Get That Foot in the Door

Once you have your foot in the door, you can start selling.  No foot, no sale.
Those are the words of a great 20th century expert on communicating.  And he was right.
When I was a child it was quite common for door-to-door salesmen (usually they were men) to arrive at the door.  They could be selling encyclopedias, vacuum cleaners, cleaning products, burglar alarms … usually something that needed demonstrating.  Once the salesman had his foot in the door, it was virtually impossible to get rid of him.
How we hated it!  But the salesman knew his commission depended on his getting in the house.  He really didn’t care whether we liked it or not!  All he cared about was making a sale.   And more often than not, the householder ended up buying, if only because it was the only way to get rid of him.
Victor Kiam the boss of Remington was known as a super salesman.  He tells how as a youngster learning the trade he was told to present his product to an audience likely to be bored.  He got hold of a live monkey and kept it hidden in a velvet cage which he took into the room with him.  Once in, he let the monkey out and allowed it to run loose among the audience.
Of course, they all collapsed – some with laughter, some in panic.  Victor simply shouted his message “Buy Pepsodent!,” scooped up his monkey and left the room.
When you’re writing your sales message as a copywriter, just remember ONE thing.  The people reading DO NOT WANT to be sold anything.  They MAY want the benefits of what you have to sell them, but they don’t know this yet.
You have a split second to get their attention.  If you don’t get it, they will bin your sales letter, or surf away with the click of a mouse.  Quick!  Stop them!  Get your foot in the door!
How?
I mentioned that the prospects have no desire to hear what you have to say.  But they DO have desires and needs, which you are using your product to tap into.  (If your product DOESN’T tap into people’s needs and desires, why are you wasting your time trying to sell it?)
Top of the list of most people’s needs and desires are:

To get your foot in the door as a copywriter, you have to make it instantly clear in your headline that what you are offering satisfies one or more of these desires.   I say “in your headline”, because that’s what the headline’s for.  If it doesn’t make this clear, people won’t read any further.  So you’ll never get to demonstrate your product.                   
A dating coach site had a headline that started off:
     “Ssshhh!  My girlfriends would kill me if they knew I was about to reveal…”
This aroused great curiosity in people who were already looking for ways of attracting the opposite sex!
One famous salesletter for a financial institution had a new penny pasted to it.  The headline read
    “It is a Marvelous thing – the power of money to make money.
    This little penny saved since the beginning of the …. Association would today be worth $75.
     That is the way money grows.”
This letter aroused an amazing amount of attention.  That really was the foot in the door.
You get the picture.  If your headline doesn’t grab people’s attention in the first split second, the rest of your message is a waste of time.
Remember – no foot, no sale.

Get Inside Your Reader’s Mind

Have you ever read an article and felt a powerful contact with the writer?  Just as if that person REALLY understood you and was speaking right to you?
It doesn’t often happen with an article.  Even less often with a sales letter.  But when it does, you find yourself pulling out your credit card.
If you can write your copy from a perspective where you can see it from the point of view of the reader, you have an advantage over 99 percent of people who write copy.  If you empathize with your reader, your copy should be head and shoulders above that of anyone who doesn’t.
Get inside your readers’ minds.  Why do you think they are at your site?  Do you think it’s because they want to hear what you have to say?  Or because they are keen for you to sell them something?  I don’t think so.
They are there because they have a desire.  Or a problem that needs solving.
Suppose you are selling a healthy diet product.  Your visitor may know with her mind that she NEEDS a healthy diet.  But preaching at her about the beneficial effects of a healthy diet on heart, blood pressure etc. will leave her cold.
She may be searching because her deep desire is to attract people with her beautiful body.  Or she may have a daydream about reclining on an exotic beach in a bikini and drawing admiring or envious looks  Or just be desperate to improve her self-image.   She may never even have spoken to anyone about these desires and dreams.  But if she reads your copy and sees that you know where she’s coming from, your product is as good as sold.
How are relationships formed?  When you meet someone and feel the two of  you have an instant rapport, why does it happen?
Very often it’s because you understand each other, or realize you have something in common.   It may be a problem or difficulty.  You may find you’ve both been through a broken relationship, or both have a difficult teenage kid, or both have serious hip pain.  Whatever it is, you find for the first time that someone understands where you’re coming from.  You can talk about it for the first time and know that someone’s listening.  The bond that forms is often the strongest type of bond.
When you can show your customer that you really understand, that you have been there, that you appreciate and grasp the problem, you have an instant bond even if the two of you have never met.
And once your customers are convinced that you genuinely understand the problem, you can easily and gently lead them to the solution.
But remember – this is about being REAL, not about faking or using clever words.
If you personally haven’t been through that problem, then find somebody who HAS and use that person’s story.  But don’t invent it – it won’t work.
Learn to write from the heart and get through to your reader, and you have learnt the most valuable lesson in copywriting.



