What Is This Thread About And What Will You Get Out Of It
Let me tell you upfront. I am not the know it all when it comes to marketing.
It is my hobby though and I read all kinds of work until I know it inside out.
That includes direct mailing advertisements from the 1920’s. I picked up a
thing or two and I would like for you to get a taste of it. I can’t write it all down
Because that would be the size of a book but I would like for you to read this
anyway. In the end you will be able to captivate your prospect through your
Headline and funnel them straight in to your sales copy. You will then take their
minds and make them imagine themselves with your product. After they are
done reading your copy, it will either feel like they already own it or like they
need to get it and the came up with it all by them selves. If you read nothing else
read the part where I talk about headlines and then take a look at this thread title.
Prospect Research Like A Private Eye
You want to become your prospect. You want to know their inside out.
You want to know exactly what goes on in their minds on a day to day basis.
To do this, you need to research at least the following.
We call this a demographic profile or a demographic.
My standard demographic consist of the following details:
* Gender
* Age
* Education
* Annual income
* Monthly spending budget
* Family, husband/wife, kids, own property
* Their problems, do research on dedicated forums
Essentially you become the prospect
Headlines And Thread Titles Are The Aorta Of Your Copy
What are these good for? Just make them descriptive and slap them on right?
Right, sort of. There are a couple of things you need to take into consideration.
Let me start with the amount of words in a headline. Now this is not an exact science.
Rule of thumb is that the most effective headlines are between 6 and 12 words long.
But that fact will not magically make your headline effective.
Really, what is the purpose of a headline? To answer that question you need
to understand that on average 5 times as many people read the headline as
read the body copy. The headline makes the prospect read the bodycopy in the first place.
So, it needs to make the reader WANT to click on it and read the copy. The only
way that will happen is when you make a promise in it. A promise is not a claim.
A promise is a benefit and the product needs to deliver on that promise.
Also, your prospect want to understand what you say immediately.
That means, keep your headline simple. Don't be a smartass or a funny man.
Lame jokes and intricate playing with words will not give you results.
People are always interested in something new. Be it a completely new solution
to a problem or a new version of some software.
The First Paragraph Saves Your Life
Well, not really. But it will be the first thing your prospect reads and it
will make or break the effectiveness of your copy.
You see, readership will almost not drop after the first 50-500 words.
This means that the first or first two paragraphs need to get your prospect
hungry. Wet your prospects lips and make them wonder how to get the benefit
you promise.
10 Words Are Worth A 1000 Pictures
Wait, what? Yes, if you do not use images in the right way you will harm
you copy rather than enforce it.
How does that work? Well, if you use an image in your copy, it will be the
first thing the prospect sees, therefore if you use a picture that doesn't
suggest a story or doesn't complement the words of your copy,
the prospect might ignore the copy all together because he cannot understand
the image and becomes irritated.
Also if you use a image, always use captions with them. Make sure the caption
is miniature advertisement for your product. Twice as many people will read
the image caption as do bodycopy.
What I am trying to say is this, if not 200% sure about image, don't use it.
Don't make the mistake of using an image because you think you have to.
Closing The Sale
After you sold the prospect, the final thing for you to do is to close him.
You'll need one or multiple call for actions, a BIG red button that says
buy me now. The important thing is that you make it obvious you want them
to undertake an action, whether it is to click the button or to download
a freebie I don't care. Just make sure you clearly tell them what to do!
If you decide to offer a bonus or a freebie make sure that you don't use
the word 'free' in your copy. Anywhere. This makes the bonus or freebie
look cheap. Instead use 'at free of cost to you' and state the retail
price of it.
All I can say is, close close close.
General Rules Of Thumb
I would like to end this with some general pointers you can take and run with.
First off, fear motivates. Fear of losing something, fear of missing out or
even actual psychological fears. As long as you offer the prospect a real
sure fire, step by step plan to remove that fear or the cause of the fear,
it will motivate the prospect suffering from that fear, to undertake action.
