Showing posts with label Sales letter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sales letter. Show all posts

Friday, July 05, 2013

Color, fonts, pictures, newsletter, voice, order button - Your sales letter- E-Business Success Blueprint Workshop - Part 19

Big Sale
Previous lesson...

One of our participants in the past has sent this letter to me. 

Lots of improvement in my web site since utilizing the techniques in E-Business Success Blueprint. My Alexa ranking has improved dramatically from 3,490,000 down to 650,718. I achieved a # 1 search ranking on Yahoo (keyword free advertisement) and my custom Adland page is at # 5. I have over 300 new members and several downloads of my free ebook. All of this in one week! 

Thanks for your help! 

Looking forward to your return,  Sam 

Today I would like to continue with our sales letter and provide other pieces of the page which help with conversion of your visitors to the customers. 

Color of Your Background 

By applying appropriate colors you can raise your sales by up to 30%. The most effective color is dark blue (associated with business image), then comes grey, black and white. 

Fonts and Fonts Colors 

To increase your conversion, add red color to your headings and subheadings. Use yellow highlights if you want to increase importance of that piece of your sales letter. Use bolding to emphasize and don’t use italics. Italics make text hard to read. Since most people won’t read your sales copy in its entirety make sure that most important things stand out. 

Placement of the information on the page 

The most important information should be placed on the left upper part of the page to correlate with how our brain processes information. Therefore, you should always put pictures of people, animals or kids where you want to draw attention. 

Pictures of your products 


Share your story
Share your story


If your product can be represented through a picture, definitely use it. As you know, a good picture is worth more than a thousands words. Always make sure that your pictures are optimized so your visitors don’t have to wait excessively for your pages to load. Also, don’t place large pictures on your listing products page. Instead create links to another page where you can show an enlarged picture that contains more detailed descriptions about the product. This can also be referred to as a Master/Detail Page. In addition, don’t place too many products on one page. Instead, use several pages so that they can load faster. Since humans are visual, pictures can increase your customer’s retention rates by up to 50%,, the time spent on your site by 300% and signups for newsletters, etc by 200% or more. 

Urgency 

When you add statements to your sales letter that you have a limited number of items in stock or that there is a deadline to purchase the product for the price, you create a sense of urgency and your customer will feel a need to purchase it right now. However, as previously mentioned, you must follow through with this urgent offer. Therefore, if you say that an item will only be available for 7 days and it is actually available for 700 days, you’ll lose credibility.

Add Pop –up windows to your site 

As annoying as they can be, pop-ups can be an effective way to advertise. Usually pop-up windows are associated with annoying ads which have nothing to do with the site that you’re currently visiting. However, properly used pop up windows can increase your conversion rates tremendously. One popular way to use pop-ups is to use them to get subscribers to your mailing list. Simply use them as a method to get members to sign up for your free newsletters. They likely won’t be annoyed with this because they are in essence, receiving a benefit, great information. Another option is to use pop-ups when your visitors leave your site. To do this, you can include them as a last attempt effort to encourage them to purchase your product or perhaps join your newsletter.

Newsletters 

About 90% of your visitors will never buy the first time they visit your site. Therefore, if you don’t make a sincere effort to get their contact info, you are probably losing these visitors forever. This is unacceptable. Therefore, you do your best and establish a long term relationship with every visitor that visits your site. Use incentives if you have to but get them to sign up for your newsletter. Once they do, you can contact them periodically (biweekly or monthly) and give them some great discounts or special offers. By simply saying that you have some kind of product might be enough to move them to action. If it isn’t, then you’ll have to keep at them. In fact, researchers have shown that it typically takes over 7 times of your customers seeing your name to become familiar with it. Therefore, after seven mailings, your customers will consider you as a company they are familiar with and will be more inclined to buy from you. 


In the past, newsletter was the lifeblood of my business. I blindly followed the suggestions of numerous marketing gurus and cleverly started my own newsletter which I’ve called Adland Digest. This publication was appreciated by my subscribers and acknowledges as one of the best newsletter on the net. I prided myself on including current and creative marketing information that enticed and informed them. At the time, I didn’t have slightest idea about marketing on the internet but I did my best and I learned a lot. I even created space for live discussions where some subscribers just answered the questions posed by others. Today Adland Digest is still growing strong. Feel free to check it out here at http://members.adlandpro.com/archives.aspx  

Add voice to your website 

By simply adding a friendly voice greeting to your website, you can increase your sales by 437 %. This increases your sites credibility and makes their visit much more personal. If you can add your face where the voice is streamed, this will increase your conversions even more.

