Last time we talked about building trust using testimonials.

Testimonials are just one form of credibility builders and this time we are going to look at more of them.

The more you can build your credibility with your prospects the more likely they are too buy; that explains why many professional sales letters spend so much time on doing it – it really improves conversions and puts more money into your pocket.

Great sales copy, meaning sales copy that converts well, always contains many types of “proof elements” and many of them don’t actually have anything to do with your product or service.

Not counting testimonials, I have identified 15 more ways to build credibility so let’s get started!

15 Credibility Builders

Here is a quick look at the credibility builders, we’ll look at some of them in more depth below:

1. Awards won by you, your company, or your product or service.
2. Biographical sidebars
3. Case studies
4. Contact information (address and telephone number)
5. Endorsements from celebrities or public figures
6. FAQ sheets
7. Media appearances
8. Photos of yourself and, to a lesser extent, of your product
9. Press clippings
10. Quotes from experts
11. Referrals and references
12. Sales figures or other “hard” proof that would be applicable
13. Scientific studies
14. Statistics or quotes from credible third parties
15. Tell your prospects you can’t solve all their problems, but you can solve a percentage of them.

That’s a lot of ways to build credibility and that’s good from you because it gives you lots of options and gets you lots of sales!

It All Starts with You

Ultimately, the prospect needs to trust you and that means you have to be out there; be honest and transparent.

Start by showing a picture of yourself. If you are using a persona then you need to find a picture that is representative of that persona.

Make sure the picture is appropriate for your target audience. By that I mean, is you are selling expensive financial information then formal business attire would be more appropriate (not a picture of you playing with your kids) whereas if you are selling sports equipment then an informal, sporty look may be just right.

If you have media appearances or photos/videos of you teaching the information that’s really powerful also.

Include some personal information about yourself, enough to get the prospect to start identifying with you and building a more personal, emotional bond than they would with a boring “sell-sell-sell” type sales letter.

One great thing to do is put your contact information on the sales page. Make sure the prospects feels that can contact you in multiple ways so include your address, your telephone number, your fax number, your e-mail address, even your Twitter name!

You can use excerpts from press releases as credibility builders. Even though they are originally written by you they do increase people’s trust in you.

Finally, use any organizations you’re associated with that will impress your prospects.

Let me give you a real life example of that

My aunt is a consultant to companies on cultural diversity, she has a Ph.D. in the subject.

She appears on TV as an expert, has published books and articles on the subject and she’s been consulting for many years for many large organizations.

She always used “Ph.D.” after her name but after she changed it to “Ph.D., UCLA” her conversions increased nicely.

She made only that change, nothing else.

She was afforded additional credibility and believability because she could now tap into the prestige of UCLA.

What Other Say About You

Testimonials fill this role but you can and should go beyond testimonials.

If you can get celebrity endorsements you’ll have one of the most powerful credibility builders there are. In general, they don’t even have to be associated with the product in any way although some products in some niches it is better to have a person who is a celebrity in that niche.

Note, you can frequently buy a celebrity endorsement and they aren’t as expensive as you’d think unless you’re going after a really big name.

You can get a certain amount of celebrity endorsement that is brand related rather than personal. For example, the “As Seen On …” type of thing still works great and isn’t that hard to get.

Quotes from experts and authorities are very good, particularly I some niche. For example, quotes from doctors and nurses in a health niche can really help build your credibility.

One way that people says things about you that isn’t commonly thought of is awards. If you or your product have won awards these can be tremendous credibility builders; display them and tout them.

Facts, Just the Facts

If you can show sales figures, income statements, traffic figures and other information that “prove” the value of your product or service this build some credibility and also gets people thinking that it would be something they want to have.

Scientific studies, statistics and data from highly credible third parties, even if it is only vaguely related to your product, give your prospects an increased level of comfort.

You essentially piggyback off the credibility of the third party, groups like professional associations (American Medical Association – AMA), government agencies (Food & Drug Administration – FDA), professional media (Wall Street Journal), consumer media (CNN), educational institutions (Harvard) and consumer watchdogs (Consumer Reports).

The Truth and Nothing But the Truth

You can also build credibility by telling your prospects that you can’t solve all their problems but then showing them how you can solve most of them.

For example: “We can’t solve all your debt problems but imagine what your life would be like with the 94.5% we can help you with.”

What this does is make you seem more credible and not just some scam artist trying to take them for everything they have; your claims won’t be as unbelievable and they’ll be more confident in you and what you are offering.

The use of a specific percentage increases the trust because it sounds like a real number that was actually calculated which makes a bigger impact on the prospect.

Ultimately, the truth is the best thing you can do. If you aren’t truthful it will come out in your copy and it will be noticed by your prospects, even if it is subconsciously.

Don’t give false or misleading figures.

Don’t give false or misleading deadlines.

Don’t give false or misleading promises.

Be truthful.

Once you lose your reputation of being honest then people will always wonder when you’re telling the truth and when you are not. This will hurt you more than anything else.

Conclusion

It is simple, the more credible you appear to your prospects the more cash you’ll get.

There are many ways to improve credibility and you should include as many of them as possible because there aren’t many individual credibility builders you can use that will be enough to get the sale.

Here are the 15 ways to build credibility we looked at:

1. Awards won by you, your company, or your product or service.
2. Biographical sidebars
3. Case studies
4. Contact information (address and telephone number)
5. Endorsements from celebrities or public figures
6. FAQ sheets
7. Media appearances
8. Photos of yourself and, to a lesser extent, of your product
9. Press clippings
10. Quotes from experts
11. Referrals and references
12. Sales figures or other “hard” proof that would be applicable
13. Scientific studies
14. Statistics or quotes from credible third parties
15. Tell your prospects you can’t solve all their problems, but you can solve a percentage of them.

