What is advertising? Why do we advertise? A man named Albert Lasker, one of the pioneers of direct mail industry, was disturbed with these same questions and in 1904, he got the answers. Advertising is salesmanship in print.

That then means that your ads should do the same things you’d expect a salesman to accomplish. For example, the performance of very salesman is measured. You don’t send out a salesman to build the brand image of your company without a system of measuring his or her effectiveness. Neither should you do that with you TV, Radio, newspapers or any other form of advertising.

Every advertiser must first determine the sole purpose of an ad before it is even created and put on ‘air’.

And that’s not all… Every advertiser must ask himself these four crucial questions.

Will it make people crave for the product or service being advertised? — You don’t advertise to entertain. You build desire in the product. You make people feel this is a must-have product. You create desire using words, pictures, and memories that make people open their wallets.

Does it explain why this brand is different from the others and why it is the only logical choice? You’ve seen all those ads that say something like ‘the better option’ or ‘the no 1 bank in the world’, or ‘the world’ tastiest burger’. Essentially these forms of ads do not separate their products from the clutter. For an ad to make money, tell the prospects why you are the only reasonable choice. Though decisions will be made emotionally, the client will need logical reasons to allow justification of that decision.

Does it show urgency to make a decision? If there is no urgency then there is no need for a decision right now. That kills sales. Infuse urgency in you offers by way of a time limit or limited quantity available. But this must be genuine. For example reduce price by 25% for certain items for just 30 days or for the first 1000 buyers.

Does it give all the information required to make a decision? If you can’t give all the information in an ad, then just don’t do it. Simply create an ad asking people to visit your website, go to your store or read a newspaper on a specific place at a specified time — and don’t forget the reason why they must do this thing.

I have often seen TV ads that finish by saying ‘terms and conditions apply’ or ‘see press and posters for details’ this doesn’t make sense. This simply means you are asking prospects to delay their decision and therefore murdering your sales.

Speak to you soon,

Stuart

Have you booked your free consultation yet? Why not do it right now? Go to http://kungfucopywriting.com and we’ll set a time to evaluate specific ways to drive your business or advertising campiain to higher levels of profit.

Wow!

Is it 2010 already?  I see my last post was in June last year — where did all the time go?

Anyway, Here’s to a happy, healthy and wealthy 2010 – may it be your best year ever!

My, it’s difficult to keep up with all the changes. Consider what’s happened to the Internet in the last decade: Internet users were a mere 360 million in the year 2000 but grew to a whopping 1.7 billion in 2009 – a 380% growth and this growth is set to rocket because:

Despite this massive growth, world internet penetration is still only 25.6%.

Asia, with a population of 3.8 billion, only has a penetration rate of 19.4%, that makes only 737 million users. — This is not a lot when you consider China has a population of close to 1.3 billion and India of 1.1 billion…

But Asia and especially these two countries are going to become more and more prominent throughout the decade. Baidu, the largest Chinese search engine is about to launch it’s own mobile app, Google has launched a Chinese language spoken app. and Microsoft recently launched a twitteresque application in China called MSN JUKU.

This is just an indication of the importance the big players are attaching to the rise of the Asian markets.

Online Advertising Expenditure Will Rocket

Respected research firm eMarketer says 10% of all projected ad dollars in the US will go online this year.

According to ZenithOptiMedia, global online ad spending will surpass total radio ad spending … and overtake magazines ad dollars during 2010.”

More and more major businesses will aggressively go online throughout the coming months and throughout the decade…

And what the companies know about the online world is relatively little right now so they will be looking for guidance from you the copywriter and marketer. So the time to get in on the action is NOW because it won’t take them too long to learn.

What does this really mean to us as Copywriters?

This is probably our greatest opportunity because… It means web copywriting is going to rocket… the categories to go for are enormous… It could be landing pages, email campaigns, sales letters or even ads…

Your marketing skills will also become more valuable and the trend will be for more and more copywriters to offer marketing advice rather than simply writing services. Some say the traditional sales letters are slowly dying out but I feel there will be a need for MORE integration in marketing.

A combination of online, offline, social media, video etc. will become paramount. the best returns for any campaign will be through a combined approach. So any copywriter portraying preeminence in marketing web copywriting and video scripting will be in high demand.

Another thing, more and more people are getting into home businesses.

Why?

Well, after all, many have no choice: they have been laid-off and must survive. Others have suddenly found their retirement funds and pensions have been cut so are exploring different ways to make money simply to be able to retire!

This then means that you should not ignore your next door stay-at-home-mom who has a website that trains people about pet grooming… If you bothered to talk, you may realize she’s struggling with the basics of marketing or doesn’t know how to do an effective email campaign to her list. And that’s where you come in 2010.

Sales letters that are incorporating video will be on the rise in 2010

In fact, Amish Shah recently launched his ‘Magic bullet System’ using video sales letters alone. If you were watching you’d have noticed the total lack of ‘traditional’ sales copy on his site.

So, many opportunities lie in store which makes me feel positive about this decade…

Here’s to your continued success!

Stuart

KungfuCopywriter

PS

My FREE consultation slots are filling up fast. Why not reserve yours right now?

“We Hope You Come Back…”

Hi there,

That’s all the receptionist said as we were leaving and it surprised me.

