2021 February

Landing Page Videos – Do they Always Work?

Landing page videos. Do they work? Whether you’re on LinkedIn, Facebook or your other favourite social media, there’s no escaping videos. Of course it makes sense to use videos. With attention spans getting shorter, it’s so much easier to consume content in an  audio-visual form instead of reading a long page of text.

From a content consumption point of view, people have different preferences. The auditory prefer to listen, the kinaesthetic like to read and the visual prefer images and video. Besides, video appeals to both the visual and auditory senses.

In the early days of the internet, inserting landing page videos, videos in blog post or articles was an arduous task. Nowadays it’s as simple as recording a video, making simple edits and uploading it to a blog or social media channel.

Most internet marketing gurus will tell you that you really must use landing page videos, or vidoes when creating online content.

The question is, will the strategy of using landing page videos work all the time?

To find out if landing page videos work, here’s an interesting case study.

Recently I crafted the content for a landing page promoting a business breakfast event at $27 per attendee. The target audience for the promotion was business owners who were already investing in online marketing but weren’t getting the desired return on investment.

The pain point which the landing page focused on was the dynamic state of the internet and the difficulty in keeping up with what was really working in 2016.

 Headline for the landing page:

The content had all the elements of persuasive copywriting including bullet benefits, price justification and a strong    call-to-action.

The following is a snapshot of the bullet points:

Price justification plug:

Traffic to the landing page was generated through paid advertising on Facebook and through a series of emails sent to the database.

Facebook ad used to drive traffic to the offer using audience insights.

The target of 15 registrations was achieved in the first 5 days of the the landing page going live.

The event itself was an eye-opener for many of the attendees, some of whom were more than willing to record video testimonials and give permission to use these to promote future events.

An encore presentation was planned the following week to meet added demand and accommodate prospects who had booked for the previous event but could not be accommodated due to capacity constraints.

This time it was decided to add the video testimonial as a proof element since it was specific to the event. Once again Facebook ads and email marketing were used to drive traffic to the landing page. Apart from the additional video testimonial, the landing page remained unchanged.

The result…

There was a marked drop in the registrations. A decision was made to split test two landing pages…one with landing page video and the other without the video.

Surprisingly the landing page without the video testimonial, converted 10 times better than the one with the landing page video.

So, does this mean that you should not use video in landing pages or sales pages?

Far from it. The lesson here is, despite what the hot shot digital marketing gurus have to say about video marketing, there’s no guarantee landing page videos will increase conversions. It could just be that your prospects get distracted by watching the video. They momentarily forget why they were on the landing page and may have left.

Rather than discard the video testimonial completely, it was put to good use in a broadcast email to the database for promoting the next event

Sub: Lead Generation Breakfast…What You Missed + Second Chance

 Just thought I’d give you an update on yesterday’s Lead Generation Breakfast where Eleven Lucky Business Owners discovered exactly what’s required to generate leads online and achieve double digit growth in 2016.

The highlight of the event was the hot seat, where one lucky business owner had their online business strategy scrutinised in microscopic detail. What emerged from the hot seat were strategies and tactics which were an eye opener…worth ten times the investment made to attend the event.

Unfortunately, you weren’t able to attend. So we recorded a video to show you what one business owner thought about the event.

Click Here to Watch the Review

Now for the good news.

We’ve decided to run the event again on the 25^th May 2016.

There are two reasons why we’re doing this.

A few of you registered after we had closed the bookings and expressed your disappointment.

Conflicting schedules made it impossible for some others to attend.

We totally get it…and we want to make to make it up to you.

So, we’re having an encore.

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Spaces are limited, so please act quickly.

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Best regards

(Signature)

P.S. Business owners who expressed an interest for the earlier event will be given priority, and by the time you receive this email those seats will be taken up. To book one of the remaining seats please book early to avoid disappointment. Click Here to reserve your seat.

The email had high open rates and click through to the landing page promoting the encore Lead Generation Breakfast…

…which leads to an important aspect of online marketing.

This important aspect is one which you cannot ignore even for a day if you want your business to grow. As you may have guessed it is tracking and measuring everything you do using tools such as Google Analytics.

Track the Performance of Your Website and Spy on Your Competitor’s Site

This invaluable tool will help you to track your analytics and also spy on competitor sites.
Check it out. It has a lot of other features as well, including a website malware checker.

Yes. I would like to know more about this website performance measurement tool.

If you use landing page videos, make sure you split test your pages by using enticing images in one and a video in the other.

It’s the only way you will know what works for your market. As I always say, only the market can decide what they want. When you feed your market what they want, you will reap the benefits and your sales will soar.

 If you would like to accelerate sales for your business using killer copywriting and marketing strategies, email contact@copywriting-results.com with details of your website and what you want to achieve. There’s no charge and is obligation-free. This offer is for serious business owners, who already invest in marketing and advertising.

 

2021 February

Three Copywriting Clicks to Move Prospects from Fear to Trust

One of the most common copywriting mistakes made by marketing strategists when is an overriding focus on product features in their advertising messages. Strange as it may seem, it’s not really your “product”, the prospect is after. What your prospect is really seeking is a solution to a problem or a means of satisfying an immediate want or need. Your product or service is only a medium to achieve either of these objectives.
This being said, the question you should be asking yourself is, “Why should a prospect choose your product or service over your competitors?” The answer is not in how great your product or service is. The right answer is how in their mind your product or service will help the prospect overcome a problem or satisfy a want or need better, faster and with the least amount of effort than your competitors.
Understanding this principle will make the difference between the success and failure in your marketing going forward.
It was Robert Collier who said, “You must enter the conversation already going on inside your customer’s mind.” Once you know what their fears, frustrations, needs and aspirants are, crafting compelling copy for your advertisements and sales material becomes simple.
When you first engage with a prospect either in person, on the phone or through the media it’s only natural you’ll be up against a wall of mistrust. A number of questions are running through a prospect’s mind: “Will I get ripped off?” “How will I pay for this?” “Will the product last long?”
So how do you take the prospect from a position of fear and mistrust to placing their trust in you when crafting compelling copy for your sales material?
A quick and easy way to do this is by using three copywriting clicks that have been proven to succeed.

1. The Enemy In Common Copywriting Click

Identifying a “common hate” that consumers feel with a product or service and using it in your copy can help you gain immediate trust. The secret is to acknowledge the pain and empathize with your prospect. For instance, lawyers specializing in helping people achieve a positive outcome when making insurance claims can use large insurance companies as the enemy in common.
The headline for a sales letter can read:
“A Distraught Single Mother Reveals How She Fought Back to Get Compensation When Her Claim Was Denied By a Ruthless Insurance Company…and How You Can Do the Same.”
The body copy would go on to build empathy with the reader, explaining how insurance companies make it a practice to decline claims as far as they can, the lawyers know how it feels to be victimized…and how they can help. Let’s move on to the next copywriting click.

2. The Shared Values Copywriting Click

When crafting compelling copy, it’s important to know that people buy from those they like and trust. Try and find some common ground between you and your prospect. For example if members of your target audience reside in a local suburb in which your contribution has been publicly acknowledged, then don’t make this your best kept secret.
Use blurbs or boxes in your sales copy to indicate who you support or even write a paragraph explaining the extent of your contribution to the local community. Using clippings of press coverage or a snippet of a TV interview can help to authenticate your claim.
You can go further and pledge a portion of your sales to a noble cause or project in your local area, such as contributions to a school seeking funds for constructing classrooms.

3. The Empathy Copywriting Click

If you’ve done your research thoroughly,you should know what’s going on in your prospect’s mind. Showing empathy to your prospect can immediately lower the barriers to building trust. Explain how you’ve been in a similar situation which is why you understand the pain experienced by your prospect.
For example if you’re selling accounting software your copy can read…
“…despite exceeding sales targets, you just can’t explain why you’re not achieving profits. Two years ago I was in exactly the same situation. My crack sales team easily achieved their targets, yet the profits weren’t rising. I was puzzled and completely at a loss.
It took me three months and $150,000 to discover exactly why I wasn’t making huge profits despite achieving record sales. It was a flaw in my accounting system. So I decided to do something about it. Six months of development, testing and $40,000 later I had a software solution able to pick up even the slightest flaw in the accounting system. Now my business is turning over six figures every year and my accountant has never been happier.
But enough about me. Now I’d like to help you achieve the same results…”
If you’re ever stuck for ideas when writing copy, try these tactics the next time you’re writing a sales letter or creating online content. First find out what’s going on in the mind of your prospect and then see how best you can use one or all of these copywriting clicks to move your prospect from fear to trust and get the cash register of your business ringing.