Seven steps to Preselling your Product
You need to buy a new car.  There are two car showrooms in your neighborhood, so you go along to showroom A.
The moment you appear in the forecourt, an eager assistant darts out, grabs you by the lapel and proceeds to apply the hard sell.  All you can think of is escaping before you are forced to sign anything.
You then go along to showroom B.  A pleasant staff member greets you and invites you to sit down.  He talks through with you your interests, aspirations and requirements.  He then discusses the pros and cons of different cars that might meet your needs, and lets you wander round and look at different models.
Which showroom are you more likely to buy from?  Salesman B knows that at this stage it’s information you are looking for.  The last thing you want is to be pushed into buying something before you are ready.
Almost every new web marketer makes the mistake of jumping straight into “selling” the product.  You take your visitors straight to a sales page and wonder why you aren’t making any sales.  Those who learn to PREsell find an immediate jump in their sales figures.
Why?  Because visitors to your site aren’t looking to be sold something.  They are looking for information.  So give it to them.   Make them welcome and let them relax and browse.
The lesson is: write to PRESELL, not to sell.
  1.  Check what your visitors see when they first arrive at your site.  Make sure it has a clean, simple look, with an easy-to-read font and easy navigation from one page to another.  Make your visitors feel that the site is for THEM and you really want them there.
  2. This step is really important.  Build a picture in your mind of your target customer.  WRITE DOWN the description: male or female? What age group? What socio-economic group?  What sort of occupation?  What sort of family? What sort of interests?   The more detailed you make it, the more vivid your picture of the customer will be.  Then keep this person in your mind as you write your copy.  Address it to them as if they were standing in front of you.  Gauge their reaction.  Are you getting through to them?  Do they like what you’re saying – if not, change it!
  3. Use a simple and direct style.  This has been said so often.  Yet copywriters still seem to think that obscure words and long involved sentences are more impressive.  Maybe they are!  It’s just that people won’t read them! Just keep remembering how easy it is for the visitor to click the back button and return to the search page.  If you bore them, they certainly will.
  4. Provide information.   Your visitor has come here for information.  So provide it.  Your aim is to show that you know about your subject.  The more information you provide, the more the visitor will come to respect your expertise, and the more CONFIDENCE you will build up.
  5. Show your PASSION.  If you have a passion for what you’re writing about, let it show through.  Your delight and enthusiasm will make you a real person as nothing else will.  It has been said “Passion is the best pre-seller”.  It creates a bond straightaway between you and your customer.
  6. Over-deliver.   Your customer is looking for information so over-deliver it.  Don’t just provide facts and figures.  Show that you care about their best interests.  Think what their needs are and meet them, over and above what they expect.  Think what their dreams, desires and aspirations are and fulfill them.  Remember people are driven by emotion not logic.  Tap into their emotions.  Think of why you bought your house.  It’s more likely to be because you fell in love with it, than because of its list of features.  Make them fall in love with the idea you are putting across to them.
  7. Be honest.  If you aren’t, none of steps 1-6 will be any use.  Present both sides of a product or service.  Lyrical blah-blah just washes over people.  They know that no product or service is perfect so they will respect you for pointing out the imperfections.  All they want to know is, that the benefits TO THEM outweigh the downside.  This way, your recommendation will carry so much more weight.

