You've worked so hard
getting that much elusive traffic to your site. You've taken out a few ezine
ads that have returned a good number of clickthroughs, you're getting some
traffic from the major search engines, and still you wonder why your cash
register isn't jumping. You know you've got a good product or service. What's
the problem?
Well it might be the
sales copy on your web site.
Far too often I see the
same mistakes on web site after web site.
Let's take a look at 10 points of writing good copy and see how many of
these you have incorporated into your own site copy.
1) ATTENTION: You MUST
grab the visitors attention immediately with your headline. You've got about 2 seconds
to get their interest or they are gone. How many web sites have you seen that
start out with a phrase such as "Thank you for visiting my web site. Here
you will find some great products" BLAH BLAH BLAH. Bye bye visitor.
The headline of your
site must pull the visitor in, Make them want to learn more. I'm not going to
give you sample headlines as that is not the purpose of this article, but if
you don't have a killer headline, the rest becomes somewhat irrelevant.
2) INTEREST: Once
you've managed to convince the always skeptical visitor that they need to keep
reading with your great headline, you need to start building overall interest
in your product or service, how will the potential customer benefit from your
product or service. Never EVER start talking about yourself, you must focus on
the benefits your product can provide to the visitor.
3) BUILDUP and
CREDIBILITY: So far so good, you haven't lost them yet. Now comes the tough
part. Up to this point you've lured them in with some great writing, but now
you have to start backing up your claims. This is where you need to throw in
some testimonials. Any testimonial you use must be 100% authentic.
4) PROVE YOUR CREDIBILITY:
I recommend you always use the person's real name, city and state in the testimonial.
Testimonials that simply use someone's initials are always looked at with a skeptical
eye, and you know why, no one really knows whether they are real or bogus. Ask the
person giving the testimonial if it is OK to use one of their real e.mail
addresses in the testimonial. This way people know they can contact this person
to verify the authenticity of the testimonial. I have given a number of testimonials
through the years and always allow my email address to be used. I have also received
a number of inquiries from people wanting to verify if my testimonial was real.
It was, and a few of them also became MY customers.
5) BELIEVABILITY
BUILDERS: Make certain at this point you offer a no hassle guarantee. A Strong
guarantee does not increase refunds, it reduces them. Make the potential
customer know that you stand 100% behind what you sell and if they have a
problem or are dissatisfied in any way, you are there to help them.
Don't make financial claims
you can't backup. If you are going to brag about how much money you have earned,
you better have copies of notarized bank statements on your site showing
EXACTLY how much you made. If you haven't made $500 per day selling a given product,
don't say you have. It's just not believable.
6) SCARCITY: The l.imited
time offer has been working wonders for years and using it on a web site is no different.
Telling the visitor that when the product or special price is gone, it is gone,
tends to build a sense of urgency. If they don't act now they may lose out.
They may not lose out, but you need to convince the always skeptical buyer that
if they don't act now, your great offer will be history.
7) ACTION: Quite
simply, make it easy for the visitor to order now. ie; Call this number to
order now: or,
Just click here to go
to our secure order page. Don't make the visitor jump through hoops or have to look
all over your site for a place to make an order.
8) THE WARNING: Learn
to play on the visitors fears and emotions. Use a simple statement like this: "Listen,
you can go on making no money for the next 20 years, It doesn't matter to me,
but if you're serious about changing your life, all it takes is one simple phone
call and you'll be on your way to a new beginning."
You are touching an emotional
flash point. If they've gotten this far into your sales letter, you obviously have
their interest, so hitting those emotional buttons can be the one thing that
makes that sale.
9) NOW: This is building
off the emotional buttons you pressed in #8. You need to again drive home the
urgency. Convince them they owe it to themselves, that they don't have to
struggle anymore, that there is a better way etc. This is pretty much the icing
on the cake.
10) THE POSTSCRIPT:
Always end with a PS. You can restate #6, while re-wording it differently,
remind them this is a limited offer. You can also use the PS to throw in added
bonuses by stating that if they act now you will throw in this bonus, or that
bonus. You start piling it on.
If you've followed
these 10 points you pretty much have
the outline of how some
of the best copy writers in the
world construct copy
that has turned ordinary people
into millionaires.
Remember that getting
the visitor to your website is
just the start. Once
they are there you better know
what to do with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment