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The Challenge of the Sales Ad (part 3 of 3)

February 23rd, 2010

How to Write Ads for the Internet (part 3 of 3). See part 1. See part 2.

An effective sales ad is harder to create than a response ad. That’s because it’s much harder to get someone to give you their money, than to merely visit your site.

The only reason someone will voluntarily give you their money is in exchange for something they want. In the case of most businesses, that means solving a problem.

A famous marketing guru once said, ‘All marketing is about solving problems’. This statement is 100% correct. Your product is designed to solve a specific problem. If you don’t know what that problem is you can’t create a powerful sales ad.

For example, a car solves the problem of getting from point A to point B. A car does this so much better than anything else (fast, inexpensive, comfortable, fun) that it has become the #1 tool used by people to solve the point A to point B problem.

The entire focus of your sales ad needs to be the problem. Specifically…

  • What the problem is
  • Why the problem needs to be solved
  • How your product solves the problem
  • How your solution is different and/or better than other solutions
  • Why the prospect should trust you to solve it
  • What to do to have this problem solved

Your answers to these questions form the basis of your sales ad. They even fit into the following general overview of your sales ad.

A sales ad has four different sections. Each section has a specific job to do. The sections, and their specific purpose, are…

  • Gain a commitment to read the ad
  • Build the prospect’s interest
  • Create desire for the product
  • Ask the prospect to buy

Commitment to read the ad

This section consists of the ad’s headline and its first paragraph. Your goal is to make the ad so interesting to the prospect that he or she is compelled to read it.

The headline should state the specific problem that your product solves. That is, the outcome delivered by the product. For example…

The Cost of Security is Exploding. Now you can get better Security and Save Thousands!

The example headline promises to deliver something the prospect wants very badly. The use of the word ‘now’ also suggests something has changed, improving the credibility of the statement being made.

The first paragraph must immediately follow on from the headline. If it doesn’t do that, your prospect will quickly lose interest.

The first paragraph should also lend weight to the claim made in the ad headline. But it shouldn’t be too specific. At this point you’re looking for a commitment to read the ad, not a commitment to buy. For example…

Wouldn’t you love to get better security with SIA Licensed Guards, and cut the cost of your security? Not just for a limited time, but permanently. That’s exactly what you get from Check Security. Here’s how…

The example paragraph restates the product’s key promise, and then uses a hook to encourage further reading. Nobody interested in more security for less money will stop reading at the end of paragraph one.

That’s an important point. You want people to continue reading past the end of the first paragraph. The further into your ad you can get a person, the less likely it is he/she will stop reading. This is mainly down to the fact that your reader will have forgetten whatever it was he/she was doing before, and become increasingly interested in your offer.

Build the prospect’s interest

The example paragraph above is designed to lead the reader naturally into the second part of the ad. In this next section, you must build the prospect’s interest in what you have to sell. You do that by giving more detail about the product or service you’re selling.

This section should focus on what your product actually delivers, and how it works. You need to keep this section short and to the point. You must avoid getting bogged down in the detail. You’re not out to prove anything in this section. You’re simply whetting your prospect’s appetite for more.

Create desire for the product

At this point in your ad, only one thing will stop your prospect from buying. Doubt.

Doubt is the #1 sales killer. During the desire section of your ad you increase desire for the product by eliminating doubt. The doubts that rise in your prospect’s mind fall into these broad categories…

  • The product doesn’t do what you say
  • The product doesn’t exist (i.e. scam)
  • The product result doesn’t justify its price
  • The prospect doesn’t really have this problem
  • The problem isn’t more expensive than the price

Up to this point in your ad, you’ve simply made claims for your product. These are enough to get your prospect interested, and are the reason why he or she is still reading. But to get a sale, you need to create excitement. To convert interest into excitement, you must eliminate doubt. And to eliminate doubt, you must backup your claims.

