Case study: Bullet Points Increase Response Rates By 188%

When you look at any printed piece, what stands out first? If there are bullet points, that’s where your eye immediately goes, right? Bullet points are short, punchy, and command attention in any layout.

Because bullet points have such impact, you might be tempted to use them to talk about your product’s benefits right out of the gate. While touting benefits is critical, studies from MECLABS find that, especially when the product category creates some level of uncertainty or fear, using bullet points to anticipate and respond to customer fears and objections first, before discussing benefits, can be more effective. 

MECLABS, which researches how people make choices, gives the example of a web hosting company that used this approach with great success. The company wanted to overcome prospects’ anxiety about making a purchase in what they see as a foreign and scary product category: web hosting. Before presenting the benefits of its service, MECLABS encouraged the company to use bullet points to address these underlying concerns. Thus, the company described itself as offering: 

 • 24/7 technical and customer support.

 • The highest level of global accreditations.

 • 99.9% uptime guarantee.

 • End-to-end security solutions.

 • Being the most trusted hosting company.

Sure, the company could have talked about features and benefits right out of the gate. But none of those things would have mattered if its target audience didn’t feel confident about choosing a product in this category in the first place. The results? When tested against the paragraph approach, its response rate jumped by 188%. 

This is not the only way to use bullet points, but it provides an important principle that your business can use in its marketing communications to help your audience become more receptive to whatever else you have to say.