Order button 

If you are utilize long and effective sales letter (and I do hope that you are), you must make sure that you include Order Now buttons several times on the page. If you visitor is ready to order while they are in the middle of your page, just let them buy by placing your Order now button right in the middle so they don’t have to scroll to the bottom and look for it. 

Make your button is red so that it stands out. This will definitely increase conversion rates. Don’t use links in the text as this will likely confuse your customer and distract them. Instead, make sure that once your visitor is presented with the sales page, they have no option to leave that page other than to purchase your product. In fact, you may wish to create separate pages for different services and products and guide your visitor to the buy button with no interruptions. 

Next lesson...

Bogdan Fiedur
Adlandpro.com Copyright 1998 - 2013 - All rights reserved . 


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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Benefits, bonuses, guarantee, order - Your sales letter- E-Business Success Blueprint Workshop - Part 18

#Success
#Success
Previous lesson...

Here are the final steps of sales letter.

Each of these sections has to be implemented in order indicated.

Tell who you are and use “Social Proof” to establish credibility

Most people know what establishing credibility means, but what is the social proof?
Social proof is the concept which is behind our actions. It is a principle which causes us to act. These are shortcuts in our thinking, when we rely on somebody’s behavior or recommendations to make our decisions.

Testimonials are an example of social proof. When other people talk to us in a positive manner about a product or service, this influences our behavior. If we place a picture on our site of a celebrity who visited our business or even visited us just because we happened to know him or her, this will influence our visitor’s behavior and actions. If you can show how many people bought your product to date or how much money it generated for you, this will establish your credibility. All those examples are part of social proof which helps bringing visitors closer to us.

Explain to your visitor why you are doing what you are doing to gain their trust. If you truly want your visitors to identify with you, tell them why you created your solution. This will enhance their interest and demonstrate how much you value them.

It will also show why you stand behind this product or service and will demonstrate that you’re truly an expert in this specific domain.

Benefits of your product or service
#Benefits
#Benefits

Now, we’ll discuss how to use excitement to convert your visitors into customers.
By now, your visitor has read some of the testimonials, and knows who you are.
They know what is the main benefit of your product and now is the time to list all of them.

List one after another. They can be in form of questions or bulleted points. It is good idea to list them in a way so that they truly stand out. This can be done by using highlights or bolded text. This will ensure that even readers that are just scanning the pages, will be able to pick up the strong benefits. Which reminds me, when including benefits, make sure that you do not include features. For example, feature of a cordless phone is that there are no attached cables however benefits would be that cordless phones enable you to move freely with this phone throughout your house while talking.


Closing

Up until now, you have not mentioned your price. This is because you don’t want to talk about the price of your product until you create enough desire for your visitor to own it. In your closing, you want the desire to go on fire. Therefore, you shouldn’t mention price yet. Instead, you have to stress your main benefits again and then make sure that they are screaming from your pages. You also have to make sure that you present options. For example, you must include how much your product is worth and how much work you have put into it.

Be careful to list all the savings, a potential owner will have and show how much others charge for a portion of what you’re delivering. Finally, offer them a steep discount. After the discount, you can mention the price and add that the discount is limited so they have to “act now” for a “limited time only.”

To increase urgency even more, you must run a time limit based offer. For instance, you can offer the product for 7 days and then you can either bring the price up or you can offer an added bonus for purchasing the item now. Either way, be very honest about what you say and later do. So, if you say that product will be taken off the market in 7 days then make sure that it is taken off.

Add tons of bonuses and freebies



#Bonuses and #Freebies
#Bonuses and #Freebies
At this point, your customer might be having second thoughts even though they initially wanted your product badly. They might be getting afraid of getting a lemon or not really sure if they can afford the price. They like what they see but they might be panicking.

