February 6, 2004

This is page Two of the "Twelve steps in writing a truly compelling sales copy". Please click here to read page One.

Step number Seven
Pay particular attention to your headlines

One of the most powerful techniques in web design today but that not everybody implements are the use of short but compelling, attention-grabbing headlines. In the context of this article, your headlines must articulate a real benefit, a true "What's in it for ME".

There are many professional ad-copy writers that invest more time refining their headlines than they do the body text of the ad itself. Additionally, one technique that I use a lot and works for me is you should always test different headlines against each other, while leaving all the rest of your offer exactly the same.

Step number Eight
Pay a lot of attention to your overall layout

Remember that your overall layout is always crucial. Like in a newspaper, you should always place your headlines where they will be seen first. Also, it is important to neatly arrange your sales copy in an orderly and logical fashion. Many marketing specialists will tell you that to be truly effective, sales copy on websites or sales presentations in other media should be arranged somewhat like a tour.

To be done the right way, you need a beginning, a middle and an end, and in that exact order. Avoid putting your visitor in control of the order in which they participate in the tour. This means avoid putting buttons at their disposal or anything similar that might prevent them from following the crucial steps YOU want them to take.

Step number Nine
The use of graphics, invoking emotion

One big mistake a lot of companies do is to use graphics or pictures to unnecessarily fill in some "void" spaces. You should always ask yourself what it is you want these graphics to accomplish. Can it effectively demonstrate the product in any way? Can it truly "illustrate" a benefit? Will it really help in promoting a professional image of your company? If you can answer yes to most of these questions, then it would validate some use of these graphics you might have had in mind.

Also, remember that sometimes images can be powerful in marketing, but what I call "real-estate space" on a web page is always at a premium, so you should always try to avoid wasting some of that precious space. You should try to get the largest possible "marketing punch" from your carefully selected images. Use them to invoke positive emotions. For example, a photograph of a happy family moving into a new house is a lot more compelling than just a photo of the house itself.

Step number Ten
The use of credible and verifiable testimonials

One powerful and very compelling way to entice your web visitors to become buyers of your product or service is to encourage them to read customer testimonials and be sure to place them strategically along the their way to help you validate certain important aspects of your sales copy. Make certain that all your testimonials are truly legitimate, and if you are using names of people or just even corporate names, make sure you get these people's approval in writing before going ahead with this.

Step number Eleven
Rewarding "closing" strategies

To make the closing strategy effective, depending on the exact industry your company operates in, and depending on the nature of the product or service your are offering, you might find it effective to offer your visitors some sort of bonus, a small reward, a written guarantee or some sort of a flexible payment plan to further help you to close the sale.

Ideas or suggestions here can vary widely, as not one company and not one product is exactly the same, but the general focus here should be the same: close the sale with a small reward that will make them choose YOUR company and your product instead of your competitors.

Step number Twelve
The most important step: the "call to action"

One of the biggest mistakes some inexperienced people or web designers do is they "assume" that most visiting prospects will know what to do next! It is your job to tell them specifically. You should always spell out clearly the important steps you expect them to take next. Here are some good examples:

      Pick up the phone and call NOW
      Complete the order form and SEND it
      Sign up for your newsletter TODAY
      Download the free 30-day trial program NOW

I stress here the words NOW and TODAY, since you want them to act today, not in a year from now. Then, and this is as equally important, you need to explain what will happen once they've completed the form and they should take a moment to review the benefits, bonuses, and guarantees.

One final note on this whole article is that professional sales copy writers often read everything they write out loud to themselves and to others in their offices. The idea here is to remove some sections that could cause "word stumbling" or confusion. If such is the case, you should restructure and rephrase them so your visitors won't stumble upon them too.

Remember also to apply the "so what" and the "who cares" argument to test the validity of your whole sales copy. From experience, I can tell you your visitors will. This is the part where you must identify and remove these self-serving company statements (corporate speak) and delete somewhat impressive credentials, but that tend to bore motivated visitors, who rightfully care only about themselves.

What I suggest in this case is to put your credentials on an "about us" page and focus your whole sales message on the real benefits for your visiting prospects.

Conclusion
These twelve important steps may not constitute the complete list nor are they intended to be the "Holy Grail" of sales copy writing, but are certainly important ones. When in doubt or if you ever come to the stage where you still don't know what to write in your marketing copy, you should start with the most basic step of all: Interviewing and asking your visitors and prospects so you can carefully discover what THEY want and what it is THEY need.

From that point, it's a matter of carefully writing a compelling sales copy that will lead them towards getting what THEY want by buying it from YOUR company instead of your competitors. Good luck in your sales copy writing!

Article written by Serge Thibodeau,
President & CEO,
Rank for $ales
Copyright (c) Serge Thibodeau 2003, 2004

Unless otherwise specified, all content and material on this site is copyrighted by Serge Thibodeau of rankforsales.com and may not be reproduced by any means without express written permission. Using my content without permission is a theft of my work. Please contact sthibodeau@rankforsales.com to discuss certain reprint options that would be acceptable.

You can read some of Serge Thibodeau's exclusive comments that are not posted on this website. Visit his personal blog by clicking here. For hardware, software or IT-related technology questions, it is recommended you visit www.techblog.org

We strongly suggest you bookmark our web site by clicking here.

Get your business or company listed in the Global Business Listing directory and increase your business. It takes less then 24 hours to get a premium listing in the most powerful business search engine there is. Click here to find out all about it.

Rank for $ales strongly recommends the use of WordTracker to effectively identify all your right industry keywords. Accurate identification of the right keywords and key phrases used in your industry is the first basic step in any serious search engine optimization program. The keywords you think are the best may be totally different than the ones recommended by WordTracker. Click here to start your keyword and key phrase research.

        

You can link to the Rank for Sales web site as much as you like. Read our section on how your company can participate in our reciprocal link exchange program and increase your rankings in all the major search engines such as Google, AltaVista, Yahoo and all the others.