Don’t neglect these. Make more money!

What credibility builders do you use?

What new ones can you add that have helped you?

Leave a comment and let me know.

Talk soon,

David

The Shameless (Ethical) Marketer
http://www.Twitter.com/DavidHusnian
http://www.8-8-8Sale.com
http://www.MusicForInternetMarketers.com
http://www.SecretsOfGoogleAdWords.com
http://www.MadMondaySale.com
http://www.2ForTuesdaySale.com

O.Y. Don’t forget to retweet this! Use the button on the page or Tweet this:

Explode Your Sales by Building Trust with Credibility Builders http://bit.ly/5S5Df (via @DavidHusnian)

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This post from: Street Guide to Copywriting. To read more post like this, head over to Street Guide to Copywriting

Explode Your Sales by Building Trust with Credibility Builders

A sales letter exists for one and only one reason… to sell.

You may sell a product, sell a service, sell a prospect on the value of being on your mailing list or you may even sell an idea but, every time, the sales letter’s purpose is to “sell” the prospect.

Whatever you are selling, you will be writing a sales letter to sell.

Unfortunately, so many sales letters forget this one simple fact, usually by making at least one of these 5 mistakes:

1. Focusing on the Seller Not the Buyer

So many sales letters focus on the seller, who they are, what they want, what they do, what they have and the like.

BIG MISTAKE!

It is a rare buyer who cares more about the seller than their own needs, desires and pain.

When sellers speak too much about themselves and their products then the focus of the copy is not on convincing the buyer that they’ve found exactly what they were searching for.

Which of these little blurbs makes you more likely to buy?

or

Most people will be sold by the second one because the first focuses on the seller and on the product, the second focuses on the buyers and their needs.

Time after time, sales copy like the second will bring in many times more sales than the first.

This single mistake is responsible for a huge number of lost sales.

2. Forgetting to Sell

While it is a good idea to provide lots of good information in a sales letter and not just “sell, sell, sell” don’t forget the purpose of the sales letter and neglect to (or be afraid to) sell.

Think about it, why have a sales letter if you aren’t actually doing any selling in it? It sounds like wasted time and effort to me.

That doesn’t mean the selling should be blatant and aggressive, in today’s world that will more often than not be bad.

It does mean though that you need to include subtle selling techniques and invoke emotional reactions in the reader that will have them wanting to buy what you are selling.

Of course, you make sure they know about that one way or the other (unless you are doing a sequence then sometimes, only sometimes, you can leave this out at the beginning of the sequence).

3. Boring Copy

People always say they don’t like those long sales letters but the truth is that what they don’t like is boring sales copy.

If something is boring then people won’t read it whether is short or long and it doesn’t matter if they are reading a story, a book, an article or a sales page.

Write interesting, exciting and compelling sales copy and people will read it just as they do anything else they find stimulating.

Start with a “killer” headline and each section should make the reader want to read the next section all the while becoming more convinced that they want to do what you want them to do.

Follow the AIDA principle I talked about in “The Most Important Marketing Principle”

4. Too Sales-y or Hype-y

Don’t make you sales copy sound like a used car salesman!

Too much sales hype will turn off your buyers and, on the Internet, they will be gone in a second.

Too much hype also jeopardizes credibility and people have learned to just skip sales copy that has too much.

Balance the hype with other important factors every sales letter should have. Have enough “hype” to attract but not enough to drive your prospects away.

5. Plain Old Bad Writing

Some sales letters are just so poorly written that people feel distrustful and turned off by them.

Not everyone can write well but everyone can follow the basic writing fundamentals.

This doesn’t mean you need to write so your English teacher would have given you an A; in fact, you generally don’t want to write like that.

A few grammar and spelling mistakes won’t detract, and may help, but lots of awkward language, misspelled words and incoherent phrases will make the reader uncomfortable and an uncomfortable prospect does not buy.

Another type of “bad writing” is to make sure you write to the audience.

By that I mean to write like your audience talks.

Use words and phrases like they would if they were talking to you.

Use the appropriate level of formality (or informality) so they feel comfortable.

Talk to them like you’re their good friend and you were having a conversation.

6. No Call to Action

Your “bonus mistake” is something you can see frequently in sales copy.

The copy is interesting, compelling, good sales copy but when they get to the end the prospect doesn’t know what to do next; they’re just left hanging.

After you’ve convinced a person to do what you want them to, then explicitly tell them what to do. Be direct.

If you want them to sign up then have a big button that essentially says “Click Here to Sign Up”.

If you want them to buy then tell them to “Buy Now!” (except don’t ever say “buy” except in extraordinary circumstances).

Whatever it is you want them to do, make sure that you tell them explicitly what action to take.

Conclusion

The above mistakes should be avoided at all costs because they will directly affect the goal of your sales letter, which is, of course, to sell.

A great start would be to avoid making these mistakes:

1. Focusing on the Seller Not the Buyer
2. Forgetting to Sell
3. Boring Copy
4. Too Sales-y or Hype-y
5. Plain Old Bad Writing
6. No Call to Action

You should see an immediate improvement in your conversion rates and the amount of sales you make.

Are you making any of the mistakes? Post a comment and tell me what mistakes you make or see other people make.

Talk soon,

The Shameless (Ethical) Marketer

http://www.8-8-8Sale.com

http://www.MusicForInternetMarketers.com

http://www.SecretsOfGoogleAdwords.com

http://www.MadMondaySale.com

http://www.2ForTuesdaySale.com

O.Y. If you want some software that will help you create great sales letters check out Interactive Sales Letter Pro

This post from: Street Guide to Copywriting. To read more post like this, head over to Street Guide to Copywriting

5 Key Copywriting Mistakes You Should Avoid