You should do this with some subtlety. You can’t simply say ‘This isn’t a scam’, because all that does is raise the concern in the mind of the prospect. Here are some common ways to deal with doubt…

  • Testimonial evidence from existing customers. These should be scans of the original hard copy, or video testimonial
  • Scientific evidence
  • A free trial period
  • A money back guarantee
  • A generous warranty
  • A summary of your expertise (if you’re the product)

Your use of these techniques should be in conjunction with the benefit being delivered. In other words, you need to keep the prospect interested while you eliminate his or her natural doubts. The end result of reading this section of your ad should be an overwhelming desire to buy the product.

Ask the prospect to buy

It might seem obvious, yet one of the most common mistakes made by amateurs is forgetting to ask for the sale.

When asking for the sale, it’s best to order the prospect to buy. That is, to tell the prospect what to do. You should also restate your product’s main benefit in the form of a question when you do this. For example…

You’d to get more security, protect your business with SIA Licensed Guards and save thousands of dollars wouldn’t you? Click here and join now…

This example shows how to ask a question that can only be answered with ‘yes’. You get the prospect to agree that what your product delivers is something he or she wants. Then you tell the prospect what he or she must do to get it. In this case, to click a link.

Finishing off…

Many amateurs are uncomfortable with asking for the sale, especially in so blatant a manner as I have suggested. Amateurs tend to follow up with more words. It’s almost as if they’re apologizing for having had the temerity to try and sell something.

Don’t make this mistake. Ask for the sale, and be done with it. Don’t type another word.

You never really finish

At some point you have to stop writing your sales ad and post it to the web. You never really finish writing an ad. It’s more accurate to say that you abandon it.

I’ve found it worthwhile rewriting my sales ads every couple of weeks, in an attempt to improve them. My first effort is never my best. I encourage you to do the same, and let your ad evolve over time.

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What are you really selling?

February 7th, 2010

It’s a question everybody in business has to answer: What are you really selling?

This is one of those questions that isn’t easily answered. For example, I have a client that provides entertainers for corporate functions, private parties and wedding receptions. There are many different ways to describe their product…

  • Singing Waiters
  • Wedding reception entertainment
  • Corporate entertainment
  • Incognito artists
  • Operatic entertainment
  • Professional dancers

None of these terms adequately describe the awesome experience you get when they appear at your event. How on earth can a company like this adequately describe its product to somebody who happens to visit their website?

The key is to get at the heart of the emotional experience enjoyed by the people they’re performing to. In this case, the entertainers arrive at the event incognito. The performers are present during the course of the evening, disguised as waiters, security staff and so on.

At some point during the evening one of the performers will make him or herself known in a surprising way. For example, a waiter may grab the mike and claim that his mates have bet £100 that he isn’t brave enough to start singing in front of them. He will then proceed to sing very badly indeed.

Another performer taking the guise of the waiter’s boss will storm onto the stage and send the errant waiter off for punishment. He then proceeds to sing extremely well, immediately wowing the audience. Then the ‘bad’ singer returns and joins in, demonstrating his true talent. Everyone is laughing as they realise they’ve been had, and they’re now listening to a brilliant performance. But it doesn’t end there…

These entertainers are experts at involving the audience, and bringing them right into the performance. Their job is to get everyone up onto the dance-floor. I’ve watched them get every single person in the room out of their seats and dancing in less than a minute. It’s amazing to watch, and was the key to understanding what these guys offer their clients. I could see it on the faces of every guest in the room.

What Incognito Artists bring to an event is a guarantee that a client’s guests will experience the best party they’ve ever been to. What Incognito Artists do is get the party started. And make sure everybody wants to join in the fun.

This might seem obvious to a professional marketer, but it wasn’t to the company. They’re all performers, and from their perspective what they offer is a very special professional performance. This can be seen by examining their collection of videos. Every single frame is aimed at a singer or dancer, and you virtually never see the audience.

Yet the customer is going to be in the audience, and the best testimonial this company could possibly provide is the look on the faces of the people in the audiences at previous performances.

That’s one way to communicate an emotional experience without saying a word!

