Small Business Marketing Tip – Great Copywriting Equals Big Sales

If you read my last post you probably know that I feel that
copywriting and sales go hand in hand.

The point of copywriting is to draw in your prospect to take
some kind of action that will eventually lead to a sale of
your products or services.

If you create great copy, you will clearly define what you
are offering and create urgency within your prospects to
take the next step to becoming a customer. When you create
great copy, I guarantee your sales will increase.

I talked about this before, but it needs to be repeated.
Keep your information clear and easy to understand. Answer the
questions who, what, why, where, when, and how. If you leave
your prospects with unanswered questions, you are opening up
possible objections and you will lose sales. If they don’t
understand something, they will be less likely to purchase
your product or service.

As you write, try to write from your prospects’ point of view.
People want to know “what’s in it for me?” I call this “WIIFM”
think of it as a radio station playing in your prospects head
24/7. Your job as a copywriter is to answer that question. What
is your product or service going to do for your reader?

Why do they need it?

It is natural for you to want to explain the features and
benefits of what you are promoting. For instance, if you are
promoting an information product you created on designing
websites, you may include a line such as “this product features
a video tutorial that will allow you to follow along and
watch me build a sample website”.

By changing the line to read “this product features a video
tutorial that will allow you to follow along with me as I build
a sample website. It will give you the skills and confidence
you need to build your own website in a simple step by step
manner.” This gives your reader a reason to purchase your product.

Great copy includes a call to action. Don’t get so caught up in
explaining your product/service that you forget to ask the prospect
to buy the product. Some various “calls to action” include the
phrases “buy now”, “call now”, “click here now”.  If you don’t
ask for the sale, you won’t get it. Many people only read the
opening and close of sales letters. Make sure you include a
call to action at the beginning of the letter, and include a
P.S. section at the end that closes with a call to action.
 
When you make your prospects an offer, give them an offer that
is too good to pass up. Offering a discount for a “limited time
only”, for instance, prompts them to act fast. Other incentives
would include a special bonus included with their purchase. To
increase your sales, create urgency within your reader.

Copywriting is a skill that can be learned. It doesn’t come
naturally to everyone. Keep practicing and your copywriting
will become more effective.

Study the sales letter at this link and see how much of what
I talked about is in the letter.

Click Here Now! www.Copywriting-Ebooks.com/ab.htm

Take care,
Blase

Small Business Tip – Copywriting The Basics

Small Business Tip – Copywriting The Basics

By definition, copywriting is the writing of material that
will be used to sell a product or service. This includes
things like advertisements, press releases, brochures, radio
and TV ads, website copy, emails, a sales presentation, and any
other type of device or media you can use to sell something.

I will be the first to admit to be a great copywriter is
difficult and takes years of training and learning from
experience. Many businesses hire professionals to do the
work for them. As a matter of fact I write copy for other
businesses. However, to get better than average results
it is a skill that can be learned fairly quickly.

Here are the basics of good copy.

When you sit down to write copy, you must first know who
you are talking to.Then you must think like that person thinks.
This person is your target market. Try to put yourself in their
mindset. What kind of questions will they have about your
product or service? What do they need to know in order to
make a decision of whether they need the things you are
offering?

Keep your writing clear and concise. Many people are stressed
for time and they are not going to sit down and re-read
something that doesn’t make sense right away.  Use words
that are naturally found in every day vocabulary.

When people sit down to read something, they want to know
the following:

Who
What
Why
Where
When
How

Who is the offer for? This should be your target market, the
reader should understand that the offer is for them.

What is the offer? Are you offering a product, a service, or an
event? Make sure the reader knows what you are writing about.

Why are you making the offer? Is this a new product? Are
you celebrating your first year in business? When will
the offer be available? Is there an expiration date?

Where can your reader find this offer? Do they need to go to a
physical location or do they need to type a URL into their
web browser?

How do your readers take advantage of the offer? Do they
need to purchase something or do they need to register for
an event? Is there a fee gift involved? How much is it?

Give your readers a reason to buy your product or service.
Many people simply list the features and benefits of their
offer. They fail to tell the reader why the reader will
want to buy the offer. If you are selling ice cubes, tell
your readers how much better their life is going to be by
having cold drinks to cool them down on hot days.

Keep things exciting. Grab your readers’ attention with a
catchy headline and keep their attention throughout the
body of your copy.

It is important to include a call to action in your
copywriting. Give your customers an offer they cannot
refuse. Use phrases like “limited supply” or “limited
time offer” to give them a sense of urgency. If you don’t
ask your readers to become your customer, they won’t.

