Great copywriting is like putting together a puzzle where each piece trigger that emotional or leads the reader down a nicely paved path toward your ultimate goal.

We’ve talked about many of the pieces in the past and will talk about many in the future.

So we’re going to look at two more “puzzle pieces” that are actually pretty fun to use (hey, I don’t get out much

The first is one that psychologically prepares the prospect to easily purchase what you want to sell at the price you want them to pay.

It’s “devilishly” subtle and works great when done right.

You see it a lot both on the Internet and off it, but lately Internet Marketers have so abused it that is some niches it doesn’t work as well; it still works but you just have to do it better.

What am I talking about?

Contrast and Compare

Contrast is when you compare one thing to the other to make the perceived differences much greater and make the one you want them to choose look even better than it did.

But you never want to do an apples-to-apples comparison because that brings you down to the lowest common denominator and, to be honest, it may make you look bad; it don’t mean your offer is actually bad but it may appear bad and it isn’t the value of the deal it is the perception of the value of the deal that is important.

Always compare apples-to-oranges.

Selling a $97 dollar e-book, don’t compare it to the $27 e-book (or even the $97 e-book) compare it to the $997 home study course.

Selling a $997 home study course, compare it to the $1,997 (plus expense for travel, food and lodging) 3-day seminar.

Selling a $1,997 3-day seminar, compare it to the $9,997 coaching program.

Heck, if you’re selling that $97 e-book compare it to the home study course, the 3-day seminar and the coaching program.

By the time you get to $97 they’ll be thinking what a great bargain they’re getting.

A great example of this I heard about from Yanik Silver.

Some company was selling a book.

They had a premium version in a special custom case that was signed by the author for over a thousand bucks.

They had something like a “corporate” version that sold for hundreds and they had the one they really wanted to sell – just a regular book – for about $25.

After hearing about the higher priced versions they were thinking how much they saved by buying the cheapest one not “what am I getting for my $25?”

I can hear the thoughts now.

“Do I really need that special case and author’s signature or should I pocket those many hundreds of dollars?”

“Do I need … or should I save that couple of hundred bucks and just get the regular book?”

“Yeah, I’ll do that. Man, I’ll save over $1,000, I’m taking these guys to the cleaners!”

And now you’ve got the sale you wanted to get at the price you wanted to get and, as a bonus, you actually do get some sales for the higher priced versions.

Contrast and compare is also great for doing down sells; you’ve probably seen those.

You go to a sales page and try to go off it and a window pops up and says, “hey I’ll give you the same deal except this one or two things for half the price.”

So now the prospect is not thinking about spending that $47 they’re thinking how they’re getting almost the $97 offer for less than half price.

Can you say buy, buy, buy? Those things convert like crazy.

Whatever apple you are selling you can find one or more oranges to compare it to. You can even compare it to a peach and a pear and a banana!

Conclusion

Contrast and compare, it works, and gives you another piece of the puzzle.

In essence, you find something that is similar enough (both “fruits”) that you can compare favorably to in one or more specific and desirable ways – is less expensive, works faster, gets better results, is more popular, whatever.

Then you present the “orange” and compare and contrast it to your “better apple”.

This has always improved conversions and likely always will.

Next time we’ll look at another of the C’s of great copywriting, one where you drive your prospects wild

How do you use contrast and compare?

Got any great example of using it, either yours or someone else’s?

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

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

Apples-to-Oranges, Using Contrast and Compare to Make More Cash

There is this “buy button” that you see everywhere and I finally got intrigued enough to learn more about it.

It is called a Belcher Button, after its creator Perry Belcher, and it claims to be the “world’s highest converting buy button”. Here is an example of one:

I’m sure you’ve seen some variations of it lots of places even if it wasn’t consciously.

The more I learned about it the more I just had to try it; after all Perry says “split tests show close rates increased by 35 to 320% over ANY other buy button… been tested individually in over 10,000 closed transactions.” And that doesn’t count all the other people who’ve used and tested it.

As “ugly” as it is, I’ve been trying it and have gotten some initial good results; although I have a lot more testing to do.

I’ve been pleased enough though to tell you about it and to give you the HTML source code so you can easily use it yourself.

Parts of the Belcher Button

Perry has a nice video explanation on his blog but I’ll give a written description of what he says here because some people prefer to read and text is easier to search and refer back to than a video.

