March 14, 2006

Effective Copywriting Words you should Never Use

What Are The Words That You Should Never Make Use Of In A Sales Letter?

 

There can be times, when no matter how many sales proposals you mail, the effect is nil. Do you know precisely why people don’t seem eager to buy your product? Have you ever marveled why your opponents make more sales even though they have an awful product to offer?

 

You may feel that people are just plain uninterested in buying your product or service. You may also feel that your price is on the higher side. Or worse still, you may feel that you have a useless product or service and decide to quit altogether or maybe change your line of business.

 

Here you must stop and think for a while. Is it maybe not your product that is responsible? At times it’s your own sales letter that turns out to be the main culprit. Maybe unwittingly you have used certain words which have had the opposite effect on your prospect.

 

So, what are precisely those bad or evil words you should in no way utter in your sales letter?

 

1) Buy.  Never solicit people to take out their purse and pay out their hard earned dollars. Keep in mind, most people get wary the moment they see this word. Whatever business you’re doing, using this word can obliterate your business in no time. Instead of using the word “buy,” modify it to “receive” or “invest.”

 

2) Learn.  This term is sure to remind people of the old days, when they had to study and learn in school. Believe me nobody is interested in wracking their brains as they did when they were students. These days, people want quick information and have no time to learn. It is better to use the word “find out” Instead of “learn”.

 

3) Tell.  People will not pay attention to you if they don’t identify you. Examine these two sentences carefully: “Let me just tell you how you can lose weight in one week” and “Let me disclose to you how you can lose weight in one week.” Which statement do you think that will make an impact?

 

4) Things.  Using this word will make your sales letter very dull and boring to read. As a substitute of using the word “things,” consider changing it to “tips,” “tricks” or “techniques.” Trust me, this will guarantee a better and more open frame of mind.

 

5) Stuff.  This is the word that most marketers use to explain how great the product is. Compare these two sentences: “Call us to receive fabulous stuffs” and “Call us to receive fabulous gifts.” Which one do you think would generate more response?

 

Every sales letter has a set of vocabulary that is destined to activate the emotional buying spark within you.  This language has to be cautiously assessed.

 

Appraise carefully; in the sales letter selling you some get-rich-quick ventures, you will encounter the use of certain words such as “turn-key.” This entails that the business that they are asking you to join is all set to run, and that no or negligible work is necessary on your part to make a profit.  But more often than not, this word in the sales letter is used to explain software that you still need to install, learn and work with to appreciate the service or product you are being provided.  This is not right.

 

Be very aware of the word “could” and “immediately get rich.”  You could earn up to $100 to $1000 monthly.  Assess what is the normal earning for someone who joins your affiliate program. Do not try to mislead or bluff. Though these words generate immediate response, you must use it only if you mean it. Remember there is absolutely no shortcut to success. So do not try it.

The success of any sales letter depends mostly on the words you use and how you craft them to serve your purpose. Once again, you do not have to be an English scholar to dole out an effective sales letter; you just need to write simple English in a friendly and conversational tone.

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March 7, 2006

Effective Copywriting Using Emotion

Do Emotionally Charged Sales Letters Boost Sales

 

Are you upset that your sales letter isn't receiving proper outcomes? Are you at your wit’s end on how to boost sales via your sales letter?

 

If the answer to the above questions is in the assertive, then I would suggest that the solution to your dreary results is included in one single yet powerful word - Emotion. As you may have by now realized, buying judgments are found on the basis of emotion the sales letter must build on the reader’s sentiment to a position where they are motivated to take action. The letter should try to attack those “hot buttons” or emotional pressure points, which will persuade the reader to buy. The main two motivating factors are the promise of gain and the fear of loss.

 

So how do you insert more emotion into your sales letters and thus charge up the selling ability of your copy? Here are a few examples.

 

1) Agitate Ache:  Try to get inside the head of the reader. Focus on the problem the reader has. Point out to them how because of this problem, they're stalled, irritated, worried, and unable to achieve their sincere needs. You need to stir up their apparent problem and make it appear better than it actually is.

 

2) Attention-grabbing Tales:  Stories are wildly successful in appealing to emotion. Watch a catastrophe, you'll feel miserable. Watch a sci-fi movie, and you'll almost certainly feel thrill.

 

Watch a horror flick, and you'll feel frightened. So interlace stories into your letters that awaken expectation in accomplishing a goal, avoiding difficulty, or attaining an aspiration.  You can also include stories on what happened to someone who did not try out your product in solving their problem. This kind of story will create the dread of loss, which is more compelling than want to gain in most people. Tell a story about someone whom your readers can with no trouble connect to.

 

3) Use Emotion and not Logic:  It's true that a number of words blaze stronger sentiments than others. You want to assess your target marketplace and discover what keywords your prospects actually respond to. The important thing to keep in mind is that almost every single word has an emotional ingredient to it. If your proposal is gain-oriented, then words and phrases like "money"; "get rich fast"; "million dollars”; and "earn from home" will stimulate your readers. Choose five or six keywords that'll swirl up the emotion you want in your reader and delicately place them throughout the sales copy to flash an emotional response.