Why?

Well, Susan picked up a couple of tickets for a free massage the other day and persuaded me to come and give it a try. Now I’ve been in China for 6 years and still haven’t had a massage yet. I know, I know, they’re supposed to be great but somehow they don’t appeal to me.

Anyway I thought “What the heck might as well give it a try.” so off we went…

The reception area was very opulent, gilded sofas and armchairs, beautiful decor and fine china on display – more like a five star hotel and definitely not what I’d expected.

The receptionist was very pleasant and once we’d changed our shoes for the slippers provided we were escorted to a sofa and asked to wait a little while. Whilst waiting we were asked if we’d like to go for a shower and offered tea, coffee etc.

I plumped for water which duly arrived with a plate of watermelon, nice touch.

However I was disappointed that the receptionist didn’t remove the previous persons dirty tissues when she took away the empty glasses. This spoiled the effect of the water melon.. I mean who wants to eat something when someone’s dirty tissue is sat there winking at you?

Kind of put me off my watermelon it did…

Soon we were told it was our turn, so leaving the watermelon talking to the dirty tissues we followed our host and were taken to the massage room.

This was an eye opener…

We entered a big darkened room with about 50 comfortable-looking reclining seats and each one had a TV monitor on it. Most of the seats were full, the customers lay back watching TV and relaxed whilst the masseuse massaged their feet.

Now this may seem fine, after all everybody looked happy lying back with their eyes glued to the screens: so maybe the management had done their research and discovered this was what their customers wanted. But for me there was just a teeny-weeny problem…

The noise!

Most of the TV sets had the volume turned up way loud… the cacophony was indescribable, umpteen different channels all blaring away in Chinese.

I was in two minds whether to get up and go but decided to bear it to see what happened. I didn’t switch my TV on though despite the intentions of numerous assistants who seemed upset I didn’t want to have a TV screen pressed inches from my face!

Anyway after about an hour the ordeal was over and I was glad to get away.

To be honest the massage wasn’t bad but the overall experience was a big minus in my book.

I asked Susan what she thought and she said she’d not go back. “The other places are much nicer as they have private rooms and no noise.” were her words.

After collecting our shoes we were escorted to the door by the receptionist – which is the norm in China – and she said “We hope you come back…” as we left.

I looked at Susan and said “Is that it? Is that the sum total of the marketing?” I couldn’t believe it.

We’d been enticed there with the promise a FREE massage which was duly delivered without any ‘fuss’ – surely they were going to try and sell a membership or something? But no, there was no upsell, not even a form to fill in to collect a telephone number or email. We were expected to remember the place and choose to come back without any further offers.

Massage centers are a dime a dozen in China and since this one had gone to the trouble and expense of printing fliers, and giving the Free massage you have expected something more.

This really begs the question – “What was the point of this marketing campaign?”

If it was solely to get more people to visit the center then they succeeded. But if it was to get more recurring customers then they failed. It’s pointless getting new people in the door then letting them walk out without at least capturing their details and, better still, marketing your services to them there and then.

Of course, that may have been what the owner intended when he planned the campaign but the staff let him down. Which means he doesn’t have any control of his business. i.e. the staff are being allowed to do as they see fit (hence the episode with the dirty tissue). If this is the case then he’d really be better off getting on top of his main problem which is his staff training and or morale.

This could be the main reason he is losing customers and felt urged to try and attract more. Fact is though, no matter how many prospective customers he brings in the door, if the staff don’t do their job many will leave without becoming customers…

So Let me ask you:

Who are the most important people in your business, are they the customers or the staff?

In my book it’s the staff. Treat them like diamonds and they’ll shine for the customers attracting more and more to come back. Now even if you only employ yourself you should still treat yourself like a diamond so you can shine for your customers. Get this right BEFORE embarking on your next marketing campaign otherwise you may not see the results you expect from it.

Speak to you soon,

Stuart.

Need some help with a sales letter or marketing problem? Drop me a line to copy [at} kungfucopywriter.com – I’ll be glad to help.

A little while ago certain well-known marketers were ‘tricking’ subscribers into signing up for paid subscriptions to their newsletters.

Now that the dust of that settles it seems that at least one of these well-known ‘gurus’ is selling subscribers contact details!

This is soooo wrong in my view, take a look at this article for more information… And be sure to read the privacy policy BEFORE you give out your contact details to anyone. Must admit here I never bother, just assume that they will treat me with respect, but now…

Article reprinted by kind permission of Amber Jalink www.dime-co.com

WARNING: Your Privacy is being breached!

No pitch-Your privacy is being breached. Read now for proof.

Today is a holiday in Canada, but I came online to get things ready for our launches.

I opened my emailbox to find a message from Matt Bacak, a well known “guru”… recommending a product from another “guru”, Justin Blake.

(It’s basically a self-hypnotizing thing for success… supposedly).

I read through the sales letter.

I had something niggling in the back of my mind, so I decided to check out the privacy policy.

~gasp~ !

If you have bought from him OR were thinking about it:

Fair warning: He will sell your information to anyone
who wants it! (Except financial – at least he admits that).

He also states you have no recourse and cannot accuse them of spam. Eesh!