With this in mind, you must offer them something for nothing. Offering a free item really helps cinch the deal. It makes them feel better about the purchase. The key is to add something of value. If you do then you can literally skyrocket your sales. The bonus should be related to your key product. Some free things that you can offer are:


  • Free report or e-book
  •  Subscription to your newsletter
  • Access to archives of your newsletters
  • Half hour private consultation
  • Free technical support for three months
  • Classified or banner advertising on your website
Start piling on those bonuses. Add as much value as you possibly can. Sometimes you may want to include so many bonuses that their value exceeds the value of your products. If you do this, make sure that you mention the value of your bonuses. You should also indicate that your bonuses are only available for a limited time only. If you word it right, your customer may purchase your product primarily for the bonuses.

Sometimes you can approach companies which offer products which enhance or complement yours. They might be interested in offering coupons or discounts which you can throw as part of your bonuses.

Strong Guarantee
#Guarantee
#Guarantee


In addition to bonuses, you must also use a strong guarantee that differentiates you from your competition. A strong guarantee will alleviate the anxiety your visitor might have when buying over the internet or spending a large amount of money. The better your guarantee, the less likely someone will be inclined to ask for a refund or return the item. In my opinion, you should offer at least a one year guarantee. If you want to show them how confident you are in your product, offer them a lift time guarantee. Either way, challenge yourself to give your customers the best guarantee that they’ve ever seen.

There will be always group of customers who will ask for a refund so it is best to offer it in the beginning. Whenever you return the money, ask for the reasons why they didn’t like the product. Use this feedback to help you improve upon the product or service. If you find that the person’s expectations were unreasonable or that there was nothing wrong with the product, don’t worry about it. Move on and feel confident that you delivered great customer service.

Ask for the order
#Order

At this point, you are about to mention the price of your product and offer ways to pay for it. Restate that strongest point of your guarantee. For example, you might state, “this purchase is totally risk free and you can return it if you don’t like it within the next 60 days for a full refund.”

Make payment options easy. Include payment options like credit cards and checks.

The best third party processor to utilize is Paypal. They offer secure and safe payment options using secure servers. For those customers who are leery about inputting personal information into the computer, you should add your phone number and mailing address so that they can send you the information via phone or snail mail..

P.S.

Study after study shows that P.S. is a very important component of your sales letter. A “P.S.” has a positive effect on those who are still hesitating and are already at the bottom of the page and still haven’t made a decision to purchase yet. Therefore, in your P.S., you can add an additional guarantee or bonus to overcome any objections. Give them an offer they cannot refuse. Again, add urgency to get them to utilize your product and increase effectiveness.

In order to get the best conversion rate (the number of visitors to your website compared to those who made a purchase), In next installment I will discuss several technical pieces which will make the difference in your sales copy. Knowing them will have a tremendous impact on your final outcome.


Next lessons...

Bogdan Fiedur
Adlandpro.com Copyright 1998 - 2013 - All rights reserved .
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Thursday, June 20, 2013

Headline and powerful testimonial - Your sales letter- E-Business Success Blueprint Workshop - Part 17

Adlandpro Bogdan Fiedur Newsletter Headline
Newsletter Headline
Previous article..

Headline
According to study by Nielsen/NetRatings, a well-written headline can produce a 1,900% increase in your income. Therefore, the most crucial part of your sales page is the heading. This is because you only have several seconds to grab the attention of visitors to your site. A Headline should stress the biggest benefit of your product or service, possibly not found anywhere else. Your headline should create curiosity to compel one to keep reading information on your site (sales letter).

When creating your letter, always use the word “you”. This word is considered the most powerful word because it connects to the reader directly and provides a more personal tone. Some other powerful words that you should use are Guaranteed, Bargain, Proven, Revolutionary, New, Free, Easy, and How to.
Another option is to use some of these ideas (including, but not limited to):

Ways to….
Sure ways to…
Secret for…
No Fail strategies
Discovery to…
Ever hear..
Five simple ways..
How to avoid…
How to become…
How to handle…
Now revealed..
Seven terrific
The # 1 most effective
Amazing secrets..
The best kept
The crucial step…
New discovery
The proven formula…
Technique that …
Ten Commandments of…
Terrible truth…
Truth about…


What every such and such should know

In addition, your sub-headline should provide more information and strengthen your strong main headline message. As an added bonus, you can also add more descriptive information.

