The Steady (S) style – the politest difficult customer!
It’s fascinating that most content is written specifically with the S style in mind, because… this is precisely the style that makes purchasing decisions the most reluctantly and least often!
Yes, the S style is the one who will happily scroll to the fifth screen just to read the sixth testimonial from a satisfied customer who once bought your product or service.
In extreme cases, an S will even add your product to their virtual cart, and then….
Turn the computer off.
And of course, they turn it off before completing the transaction.
It’s the S style that needs a detailed product description and social proof justifying the purchase, expressed through the opinions of other satisfied customers – ideally people they know or who are recognised authorities (at least within a given industry).
Fairy tales for modern grown-ups
Take a look at the structure of today’s sponsored articles. For example, the ones about a miracle weight-loss remedy. They begin with a tear-jerking, yet very heavy-handedly written story (often in the first person) of an overweight person whose life was becoming more and more of a torment by the day. One misfortune after another befalls them – for instance, their spouse leaves them, or, if the protagonist is a woman, she becomes the laughing stock at a family gathering. Just when the hero has hit rock bottom, a helping hand appears, offering them that remarkable remedy. Sometimes it’s even mentioned that this remedy (occasionally referred to as a medicine!) was developed by Polish scientists, so the story strikes a patriotic chord too!
Thanks to the remedy, the hero’s life turns 180 degrees around. They undergo a spectacular transformation. The kilos melt away like crazy, the hero finds a new love or wins back an old one, and gains people’s respect at the same time.
Sounds like… a fairy tale, doesn’t it?
Exactly! The structure of the tale about the slimmed-down protagonist follows all the storytelling rules of the hero’s journey described by the anthropologist Joseph Campbell – the very backbone of our most beloved box-office hits such as „Star Wars” or „The Fellowship of the Ring”, which are, after all, fairy tales through and through.
People love fairy tales, especially with a happy ending, but why would a fairy tale prompt them to make a purchasing decision?
Because at the end of the tale sits the social proof – posts from people who have ordered the product. These posts come from two sources: some are genuine posts from people who have just bought the remedy and who, in exchange for receiving something by email – say, a great diet plan built around the remedy, a set of exercises, or a playlist of songs that supposedly boost the slimming effect 😉 – have agreed to leave a positive comment. More often, however, they are comments produced at regular intervals by hired copywriters….
A time limit and a ticking clock on the page announcing that a unique promotion lets you buy the remedy at 50% off its original price are meant to further motivate the visitor to make a purchase. With S-style people, this sometimes works. It works considerably better, though, on I-style and D-style people. Each of them sees seemingly the same thing in the ticking clock, yet reads it slightly differently. For an S, it will be an opportunity to fulfil their dream of losing weight quickly while also saving money – so the expense they incur will be rational and optimal – optimally advantageous. Even if anyone were to criticise an S for making such a purchase, they would have at least this argument in their defence – the money they saved (potentially! but the S won’t notice that part!). How do the other styles view the very same thing? You’ll find out in the upcoming articles in this series on content creation!
Everyone writes offers for S-types, who buy the least….
Likewise, most offers and direct landing pages for courses and training – whether in-person or online – published on the internet are built along the same lines, though a little differently than in the case of the weight-loss remedy. Nonetheless, they too are aimed mainly at the S style. First comes the presentation of the problem the visitor is probably struggling with, since they landed on this page in the first place. Then a description of the benefits that will flow to them once they make the purchase, followed by a set of social proof in the form of opinions from satisfied customers, and (sometimes ahead of the social proof) a set of extra bonuses and perks that reinforce the sense of money well spent, and finally the notice about the limited duration of the promotion. All of this looks very appealing and may indeed prompt an S to click the „Order” or „Buy” button, or – more often – the button offering a choice between at least two, and usually three, price options.
This last option offers the best chance that the S will actually buy something – most often the cheapest variant.
Why?
Because the S aims to minimise risk. Safety above all else! That is the S’s motto when making purchasing decisions. Yes! An S will come to terms with letting a great deal slip through their fingers sooner than with spending their money badly! That’s why they prefer to try the product in its cheapest version, precisely in order to minimise the risk. A good way to encourage an S to buy the more expensive variant of an offer, however, is to add a social-proof note next to it, such as „The option most frequently chosen by customers”.
Once won over, once secured, S-types will become your most loyal customers. But earning their loyalty may cost you considerable effort along the way. Because even when an S-style customer chooses that cheapest variant of your service – a course, say – you have to pack that variant with enough value for them to be, aptly enough, content. And yet you can’t give them too much, so there’s still something left for the higher variants. It’s quite a challenge. An S-type customer who decides they received too little value for the price in the variant they chose will certainly never come back to you.
How do you deal with this?
Above all, present the offer thoroughly and spell out in detail what the customer can expect in each package – what they will get and what they definitely won’t. And, once again, reach for the social-proof technique by pointing to the middle variant as the one most frequently chosen by customers.
Keywords for the S style
Every style has its own keywords. For the S, the primary keyword is safety. So if you’re addressing your offer to the S style, use words like these in your sales content: safety, safe, calm, peaceful, stabilisation, stability, stable, steady, continuity, continuous, certainty, certain, responsibility, responsible, guarantee, guaranteed, but also words such as: needed, useful, helpful, handy, practical.
At the end of your landing page, be sure to include information about a guarantee – a guaranteed 100% refund of the price if the customer decides the purchased product is worthless or of no use. Don’t worry, an S will never actually claim that refund anyway, even if they really are dissatisfied. They’ll simply never buy anything from you again.
Beware of situations that back an S into a corner. When you make it impossible for them to bow out gracefully from a purchase they were considering – and, for example, force them into a public declaration (say, during a sales webinar) that they will buy your product – the S will of course keep their word and buy it. But again, just as with a poor-quality product, it will be their last time….
Wishing you every success in creating content for S – and see you in the next article!