This time we’re going to talk about what Joe Vitale calls “the most powerful psychological tool any Hypnotic Writer can use.”

Joe Sugarman says it is “the one major psychological reason that makes direct marketing so successful today” and he’s sold millions of BluBlocker sunglasses using this technique.

He’s also said that in 1973 he sold thousands upon thousands of (at the time revolutionary) pocket calculators using the technique.

What appeals to us in many deep, visceral levels so much that it’s been used in virtually all of the most successful direct response marketing campaigns online and off?

What has its roots in our primitive needs to find food and make better tools?

Well, that is what we’ll be looking at today.

Yes, I mean…

Curiosity

Yep, good old fashioned curiosity is the copywriter’s bosom buddy.

What is Curiosity?

I looked it up and found this definition for curiosity:

1. A desire to know or learn.
2. A desire to know about people or things that do not concern one; nosiness.
3. An object that arouses interest, as by being novel or extraordinary: kept the carved bone and displayed it as a curiosity.
4. A strange or odd aspect.

That really sums it up and, anyway, you know what curiosity is because you were curious enough to continue reading to find out what I was talking about

Anyway, as I’ve said before, great copywriting is like putting together a puzzle and curiosity is an important corner piece.

Why is Curiosity Important?

Basically it’s important because everyone wants to understand things they don’t know that they think will be valuable to them.

If someone knows something you don’t and you think it would be good for you to know it then you want to know it. The more valuable you think it will be the more you want to know it.

For example:

• If I know how to write sales copy that converts at 10% and sales letters are important to you then you want to know too.
• If I know how to drive a golf ball 400 yards and golf is important to you then you want to know too.
• If I know how to make triple the average tips waiting tables and you wait tables to you want to know what I know.
• If I know how to [fill in the blank] and it is important to you then you want to know too.

Curiosity is an extremely powerful force of motivation; this need to know gives us power and superiority over those who don’t know so the more you know the more power you potentially have.

It’s how we were built in order to survive and it is still one of the driving factors in the human experience (ever have a 2 year old!) and plays a huge factor in successful sales campaigns.

How to Use Curiosity?

P.T. Barnum was THE master at creating curiosity.

He was famous for his side shows acts which he developed (and marketed) so that they created more than curiosity, they create an urgent sense of curiosity.

There are many ways to use curiosity in your sales copy but one of the, if not the, best way to use curiosity is the “secret”.

Look at some of the most successful headlines in history:

• How To Win Friends And Influence People
• Do You Make These Mistakes In English?
• Why Some People Almost Always Make Money In The Stock Market
• How I Made A Fortune With A “Fool Idea”
• Do You Do Any Of These Ten Embarrassing Things?
• They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano — But When I Started To Play!
• It’s A Shame For You Not To Make Good Money — When These Men Do It So Easily
• What Everybody Ought To Know…About This Stock And Bond Business

Each at least hints at a secret, from the secret of how to influence people to the secret of succeeding in the stock market.

Bottom Line/Personal had a great headline that made lots of sales and it was based on a secret it was “What Never… Ever to Eat on an Airplane!”

Makes you curious doesn’t it!

Here’s another examples of using curiosity in a headline; this is another of the most successful headlines of all time:

Amazing Secret Discovered By One-Legged Golfer
Adds 50 Yards To Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks And
Slices… And Can Slash Up to 10 Strokes From Your Game
Almost Overnight!

Can you see curiosity in it?

I’m sure you can, because a real prospect (a golfer) would be really curious to know the secret of the one-legged golfer!

Secrets torment and tantalize, they start small and chip away resistance until a person just has to know. The person feels like they’ve got to know the secret; like the secret that helped the one legged golfer and they imagine how it would help them!

Of course, secrets aren’t just for headlines.

You can build an entire story in your sales page around a secret; it can be everything from a conspiracy to a forecast.

You just need to arouse curiosity by hiding or obscuring something that the prospect wants to know and that can only be found out by the prospect doing what you want them to do.

Just leave out a few critical facts and you’ve got that curiosity starting.

