Use Attention-Grabbing Headlines
your headline is the most important piece of copy on your homepage. Make it totally irresistible. Don’t give the opportunity for your visitor to escape your headline. Effective headlines capture your visitors’ attention and draw them into your sales copy. Your "hook" (headline) is the most important text your customers will read.They say headlines pull in 80%of the orders if done correctly.
Answer The Question, "What's In It For Me?"
Killer sales letter doesn't focus on the features of your product or service. Focus on how the visitor will benefit from these features. Features are product centered. Benefits are user centered. Emphasize the benefits and solve problems! Make this the focus of everything you write, on every page of your web site. Don't try to SELL visitors your product or service...HELP them!
It is much easier to sell a solution to a problem than it is to sell a feature or benefit! Your marketing should highlight some of these problems, and then offer your product or service as an ideal solution.
"Fear of loss" and "desire of gain" should be something that is utilised in all sales material. "Fear of loss" is extremely powerful! This is what you may lose, risk, or waste if you do not buy. What capital you gain or save if you do buy the product is based on desire as opposed to fear. This desire is also a remarkable sales tool. Both can be utilised to boost sales considerably!
Educate Your Visitors
If you can teach your readers something then they’ll believe you to be an expert. And if you can lead them to that, then chances are they’ll buy. We all want to learn from the experts.
Give your visitors as much information as you possibly can. Why? Because By taking time to educate the consumer, you are building credibility. You are presenting yourself as an expert in your field..someone who is knowledgeable and trustworthy. Once your visitor trusts you, they will buy from you!
Do not make fantastic promises or offers that you can't back up. Emphasize benefits, but also share information...facts! Use percentages and give real, concrete examples. Use testimonials.
Establish Credibility And Develop Rapport
Rapport is very important! Part of what will draw your visitors through your web copy is the personal relationship that you develop with them. A great way to do this is by telling a story!
Stories are a great way of letting people know who you are and making them feel like they are doing business with a real person, rather than some faceless company from the middle of nowhere.
The sooner you establish credibility and develop rapport, the sooner your visitors will begin to trust and accept what you are telling them.
Know your Audience
It is critically important that you have a clear idea of who you are trying to sell your product or service to. Know your target market! What do they need? What do they want? Who are they? How old are they? What kind of education do they have? What are their "hot buttons?"
This is the kind of information that will make a huge difference in how you sell your product or service. It will have a great impact on how you write your web site copy! Keep your target market in focus at all times when writing your sales letter! You can't sell to everyone, so don't waste your time tryin.
Be Clear And Concise
Make your sale letter as simple as you possibly can! Avoid using large words and long sentences...this distracts the reader from your message. Also, don't assume anything...explain everything. You don't want your visitors thinking about what you're trying to say. You want them to be absorbing and understanding everything easily!
Write your sales letters as though you were talking to somebody, not at them and keep your language informal! It is difficult to make a sale if the customer does not feel like they are getting personal attention.
Keep Your Offer Focused
Make sure that the value of your site is immediately apparent If visitors can't instantly tell what your site has to offer, they'll leave. Be sure that your site has a focus and that your focus is immediately revealed in your titles and headings. Even a site that sells thousands of products should have a focus!
Make Sure You web Copy Is Easy To Read
Don't use all capital letters in the text of your sales message. It slows the average reader down 30% and can be very annoying. Only use caps when you want to emphasize a point, but also consider bolding the text.
Used sparingly to emphasize benefits, bolding and italics can be very effective but don't get carried away. Use bolding and italics sparingly...not together! Avoid underlining text. People tend to think underlined text must be a hyperlink and will get distracted clicking on it.
Another great way to make points is by using bullets.Bullets are great for building interest and generating excitement! But again, list benefits...not features
Write To Be Scanned
You need to write your sales letter so that it can be easily scanned. your site content should be broken up into well-defined sections, and you should use bolding and italics to emphasizse main points and benefits. This allows the reader to scan your site, picking out points of interest to them without having to read your entire sales latter.
There is such a huge volume of information online that it is unrealistic to expect every visitor to read your sales letter word for word. Write your web copy with this in mind!
Transfer Ownership
When writing your sales copy, be sure that you transfer ownership to the reader by using the words "you" and "your." This makes your writing much more personal
Count the number of "you's" and "your's" in your sales material. You should have at least twice as many "you's" and "your's" as "I's", "we's", "me's", "our's", etc...