If you have done all this right, your visitors will:

They will feel you have their best interests at heart, and will believe you when you recommend a product to them.  You won’t have to apply the hard sell.
If you presell successfully, your sales will take care of themselves.


                                                        

 Five Steps to Hypnotizing your Readers!

The whole point of copywriting is to GET YOUR READERS TO DO WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO DO. Right?
    You want them to download something.  So they download it. You want them to buy something.  So they buy it.  You want them to subscribe to something.  So they subscribe to it.
    So how do you, the copywriter, get people to do what you want them to do?  You hypnotize them!  We all know about stage hypnotists – how they get people to do whatever they say.  They do this by using their powers to bypass the subject’s conscious mind and make direct contact with their subconscious.
    In the same way you the copywriter can use the power of words to bypass people’s conscious minds.  This means bypassing all their inhibitions and all their logic, which might tell them that they don’t really NEED the product, or they should put the money in a savings account!  It gets straight to their subconscious, where their desires and emotions live.  Now you work on these to get them to TAKE THE ACTION YOU WANT THEM TO TAKE.
  1. Get your readers to relax.  Suggest your readers do something relaxing: turn on some soothing music; close their eyes for a few moments; take a few deep breaths.  The more relaxed they are, the more receptive they’ll be.
  2. Put your prospects in a trance.  By a trance I mean being so powerfully focussed on a feeling, thought, idea or emotion that they become oblivious to any distraction.  I’m sure you have had the experience of being so engrossed in a book or TV program that someone else in the room can speak to you several times and you don’t even hear them.  That’s a trance.  Well, in copywriting,  you can put your prospects in a trance by using a compelling headline or visual.   For instance, if you are selling an e-book on eliminating credit-card debts, you can start off: “Imagine a life without living paycheck to paycheck!”  Then ensure every word, every phrase, every sentence is powerful enough to make them continue to focus on your offer.
  3. Trigger your prospects’ imagination.  Imagination can be so powerful that it can influence your conscious mind to take action.  For example, if you imagine what you are going to have for dinner, it can make your mouth salivate and your stomach rumble – it can even make you smell and taste it!  Eventually you have you go and get it!  That’s how powerful imagination is.  So in copywriting appeal to smell, touch, sound and vision.   For instance: Your dazzling new Lexus - delivered to your door.  Your neighbors will view it standing in your driveway in all its shining glory.  Get inside and smell that new car smell – can’t you just smell it now?  Feel the luxury as you sink into the cushiony seats – start the engine and hear that quiet luxurious purr…” Appeal to your readers’ senses to keep them in a trance.  Use the power of words to get them to imagine whatever you want them to imagine.  “Sit back, close your eyes, imagine you are on a luxury cruise in the Pacific…hear the gentle waves lapping the sides of the boat… the breeze rustling the palm trees on the distant shore…”  It takes practice, but if you as a copywriter can learn to write like this you will find it is very powerful in influencing your readers.
  4. Tell your readers what they are feeling. For example, “As you continue to read this letter, you feel your problems slowly disappearing…”  “As you start reading this article, you find yourself becoming filled with excitement as you begin to see what our product can do for you…” This is a powerful copywriting concept!  If you have successfully followed the earlier steps and accessed your readers’ subconscious minds, they will feel what you tell them they are feeling!
  5. Combine a command with an assumption (which is what real-life hypnotists do).  In your copywriting, instead of saying “This product gets results”, say, “The further and further you read into this web site, the more you will realize the life-changing effects of this product.”   Instead of saying, “Buy this product now!”, say “By the end of this letter, you will have no doubt that investing in this product will be the best decision you ever made.” 

 So by hypnotic copywriting you use the power of words to plant mental images in your readers’ mind, and thus create the state of mind YOU want them to have. 

There is nothing unethical about this.  It is simply taking your skill in using the power of words to its ultimate stage – persuading your readers to do what you want them to do.  This is what copywriting is all about!