’s true, such hype is going to turn people off. It’s best to leave that information alone.

See, the moment your claim passes the point of believability, credibility drops off like a rock. Unless, of course, you introduce the disadvantages first.

Brilliant 60s Ads Selling the Ugliest Car

In the 60’s some brilliant ad men took advantage of this peculiarity. Remember the old Volkswagen sedan with the rag top that hadn’t changed in 20 years, the round top one?

One of the ugliest cars ever made.

In addition, it didn’t have any extra features that any ad man could talk about. Only in later years did it have a gas gauge.

You could get so many miles on a tank of gas that you simply drove it until you ran out of gas and then switched to a small reserve tank that held more than enough fuel to get you to the closest gas station.

When the Doyle, Dane + Bernbach agency was given this account, they must have groaned. What could you say about the car?

It only had two features: it was cheap to run and it was reliable.

But everyone already knew that. What more could they say about it? Then they hit on a brilliant flash of inspiration: they decided to tell the truth.

How the Ugly Truth Creates Exclusivity

I can imagine every ad man in America coming off their chairs and saying, “You are going to do what?”

Yet, DDB ran a whole series of ads that said, “This car is ugly. It looks like a bug. A beetle.”

“This car is slow. You’ll be lucky if you ever get a ticket.”

The results of the campaign? Phenomenal. People loved the campaign and sales shot up.

Simple, pristine truth is an astounding force.

And these ad men had touched on a very important key of persuasion: if you point out the disadvantages first, it makes everything else you say more believable.

Most people would tell you to save problems last. Or not share them at all.

But if you think about it, the strategy above does two things: one, it creates an element of exclusivity. Owning a Beetle Bug is kind of like a badge of honor. It becomes a club you belong to. A cult, if you will.

And second, once those ugly issues are out of the way, you can sell the benefits.

What Happens to Benefits When Disadvantages are Mentioned

See, by positioning the disadvantages first, prospects view the advantages in a whole different light. And it is a whole lot easier to swallow.

This is nothing more than good old fashioned transparency, which is the secret to getting people to believe you. So today’s rule of persuasion says this: never tell a person more than you think they’ll believe.

In fact, tell them the ugly truth, share with them the disadvantages first, then move onto the advantages and you’ll have a captive audience.

Which brings us to a major shift in our focus on copywriting and the online crowd. That shift is not horizontal, but vertical. Straight down, in fact. Into the very belly of effective online writing. I don’t care whether you are a journalist, ad writer, blogger, Twitter comedian, YouTuber, or podcaster.

You’ll want to know the three critical copywriting steps to getting people to love, buy, and brag about you, your content, and even your product.

But that’s for the next episode. Until then, take care.

And hey, by the way, if you like this show leave a rating or review on iTunes. Let us know what you think. Take care.

Never Miss New Shows and Episodes on Rainmaker.FM

Get the best of the Rainmaker.FM network in a single weekly email, along with two weeks
of free training that will change the way you think about online marketing ...

Free Registration

You might also like...

The Business Behind Writing and Selling with Mark Dawson

Listen to episode
Hit Publish

3 Tips for Getting Your Content Seen (by Even the Busiest Readers)

Listen to episode
Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer

How to Uncover What Your Audience Wants to Buy: An Interview with Ryan Levesque

Listen to episode
Get More Clients With Smarter Email Marketing

Lesson 8: How to Get People to Work With You

Listen to episode
Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer

How to Avoid Getting Sucker-Punched by Internet ‘Facts’

Listen to episode
Editor-in-Chief

An Editor-in-Chief’s Responsibilities in the Digital Age

Listen to episode

Comments

  1. Bonnie David says

    June 5, 2015 at 1:02 AM

    Got it. Keep the reader in a state of suspense. Present disadvantages first; advantages second.

    Unrelated Question 1: What is your personal take on ‘buyer personas’?

    Unrelated Question 2: How effective is Medium? And in which instances should the site be used? Is Medium considered digital share cropping?

    Thanks. And keep shining; keep sparkling.

    Reply
  2. Demian Farnworth says

    June 5, 2015 at 7:38 AM

    Hey Bonnie,

    Personas are useful. More info here: https://www.copyblogger.com/content-gaps/

    Have you listened to the Lede podcast about Medium? If not, listen here:
    https://rainmaker.fm/audio/lede/content-syndication-1/

    And indeed, I will keep sparkling 😀

    Reply
    • Bonnie David says

      June 5, 2015 at 10:21 AM

      Awesome. Thanks Demian.

      Reply
  3. Benita Winckler says

    June 9, 2015 at 7:17 AM

    50th episode! just dropping by to say cheers! 🙂 I have read a lot of your articles (love them) today started listening as well – new media, yeah! 🙂 make some more!! *inspired*

    Reply
    • Demian Farnworth says

      June 9, 2015 at 10:00 AM

      Thank you Benita! It’s been a joy … and yes, fully intend to make more. 😀

      Reply
  4. John Patrick Weiss says

    June 9, 2015 at 11:08 AM

    Another great episode, Demian. Any tips on how to “sparkle?” I’d like to sparkle, too!

    Reply
    • Demian Farnworth says

      June 11, 2015 at 8:08 AM

      It starts with how you walk … it’s all in the hips. 😀

      Reply
  5. Camila Artoni says

    June 10, 2015 at 10:38 PM

    Loving the natural voice on the last few episodes, Demian!

    “Never tell a man or woman more than he’ll believe.” – Really great advice and something I had never considered. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Demian Farnworth says

      June 11, 2015 at 8:09 AM

      Thanks for the kind words Camila! Trying to relax. 😀

      Reply
      • Jerod Morris says

        June 11, 2015 at 8:13 AM

        Erroneous! I specifically said I would do it if someone created a beat. I can’t just sing/rap over blank air. I’m Jerod Morris, NOT one of the Sponge Bags. Sheesh.

        Reply
  6. Belinda Weaver says

    June 26, 2015 at 11:02 AM

    I love this one Demien! It really strikes a cord as it was a memorable point Dan Pink made in his Authority preso: Presenting a small but true disadvantage shine a spotlight on how awesome everything else is.

    It’s the eye dropper of credibility that seeps into everything else you’re saying.

    Great episode 🙂

    Reply
    • Demian Farnworth says

      June 26, 2015 at 12:04 PM

      Thanks Belinda! And thanks for binging … and then commenting. 😀 You are a rock star.

      Reply
      • Belinda Weaver says

        June 26, 2015 at 2:00 PM

        I appreciate that Demian *AC DC air guitar*

        As I favour, will you accept my apologies for spelling your name wrong?

        Reply
        • Demian Farnworth says

          June 26, 2015 at 2:35 PM

          Didn’t even notice. 😀

          Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You ByWP Engine

Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting.

Start getting more from your site today!

Copyright © 2023 Rainmaker Digital, LLC. Powered by the Rainmaker Platform.

Privacy Policy  ·  Refund Policy  ·  Cookie Policy  ·  Terms of Service  ·  Contact