Increasing Sales With Advanced Copywriting Tactics

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Hi,

For those of you who saw the video embedded in my last post - maybe you caught this. Maybe not.

One of Google’s top analytics experts states the average conversion rate for US web pages is 1-2%. Yeah. So what? Big deal. Well, actually it IS a big deal.

One of the questions I see most often is “What’s a good conversion rate?”. What these business folks are really asking is “Am I selling as much as I should be?” Are you? Consider this…

Paul Hancox in his book The Secrets of a Ten Percent Conversion Rate, says direct salespeople often achieve conversion rates of 20-40%. Do you think those salespeople are satisfied? Even those who consistently converted 40%? So why should you be satisfied with 2% or even 5%? You shouldn’t - pure and simple. So how do you improve upon your now totally unacceptable sales performance? Before I answer that I have a confession to make.

I’ve been an Idiot.

Yes, that IS with a capitol “I”. Though much of this not new to me - as a matter of fact I’m a “natural anti-salesman” - I, too, got tangled up in the “hard sales copy craze”. I bought and read 10% Conversion over a year ago. I bought and read Paul Hancox’s previous book “Small Changes, Big Profits” a couple of years before that. On top of all that, I’ve long billed myself as more of a marketer than a salesperson. What’s the difference?

As I usually say, a salesperson pitches until they make a sale or get thrown out. A marketer finds a need and fills it.

While this is simplified, you get the idea. So whats my point?

Recently I read a report that brought all this together and finally woke me up to the truth about sales and selling. I’ve been having a miserable run at copywriting lately only to find out what should have been so obvious…

Copywriting doesn’t “work” anymore!

Or rather, it’s getting harder and harder to make a living if you model yourself after the “carnival hawker”. It’s time for a better approach. It’s time for

Process Selling

What is process selling? Simply put it’s recognizing sales is a process and changing your approach to your prospects accordingly. I’ll delve into this more and more in the coming months… and then some.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a report I’d like to give you that explains all this very well. It’s called “Why Johnny Can’t Sell” by Paul Myers. Don’t let the fact that it doesn’t cost you a cent fool you - it’s one of the best reports you’ll ever read.

I’m not even collecting email addresses to give you this. My subscribers may cry foul because I usually reserve the best stuff for them alone. But this is too important to mess around. If you sell anything, you need this.

Right now the credibility for marketers - especially online marketers - is at an all time low. The sooner business moves way from “hypesterizing” and towards a more customer-focused, problem-solving win-win style of true marketing, the better things will get for all of us.

‘Nough said - get your copy of “Why Johnny Can’t Sell” here.

There is just one thing I’d like in return, if you would - please come back and let me know by adding a comment to this post.

God bless,

Andy

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Yes I am back after an extended hiatus. Let’s not mess around. Let’s talk about your bounce rate. What the heck is that?

A new client asked me that yesterday. (Yes, I am also taking on a few new clients - contact me if you are interested. and I thought it would make a good topic for this blog.

Short and sweet the bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who run screaming from your site moments after arrival. If you sign up for my blog alerts I’ll send you a report on how to avoid this. And, no, it is NOT some excuse to add your name to a list so I can cram your inbox full of spam. On the contrary, my worry is I don’t contact my subscribers enough so they don’t open my emails at all.

Now you know what the bounce rate means… so what? Google’s Avinash Kaushik spends an enlightening and entertaining 5 minutes on the topic below, but my version is thus:

Your bounce rate can tell you - at a glance - whether your web page is meeting the needs of your visitors. And this can mean two things…

1) Your traffic is garbage. Sorry, but sometimes the truth hurts. What this means is the folks coming to your site aren’t interested in what you’re offering.

2) Your traffic is good but you’re web page isn’t pushing the right buttons.

Let’s take this site for example:

Let’s say my bounce rate was 70% Yuck! What’s the problem?