(Proof: http://www.manifestationmeditation.com/privacy.html)

Whether the product is good or not, the fact is “gurus” should be protecting your private information, not sharing it.

Also – another tidbit: The copyright on the privacy policy states “Mining Gold Corporation”. Is that him, or did he “copy” the privacy policy?

Kinda scarey. His main page says, “JB Virtual Enterprises, Inc.
PO Box 6543; Traverse City, MI. 49696 231-930-4043″

Not – mining gold corporation.

So there you have it – it could in fact, be both companies selling your info!

I did more research while writing this…

Shawn Casey’s “Mining Gold” (All his products actually), but I researched the “Mining Gold Corporation” Privacy policy. It states:

“we supply our member’s contact information, to our business partners…”

“We may also supply other companies with contact information, for mail offers we believe would be of interest to our members, with or without comepnsation from those companies.”

“If you order services or products directly from our company, we use the personal information you provide to process that order. We do share this information with outside parties that we do business with.”

!!!

Justin Blake’s has been formatted and claims permission to use the privacy policy from Mining Gold. They’ve revised theirs to say:

—
“HOW INFORMATION MAY BE USED

The use of information as described below may or may not be how information that is collected is customarily used by this site. While actual use of any information collected may be used quite conservatively, you must assume that it is not. You must assume that information collected is shared with other persons or entities for commercial purposes. While this is uncommon in practice, you must assume that it is as you make your decision whether or not to view or interact with this website. This type of shared information may include your name, address, phone number, email address and buying habits, as well as other information. This information may be used for general commercial solicitation by this website or other persons it is sold to, rented to, or shared with.

SPAM

By providing to this website information that forms the basis of communication with you, such as an email address, you waive all rights to file complaints concerning unsolicited email or spam from this website since, by providing such information, you agree to receive communication from us or other marketing organizations. However, all email communication with you shall contain an ‘unsubscribe’ link where you may notify the website that you no longer wish to receive solicitations or information from the website and your name will be removed from the general solicitation database.”

—

The fact is: they’re admitting to SELLING and SHARING your private information.

Do you Really want that?

Be very careful about the privacy policies of companies.

Every company should have one – and if there isn’t one that clearly states they protect your private information, you might want to avoid joining (Unless you don’t care about spam or phone calls!)

We maintain our own newsletters, but we never rent, share, sell or trade our lists or customers in any way. Why would we? (That is a link to OUR privacy policy by the way).

It’s pretty sad that these guys complain about spam…
but are a major part of the problem. Of course, it allows them to then create “anti-spam” software.

Okay, safelists – we expect to get spam because the email
addresses are open for everyone to see (usually). And spammers have access to scripts that will actually create possible email addresses, even if you thought you kept it private.

But a purchase from a ‘guru’ product? You shouldn’t have to worry about that.

Sorry, I shouldn’t rant. We all have our good points and bad points, no one is perfect.

But selling someone’s private information is one of the worst things a marketer could do, and it shouldn’t be done.

Protect your privacy. Be wise to it.

(c) 2008, Amber Jalink. Amber Jalink is the Founder and Creator of many websites, including the popular article site, www.dime-co.com. This article may be reproduced in its entirety as long as this resource box is included.

Kind of leaves a nasty taste in your mouth doesn’t it?

Speak to you soon,

Stuart.

***Trivia question… Which famous copywriter sends bullets to his readers? (Read on to find the answer.)***

Using psychology to sell is such a fundamental part of marketing isn’t it?

You may not realise it but every time you write a sales letter or send an email there are hidden phsycological triggers that you should use to communicate with your reader.

And be warned… if you’re not using these triggers right now you could well be losing more sales than you realise.

One that is put to good use on your everyday soap operas and sports programs is the Ziegarnick Effect. This is the official name for the cliffhanger scenes that always end each episode and leave you in a state of high drama, desperately wishing tomorrow would come so that you can get some release.

Imagine how you’d feel if tomorrow didn’t come and you couldn’t see the next episode. You’d be grumpy, agitated and probably cross with your friends and neighbours. That’s how powerful this psychological trigger is.

In TV sports programs it’s use is characterised by asking a trivia question at the beginning of the program with the promise of the answer later on. This often keeps you glued to the screen just to get the answer to the question. Often you have no real interest in the program but have to have the answer so you watch anyway.

Here are Nine of the most important triggers, study them and you’ll understand how psychology affects your customer’s buying decisions and how you should be using it to your distinct advantage.

1. Using the psychology of authority figures
2. Ziegarnick’s discovery – the power of unfinished business
3. Understanding the ‘herd’ phenomenon or social proof
4. Foot in the door phenomenon
5. Conformity to emotions – smile and the world will smile with you
6. Cognitive Dissonance – not wanting to admit you’re wrong and ‘because’
7. Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs
8. Framing
9. Price Conditioning

I’ll explain more about each one in later posts but if you’re in a hurry to find out more (and you should be) I suggest you take a look at my new manual. it’s called the ‘Three “R’s” of Copywriting‘ and has helped many a writer get higher conversions from their sales copy, no matter what form it is in… and it’s guaranteed to help you too.

Take a look now, you’ll be glad you did, it’s extremely reasonably priced.

