{"id":3230,"date":"2013-10-23T14:30:48","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T14:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/insideintercom.io\/?p=3230"},"modified":"2020-07-30T13:03:59","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T12:03:59","slug":"how-to-educate-persuade-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/how-to-educate-persuade-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Educate & Persuade Customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The most effective messages we see in Intercom either educate or persuade customers. Let’s talk about why they work.<\/p>\n

If you want users to complete a certain task that is desirable to them but daunting, then education is the way you make it seem simple and easy. If a task is easy-to-do but of low value to users, then persuasion is how you get it done.<\/p>\n

1. Understand where Simplicity Works<\/h3>\n

It’s important to know when each approach will work. Startup after start-up has ended up in the graveyard by simplifying something that no one ever actually wanted to do. Things like “Connect with other Weimaraner owners in your area”, “Upload photos of your teeth to Twitter”, “Back up your company’s Facebook timeline to your own S3 bucket”, or “Synchronise your shopping lists with your Facebook friends”.<\/p>\n

Put bluntly, if it’s a terrible idea then it doesn’t matter how easy you make it. Conversely if it’s something that everyone has always done and wanted to do, and you take out some steps, you’re headed for billions. As an example, here are two generations of photo sharing that existed before Instagram:<\/p>\n

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Ev Williams has made a career out of removing steps, and spoke about it at this year’s XOXO festival<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“Here\u2019s the formula if you want to build a billion-dollar internet company: Take a human desire, preferably one that has been around for a really long time\u2026 Identify that desire and use modern technology to take out steps.\u201d<\/p>\n