Salesmanship in Print.

So what is advertising? Back in 1904, an unknown copywriter sent a note up to Albert Lasker Thomas, one of the partners in the third-largest advertising agency in the world, Lords, and Thomas. Albert Lasker was only 24 earning a staggering $52,000 a year, an incredible sum at that time.

On that note was a simple message it read. “I am in the saloon downstairs. I can tell you what advertising is. I know you don’t know. It will mean much to me to have you know what it is and it will mean much to you. If you wish to know what advertising is, send the word ’yes’ down by the bell boy.”

It so happens that Albert Lasker has been searching for the answer for several years, so he called him up to his office. In that historical meeting, the unknown copywriter whispered just three basic and simple words that changed the face of advertising forever. “Salesmanship in print.” John E Kennedy then went to work for Lasker and Lord, where they established themselves as the most effective and admired agency in the world.

The very concept of any marketing, advertising, sales letter or brochure, is that it all must sell a product or service. Your marketing and adverts is all about creating attention and desire for your product, it must tell people what to do to get your product or service and show them how to buy, it must ask for the order and close the sale, it must be credible, believable and you must deliver and you must do it all in print.

Use The PSA and AIDA Formulas. These are two simple formulas that are communally used to write any type of marketing. When working on your concept, one of the most powerful and simplest methods to use is the PSA formula; Problem - Agitate and Solve.

Problem - Identify the problem or pain your customer are experiencing or feeling.

Agitate - Use strong emotions to hold their attention, and keep playing on their emotions.

Solve - Give them the solution to there problems.

The other powerful and simple formula to use is the AIDA formula; Attention - Interest - Desire and Action. If you follow these guidelines and apply them to all of your marketing, you will not go wrong, in fact, you will dramatically increase your chances of success.

Attract Attention: The first thing is to GRAB your prospects attention to read your message.

Develop Interest: Your message needs to keep them interested in what you offer, keep them reading.

Stimulate Desire: Covert their interest into a strong desire and yearning for what you offer.

Ask for Action: You need to direct them and show them what to do now! This needs to be easy to do and easily follow, you will need to show them otherwise nothing will happen. You can even use bonuses and offers to persuade them but you must get them to take action.

There are many other formulas and all very similar to each other, such as:

Robert Colliers; Attention, Interest, Description, Persuasion, Proof, and Close.

Victor Schwab’s; Get Attention, Show people the advantage, Prove it, Persuade them, Ask for action.

or Bob Stones;

Promise your most powerful benefits in your heading or first paragraph,

Immediately enlarge on this benefit,

Tell the prospect specifically what they are going to get,

Tell the prospect what they might lose if they don’t act

Rephrase your most prominent benefits in your closing offer

Incite Action Now!

There are all summed up in three simple words: Hook Line And Sinker. The hook is the Headline, the Line is the Copy, the Body, your Message, and the Sinker is the Call to Action.

With all these guidelines you can mix and match but there are all very similar and if you use them your marketing will only benefit from it. The more detailed you make it the more successful it will be.

One Of The Golden Rules of copywriting is, never overestimate the knowledge of your prospects and never underestimate their intelligence. Your ad is your way of communicating with your prospects in an attempt to get them to buy from you. People tend to buy from people who they can trust, so make them trust you. Write so they can understand you on their level and Instead of listing all the features of your product or service, focus on the benefits and the results that your customer will get when they buy or use it. Tell the customer how good it will make them. Tell them how it solves their problems, how it makes their lives easier and better, how they can earn more money, save more time, feel better, look more attractive…whatever that benefit is.

Write in basic layman’s terms, don’t use certain trade, profession, or academic field jargon, it puts prospectors off, write as if you are writing a personal letter to a dear friend, make it personal. The average reading age for most adults in the UK is 10yrs, so write it as to a 10-year-old or younger can read it and you would be sure that most people will be able to read and understand it.

The whole point of this is that your marketing whether it be a letter, an email, brochure, it should all flow and not boring and hard to read. Here are the TEN COMMANDMENTS of copyrighting:

1: Be Very Clear of what you are selling

2: Must be Interesting, Exciting and Engaging

3: Use Emotion -

4: Make it Personal

5: No Technical Jargons, keep it SIMPLE. Write as if to a 10-year-old family member

6: Use lots of Benefits not just features

7: Answer the prospects subconscious questions; “What’s in it for Me?”

