You Are Viewing Copywriting Heads Up

Michel Fortin once told me the 3 most important elements to test in a sales letter are the headline, price and offer.

Price points are easy to come up with. The headline takes a lot of work… but that’ll come from my research.

The offer is something you need to team up and strategize with the client on. And one thing they’re not likely to have given a thought to is how they’ll LIMIT the offer.

Because of that, question #8 comes with a link to Michel Fortin’s amazing article on scarcity.

How are you limiting the offer? (See http://www.michelfortin.com/use-scarcity-to-sell-not-scare/)

At this link the client will discover there are three ways to limit the offer. That’s through limiting the time, quantity or offer.

You can limit the time by giving a discounted price until a certain date.

You can limit the quantity by only selling so many of your product… or only letting so many in to your membership site… and so forth.

You can limit the offer by giving out special bonuses… special extras like free coaching or shipping… and so forth.

Michel has said procrastination is the biggest killer of sales. And that’s why having a legitimate REASON WHY the customer must act now to get the best deal is such a powerful tool for the copywriter.

In addition to Michel’s article, I created a product called “Digital Scarcity” that gives ideas for adding legitimate REASONs WHY the client must act now… even if you have an unlimited supply of your product (because it’s digital).

It’s important to brainstorm these “reason’s why.” Both for the initial launch and after that scarcity is over (for example, after the first 100 bonuses are given away).

You simply must limit the time, quantity or the offer to maximize your sales.

That was a close one.

Remember when I lost all my blog posts last month? Well I tried to get as many of the valuable posts back as I could from Google’s cache.

One post that I didn’t find the first time around was an awesome interview I did with Ryan Healy.

I was reminded of it when I saw that the interview he gave me was still one of the most popular posts on his blog. Well, I didn’t want to lose this interview. I got Google up and running again and searched for that interview…

…I had to be clever, but I found it. So here it is, once again. The interview!

1. What attracted you to copywriting?

Actually, copywriting found me.

Starting in the 8th grade, I knew I would be a writer. I wrote for the high school paper, poetry journals, and the college paper. I wrote essays, speeches, and fiction — the whole gamut.

At every job I had, people would come to me to edit their writing. At Merrill Lynch, my managers would have me edit and rewrite their most important emails before they sent them out! (I wasn’t hired to do this; it just kind of happened.)

Anyway, I was approached by the owner of Sonlight Curriculum to write copy for him. He wanted to replace himself. He knew I loved to write and had an entrepreneurial bent, so he hired me.

I spent three years writing sales copy for him and his company, and doing all their Internet marketing.

And that is how copywriting found me.

This interview is continued over at my new blog, click here to keep reading.

When writing copy, you’re not selling a product/service so much as you’re selling a solution.  A solution that solves a problem or fulfills a desire.

So instead of asking something silly like, “What’s your product?”, I ask about the major benefit.  And that’s question #2 on my questionnaire:

“2) In one or two sentences only, what major benefit does your product/service uniquely provide?”

There are two key words to pay attention to in that question: “major” and “uniquely.”

A product may have a gazillion benefits.  But the copy is going to focus primarily on the big idea.  The MAJOR benefit of your product. It could be to lose weight, make money, get out of debt etc.  That’s the major benefit.

But that’s not all I want to know.  I also wanna know how your product UNIQUELY delivers that benefit. There are lots of weight loss products out there, how does your product stand out?

If this question is answered correctly, it could be the entire theme of the copy.

Of course, most products have more than one benefit.  Or sub-benefits.  So question #3 is designed to expand on question #2:

3) Please list additional benefits of your product/service.

If your product helps you to lose weight while still eating your favorite foods, that’s a great benefit.

If you’re selling exercise equipment that stores away easily, taking up little space.  That’s a great benefit.

(Note: For great advice on writing benefits, check out Michel Fortin’s article “Forget Benefits, And you Will Sell More.” Make sure to read all the way down to the advantages vs. benefits portion.)

These secondary benefits will help you support the major benefit.  The more you collect, the easier it will be to connect with your reader and write great copy.

The sales letter was good.  It was more than good, it rocked.

Michel Fortin was my copywriting coach at the time, he didn’t have anything to add.  It was ready to give to the client.

