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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.


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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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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.


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Advertising’s 7 magic words

November 25th, 2009

When I was a kid, and I wanted something, my mother would always say “What’s the magic word?” Advertising has magic words too. If you rely on advertising to make a living, you’re going to need to know these seven magic words and how to use them.

So let’s cut to the chase. The seven magic words are…

  1. You
  2. Instant
  3. Guarantee
  4. Fast
  5. Easy
  6. Free
  7. Now

Inject as many of these words into your ad as you can, assuming it makes sense to do so. For example, you wouldn’t use the word “free” to describe something that cost money.

Knowing you, knowing me

The word “you” must always be used to refer to the reader of the ad. If I write a sentence, and use the word “you,” it implies that I’m taking to the reader.

This is a very good thing, because it personalizes the ad for the reader. Consider these two examples…

Everybody saves $50 — today only!

You save $50 — today only!

These two sentences say exactly the same thing, but the second is more powerful. It’s much clearer to the reader that it’s he or she that benefits.

Gimme gimme gimme right now!

Human beings are not patient creatures. Whatever it is we want, we want right now! We drink instant coffee, eat instant porridge, and buy fast-food in record quantities.

Most products benefit from the instant treatment (exceptions are rare), because nobody likes waiting for anything. Injecting the word “instant” into an ad has the effect of increasing it’s power…

Double your sales!

Double your sales — instantly!

The above sentences both offer an attractive benefit to the reader, but the second example trumps the first by promising it now.

Guarantee

Doubt is your greatest enemy, and the most difficult to kill. The reassuring word “guarantee” helps you to overcome doubt in a skeptical world.

You make money instantly

You make money instantly — guaranteed

With the examples above, the first sentence makes a powerful promise to the reader. But the second injects more power by adding a single word! Notice the impact of that word on the overall excitement generated by the sentence?

Fast

Get out your thesaurus and look up the word “instant.” No doubt you’ll find “fast” listed as a synonym. So yes, “fast” and “instant” are related. But they’re not exactly the same.

“Fast” is an excellent word to use when “instant” doesn’t apply. For example, if you have to ship a product, you can’t use the word “instant.” But you can use the word “fast.” Here’s an example that illustrates the point…

We ship instantly, so you get your widget fast

Other useful phrases that add immediacy to your ad include…

  • “As soon as” instead of “when”
  • “Quick” when “fast” doesn’t read well (e.g. get rich quick)
  • Add “now” or “right now” to an action (e.g. click here now

Easy

As a species, we’re impatient. We’re also lazy.

Not only do we want it yesterday, we also want it spoon-fed.

That’s where the word “easy” comes into play. As shown in these three examples…

Five steps to weath

Five easy steps to wealth

Five easy steps to instant wealth

Notice how each sentence is more powerful than the one that precedes it? It’s an example of how to use the seven magic words to inject real power into your advertising.

Free

We’ve already established that people are impatient. We’ve also discovered that human beings are lazy. And guess what? We’re cheap too!

I’m not being altogether serious (just in case you were wondering). The power in the word “free” doesn’t come from any innate miserly tendency. The word “free” is powerful because it removes doubt.

When an item is free, the potential buyer is not at risk of being ripped off. He or she can’t lose when an offer is free. This is the real reason why a free offer usually enjoys a higher take-up than a paid offer (all else being equal).

The great thing is, once the potential client has taken up your free offer and benefited from it, he or she is more likely to buy something from you.

There are many reasons for this, but the main one is that you’ve removed much of the risk that comes with dealing with a complete stranger (i.e. you’re no longer a stranger to someone who has benefited from your free offer).

Now

The word “now” can be used in place of “instant,” but that’s not how I mean it here.

This seventh magic word can also be used to imply that something has changed, and as a result of the change, there’s now an important new benefit for the reader. Here’s an example…

You get 250 million ads!

Now you get 250 million ads”

Notice how the second sentence seems that little bit more interesting? The implication is that you used to get fewer ads, but due to a recent change, now you get more.

Putting it all together

These seven magic words may not all fit in a single ad. I’m not suggesting you contrive to write some kind of crazy uber ad that includes every single powerful word in the English dictionary.

You must make sure your ad reads well. And it’s vital that your use of these words makes sense. Simply injecting these words for no good reason will not produce a powerful ad.

Even so, with a little care and attention, you’ll find some or all of these words will fit any ad you’re using. Take a little time, and work over your ad.

You’ll soon pump up the power, and make more money as a result.


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The art of persuasion

November 22nd, 2009

Human beings share six tendencies that allow us to be persuaded.

None of us is immune to these tendencies, which is what makes them so useful to those of us who want to sell products over the Internet. These six tendencies are…

  1. Scarcity
  2. Authority
  3. Reciprocation
  4. Social validation
  5. Friendship
  6. Consistency

This article takes a brief look at each of these six tendencies, and discusses how to use them in your online business.

For a more in-depth discussion see Dr. Robert Cialdini’s brilliant book Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion.

