How would you like to have the AXE effect on your website?

Your website will play the role of the unsuspecting regular guy who puts on body spray.

Your prospects will play the roles of scantily-clad women who are eager to umm… Well, you get the idea.

Where am I going with this metaphor, right?

What I’m trying to say is this:

A small change in your website copy can attract more leads and customers. Even better,  it can make your products or services swoon-worthy.

This change is as simple as putting on body spray.

Now, would you like to learn more?

The “secret sauce” of the AXE effect

Apart from awkward (and potentially sexist) joke material, the AXE commercials will also serve me as an example here.

Because they use a simple and very powerful technique.

A technique as old as advertising itself…

It has been called different names through the years but, in this post, I’ll stick to the name Gene Schwartz (who, I swear, should have been named “Genius Schwartz”) gives in his timeless book Breakthrough Advertising.

The technique is called Identification.

I’ll assume you know WHAT it means to make someone identify with your marketing message. Let’s see HOW you can do it.

How does identification work?

AXE’s target customer is a man. A man who wants to be liked by young and attractive women but doesn’t seem to be very successful with the ladies.

The keyword here is WANTS.

The advertising mastermind behind these commercials simply took the prospect’s desire and hooked the product onto it.

Here’s how it works:

1. The emotional brain reacts immediately. It connects the body spray with the desire—to be liked by women.
2. When the logical brain catches up, it’s too late. The emotional brain is already persuaded.
3. What do you think happens next? The logical brain will think of some excuse why this product is worth buying: “Let me try. I might like how it smells…”

Identification touches on your prospect’s emotional hot buttons—struggles, desires, beliefs, etc. It doesn’t give them a chance to think through.

On the other hand, the decision to buy is emotional. It’s based on perceptions. On fears. On worldviews.

Believe me, I’ve sold to very smart audiences that are supposed to not have emotional brains. It works on everyone.

So, it doesn’t really matter if you’re selling services, software or… body spray. If you can make your prospect identify, you’ve done 50% of the work.

How can you make people identify?

In the AXE commercial, the producers made sure the actor looks, behaves and talks exactly like their target customer.

You can do something similar on your website:

1. Create a target customer profile. Write down everything you know about them—age, gender, education, income, marital status, interests, hobbies. If you find that difficult, you can download a template here.
2. Find your customers online. Join a forum, Facebook group, LinkedIn group or find the most popular blogs and books.
3. Steal their words. Find online conversations or reviews related to what you’re selling. Read what people complain about or what they’re trying to achieve and copy/paste their words. Use them in your copy.

The secret lies in “spraying” their words on your website.

Here’s why this is powerful stuff

We like and trust those who are similar to us, right? We like people who like the same things. It makes sense that we should like people who say the same things. Well, this study proves it’s true.

Quick example

I recently wandered around the Internet trying to figure out what pain points and goals self-published authors have.

I found some interesting words and I stole them:

See, it’s not that complicated! Give it a try. Spray some of your customer’s words on your website.

There is scientific proof it works.

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