8: If making a Claim, Prove It and Never Mislead Anyone

9: Sell, Sell and More Sell, you don’t need to hard-sell but make an irresistible offer that they can’t refuse

10: Always use Deadlines, never use an offer without a deadline of some kind, whether it is a date or a quantity, limited stock, etc.

You Only Have A Few Seconds To Succeed.

For many years now research shows that you only get 8 seconds to grab someone’s attention before they move on to some or somewhere else. You need a hard-hitting and compelling headline to attract their attention. When working on your marketing ALWAYS REMEMBER that No One Cares about your logo, company name and what you do in the form of a list of features.

You need to hit them hard in BIG BOLD PRINT! It must be exciting and compelling, it must be emotional and true, be honest. Don’t claim things that are not true or promise what you can’t deliver. Get them to think, the more it makes them think the longer they are thinking about you,

The point of your heading is not to sell anything just yet, but to focus their attention towards your message. Just like fishing the headline is the bait wiggling on the hook, a nice big fat juice warm, or fly depending on what type of fish you are aiming for, but you know what I mean.

All your headings including your Yellow page adverts or press releases, your brochures and leaflets, your website or web ads, even down to your business cards. This is because your prospects mind will be on other things and you want them to focus their attention on your message, so you need your heading to be so exciting and compelling that they drop everything to focus on your message.

As your heading is the first thing they see, it should immediately catch your prospects attention and offer a clear benefit for reading the rest of your message. Your heading should not be about you or your business name, it should be emotional and irresistible to your reader to stop what they are doing and to read the rest of your message.

Examples of some great attention-grabbing heading ideas...

People love to know what others don’t want you to know, like the insurance industry or bank industry, so you can use; ‘What (the industry you are in) don’t want you to know...’ Then give them some compelling reasons.

Instead of saying, ‘We do websites’, etc, etc.’ Why not use a heading such as; ‘What makes a great website?’ Then list several ways which make a great website. This is much more exciting and interesting.

If you are an accountant, rather than saying we do this, this and this, which is very boring.

Why not use an attention-grabbing headline like; ‘6 Ways to Avoid Paying Taxes legally!”, WOW! That’s a must-read... Obviously, you can’t avoid paying your taxes, nor are you encouraging them to be dishonest, but the heading is defiantly intriguing enough to read more. You can then explain in a legal way to save people money and the best ways to avoid overpaying Taxes, in the correct way of course.

How to master...

Why some foods explode in your stomach!

How I made a fortune with a silly idea.

Learn how a 10-year-old made £10,000 from junk.

Using a specific number tends to apply that you are an expert;

4 Steps to...

12 Golden Rules...

Revealed, 3 biggest ways that are keeping people poor...

5 guaranteed foolproof ways to give yourself a pay rise

Also, use fear or loss to capture their attention;

5 things you should know about...

7 things you should watch out for...

6 things every (the industry you are in) doesn’t what you to know...

3 things the (the industry you are in) don’t want you to find out...

4 ways to save you a small fortune

A small and simple mistake that cost a (someone in your industry) £???,000! Learn how you can avoid...

Watch out for a scam that is costing (your industry) thousands per year...

People also love secrets or insiders information to give them that edge.

5 secrets about...

Experts 10 top tips to...

The Secret of...

You can laugh at money worries - If you follow our simple secret plan

When doctors are ill, this is what they do. (or something similar)

These are all great examples, some are a real example of headings that have been used successfully in the past, others are just to give you an idea of what you could use for your attention-grabbing headings.

THE POINT IS YOU MUST GRAB THEIR ATTENTION, IF YOU DON’T - YOU WILL LOSE BUSINESS!

The Copy. Next, once you have grabbed their attention, the trick is to keep them with you until you are ready for them to buy. So as with your heading, the body must be as interesting as the heading.

It must be exciting and engaging, you must also create a desire for your product.

We are not trying to win awards or trying to pass an exam, we are trying to sell something.

The length of your sales copy will depend on how long you need to convince your prospects to buy from you. There are no rules to the length of your sales copy. The purpose of this is we want to sell something and get our readers to buy, so if that takes one page or 10 plus to achieve our goal, that’s fine.