• Maybe you talk about the solution to their problem but you don’t tell them what the solution is.
• Maybe you talk about the results they can have but you don’t tell them exactly how to achieve those results.
• Maybe you hint at valuable information but don’t actually divulge it.
• Maybe you have a “rags-to-riches” story but how the “riches” were achieved isn’t spelled out.

You can see that they all pique the prospects curiosity by promising to tell secrets, directly or indirectly, that they know but that most people don’t know.

In headlines, there are some proven and powerful techniques for planting the curiosity seed and they work well in the rest of the sales letter also, here are some of them:

• Use a “how to” which tells them how you can show them how to do something they want.
• Make a big, bold promise and back it up with a big, bold guarantee.
• Ask a question they don’t know but want to.
• Make an outrageous statement and promise to show how or prove it.

It really isn’t more than that, just hold that tasty carrot out so they know what they’ll get (the strong benefits) and let it do its work until they’ll follow you just to get the carrot (the secret of how to get the benefits); both together are important.

Just don’t forget that call to action

The Seeds of Curiosity

As far as I know this was coined by Joe Sugarman, at least he’s the first person I heard who named it.

It is a create way to use a sort of “mini-curiosity” to keep people reading from one paragraph and section to the next.

You see this a lot on TV and in good sales copy.

How it works is that at the end of a paragraph you add a short sentence that gets the reader to want to read the next paragraph. Joe has some good examples so I’ll just use them:

• But there’s more.
• So read on.
• But I didn’t stop there.
• Let me explain.
• Now here comes the good part.
• And here’s why.

These are sort of subconscious cues that spark a person’s curiosity just enough to read the next paragraph.

Don’t you just want to know the explanation or what the “good part” is?

Anyway, don’t over do it but it’s a great way to use little bits of curiosity to get people to keep reading your sales copy and that should improve your conversions.

Conclusion

Curiosity, the “most powerful psychological tool” and “the one major psychological reason that makes direct marketing so successful today”.

Sounds pretty important, doesn’t it?

Well, it is!

Curiosity is creating an “itch” that just must be scratched.

It’s such a powerful motivator because of the perceived advantage it gives the person who satisfies their curiosity; they believe it will give them power and superiority whether it is making more money, having a better love life, hitting longer golf shots, or having more successful children.

To use it, you tantalize the prospect with benefits and that you know how to get those benefits.

You weave a “spell” of curiosity so that their innate desire compels them to do what you want (buy, sign up, etc.) just to get the answer.

Promising to divulge “secrets” is a great way to do that.

How do you use curiosity?

Do you have any examples you really like of using curiosity?

Leave a comment and let me know.

Talk soon,

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:
What’s the Copywriter’s Most Powerful Psychological Tool http://bit.ly/1ZVDTd (via @DavidHusnian)

O.O.Y. In case you’re interested, here is where you can get Sugarman’s Copywriting book and Joe Vitale’s Hypnotic Writing book.

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

What’s the Copywriter’s Most Powerful Psychological Tool

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

O.Y. Don’t forget to retweet this! Use the button below or just copy and paste this into Twitter (or send it out to your list):
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Apples-to-Oranges, Using Contrast and Compare to Make More Cash

“It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end”

Essentially, what this means is that once someone has started down a path it is much easier to continue down the path than to change to a new path.

There have been psychological studies showing this to be true, even if there is no rational reason to continue, even if there are reasons not to continue.

In fact, my mother did just that. She started down a career path that she didn’t like due to circumstances and necessity when she was young and stayed in that career for decades long after the necessity passed; in fact, she is still in that career while admitting she has always hated it.

That’s a large scale example but I used it to show the point Da Vinci was making in a big way.

Fortunately for us, it is true even in small things and can be used to turn your conversions from simmering to boiling.

It’s all about what is called…

Commitment and Consistency

Psychologists have found that we have a desire, bordering on obsession, to be consistent with what we have done in the past; or at least appear to be consistent. Some call it one of the prime motivators of human behavior.

Once a person has made a choice, that is, a commitment, they are hell-bent on being consistent with that choice; this is caused by internal and external pressures and often causes us to act in ways that are harmful (remember my mother).

