Know-How Exchange : Copywriting

To me, it depends upon the audience. Risk is something many people avoid, except if they are thrill-seeking. Smart Risk may connote fewer problems as a result - or it may connote risk that hurts ("smarts"). Can you split test the phrase in your advertising?

There are no few people who take risks so as to experience something - usually they're stuck in offices every day and need to let off steam. Digging a couple of square meters of my vegetable garden each day meets my risk-taking needs. But I'm odd that way.

As to adventure travel, you're speaking to the kind of person who goes camping without a tent.

The other side of this is what are your clients thinking? Do they understand risk in the same way as (say) a businessman would? However, there's a copper bottomed way to determine this - and that's to find out what they do when faced with the choice. In other words, use some form of PPC to gauge their mood. The ones who sign up for your newsletter are the ones who really count. They've leapt two hurdles as it were and their views count for most.

The aspect of risk need not be expressed directly however. You can allude to it. Try this "You know when the coffee's ready because of that sharp aroma in the air and the sputtering from the kitchen. It's filtered through. As you enter the kitchen you see the chocolate color of the glass jug. Heavy in your hand and hot now as you pour it into the mug. A dash of milk and the sour flavor spreads across your tongue."

Do that kind of thing with the adventures they can have, and your only problem is that they'll want to sign up for your newsletters and enjoy their adventures in the comfort of their own homes!

The preferences and, more importantly, the compulsions of the audience are what matters. What is the audience compelled to do? What goal or outcome are they drawn to? And in what context is "smart risk" going to be used and against or with what in terms of other copy, images, subheads, and calls to action? In isolation, and with no visuals of the artwork, the words in themselves concur up elements of calculation … but not much else. The keys here are context and content: without them we're at a bit of a loss.

We may not be the right people to ask. Better to test stuff like this with your target audience.

To me "smart risk" suggests that the payoff from something is likely to be worth more than the investment (of time/effort/energy or money). In contrast, a "dumb risk" would be one in which the result would probably be worth less than the investment.