Web Copywriting Tips - Sales Copy QuickFix

Yes, your sales copy is important in the conversion process but remember that it is not the MOST important one.

Sometimes the best way to increase conversions is to move your attention away from your sales copy and to more important factors... such as acquiring your audience.

Not all traffic is the same. Some sources like PPC, are of higher quality and will convert better than say... redirected traffic from an unused URL.

So if you experience difficulty in increasing conversions, or you already have a well established control copy, then perhaps the best way to improve your conversion is to acquire higher quality visitors.

What is the biggest enemy of a marketer?

If you can eliminate one problem, what would it be?

Personally, I find clutter (distractions) to be the biggest enemy of any marketer.

You see, people today are bombarded by all kinds of messages. Traditional advertising is based on interruptions.

They interrupt people in the middle of their favorite television programs. They interrupt by pop-ups, audio advertisements, sales calls, door to door salesman, billboards and etc. You get the idea.

It's inevitable that we to tend to filter those messages away... subconsciously, or we would all have gone insane. And yes, a majority of those ads are not even noticed by the target consumers.

Now imagine, wouldn't it be nice if your target consumer, your ideal prospect would stop and say, "Hey, that's exactly what I want." Wouldn't that almost guarantee that you will make a sale? Unless you sales copy is truly down-right horrible, I would say yes.

Enter the headline.

Headlines are THE most important part of a sales copy because it captures (and hopefully holds) the attention of a prospect. It goes without saying that if you don't do that first, then you can't do anything else.

In other words, it opens the sale.

The real question is how do you craft a compelling headline? Well, here it is...

1. Make sure that it stands out. It's obvious. If it doesn't stand out, it isn't going to be noticed... let alone read. So make it BIG, make it bold and color it differently.

2. Getting noticed is job 1. The next step is to hook your prospect in by answering the "what's in it for me" question (benefit-driven). Everyone is thinking about themselves. And by that, I mean they ALL think about themselves... even when they thought they are doing something for someone else, like donating to a charity.

Why do you think charities use advertisements such as, "You could save this child from dying..."? To appeal to your inner need to do good of course.

3. Once you hook them in, you offer irrefutable proof so people can trust what you say.

Easy right? Attention, Hook and proof. That's all a headline need to do.

The complex part is, of course, the research. Know your customers like you know yourself and it'll be easy to follow the three steps. If you don't, then the three steps will be useless.

But of course, like I always say, copywriting is more of an art than science. Some of the greatest headlines ever written doesn't follow any established
"rules".

These are guidelines and should be treated as such.

So there, the basic overview of how you can craft persuasive headlines. Want more advanced stuff?

Check this out: Sales Copy QuickFix.

Yes, everyone desire to belong to a group. I don't care how individualistic you are, you do belong to a group. A group called the "individualistic".

The people who strive to be different.

Don't believe what I said? Here's a little experiment. Bring a group of friends together and ask them what's the capital of Ujasodia. Have the first one to reply "jokotar" and see the rest of the people replying parroting when in fact, Ujasodia is fictional.

Mark Joyner, a legendary marketer, conducted this same experiment (except using different names) live in a seminar and see a whole row of people parroting each other when in fact, the first in the audience to reply is an employee of his.

We all need to belong to a group. Tell me, do you still wear your pants like your grandfather did, up to the stomach? Or do you wear it like it's 5 sizes too big.

So can we use this in your marketing? This is probably gonna sound obvious but mention how many people has purchased your product... or that perhaps you are a bestseller. Tell your prospects of the big list you have and how many satisfied customers you served.

People tend to follow the herd s take advantage of it.

It would most certainly help if you speak like an insider when you are selling your product.

If you want to sell a scuba diving equipment, you would better be able to sound like an expert to your customers. It gives you instant credibility.

The problem is, us marketers are often selling things we don't even know how to use... let alone explain. It is critical that we try out the things we are going to sell.

Sometimes I find a benefit that might not be quite obvious at first when trying it out and that can be really helpful for your sales copy.

I can share my experience of using the product with the customer.

And most importantly, it lets the customer know you used the product yourself.

But what if you are selling a number of products? The best thing to do is to be an expert fast and it is easier to do than it sounds.

Go to your magazine store, buy a few copies of the niche you are in and give it a read through. By the end of the 8th magazine, even a slow learner like me can write like an insider.

To be a good copywriter, you'll have to know a little in everything.

People HATE to be corrected. Do you like to be told that what you are doing is wrong? No... none of us do.

What if told you that:

That Big Mac you are gulping down is THE un-healthiest food you can ever put into your mouth. It's the reason you are unthinkably over-weight and losing your social life. You are better off going hungry.

If you are like an average person, you would, in a second, put your shield up and defend yourself. You give excuses like:

But I have no time to prepare my own food. Or, I have no money to buy quality food. Or, it's bread, beef and vegetables, what's so unhealthy? Or even, it tastes good, so who cares?

But what if I take the responsibility from you... like this:

That Big mac you are gulping down will kill you... But it's not your fault that you are eating it. McDonald's endless advertising has subtly brainwashed not only you... but the whole world that their food is even edible. To make things worse, the rising cost of quality food might be preventing you from improving your health. Deep inside you KNEW you had to do something but you can't seem to put your finger on it. Introducing... blah blah blah

How's that? Doesn't that make you feel better? Are you more receptive to the message than you were in the first example?

Take responsibility away from your readers for their failure takes their natural defense away and that paves the way to their heart.

Do you know more ways to lower your reader's defense?

One of the most common mistakes of internet marketers is splitting the focus of the purpose of a webpage. You might be trying to do too much in one page.

You have adsense to monetize your sales letter... then you have links to your blogs and other websites... then you have links to affiliate programs you are involved in... you have people's advertisements because you sell ad space... and so on and so forth.

That's a recipe for disaster.

It's always better to keep your focus. If you want to sell, concentrate on selling. If you want adsense, concentrate on maximizing adsense clicks. If you want to promote an affiliate program, focus on that.

You'll have higher conversions for whatever you are doing.

The reason is because too choices turns people away. This is very counter-intuitive. You would think giving people choices would appeal to a broader ranger of people.

Gary Halbert and Joe Sugarman has tested this extensively. Less choice = higher conversion. Don't take their word for it though, test it yourself and you'll see.

That not only apply only to your webpage. Even the amount of product you are selling will affect your conversion. Selling one product at a time will yield better results than selling two.

People HATE to choose. Decide what's best for them and sell that. They'll love you.