2021 February

Has the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) Concept Lost It’s Long Term Potency?

 

 

The term Unique Selling Proposition or USP as it is commonly known, was introduced in the 1940s by adman Robert Reeves. The purpose of a USP was to convey a unique benefit about the product or service to the target market which was not being offered by competitors.

One of the most famous examples of a USP is Domino’s Pizza – “Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less guaranteed!” This slogan turned a struggling enterprise into a global success.

FedEx, the internationally reputed courier company is another business which drew strength from its USP, “When it absolutely, positively MUST be there overnight”. On the strength of that message, they created a delivery business dynasty.

The question you may be asking is, “So why have both these organizations stopped using their unique selling proposition today? There are several reasons who this happens – the competition steps up their game, the needs of the marketplace changes or it’s no longer practical to make the claim. Dangerous riding by Pizza delivery scooterists desperate to deliver Pizzas in 30 minutes could lead to an increase in accidents. Apart from the media having a field day, escalating insurance costs would mean the numbers don’t justify continuing with the proposition.

The Leveling Power of the Internet

The internet has been a game changer in the way businesses compete to get a share of their prospects mind. Apart from the speed of bringing a message to the market, the costs are strikingly competitive compared to traditional media. In fact, it’s often said that the internet is the cheapest place to fail. A USP can be annulled by competitors countering the unique benefits claimed, by their own renditions or even a slight alteration to the original claim.

The phenomenal growth of the internet has seen a mushrooming of copycat businesses. Even if a business develops a product with unique benefits, spends months researching the market and invests a small fortune in branding and creating a slogan that’s an attention grabber, it’s unlikely the company will be able to rest on its laurels for long. It doesn’t take long for a wannabe competitor to come along with a “me-too” product so the USP painstakingly communicated to the target market quickly loses its uniqueness.

The Curse of Instant Gratification

Technological breakthroughs combined with easy access to products and services through the internet has spawned a culture of instant gratification. This results in rapid shifts in demand. At times such shifts can happen suddenly. If the market loses interest in the product category a USP, however strong, instantly loses its potency. How many people today buy their own cloth and visit a tailor to have clothes stitched when they can walk in and walk out of a store with a new set of clothes?

Building Trust and Lasting Relationships

 Consumers today are having it tough and are reigning in their expenses. On the other hand there has never been a wider choice of products and services to choose from. It’s why retail stores are losing sales to online giants like Amazon as shoppers compare prices in the store and have no qualms walking out of a store empty-handed but with their order completed online.

It’s a well-known fact that people buy from those they like and trust. It’s why businesses like McDonalds, Pizza Hut and others have outlasted competitors who have quickly faded away. As a customer you know exactly what you get, anywhere in the world. Trust, familiarity and personalization are reasons why micro businesses you may never have heard of thrive for decades. They take pains to nurture their customers and treat them like friends. Eventually their customers become raving fans. Legendary rock bands like the Rolling Stones and football teams like AC Milan are proof this strategy works. They build relationships with their fans that often last a lifetime.

While this may fly against what the marketing experts tell you and it does not rule out differentiating your product or service, there is a fundamental shift in thinking required to succeed in business today. A USP is important, however its importance has been usurped by the need to build trust and establishing relationships. In an untrusting world this isn’t easy. However, the benefits are long lasting and ascend customers to becoming raving fans. Strong and stable relationships stand the test of time and aren’t easily eroded by the new kid on the block, seemingly appearing out of nowhere with a shiny new product attempting to get loyal customers to defect.

 

 

2021 February

The 5 Step Lead Generation System for Higher Sales Conversions

Whether you’re finding it hard to get qualified leads or finding it difficult to convert them to paying customers, wouldn’t it be great to have a proven lead generation system you could use to attract qualified leads, eliminate tyre-kickers, convert prospects to clients and make a tidy profit even after they’ve bought your highest value product? You can do all of this without making a single cold call and replicate the process over and over again easily and for a lot less than it would cost you if you continue using traditional marketing methods.