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World famous sales quotes

January 1st, 2010

Remember, you only have to succeed the last time. Brian Tracy.

You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour. Jim Rohn.

Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can. Willis Whitney.

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Coach Darrel Royal.

The first step is to fill your life with a positive faith that will help you through anything. The second is to begin where you are. Norman Vincent Peale.

To give yourself the best possible chance of playing to your potential, you must prepare for every eventuality. That means practice. Steve Ballesteros.

If there were no problems, most of us would be unemployed. Zig Ziglar.

The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we hit it. Michelangelo.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you too, can become great. Mark Twain.

Self pity is an acid which eats holes in happiness. Earl Nightingale.

Tough times never last, but tough people do. Dr. Robert Schuller.

My advice is to go into something and stay with it until you like it. You can’t like it until you obtain expertise in that work. And once you are an expert, it’s a pleasure. Milton Garland.

One man with courage makes a majority. Andrew Jackson.

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. Dale Carnegie.

Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I’ll show you someone who has overcome adversity. Lou Holtz.

Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment. Thomas Carlyle.

Kites rise highest against the wind-not with it. Sir Winston Churchill.

If at first you don’t succeed, think how many people you’ve made happy. Duane Black.

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not. Oprah Winfrey.

Work for the fun of it, and the money will arrive some day. Ronnie Milsap.

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Pssst….want to make more sales?

December 24th, 2009

Getting somebody to buy your product is a challenge. And when your sales medium is nothing more than words on a web page, it’s even harder still.

When you ask somebody to buy, you’re asking him or her to…

  • Believe the claims you make for your product
  • Hand over money to a complete stranger
  • Trust that you’ll deliver the product

As you might expect, most people are a little reluctant to do that right off the bat. Every one of us has been in this situation, haven’t we. We like the product, but we’re afraid to buy because we still have unanswered doubts.

In this article, you’ll find out how to combat doubt and discover new ways to boost your sales.

Familiarity

They say “familiarity breeds contempt.” Not in sales, it doesn’t. At least, not if you’re an honest trader.

The better you get to know somebody, the less doubt you experience. Of course, you may discover a person is untrustworthy, and so avoid them. For the purposes of this article, we’re talking about your sales page, so it’s safe to assume that finding ways to give your prospects more contact with you is a good thing.

Your goal must be to give people a reason to return to your site often. There are two reasons for this…

  1. You want them to get used to dealing with you (reduce doubt)
  2. You want more chances to make a sale

The question is, how do you get people to return often? Here are some ideas for you to consider…

  • Start an ezine and give-away free subscriptions
  • Start a members-only area
  • Start a Blog and publish original content daily
  • Compile a weekly Digest of your Blog and invite readers to subscribe
  • Publish plenty of useful content on your website

Start an ezine

Your ezine should pick a subject, and specialize in it. If your site covers several different topics, create an ezine for each one. That way, you pick up highly focused subscribers. This will be invaluable to you when…

  • You need to advertise a product to your subscribers
  • You want to sell advertising to others

The main advantage of your ezine (from your perspective), is that you now have a way of attracting your subscribers back to your site.

TIP #1: Publish your ezine weekly, and mail the subscriber list at the same time on the same day each week.

TIP #2: Publish your ezine articles on your website. The ezine should simply describe the article in a paragraph, and link back to it on your site. This achieves two aims…

  1. It gets people back to your site
  2. It increases the amount of actual content on your site. If you link to these articles from within the site itself, your search engine ranking will start to improve

Don’t load up your ezine with ads. Your subscribers want content, so give it to them. This will ultimately deliver many more sales than a mailing that contains nothing but ads.

Start a members-only area

Do you have certain content that you don’t want to simply give away to anyone that visits your site? Then why not start a members-only area?

In other words, get visitors to register with you before they get access to the members-only part of your site. Make this registration free, and require that the person verify their email address. This is a great way to build a mailing list.

You should then mail all your members once per week, with a summary of everything you’ve added to the members-only area over the last week. Link to each new item in your email.

