I came across this useful video on “How to tell a story” by Scott Simon.
While the video is aimed at journalists, it is a very useful reminder of how to tell a story in your copywriting…
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Hack or Copywriter, we humans love stories and your story needs to grab your readers’ attention!
And if you want your story (or copy) to go viral, as Scott says… “Give your audience something they can pass on” – a catch-phrase or idea.
Happy copywriting
John
That’s right! Research indicates that you have between 3 to 8 seconds to get a searcher to click on your listing or to make your visitor decide to stay on your website, rather than ‘click on’ and go elsewhere.
In a recent Conference Call, we discussed how you need to ensure the key elements of your website ‘grab’ your visitor and make them decide to stay, as well as eye-tracking studies that reveal the way that searchers view Search Engine Results Pages (‘SERP’s). So here’s a bit more about how to grab your visitor and make him/her stay…
Eyeball It!
We are becoming ever more internet-savvy and impatient for results… Recent ‘heat map’ eye-tracking studies of search behaviour described by thinkeyetracking.com indicate that – in the last 3 years – we have gone from reading every line of the search results (the old ‘F Pattern’) to reading mostly just the results in the top left corner of the screen.
A study by eyetools.net similarly shows up the ‘Golden Triangle’, in the top left corner of the SERPs, dominantly viewed by searchers, with a brief glance at the top sponsored results at the top right.
And you should watch the video below, and view Google Blog page Eye-tracking studies: more than meets the eye, to understand just how fast the average person searches a web page to check whether it has relevant information!
And this applies to Landing and Sales pages too! As the eyetools study comments… “People don’t always realize that they can optimize their landing pages using eyetracking results to better convert their traffic into sales. If you’re paying for traffic, you can make a huge improvement in ROI by optimizing landing pages (30% boost in sales!)”.
Google Page 1
In the thinkeyetracking study, “87% respondents replied that they would modify the search terms or refine the search by category” if they couldn’t find their desired search result on the first page of Google, rather than go on to further pages.
So being in the top 5 to 10 listings on the fist page of Google results really does matter – whether for Organic or Search results!
Grab Your Visitor by the (Eye)balls!
Within 3 seconds of your visitor arriving on your website, the page needs to have convinced him/her clearly that they’ve (at last!) come to the right place!
Some of the key elements that will help convince your visitors stay on your website – and hence reduce your ‘Bounce Rate’ (people leaving from the page they arrived on) – include:
You can read more about background and strategies for this at the following websites
Don’t worry about the ‘Adwords’ angle etc – focus on what these tell us about how we need to grab visitors’ attention and lead them through our web pages by KEEPING THEIR INTEREST!
So the moral of the story is ‘think like your prospects’ – as they say, “walk a mile in your customer’s shoes!”
Grab your visitor by the eyeballs, take him/her by the hand and lead them briskly through your page sequence, feeding their excitement as you go, till you make them a ‘no-brainer’ offer they can’t refuse – what Mark Joyner calls the ‘Irresistible Offer’.
Happy copywriting!
John Thornely
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
To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com
Try using these ‘Bucket-Brigade’ phrases in your copywriting to ‘refresh’ the reader’s attention and link your paragraphs together…
1. A word of caution:
2. Add this to…
3. After all,
4. Again,
5. Also,
6. Although,
7. Am I right about you so far?
8. And best of all…
9. And don’t forget
10. And get this…
11. And guess what?
12. And here’s some great news for you:
13. And in addition to that . . .
14. And just think,
15. And like I said:
16. And look at this:
17. And now you can…
18. And now,
19. And remember…
20. And that doesn’t take into account…
21. And that’s just the beginning…
22. And that’s not all…
23. And that’s why
24. And the result?
25. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
26. And to prove it, here is…
27. And we don’t stop there
28. And what if I could take…
29. And what’s worse…
30. And what’s more
Look out for more suggestions in future blog posts…
John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008
To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com
How can you tell whether your terrific new brain-child idea is a killer or a dog?
Well, as any seasoned marketer will tell you, there are no sure-fire ways. There are NO right and wrong answers in marketing – there is not a single expert who can tell you whether your new product will fly or sink!
As an example, a very seasoned marketer and copywriter I know admitted to me recently that he launched a new product last year that he was convinced would sell like hot cakes…
Did it? No – it bombed!
So not even the experienced marketers get it right all the time!
But yes, there is a way of making absolutely certain-sure that you have developed a winning product…
As web entrepreneur Nick James explains, it’s quite simple:
You allow the punters to tell you whether or not they want your product….
