Archive for the ‘copywriting’ category

Newer Entries »

The 3 things your ad must have

December 1st, 2009

Your Internet advertising (or sales page) must have three ingredients before it make you money. These three things are…

  1. Clarity
  2. Benefit
  3. Credibility

In fact, I’ll go one step further. If your ad has all three ingredients, it will succeed. That is, you will make sales.

When advertising goes bad

Every advertiser will eventually run into a situation where they simply can’t seem to make sales. They’re getting visitors to their site. The site is online. But nobody is buying.

In such a situation, it’s highly likely the problem lies with the content of the sales page itself. The ad must be in breech of one of the three ingredients listed above.

The problem the advertiser faces, is working out what’s going wrong. This is especially true if he/she wrote the ad, because the author of the copy is often too close to judge it objectively. What can you do, next time you find yourself in this situation?

Get someone else to read your ad

Yes, it sounds so simple. Get someone else to read the ad, and tell you what’s wrong with it. The thing is, who do you know that has the necessary experience to provide useful feedback?

Unless you’re lucky enough to know an experienced copywriter, there’s a good chance you have nobody who can provide a professional opinion. Fortunately, you don’t need a professional opinion. What you really need is a person in your target market with no self-interest in preserving your ego!

If you know somebody for whom your product would be ideal, show them your ad. If you’re spoiled for choice, pick the person with the least tact. You’re looking for someone who will speak their mind, with little regard for your feelings.

Most people are tactful, so you may have to coax out their true opinion. Don’t simply accept everything they say at face value.

How to get the most from your critic

Once you’ve selected one or more people to judge your ad, and got them to agree to tell you what they think, it’s time to explain what you want from them.

Ask them to read your ad twice. The first time through, they should read the ad without thinking about it critically. To approach it as they would any ad for a product that might interest them. The second time through, they should make a mental note of anything that stands out. In particular, anything they found confusing or that put them off.

Leave your critic to read the ad. Don’t hang around, looking over their shoulder. Actually leave the room, and let him/her get on with it. Once your critic has read the ad, ask them what they thought of it. This is a deliberately open question, designed only to get things going.

Your critic’s reply will probably lack detail. For example, you may hear “it was good.” Ask what they liked about it. Ask questions that invite the critic to provide more detail, without being too enthusiastic in your approach.

Your critic knows you want him/her to provide negative feedback. Like most people, he/she probably doesn’t want to give you negative feedback. Past experience has taught people it’s not safe to engage in negative feedback. Naturally enough, we try to avoid doing so.

As a result, your initial questions may not turn up any useful information. But what they allow you to do, is establish a safe-environment. You can demonstrate you genuinely want to receive all the information your critic has to give (not just the good stuff). By taking things slowly, you’re showing it’s safe for him/her to be completely honest with you.

The way to do this, is to simply accept anything the critic tells you. Don’t challenge it. Don’t explain why you did X. Don’t defend your ad in any way. Simply accept the answer, thank the critic for giving it, and move on.

Any attempt to question or challenge the feedback you get, is a warning sign to your critic. It tells him/her to be careful.

Ask the key question

Once you feel the conversation is flowing freely, and that your critic is comfortable discussing the ad with you, you can ask the key question. It’s this question that is most likely to bring out the information you need. And it’s why your critic must be in the target market for your product.

Ask your critic if he or she would buy the product from this ad. If everything is going well, you’ll be told “No.” You can now cut to the chase, and home in on the reasons why the ad isn’t working.

Chances are, your critic will say “Yes.” Assuming the critic is in the target market, this is almost certainly a lie. If it were true, you’d have already taken his/her order! I suggest you test this response, and say “Great! I’ll get my order book.”

If the critic does actually buy, that’s great. You made a sale. If the critic starts backing down, you can be sure he/she was lying. This kind of lie tells you two things…

  1. Your critic isn’t comfortable being truthful with you
  2. You may as well cut your losses

If you get to this point, it’s very unlikely you’ll get anything useful from your critic. You may as well cut your losses, and find another critic.