Start a Blog

A Blog can take many different forms. For example…

  • A forum for publishing information
  • A personal record
  • A way for a group of people to publish information

This Blog (the one you’re reading right now) allows anybody to submit articles, but doesn’t guarantee publication. Other Blogs will publish every submission.

How you run your own Blog comes down to what you want to achieve. If you’re interested in building a large amount of information quickly, then you might want to open it up to everybody.

If you’re more interested in quality (a good idea), it’s best to first read a submission and reserve the right to edit it to suit your format.

Publish plenty of useful content

The web is awash with sites that do nothing more than link to other sites. Human beings don’t tend to find these sites all that interesting.

Neither do the major search-engines, which typically assign a low ranking to link-sites.

If your goal is to get people coming back to your site, you’re going to want to find a way to publish new content.

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Why don’t they buy? (part 1 of 2)

December 7th, 2009

What is it that stops people from clicking the ‘buy now’ button, and entering their credit card details in your sales form?

The 6 reasons

There are 6 basic reasons why a person won’t buy a product or service. Each individual may refuse to buy for one or more of the following reasons…

  1. The benefits aren’t clear
  2. They have no need for the product
  3. They can’t afford it
  4. They’re not asked to buy
  5. They don’t believe the product can deliver on the benefits promised in the advertising
  6. They don’t trust seller

Benefits aren’t clear

A benefit is an emotional reward that the owner gets when he or she uses the product. For example, a man who buys a custom-tailored suit enjoys the pleasure that comes from looking as good as he can possibly look.

Most Internet advertising incorrectly focuses on describing the product itself, rather than the benefits of owning and using the product.

This is a mistake, because a person doesn’t set out to buy a collection of components. He or she is interested in what the product will do for them.

Every product has particular features, and they do need to be included in the ad. But a feature should only be included to support the benefit of using the product. It’s a product’s benefits that matter.

No need

Nobody voluntarily buys a product for which he or she has no need. It’s impossible to sell a person anything until he or she has decided they want what the product offers more than the amount of money required to obtain it.

Having said that, it isn’t necessarily true that a person has no need for a product. It may be that the person hasn’t understood what they’ll get if they buy the product. People don’t buy products. They buy the thing that the product promises to deliver.

For example, people don’t buy cars. They buy transportation, and/or status, and/or convenience, and/or thrills.

It’s highly likely that a sales page that doesn’t get many sales isn’t communicating what the product delivers. As a result, potential buyers don’t understand why they might need the product on offer.

Can’t afford it

Sometimes, a person really can’t afford to buy. In this situation, the solution is to find ways to help a buyer fund the purchase.

It’s more likely that the buyer can afford to buy, but has decided it’s not worth more to him or her than the money it costs. In this situation, the advertiser is almost certainly failing to describe the benefits of using the product in a way that excites the potential client.

For example, a Porsche 911 has several benefits. It will get you from point A to point B. It looks fantastic, with sensual lines and has the appearance of moving even when it’s standing still. It’s a very fast car, with superb handling and a solid reputation for bullet-proof construction. It’s also a very expensive automobile, and few people would pay the asking price if the company focused only on the ‘point A to point B’ benefit.

The phrase ‘can’t afford it’ may, or may not be true. If your product is expensive relative to the market, or involves a non-trivial amount of money, you need to focus on the more exciting things your product will do for its owner.

Not asked to buy

It’s such a simple thing, you’d think every advertiser on the planet would ask people to buy. In fact, amateurs seldom ask people to buy.

It’s more likely that an ad will end weakly, with the advertiser taking a ‘softly-softly’ approach in case the prospective client feels pressured to buy.

This is a mistake. Anyone who reads your ad through to the end is interested in your product, but hasn’t made a definite decision to buy at this point. Why not? Because most people try to avoid making decisions. Decisions involve commitment. Most people tend to avoid making commitments.

Likewise, most people tend to avoid taking action. When it comes to money, most of us have learned the hard way that it’s usually safer not to buy. Inaction is the natural state of your average human being!