Well suppose most of my traffic came from “CopyMachineWorld.com”. My suspicion would be those visitors were expected tips on using copy machines or something. Garbage traffic for me.

But what if I was using Google Adwords to drive targeted traffic to this page? OUCH! I’m paying for traffic and they can’t wait to leave! So I need to figure out if I’m buying the wrong traffic or simply not giving them what they want or need i.e. sending them the wrong message.

Bounce rate can be a very powerful metric so pay attention and then start asking questions.

So here’s Avinash Kaushik

If you need help improving your bounce rate, why not drop me a line?

God bless,

Andy

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All right maybe your sales letter converts at a whopping 10%. It still stinks. Why?

Because even a mouth-watering 10% conversion means 9 out of 10 people are walking away from your site. Based on that I think it’s safe to say nearly all sales letters stink - even the ones I write. (Ouch!) Why is that?

Maybe it’s not your sales letter. Maybe it’s your sales process.

Think about this:

Someone searches for “peach jam” on the Internet. You make and sell peach jam. Your page comes up on the first page of a major search engine. Congratulations.

When they come to your site, visitors are slammed with your sales page offering them a special deal on your premium jam. Most take a look at your offer and leave. What’s going on?

First of all, it’s likely most folks landing on your page weren’t ready to buy peach jam right then. Maybe they were looking for a free Georgia rock concert. Maybe they wanted recipies. Maybe they sought an old girl friend from high school. Okay, so I’m stretching here.

In any case, it’s likely they never heard of you or your jam before landing on your site. Do your really expect most folks to buy right off the bat? Silly you.

What if, instead of a web site, you had a jam stand by the side of the road. Now if you’ve got a good sign out front, you may get some walk-in traffic. Once folks know about you, they’ll come to your stand when they hanker for your jam. If you put up some billboards with some toast dripping with tasty jam, you might get even more traffic.

The thing is you are now attracting people expecting to buy jam.

The second reason folks come to your site and don’t buy is…

They don’t trust you.

If someone shows up to your stand, they can see how good it looks. They can ask questions. They can see your business license. They can talk to other customers. You might even offer them a sample. None of this (or very little) happens on the Internet. You have to build trust.

Yet another reason is they’re not convinced your solution is the answer they want. While most folks can decide on a $3.00 jar of jam, if you’re asking them to spend $50 on your ebook, they might want to look around a bit.

Finally, your visitors don’t have a reason to act NOW. If they’re at the stand, they’ll have to come back if they want jam. Often that’s plenty enough to prod action. But on the Internet, what’s the hurry? If you don’t offer some incentive - a REAL incentive, not some lame buy by 12:00 midnight or the price goes up!

Offer something real and obviously limited. One of my all-time favorites was from Fly Fisherman. They offered a free fishing creel with a new subscription. But, they added, you’d better hurry because we may not be able to get any more. That bonus tied in beautifully to the magazine because it:

directly related to the audience

created real urgency

They never said how many creels they had. Or maybe they did in some letters and enjoyed a better response when no number was specified. One thing is almost certain - they tested their advertising.

So what do you do if your sales letter stinks worse than most?

You can live with it, try to improve it via testing or try an entirely new approach. If you’re getting any response at all, I’d lean towards testing first. However there are too many variables to say for sure. Every situation presents unique options. One thing for sure though - if you do have a sales letter that’s converting, no matter how pitiful the sales are, better to test it than simply replace it. Otherwise you may find your new “baby” is worse that the old.

