All Posts Tagged Tag: ‘Persuasion’
How to overcome objections and close more sales
Often, the reason why people don’t buy from you is because they believe that you will deliver what you promise. Actually, they DON’T! If they did, then you’d be spending less on marketing and advertising while attracting all the business and customers you need.
Here’s a great quote from Ogilvy on Advertising that I think sums up quite well what your copywriting must ‘accomplish’ or overcome in order to engage and sell more customers:
“I don’t know who you are.
I don’t know your company.
I don’t know your company’s product.
I don’t know what your company stands for.
I don’t know your company’s customers.
I don’t know your company’s record.
I don’t know your company’s reputation.
Now–what was it you wanted to sell me?”
So, you need to sell yourself (and your company) first to earn the trust and confidence of your customers. The ‘selling yourself’ part is not a grab bag of manipulative tricks or slick ruses but rather a strategy of engaging real prospects in meaningful conversations that lead to them buying from you – instead of the competition!
In the process you need to overcome certain objections some of which are mentioned in the that copywriting/advertising quote above. Great quote! Keep it handy the next time you sit down to write you next ad, sales letter or email.
If you want to close more sales in 2012 then hiring a copywriter could be just what your business needs right now.
Want MORE SALES? Tweak your sales letter!
So you have a landing page or a copywriting sales letter that doesn’t convert traffic into sales. Or doesn’t convert well enough. Maybe you have written it yourself without any real understanding of how to write persuasive copy. You were short on cash, your business was just starting out and copywriting your own sales letter seemed like a great idea at the time.
Maybe you get good traffic, your bounce rate isn’t awfully high, and even the Adwords statistics look good and yet your sales…well, still suck!
Perhaps deep inside you feel that you have an excellent product but no one is buying it and you don’t know why. Before you give up, why not revisit your copywriting sales letter. Simply because chances are that your sales copy is letting you down.
Here are some ideas to help you improve your copywriting sales letter…
Read MoreHow to cut through the inbox clutter
Subject lines don’t need to be fancy or clever. They just need to be descriptive and enticing enough for people to want to open and read the email. Many business owners and marketers are too concerned with trying to stand out in the inbox that they forget this fundamental truth…
“if you want your emails to get opened then you need to keep your subject lines simple and to the point.”
Others worry about words that trigger spam filters. Of course, they are important, but… Say your emails manage to get past those ruthless and unforgiving spam filters without causing any riots. Mission accomplished? Hardly.
It’s a good start but your ultimate objective is to get those emails opened. Certain words don’t trigger spam filters but they negatively affect your open rates. Why? I have no idea. But, a study which analysed the open rates for over 200 million emails proved that apparently those words exist.
In this study, open rates ranged from an amazing 93% to a dismal 0.5%. Imagine 93 emails getting opened for every 100 emails that you send out! Would that make you excited?
Read MoreHow to handle negative press – a secret formula from the White House!
Donald Trump is making the headlines again and it’s not because of his incredible hair, his lavish lifestyle or even his ultra-bright neckties…
Apparently he’s on a mission to uncover President Obama’s birth certificate. Or, to prove that he doesn’t have one!
No kidding. At first I thought it was a joke but if you Google ‘donald trump obama’ or something along those lines you’ll realise that this is no laughing matter.
That got me thinking… Does Obama even have a birth certificate?
Was he born in Hawaii or Kenya or maybe in Afghanistan?
Was he circumcised? OK, let’s not go there…
Personally, I don’t care. I might be just a little suspicious. That’s all. Why hasn’t he produced his birth certificate to put that seemingly ridiculous question to rest? It will be interesting to see how this issue plays out. What’s interesting, I think, is how Obama responds to Trump’s challenge of producing his birth certificate. Nope, he still doesn’t show his birth certificate…
Read MoreAre you still hiding behind your website?
Sometimes adding a friendly face to your sales message or website can help boost response and sales. I dare you to try it if you haven’t already.
The legendary copywriter, Clayton Makepeace, says… “We tend to be skeptical, even suspicious of information given us by a corporation. We welcome – indeed, we seek out – advice from qualified guides and advocates who have our best interests at heart.”
In this post-trust era people are sceptical and even suspicious of ‘faceless’ copywriting and business communications.