An ordinary person, having read your ad, will not buy if you don’t ask him or her to do so. Advertising that doesn’t force the issue will end in failure. People will simply finish reading the ad and move on.

After asking a person to buy, you must now tell him or her what they need to do to physically make the purchase.

Don’t believe product will deliver benefits

An ad may well disclose all the benefits that come from owning and using a particular product, but if the potential client doesn’t believe the product can do all those things…the sale won’t happen.

Any advertiser that makes claims for a particular product must be able to back those claims up with credible evidence.

What constitutes evidence depends on the target market for a product. For example, an unsophisticated market will be happy to believe testimonial evidence. Such a person may accept that a health-product produced the results claimed for it by users of the product. A more sophisticated audience will understand the weakness inherent in such a claim and demand stronger evidence. A health product may have to show the results of peer-reviewed double-blind scientific testing.

You need to assess the requirements of your particular market, and provide supporting evidence that speaks directly to the expectations and experience of your target audience.

It may also be that the claims being made for a product are perfectly true, but the product is so far ahead of the rest of the market, the claims are totally unbelievable.

If you’re in this situation, you’re going to have work even harder to demonstrate the truth behind your claims.

Don’t trust seller

The 6th reason why people don’t buy is they simply don’t trust the seller. Some markets are less trusting than others, and you need to adapt your approach for the market you’re selling to.

You can increase your trustworthiness in a variety of ways…

  • Build a relationship over time
  • Join an industry body
  • Obtain certification for your product
  • Use a secure server with an up-to-date certificate
  • Use a trusted 3rd party to process credit cards. This gives the client an independent way to get their money back
  • Use a certified delivery service that allows people to track their order
  • Publish client testimonials with contact details (having obtained the necessary permissions)

In my opinion, it’s the first of these that has the most impact. If you can begin the relationship with something that requires a low level of commitment from a future client (i.e. something free), you give him or her the chance to get to know you.

Whatever you do during this process, it should involve enough client contact for the person to get used to dealing with you. He or she should come to trust you enough that you answer the question ‘can I trust you?’ and remove it from his mind.

Then 6 became one

All the reasons why they don’t buy come down to one thing — doubt.

Doubt is the #1 sales killer, because it dampens excitement and enthusiasm. If you can overcome doubt, you make it possible for today’s jaded consumer to get excited about your product.

And once they’re excited, the sale is in the bag.

If you remove doubt that a potential buyer wants your product, you’ve taken a giant step closer to the sale. If you remove doubt about what the person needs to do to place an order, you’re one step closer to the sale.

If you remove doubt that the product can do what you claim it can do, you’re one step closer to the sale. If you remove doubt about the trustworthiness of your business, you’re one step closer to the sale.

If you remove all doubt…you’ll get the sale! But how do you remove all doubt? That’s the subject of part two.

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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.

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Four simple ways to boost your sales

November 29th, 2009

Every business suffers from slow periods, where nobody seems to want to buy. One great way to get through such a time, is to get serious about prospecting your existing client base.

You’ll find four great ways to boost the sales you make from existing customers in this article. And they’ll work for you no matter what you’re selling.

Follow up immediately

Every time you make a sale, follow up immediately with a thank you email.

In this email, you want to thank the client for his/her purchase. You should also include any information required to use the product, as this will help the client to start enjoying its benefits much sooner.

The other thing you ought to do, is offer the client a related product or service.

The most responsive prospect you’ll ever come across, is one who just bought from you. That’s why it really pays to include an additional offer in your post-sale thank you email.

This offer should be for something related to the product the client has just bought. Ideally, it will be the type of product that has the client say “of course I need that.”

One great way to increase your chance of securing this add-on sale, is to include a voucher with an exclusive discount in your email. Put an expiry-date on the voucher, and stick to it. This will increase the pressure to buy.

Don’t have a related product? Maybe you can sell an upgrade on the product they actually bought? Maybe you can source a related product?