This system is built on the fundamental principles of growing a business. These are:

1. Increasing the number of customers or clients who buy your products or services

2. Increasing the average dollar value of the transaction for every customer

3. Increasing the number of purchases made by each customer

If you have ever bought a domain name from Go Daddy or a book from Amazon, you’ll understand exactly what I mean. They don’t let you get off with just a domain name purchase or buying one book, do they? There are always add-ons offered before you get to check-out. In the case of Amazon, it may be books on a related topic others have bought. Go Daddy will offer you domain names with different extensions such as dot mobi or dot net, hosting for your website and will also try and lock in your domain name purchase for a longer duration of 3 to 5 years.

So let’s see how you can fit these three lead generation fundamentals to create a sales funnel which generates leads you can easily convert into sales and feed their hunger even if you have nothing more to sell.

Step#1

Create a Lead Grabber

The first principle of growing your business is to increase the number of customers or clients who buy your products or services.

A simple way to do this by creating a lead grabber. Most of you may already be familiar with this step. As the name implies, the purpose of a lead grabber is to grab the contact details of prospects in exchange for providing some valuable information such as answering a perplexing question to something that’s been bothering them. As many of you may have guessed, the most common form for this lead generation tactic is providing the information in the form of a free report.

Here are a few ideas for you.

Tourism

Top 10 Favourite Destinations in New South Wales

What Perth Locals Enjoy but Don’t Want You to Know

Business to Business

10 New Winning Social Media Strategies for 2014

Donald Trump’s Secret Strategy to Keep Your Business from Going Bankrupt

Dental

7 Days to Stain Free Teeth

10 Habits for Longer Lasting Teeth

Chiropractors

7 Simple Exercises to Get Rid of Chronic Back Pain

Elite Athletes Secrets to Keeping Back Problems at Bay

Legal

Will You Win? Questions You Must Ask Your Attorney!

Top 50 Confusing Terms You Should Understand Before Hiring an Attorney.

The most common method of generating leads this way is to have an opt-in form on your website, so visitors fill in their name and email address in exchange for the information. Alternatively you can publish a small black and white ad where prospects can call a number to order the report, fill in a form and mail it to you or the ad can direct them to a landing page.

Step #2

The Tyre-Ticker

Once you’ve set up a landing page for your Lead Grabber and drive traffic to the page, you will find your auto responder quickly fill up with names and email addresses of prospects. The sad truth is that many of the website visitors who opt-in will never buy from you. At this stage you still have not qualified your leads. Many marketers waste time and money on email campaigns targeting their generic list without segmenting the leads.

The question is, how do you know which of the leads generated will convert to sales?

There is a simple and effective way to do this. It’s called the tyre-kicker offer. A day or two after prospects sign up for the free report, offer them another product which is of high perceived value. This time, instead of offering it for free, charge them a small fee, low enough to make the purchase a no-brainer.

Why do we have this low-priced offer? This is how we separate the serious prospects from the tyre-kickers. If prospects aren’t willing to part with a measly $7 to $20, what chance do you think you have doing business with them?

Of course, it goes without saying that the offer needs to be so attractive and affordable that it’s hard to resist.

This step is the key difference to creating your sales funnel in 2014. Make sure you don’t miss this step as it could save you thousands of dollars in marketing costs by eliminating the tyre-kickers from your marketing funnel.

Now you can focus on prospects who are really serious… people who have already invested money with you. You may wish to move these buyers into a separate list in your auto responder as the next part of the funnel will focus on them.

Step #3

The High-Ticket Offer

If you’re probably wondering how you will turn over a profit with a $7 to $20 product, the answer is you don’t. The only reason you’re making this offer is to acquire a customer. Although you haven’t made any money yet, you’ve started the process of building a responsive list of buyers.

You should already have a High-Ticket Offer, your Cash Cow product or service which is the backbone of your business. How much easier is it to sell your High-Ticket offer to customers who have gained immense value from your tyre-kicker offer? By this time they would be virtually begging you to sell them something. The tyre-kicker gave them a taste of what’s to come. The High-Ticket Offer feeds this hunger.

