Not long ago, I received a rather unusual email from a stranger. The title of the email read, your site and services which of course would prompt any normal person to open it and expect to read a quote request.
The email contained no such request, but instead revealed a screen shot of the homepage of my Web site. Let me repeat that. A complete stranger sent me a screen shot of my own Web site.
Within the screen shot art, writer of said email had encircled (in red ink), three words that they felt were glaring errors, as the message stated. (One was in fact a typo, while the other two were merely subjective criticisms.)
The message was short, terse and did not address me by name. The email closed with Cheers, and a pair of initials.
I confess: I enjoy people who push the envelope. This is just the kind of bold approach that gets and holds my attention.
However, when someone whom you've never met before decides to arbitrarily PROBE something that you personally created, it comes as a bit of a shock. It makes you feel slightly violated.
I imagine it wouldn't feel all that much different than if I'd been sent a picture of myself, with a red circle around the pimple in the corner of my nose or something equally creepy.
Upon Googling said emailer, I learned that this person worked in a high intelligence, left-brained field and chalked it up to her being a social idiot.
Which brings me to the main point, which is that technology experts and other High IQ individuals are often painfully unaware of the unspoken rules that drive modern communication.
I'm not saying that's right or wrong or I don't like such people, because I really do enjoy them in the way one might enjoy searingly spicy food or extreme sports, for the extra stimulation.
Truth be told, I'd rather spend a half hour having some cantankerous dweeb spew facts at me than sit there letting someone dull and insipid massage my ego while dribbling faulty reasoning or parroting someone else's wisdom. I don't need an ego rub. Just teach me something I didn't know before.
But I also know that I'm in the minority.
Most professionals, at least the ones I've seen buzzing around the blogosphere and met with in various conference rooms throughout my life, would never stand for such brusque handling. Some might even deliver a swift verbal backhand in reply.
Most professionals are secretly insecure. Therefore, they expect you to play with their emotions. And not only is this what they crave in their personal communication, but they REALLY want it in your marketing materials.
The average human begs on his knees to be schmoozed and sold to.
That's a skill that most geeks don't naturally possess. Especially if they're math, science and tech experts (those fields are ruled by the opposite hemisphere of the brain that governs emotions).
Emotion is unequivocally the most powerful sales weapon regardless of what industry you work in. Get a handle on your reader's emotions, turn his ego into silly putty, and you've got yourself a lifelong customer.
If you really, really want to sell something to emotionally suggestible humans, something that they don't understand and can't procure on their own, then you have GOT to learn how to talk to people, or else hire someone for whom graceful communication is second nature.
(For those who don't pick up on subtlety: get a copywriter).
I know of this brilliant computer genius guy from my Web travels who burns a path of destruction wherever he roams. I've watched entire networks lash out against him because he doesn't know how to talk to folks without sounding mean, rude and condescending.
I secretly like him - because he explained some basics of HTML publishing that nobody else had the patience or attention to detail to convey.
But even so - I know he sucks at selling.
Yes, you might be smarter than 90% of the population. But do you know how to write copy that sells?
Sign up for the Copywriting and Marketing Ezine from Dina at http://wordfeeder.com and learn to write search engine-friendly Web copy and market your Web based business for free.
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