by Lee Marc Stein
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Before you release any communications to prospects or customers, gauge how your copy scores on the B/S Index. What is the B/S Index? It's not what you think it is—not the "Bull Shit" Detector, but the Believability/Simpatico Index.
There are five components to the Index.
1. The "Taxi Driver" Factor
You know the DeNiro line, "Hey, are you talkin' to ME?" Sometimes we get communications from marketers and we wonder if they are, indeed, talking to us or to the proverbial man in the moon.
The following letter arrived at my house a full five years after my daughter had left home. When she lived with us, she was constantly being hounded by Columbia House for not paying her bills on time.
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So you look at the headline—"valued friend" and "savings not available to the 'general public'"—and at the beginning of the third paragraph and you laugh. There is no believability here.
Contrast that to the email below:
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