If you fail to present an actionable plan the fear will paralyze the prospect
and you will sell nothing.
Everybody knows you really need social proof, whether it is in the form of
testimonials and/or smartly embedded in your body text. Sometimes however
I see copies that make use of negative social proof. Let me give an example:
"80 percent of the people still uses polluting fuels, don't be one of them!".
Now this seems like a sentence that makes perfect sense and it does. Unless
you want to convince your reader not to use those fuels. How so you ask?
If you tell them 80% of the people are doing it, your reader will not give
it a second though because he is already doing the same as the majority of
the population. Now if you still want to use that 80% in your copy, simply
invert it. "1 in 5 people these days are using environmental friendly fuels, join us!"
You see what I did there? I took the 80% negative social proof and converted
it to 20% or 1 in 5 positive social proof. Just so you know, I am not making
this stuff up, there has been extensive research done on this subject I am just
too lazy to look it up right now to show you. Just Google it.
Less is more, unless we're talking about my bank account of course [Wink]
Don't present your prospect with too many options, it will confuse them and
render them indecisive. So what is too much? Depends on the gravity of the
consequences of the choice. If we are talking about $100k worth of a decision
3 options may already be too much. The less risk to the decision the more options
you can give them. Generally no more than 6 though. Unless you sell icecream.
Don't be an asshole. Sorry, I don't mean it like that, but I do actually.
When you want to let people know who you are don't talk about yourself in the
first person. If you talk about how much success you've had and about all your
incredible accomplishments you will come off as less likable.
Instead write a biography in the third person or let yourself being introduced
by someone else. A biography in the third person is also highly copy and paste-able
for anyone that wants to write about you. Just so you know.
You know what; I am going to keep this thread up until it has 2000 views.
After that I will close it because I don't want this knowledge to become widely
spread. So better save this to your HDD right know!
See what I did there? I applied the principle of scarcity. I am using your
fear of being too late to read something valuable. This is done very often in
saleletters and landing pages by limiting the amount of copies sold or limiting
the timeframe in which the offer is available. To use it seems a marketing scheme
and it is, but it still works. Did you save this yet?
Let me tell you. You will not gain anything from this thread BUT if you don't read
it, it will cost you at least $20,000 every year by not implementing the techniques
I describe and thus losing out on sales!
You see, people prefer not losing anything, over gaining something. What I am trying
to say is that people are much more afraid of losing something they already have than
they are interested in gaining something. This is called loss aversion, Google that shit.
You may have read some other threads and they have somewhat good stuff in them and they
will explain some details on marketing. They are somewhat useful but nothing
like this one. This one features 2000 words of raw information and applicable techniques
that you can implement straight away.
I am talking to you about headlines, first paragraph, the favorable length of your copy,
using images in your copy, making people click that buy button, using fear to motivate
your prospect, how to reverse negative social proof to your benefit, how to introduce
yourself and not look like an asshole, the principle of scarcity, loss aversion, how many
option you should offer your prospect and I could keep going on, but let me ask you this:
Do you like my thread better than the above mentioned? That is because I used perceptual
contrast to make my thread look better than those others. You see, I am sure those other
threads cover some the same things I am talking about, however, I presented them with far
less detail than I did mine. I simply told you that those other threads have some good stuff
in them and then I went on about all the things I cover and I named most of them.
This made my thread look more favorable because I supplied so much more details when I
described it. Perceptual Contrast, Google away ladies!
You know what, I am about done, and this post is waaaay to long. Or is it?
As the most of us know, long copies sell. When you look at vendor pages, they go on and on and on.
Does that really work, well yes, you are still reading this after 1500 words no?
All kidding aside, if you know how to write and sell, yes longer copies sell more.
Why is that? Because a great copy writer can sell a product in every line he writes.
Every word has been thought of. The whole copy is a very meticulous planned strategic plan to sell.
I like the saying, the more you tell, the more you sell. I am not sure who said it first though.
You just need to know how to tell a story...
Ok that is it for now, I don't have a call for action other than to say, think about all this
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