Selling online is mostly about psychology of people. Consumer marketing
evolves to the extent when right psychology attitude to the customer plays
the crucial role in the game called product selling. This process like any
other has two opposite effects: positive and negative.
(article continued below ...)
Firstly about positive effect, which is that companies start to find
SOLUTIONS to people's problems and needs more actively. No need to develop
feature that doesn't solve any particular problem of the consumer market.
Customer becomes the epicenter of professional marketing activity.
What may be negative with this process? The answer is HYPE! People don't
compare products' features any longer, in other words, they don't compare
facts, hard cold facts about products/services. They compare professionalism
of the copywriters, who have written respective sales copies. The more
trustful sale copy sounds, the more beneficial it will seem to potential
buyers and, therefore the more chances of closing a sale. Have you noticed
any reminder of the quality of the product itself anywhere? Neither do I.
That is what I meant by mentioning negative effect.
I truly believe that your business offer is of high quality and rich on
both features and benefits. Below we will examine the most critical elements
of your sales copy.
Headline
Your headline should point to the biggest advantage or solution your
product offers. It must be catchy and clear. Some hidden, but understandable
meaning may reinforce your headline. If the design of your web-page is not
too amateurish, you will have all chances that visitors will read your
web-site headline and behave in accordance with psychological effect they
got.
Short
Description
One, two sentences of the core idea behind your offer. While
"surprises" or "pleasant secrets" you may leave for a
desert, visitors should have clear understanding of what your offer is. Your
one line headline may not be able to explain visitors what your product is
all about. On the other hand, if you are web-hosting reseller, there may be
no point in the additional description as anyone who wants to put his/her
web-site online knows what web-hosting is about.
Sub-headlines
Those who don't have much time or just check your sales copy for
"relevancy" will scan your copy by sub-headlines making decision
about is your copy worth their time spending. In this regard your
sub-headlines should be intriguing and develop the positive image about your
offer. With their help you also have an ability to point visitors' attention
to some crucial ideas or explain some controversial moments.
Features/Benefits
For me benefits and features are twin-brothers. I don't like much when I
am being told about "unbelievable benefits", when I cannot compare
the features and make my own judgments. Average customer cannot make right
decision basing solely on benefits - it is not hard to write that your offer
is the best. To make a picture clear you should also provide visitor with
features, to reassure him/her you don't have to hide anything, because your
offer is THAT Damn Good! I hope it really is :0). For pleasure reading it is
suggested to present them in the form of a bullet list.
Clients'
feedback
If your first clients are glad and delighted with your product, then ask
them if they wouldn't mind your putting their unsolicited feedback online.
This tactic may substantially increase the credibility of your offer in
potential buyers' opinion.
Analysis
Guide your visitor to the sole and obvious conclusion that your market
offer is a worthy purchase. If your product doesn't have competitive
advantages, then your research and planning on the stage of product
development has failed and I would advice to stop promoting that product. It
has little or no future at all. The analysis part of your sales letter is
important. The buyer should not be "pitched" with your promotional
advertising or selling advices, s/he must be presented with objective facts
that would help her/him to see the obvious benefits of your offer. While
almost all yelling about stressing the benefits not features,
product/service benefits are not enough in today's world of marketing. 99.9%
of businesses would tell that their market offer is the best in the whole
Universe, saves thousands of dollars and months of time. You should prove
that it is true with the facts and clear arguments, no marketing fluff. In
this way you will much easier gain people's trust in your product.
Action
Ask or even demand for taking an action. The action you want is a closing
a sale itself or having autoresponder course, visitor's sign up may be
second satisfactory action. Popular way to do this is to create a limited
tme offer, stressing the importance of making a purchase right now! Guide
the reader to click on the order link by reminding the product biggest
strengths, mentioning an unconditional iron-clad money back guarantee that
should waive the remaining doubts and then point to the shortage of time for
decision making process. Explain, if needed, the ordering process in
details, as it may be disappointing to lose sales due to the buyer confusing
caused by your complicated ordering process.
P.S.
Use it as a summary of your sub-headlines. "PostScript" is also
very often scanned for "relevancy". Describe with its help the
main benefits of your offer; repeat the guarantee terms and/or other.
Sales copywriting advices
- Identify yourself with your potential buyer. Write your copy from the
customer's point of view. What does s/he want, feel and think? Your copy
should be addressed to personality in the clear to your target market
way.
- Try to be cheerful, positive and optimistic. People are attracted by
joy and positive mood. They also want to feel like you, so they
associate your positive attitude with your product. At the best your
writing style should contain an intrigue, provoke curiosity and
excitement.
- Don't forget to address to people's emotions. Textbooks are boring to
read because they don't have a bit of author's emotions. Your task is to
make your prospect feel the way you do.
- Provoke curiosity to read further. Visitors should be kept excited
while they read your sales copy. Excitement may play the role of final
buying or non-buying verdict.
- Refer to losses reader will suffer if s/he turns your offer down. It
is proved that people are afraid of losing the opportunity. Everyone
wants to be with winners, not losers. You can take advantage of
it.
- Try to avoid any assumptions about visitors' origin, religious
identity etc. Your claim or joke may be faulty interpreted and you will
convert "almost a client" to "an irritated visitor".
Even if you deliberately want to select some particular group of people,
it is better to clearly state from the very beginning.
- The final advice is to be honest, even at the sacrifice of the correct
marketing strategy. My own viewpoint is that it is better to have 7
sales than 10, but enjoy clear conscious.
-- Pavel Lenshin is a publisher
of NET Business Magazine, professional web-developer and CEO of: - http://ASBONE.com/
- informational portal and provider of discounted internet services for
entrepreneurs, including internet access, web-design and hosting; - http://InfoAlchemist.com/
- a must-have business library.
August 12, 2003
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