After all, even if only 1 in 10 clients responds, your overall sales will increase by 10%. And of course, you can automate the entire process (money without work). This is a way to sell more product, without doing any extra work, or spending extra on advertising.

Offer your clients a freebie

To make sales, you first have to get people to visit your site. So why not find a way to get your existing customers to visit your site?

One great way to do that, is to mail your existing client base, and offer them a freebie. This could be anything, but ideally it will be related to something you’re selling. For example…

An advertising site offered every one of their existing clients 1,000 extra banner impressions totally free of charge. All their clients had to do, was visit the site and enter a coupon number into a form.

On doing so, the client was then taken to a page that offered him/her another 100,000 banner impressions for $19.95.

It cost the company very little make this offer, and the take-up was high.

More importantly, the take-up on the $19.95 offer was also high. That’s because the mailing was sent to existing advertising clients (i.e. very well targeted), and because the client came under additional pressure from the law of reciprocation.

Reward clients for referring others

Referral programs are quite common, and generally focus on paying commission in return for referring new customers.

Another approach, is to offer people the product free in return for referring others who buy. I came across a site that gave away a free mailing to their list for every two clients referred. That’s essentially a “buy two, get one free” offer, but somebody else is paying for the advertising.

Use an auto-responder to send the thank you

You can be pretty certain that a new client isn’t going to know your product as well as you do.

Your clients are highly likely to appreciate a series of emails that explain how to get the most from a product. You might create a series of 10 emails. The first is the post-sale thank you letter, while the remaining 9 each explain a different aspect of the product.

You can then include a specific offer inside some or all of these emails. This is especially powerful if your offer relates directly to the feature or benefit you described in the email itself.

For example, an ad product might set aside an email to describe the extra visitors that will come if the client uploads a banner ad to their account. The reader is then offered a special deal on banner design, and possibly even extra banner displays.

The seller’s goal is to help the client get more from his/her initial purchase, and in doing so, create opportunities to sell more product.

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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?

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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.

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How to create web pages that sell

November 26th, 2009

There’s an old adage in direct marketing that goes: The more you tell, the more you sell. It’s every bit as true today as it was back in the 1950s.

Most amateurs think a sales letter, landing page or online sales page ought to be as short as possible. I’ve often had clients tell me there are too many words in an ad, and that people will “never read all that.”

This myth is totally incorrect. People don’t buy because the advertiser is kind enough to leave out a bunch of words. People buy because they’re excited about the product on offer, and the advertiser was thoughtful enough to answer all their questions on the sales page.

The less you tell, the harder it is to buy

Consider this from the perspective of someone looking to buy life insurance on the Internet. What are the questions such a person might ask?

  • Is the product right for me?
  • Is the company credible?
  • Can I afford it?
  • Is it overpriced?

These are the key questions relating to life insurance, in the mind of someone who has already decided to buy.

A web page that aims to sell life insurance must answer every one of these questions. If it doesn’t, the person is unable to buy. He or she is simply left with unanswered questions, and will be forced to leave the sales page to get the answers they need. As soon as that happens, the sale is lost.

So how much should you say?

That’s a good question. I learned everything I know about writing sales copy from a genius, who consistently produced wildly successful ads. He would answer this question with an exasperated grunt and a roll of the eyes…

You say exactly as much as you need to say to get the sale. And no more.

In other words, leave out everything that doesn’t contribute to the sale. Exclude nothing that’s necessary to close the deal. If you can say it all in two sentences, then do so. If you need 100,000 words to get the sale, that’s how many you should write.

It sounds simple, but it takes experience and skill to get it right. All you need to do is try different versions of your sales page, and measure the results. You’ll soon find out which approach works best.

Fast to download

Most people now have a fast Internet connection. We no longer have to wait more than a second to view a web page. Even so, you should make sure your sales page loads as quickly as possible.

Get rid of any graphical elements you don’t need. Keep the design simple, and eliminate other distractions. After all, this is your sales page. It should contain only those elements necessary to get the sale.