And he’s deadly serious when he says that the only certain way to be sure is to test your product in a suitable, email broadcast, newspaper ad or direct mail campaign…
The punters will pretty soon tell you whether or not they want to buy or not…. Either you will get lots of orders, or you will just about break-even, or you will hardly get any orders at all. You just wont know until you test!
Now, do you want to know the single most powerful piece of information in the product development and/or direct marketing business?
This information is worth more than everything I have previously told you, put together. It’s this:
Believe the punters – not yourself.
There. I really don’t like to tell anyone not to believe in themselves…
But in this particular instance, you must put all your faith in the punters.
It doesn’t matter how much of a ‘pet’ your product is. It doesn’t matter how much your old mum and your friends tell you it’s a GREAT product. It is wholly irrelevant that you have seen scores of adverts for similar products at a higher price. – If the punters don’t respond to your advert, then you must drop that product and move straight on to the next one.
The only exception to this is if you have a modest response, and you think you made a slight mistake… (say by advertising in completely the wrong place, or too expensive, etc.).
In this case, it might be worth testing again. If this second attempt also fails, then drop the product immediately.
Don’t try and second-guess the punters.
Don’t worry too much about how or why the punters didn’t buy your product. You will probably never work this out… I never can!
The greatest mail-order gurus in the world often find themselves scratching their heads in disbelief at what works, and what fails. They are continually amazed that their ‘dead-cert’ product flops completely, and their rank outsider, no-hoper product which they whacked-in for a quick test, results in bulging mail-sacks.
There is often no rhyme or reason to this. Who knows why the punters will go for a product, or leave it alone? It could be one word in the copy, a ‘feel’, the picture, the price, their perception of your ability to deliver…. ANYTHING. You’ll never find out.
Now the big difference between a winner, and a loser is that the winner will listen to the punters no matter what he thinks. If the punters tell him that his red-hot favorite product is a lame dog, then he’ll drop it immediately. Losers will back their hunches right down the line until they go broke.
They just know that this product is a winner…. If the marketing fails, then they attribute it to the media, or the day of the week, or the price, or the delivery time. They don’t believe that the punters could ever reject such a super product.
So they promote it again, and again and again until they have lost a very great deal of money. Then they believe. But even after all this, they still harbor a sneaking suspicion that if they’d just altered the coupon shape, or increased the money-back guarantee to 30 days, or…
You get the idea….
To become a direct-response winner, you MUST believe the punters…
The punters KNOW – you only BELIEVE.
This principle can be summarised in this vital concept:
MILK YOUR WINNING PRODUCTS, DROP YOUR LOSERS.
Source: http://www.ebizhelpers.com/article~cat~ecommerce-general~articleid~4047.htm © Nick James.
John Thornely
To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com
Here’s a quick fact: It’s easier to distinguish your business from a benefit and service point of view than from a product or feature angle.
For example, if you sell telephone headsets, perhaps you can distinguish your product by saying it has a mute button, comes in 5 colors, and is lightweight.
So what? What benefit is that to me as a customer?
But from a service/benefit aspect, you can offer these benefits, which are MUCH more interesting to me:
· In stock or it’s FREE
· We never close
· 4-hour guaranteed repair
· Trade up when you outgrow your system
· Order 24 hours a day
· Choose from 100 different systems
· Same-day shipping — only $15
· Order by midnight and get same-day shipping
· Prepayment discounts
· FREE technical support
· Toll-free ordering hotline
· Priority-member ordering hotline
· Order over the Web from your own computer
· Money-back guarantee
· Saves you at least $10,000.00 a year in productivity or your money back
· FREE report with any purchase
· No minimums
· Guaranteed everyday low prices
· Business leasing — $0 down payment
· Expert sales consultants
· And much, much more
So tell your customers about the Benefits, not the Features of your service or product – and don’t be shy!
John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008
To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com
Profitable Relationships
Building a profitable relationship with your prospects and customers, like any aspect of successful marketing, is like learning to ride a bike or play a musical instrument.
You’ll fall off a few times, or play ‘bum’ notes, before you begin to get the hang of it — but once you do, you’ll go on to do a few cycle stunts and play music that people want to listen to! Practice is important.
Copy!
And as leading copywriter Allan Forrest-Smith advises, the easiest way to practice is to copy the experts. After all, if they can bring in millions with their copy, why reinvent the wheel? And they probably copied it from an earlier success anyway — why do you think the text in the body of an advertisement or web page is called ‘copy’ anyway?