Now matter how tentative or concerned someone is about making a decision, after that decision is made they become, at least for some period of time, significantly more confident in it.

There are many theories of why this is true and in many aspects of life commitment and consistency is very valuable (don’t you want it from your friends, family co-workers, etc.); in fact, think of what things would be like without, it actually be hard to trust or rely on anyone because you’d never know what they would do or say.

Using Commitment and Consistency

That’s what it is but how can it help you increase your conversions?

It’s really “easy” if you think about it.

Remember that once a decision is made, no matter how small, the next one will be easier to make in a consistent manner and it gets easier and easier.

So, just get a commitment, or series of commitments, and your prospects are more likely to remain consistent with those choices and decisions.

What’s interesting and useful to you is that the commitment can be small and not always even directly related to the ultimate goal.

What you want to do is to turn a lead into a prospect and a prospect into a customer.

So you need to get the lead to make some commitment to you and the path you want them to take; that is, the path to being a customer.

How to Get a Commitment

The first step in the process is finding something where you can get an easy commitment from the person.

I remember reading in Cialdini’s Influence book about how the Communist Chinese successfully did this with Korean War prisoners and it really hit home.

I may not have all the facts right but it went something like this…

The prisoners would be asked to make a very small “commitment”, for example, they’d be asked if America was “perfect”.

Now, most people will say, “no America isn’t perfect.”

They may have difference reasons for thinking why it isn’t perfect and they many people even might think or say “but it better than the alternatives.”

In that one small answer, the commitment was made.

Then they’d be asked for something that wasn’t perfect and so it would go slowly.

Eventually they’d be asked to write a list of the things they’d already said and then the list would be talked about in “discussion groups” and eventually it was broadcast to both prisoners and to soldiers still fighting throughout Korea.

Now the person was a collaborator and many of the prisoners made subtle, subconscious changes into their mindset and do actual acts of collaboration.

The percentage of people who did this was astonishingly high particularly for trained soldiers who were just supposed to stick to name, rank and serial number.

It really shows you the power of commitment and consistency and how you can use it to help you get more sales.

To start you need to get even a trivial commitment or agreement from the lead or prospect to get them to make a decision in your favor and subtly change their self-image in relation to you.

Then get increasingly larger commitments that are internally consistent with their previous decisions until they make the final commitment and purchase.

You can do that same thing on your sales and squeeze pages.

Start, like the Chinese, by asking a series of questions that you know people will answer in the way you want, particularly a positive answer.

Maybe it is a “do you want” type question of some kind “do you want more money”, do you want to lose weight”, etc.

When they answer yes, now you have that seed of a commitment and they have started the habit of answering yes.

Sprinkle these types of questions throughout, making them increasingly specific towards your goal and adding to their commitment (and their desire to be consistent).

What I and others do is to create a plan and included in that plan are questions and statements that lead to a commitment.

Then consistency kicks in as the person become more and more committed.

It’s not hard but does take some practice to get it right.

Try it, you bank account will thank you for it!

Conclusion

Commitment and consistency are innate human behaviors that are consistent through time and culture.

They can be used to drastically increase your conversion rates.

The key is to get a small, essentially trivial, commitment from the person reading your sales copy and slowly build on that by getting further commitments from them that are consistent with the ones already made.

Eventually you lead the person to make the decision you want them to make.

How do you use commitment and consistency?

How does it use you?

Leave a comment and let me know.

Talk soon,

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:

Get a Commitment, Get a  Sale – The Power of Commitment and Consistency http://bit.ly/QK00Y (via @DavidHusnian)

O.O.Y. There is a lot more to this commitment and consistency stuff but I am trying to be consistent with my commitment not to write huge blog posts so sign up for my free copywriting course to learn more.

O.O.O.Y. Cialdini’s Influence book has a chapter about commitment and consistency; it’s one of his 6 rules of influence. It’s an interesting book if you want to learn more about how to influence people and how people influence you. Get it at http://StreetGuideToCopywriting.com/Recommends/CialdinisInfluence

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

Get a Commitment, Get a Sale – The Power of Commitment and Consistency

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

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5 Key Copywriting Mistakes You Should Avoid