You’re now attempting to get buyers of your Tyre-Kicker offer to make a big leap of faith and invest in your High-Ticket offer, which could be in the $297 to $497 price point or in a price bracket that’s relevant to your industry. To get them over the line, this is where you pack in the proof in the form of testimonials and case studies. Reversing the customer’s risk by offering a no-holds-barred guarantee also helps in getting those teetering on the edge to cross over the line.

Step#4

The Platinum Profit Maker

Now you’ve got the customer to place an order three times. You’ve got them excited and many are raving fans. They’re hanging on to your every word and want more. It’s time for the Platinum Profit Maker, your top-of-the range offer for customers who are really committed and are willing to do what it takes to succeed. These are the customers who will become your raving fans and promote you like crazy.

It is worthwhile mentioning here that a part of the profits you make from your High-Ticket Offer should be invested in promoting the Platinum Profit Maker. You need to pull out all the steps in presenting this offer using webinars, video sales letters email marketing and even direct mail. Your prospects consume information in different ways – Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic, so appeal to all the senses in getting your message across effectively.

The tactics you need here are exclusivity and takeaway selling. Your pitch should focus around exclusivity and restrict the offer to a select few customers and that too by application only. You need to create the impression that it doesn’t matter to you one bit if customers don’t take up the offer because the supply is limited and it’s not for everyone.

The goal in step is to increase the average dollar value of the customer, the second principle of growing a business.

Step #5

The Relationship Path

The goal of this step is to increase the number of purchases your customer makes over the life of your business relationship. This is the third principle for growing a business.

Die hard sports fans remain loyal to their teams for decades, often for a lifetime. They follow every game and some fans can reel of statistics of their favourite players to impress their friends.

You want to create the same kind of relationship with your customers. Some may have consumed all your material, taken action and achieved results. Others may have bought into your offers but not yet taken any action with the material. In either case, now you’ve established yourself as the expert; for fear of missing out on what’s new in the market, they have an insatiable desire to learn more from you. It’s your job to keep feeding them with information and products.

This is where affiliate marketing can be used as a nice earner if you’ve exhausted all your products. An email blast promoting someone else’s product, relevant to your niche can generate instant cash flow. As your list of subscribers grows you can approach other businesses with large lists to promote your products, if you agree to promote theirs.

The key to success here is to constantly feed your subscriber list with information and offers. Send them emails at least once a week. Get them to join your Facebook groups and YouTube channel, follow you on twitter and connect on LinkedIn. The more touch points you have the greater your influence in the market.

This is the exact lead generation system which can be replicated in any business to achieve staggering profits. It’s simple and can be easily applied to help your business grow exponentially in any economy.

If you enjoyed this article and would like more details about building an automated lead generation system, Click Here to get Free in-depth lessons which explains the process in more detail.

2021 February

Social Media Copywriting – A Nightmare For Copywriters?

The average consumer is bombarded with a zillion advertising messages every day. Getting past the filters that allow only a trickle of messages to penetrate through to the subconscious mind of consumers is the challenge that copywriters face every time they begin to write copy. If that wasn’t difficult enough, along comes social media to present a fresh new challenge. How should copywriters craft a message that cuts through the clutter and whacks readers with an attention grabbing message that not only gets read, but is commented upon, re-tweeted, shared or liked?

Social Media copywriting requires a new way of thinking – unlike writing copy for advertisements that sing the virtues of the latest model car or children’s shoes. Business related content posted on social media sites competes with snippets of information about celebrity news, photos of last night’s party bash and trending topics that are of specific interest to individuals. It’s almost like learning how to write copy all over again – short staccato bursts that whip through the social media ether and shoot through to the reader’s consciousness.

Social media copywriting – From thinking about the big idea to thinking keywords

Social media Copywriting is not about enticing a reader through a long drawn story that appeals to the deepest desires of the prospect, hopefully leading to a purchase. The internet is powered by search. That’s exactly why Google has become the generic word for search engines. Only about 15% of users use the internet with the intention of buying a product or service. That’s why keyword research is regarded as pure gold in search engine optimisation. This is what copywriters need to focus on for social media copywriting. Headlines for Facebook posts and YouTube videos need to be keyword rich. Twitter posts should include keywords or keyword phrases, so they are found.