Oh and before I go let me answer the trivia question. The copywriter is Gary Bencivenga. He sends regular bullets to his readers. Lots of good info there, after all he’s been writing winning copy for many years now.

Speak to you soon,

Stuart.

Don’t forget to drop me a line if you need a sales letter critique or other copywriting services. I’m always happy to help out. Drop me a line to copy {at} kungfucopywriter.com

Tags: Sales Letters

What is a guarantee?

Yes, I know it’s an offer to give your prospect his money back if he doesn’t like your product but… What really is a guarantee?

I want you to think about this for a few moments….

Did you find the answer you were looking for? A guarantee is a risk reversal for your prospect. Simply put, it takes the responsibility for buying your product from his shoulders and puts it squarely upon yours.

You promise him that he’ll be satisfied with your product no matter what, or you’ll give him his money back. But why should you do that?

Well after telling your prospect all the wonderful things your product can do for him and proudly showcasing your precious testimonials, he is probably thinking, “…That’s good. But should I risk buying this product from you?” And the answer is a resounding NO, unless…

Purchasing anything online is risky. Don’t blame your prospects for being scared. There are more scam artists ‘out there’, ready to steal from innocent people, than there are stars in the night sky (Maybe a slight exaggeration, but I think you get my drift!). Everywhere you turn in life you will find someone who wants to steal from you no matter what and the Internet is no different.

What makes it worse though, is the fact that your prospect cannot see you, he is dealing with a few lines of text and/or a pretty picture on a computer screen.

The only way to really gain his trust is to give a concrete, all encompassing, money back guarantee and to abide by that guarantee no matter what!

If you ask me how long should my guarantee be and I tell you a minimum of 90 days you’ll probably step back in horror. “…What! Give my prospects 90 days to claim a refund – I’ll never make any money and will be broke in no time!”

However let me tell you something that will make you think a little:

“The longer your guarantee, the LESS chance there is of your client wanting to ask for his money back!”

I can hear you now “…that doesn’t make sense!” – but let me explain things a little.

If you only offer a guarantee of one week what do you think your client is going to do? He’s going to keep on thinking “…I’ve only got a few days to make up my mind about getting my money back, maybe I’d better do it now – just in case!”

His foremost thoughts are going to be whether he’s going to lose his money by missing the deadline for asking for a refund. He may NEVER have even looked at your product yet because he’s been too busy with something else. He is consciously aware of the time passing though, and, more likely, than not will ask for a refund just to make sure he doesn’t miss out.

If you extend that guarantee to 30 days, 60 days, 90 days or even longer the pressure is off of him. He’s got time to finish what he’s doing, he’s in no hurry to check your product and learn how to use it properly, the money-back part of your guarantee does not become a priority in his mind. Heck he may even forget about the guarantee anyway!

By offering a longer guarantee you will also increase your sales. This is because your prospect feels safe and secure in the knowledge that he has plenty of time to try out your product and claim a refund if he wants to.

Have a look at this guarantee from Xsitepro they allow their clients to use their product for one whole year – yes, 365 days! – and, if at any time during that period the client doesn’t feel satisfied, they’ll give him a full refund.

It’s a great website building program so just think how many websites the client could’ve built in that year, how much money will he have made before his guarantee period is up? Now that’s what I call a powerful guarantee!

Think about it, this is a brilliant guarantee that takes all the risk away from your prospects.

How about trying this next one?

Don’t collect any money from your prospect before he’s used your product for one whole month, for FREE! Simply collect his credit card info but don’t bill him, let him use your product and towards the end of one month remind him that he needs to return your product or you will bill him.

More than 99% of your clients will want to keep your product now that they’ve experienced the benefits. Want to make it even more powerful? Extend the trial period to 60 days!

This takes every single iota of risk from his shoulders and can get your prospects buying from you in droves!

Giving a money-back guarantee also demonstrates how confident you are in the quality of your product. If for any reason your customer does not like your product or think it is not for him (sometimes a client needs to try it out to make sure), he can promptly ask for a refund and delete the product from his PC. Your prospect cannot lose.

A word of Warning! As an Internet Business owner, you too are at risk from the scammers. There are some people who buy products online with absolutely no intention of paying for them. They offer their credit card number, download the product and promptly ask for a refund. Of course, they still keep your product and even pass it amongst their friends.

Whilst there is not a great deal that you can do about this there are a few steps you can take. Some vendors offer digital encoding products to allow you to lock your products in such cases. One such product is ebook pro (You should click this link just to read the sales letter, it’s quite a masterpiece!)

Another alternative is to keep a database of the people who ask for refunds and if there is anybody who habitually follows this route ban his IP address from accessing your website. You could also ask your payment processor to refuse his credit card as well.

Fortunately this is not so common an occurrence to make trading on the Internet unprofitable, but it is a problem you should be aware of! Rather than worry overly about this though it is wiser to spend your time improving the conversion rate of your sales letter and thus bring in even more revenue.

If you follow this route you will soon find out that your your sales profits far out weigh the refund amounts.

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Stuart Elliott is a world class copywriter who has written numerous stories on sales letters and copywriting. Drop by:
http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com to pick up a free copywriting power guide.

Article copyright Stuart Elliott 2006 all rights reserved. You may only reprint this artitcle in it’s entirety and you must include this resource box.

