Great sales copy – and an ‘irresistible offer’ – are essentials for success in any marketing campaign.

And your copy just has to engage people if you are to have any chance of getting that sale… or whatever action you want them to take.

Avoiding The Bin

You have around 3 or 4 seconds to grab your prospect’s attention and avoid the bin… So just how do people view a Website or Mailing Piece? Well, there are two key elements here…

Firstly, their perception will be coloured by their own circumstances and experience – they will be pre-conditioned before they arrive at your page. So you’ll need to think about your target prospects and how they may perceive the look and content of your page – it’s a case of reality vs. our perceived reality.

And the timing of when your prospect receives your contact may be important to their perception – or even their availability or willingness to look at it.

First Things First

What is the first thing they see….? The headline on your email or web page; or the Envelope? What impact does it have? What frame of mind does it put your prospect in? Does it make them want to open it or read on? You don’t want their first action to be to bin it or click away, do you?

But there are no ready answers to what works and what doesn’t – so you need to find a happy compromise between using formats that you know have been successful (or, failing that, ones you think are good) and being different enough to stand out and shout “open me” or “read me”! And test, test, test!

Great Copy

So what makes great copy? What makes people read on and take the ‘most desired action’?

Well, here’s the little-understood secret of great copywriting… Are you ready?

· The purpose of the Headline is to make the prospect want to read the next paragraph…

· The purpose of each paragraph is to make the prospect want to read the next…

· The purpose of every sub-header is… You guessed it!

· And the purpose of the whole piece is to make your prospect want to take the ‘most desired action’

Cunning, heh? Well no, not really! Just think how you read a sales letter and what makes you want to take the ‘most desired action’. So it’s simple, really, isn’t it?

Priorities

Now, think how you scan a sales letter. Most people read the headline, then flip to the close or order form to see how much it costs, often reading the ‘PS’s next, then the guarantee, and so on. So focus your efforts in that priority.

Headliner

What’s the most memorable headline you’ve ever seen? Did it make you buy? Or was it just memorable? Now here’s another little secret: Memorable Headlines and Headlines which work cannot co-exist 99% of the time! This contradicts conventional wisdom but is a reality of marketing. But if you can achieve both – you’ve just struck gold!

80% of success of the sales page depends on the Headline, so it needs to be catchy and intrigue the reader enough to make them read on. It also needs to capture the flavour of the benefit your product will give them.

Time tested results indicate that enclosing the headline in quotation marks produces a 28% greater response, the use of specific figures has much greater impact and Title Case is most successful format. Best font colours are black, mid-red and blue.

Other ‘checklist’ items for your headline: it must command attention, draw in your target audience, communicate your offer and promise a desired benefit. Effective ‘keywords’ include You, Now, Free, How to, etc. Testimonials make great headlines.

In a nutshell, the headline is the offer in a raw, attention-getting form, so it should contain all 4 ingredients to an extent!

Story Board

We communicate by telling stories – think of your last casual conversation in the pub or at home – it was probably relating a story in some form or other, even if it was just relating what happened to you today.

So use stories. Your body copy needs to build a story to engage your reader and present the truth in a fascinating manner. Provide as much ‘social proof’, endorsements and testimonials as you can to show your product or service works. Avoid entertaining or dullness and don’t use ‘fact-less drivel’. Keep every element relevant – build to the ‘most desired action’ and remove anything unnecessary.

Sub-Headers

As well as making your prospect want to read on, these should allow the ‘skimmers’ to understand the whole of your sales page if they just read the subheaders and also ‘punctuate’ your body copy.

Think of possible objections or second-guessing of headline and neutralize them. The Headline is mainly an attention-getter, so you need to explain a little more.

Bullets

Bullet points should be ‘blind’ – teasing and hinting at the benefits but not should never reveal the content or the secret. In the form of little-known nuggets or unique or privileged information they can give credibility but should be specific and convey urgency in providing a benefit.

Call To Action

This should clearly spell out exactly what you want the reader to do – the ‘most desired action’ – or they’ll do what they always do – nothing! Create a strong, unapologetic close and use scarcity tactics such as ‘time-limited offer’, ‘only 100 available’ (and explain why), etc, to get your reader to take action NOW.

P.S.

The P.S. is the third most read element and can MASSIVELY affect response. So DON’T write it last! It should be a ‘mini-summary’ of the whole offer, re-stating the ‘USP’ and benefits, together with the ‘no-risk guarantee’. But you can also add extra surprises or hidden benefits and emphasize the urgency or ‘limited offer’.

When Is An Order Not and Order?

Never call an order form an order form! Sounds silly, but it has a big psychological effect! Your order device (‘Reservation Certificate’, ‘Priority Booking’ or whatever) should re-state the offer, No-Risk Guarantee and bonuses. It should preferably be on a separate web page (or one-sided sheet if printed) and should CLEARLY state the action you require your prospect to take, including mailing address or whatever.

Including your contact details and a REAL address and phone number increases confidence in you and your offer.

The Lift Letter

A very effective device is to include a ‘lift letter’ from someone the prospect already knows and, preferably, trusts. This should present a dramatic summary of offer and can take the form of a testimonial or actual letter, in a slightly different ‘voice’, and is preferably signed by someone else.

I know of one recent offer that did well when accompanied by a lift letter but bombed when sent to a ‘cold list’. So think of the Lift Letter as a ‘talk-show host’ giving a guest (the main copy) a good build-up. Touch on the offer without giving too much away.

Action Bonus

Bonuses can be used to incentivise speed of response or increase perceived offer value, or ‘Thud Factor’! Attach a specific value to each bonus, so that they carry real weight – some people will buy the product just for the bonuses!

You can also allow purchasers to sell the bonuses too – so each should have a mini-offer all of its own. However, there may be good reasons NOT to dilute your offer with a bunch of bonuses, so think through your prospect’s reactions.

It’s Guaranteed

When framing your Guarantee, think ‘risk reversal’ – take all the risk away and even incentivise them by offering eg “4 times your money back if you don’t get the result” etc. Think like your prospect… They’re looking for the catch in your offer, so defuse it.

The reality is that there are ALWAYS refunds – 10-20% is quite common – but even 40% refunds can be profitable! I’d happily accept 80% return rate if I was getting a 10% response rate! So concentrate on the offer and try to overcome the ‘Fear of regret’ that many purchasers experience once they’ve cooled off a bit.

Go With A Bang!

So, to recap, your sales letter or email needs to include the following elements:

1 - Headline with Unique Positioning Statement

2 - Benefit-Oriented Copy

3 - Testimonials

4 - The Offer, with bonuses

5 - Guarantee

6 - Call to Action

7 - Postscript (PS)

Remember, you need to focus on (and think like) your prospect. So ‘walk a mile in your prospect’s shoes’ – get inside them – where do they live, what do they eat and wear, what do they do in their leisure time and what do they worry about? What makes them tick?

Put 50% or more of your effort into the headline – write 10 or 20 alternatives until you find one that has all the right elements.

Make sure your body copy builds steadily, with suitable sub-headlines, to a resounding ‘call to action’ and that your ‘no-brainer’ offer is supported by an ‘unbeatable’ guarantee and a pile of mouth-watering bonuses!

John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008

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