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5 Life or Death Factors . . . Part 2
As promised, here they are: my Five Easy Pieces of effective copy.
I surveyed of a number of different sales letters and websites to discover what they share in common that makes them so successful. With few exceptions, every extraordinarily great (online or off) contained the following elements:
Testimonials
Every great website/sales letter (I use the terms interchangeably, because they are interchangeable. A website is a sales letter, just in a different medium) has testimonials from satisfied customers.
Testimonials help put the potential customer’s mind at ease that the products or services sold (online or off) will perform as promised.
Truly great testimonials endorse the product, and clearly state how the product increased their sales, saved them money, or benefited them in specific and tangible ways. Testimonials should present real and compelling benefits that others can readily identify with, enough to want those same results for themselves, of course!
Headlines
Well-crafted headlines can easily and quickly double, triple, or even quadruple a website’s sales almost overnight. Headlines capture visitors’ attention and get them involved in the website.
It’s just the online version of thumbing through a magazine to determine a.) If you want to read anything in it and b.) if you’re willing to buy it.
Like most people, you probably read the headlines first. If it’s successful in capturing and leading your imagination, then you’re likely to skim for the bullet points (see the next section).
If those are successful in further capturing and leading your attention — then you’re likely to buy the magazine and read it.
In exactly the same way, the headline on a website determine whether visitors get involved in the information or surf away never to return.
Bullets . . .
- arouse interest
- build excitement
- quickly distill a lot of information into a compact space
Bullets communicate detailed information about a product or service without making readers plow through paragraphs of comma’ed information like an Coast Guard cutter making a January delivery to the Arctic Circle –just to get to the heart of a your letter, your proposal, your website’s offering.
Bonuses
Every great website offers bonuses to people who buy, apply or fill out a form. Nothing induces someone to do business with you online like offering them something extra for taking the action you want.
It’s kind. It’s considerate, and anymore — it’s expected.
Offering a bonus report, tape, extended membership, extra quantities of product at a deep discount, coupons, or just about anything makes people more willing to go ahead with the purchase decision.
Guarantees
Everyone takes a risk whenever they buy anything from anyone and the risk for the buyer centers on whether or not the product or service will perform as promised.
In a retail store most people feel pretty confident the store will still exist if they need to make a return or exchange in a few days.
But online however, that risk in making a purchase seems much higher than in the offline world.
Every great website makes a point of specifically telling customers about their return policy and truly exceptional sites offer 100%, no-questions-asked, money-back guarantees.
People rarely take advantage of such guarantees and I have personally seen a website’s sales increase by 45% just by extending the guarantee period an additional 30 days.
So there you have it! With rare exceptions, this is a time-tried and proven formula for creating truly great collateral that positively impacts the readers.
Yes . . . that means it boosts revenues and increases responses.
Oh . . . before I forget — could someone make sure Mr. Nicholson gets his toast?
By Walter |
Topics: Client Top Secret, Pro Analysis |