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Believe it or not there are many instances when giving away bonuses with your product will actually turn people away from your sales copy.

Sometimes the bonuses offered are not related to your product, other times they give the impression that you need to add on heaps of bonuses to make your product have any value at all.

There are many people making absolute fortunes from their products because of the bonuses they offer in their sales letters, and there equally as many people who don’t give bonuses yet also make fortunes.

On the other side of the coin you will find that there are many people who offer hundreds of dollars worth of bonuses with their product yet fail to make a sale, and people who do not offer bonuses who also fail to make a sale!

It all boils down to the perceived value of your product and how it can help your prospect solve his problems.

If you have a product of exceptional value to your prospect then it will sell no matter what.

Note that value does not mean price!

“A low priced item may have no value to your prospect, but selling the same item for a much greater price often increases it’s value and makes him buy it!”

Of course, if you are in a very competitive market, then adding hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of bonuses to your product can help sway your prospect to buy from you rather than from a competitor

You may think I am taking this a little too lightly, but the truth is you can sell your products WITH or WITHOUT bonuses, I and countless others have done so before and continue to do so.

Obviously, whether you sell your product or not all depends upon the quality of your sales letter, if the copy is lacking then no amount of bonuses you offer will have an impact upon your sales.

Present a poorly written sales letter to your prospect and he may not even get to see the thousands of dollars worth of bonuses he’d get if he were to buy your product – You’d lose him after the first few lines!

Here are a couple of examples of the way you can write your sales copy if you choose to offer or not offer your prospect some bonuses.

If You Include Bonuses:

Some websites showcase the bonuses you will get when you buy their product by listing the graphic covers of them inside a table in their sales letter.

This is more effective than just making a list of the products names as it shows that your prospect is getting a real product – thus adding perceived value to the whole offer.

If you don’t want to list all the individual products then you could write some text similar to the examples below.

• Buy my product now and I will give you $1,000 worth of fantastic bonuses absolutely FREE. Where else will you find an offer like this?
• For the insanely low price of $97 you get an immediate ten-fold increase in that investment! That’s right, immediately you order my product I will send you $1,000 of amazing bonuses absolutely FREE!
• Let’s do the maths. You get Product 1 + Product 2 + Product 3 + Product 4 = $1,000.00. That’s $1,000.00 worth of products for only the price of one. It would have cost you $1,000.00 to get the same products if you were to purchase them individually elsewhere, where else can you get a bargain like that?
• List all the free products in a table and put the value next to them, at the bottom of the table total the value up and highlight it. Point out to your prospect that this is what he gets FREE when he buys your product.

You can combine any of the above methods to really increase the impact, i.e. showcase all the graphics then add some text similar to “let’s do the maths…”

Combining both the graphic of the bonus and the value of it really drives home what a great bargain he is getting when your prospect buys your product.

Many times a prospect will buy your product just to get the free bonuses. I myself have been swayed over to buying a product just because I wanted one of the bonuses and didn’t want to pay the full price for that bonus!

If You Are Not Giving Any Bonuses

In this instance you are relying upon the perceived value of your product to your prospect to convince him to buy.

Earlier in your sales letter you have stated exactly how your product can help your prospect solve his problems. Now you tell him that you’ve already proven that your product is exactly what he needs to solve all his problems, and that if he cannot see the value of it for himself, then, no amount of bonuses will convince him otherwise.

1. It is obvious that there are little (or no) bonuses added to this offer. But if you are not convinced of the true value of this product (or service), no amount of bonuses will ever convince you.

2. Unlike most offers out there, I am NOT going to give you any bonuses. But look at it this way: I have kidnapped a top copywriter who charges $10,000.00 for every sales letter he writes. I have made him spell out his secrets for you, and you get to have his brains for only $97. Would a paltry few bonuses make this information more valuable?

3. Which one are you more interested in? Getting the $1,000.00 worth of bonuses which you might or might not get around to using, or investing $97 in the product alone and learning how to write your own professional $10,000.00 sales copy which you will continue to profit from for years to come?

4. I suppose you think that a few paltry bonuses would make this product even more valuable? Well let me tell you that if that’s what you’re looking for you’ve come to the wrong place.

5. If you cannot see the true value of this product and understand just how much more benefit you will get from using it than by me adding a couple of hundred dollars worth of bonuses to the package, then this product is not for you and I don’t want you to waste your money buying it!

There are valid arguments for using both methods, and generally, as long as you can convince your prospect of the true value they are going to get when they invest in your solutions, you will make your money, with or without offering bonuses.

If you do decide to offer bouses in your sales letter do make sure that they compliment your product. Offering bonuses about dog training when you are selling a product that saves you time and money is hardly likely to sweeten the deal for your visitor is it?

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Stuart Elliott is a world class copywriter who has written numerous stories on sales letters and copywriting. Drop by:
http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com to pick up a free copywriting power guide.

Article copyright Stuart Elliott 2006 all rights reserved. You may only reprint this artitcle in it’s entirety and you must include this resource box.

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The correct choice of words is critical to the success of your sales copy, sometimes by changing only one word in the title or body the result can be an instant ten-fold increase in your sales. Conversely the opposite is true, it makes sense therefore, to pay very special attention to word selection.

