Entries from February 2008 ↓
February 28th, 2008 — Tactical Copywriting
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First you researched your product, gathering all the intelligence you could about the product, the market and the competition.
Second, you worked up your offer to make it as enticing as you possibly could. There’s no reason you can continue to improve upon it but at least you’ve laid the groundwork. The next step may be considered controverial by some…
Write your guarantee. Make it as strong as you possibly can. A lot of marketers skimp on this part. Some groan and grumble every time someone asks for a refund. Another marketer refuses to sell again to anyone who “dares” ask for a refund. I think all of these responses are mistakes.
Sure you’ve got your sewer rats who gleefuly download product after product and then demand a refund. It happens. And you’ve got others who have no problem giving away your product because they can make unlimited (but illegal) copies. I think those folks are in the minority. Most folks are honest and too busy themselves to rip you off.
I know I’ve asked for a refund now and then. The reasons vary but mostly the products simply don’t meet my needs. And I do not use them after getting my money back. I expect others to act the same way. Am I living in a dream world? Probably.
On the other hand I don’t want to live in the “real world” if it means my word is no longer good and I have to cheat to get by. It’s just not for me.
Okay back to the guarantee. Most marketers find the longer the guarantee offered the more sales they get with no significant increase in returns. In other words - their fears of being stampeded by angry customers demanding refunds were unfounded.
So write your guarantee. Make it strong. Let your prospect know you have every confidence in your product. If it’s as good as you say it is - you’ve got nothing to worry about.
And when you do get a refund request - honor your guarantee. Treat the customer with respect. Talk to them. You might just find out something you didn’t know about your product or your market. It could be that refunder is desparately looking for something you can easily supply but never thought about. Something that opens up a whole new (and untapped) market for you. It happens.
God bless,
Andy
February 26th, 2008 — Tactical Copywriting
Just in case you’re curious “The Mouse Terminator” doesn’t exist. I chose this “product” for several reasons. One I think we had a mouse problem at the time :-).
Many of you may have heard the saying “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.”
Nice saying. I disagree. If nobody knows about your mousetrap who will buy it? Marketing is mostly the process of spreading the word.
Sales copy is your message.
The nice thing about writing sales copy for a product you devise out of thin air is it can be as perfect as you want. Real life and real copy isn’t that easy.
Now about the letter itself…
It’s not complete by any means but it has all the basic parts. Want to add audio or vidio? Go for it! What about side boxes (a form of Johnson box) , More sub heads, PPS’s and well the list goes on.
You can absolutely add all those things and more. My intention here was not to present the “Ultimate Sales Letter” because I don’t think such a thing exists. I also don’t think it’s necessary. Quite frankly, if I still had a mouse problem and I saw this letter, I’d probably buy it myself.
If the letter is sufficient to tell your story - to ask for and get the sale enough to make a reasonable profit - then it is a good start.
My advice is to build your basic letter first. Once it’s up and running profitably then you can work in the bells and whistles to crank up sales even more.
By the way, the letter is on a separate page because I could not get the format to work to my satisfaction in Wordpress so here’s the link
Anatomy of a Sales Letter
God bless,
Andy
February 26th, 2008 — Testing
Just opened Rich Schefren’s email. Below is a video of Mike Filsaime talking about his experience with Gary Halbert.
All I can say is I’m beginning to feel like I’ve actually learned something!
Check it out (You may have to go to the full post to get a clickable link)
http://www.strategicprofits.com/blog/mike-filsaime/
Conference Update: The #1 Thing To Test In Your Sales Letter
I had to snicker a bit when Mike confessed he didn’t know what Gary meant! Of course he’s at the Strategic Profits Conference and I’m sitting home so I guess I shouldn’t let my head get too big here.
February 26th, 2008 — Testing
Actually you can’t “buy” real expert opinions on copywriting. Why not? Because (IMHO) real expert opinions come from the marketplace not so-called “experts”. That includes myself even though I feel I have a lot more to learn about copywriting than I know.
Here’s the thing…
Go to any forum where copywriting is discussed and you’re likely to find a bunch of posts wanting a critique on their copy. I participated on one such post recently. My favorite comments included (paraphrased):
“Your headline doesn’t grab me”
“Try a headline like this…”
“Your headline is just fine”
and so on.
Who was right? There’s only one way to find out for sure - test the headlines. And then test some more. Same goes for every chunk of copy. Only the people looking for a certain product can offer votes that count. The vote is buy or not buy.
Even there a huge majority of the people looking at your sales page (generally 95% or more) will vote with their feet. They will leave without buying.
For squeeze pages, where visitors give you their email address or something before getting a report, access to your site or the like, conversions generally run higher because they aren’t parting with any money. But for a money page - convincing more than 5% of your audience to buy is considered very good.
Of course I hope to change all that with Sales Page Makeovers. Keep in mind nobody can guarantee a specific result but I think the science is getting to the point where very accurate estimates will become common. I don’t mean just for my service but also for testers in general.
Testing is really the most exciting area of marketing and copywriting because you can actually see the results you’re getting. Few things are more satisfying online than changing a few words here and there and watching your sales take off.
Okay, I’ll step off the soapbox for now. By now I hope you realize if you are not testing - you should be. By this I don’t mean you should be using my service. Yes, please, conisder it, but more importatntly find a way to test. There have never been more excellent options available!
God bless,
Andy
P.S. If you DO happen to want to know more about salespagemakeovers.com - why not head over there now? 