 

As I have already said, there are innumerous ways to inject emotion into your sales letter. There are a multitude of emotions. You surely cannot put all these emotions in your sales letter. Most sales letters aim at one or two main emotions and then appeal to a few more. The more sentiments you can merge into your copy, the more commanding your letter will be.

 

Your sales letter should methodically explain the benefits of your product or service. Simultaneously, your product or service should resolve a quandary that your probable clients have stumbled on. In reality, any winning sales letter will have to accomplish an authentic need.

 

The appropriate sales letter should acquire trust from the very beginning and tell a motivating tale all throughout. This is not an assurance of an instantaneous sale but the start of an association, built on trustworthiness. 

 

Of course, you have to apply emotion morally and sensibly. If you plan to apply it, think for a while and ask yourself how you would react if someone else aimed that kind of communication to you. This will assist you in deciding on your course of action. Test marketing at every phase is important for writing that “perfect” sales letter.

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February 28, 2006

Effective Copywriting 5 Useful Tips

Five Useful Secrets Of An Effective Sales Letter

 

The difference between an average sales letter and an effective sales letter is the result it derives. As already explained so far, it is not too difficult to write a million-dollar sales letter. You just need to follow a few tips and guidelines.

 

Here are five more insider secrets for writing a “killer” sales letter.

 

1. Spend a few hours each day by going through some of the most effective sales letters of all time. Try to learn the nuances. Try to see how they use the headline, how the lead paragraph is constructed. Look at the style, the structure, and so on.

 

2. You should also amass all of the best sales letters you find and generate a notebook out of them. Afterwards, when you sit down to write a sales letter, you can flip through your notebook of sales letters to get ideas for your project. Do not copy these letters. This would be considered plagiarism. Just pick out the basic ideas and put it all in your own words.

 

3. Research your prospective targets till you know everything about them. You must realize their wants, their desires, their dreams, and their aspirations. You must know what motivates them and what does not. Once you know that, it will be far more easier for you to write a sales letter that will have some positive effect on them. Your letters need to be personalized.

 

4. After you research your prospect, learn to relax. Once you have completed your investigation of the customer, forget about it all for a day or two. This will allow you to be more practical when you start writing your letter.

 

5. There is only one way you can ever find out if a sales letter will be winning or not. It has to be undergo a test. You have to send it out to a number of your potential prospects to see if it makes progress or not. If yes, then great. If not, you need to again go back to square one and put your brains to work.

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February 21, 2006

Effective Copywriting 10 Rules

The Ten Basic Rules Of Writing A Good Sales Letter

 

For many small enterprises, a sales letter is the only marketing tool. They might not have a budget for anything else. But a carefully mapped out sales letter can create magic for your top line and bottom line. Just follow a few guidelines as mentioned below and see your profits soar.

 

  • You must always target the wants, needs, and desires of your prospective clients.  Walk a mile in the prospect’s shoes before writing any sales letter. Remember what they are looking for in the letter is “What exactly is in it for me?” So tell them what is there for them.

  • Avoid the crowd mentality. Write to specific people. You should write to a real and living person. Write the letter as if you’re writing to one friend, not to 1000’s of people.

  • People buy benefits and not features. You should begin by distinguishing the benefits from the features. The sales letter should be able to influence your reader to buy your stuff based on the grounds of what benefit the product/ service derives and not based on its features. It is the benefit the buyers buy and not just the feature in isolation.

  • Hook your readers with the first line itself. You have to compete with several unsolicited mails at any given time. So your letter should be crisp and catchy. The headline should make the reader read the first line, the first line should make him read the second, and so on.

  • Provide the reader with specific and relevant information. Do not go on and on about a product or service. Do not go around in circles. List specific benefits and tell them how their life would be easier with the benefits that are being offered.

  • Your sales letter must sell. The basic aim of your sales letter is to sell, isn’t it? It must sell. And for it to sell, it must be written in a conversational tone. Talk to your prospect in a lucid and friendly manner. Chuck the ornamental language and think of basic grammar rules as optional.

  • Test your sales letter. Try and ask yourself, if someone was writing the same letter to you, would you get convinced enough to spend your hard-earned dollars on it?

  • Make the sales letter as lengthy as it has to be. There is nothing called too long or too short. The basic thing that matters is the interest factor. The sales letter should be interesting and appealing.

  • Focus on the aesthetics. Use user-friendly fonts and templates that will make it visually appealing. You can use bullets and highlighters to break the clutter. Try not to end any page except the last page in a complete sentence. Most newspapers apply this tactic. If you do not end the page in a complete sentence, the reader will automatically navigate to the next page for completion.

  • Tell the reader precisely what to do. What do you want the reader to do next? Does he have to send in a reply card? Or does he have to place an order? Or call for more information? Schedule an appointment? Notify him accordingly. Do not presume he would know. It is amazing how many sales letters fail to inform the reader about the subsequent step. They consider that the reader to be a mind reader. But sadly enough, this is not the case.
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