When the critic won’t buy

If your critic tells you he/she wouldn’t buy from your ad, you have exactly what you need. You have someone who can help you work out why the ad isn’t performing. Say to the critic, “obviously you have a good reason for feeling that way. Would you mind if I ask what it was?”

This sentence is much softer, and less threatening, than “Why not?” It’s far more likely to elicit a useful response. Your critic will provide his/her answers. You’re now free to explore them in more detail.

Remember, ask questions. Don’t defend or explain. If your critic says “X put me off,” don’t make the mistake of explaining why “X” is necessary to the ad. By doing so, you invalidate the critics opinion. This will staunch the flow of information, and you won’t find out what you need to know.

Instead, ask a question about “X” to get more specific information about why the critic feels that way.

This simple approach will help you understand what’s missing from the ad. You’ll discover what the prospect isn’t getting from the ad. You’ll find out what he/she needs from the ad to make a positive buying decision. This information allows you to write a far more powerful ad.

What’s more, the process can be repeated using the more powerful ad (and ideally, a different critic). It may take 2 or 3 sessions to really get down to the nitty-gritty of what you need to say to get the sale.


1 comment »

Posted in Advertising, copywriting

Tags:

Uncompromising ads sell more

November 30th, 2009

Want to make more sales from your advertising? Then you’ll want to eliminate conditional words and phrases from your ad.

Take a look at the following sentence…

This offer is strictly limited. We’re going to have to remove the special discount on Friday. To make sure you don’t miss out, please fill out the form and place your order now.

At first glance, there’s nothing wrong with this close. But let’s zoom in a little closer, and find the conditional words and phrases that weaken this call-to-action.

We’re going to…

The phrase “we’re going to,” weakens the urgency of the close by reinforcing the fact that the offer isn’t being removed immediately. Consider this more powerful version…

This offer is strictly limited. The special discount expires on Friday.

This new version removes all doubt. The special discount will go. And notice how, in the original, the special discount will be “removed.” In the new version, it’s going to “expire.”

The original makes it clear the offer is going to be removed by a human agent. In doing so, it implies it may be possible to negotiate an extension to the offer. This leaves the reader an out, removing urgency and draining power from the call-to-action.

The new version doesn’t compromise. It states the offer “will expire,” implying a natural process where negotiation is impossible. It enhances the urgency of the close, increasing the chance of a sale.

Which Friday?

The original call-to-action stated the special discount will end on Friday. But which Friday? An advertiser injects an enormous amount of power into an ad by being specific…

This offer is strictly limited. The special discount expires this Friday.

This second version removes any doubt about which Friday the advertiser is talking about. Imagine how much more powerful the call-to-action becomes, if it’s read late in the week.

Command action

A call-to-action is made more powerful when the advertiser tells the prospect what to do, rather than asks. Here are the last two sentences in the original…

To make sure you don’t miss out, please fill out the form and place your order now.

At first glance, this may seem like a powerful close. In fact, it suffers from a sudden attack of reticence. Why say “To make sure,” when the advertiser can be totally uncompromising?

The word “please” implies the advertiser is asking the prospect to act. Why ask, when the advertiser can tell? At this point in the ad, the advertiser desperately wants the prospect to order. Surely, it makes sense to go ahead and tell the prospect to do so? Here’s a more powerful version that is far less compromising…

Place your order right now. Fill out this form and click the Submit button…

The new version doesn’t bother to talk about missing out on the special discount. It’s implied by the rest of the paragraph, so why bring it up again? Doing so only forces the reader to wade through unnecessary words before the magic point where the advertiser asks for the sale.

The new version gets right to the point. It literally orders the product to buy. And then explains what he or she must do to actually place an order.

Putting it all together

Let’s bring the two parts of the call-to-action together, and see what we have…

This offer is strictly limited. The special discount will expire this Friday. Place your order right now. Fill out this form and click the Submit button…

We’ve removed many unnecessary words, ensuring the prospect can read these sentences fast. That increases the speed at which the reader gets to the point where the advertiser asks for the sale. It also makes the paragraph easier to understand.

The shorter call-to-action imparts a greater sense of urgency in and of itself. This is reinforced by the language we’re using. As a result, the call-to-action is made more demanding, less polite, and is far less compromising.