Any type of copy can not be too long as long as it holds the reader attention, it can only be too boring.

If you have done your market research correctly and your prospects are all interested in what you are selling, then they will want to know all you can tell them about it before they buy. The more you can tell them about the fantastic benefits of your product or service the better, the more they will want it.

An example, what if you had to choose your spouse this way, wouldn’t you want to know absolutely everything you could about them first? If your prospect is not interested, it makes no difference if your letter is long or short, as they won’t read it anyway. Just remember your sales copy and all your marketing is your salesman in print. Keep it clear, honest and personal.

How Personal Is Personal? Building a good rapport with your prospect is paramount, so it makes sense to make your copy personal to them, gain their trust, play on their emotions, show them ‘WIIFM’ - ‘What’s In It For Me’. This is what your reader wants most of all, so give it to them, flaunt the benefits of your product or service to them, build a desire to buy. You need to make them feel comfortable dealing with you, you don’t want to tell them what you sleep in unless you are trying to sell pyjamas or something. But you do need to make them feel that you are a real person who cares for them and can help solve their problems. Building rapport is getting them to feel that you understand their problem and that you sympathise with them.

Once you have achieved this they will be more willing and trusting. You have now begun to establish the most important thing of all, CREDIBILITY! You want your readers to read it emotionally and physically nodding their heads in agreement. If they do, then they are on your side and agree that what you say is true. What your readers are feeling is that they feel that you are with them, you have gained their trust and will take you more seriously. They will believe you in what you have to say about your product or service. But you will need to build on your rapport and trust until you have closed the sale.

Again I must overstrain the point, everything you say must be true and honest. This must be a strong part of the cornerstone of your business, if they believe you are not being true, you will not gain their trust or the sale. Your credibility is so important, try to write as personal as possible, make them feel that you are their dear friend.

Forget Everything You Have Learnt. You may have realised by now that writing marketing copy is completely different from what you have been taught at school about how to write letters.

With copy you must always use simple sentences and keep your paragraphs short, don’t use technical jargon. There should be lots of ‘YOU’s’ and very few ‘I’s and ‘Me’s. Try to use a lot smaller simple one-syllable words than longer and more complicated words in your sentences. Use plenty of headings, chunk each paragraph in easy to read bite-size sections, large paragraphs put people off reading them.

Write it as if you are writing to a child, use KISS, = KEEP IT STUPIDLY SIMPLE.

Most people decide whether they want your product quite quickly, often in the first few paragraphs.

But that is not enough, the real job of your copy is to answer all the question that the reader will have before they buy and to gain their trust with you. By being really specific about whom your product or service is for it will help to eliminate and repel all those unwanted time wasters and window shoppers.

Most creative marketing and advertising agencies will try to sell you on using a lot of white space, eye-catching graphics, and boring heading, but none of this with help your bottom line, only theirs, as they will charge you a small fortune, but they are not the ones who will suffer if it doesn’t work. It might win an award or two and look really pretty in a frame, but the real point of your marketing is to get real results. So test your heading and test all your marketing to see if it works or not, if not change a few things to make it work better.

As the main heading, it is the first thing anyone sees’s it becomes the most important part of your copy.

It needs to be the most stand out part as the purpose of the headline is to hook your reader, stop them in the tracks and to get them to interested enough to read the body of your copy. Why not use a picture? Pictures don’t sell, they just sit there and look pretty, it can certainly help portray your thoughts and ideas but it will not nor can not persuade someone to buy your product as words can. If done correctly a heading should be outrageously compelling than any picture could possibly be, and it’s not even a thousand words. Images can help to add attention and help to portray your message, but will not do the job as well as a great heading will.

The very first paragraph is the next most important part as the first few lines must continue to grab their attention but also must be strong enough, compelling enough and interesting enough for them to want to continue to read the rest of what you want to say. It's so important you want to make it easy for them to start reading the rest of the text by using what is known as a drop-cap with the first letter of your text.

The first section should be slightly bigger and widely spaced out a bit than the remaining ad to get them flowing throw the first few lines.

If you manage to get them to the end of the first few lines, there is a good chance that they could be very interested in what you are telling them. It is from here you can now write in confidence that they are now interested, as confidence sells, you can get right into your copy and sell your wears and not worrying about grabbing their attention.