The client was a big name guru you’ve probably heard of.

And he hated it.  He changed it quite a bit, including the entire angle, before he published it.

What happened?  I didn’t manage my client’s expectations.  Part of that job is to discover what the client is expecting the letter will look like.

And the easiest way to get that answer is to ask…

“1) Are there any competing sales letters you like that I should see?”

Have you ever heard, “The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side.”  If your client likes a competitor’s sales letter, they’re probably looking for something similar.

Of course your sales letter needs to be unique to be successful.  But you can get a good feel of the tempo and energy of the copy.  And that’s likely what your client is looking for.

The lesson: If you want to keep your client happy, find out what they like about their competitor’s sales copy.

My favorite excerpt from this blog entry:

The biggest error that most people commit when they write copy is that they try to be clever, trying to ‘WOW’ people with every sentence.

Check it out: http://blog.onecoach.com/2008/12/09/how-to-sell-in-print-the-secret-of-writing-killer-copy/

You know what kind of copywriter scares me?

One that doesn’t ask any questions.  

Before I start a project there are 10 questions I ALWAYS have answered before I start.  And over the next few weeks I’m going to be writing about these questions and why I think they’re so important.

I’ll probably address question #1 Monday.  For a sneak peak, here’s the question:

“1) Are there any competing sales letters you like that I should see?”

Can you guess why I think it’s so important?

1. What are all the variables you test for in headlines?

Interesting question! When testing headlines I test the format and then usually wildly different text. For example I don’t want to test “Discover The Secret To Losing Weight” against “How To Lose Weight.”

While that may be a valid test, you’re more likely to uncover a more profitable answer if you test wildly different ideas. So you might test “How A 300lb Man Accidently Lost 115lbs!” against either of the headlines above. Your more likely to find a big winner this way than if you just tweak words.

But the reason I say your question is interesting is because I never gave more than a little thought to testing variables IN the headline. Michael Masterson put forth the 4 U’s of Great Headlines, and they were “Urgency,” “Uniqueness,” “Usefullness,” and “Ultra-Specifics.”

If you use multivariate testing, you could have one headline that reads… “3 Steps To Making $1235 Or More From Betting On Football!”

And you could test every element of that headline.

You could test the urgency (football season comes and gos).

You could test the uniqueness (3 steps and $1235 makes this headline unique, could you find other ways to express it)

You could test usefulness (Making $1235 is useful. But you could test something else, like “Replace your income.”)

And you could test the specifics (”$1235″ is specific, you could try another number. You could test 4 or 5 steps. You could change “football” to this Monday Night’s football game.)

So if you do find a headline that’s a big winner, you might be able to squeeze some juice out of it by breaking down the elements of the headline even smaller. Interesting.

What are the most important variables in headlines?

Again, I’d say Urgency, Uniqueness, Usefulness And Ultra-Specifics.

What are the steps you take to find the hook for a sales letter?

Well you need something that will capture their attention. That can often mean being a contrarian. If there’s a commonly held belief, challenge it in the headline. “Scientists say (it) ain’t so!”, or something like that.

And that’s why it’s important to know the market so well, you can’t say something contrarian if you don’t know what their beliefs are to begin with.

So it starts with consuming a ton of information about your market. 99% of that is done online for me. I search for their favorite forums, I look for their most popular websites, and then sometimes I’ll listen or read the most popular books in that market.

I’m looking for a commonly held belief that somehow, my product can refute accurately.

What is your method for writing the close, or the call to action?

I don’t have it broken down step by step yet. As I approach the end of the letter I usually do a price reveal, which means building up the value of the product to a price much higher than they’ll pay. Then I reveal the price and immediately back it up with a satisfaction guarantee.

After that I employ a Scarcity technique to give them a reason to act immediately. As I’m discussing why they should act now, I repeat phrases like “Click the button below” several times. (Although I try to say it with different words.)

Then I put the order button, and right below it I try to help them imagine what will happen if they do not act now. Then usually in the PS section I’ll remind them of the Scarcity and the satisfaction guarantee.

Instead of giving information about your product on the sales page and asking for the sale, is it better to give less info on the page and then ask the prospect to opt in for more information?

