The “Get Your Stuff Read” blog post

And there’s a time to be blunt – when you’ve got the opportunity to close the deal.

Considered coolly and dispassionately, most of us can recognize the difference to these two moments. But then why do we confuse them?

I recently tweeted a loud Bravo! to Carsonified and their FOWA event for a little throwaway piece of copy on their event page. There, they offered visitors a “Convince your boss PDF”.

How fresh! How direct! How ballsy!

They could have called it “Event Features” or “Attendee Benefits”. Thank god they didn’t.

Visitors to the FOWA site are plainly already showing some interest in the event. Doubtless most wish they could go but fear they could not justify the time and expense. Carsonified bluntly offers to help out.

Readers will thank the writer time and again, and reward them by reading their shit in the future, when the writer cuts to the chase, acknowledges the desire that is so latently there and offers just that.

Websites miss this kind of thing.

Isn’t it nice to see on a website when, next to an FAQ and a long list of email addresses, a line says “Talk to a human” and the number?

Or when a company says “this is how much our stuff costs”?

Or even imagine one of those agonizingly long forms (just to download your specs – the nerve!) that said, somewhere towards the end: “Sorry about this. You’re almost done. It’ll be worth it. If it isn’t, tell us.”

Talk to people. Acknowledge them. Recognize obvious emotion.

That’s communicating to people.