Sales professionals and Network Marketing experts very aptly call this “pressing the hot buttons” and it is such an important subject that professors at Yale University have instituted studies around it.

Their results have proven that the following 12 words are the most personal and persuasive words in the English language.

You must use as many of them as possible in your sales letters if you want to get good results, and I’m sure that you do!

You

The main focus of your sales letter should be on your prospect, so you need to address your words to him, tell him “you will be able to overcome the stumbling blocks and earn more money than you ever dreamed possible” not “I have been able to….. and I now earn more money…”

Your sales letter is all about solving your prospect’s problem, not yours. You are simply providing the solution. When you write to your prospect, address him as “you”, or “friend” at times, not only does it make your letter more personal but, you shift the whole focus directly onto your prospect rather than yourself.

There are times when you need to tell your prospect that you understand where he is coming from. In this case ‘I’ should only be used to build empathy not brag about yourself. “…In my early childhood I was continually plagued by….” This sets the scene and tells him you understand his problems, now all you need to do is shift the focus to his problems and the benefits he will get from your product.

Discover

Sometimes, your prospect may have a problem that he thinks cannot be solved. He subconsciously wishes that somebody would find a solution and thinks to himself: “It would be nice if someone already knew the answer…” When you come along and tell him he can “Discover the answer to…” he will react instantly! This is a powerful hot button to press and use in your sales letter.

For example, if your world is falling apart at the seams and your house is about to be repossessed because you have no work and haven’t paid the mortgage for months. You find it difficult to feed your family and to make matters worse your spouse is threatening to divorce you because you are nothing but a useless deadbeat. What would you do if I came along and told you that I have discovered a way to make enough money quickly and legally to……?

Believe me I’ve been there, I know the feeling of uselessness and despair that hits in those circumstances, I can tell you that not only would you jump at that answer but you’d leap out and grab it with both hands and your arms and your legs…!!!

Safety

People have a big fear of the unknown and need to have a feeling of safety and security when going about their everyday life. To ask such a person to take a risk and buy a product that no one else has even heard of is asking too much of them.

Instead, if you offer an already familiar product or service to your prospect and demonstrate that there are many others who are already happily using it then he will feel safe and secure buying it – that is why brand names work and big companies go to great lengths to establish their brand.

For instance say I develop a new Cola drink and market if alongside the already established brands, which would you buy? Of course you’d go for the old, faithful, reliable, trusted product – there’s no way you’d take a risk on mine!

You can circumvent this with testimonials and guarantees as well as easing your prospects mind that your product is safe to use or 100% tested.

Money

Money, money, money – everybody wants it! We just can’t get enough of it no matter what! It goes without saying that this is an extremely hot button to press! Using words such as “make money now”, “save money” and “quickly multiply the amount of money you already have” are hot buttons you can easily use for increased results.

Proven

Remember the fear of the unknown? Your prospect doesn’t want to try a new product only to find out that it doesn’t work. (He’d look a fool amongst his friends!) You have to get around this by convincing him that your product or service is already proven and tested, that many others are happily using it without any problems.

Results

No matter how high the claims you make about your product or service, your prospect will not believe you unless you can show him results. You have to have testimonials showcased in your sales letter. If you haven’t been able to collect any testimonials yet, don’t make them up, showcase the results that you have personally achieved using your own product or service.

For example: “I have lost 22kg in three weeks!” or “I have made $1,031.00 with DEF program!” and “With JKL Software, I have saved 3.5 hours everyday yet have still been able to write and submit my articles to 1,211 directories!”

Love

We are all looking for someone or something to love, whether it is ourselves, a spouse, a pet or even a car! This is an especially emotive button to press, look at any bestseller book list and you will see that there is a romance story amongst the top sellers!

You can substitute the word passion for love if you want – it will be equally effective! Look at these:

“Discover how to find out what your clients passion in life is, then sell him what he desires the most!”

“Don’t you love the idea of having plenty of free time with your spouse and watching your children grow up?”

“You would love this program, because it can buy you the freedom to travel”.

Guarantee

Once again: “..if I have to take a risk that I may lose my money I’m not interested in your product!”

People are all the same, they prefer certainty above uncertainty, they do not want to take risks or become a guinea pig for your product. You have to tell your prospect that you are shouldering ALL of the risk for him. Use these exact words so that he is clear in his mind about all of this!

Tell him why you are shouldering all the risk and say that you are so confident in your product that he can test-drive your service or simply sample your product for the next 30/45/90/180 days.

Sometimes if you offer a lifetime guarantee, it will make your prospect feel silly to leave your page without giving your offer a try.

“…Why not, what have I got to lose? I can always get my money back!”

This is the feeling you have to imbed in his mind. Once your prospect actually feels your product he will be very reluctant to let it go. If it turns out that it is not suitable for him he can always get a refund.

By doing this you have shown your faith in your product and your confidence is passed on to your prospect.

Save

Money again! If it’s possible to save then people will always be tempted by how much they save rather than the end price!

Emphasise the saving not the cost. This is where the true power of this hot button lies, whether you apply it to money or time or even emotion i.e.

“Discover How to Save Your Marriage in 7 Easy Steps!”