We’re not talking plagiarism here—but many of the most successful sales letters of all time have either taken their inspiration from earlier successes or have themselves inspired others.
And email marketing is just like that. Practice and draw ideas from others’ emails. Use current topics or popular themes, use timeless truths or your latest product as themes.
But this is all about building a relationship with your prospects and customers — and they’ve given you permission to be in touch with them by email (see other posts on this blog).
Five Magic Questions
Michael Rassmussen has carved out an Internet Marketing niche for himself in the
field of Email Marketing. His advice is that you need to address FIVE MAGIC QUESTIONS that the recipient will have when you are crafting emails to your lists:
Unless you answer these five questions in your email, your target will move on to the next email and you’ll have lost her/him.
Killer Subject Lines
But the body of the message will be wasted if your email Subject line — your ‘headline’ — doesn’t get your target excited or intrigued enough to open your email in the first place!
So your Subject line is the key to getting your email read.
As Allan Forrest-Smith points out, the whole purpose of your Subject line or Headline is to get the reader to carry on reading. And the purpose of each paragraph and sub-header is to get your reader to keep on reading!
Try to make people curious with your headline—and to want to open your email to
find out what it’s all about — ie ‘What’s In It For Me?’ (abbreviated to WIIFM in the
industry)!
To do this your subject line should be benefit oriented — asking a question is often
effective. But your subject lines should be ‘blind’ — they should entice irresistibly
without revealing the content up front.
Opening Up!
So, you’ve got your target to open the email — what now? The Opening section is now vital to keeping your prospect on the page — and to keep him/her reading — so it has to be conversational and interesting. And it MUST grab the reader and involve him/her immediately — so it has to be about them, not you!
Think about the emails you receive… Which do you open? Which do you go on reading? Most of us prefer emails that sound as though they’re coming from a friend with something interesting or useful to tell us, don’t we?
As Michael Rassmussen notes, your opening should be conversational and get to the point really fast. Talk to the reader—not about yourself!
Assuming that your reader is still with you, you now need to keep the content in the body copy super-relevant and focused on the purpose of the email! Don’t go off on any tangents or turn into a blabbermouth! Your target doesn’t have time to waste, so respect her/him accordingly!
Action! And Keep It Tight!
The purpose of your email is to get them to take a specific action — so the whole copy should focus them to this end. The last things you want to talk about are how your personal life is going, your recent vacation or the car you drive, or how much work you put into your product (although there may be a place for these in the ‘story’ you tell on your sales page).
The reader doesn’t care about you — only him/herself!
Bullets!
So keep the body copy of your email relevant and tightly focused. You can use powerful bullet points to hint at the particular benefits the reader will gain — but they should never reveal the content or the secret. Otherwise you’ve given the reader the information to make an immediate decision not to continue reading!
Michael gives an example of the benefit of a blind bullet over a plain one:
· Plain Bullet: “How to make your bullets powerful by making them blind”
· Blind Bullet: “A simple change you can make to your bullets that will triple their power”
I think you can immediately see the difference—and how the second bullet forces
the reader to keep on reading, to find out more!
Use Your Head-ers!
Michael also points out the importance of making your body copy easy to read — split it up into paragraphs of a few lines each and use sub-headings to break your text into ‘bite-sized’ chunks.
Alan Forrest-Smith also points out that the sub-headers in any piece of copy should tell the whole story by themselves — since many people skim through the body.
In an email — particularly a plain text mail — it’s important to make your sub-headers stand out. Use capitals and a line of asterisks or dashes above and below
Bucket Brigade
You’ve probably heard of the ‘Bucket Brigade’ in copy writing. This is the use of little pieces of copy in your email that forces people to keep reading. Phrases like ‘As a result…’, ‘As I said…’, ‘Why?’ and ‘Oh, and let’s not forget…’
Call To Action
But the whole purpose of your email is to get the reader to take action! NOW! So your call to action must be clarion clear! And URGENT!
Tell them exactly what you want them to do and how to do it! And what they should do it now, and not leave it ‘till later!
You can use a whole bunch of incentives to act now, including scarcity (time deadlines or quantity limitations) or bonuses.
PS: Oh, and don’t forget the PS! This is often the first part of a sales letter or email that people read — after all, I often go straight to the bottom of a sales letter to find out how much it’s going to cost me. Don’t you?
John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008
To learn more about how YOU can
Profit From The Internet – Fast, visit
www.Internet-Tycoons.com
