Yesterday I received an email from one of my favorite copywriters. Seems he’s hosting one of his annual conferences. Curiosity got the better of me so I clicked the link and read his description of the event.
In case you’re unaware, a copywriter is someone who uses words to sell a product. In other words, we write advertising. I’ve worked as a copywriter, a professional persuader for over a decade, after all a writer lives and dies depending on how they’re able to sell.
As I read his piece, he piled benefit upon benefit, verbal image upon image, his copy transported me back to the glorious days when I attended copious numbers of these events. I anticipated meeting new writing friends, renewing friendships from previous years, swapping shop stories, finding new authors… reading his page made me smile. I was two inches (literally) from clicking the “order now” link when it hit me:
I was getting persuaded.
Ah, copywriters are a sly lot, using sneaky tools to not only make the sale, but to create a “prospect” happy to hand over their cash. Pure magic, to be sure. I paused my buying impulse long enough to think.
No, Beth. You haven’t attended any real skeptical conferences yet. Use your budget to hit a couple of those this year.
So, I left his page, did a little surfing, and found the oddest webpage advertising what appeared to be a fairly large, upcoming skeptical seminar featuring big name atheists and skeptics.
The headline consisted of the event name and (believe it or not), the prime real estate of the opening page was dedicated to a harassment policy. Yup, it wasn’t “below the fold,” it was up front and center, followed by the “about us” and even the nationally recognized speakers got lower billing than the harassment policy.
What?
Now, as someone fairly new to this world, my first thought was, “Holy cow! Do they have a harassment problem?” That was quickly followed by, “I wonder if they’ve received a lawsuit and as part of the payback, they have to make a big deal about a harassment policy?”
Upon pondering this situation, I doubt either of these are true, but seriously? Since when is having a harassment policy a selling point? It’s rather like a restaurant proclaiming they have a strict anti food poisoning policy on the front page of the menu.
Yes, harassment policies are important. I’m not saying they’re unnecessary. But, they belong further along in the sales message, perhaps a short mention with a link to all the gory details. It’s, quite literally, over sharing, not a great benefit. You’ve got to sell your audience on your big promise before you hit ’em up with details like harassment policies.
Which brings me to my point.
This appeared to be a fairly large seminar with big name speakers and a slick web page. I imagine attending is a fun experience. It’s probably informative, too. However, I’d never know it from what I perused.
Also something to consider: Who are we trying to attract when we hold these conferences? If we’re attempting to attract ourselves, I suppose shoddy marketing is fine.
However, if we’re hoping to attract new “customers,” we need to focus on the wonderful benefits we can provide. Perhaps if they come to this conference they’ll meet new friends, they’ll walk away with an arsenal of tools they can use to debunk false claims, they won’t get sucked into (sometimes costly) junk science schemes, they’ll get to meet some of the stars of skepticism, maybe they’ll receive an incredible goodie bag… who knows?
As someone who has attended (literally) dozens of conferences on various topics, I can unequivocally say I wasn’t once attracted to any particular event based on their excellent harassment policy.
In the mean time, I’d suggest that whoever crafts the copy for skepticism conferences grab a basic copywriting book and start sharpening their persuasion skills. We live in interesting times and skeptics have a lot of conferences to choose from. If your description doesn’t match the excitement of your event, you’re doing yourself, your staff, your attendees, and the movement in general a disservice.