“For only $97, you can save yourself 10 years of guessing about credit card debt. Why risk the time, effort, and frustration!”

New

Ask your friend if he wants to see your new car and he’ll immediately want to rush outside for a look. Now ask him if he wants to see your old car and he’ll say “Why, what’s happened to it?”

The fact is “new” beats “old” every time.

“Discover the latest tricks to making money online for less than…”

“Discover the tricks to making money online for less than…”

Which would you respond to?

Easy

Life is complicated enough without you making it even more so. Everybody is looking for ways to make their life simpler and by implication give them more time, freedom and money etc.

If you can prove to your prospect how your product or solution can make his life easier then he will be willing to buy it. Now couple the ease of use of your product with the savings in time and money he will experience and you’ve got an extremely hot product!

Health

Health is a very HUGE topic on the Internet, we all want to stay healthy and live longer. Not only is it extremely unpleasant to be unhealthy but it is also very expensive to get treatment.

However, you should only use this hot button if you are selling health solutions.

“If you want to enjoy a healthy life free from the painful, debilitating effects of asthma (and spend less money in the process), then I suggest you get a copy of my new book: “Tap Into the Wisdom of the Ancients” and discover how they cured Asthma”

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Stuart Elliott is a world class copywriter who has written numerous stories on sales letters and copywriting. Drop by:
http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com to pick up a free copywriting power guide.

Article copyright Stuart Elliott 2006 all rights reserved. You may only reprint this artitcle in it’s entirety and you must include this resource box.

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“If You Are Going to be in Business, You Must Know How to Sell”

In his book Automatic Wealth Michael Masterson states that in order to achieve Financial Independence you need to master a financially valuable skill.

Selling is the number one skill you MUST learn if you are going to be in business, and this applies offline, too. If you do not know how to sell, you and your business will struggle financially.

We are selling everyday, whether we sell ourselves our friends or the latest film we’ve just watched.

Look at this common everyday phrase: – “have you seen xxxxxx? I saw it last night and I ….”

Sound familiar?

Well that is selling in a nutshell! Some people do it better than others but we all do it, and with a little bit of training and practice you can soon become a master at it!

Forget the numerous “no selling required” ads you come across online because they are pure B.S. – for one simple reason: people don’t just walk up to you and give you money for your product – you have to tell them about it.

If you do not know how to sell or HATE selling how can you tell people about your product in a way that makes them want to buy it from you? And, if they don’t buy from you – HOW can you make money?

For instance, if it were not for their ability to sell, how would professionals be able to charge such high service fees and still get paid the amount they ask? If it were not for their ability to sell, how could the Wright brothers have managed to convince the world about their first aircraft when people were still living and traveling without them?

Today, the Internet marketplace is jam-packed with plenty of fantastic ideas and wonderful products. Chances are that you have already located:

• A great idea that you think you can make money from
• A product that solves a specific problem, and/or
• An income opportunity to provide to people online

But the fact is: if you do not know how to sell your products, you cannot turn them into money-producing assets, no matter how great the demand or high in quality they actually are.

Everyday as you have dealings with people you subconsciously become acutely aware of whether or not that person has the ability to sell. I’m sure that you’ve often noticed that whilst many people have million-dollar ideas, more often than not they do not have the skill to sell them, let alone instill commercial value into those ideas or products.

I think you get the picture.

Whether you are selling your intellectual asset, service, tangible goods, yourself or whatever kind of product or solution you have, unless you have the ability to sell, your product or asset is worth absolutely nothing!

This may sound a little harsh but it is a cold hard reality. Sure, you may get lucky once in a while but to really become successful…… Well, you have to be able to sell!

Good News

The good news is that using the leverage of the Internet there is no need for you to go door to door to sell. Even if you join a Multi Level Marketing company, you can cover thousands of prospects via the Internet in an extremely short period of time, something that you cannot possibly accomplish in a face to face, conventional business.

There is no need for you to travel around to meet your prospects either. The Internet brings every other Internet user right to your computer screen. What’s more, you don’t need to recruit your own salespeople – or even do the selling yourself manually to every single prospect…

All you need for the selling to be done on your behalf is powerful sales copy!

Take another look at that last statement again because…..

“Your Sales Letter is Your Sales Person”

Yes, your sales letter is your virtual sales person. Your sales letter does all the selling to your prospects on your behalf.

Unlike in conventional and direct response marketing businesses, there is no need for you to train and recruit multiple sales people. Instead, all of your efforts should be focused on creating a powerful sales letter that produces a minimum 2 to 4 percent conversion rate, then fine-tuning that letter to improve the conversion rate as you go.

In other words, for every 100 prospects you refer or who visit your web page, you are aiming for a minimum of 2 to 4 of them to be your customers. Once you achieve that (and you will!), all you need to do is introduce targeted prospects to your sales letter, confident that it will do all the selling for you, day after day!

Your sales letter is like a personal letter from you to your prospect, in it you tell him why he needs your services/product. You remind him of his problems and why you have the solution to those problems, thus convincing your prospect to buy your product or the access to a service from you.

What You Need

You have probably already got a great idea, or a product and some basic selling skills (remember the film you saw the other day?)

Now all you need to do is develop and hone those skills in order to formulate a sensational sales letter. A sales letter that arouses a deep primal need in your prospects and makes them bolt frantically to your order button, desperate to buy your products, every time.