Scarcity

We tend to want something more if it’s hard to get. This tendency harks back to a time when everything worth having (food, clothing, shelter) was in short supply.

Most people in the western world no longer have to struggle to provide food, clothing, and shelter so our focus has shifted toward luxury items. And our tendency to place value on scarce items has shifted with it. That’s why people are prepared to pay huge sums of money for the works of dead painters. After all, once an artist is dead there will be no new works.

You can take advantage of this tendency in your advertising. The easiest way to impose scarcity is to make a special offer, and then place a time limit on it.

A time-limited offer not only forces the prospect to make an immediate decision, but has the additional bonus (for you) of punishing procrastination.

Authority

Authority is an increasingly important tool to advertisers.

Anyone who lives in a modern western country is bombarded with information, and tends to rely on 3rd party experts when forming opinions about matters outside his or her immediate area of knowledge.

Popular methods of utilizing authority in advertising include…

  • Quoting the results of scientific studies
  • Printing testimonials from qualified scientists
  • Printing celebrity endorsements

Essentially, the advertiser is borrowing authority from a 3rd party. While you can borrow authority to promote any product, you must ensure that your 3rd party is a credible source of information in the mind of your prospect.

Reciprocation

Most people are more likely to comply with a request when…

  • The person making the request has already given us something (i.e. free gift)
  • The person making the request has promised to give us something

Reciprocation works because most of use feel the need to pay our own way, and are uncomfortable accepting something for nothing. Reciprocation may also reinforce the power of friendship and consistency.

Most advertisers use reciprocation by giving out a free sample, hoping to demonstrate the usefulness of their product. Unfortunately, this technique is so common on the Internet that it has lost some of its power.

As people get used to receiving free samples, and realize that this is merely part of the marketing for that product, the less inclined they feel to reciprocate (that’s why I don’t offer free samples).

Social validation

Sheep tend follow the leader. People aren’t unlike sheep, in that we tend to do what other people do.

We’re influenced by the television we watch, the results of opinion polls, and the opinions of the people we meet every day.

Even better, from an advertiser’s perspective, is the fact that most people are completely unaware of this tendency. That makes social validation a very powerful tool.

Common ways to use social validation in advertising include…

  • Testimonials
  • Published sales results (e.g. One thousand people can’t be wrong)
  • Being #1 in the category (e.g. Number one selling vitamin)
  • Personal referrals

If your best friend raves about how great a product is, chances are it will carry more weight than it does when the advertiser tells you.

Friendship

The more you like someone, the more likely you are to comply with a request they make of you. In fact, you may even feel honored by such a request.

Friendship isn’t an easy tendency to apply on the web, because you’re essentially selling to complete strangers. This tendency requires that you establish a personal relationship with the prospect. Chances are, if you’re selling a $20 product on behalf of someone else, there’s no direct relationship at all.

Of course, you can still make your website as friendly to the visitor as possible. You’ll help the process of winning over new friends if you supply a lot of useful information for free (reciprocation) on your website, and answer queries quickly and efficiently.

Consistency

A person is more likely to take a specific action if he or she has already made a public commitment to do so. That’s because we tend to want to demonstrate consistency in our lives.

Your use of this tendency can be as simple as getting your prospect to complete a short survey.

For example, a person selling banner advertising might ask 3 yes/no questions in a survey…

Do you use online advertising?
Do you pay for online advertising?
Do you buy banner advertising?

Elsewhere on the page, the person conducting the survey may run an ad that promotes banner advertising. Not only is the advertiser more likely to get a visit, they’re also more likely to get the sale.

Of course, you need to find a way to get the prospect to take the survey in the first place. And the survey needs to have a credible purpose.

In the above example the advertiser might explain the need to understand what buyers of banner advertising want, and offer 100 free banner ads as a reward for taking the survey. This achieves the following…

  • It specifically targets people who buy banner advertising
  • By taking the survey, the prospect is immediately identifying himself as a ‘buyer’ of banner advertising (consistency)
  • The answer to question 2 and 3 reinforce this tendency
  • The 100 free banner gift for taking the survey introduces the power of reciprocation

The final page of the survey should thank the prospect for his or her answers (friendship), and immediately collect the necessary information required to display the prospect’s banner.

Once that information is collected (giving you contact information and strengthening the relationship), the advertiser can present a one-off special offer (scarcity) that allows the prospect to add more banner advertising to his or her account at a special low price.

Chances are, the advertiser will get the sale!

Even if the sale is refused, the advertiser can still go back to the prospect with another offer when the 100 banners have been delivered.

The big challenge

None of us is immune to the six tendencies, and they can easily be incorporated into your sales approach.

One excellent method for coming up with unique ways of developing a new sales approach is to take this challenge. Give yourself one day to find five different ways to sell your product.

Each sales approach you develop should include a minimum of three of the tendencies discussed in this article.

This isn’t as easy as it sounds! By forcing yourself to find five different ways to sell your product, you’ll come up with at least one that is very effective. You can then try all five and see which one produces the most sales.


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