It doesn’t leave the prospect with an out. It’s clear that if he or she wants the product at the discounted rate, he or she has to act now. In isolation, the above call-to-action may seem terse. There are two reasons for this…

  • You’re a polite person
  • You’re reading it in isolation

The call-to-action will seem less terse, and make more sense, in its proper context. That is, when it completes a properly constructed ad that gets the prospect excited about the product on offer.

Assuming the rest of the ad achieves its goal, even something as terse as our call-to-action will seem perfectly natural to the reader. He or she will want the product, and appreciate being told how to get it as quickly as possible.


2 comments »

Posted in copywriting

Tags:

Features and benefits in advertising

November 30th, 2009

Every advertiser knows their product comes complete with its own features and benefits. Every advertiser also knows sales are made on benefits, not features.

Ask an advertiser to tell you the difference between a feature and a benefit, and you may well draw a blank.

Is it a feature or a benefit?

Take a quick look at the following list…

  1. 64-bit processor
  2. You get your work done faster
  3. 1 megabyte of RAM
  4. Powerful enough to do everything you’re going to want to do
  5. 24 inch 1900 x 1200 pixel TFT LCD
  6. A big clear screen with plenty of room for your documents

I’m sure you already know the odd-numbered items are features, and the even-numbered items are benefits. It’s pretty obvious when they’re listed this way.

People make their buying decisions at an emotional level, which is why its the benefits offered by your product that ultimately influence the sale. This doesn’t mean features aren’t important too. Features help establish the credibility of your claim, and may also provide the buyer with a rational justification for his/her purchase.

Features and benefits both belong in your ad. The key is knowing when to introduce them, and the best way to use them.

What is a benefit?

A benefit is a desirable outcome that arises through the use or ownership of your product. For example, the benefits of car ownership may include…

  • Prestige
  • Flexibility
  • Save time

You can regard something as a benefit if it clearly describes an improvement in the buyer’s life. It’s not a benefit if the buyer has to translate the meaning of what you say. For example, prestige may be a benefit to a buyer of a luxury car. Plenty of legroom, expensive leather, lots of gadgets and a V12 engine are features that convey prestige.

What is a feature?

A feature is some aspect or component of a product that delivers an outcome. For example, a V12 engine delivers speed.

It’s certainly true that some features are so well understood by the buyer, they’re instantly translated into benefits. Despite this, your ad should still describe the benefit. This ensures the buyer responds on an emotional level. What’s more, the buyer may not be interested in the specific features that deliver the desired benefit.

The buyer’s subconscious will bring your ad to the attention of his/her conscious mind, as soon as it detects the particular benefit that motives him/her. If your target market consists of speed-freaks, you better make it very clear that your product delivers plenty of speed.

Lead with your #1 benefit

Your ad must lead with the product’s #1 benefit. That is, the number one thing your target market most wants to get from a product like yours. And by “lead”, I mean start talking about the benefit in the ad’s headline.

Here are two examples that illustrate the point. Which of these would you put at the top of your ad?

Do this and you’ll earn $25 million

Do this and you’ll never have to work again

It’s a tricky choice to make, isn’t it? After all, $25 million is a lot of money. But that first headline isn’t without its problems…

  • Such a large amount of money may be dismissed as fantasy
  • The reader has to translate the money into an actual benefit
  • The reader may not regard this amount as enough

The first headline asks the reader to think. It forces the prospect to use a technical part of his/her brain, and translate the amount into a clear benefit. The problem with doing that right at the start of an ad is we don’t want the reader to think. We want the reader to start fantasizing. We want him/her getting excited about the benefit our product conveys.

We want the reader to respond on an emotional level.

If the reader is bogged down with facts and figures, he/she isn’t getting excited. Despite the large sum of money being discussed, the ad starts out with the reader in the wrong frame of mind.

Benefits are exciting

The second headline puts the reader in a different frame of mind. Instead of dealing with facts and figures, it talks about the benefit directly. No thinking involved!

This greatly increases the chance the reader will accept the statement at face value. And if that happens, the reader will start day-dreaming about the joys of not having to work. This will motivate the reader to find out what it is he or she has to do. It has the prospect start reading the ad.

