Your Internet advertising (or sales page) must have three ingredients before it make you money. These three things are…
- Clarity
- Benefit
- 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…
- Your critic isn’t comfortable being truthful with you
- 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.