God bless,

Andy

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Last I wrote, I was going to test the Virtual Sales Agent (VSA). I know it’s been a while, more on that in a moment…

What about the test? In the markets I tested them in (non-Internet Marketing) the VSA didn’t fare so well.  As a matter of fact I noticed no increase in optins or sales at all. So was the experiment a complete bust? Maybe not.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not solid on this technology. Maybe I went about it the wrong way or came off too snide. It could be the markets I tested in were wrong for a VSA. It’s also possible I would have experienced better results with a better script. It’s hard to say. It wasn’t a total failure either…

One of the tactics I tried was admitting the VSA was indeed, well, virtual and then I tried to elicit some questions from the visitors. I did get some questions. I dropped that ball because I left out any way for respondents to receive an answer. So how would I fix this?
When I do this again,  I may try a couple of different ideas. First is to simply add a place to gather an email address so I can reply with an answer.  But what about  the increasing resistence to email marketing? Hence idea number two…

Tell readers up front I will select the best questions and post them on the blog.  I say the “best” for  a couple of reasons. First, this gives me an out from posting every question. Second, should I not get ANY quetions (yes, it can happen - even with substantial traffic) I can post an entry dealing with this with no loss of respectability.  This second option offers several advantages:

1. No worries about emails such as resistance, fears or spam complaints .
2. Makes the site “stickier” because vistors will return for answers.
3. Builds traffic as answers may draw more vistors
4. Builds content as questions are answered

Of course you can do all of this with a simple poll. There’s no real need to use a VSA to do this but it’s worth testing both to see which garners the most response. Especially since the VSA script is so cheap. Plus it works really well.

Now about that personal confession…

You may have noticed my blog entries have dwindled lately. It’s because my wife and I have been preparing to sell our house. Where are we moving too? We are not sure yet.

This may sound crazy but we believe God is moving us to get out of this mortgage. Whatever we do, our plans right now are to get out from under.

Unfortunatley, this is the worst possible time to sell. But we are trusting in God to provide. The nice thing about this is, even if we are wrong about what God wants, we can trust Him to help us out if we get in a big pickle.

As I said this may sound  crazy, but in my over 30 years as a  Christian, God has never, EVER failed  me.

I’m not even sure I’ll continue copywriting or marketing via the Internet. Bluntly put: everything is in God’s hands and I’m committed to doing His will no matter what.

I will keep you up to date on what’s going on.

God bless,

Andy

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Maybe you’ve seen this claim. Maybe not. At first glance the statment is impressive but there is also room for a great deal of skepticism. And there should be. Before I delve into this particular claim, how about we lay some groundwork for such claims in general?

One of the first questions I always ask is “40% of WHAT?”. It makes a difference. You’ve seen figures like this before in my posts.

For example: increasing from one sale a day per 100 visitors to two sales a day brings in a 100% increase in sales from just one sale. However…

If you ring up 20 sales a day that one extra sale is now only a 5% increase so the first thing you want to know is where the claimant starts from.

Next I want to know the conditons of the “miracle”. Where did the prospects come from? Was it search engine traffic? Did trafic come from somone’s list or a big promotion? As always the “quality” of the traffic needs to be considered.

Plus what is the market? Is it a hot market or just lukewarm? The more resistance to sales the more I’m impressed by big victories.

Finally… who’s making the claim? Are they trustworthy? Well-known? You and I will have a lot harder time selling something in the same market as someone with established credentials in the field.

Now about the claim starting this whole post… a 40% increase in sales :

Let’s start with who is makeing the claim and for what.

The statement is by Dave Guindon for his Virtual Sales Agent He shows results from a number of marketers - most of whom are well-known or at least already successful. What does this mean? Well, for one thing… results WILL vary i.e. don’t expect to get the same.

In addition it seems these figures all come from the sizzling IM field where pickin’s are relatively easy and traffic is hot and heavy. Now don’t get me wrong…

Dave is a smart guy and an excellent marketer. Plus he doesn’t churn out junk. As a matter of fact his Virtual Smart Agent is an excellent product in itself. But will it work for you? Maybe. Maybe not.

In principle exit polls and/or offers tend to be very effective. Again several factors need to be taken into account. Credibility, the offer and the market itself to name a few. But overall invasive techniques work well. By invasive I mean something like a popup that people forced to pay attention to. And while the Virtual Sales Agent is not much different than a pop up it is perceived as having more class.