Benefits are exciting. The benefit is the thing people who buy the product actually want. For example, a car-buyer doesn’t really want a specific brand of car. The buyer wants whatever he or she thinks that brand signifies. It might be prestige, performance, environmental responsibility, fuel economy, size or safety.

Of course, your ad can’t dwell exclusively in benefits. A product’s features are important too, because they lend credibility to the benefit on offer.

An ad headline should get the prospect interested enough to read the ad. The introduction should build on this interest. Once you’ve secured it, the reader will want to know why your product is able to deliver the promised benefit. And this is the point where you should introduce the product’s features.

Each feature ought to be explained with the benefit (or benefits) in mind. It must be made perfectly clear to the prospect exactly what benefit a particular feature delivers.

Features belong in the middle part of the ad. They’re there to help the reader understand how the product delivers on the claims (benefits) made for it. The ad must then end by talking about benefits.

End with the benefit

The buyer wants the desired outcome (benefit) that comes with owning or using the product. A prospect will buy only if he/she believes the product will deliver those benefits. The middle part of your ad should prove that your product delivers everything you claim for it.

You must then turn your focus back to the product’s benefits. Remember, a person responds to your product on an emotional level. He or she will make a buying decision based on the benefits alone.

Your ad needs to close by restating the benefits, now made credible in the mind of the buyer, and explain exactly what the prospect has to do to get the product. In particular, you should find a way to remind the prospect that the main benefit is available just as soon as he/she places an order.


2 comments »

Posted in Advertising, copywriting, online selling

Tags:

Instantly make your ad less powerful

November 29th, 2009

The words you use in your ad, and the way you use them, make a big difference to your results. Two sentences may have the exact same meaning, but one is guaranteed to outsell the other.

Is your ad looking a little iffy?

The word “if” has the power to rob a sentence of its persuasive power. It does this when it appears after a beneficial statement. For example…

You will earn $7,500 per week, if you can refer five people!

The sentence leads with a positive, stating a specific amount of money that will be earned. This positive, of interest to any MLMer, is then weakened by the qualifier that follows. It weakens the ad, because the qualifier (a negative) casts doubt on the benefit.

Take a look at the same sentence when we lead with the negative…

If you can refer five people, you will earn $7,500 per week!

This version of the sentence ends with the positive. The reader is left with the thought of earning $7,500 (benefit), instead of having to recruit 5 people (chore).

Remove every last trace

Of course, the sentence can be made more powerful by leaving out the word “if” altogether…

Refer five people, and you will earn $7,500 per week!

Removing the word “if” helps to disguise the qualifier. As soon as “if” appears in a sentence, it automatically implies a qualification. And in the context of advertising, we run the risk of the reader automatically assuming the qualification is there specifically to exclude him or her from the benefit.

Why take the risk that the reader will leap to this conclusion?

Further masking the qualification

Our sentence can be further strengthened by including language that minimizes the qualifier in the mind of the reader. For example…

Only 5 people. That’s all you need to bank $7,500 a week!

This version uses the word “only” to imply a small quantity. To reinforce this effect, I’ve substituted the numeric 5 for the longer (and so larger) word five. I’ve also removed the word “refer,” which implies work. I split the sentence in two as this further separates the work (referring) from the benefit (money). And finally, I’ve replaced the word “earn” with “bank.” The word “earn” implies doing work. The word “bank” implies something far more beneficial and solid.

This two-sentence approach carries a certain reckless disregard for the usual rules of grammar. This may upset one or two people. Ignore them, and instead focus on the impact on the majority of your readers.

You may also notice that I’ve replaced “per week” with “a week”. The meaning is unchanged, but the sentence is easier to read. This gets the reader to the end of the sentence faster, and is generally less demanding on the reader.

It does make a difference

The way you use words and phrases in advertising does matter. The way you construct a sentence, and your use of grammar will help or harm your results.

It pays to study the art of writing advertising copy. You will make more money by learning more about it.

Stay tuned for more in-depth articles like this one right here in The Online Marketing Blog.


2 comments »

Posted in copywriting

Tags:

When should you disclose the price?