Make Your Sales Message Exciting
Make your web copy exciting by using "glamour words" that pique the reader's interest. "Free" is a very powerful word. Do not advertise "free samples" if you expect the user to pay for postage or something else. If you abuse this word, you will lose your credibility and your sales will plummet. Free means, without any cost to the consumer whatsoever!
Long Sales letter Works
Long web copy is generally preached as a "no-no" by online marketeers. They'll tell you that you should stick to using multiple short "pages" that contain a single, complete thought.
Extensive testing and re-testing has shown that long web copy sells!The key here is that if people are interested, they will read as much as you can write. You can give your visitors both. For those who prefer a short sales letter you can provide opportunities to click through to your order page prior to ending your sales letter.
Don't Let Your Visitor Know That You're About To Sell Them Something
It is important that you don't tell your visitor up front that you are trying to sell them something. No matter what you're selling, how great it is, or what a fabulous deal you're offering, people won't stick around if they think you are going to ask for their money.
It cannot be emphasized enough that you should keep your visitors reading..hook their attention with benefits..press their "hot buttons".. create a desire for your product.. and only THEN let them know your product/service is available for sale.
There are, of course, a few exceptions to this rule like catalogue sites and discount sites (e.g. Amazon.com). Generally speaking, however, for most web sites this rule applies.
Publish Testimonials
Testimonials are a powerful selling tool and should be used at every opportunity.
To really explode your sales, you need to convince your visitors that other people have benefited from doing business with you. The most effective way to accomplish this is by using testimonials. If other people just like them have benefited from your product or service, testimonials will dramatically increase your credibility!
Ask For The Order
Ask for the order! Ask for the order! and ask for the order again! Time and time again people simple do not ask for the order.
Marketing experts have proven time and time again that you will increase your sales by at least 80% simply by asking for the order. You can be very subtle about this.. for example, you could include a P.S. at the end of your sales letter re-stating your guarantee and reminding visitors that they have nothing to lose by ordering. Even transferring ownership by referring to the product as "yours" is a subtle way of asking for the order!
Provide A Strong Guarantee
Guarantees help to alleviate any anxiety the customer may be feeling about ordering from you. The best way to gain trust in your prospect is to include a solid guarantee on your products. It’s standard to offer 30 Day Money Back Guarantee. But why not offer a lifetime guarantee? If you are marketing a quality product or service, then you should not be afraid to back it up! Offer a 100%, no hassle, no question asked, lifetime money-back guarantee!
Many of you are thinking, "what are you doing offering a lifetime guarantee"
Sounds risky to you, right? Well, you will be pleasantly surprised...
Did you know that the longer your guarantee is for, the fewer returns you will receive? It's a fact! You will receive fewer returns for a lifetime guarantee than a one-year guarantee. And you will receive fewer returns for a one-year guarantee than you will for a 30-day guarantee. There are two reasons why:
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The customer feels more confident that your product or service will live up to your promises because the longer guarantee indicates that you have confidence in what you are offering.
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The customer doesn't feel that they are on a strict time limit to return the product. The customer doesn't feel rushed to review the product as soon as they get it to qualify for the 30-day return period. With a one year guarantee (or longer), even if they want to return it, it is easy to put off because they know they have a long grace period.
Offer A Bonus
Something free is always a drawing factor in advertising. “Free” is probably the most powerful advertising word in existence. Offering one, two, or three free bonuses makes closing your sale much easier for a couple of reasons:
- A bonus increases the perceived value of your product. People feel like they're getting more value for money.
- By making the bonus a "limited time offer," you create a sense of urgency. If they don't order today, tomorrow, of this week, they wont receive the bonus offer.
Test Your Offer
Many people think that there is one magic formula that, once discovered, will generate instant results when marketing online.
While there are a few techniques that are essential if you want to be successful, there is no one trick or technique that is going to make you rich overnight.
In marketing online the biggest key of long-term success is testing everything. Test your ads. Test your sales letters. Test you products. Test the publications. Test everything. You will never be done.
Learn to key all of your order forms and phone numbers to make sure you know which ad and publication is doing what. Don’t ever leave anything to chance. Test everything.
Great Online Marketing Millionaires are people who have tested everything and have found what works. Your testing period will NEVER end!
It is a process of testing, evaluating, tweaking, and re-testing that will ultimately earn you the big money. Don't forget this!
Other Tips
There are other tips that we would like to mention but cannot elaborate on, these include:
- Target Your Market Using Surveys
- Never Bad-mouth Your Competitors!
- Include A Post Script
- Pricing Your Product
- Proofread, Edit, And Proofread Some More!
- Removing Objections To Buy
