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As I’m venturing into Social Networking more, I asked a question on one of the major ones and got a surprising response. The question?

“What part of marketing do you hate the most and how do you deal with it?”

Most of the answers defended the “DYI” (Do It Yourself) attitude. This can be a massive trap for anyone who runs a business or department.

One person wrote ‘delegation is also a potential risk’ (paraphrased).

Well, yeah, delegation IS a potential risk. In business what isn’t a risk? Life is a risk. As one old-timer once told me..

“If you haven’t made any mistakes today it’s because you haven’t done anything.” So make some mistakes.

Back to my question…

As I’m dusting off and polishing my shingle - moving back into copywriting for clients, I need to reconnect with what the needs of prospects and clients really are - from your perspective not mine.

It’s the process I go through when I’m working on a new project. It’s not good enough to “think” I know what customers want. I need to know. But I’ve got a problem. A big problem. The fact is, this problem could affect you too - whether I ever write anything for you or not.

I know my stuff.

I know business. I know copywriting. I know sales. I know this sounds like bragging. Maybe it is. But I’ve absolutely awed some people - people I hold to be very savvy business people in their own right. And I’ve done it right off the top of my head, never even starting to work up a sweat. And that’s a problem. Why?

Because standing too close to a problem can obscure my view.

I’ve seen this happen to my own clients over and over again.  My clients aren’t stupid people. They are smart. They are savvy. Often I find things that are staring them in the face, but they are too close to the situation to see it. They don’t hire me because I am smarter than they are - often I’m not . They hire me for my perspective and my objectivity. They know how difficult it is to be objective when you’ve invested your heart and soul (and everything you own) into your business.

On the other hand, my copywriting clients want my specific knowledge and ability to write a message people will respond to. Maybe they hate writing. Maybe they just know their efforts are better spent elsewhere. Either way - just as I hire a professional to do my taxes, they hire a professional to craft their marketing messages. And they are avoiding the DYI trap.

What about you? Are you feeling trapped? Does it seem like you’re missing “something” but you just can’t put your finger on it? If so then maybe it’s time to bring someone in. Keep in mind, this is not an admission of failure but a show of strength. You are proving you are strong enough (and smart enough) to look for chinks in your armor.

God bless,

Andy

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Over the years I’ve known quite a few auto mechanics. A few I’ve considered good friends.  Through the years I worked on a good number of my own cars - enough to know I hate it. And that is the first thing auto mechanics taught me about copywriting. Auto Mechanics? Copywriting?

Well, yes. You could even broaden those principles into life lessons.

The first lesson comes from a mechanic who was the father of a friend of mine. He was considered the best auto mechanic in town. After he “retired”, so many loyal customers drove or limped their vehicles to his driveway, he finally opened for business in his home garage. So what did I learn from him?

Besides the fact that if you know your stuff and can offer what other people can’t, there will always be a demand for your services - Mr. Bergerson had a particular pricing policy.

He always charged double his rate for the first hour. His reasoning? Most problems brought to him could be solved in an hour or less, thus his first hour was the most valuable. Whether you agree with this or not, his customers - myself included - gladly paid it. Why?

Because he was worth every penny. He did the job right the first time and, yes, it usually did take an hour or less.  And that revelation led me to a second insight I learned from another mechanic.

After a few years, Mr Bergeson passed away - no doubt with a wrench in his hand. I was forced to find a new mechanic. I settled for the most expensive mechanic in town. Why?

Because in the long run, he was cheaper than all the rest.

A lot of auto mechanics is trial and error. The really good ones can find the problem with less trial and error. The best rarely missed. Paul was the best. Not only that but when I would take my car in for even an oil change, he would present a list of what the car needed - broken down into what needed immediate attention - what could wait and how long it would likely last and what could be fixed but didn’t effect the performance or safety of the car. Paul was adamant on safety. If something was unsafe it did not leave his shop. He would go toe to toe with you on that one.

Paul’s lesson is obvious to me: buy the best you can afford. It will save you money in the long run. As I said, while these principles certainly apply to copywriting, they also work in so many areas of life.

So how can I apply Mr. Bergeson’s  lesson to copywriting?

For one: don’t be afraid to charge what you’re worth. Actually, Paul also taught me that but he also taught me a couple of other things. More on that in a moment.

Mr. Bergeson felt he was worth a fair but decent rate - and twice that for the first hour… and he got it. Not only that but he was always busy. And without advertising (ouch). So charge what you are worth. What else did Paul teach me?

Be worth what you charge. Paul always went over every car that entered his shop with a fine tooth comb. I’ve had mechanics who found “other problems”, but none ever instilled the confidence Paul did. He was one of the most honest men I ever encountered.

And as  you may know, I decided to seek out some copywriting projects in the next few months and that is what turned my thoughts to fees.

Ironically, if you follow my advice,  you may never hire me. I do not claim to be the best copywriter in the world, nor am I the most expensive… not even close. As a matter of fact, if I do my job well enough, I may never be able to charge what I’m truly worth… why?

Let’s say I quote a project for you. For the sake of argument,  let’s say I charge what some “A list” copywriters charge - $15,000 + a 5% royalty. (Shocked? Some charge more than that and have a waiting list!)

To make the math easy let’s assume you have a product you sell for $100 and make a 50% profit. You get 500 visitors a day to your site and it converts at 1%.

So you sell 1 in 100 visitors or 5 units  per day with a gross profit of $250 per day.

My new sales page doubles your conversion rate bringing in another $250 per day gross profit. At that rate it would only take 60 days to pay for my services. in 120 days you’ve doubled your investment and the profits keep rolling in. Here’s the kicker…

According to Google - a 2% conversion rate is about average for US websites.

Oh yes, that 5% (usually of gross sales) would cost you another $25 per day or $750 per month for as long as you use my copy. Would it be worth $25 to bring in another $225 in profits every day?

Even with this exercise I still  have a hard time charging anywhere near that kind of fee.  Maybe I’ll get over it at some point, but for now rest assured, I am much more affordable.

If you would like a quote for your project email to admin at this web address with the subject line “Quote Requested” or call me at 443.254.3703. For a limited time - because my own time is limited - if you ask, I’ll perform my own version of Paul’s car inspection for your business and present you with a “punch list” of what you need to fine tune your profits.

God bless,

Andy

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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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Your P.S. is an integral part of your sales message.  Many marketers contend a large majority of readers fly from headline to P.S. making it the second most read part of your sales letter. I noticed I do this but I may be conditioned by my copywriting and testing studies so I cannot consider my own habits valid. Besides I always stop by the price myself on the way to the P.S.

If you’re stuck for a P.S. here’s one thing not to do and a couple of things TO do…

First what NOT to do: Don’t summarize your offer. If you put you’re whole offer in a nutshell and tack it on to the end of your sales page - you are essentially counting on one or two paragraphs as your entire sales page. Why?

Because the “summary offer” generally answers the questions most people have - what is it and what does it cost? So what can you do?

One method is to simply put a couple of testimonials in your P.S. this can work very well especially if the testimonials offer up some good benefits.

Another thing you can to is try to invoke curiosity by stating a benefit from your body copy or bullets.  This can be tricky but it can work well too.

Finally you can add another bonus to your product - one that changes every now and then. You can tell the reader this bonus is “for a limited time”. The magazine “Fly Fisherman” did this well by offering creels. They said they only had so many and when they were gone…

If you sell a physical product this can be a very effective method - especially if your product is a high ticket item with a good profit  margin because you can afford to offer high value bonuses.

This last method is one of the easiest and most effective ways to add a P.S. but you really should change your bonus from time to time so your readers know you mean business. And you might be surprised at how many stop again to see if you’re “limited time offer” was for real or just another gimmick.

God bless,

Andy

P.S. Do you have a favorite technique? One other one is to add some tidbit not found in the body copy.  My own favorite is number two above.

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Yesterday someone mentioned to me he made some wholesale changes to his web site and he hasn’t seen a sale since! That happens. I told him to immediately put up his old page back.  If he hadn’t saved the old page he could have face disaster. Sure, he may be able to reconstruct it eventually but… Anyhow he did save his old copy and was able to swap back. The “good” page was one he wrote himself after a copywriter dropped a bomb. In a related event…
Another copywriter asked me to review some copy he wrote. He mentioned the old copy was some shoddy page that converted fairly well. What’s going on here?

Stay tuned for not one but two important points here…

First: is it true that “crappy copy” cranked out by a novice can outsell a carefully crafted masterpiece wrought by a journeyman copywriter? You bet! Why?

It could be a number of reasons but high on my list are believablity and credibility. And yes, these are related. In both of these cases the copy was written by someone who knew the product better than anyone. They believed fully in the product and were enthusiastic about what they were selling. You can’t buy that. And it comes through on the sales page loud and clear.

The second point is not so obvious… or maybe it is: don’t just “swap out” sales pages! One copywriter put it this way…

Rather than “replacing” your web page - plant in your mind the concept of testing new ideas. It is so easy to do on the Internet these days. You can use Google Web Site Optimization - something I use and recommend a lot. Or you can choose from a wide variety of split testing scripts. Actually you’ll more likely want a “multivariate” testing script but that’s another post.

Many people see terms like “multivariate” and their eyes glaze over. Don’t let the big bad word scare you… it simply means “many thingys” as in what it tests. With split testing you should test one thing at a time. One headline vs another and so on. Multivariate tests lets you plug in several headlines, and other parts and test different combinations. All you do is tell it what parts to test and it does the rest.

Even if you think you’re “not ready” to test (you can always let someone like us friendly folks at sales page makeovers do it all for you you should at the very least make sure you save your old page just in case those spiffy new changes make things worse.

God bless,

Andy

P.S Update on the “Project Management” Software… I thought I had rights to this but I’ll be darned if I can find them. I’ve got a pile of stuff on a hard drive determined to give me a hard time so I have no idea when I can check it.  Meanwhile, if you’re chomping at the bit for this  leave a comment and I can get you a copy for $10.

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Just finished a report on the 5 reasons people run from your website screaming in terror. Okay so maybe that’ s a little overboard. However if you look at your stats, you may find a large number leaving before the first 30 seconds.

If you want them to stay longer and maybe buy something then this report is for you. I do have one problem…

I’d like your help with the title. I narrowed it down to the two I like best but I’m open to suggestions.  Here’s the two I ended up with:

“5 Reasons Folks Flee from Your Website Like Extras in a Godzilla Movie”

or

“5 Common Reasons Visitors Flee from Your Website and How to Fix It”

Which one to you prefer? Please leave a comment below.

God bless,

Andy

By the way, if you want a copy of my report with my compliments, simply sign up for my blog alerts.

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 Money magazine’ Dan Ariely just published an article on “tricks” maketers use to get folks to buy.

Here’s a link to the article: Consumer Habits 

Is this ethical? Some might say if you have to ask if something is ethical, than it’s not. But I don’t think this is true  and I consider myself a very ethical person.

Some of these tricks are well-known - such as offering something for free. Some marketers contend this tactic  is losing some of it’s appeal. I think it’s all in the context. We humans are “hard-wired” to grab offers like these. Certainly as everyone offers stuff for free and much of the stuff is worth less than the asking price - you will find more resistance.

On the other hand, consider the “free offer” Ariely himself got caught up in… buy this car and get free oil changes for a year. And this is a guy to studies consumer behavior.

Another way to apply this principle is when building your offer. The next best thing (or maybe even better) is offering so much value for the money one would have to be a fool to pass it up.

The other interesting aspect of this article is his observation of “comparative” pricing. Ariely says for example, if your comparing menu prices at a restaurant, the  $45 dish may seem outrageous in one restaurant. But if another dish on the same menu is $60, it may seem comparatively cheap.

Another thing to keep in mind is the consumer’s expectations. You’d scream bloody murder if somone placed that menu in front of you at “Joe’s Diner” but if you were in “Antione’s Bistro” you may not blink an eyelash, even if the food at Joe’s is not all that bad.

Ariely’s article is from his book “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.”  It may be a good companion to Cialdini’s “Influence: The Psychology of Persuason”. I haven’t read Ariely’s book yet.  When I do, I’ll post a review.

God bless,

Andy

P.S. You’ll also find a wealth of sales triggers in “22 Secret Hot Buttons“

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Headlines are critical to any sales letter. Most copywriters and testers agree 80% of readers will take a look at your headline and then decide whether to read any more. I expect more marketers experience faster, more dramatic results from headline changes than any other element. All great information but what do you DO with it? Let’s take a look…

Right now, before you do anything else, get it in your head: No matter how good you think your headline is - you’ve got to test it. Don’t fudge here.

And that means you need to come up with at least two headlines - more is better.

We’ve already discussed the “hook” headline - where you take that unique, extraordinary fact and turn it into a sensational teaser. Think “National Enquirer”. Think “Cosmopolitan”. These publications live or die by attention grabbing headlines. When it comes to a “hook”, you just can’t beat the tabloids. But what if you don’t have a good hook?

Never fear, there’s other ways. Your headline should contain your strongest benefit. Think of the most powerful benefit your customer will get. Do NOT exaggerate! Make sure any claim you make can be substantiated with cold, hard facts. But it’s also acceptable to use the facts to your advantage also. How?

Let’s say you are selling a “gem dectector” that instantly reports what type of gem is in a piece of jewelry. You know one person used it to find a diamond ring that sold for $12,234 and she was able to buy it for $300. (Notice how this is ALSO a “hook”?)

“Soccer Mom Discovers Diamond Worth $12,234 at Rummage Sale Turning a $300 Invesment into a $11,934 Profit Using the Roncoid Gem Detective”

Subhead: “You too can find valuable gemstone jewlery almost anywhere for almost instant profits!”

Sometimes you can change a single word and see huge results. In the headline above I might change $11,934 into “3978%”

Famous Copywritier and Marketer Ten Nicholas  says he writes at least 200 headlines for every product he sells. These days you could test every one but you shouldn’t have too. Some headlines you’ll be able to weed out just by looking at them.

Do you have to pump out 200 headlines for every sales letter you write? No, but if you do you increase you chances of success exponentially.

One other tip: Look for “hidden” and “obvious” benefits.  Why obvious benefits?

For one thing what may be obvioius to you may not be obvious to your reader. And it may be just the thing your customer is looking for.  Many marketers, including your competitors miss this. What about “hidden” benefits?

These take a bit more to dig out but they are nearly always worth the effort. Hidden benefits often require you look at customer perceptions rather than the product itself.

Toothpaste marketers know this. Fighting cavities is fine. Whiter teeth is a boone, but the hidden benefit of transforming yourself from a goofy nerd to a magnet for the opposite gender is golden.

One other thing, don’t be afraid to reword and/or restate your benefits in the body of your copy. Reiterate them in you bullet copy too.

Now you know why I feel your sales letter should start by looking for benefits. Benefits are the meat of your copy and are used again and again. Your headlines should contain your strongest benefit or a hook. Keep in mind your hook should also offer a benefit.  While a good hook doesn’t HAVE to offer your strongest benefit, if to does, it is to your advantage.

Now go write that winning headline!

God bless,

Andy

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One kind of headline is the “hook”. John Carlton is legendary for this style of headline.  What makes a good hook?

Basically a good hook is born from good research. Look for the unuaual twist that makes your subject stand out.

“Amazing Secret Discovered by a One-Legged Golfer Adds 50 Yards to Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks and Slices…. And Can Slash Up To 10 Strokes From Your Game Almost Overnight!”

This i s one of Carlton’s headlines.
Even if you don’t play golf you might be tempted to read this just to get the skinny on this one-legged golfer guy.

John continues on with the story promised by the headline.  Now think about this. Tthis headline..

• arouses your curiosity
• promsies a story
• offers some believable yet highly desireable benefits

As for your own headlines… you should put your best benefit in it. If you can find some extraordinary tidbit of  information you can build your message around like the one-legged golfer secret - you can use some sort of hook like this one.

But beware! Make sure you can back it up! Don’t go around making outrageous claims you can’t prove. It’s called false advertising and it’s illegal. Even if you can make a fairly incredible claim and back it up - don’t make it too incredible because folks may not believe it anyway.

In the copy to Carlton’s page, it goes on to explain, quite reasonably, how all this makes sense AND gave credence to the secret that could only be revealed to those who ordered.

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