Chapter 17 - How to Write Great Sales CopyTake this time to sit down and write an outline for your sales message.
The first part of your outline will be your headline. This is the most important part of your entire sales copy. You must write a headline that demands attention and forces your visitors to read on. Most of your visitors will only read your headline. If it does not instantly grab their attention, they will move on and never return. This is where all of the details around your Big Fat Claim come in handy. You know exactly what your customers expect and you know exactly what benefits your product or service can provide. Writing an IntroductionOnce you've captured your potential customers' attention, you will now need to direct their attention to your introduction. This is where you introduce a story or let them know exactly what you have to offer them. Use Plenty of SubheadingsYour next step in creating your outline will be to add sub-headings. Subheadings are basically just smaller headlines used to break up your text blocks. They also provide your readers with important highlights of your paragraphs. Use plenty of sub-headings throughout your copy, as not all your visitors will read your copy word for word. They will simply scan it and only read what catches their attention. Now you are ready to begin filling in the spaces. When you begin writing your paragraphs, get straight to the point, avoid negativity and hype, and write in small sections. Vary the paragraph sizes and limit each paragraph to four or five lines. If you feel that your paragraph will be longer than four or five lines, try to use bullets to display important points. In addition, write in an everyday language that everyone can understand. Make sure you use plenty of white space. White space is the empty space between your paragraphs and around your text. You do not want to overwhelm your visitors with a solid page of black text. Nothing will make them click away faster. Pack your sales copy with benefits from your headline straight through to your order form. Make sure you do not confuse features with benefits. Features do not sell... Benefits sell. Your visitor wants to know exactly what your product or service can do for them. Mini-site Page Details Avoid using fancy fonts. Fancy fonts make text difficult to read. In addition, your visitor may not have that font on their computer. Select a font that is easy to read and use black text on a light background. It is a proven fact that long sales copy out sells short sales copy. However, some visitors do prefer a short sales letter. You can provide your visitors with both. For those who prefer a short sales letter, provide opportunities to click through to your order page prior to ending your sales letter. Try to keep your sales letter all on one page. Your visitor would much rather scroll through your letter than click through and load another page. With each additional click, you will lose a percentage of your potential customers. Your words should seamlessly flow together from your headline through to your order page. Keep it simple, to the point, and pack it with all the benefits your product has to offer. The simple, well-designed websites with killer sales copy make the sales. Some Final Thoughts about Mini-sites
Have a relative visit the sales mini-site. What did they read, what did they see and do as a result of that first visit? Every reader visits your mini-site with new eyes, how are they going to see it? What steps are they going to take? What would they read? Where would their eyes go? What would their mind think? Finally what action would they take? If they get stuck at any point, it represents confusion on the part of your readers. And confusion leads to procrastination. The only thing your mini-site is designed to do is sell. Make sure yours does just that! Why People Do Not BuyThere are a million reasons a visitor to your direct sales page will not buy when they visit. The reasons will always be personal and unique to that visitor. If you have constructed your pages well and architected a sales process into your sites, you ve already built in a series of decisions for the visitor. These are the implied yes/no questions that let the potential buyer know that they should go on to the next step. On your order page, that next step is always to complete the order, fill in the credit card information or complete the method of payment section of the page. In any decision the buyer makes, they may have reasons yet there are only four possible blockages . The reasons that a buyer uses are their logical justification for not purchasing. In fact, what not buying means is that they have not been able to logically justify what it is they thought they would receive emotionally by buying. All humans buy on emotions to the level that it can be logically justified. Can t justify it? Can t buy it! What are the four logical blocks then? These are the four stepping stones for a decision. Give them enough reasons, cover these points and they will be able to justify making a purchase. Your sales copy has to give them reasons why: Key Point!
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