November 28th, 2009

I see a lot of ads in my business. I get to look at dozens of new ads every day, and it’s interesting to note the point at which an advertiser decides to introduce the price.

I’ve seen people disclose the price in the headline of an ad. I’ve seen people disclose the price in the opening paragraph of a sales page. I’ve seen people leave the price until the very last minute, and disclose it just before they ask for the sale.

I guess some advertisers think it doesn’t matter all that much. In fact, the reverse is true.

The point in the ad where you introduce the price is very important. The price can make or break a sale, and it’s essential to introduce it at exactly the right time.

The price is never a benefit

An advertiser that discloses the price at the start of an ad, has killed the sale before it’s even started. A potential client never regards the price as a benefit.

It’s easy for the seller to confuse the price with a benefit, because it is a benefit to him or her! It pays to remember that the reverse is true for the buyer.

Actually, there is one possible exception to this rule. If the product and its regular price are very well known, a massive discount may be viewed as an advantage. The problem is, you can’t be certain that…

  • The prospect knows the product and its regular price. He or she may not understand the significance of the discount
  • The prospect will accept the discount without getting suspicious about the reasons behind it

In my view, it’s far to risky to begin an ad with the price. The odds are overwhelmingly against your prospect seeing the price (or a discount) as anything like a benefit to get excited about.

It’s more likely that revealing the price too early, will kill the sale.

A price without benefits

A price without benefits, is like a pub without beer (i.e. pointless). For that reason, it’s best to leave the price until you’ve first had a chance to introduce your client to the benefits of owning and/or using your product.

The price of something is never good news. It’s a roadblock placed directly in the path of the sale. You must replace the issue of price in the mind of the prospect, with the benefits offered by your product. If the client doesn’t come to believe that the benefits are more valuable to him/her, than the money he/she will have to pay, the sale won’t occur.

That’s why it’s essential that the benefits of owning/using your product are described first.

The price signals reality

As soon as you introduce the price of your product, it brings a potential client back down to earth. It’s the moment of truth. The price forces a potential client to make up his or her mind. To decide whether he or she is truly interested.

You can imagine how disastrous this could be. The last thing you need, is to have your prospect make a buying decision before he/she knows what the benefits of ownership are.

The price forces the prospect to make a decision, and that means there’s only one logical place to put it.

Disclose the price just before you ask for sale

The best place to disclose the price is just before you ask the prospect to buy.

The price brings your prospect back down to reality, and this is reinforced by the request for the sale. It’s the make or break moment, which is why it belongs at the end of your ad.

Assuming the rest of your ad has done its job, only now will the prospect be able to make an informed decision. Specifically, does he/she want the benefits offered by your product more than the money it costs?


No comments »

Posted in copywriting, online selling

Tags:

New to copywriting? Try the AIDA approach

November 27th, 2009

The A.I.D.A. approach to advertising dates back many years, and is a useful guide for anyone who needs to write a sales ad. It’s especially helpful to people with little or no experience of writing an ad.

A.I.D.A. explained

The letters in A.I.D.A. stand for…

  • Attention
  • Interest
  • Desire
  • Action

Each word represents a different objective for a particular part of the ad you’re writing. Let’s take a look at how to use each of them…

Attention

Before you can sell anything, you first have to capture the attention of a potential client. This is usually the job of the ad’s headline, and its layout and design.

An unusual layout, choice of colors, and/or animation can be used to capture the prospect’s attention. A powerful headline can then secure it.

Your goal at this point, is not to sell your product. It’s to sell the prospect on reading your ad.

One excellent way to secure your prospect’s attention, is to write a headline that describes the number one benefit your product offers.

Interest

You’ve got your prospect’s attention. Now you need to cultivate his or her interest. This is the job of the opening paragraph of your ad. Your opening paragraph (or paragraphs) have to be very interesting to the reader. Here are a few ways you can achieve this…

  • Get to the point immediately. Don’t try to ease the reader into the topic. Go for the jugular, and start talking about the greatest benefit your product offers.
  • Use short sentences, and punchy words. Your copy must be exciting and easy to read. It must not demand too much of the reader.
  • Stick to benefits. These are desired outcomes. Talk in terms of emotion, not facts. If you find yourself leading with numbers, something is wrong.
  • Don’t talk about special offers or discounts at this point in the ad.
  • Don’t hint at things to come later in the ad. The reader doesn’t care (yet). He or she is interested only in knowing more about the benefit described in the headline.
  • The opening paragraph(s) must be connected to the headline. They must follow up on the benefit described in the headline. If they’re disconnected, the potential client will stop reading.