Social media Copywriting – From writing prose to writing headlines

In traditional ad copy, copywriters have the luxury of quarter, half-page or even a full page of a newspaper or magazine. Ample space to excite, cajole, lure or scare the reader into taking action. With social media copywriting it’s all about a keyword packed punchy headline. Get this wrong and the eyeball flicks off the content in a nanosecond and onto whatever else grabs the attention of the reader. Short keyword rich posts that pack a punch is what’s needed in social media copywriting to cut through the heap of garbage that clamour for the reader’s attention. Of course with platforms like Twitter, there simply is no other choice. With a limit of 140 characters, Twitter posts are simply power packed headlines disguised as posts. Anything wimpy gets passed over in the blink of an eye.

From One-Way communications to Viral Conversations

Social media has leveled the playing field like never before in the history of marketing communications. Traditional media allowed businesses to have the field to themselves. Consumers had no voice, and simply had to accept what was written or spoken in the ad as the gospel truth. Social media allows complete freedom of expression, and consumers can finally talk back to businesses about their products and services. Copywriters hence cannot be caught out exaggerating their claims. One false move through a social media post or video and the viral backlash can spell the doom of the product or service which could take months or years to correct.

From creating awareness about brands to spreading information

If all that a copywriter achieves through a cleverly written keyword rich post or a YouTube video is to get people to “Click, Share or Respond in some way” it’s a job well done. The challenge in social media copywriting is to find out what the target reader is talking about, what kind of language they use, what infuriates them and respond with copy that that evokes the response, “They’re talking to me, in my language. I better listen and get my friends to listen as well.”

From all out selling, to building relationships

Here’s where many copywriters go wrong. Yes, there’s no place for prose in social media copywriting, so let’s go straight for the kill. This works as well as a marriage proposal on a first speed date. Social media is all about building relationships. Of course a business needs to sell, so that it can prosper, but that comes later. Not before the trust has been established. The focus on writing copy needs to shift from sales copy to copy that educates and informs. Who will a consumer want to buy from? A business that takes the time to help them make a well informed decision, or one that tries to get them to reach for their wallet first?

While copywriters need to rewire their thinking when writing for for social media, they will always be judged the one enduring quality that great copywriters are known for – creativity. Creativity will always rule, all that’s required in social media copywriting is to channel this ability in a slightly different direction. Of course for some copywriters this could be a challenge, but those that are early adaptors will get ahead in the social media copywriting space.

2021 February

The Four Basic Objections to a Sale and How to Overcome Them While Writing Sales Copy

However great your product or offer, often you may be surprised the persuasive copy in your sales letter fails to generate the desired response from your target audience. While there could be many reasons for this, what’s often overlooked is addressing the objections running through your prospect’s mind.

Although the main focus of your sales letter is to demonstrate how your product or service will solve a burning problem, in a highly competitive environment it’s not enough to clinch the deal. Once you’ve stated the problem, stirred the emotions of the reader and offered a solution, you need to be able to tick off all the objections they may have to buying from you. While there could be several reasons for your prospect to avoid making a buying decision, generally there are four most common ones you need to consider. There may be offshoots of these, but generally they fall into these categories.

1. The Product or Service is Unaffordable

This is one of the most common reasons why people hesitate to pull out their credit card and make a purchase. Even if they are convinced that your product or service can help them overcome a problem they may be facing.

While crafting the copy, you need to effectively communicate the value being offered, leaving no doubt there’s nothing else in the marketplace that comes even close in comparison. Offering bonuses with a high perceived value is another way to elevate the worthiness of your product or service in the mind of the customer. Many astute marketers offer bonuses with a combined value that exceeds that of the main product or service being promoted.

Another tactic used is to broaden the frame of reference. For example if the product is a back-pain remedy, explain how much more expensive it would be to continue with medication that isn’t working in the long run. Perhaps show a table which indicates the savings that will occur in say a year or two years by using the back-pain remedy.

2. An Unreasonable Time Commitment is Required

A common objection, especially for busy individuals and business clients when the solution you’re offering involves some form of commitment on their part to execute a task which could eat into their busy lifestyle. One of the most effective ways to overcome this objection is to use a technique known as future-pacing.