February 25th, 2008 — Tactical Copywriting
Your first step was gathering the research about your product. You listed all the features of your product and at least one benefit for each feature. You checked out your competiton and took some notes about them. Then you became your customer and found out what you wanted from your product. Now you’re ready to… Put your offer together. Don’t just take my word for it. Famed copywriter Ted Nicholas recommends this too. Your offer should be so packed with real value anyone who is a bona-fide prospect for your product would be insane not to snap it up. Do this and the rest of your copy should be easy. Well, okay, easier. What is value? Value is the biggest possible bang for your prospects buck. Suppose you were in the market for a car. You like Fords and there are two Ford dealerships near you. Both have the exact same car you want. Both are the same price. Which one do you buy? What if one offers a full tank of gas for a month? If all else is equal he just got the sale. Value. And that’s one reason you check out the competition. Even better if you can include something of real value the others can’t. Be that a free report authored by you, a personal consultation after the sale, or membership in your exclusive “buyer’s club”. Whatever you do don’t pile on “thousands of dollars” worth of bonuses. After the first thousand or two, folks begin to wonder if the bonuses are really all that valuable. And if so they wonder why your $10 product needs all those bonuses anyway if it’s as good as you say it is. If you have one bonus that is perceived to be almost as valuable (possibly a little more) as your product you aren’t likely to raise any red flags. But no matter what, you should be able to justify the price of your product on the merits of the product itself. If you can’t you should be asking yourself why you are selling it. You can always test bonus packages later on to see what works for your market.
February 25th, 2008 — Tactical Copywriting
Sales Page Makeovers is now accepting client inquiries.
Feel free to check out the site for more information but be forwarned - there is no “buy” button.
Due to the nature of this service which sets up multivariate testing and tracks sales and coversions for clients - we need to be careful about who we agree to help.
If you have no traffic, a low profit margin or other profitability problems - testing may not be the answer for you.
We do offer free consultations. While this is not for a “limited time” we do reserve the right to withdraw consults should demand become too high.
Meanwhile why not check out the service? Go to Salespagemakeovers.com for more information.
February 23rd, 2008 — Tactical Copywriting
I’m just finishing up the information page for it now. Sales Page Makeovers will offer testing services for selected clients.
Here’s the plan:
If you have a sales page, squeeze page or something else whre you want to boost conversions, we’ll set up the test and confirmation pages for you including 3 variations each on 5 crucial areas - headline, p.s., offer, guarantee, and your lead paragraph.
We’ll test them until a clear winner appears and you realize an overal conversion increase.
If you’re interested in finding out more, please send your name and email address. Don’t forget to confirm it or I won’t be able to contact you.
We don’t spam and we’re not out to sell, trade, or otherwise share your information with anyone else.
There will not be a sales page at this time. Why?
Since this is a service it needs tailoring to your needs. We’ll need to evaluate any page to ensure it’s a good candidate for testing.
Before we agree to test any page, both parties need to understand what can be expected. If you’re already getting a 5% conversion, we may not be able to promise a massive increase.
Our aim is to provide a service that not only pays but provides a significant return on investment in minimum time.
Again, if this is something you’d like to explore further, fill out the form above and we’ll get the ball rolling.
February 23rd, 2008 — Tactical Copywriting
By a new sales page I mean for a new product or service but you could do this for an existing product too.
From here on out I’ll use the word “product” but the techniques are the same if you sell a service. I’m assuming you’ve used the product and you know it inside out.
Get some paper out and write down all the features it has - all of them. (A feature is something the product as or does.) Feature: Uses “AA” batteries.
Now for each feature write down at least one benefit. Benefits answer the question “so what?” Benefit: so you can use it anywhere you go.
You can use these as a list of bullets - one way is to list them in feature/benefit pairs.
Next make a list of all competitive products and their features. If you can’t do all of them at least try to get the best-selling or best-known ones near your price range. What makes your product different? Is it a better value? Why? What can you offer that your competitors cannot?
Now picture your customer (copywriter Ray Edwards puts it “BE” your customer). What does he want. What itch does your cusotmer have that can be scratched by your product.
If you’ve done your homework you can identify at least one itch only your product can best scratch. Even if you plan on hiring a copywriter to write your sales materials - you should have this research on hand to give to her.
It will save time and money if you’ve hired a decent copywriter because good copywriters usually insist on having decent information. (I say usually ’cause there’s always one wiseguy out there who has to whip up a cranking sales letter out of thin air. I’m not him.) This way you’re not paying a copywriter to research for you.
Oh, you made a package deal where your copywriter quoted a flat price and promised not to charge a penny more? And that was before you revealed you had almost no research about your product? Okay.
So, just assuming the copywriter based the price on the number of hours it should take to write your materials… what do you think she’ll do? Just spend an extra 4 or 5 hours on research or cut some corners? You tell me.
February 23rd, 2008 — Tactical Copywriting
Who doesn’t want to sell more? Selling more is what this blog is about.
While I assume most people coming here already have a sales page, you’ll also find resources to build one from scratch.
Short and sweet here’s what makes a winning sales page:
an irresistable offer - meaning an excellent product at a great value
a solid guarantee - the longer and more iron-clad the better. A note here… at least one marketer (Matt Furey) does exactly the opposite with this concept and bluntly states he offers NO guarantee for his products. Matt gets away with it. It’s possible you could too but for most of us most of the time it’s better to offer a good guarantee.
an attention catching headline
features and benefits - I’m going against what many will say because I’m convinced sales letters need both features and benefits.