Desire

Your ad is a seduction. You’re attempting to persuade a potential client that he or she will be better off with your product, than with the money it costs.

Of course, you can only do that if you first cultivate desire for the benefits delivered by the product. Your potential client has to get excited about it. He or she must want it.

In this section of the ad, your job is to back up the benefits you say your product delivers, with substantial proof that it does. This is the part of the ad where you establish the credibility of your claims.

It’s the section where you build a rational case for buying your product. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to quote facts and figures. You might instead rely on anecdotal evidence, such as testimonials.

Your goal is to have the prospect become increasingly excited as he/she starts to realize that the benefits described at the start of the ad will apply to him or her when he/she buys your product.

Action

Once you have your potential client excited about the benefits of owning your product, it’s time to ask for the sale. Direct response copywriters refer to this as the call to action. That’s because you’re asking the reader to act.

This is the moment of truth, and most people will not act unless there’s a compelling reason to do so. You’re going to have to be forceful to get the sale. You’re going to need to apply pressure.

One excellent way to do that, is to offer a special discounted price, and place a time-limit on it. Give with one hand, and threaten to take away with the other. This increases the pressure to act. To buy now, instead of later.

Summary

The A.I.D.A. approach has worked well for me over the last 15 years. Some feel it’s a little old-fashioned, but I disagree. It works. It’s easy to understand. And it’s easy to remember.


2 comments »

Posted in copywriting

Tags:

How to write a powerful sales ad

November 26th, 2009

To turn any potential client into an actual client, you need to answer the questions your potential clients are asking.

Every potential client goes through a process when thinking about buying something, and must be satisfied that he or she has answered these five questions…

  1. What does this product do?
  2. Do I want the outcome this product delivers?
  3. Do I believe this product will deliver the outcome?
  4. Why should I buy the outcome from this source?
  5. Can I afford it?

Every product has its own specific set of features that need to be described in the ad. There’s a good chance your sale copy answers those questions already. After all, you know your own product better than anyone.

The above five questions aren’t necessarily focused on a product’s features. When I’m asked to look at a sales page and find out why it’s not working, it’s usually down to a failure to answer these questions.

What does the product do?

It’s the most fundamental of questions, and you have to answer it right at the start of your sales copy. It sounds so logical. So simple. Surely every advertiser gets right to the point, don’t they?

Well, no actually. An incredibly large number of advertisers begin their sales copy by naming the product and talking about how good it is. These advertisers make a dangerous assumption that their potential clients already know what their product is, and what it will do for them (meaning the potential client).

Some advertisers even assume naming the product is as good as describing what it does.

It’s easy to forget the reader doesn’t share your intimate knowledge of the product. Consider the following ad headline…

Have it all done for you automatically

Do you see the problem? The advertiser is using the ad headline to describe a major benefit, but fails to provide a context for the reader. What will be done for me automatically?

An amateur might think of this as a curiosity device, hoping people will be desperate to find out more. In reality, we’re all too busy to pursue an ad headline like this.

The writer of this ad either doesn’t know, or has forgotten, what an ad headline is supposed to do. As a result, he or she has killed any chance of getting the sale.

Do I want the outcome this product delivers?

Describing what the product does must be done in conjunction with describing the outcome the product delivers. By that, I mean the benefit that comes with owning or using the product.

Most advertiser’s either describe what the product does, or the outcome it delivers. As you saw in the above example, this doesn’t work. You must describe both.

Once again, it seems self-evident. Of course you should do this! But are you? The following examples show the headlines of two ads. The first is a typical ad headline, while the second describes both the product and it’s benefit in one simple statement…

Flu, colds and other health problems!

You will make money with this advertising!