Explain why it’s important to dedicate a little time now, to gain peace-of-mind or whatever benefit you offer. It helps to break down the task in bite-sized chunks, so the time commitment does not appear overwhelming and can be easily managed.

Say for instance the task requires a person to spend four hours a week, the copy could read – it just takes an hour a day, four times a week. It’s also a good idea to remind the prospect that everyone in the world has exactly the same time. World leaders, elite sports persons and industry giants don’t have even a second more than anyone else on earth.

3. The Prospect Does not Believe You

Unless you’re really well known, it’s unlikely you will be believed at face value, especially if you make some tall claims in your sales letter. Many online marketers continue to make absurd claims about miracle cures and software tools which can help turn around the fortunes of businesses overnight.

There are two ways to get prospects to believe you. The first method is to use proof elements such as testimonials and published reports in credible publications. When using testimonials use written as well as video testimonials, as the latter are more believable. The other method is to offer an incredible guarantee no one else is offering. This takes the risk away from the buyer and even if they’ve never heard of you or your business, they have nothing to lose by giving you a try.

4. The Belief That the Product or Service is not Relevant to their Situation

Sometimes a prospective customer may feel, the solution you’re offering may not work for their particular situation. Take for example a business situation, where the proposed solution is a new approach which may lie outside the comfort zone of the business owner. The best way to handle this objection is to use stories in your copy. Relate one or two short stories of people in completely contrasting situations whose lives or businesses saw a complete turnaround when they took advantage of your offer.

If you do a good job with objection handling in your sales copy the chances of improving your sales conversions will be greatly improved. While sales copy that focuses on solving a problem, prospective customers may be facing, it’s important to clarify the niggling doubts which may be keeping them from placing an order. Keep this in mind the next time you need to craft a compelling sales letter.

2021 February

Is the Big Promise Headline Dead in Sales Letters?

If you’re on the email list of a Direct Response Marketer, you’ve probably been hammered by sales letters with a big promise. If you’re a copywriter, you may be using this tactic to engage your prospect’s attention, whether for your own services or when writing for your clients.

A flogged-to-death tactic

Big promises have been used for decades now, not just in sales copy, but also by door-to-door salespersons. It has almost become a default attention-grabbing technique for many online and offline copywriters and marketers. Many entrepreneurs also use this technique to initiate a sales conversation with a big promise.

Before going further what is a Big Promise headline? You’ve probably seen headlines like, “This magic software can help you earn $40,997 in the 48 hours” or “Lose 20 Kg in 5 days without dieting”. Too-good-to-be-true promises like these have been ever so common in headlines written by even some highly respected copywriters. While the big promise headline appears to be the solution a reader may be looking for to solve a problem they may be facing, most of these are falling on deaf ears.

Why big promise headlines fail

So, why are big promise headlines failing, despite offering the perfect solution to the reader’s problem? There are a few reasons for this. Prospects have become far too sophisticated to believe in big promises. They know when a promise appears too good to be true it probably is.

Prospects bombarded with offers in the mail and through electronic media such as email and text are distracted and overwhelmed. So they’re less inclined to respond to in-the-face sales messages.

The chaotic economy we live in today and the uncertainties faced are another reason why prospects think twice before making a buying decision and an outrageously unbelievable big promise headline is a certain turn off.

Savvy marketers and copywriters have recognized the shift in consumer buying behavior and have moved away from the big promise headlines in their sales letter. While they still make a big promise in the sales copy, they do it in a far more sophisticated manner, one which is believable and is far more likely to evoke a response from the prospect. By this time the prospect reading the sales letter is already hooked.

Headlines that work

If the big promise headline is no longer effective, then what are the options? One of the ways to write an effective headline is to use market data which alleviates the pain of a problem prospects may be going through in their lives. Market data is derived from an independent source and is a lot more believable than product data which originates from the manufacturer or seller.

Another way to write an effective headline is to recognize that prospects are a lot more distracted. A headline that makes a prediction about how a typical prospect may be affected is a lot more powerful, as long as it is supported by data from relevant sources.

If your business relies on sales copy with a big promise headline, perhaps it’s time to change and adapt to the changing market. This way your business will continue to generate a steady stream of enquiries from serious prospects instead of struggling to attract new customers.