The Buy Area

Perry calls the entire thing a “buy area” not a “buy button” because it is meant to all work together with each part proven to add to the value of the entire area.

The first thing you notice is how it looks. Yes, as his says, it is big and ugly.

Of course, that’s the point, you do NOT want your call to action to be subtle or hard to find, you want it to attract attention.

Let’s look at the individual parts…

The Call to Action

The call to action is the text outside and above the dashed line box; in the example it says “The Belcher Button”, of course, though you would change it and put in your own call to action.

The Dashed Border

A dashed border originated in print ads and has been proven over and over to improve conversions online; which is why you see it so frequently

Perry says just that alone increases his conversions by 5-10%.

The Price Drop

The price drop is the first thing inside the dashed border; in the example it says Regular Price $297 Today $97.

Perry found that leaves the price drop out caused 15-20% fewer sales than putting it in.

As an aside, he points out that the best price drop down he’s found is about 1/3 the original (so he goes from $300 to $100).

Basically say “Regular Price” and put the “regular price” or the “actual value” and make sure you have a line go through it. Then put the word “Today” and put in the cost of the product or service.

The Add to Cart Button

The important points, the points that have proven to convert the best, are:

1. The red border around the button
2. The two-toned orange-yellowish background is, as he says, paramount because orange buttons work best. This is because while it is the “second most noticeable color” (after red) but doesn’t have that danger, fear or warning associations that the color red has. I can attest to the power of orange buttons which is why you see me use orange buttons a lot!
3. The navy colored text on the orange background because the navy color establishes trust
4. The use of the words “Add To Cart” has tested out to give up to 100% improvement in conversions. That means that he has seen his sales DOUBLE by just changing the test to say “Add To Cart”, no other changes; Pointing out again the importance of doesn’t split testing!

The Add to Cart Text Link

Perry’s testing has clearly shown that adding a text link below the button improves conversions above having just the button or just the text link.

The Credit Card Symbols

Meant to improve trust and credibility, the various credit card and PayPal symbols have the least amount of conversion improvement but why not get the extra 3-5% if you can.

He also points out they reinforce the entire buy area call to action, the “get it here, now!”

Getting Your Own Belcher Button

On his blog, Perry generously gives away his Belcher button, he doesn’t even ask for an email address, but the “problem” with the button is that he just give it as an flatten image format making it difficult to edit at best.

So, I have made an HTML version of it for myself and am giving it to you for you to freely use as you wish.

It allows you to easily change every part of the Belcher Button although you may not want to mess with success at least to start, although then doing your own split testing should be done.

You can get the HTML source here:
http://www.StreetGuideToCopywriting.com/FreeStuff/BelcherButtonHTMLCode.zip

I’ve included both the template for you to use (a file named BelcherButtonTemplate.htm) and an actual example of its use (a file name BelcherButonExample.htm).

Using Your Own Belcher Button

To use it just copy and paste the template source code into your sales page and change everything that begins with “[*” and ends with “Goes Here*]” with what you want them to say.

For example to set the actual button link destination and text the template code looks like:

<a href=”[*Buy Button Link Goes Here*]” style=”text-decoration: none;”>
<span style=”color: #004488; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 32pt;”>[*Add To Cart Button Text Goes Here*]</span></a>

Change: “[*Buy Button Link Goes Here*]” to be whatever your link destination, like the PayPal link or a 1ShoppingCart link.

And change: “[*Add To Cart Button Text Goes Here*]” to get the text you want to see on the button, like “Add To Cart”

I’ve made it so you can change the text, styling and images of just about everything rather easily and, of course, with the source code you can change anything else you want also.

If you have questions about it let me know by leaving a comment below and I’ll answer them and, if there are lots of questions, I may create a video showing you how to do it.

Conclusion

Conversions are critically important to achieving success in business, online or not, and you should do everything you can to continuously be converting better.

The Belcher Button is a proven way to convert better and make you more money so you should STRONGLY consider using it in your business.

Take the free HTML source code and start using it and then start doing split testing to optimize it for your specific situation.

Do you use a Belcher Button? Post a comment and let me know how it has helped you and please, if you have questions about how to use the HTML source code don’t hesitate to ask; I answer every question I receive.

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 missed it, get the Belcher Button HTML source code here:
http://www.StreetGuideToCopywriting.com/FreeStuff/BelcherButtonHTMLCode.zip

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

Skyrocket Conversions with a Belcher Button