How To Write Podcast Ads That Sell - Part Three

By Stew Redwine · Editors: Bryan Barletta, Evo Terra

You’ve made it!

This week, we conclude our series on how to write podcasts ads that sell. Combined with parts 1 & 2, these lessons provide the tools you need to compose advertising messaging that not only entertains, but also delights, and surprises listeners, they actually get people to buy your product.

We call this messaging framework, Audiolytics™, and Oxford Road has used it to help companies like LegalZoom, ZipRecruiter, Ring Video Doorbell, and countless others go from audio advertising dilettantes to legitimate household names.

In this final session, Oxford Road’s Creative Director, Stew Redwine breaks down the final five main Audiolytics™ components; Substantiation, Offer, Scarcity, Path, and Execution.

SUBSTANTIATION

Why should anyone believe you?

Robert Cialdini says it’s the use of Social Proof and Authority. Aristotle posits that one must use Logos (reason) and Ethos (the credibility of the speaker). Jason Harris, the author of The Soulful Art of Persuasion, says great advertising is emotional, not rational.

Regardless of the argument, this problem isn’t new. In his 1944 tome on advertising, Diary of an Ad Man, James W. Young mentions the centrality of this issue to advertising and offers a solution:

“Every type of advertiser has the same problem; namely, to be believed. The mail-order man knows nothing so potent for this purpose as a testimonial, yet the general advertiser seldom uses it.”

Personal testimony provides an advertiser with the most powerful words in the lexicon of advertising, “I use this and you should too.” Whether it is a testimony from someone you know personally or someone you feel like you know – like a podcast host – as long as you trust them you are much more likely to be persuaded. But testimonials are only one of several “prove it” facts, as outlined by Victor O. Schwab in How to Write a Good Advertisement, that can be used to substantiate the claims in an advertisement.

Victor O. Schwab’s List of Prove It Facts (This is an amplified version of the list first compiled by G.B. Hotchkiss. We’re all standing on the shoulders of giants, aren’t we?)

1. Construction Evidence includes facts about materials and the manufacture of the product.

2. Performance Evidence includes the achievements of the product in actual use.

3. Testimony of Others includes Customers, Experts, Awards Won, and Sales Records.

4. Test Evidence, which includes Guarantees and Free Samples.

One final thought on Substantiation as it relates to Marshall McLuhan’s practically sacrosanct phrase, “The medium is the message.” The level of “polish” and “footprint” of your ad matters. They’re both an expression of Costly Signaling Theory, explored by Rory Sutherland in Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life. The very quality of your ad can substantiate, in the audience’s mind, the quality of your good or service. And the same goes for how often they’re presented with your message. If they hear your ad on “every” podcast they will assume, even if subconsciously, you are someone they can trust.

OFFER, SCARCITY, & PATH

Why should the listener take action? By when?

NOTE: These three Key components are primarily focused on advertising messages that require immediate action. If the time horizon is longer not all of these components need to be optimized.

John Caples says in the Fifth Edition of Tested Advertising Methods, you must filter every aspect of the advertisement through this question: “what argument would make you…part with good money in order to buy the product or service you are advertising?”

Would a GREAT Offer move you, better than any Offer available anywhere else? Would knowledge that the Offer has an element of Scarcity to it drive you to act? Would knowing exactly what Path to follow to take advantage of the Offer be the thing that induces you to purchase? Yes, yes, and yes.

OFFER is more than just a discount. It is everything from a unique discount, to something FREE, a guarantee, or any other kind of incentive. Like a 1773 tea ad that read, “Excellent good Bohea Tea, imported in the last ship from London; sold by Theo. Hancock, N.B. “If it don’t suit the ladies’ taste, they may return the tea and receive their money again.”

SCARCITY is most persuasive when it is real. For instance, when running a test campaign make an Offer that is the best available anywhere and make it truly scarce. It will only be offered through a specific date or, perhaps, it is tied to a seasonal event like Father’s Day. Another way to talk about Scarcity is Limited Supply.

PATH Where must the audience go to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity? The goal is clarity above all else. Tell them exactly where you need them to go and what you need them to do in the simplest way possible. If you can shorten a URL’s name, do it. If it needs to be spelled, spell. If you’re asking them to go to a URL and enter a Promo Code at least make them easy. But the goal is to ask them to take as FEW steps as possible and that includes keystrokes, actions, or even things they have to remember.

When it comes to Offer, Scarcity, and Path, don’t be quick to dismiss the power they hold over your cash register ringing. If you don’t have an Offer, or Scarcity, and have a convoluted Path, you have hobbled your message. It may still connect emotionally. It may still give the audience a fond recollection of your brand when they see it again someday. But if you need it to make the cash registers ring, especially as you test out a new channel, then you must include all three.

EXECUTION

Does every word count?

Execution is HOW you communicated everything. All too often creative development is kicked off with a little too vague definition of the business goal and then catapulted into the exciting part of the conversation, HOW we’re going to say it. The best creative development is the other way around. Clarity before poetry.

First of all, how are you going to measure success?

Then, how long do you have to get there?

Once you’ve answered these questions, then determine when that will be measured. Every day? Every week? Or is your advertisement simply meant to make people aware that you exist? To inform? To persuade? No matter what your questions are and what your answers are, part of answering all those questions is research.

Todd Lauer, VP of Brand & Creative at LendingTree, talked about how LendingTree’s tagline for sixteen years, “When Banks Compete, You Win” was developed. In a focus group of actual LendingTree users in 2002 a woman said, “It was kinda like, when banks compete, I win!” Start with your customer reviews and Facebook comments, put them all in a spreadsheet and scour them for similarities and for statements like this one. Then invite a few of your customers in and just talk to them. It’s practically free and may just give you a tagline for the rest of the life of your company.

Is the advertisement intended to be part of a campaign that is 60% Awareness and 40% Activation? Whatever the mix is, how long will it take you to get there? Are you attempting to raise your share of voice so as to raise your share of market? (a very good idea by the way). Or are you simply putting a message out that you believe needs to exist in the world?

But there is something ELSE, and we all know it. Henry Ford talked about it late in his career. After making the ultimate boilerplate of boilerplate products he admitted there was something to this “style” thing. Call it chaos, call it emotion, personality, branding, or story. The thing that makes you YOU is the same kind of thing that makes one Brand different from all the rest, so that it carves out, builds, and reinforces memory structures in our minds. Whatever is behind it all, we’ve been working on communicating with each other for a LONG time. It’s a tool as old as almost any other. To do it well, we have to talk to each other in a way that is understood by the other people living in the cave. “Want to know where the best berries are? Go to the big magnolia tree and hang a left.”

Wrapping It Up

This approach to structuring a message is the ground floor of how we construct messages at Oxford Road. We’ve been working on it for years and all the sources mentioned in this article are available to anyone – and they can be interpreted in a number of ways.

We’ve chosen to focus it all into a messaging taxonomy that gives us a way to sort, rank, and weigh the pieces of a message designed to influence human behavior. We use the 9 Key Components in this article, plus 71 Subcomponents, based on performance data, multivariate testing, and the latest research and thinking on the subjects of advertising, neuromarketing, psychology, and persuasion to make the ads work for our clients. We call it Audiolytics™ because it was born out of audio. And now you’ve got the building blocks.

You can use it to write an ad, any kind of ad. You can use it to write an email to get your rent lowered. To propose to someone. To break up. To construct a pitch deck. To give a speech or ask for a raise. Or simply as another lens to look through on the endless quest to understand part of why humans do what they do.