To see an example of what I am talking about go here.

www.copywriting-ebooks.com/ab.htm

Take care,
Blase

Small Business Advertising – Checklist

Here is a checklist for you of what constitutes a good ad.
This isn’t everything, I am sure other people have
other ideas and could add some wisdom, but it is complete
enough and if your ad contains these elements success isn’t
far away.

I have to also remind you that no matter how well you do
writing your ad and following all of the steps you need to
follow you must remember nothing is perfect. It can probably be
improved so, TEST, TEST, TEST!!

People read an ad to see if it fills a need or desire,
or if it solves a problem they have. They DO NOT read an
ad because they want to learn about you and how great
your company is!

That comes later.

You have to remember consumers are bombarded with ads,
you can’t even watch a TV show now with out reading an ad at
the bottom of the screen while the show you are viewing is on.
Of course you always have the channel logo on the bottom right
of your screen. Isn’t that an ad?

Before you do an ad you must know who your audience is
and what they want. Do your homework.

Do you have a headline? Knowing if it’s good or not comes from
testing.

Does your ad have a single purpose?

Does all of the copy, graphics, and so on, in the ad support your
main purpose?

Does the ad use the YOU principle? Do you use the words you and
your a lot more than I, me, our, mine, us?

Does it state a problem and does your product or service solve the
problem?

Is it customer focused? Your customer is always asking, WIIFM,
what’s in it for me?

Does it focus on what the prospect gets? Is it clear what the
prospects gets? Prospects are not mind readers.

Does your ad contain benefits not features? Features are
focused on you or your products and services, benefits
are focused on the customer.

Does it have major benefits that your competition doesn’t have?

Does it ask for an action from the customer?

Is there a time frame for your customer to act? Sense of urgency!

Does it tell the customer exactly what to do next?

Does it have testimonials, if space allows?

Does it use solid facts, not just sales hyperbole?

Is there a guarantee?

Are you using a P.S. to restate why the prospect should
do business with you?

Is all of your contact information there?

Here is a tip that has helped many people. Think of
advertising as salesmanship in print. If you sent a
salesman out to call on this prospect what would you
have him say? Now I also know you may need help
in this area too. So make sure you get it.

Over the years I have had some really bad salespeople
call on me and work for me, but not for very long.

Good luck, and remember you will only be successful if
you try. Nothing is ever perfect so do something. I don’t
know all of the keys to success, but I do know that if you
do nothing you are sure to fail.

For a lot more help with your sales and marketing check
out www.GSSAM.com

Now go sell something,
Blase

Marketing Suspects – Marketing Prospects

I was having a conversation with one of my clients the other
day and he pointed something out that I think you should be
aware of.

I use the term “suspects” a lot. I have used that word for
many years. My client asked me, “what do you really
mean when you say suspect?”

I understand his confusion and whether you use the word or
not it does mean something that is very specific.

Let’s break it down.

Customer/Client

A customer or a client is a person that does business with
you. In my opinion it is also a person that has done business
with you more than once, but let’s not split hairs. I also
hope that your customers are telling others about your
wonderful product or service and that you are taking action
to keep building a relationship with that customer or client.

Prospect

A prospect is a person that has a need or a want that can
be satisfied with your product or service. To me this is
logical you can’t call someone a prospect if they would
never have any reason to buy from you now can you. This
group of people falls into the prospect category because
you have somehow identified them as a person that you
could help.

Suspect

A suspect is everybody else. Many businesses advertise
to suspects not prospects and you need to understand that.
Now prospects of course are in the suspect group until they
have been identified as prospects. I hope that made sense.
Look at newspaper advertising, if you are advertising in a
general circulation newspaper you are broadcasting your ad
to everyone. 99.9% of the people that get the paper do not
have a need for your product or service when your ad runs.
To you they are all suspects. If you are running an ad in
very specific publication that your present customers would
read then you are advertising to prospects. You identified
where you’re most likely to find more customers.

If you buy a mailing list of just zip codes you are
advertising to suspects. If you buy a mailing list that
has been broken down and matched to what your present
customers look like you are advertising to prospects.

Many business owners advertise to suspects because they think
it’s cheaper. I am not going to go into it here, but I can
tell you up-front it is cheaper, but in the long run it’s more
expensive.

All of your advertising needs to be directed towards the most
likely prospects you can identify.

The difference is like taking a shoot gun to go dear hunting
instead of a rifle. You need to use a rifle to hit your target.

Now go sell something,
Blase