Plus, unlike a popup, the Virtual Sales Agent is interative. Getting your visitor involved makes a big difference in sales. Dave’s script allows you to offer different responses based on certain keyword “triggers” you define. What does that mean?

If your prospect types in “Is there a discount?” (sale, promotion, whatever keywords you define) the program responds with the reply you provide - “Yes, I can give you a discount. Click on this link for details.’ (and then provide a link to your discount page or a coupon code) or you can respond any way you prefer.

But what if visitors ask questions you didn’t anticipate?

Prospects are famous for that. Dave has a couple of ways to deal with this. First, all questions are logged so you can spot common themes in the questions ask. Is everyone asking for a feature you didn’t think of? Are many looking for a bonus? This script is an excellent marketing tool in the right hands.

Prospects can also contact you with questions that don’t get answered in your canned responses so no burning question gets ignored.

All in all there are a lot of advantages to using this script. It is well-thought out script with a lot of powerful features. Is there a downside? Well…

It is a bit pricey. It’s regularly priced at $197 and I’ve seen Dave offer a discount as much as 50% (give or take a dollar). Still there’s no reason to think the lower price will return (if it’s not still available). Might there be future promotions? It’s certainly possible. Meanwhile unless you have enough sales to justify the hefty pricetag , it’s a bit much if you simply want to see if the technique will work for your market. Fortunately, there’s a very affordable alternative if for those who want to get their feet wet without a lot of expense…

It’s called Sales Bot Generator. It’ s nowhere’s near as fancy as Dave’s script but it’s

easy to install (just ftp one folder to your host)

easy to use - open an html file, add your domain path the to the script right in your browser and then copy and paste it to any page you want to use the Sales Bot.

Now all you do is tell your “virtual sales agent” what to say. Her name is Carol, but this is

easy to change to any name you any name you want. Simply highlight “Carol” and drop in any name that suits you.

You can use html to dress things up or pop in links to send your customers.

You won’t get all the “bells and whistles” Dave offers, like the ability to respond to certain keywords or track questions but this should give you an idea whether it would be worth the investment to spring for Daves Virtual Sales Agent or not for a very low price. How low?

How about $10? Yep, ten bucks. I’ll even toss in resale rights. Subscribers to my Copytactics blog alerts save even more, however that email already went out. If y0u missed it now’s a good time to sign up so you don’t miss the next great deal.

Click here to find out more about the “Sales Bot Generator”

I’m in the process of testing this on several pages myself. I’ll let you know as soon as the results are in.

God bless,

Andy

P.S. There’s a suprise bonus waiting for those who pick up the Sales Bot Generator. It’s worth the price of admission all by itself. Find out more…

Click here for more information about Dave Guindon’s Virtual Sales Agent.

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No, I haven’t been hiding under one but it’s been a busy time.

My wife and I have decided to sell our house so I’ve been working like a madman getting it ready. With that and trying to keep clients happy, I’ve barely been able to keep up.

More on selling our house in a future post - nothing has been written in stone yet.

So what else is new?

I’ve had canniptions  testing for one client in particular.  This one is a total web site re-design… something I normally run from. I’m not doing the design work per se but we’ve been testing pages with and without headers and that’s where we’ve run into trouble…

Let me tell you - if you’re going to purchase design services make sure the site works with and without a graphic header!  I’ve never had a problem like this come up but basically this site was designed so you can’t simple pop off the header or pop on a new one. One has to do some major fudging to do this.

In my “graphically challenged” opinion - this just doesn’t work. Sorry but too many of us testers are finding out some markets simply buy more with less “eye-candy” so I will look for those design factors from now on.

What other considerations should one consider?

First, keep in mind, I am NOT an expert here. My thingy is copy not “pretty”. On the other hand I’m not convinced an ugly site with good copy will outsell a pleasant-looking one either.  That said there are a few things I like to see…

Clean pages with good colors. Don’t get gaudy on me.