I don’t have a lot of data on this. And I suspect it can depend on your business model. If you direct people to your sales pages through a blog, I’d send them directly to the sales page.

However for most projects I write an opt-in page to go after their email address so that we can follow up. But I also try and test this against sending them straight to the sales page so we can see what the difference in conversion between the two methods and make a better decision.

If you have a sales page for a paperback book, is it ok to now offer the ebook version as an alternative, or would having to make a choice cut down on sales?

In this situation I don’t think having too many choices would be a problem. You’re really only making one decision and that’s if you want the information. Deciding on whether you want the book in print or digitally isn’t a decision that I’d expect to make people procrastinate.

Whereas if you were selling different information on the same sales page it might have that effect. And that’s a “might.”

If your ratio of sales to unique visitors falls between 5-9% most months, is that good enough that you should be thinking about tweaking the sales page vs. testing entirely new pages?

I don’t have a solid answer. 5-9% is quite high and you certainly risk dropping the conversion rate substantially by writing new copy from scratch.

If you’re split testing, I can see why you might try this. But I think it makes much more sense to continue tweaking the page through multivariate testing so you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The way I try and test pages, substantial parts of the letter can change. So over time, the copy may end up looking like a completely different sales letter. With a different hook, a different offer, a different headline and so on.

Great questions everyone. If one of your questions was answered above, leave a comment and I’ll send you a free digital gift.

Clients are often nervous before hiring a copywriter for the first time. We’re not cheap. I told you before that the lowest I write a sales letter for is $3,000.00. (Except for mini-letters.)

Sometimes I quote as high as $6,000.00. And that’s before any add ons, like autoresponders or promotional emails. Typically, I write for about $4,000.

The ways I reassure clients is by showing them my portfolio first so they can see I know what I’m doing. I also tell the names of recognizable marketers who hire me regularly (Jim Edwards and Ryan Deiss). And that I offer 3 revisions within 90 days if the copy is falling flat. (All copywriters produce duds from time to time.)

Recently I’ve also been able to share that my copy coach is Michel Fortin (a legendary copywriter online).

Some wondered why I had a copy coach when I was supposed to be a good copywriter already. First of all, I can name a couple of other copywriters who I’ll admit have better skills than me… and still have a copy coach. It’s a never-ending learning process.

But also, my biggest weakness as a copywriter is experience. I’ve got a little more than 3 years vs. Michel’s… maybe close to 2 decades? What I might discover about different markets from trial and error, I can now just ask Michel. That raises my game by a lot.

And makes me a steal of a copywriter starting at $3k.

Want proof? Michel and his crew write for $800 a page. A typical sales letter might run around $8,000.00 at that point. Maybe much more. My typical sales letter is around $4,000.

I just sent over a rough draft of some sales copy that wasn’t quite finished (still needed some content from the client), but the essentials were there. Here’s what Michel said about the copy when I sent it to him for a quick review:

This is very good copy.

I don’t have anything to add — at least until the copy is done. But I like what you have now. I like it a lot.

Michel Fortin
The Success Doctor, Inc.
http://SuccessDoctor.com
http://MichelFortin.com

And believe me, he wouldn’t say that if it weren’t. He’s advised me to scrap copy and rewrite it before.

Now, are you thinking of hiring me before my rates shoot up? http://www.copyproductions.com

Here’s 3 great links for discovering how to write a risk reducing guarantee…

Give Your Guarantees Teeth And Eat Filet Mignon More Often

An Irresistible Guarantee: Overcoming Your Prospect’s Final Reservations

Risk-Reversal’s Role Reversal

I recently gave an interview to Keith Goodrum where I mentioned the value of price testing. Jim Sansi just put together some videos to show you how to perform price tests with Muvar. Go here and check it out…

Magical Methods That Increase Sales by Jim Sansi of thekaizenbusiness.com

Also see…

9 Productivity Tools for Entrepreneurs to Smack Down Stupid, Time-Wasting Tasks… by Yanik Silver

Big Things For 2008 by Daniel Taylor

Is Competition Good or Bad? by Kevin Wilke

The Google Sneak Attack by Ryan Deiss