The first headline is oh-so-close to getting it right, but not close enough to win a cigar. Is the advertiser offering to give you a dose of the flu?

Ending the headline with a question mark would have been better. Starting the headline with “Instant cure for” would have been better still.

Meanwhile, the second headline tells you exactly what’s on offer. It’s advertising, and there’s money to be made. Anybody in the market for advertising knows immediately that they need to find out more.

The ad must now set out to convince the reader that the product can deliver on the promise made.

Do I believe the product will deliver the promised outcome?

Every potential clients wants to believe the promises you make for your product. For example, what advertiser wouldn’t want to make a profit on the money they invest in advertising?

The problem every advertiser faces is the long series of past disappointments experienced by the prospect. Consider the following ad headline…

Discover the sizzling new cash secrets that generate $7,000 a week!

This headline will certainly grab the attention of anyone interested in earning money. Such a person will certainly want to believe it’s true. Now the advertiser has to prove its true.

If this was your ad, what would you say to clinch the deal? It’s a useful exercise to go through, and I encourage you to think it through. What things need to be in a sales page to make a statement like this credible?

Why should I buy the outcome from this source?

You’ve made your prospect an offer he or she can’t refuse. You’ve convinced the potential client that you, or your product, will deliver the promised outcome.

Now the ungrateful sod has the cheek to think about another supplier? Yes, unfortunately.

If you’re the only supplier, that’s great. All you need to do is say so, and the question is answered. If you’re selling something the prospect can get at Walmart, you have a big problem. Here’s why…

Your prospect doesn’t know you, or anything about you. He or she is taking a big risk buying from you. Human nature will drive your prospect to reduce that risk (i.e. look for a trusted source), unless you provide a good reason to buy from you. You need to attack this on two fronts…

  • Provide evidence that you’re a reliable source. Testimonial evidence is a big help here, especially if the testifiers can be contacted
  • Offer benefits available only if the prospect buys from you. Find something other than price, because anyone can offer a discount.

Can I afford it?

Congratulations. Your potential client wants the outcome your product delivers. What’s more, you’ve convinced him or her that you can deliver that outcome. The would-be client has decided to buy. Surely the sale is in the bag, isn’t it?

Not necessarily.

The prospect may decide he or she doesn’t want the desired outcome badly enough to actually fork over cold hard cash. If so, he or she will think “I can’t afford it.”

It’s not that the client doesn’t have the money (unless you sell something very expensive). It’s more about the need to rationalize the purchase. In particular, the prospect must be able to justify the purchase to significant people in his or her life. Such people include…

  • An employer
  • Colleagues
  • A spouse
  • Friends
  • Famolu

You can’t rely on your prospect to do this for him or herself. You must equip your prospect with a rational explanation for the purchase.

You don’t need to do this to convince your prospect to buy. You need to do this to give your prospect the ammunition he or she needs to justify the purchase to others. For example, consider a product that costs $30 per month…

For just $1 a day, you get a guaranteed $600 return per dollar invested. And you get it in just 30 days.

That’s a whopping 24,000% return on your investment per annum! You’ll never make a profit like that from your bank, will you? Especially while your bank is paying a lousy 5–10%.

In this case, the rationalization breaks down the amount paid to its smallest sensible component: $1 a day. And note the word payment is never used. The term investment is used because it implies there is a profit to be made.

What’s more, the desired outcome is described as both a “return on investment”, and a profit. This is just in case the reader doesn’t know what “return on investment” means. And allows the advertiser to reuse the word “investment”, thus extracting twice the benefit.

The reader is then asked to contrast the sheer brilliance of the product on offer, against the “lousy” return those rotten scoundrels at the bank are paying.

How to answer the five questions

It’s important that your ad doesn’t actually ask the five questions. Yes, it must answer them. But it has to do so in a way that gives a potential client the answers he or she needs, within the context of supplying useful information.

If you actually ask these questions in your sales copy, your prospect will not understand why you’re doing so.

The prospect isn’t aware he or she is asking these questions. They occur at a subconscious level. That’s why you need to answer them within the wider context of your sales copy.


1 comment »

Posted in copywriting, online selling

Tags: