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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Here’s a video entitled “The Magic of Conversion” detailing the basics of sales page split testing and conversions. This is the “down and dirty” version. I expect to have somewhat more polished version shortly.
Well I can’t figure how to get the “pretty” player to work here either so here’s a link to it.
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
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.
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you should at the very least make sure you save your old page just in case those spiffy new changes make things worse.