What happens when you want to test the name of a product or a slogan? Is it going to be easy or difficult?

No Clutter. I’m not partial to pages with a gadzillion thingys going on all at once.

A strong message. When I land on your page I’d like to know what you’ve got to offer.

Does this mean there’s not room for portal pages or other general-type sites with lots to offer?

I think there’s plenty of room for those types of pages. I just don’t want to be overwhelmed.

What about You?

When you go searching for something - do you want to be bombarded with everything up to and including the kitchen sink?

Do you prefer lots of “action” on the pages you visit?

I’d like to hear what you’ve got to say on this.

Meanwhile, I’ve got house to work on…

God bless,

Andy

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Here’s a simple but deadly effective method to write hard-hitting copy chock full of benefits your readers will eat up like a chocoholic at a candy factory…

It’s called the “so what” test. Michel Fortin teaches it, but I learned it long ago in one of the many sales training courses I’ve taken. However I must say it took me a long time to take the bone out of my head about applying it to “salesmanship in print”. Here’s how it works…

Write down something about your product. Anything.

It comes in “Candy Apple Red” (I must have sweet tooth today :-). So what?

So it’s sexy. So what?

So girls love it.  So What?

So you’ll attract girls attention. So what?

So you’ll be more popular with the girls. So what?

So I’m married and I’ll get into a lot of trouble if I continue so I’ll stop here. But you get the idea.

Notice only the FIRST thing I mentioned is tangible. Everything else is imaginary. Benefits are not touched they are felt and that is what makes them so powerful.

Use the so what test in your copywriting and you’ll invoke more emotion so you’ll sell more. So you’ll make more money. So you can hire more people to do your work. So you can spend more time with your family. So you can afford better stuff…

But do me one favor please? Don’t get too wrapped up in the “things”. There really is more to life than can be purchased with cash.

God bless,

Andy

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The following is a response to a blog entry to Ray Edwards (the Florida Ray).

I’ve known Ray for a few years now and I count him as a friend. But we differ a bit on this issue.

You can find Ray’s post here:

http://www.webcopy-writing.com/blog/2008/05/27/how-to-you-measure-your-copywriting-skills/

Basically Ray says the copywriting industry per se needs some sort of ’standard’. I disagree. I see Ray’s proposal as a first step in restricting access to the field. Granted anyone can hang a shingle and call themselves a “copywriter”, but there’s more to succeeding in this field than being able to spell the term.

I’m not sure I can agree with your conclusions. There are lots of new products in new markets that could eat even a veteran copywriter alive.

Let’s take another look at this - what makes for bad copy? How do you know what works and what doesn’t?

I know of instances where what you and I would agree is “lousy copy” that sells well - as you yourself pointed out - and seen this same “lousy copy” be replaced by “professionally written” copy that produces worse results.

I’ve written copy myself that failed to do better than the original. Why? In the case I’m thinking of it was because I had a total lack of enthusiasm for the product.

I’ve had other projects take off after an initial failure. The entire copy wasn’t bad - it just needed tweaking.

You’ve read Halbert and Carlton. I’m sure you came across their method where they suggest recording a live pitch from a top salesman and turning into written copy.

So what’s the answer?

I’d say the ONLY measure of good copy is results. I don’t think one can measure results soley by conversion rates because said rates will vary with the market and a whole bunch of other factors. However with good testing procedures and a solid basis on what makes good copy, I believe just about anyone can write copy.

So how do you get results? Write copy and test it in the marketplace. Do this enough and eventually one will either learn how to improve copy in ANY market or quit.

This is one reason I started guarantying results. The only blessings I need on my copy is God’s and the markets’. Anyone else can take a hike.

I am one of the few who dares guarantee results because I insist on testing. Anyone can write copy that fails to convert in any market.  The real measure is how you handle failure.

For me the process is simple. I deliver results or it costs my clients nothing.

God bless,

Andy

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