Powerful Testimonial


Adlandpro Bogdan Fiedur Testimonial
Powerful testimonial
Strong testimonials lend credibility and can increase your conversion by 250%. The web is an anonymous place and excellent tools for many scammers, thus having good testimonials on your site will help your visitors make the decision. Testimonials influence our behavior in remarkable ways and allow us to lower our guard. Each new testimonial takes away some of the natural objections we have towards the unknown product. They list the main benefits and well as positive experiences with other customers. If you can, add pictures and voice recordings to your testimonials.


This will further enforce confidence in your unique product or service offering.
For a testimonial to be effective, it must contain the following elements:

  • It is descriptive
  • Contains more than one or two word sentences
  • Contains solid numbers and facts
  • Talks about known benefits
  • Shows the customer’s full name, business, and url (if you have it)
  • Contains grammatical structure of the person who wrote it, even if it is incorrect.
  • Adding audio recording will build more confidence in your product.


Not sure how to get testimonials when you don’t have a functional site?

Give away a couple of products or free coupons for your future product and ask for a testimonial.

If you already have an offline business, you might ask some of your customers to provide you with testimonials. They may have never thought about giving you testimonials, but would be happy to provide it if you asked. Another option is to provide a link to their business if they give you a testimonial which will benefit them directly.

If you've established a positive relationship with customers from your mailing list, you can also announce your product and ask for a testimonial. Putting a great testimonial on your site which talks about your skills, integrity, and expertise are as great way to get new customers. In fact there are some marketers who will tell you that your sales letter could be just good testimonials.

In next lesson continuation of sales letter.

Next article...

Bogdan Fiedur
Adlandpro.com Copyright 1998 - 2013 - All rights reserved .  
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Thursday, June 13, 2013

Your sales letter - E-Business Success Blueprint Workshop - Part 16

Sales Letter
Previous lesson...

By now, you have a website with a script that captures the email addresses of your subscribers or you just used http://www.surveymonkey.com to analyze your market.

In any instance, you have collected some contacts and determined if there is a need for your products.

Depending on how far you have decided to utilize our free website builder, you might have already a page or two.
Your first task as a marketer will be to write a sales letter.

Yes, whether you like it or not, you will become a salesperson. Therefore, it is paramount that you create a sales letter that sizzles. This is because a sales letter is your ticket to success. It helps you sell products and services even when you’re not there. So, by making it worthy, you will in essence ensure that you get those products sold whether you’re there or not. Therefore, you will learn how to make your sales letter as compelling and enticing as possible so your visitors make an on-the-spot buying decision.

In our exercise we are assuming that you will be selling one product. If you are intending to sell more than one product, your option will be to write sales letter for each specific product. The principle is the same.

Now that we understand the importance of utilizing a “killer sales letter”, we’ll now discuss marketing and how it can be divided into several segments:


  • Provide convincing way to click “buy” button on your site. (write your killer sales copy or hire a copywriter to write it for you )
  • Tell others about your site
  • Bring visitors to your site using creative methods
  • Deliver the product
  • Follow up to make sure that your customers are satisfied
  • Up sell additional products to your customers

Each sales letter will include sales oriented copy and several  "Buy Now" buttons.

Here are the main elements of your sales letter in order of their appearance:


  • Headline and sub-headline
  • Powerful testimonials
  • Include all the reasons why anyone would purchase your product or service
  • Tell who you are and use “Social Proof” to establish credibility
  • Explain to the reader why you are doing what you are doing to gain their trust
  • More testimonials
  • Additional product or service benefits
  • Closing statement
  • More testimonials
  • Bonuses and freebie.
  • Give a guarantee that one can’t refuse
  • More testimonials
  • More benefits
  • Use P.S to include additional benefits.
  • Optional, offer a few more bonuses to cinch the deal

As you will see, we have lots of material to cover. However, it is paramount that you understand the creation of a dynamic sales letter as this step alone can increase your sales by 1000% or more.

In next lessons we will cover Headline and powerful testimonial of the sales letter.

Next lesson...

Bogdan Fiedur
Adlandpro.com Copyright 1998 - 2013 - All rights reserved .  
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