That’s why you should put a human face on your sales copy. Stop hiding behind your website if that’s what you do. Make sure that on your website you introduce yourself and your staff, mention their names, show their faces.
Chances are that you’ll have to rework your about page to incorporate the suggestions above. Give people the confidence knowing that behind your website or sales message is a real, caring human being who has their interest at heart.
You will persuade more people if you first show that you’re real, that you care and that you have solved a problem that they are struggling with.
Persuading the sceptical consumer
Your product is not perfect. You know it, your competitors know it … and (ahem!) your customers know it too.
So, why pretend to be perfect? Makes no sense when you think about it. Yet, I’m amazed at how many businesses try to portray the perfect unblemished image of themselves.
Does it work? Sometimes. But, in this post-trust era more and more people want to do business with real, authentic and transparent companies and individuals.
Why?
I feel obliged to quote Jack Trout and Al Ries from one of their books…
“Why does a dose of honesty work so well in the marketing process? First and foremost, candor is very disarming. Every negative statement you make about yourself is instantly accepted as truth. Positive statements, on the other hand, are looked at as dubious at best.”
Read MoreHow to communicate during the Post-Trust Era?
Sometimes people don’t buy from you because they are just not ready … or they are not interested … or they simply don’t believe you … or they don’t believe that you have their best interest at heart.
So, they are sceptical…
They are sceptical because they have been lied to more than once in the past. They have been lied to by their political, economic, business and even community leaders.
Many of your prospects assume that corporations have bad motives and so they won’t listen to you.
And when they listen they look for contradictions, flaws and reasons not to trust you.
Welcome to our post-trust era.
Read MoreControversial rapper pitches ice tea
How do you get a celebrity rapper like Eminem to advertise your brand? Frankly, I have no idea. But somehow Lipton has figured a way. They persuaded the world’s most controversial rapper to star in their Lipton Brisk ad.
Brisk video commercial is receiving rave reviews on YouTube and nearly 400K people on Facebook like the ad. It’s interesting how they got those ‘likes’ … Here’s how. The page says…
“Tell us your Brisk story in 110 characters or less for a chance to win prizes or even have your story animated as a brisk puppet that looks like you.”
All you have to do is click the ‘like’ button to get started! Sounds like an irresistible offer, doesn’t it? Well, nearly four-hundred thousand people got hooked and clicked the like button.
But there’s is more to this commercial as it offers many interesting marketing lessons in connecting with your marketplace using clever story-telling…
Read MoreWhat women like best about online shopping
I take poll and survey results with a grain of salt. They are not always accurate or consistent. Still, they can arm you with some insight if you can read between the lines.
If you’re trying to better understand your online consumer then the following ‘finding’ could shine some light on the matter. Considering that women are behind the majority of buying decision then what BlogHer and Create With Context discovered is something to think about…
Apparently they polled women in 10 big U.S. cities, and found that the top-ranked reasons for what women want when shopping online are as follows…
Let’s consider each one individually…
Read MoreShort vs long copy – the winner is…
It seems that the ‘long vs. short’ copy is more alive than ever. First, we have those who argue they’d never bother reading long copy. Then there are those advertising legends and copywriting masters who swear long copy works best.
Personally, I think your sales copy needs to be able to ‘romance’ your readers long enough for them to trust you and feel confident and excited about taking the action you ask them to take.
Legendary copywriter, Clayton Makepeace, says this: “So long as you’re speaking to the prospect’s self interest … so long as you’re deftly stroking his dominant emotions about the subject at hand … and so long as the copy is clear, concise, even fun to read, he’s going to stay with you.”
Keep in mind that when people read your sales copy they do so because the headline has hooked their interest and attention. The lead has KEPT their interest and what they want to do is find out more to make a decision. It makes sense to give them every possible reason WHY they should buy from you.
Chances are that you won’t be able to do that with a page or two… unless you make a totally irresistible offer nobody else makes for a product everybody wants. But, even then, you’d still need to prove your credibility, claims, and so on. After all, when it comes to spending money people are more careful and sceptical then ever before.
I’m going to give you several insights from some of the most knowledgeable and respected copywriters, combined with my own perspective, so you can once and for all understand the best copy to use to help you maximize sales and improve click throughs and conversions…
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