Easy to read

Your sales page must be easy to read. The color of the text ought to be radically different to the background color. For example, having light blue text on a slightly darker blue background is insane.

The body copy fonts should be reasonably large, but not too large. You’re looking for something that is both easy on the eye, and easy to read.

You can enhance readability by limiting the width of the page. I like to keep the width of the actual text down to around 500 pixels. Any more than that, and the eye has to scan too far to find the beginning of the next line.

The basic rules of page design apply to web page design. Include plenty of “white” space, guidelines to help the reader’s eye, and ways to keep people reading.

Don’t split the page

With direct mail, you’re often forced to continue a sales message over multiple pages. You don’t have to do this on the web. So don’t.

The problem with spreading copy over multiple pages is that people often stop reading at the end of a page. Your goal is to keep people reading all the way to the end. On the web, the best way to achieve this is to keep everything on a single page.

NOTE: There are special instances where you do want people to click through to the next page. These are more likely to occur in lead generation rather than sales copy.

Pack a punch

Most products and services don’t require that you adopt a sophisticated tone. Taking on “airs and graces” will kill the sale stone cold dead.

If you’re selling something that regular people are going to buy, your sales copy needs to pack a punch. You should use short, power-packed words that excite the reader.

As a general rule of thumb, the old-English (often with a Saxon root) version of a word is the better one to choose. It will tend to be short, and guttural in sound. In almost every case, it’s more powerful to use short punchy words than longer soft-sounding (often with a Norman root) words.

Treat sentences like words

Your sentences, like your words, will sell more when they’re short and punchy. One trick I use to keep sentences short, and easy to understand, is to limit a sentence to a single point. For example…

The new 64-bit processor is faster, and more powerful than the old 32-bit processor, yet costs the same, giving you the power to do more without spending more!

This sentence is unnecessarily complicated, because it attempts to cram two separate points into a single sentence. This makes the sentence harder to understand, and the benefits are lost as a result.

The two points are more powerfully expressed in this two-sentence version…

You get more done in less time with the powerful new 64-bit processor. And best of all, you get it for the same price as an old-fashioned 32-bit processor!

Splitting the sentence in two makes it possible to inject extra power (e.g. the words powerful, old fashioned) into the point being made. The author is able to focus on each point individually, and so has the ability to highlight the benefit. At the same time, the paragraph is simplified and easier to understand.

Tell the client to buy

Are you a polite person? If so, you’re at a disadvantage when it comes to writing copy for the closing part of a sales page. Impolite, but highly successful advertisers, do not ask the client to buy.

They tell them!

And when I say tell, I mean they assume the sale and tell the client what to do to place an order. Here are two different ways to ask for the sale…

If you’d like to order, please click here.

Click here now!

The first example is very polite, but it’s also weak. The second example might seem abrupt, but it’s much more likely to result in a sale.

We’re talking about the end of the sales message here. At this point, everyone who isn’t interested has already stopped reading. The people who are still reading are very interested in your offer.

They’re also human beings. They spend their whole lives avoiding action. The last thing they want to have to do is make a decision.

The very last thing you want to do is leave the decision in the hands of your potential clients. It’s far more effective to avoid the decision altogether, and tell the client what he or she needs to do to place an order.

Don’t ask — tell. Assume the sale, and it’s usually yours.

Please note that I’m talking about the end of the sales page here. Don’t use this technique at the start of the sales page. If you start your ad with a headline that says “Read this now,” you’ll lose most of your potential clients right there.

The forcefulness I’m talking about is only appropriate at the end of a sales page.

And even at this point, you’re not really being rude. You’re simply assuming the sale and explaining what’s required to make the purchase. In context, it’s not being rude. It’s being wise.

Summary

Your sales page can only be successful if you give your prospects all the information they need to buy. Don’t leave any important question unanswered.

Your sales page needs to load quickly, and contain short exciting words that pack a punch. Keep everything on one page, and remember to tell the prospect exactly what he or she needs to do to buy.

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