This means that you have to:

1. Improve your writing skills.

Since you will be writing your own sales copy, you will need to have good writing skills and a good command of English. Even if English is not your mother tongue, with a little work you can develop this skill. Note however, that you do not need to be a master of English to write a successful sales letter. As long as your letter carries emotion and personality it will work. Forget all the grammar lessons you learnt at school – just copy what works and learn from the masters.

2. Inject your personality into your letter.

Yes, you must inject your personality. You will be writing a somewhat personal or emotional letter to your prospects. A letter which needs to move and arouse them to take action, so be friendly and approachable with your words. You need to write from the heart. Don’t write a stiff letter, not only is it boring to read but it will turn people away from your web page faster than you can blink!

NB. Mix your writing skills with your personality, write from your heart with truth and sincerity and you will compose the perfect sales letter!

And last but not least, you need…

3. To take action!

There is a wealth of information on how you can write your own killer sales copy staring right at you – don’t waste it by not doing anything with the information! If English is not your first language – no problem – print out a couple of great sales letters that move you and copy their structure and grammar (Learn as You Earn!) Don’t just copy the letter wholesale though that’s plain old theft. – Your letter must come from your heart!

Got it? Good, now go and get started.

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Stuart Elliott is a world class copywriter who has written numerous stories on sales letters and copywriting. Drop by:
http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com to pick up a free copywriting power guide.

Article copyright Stuart Elliott 2006 all rights reserved. You may only reprint this artitcle in it’s entirety and you must include this resource box.

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Not many people fully understand the value of the research done by Bluma Ziegarnik.

I too had never heard of her until one of my copywriting mentors introduced me to a powerful sales letter strategy called the Ziegarnik effect… As soon as I applied this strategy (actually I’d call it a secret weapon) my sales letter conversions started rocketing.

In fact all of my advertising, solo ads, landing pages, headlines – anything that I touched with this weapon soon succumbed to higher conversions and I’d recommend that you start using it too. I’ll even be as bold as to say that if you don’t use the Ziegarnik effect in your sales letter you’ll be leaving massive profits on the table…

So what is the Ziegarnik effect and how can you apply it to your sales letter?

Well before I tell you that I think it’s important for me to tell you a little bit more about Bluma Ziegarnik and what she discovered.

Born in Russia back in 1900 Bluma went on to become a respected Psychologist with a string of credits to her name.

It was while she was sitting in a Viennese café in the nineteen twenties that she noticed a phenomena that later became known as the Ziegarnik Effect. Whilst waiting for her order to be fulfilled she observed that the waiters were not writing anything down.

They simply memorised all the orders that they received, five, ten fifteen of them – it didn’t matter – they were all remembered wholesale. But as soon as they were fulfilled they were instantly forgotten.

This intrigued Bluma so much that she carried out further studies and found out that every single waiter could remember an endless string of uncompleted orders, but not one could remember a completed order.

In 1927 she published the results of her studies stating that ‘we remember unfinished business approximately twice as well as finished business.’

This is all very interesting you may think but how can it help you?

Well think about things you watch on TV for a moment… every news broadcaster employs this technique and all the soap operas use it as well…

What they do is to start off a story then leave you ‘hanging in mid air’ …

“Coming up later we tell you how a ten year old girl saved her grandfather from a band of armed thugs…”

might be the first headline the news presenter reads before starting to tell you other, perhaps less interesting stories.

Of course this lead story has captured your attention so much that you have to keep on watching the ‘boring’ news until finally the presenter comes to the interesting part…

A tension has been built up inside of you and you have to keep on watching just to find out the ending to get release.

Look at any Soap Opera on TV and you’ll see that each episode stops right in the middle of some extremely interesting story – you have to watch the next episode just to find out what happened.

This makes you feel such an excruciating longing to find out just what is going to happen next, so much so that you feverishly wait for the clock to tick away so that you can find out the answer… It’s almost as if there is nothing more to life than the answer to the unfinished part of the previous episode, you’re on autopilot completing whatever tasks you have to do while your mind dwells on what is going to happen next in the story…

This is how powerful the Ziegarnik effect can be and why you must use it in your sales letters.

As you know stories capture peoples attention and you should always have a story of some kind in your sales letter, but the trick is not to finish the story immediately.

Tempt your prospect, pique their interest, keep them hanging on for the answer while you go on to explain other benefits about your product. They’ll have to keep on reading to find out the answer to the unfinished business you agitated in their mind earlier.

In the same way, your headlines and sub-headlines must never give a complete solution to your readers problems, they should only serve to capture their interest and make them want to keep on reading.

Using the Ziegarnik effect in your sales letter will give you increased sales for your product but don’t trick you customers.

If your sales letter offers something , even if it’s simply the answer to a question you’ve raised in someone’s mind you have to supply the answer otherwise you’ll create a resentment in them that will prevent them from buying from you.

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Stuart Elliott is a world class copywriter who has written numerous stories on sales letters and copywriting. Drop by:
http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com to pick up a free copywriting power guide.

Article copyright Stuart Elliott 2006 all rights reserved. You may only reprint this artitcle in it’s entirety and you must include this resource box.

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