Narrowing Your Target, this is where you can now concentrate on the sale and continue with the rest of your ad with a smaller text size. If they stop reading here then they are not interested and you don’t need to worry about them anymore, so just focus on your ideal customers who you want to buy from you. As long as your ad it compelling and interesting enough they will continue to read to find the answers to the questions about your product or service.

Your Audience from here on is a real potential customer and they want to hear what you are saying.

So hit them hard with emotions to tell your story and build a relationship with your reader, be as clear and honest as possible and keep it simple with short paragraphs and use lots of WII-FM’s.

This Is A Sub Heading. The use of subheading are an important part of your copy, it helps to breaks up your copy and focus your readers attention on bite size chunks. Having plenty of sections allows the reader to cast their eyes over the page and still get an idea of what you are trying to say. People tend to read the heading first and then with curiosity skip over to the subheadings, any pictures and then the offer before reading the main part of your copy.

Tell Them Why They Need Your Product! No one cares about your product at all, what they do care about though is what your product can do for them (What’s In It For Them).  The product of your product rather than your product itself. Its not the drill you really want, its the hole it makes.

In fact it’s not even the hole, its the feeling you get when you look at the photo of your loved ones hanging on the hook in the wall where you made the hole with the drill. So don’t sell the drill to make a whole, sell the end product, the feelings it will bring if they buy your drill. We buy on EMOTION so sell on EMOTION. Sell the benefits not the features. Features do help the sell as it tells you what it dose or what it has, but benefits shows you what enjoyment and pleasure you will receive from having it.

While you might love what you do and have passion for your business, your customer will not share the same interests, all they want it to know is if your product or service will offer them the same enjoyment and pleasure from it too. Dose it offer time saving? (a features). So they can spend more time with their kids (a benefit). Or, is it healthy? (a features).  It will make them feel and look great on the beach or fit into those jeans they always wanted to get back into (a benefit). See the difference? Which one would you choose? So don’t just list of all they things your product or service can do, instead entice them with what your product or service will do from they if they use it and how they will feel.

SELL THE DREAM NOT THE DRUGS!!! Why do you think drugs are so popular, especially in the sport arena? Its not because they just love taking pills or injecting themselves with needles. They know if they were found out their carrier would be ruined and they could lose everything. So why do people do it? It’s because of the results they would get from taking it. It’s not just the winning its the end results what winning could give them. It’s being the champion, holding that cup, being interviewed and admired by thousands, earning millions from endorsements and advertising deals, living in a big luxury house with no worries. It’s not because they just want or like to cheat in the first place, they take it because of the dream it offers and the life it could give them.

Why You? You need to give them a reason why they should buy from you! Its not enough just to say you have great service or you offer a better service, or just cheaper. You need to show them why you have a better service, make them feel that if they use you, you will make them feel great and appreciated. You must show them why, use testimonials of satisfied customers and why they choose you over your competitors. If you product is unique, tell them that they will be the only ones to have it. Make them want it, make them want you.

Too Much or Just Too Boring. Your copy can be as long as it take for you to get your message across effectively enough for them to want to buy from you. It could be short as one page to dozens of pages if it need it, but it must stay interesting and compelling enough for your reader to continue to read along with you. If it is of interest to your customer it will not feel like it is too long regardless to the amount of pages, just too boring.

Why do you think some books are more successful than others? Its because they have the ability to hold the readers attention, grabbing and moving them seamlessly from word to word, paragraph to paragraph, from page to page. It offers the reader emotion, feelings and suspense keeping the reader glued to the pages wanting to know what is going to happen next. Just as with your copy, you need to glue them to your ad offering them emotion, feelings and suspense, get them wanting what you are offing them. Your copy needs movement. Motion is the opposite to static, static is boring motion is interesting, so keep it moving. In most publications today, most ads you see are mostly static, there are no movement in their design, it is easily overlooked by the reader. These ads are nothing more than an expensive way of showing off your logo and company name. Your ad needs motion, you need to tell a story and you can’t tell that story with a static picture and a few featured words. You need emotion, you need to get your message across effectively other wise it is a waste of time and money.

Show Them How They Need to Respond! Don’t leave anything to chance, you don’t want to spend money and time putting a great looking ad together and getting your readers to want your product only to have them leave because they didn’t know how to respond. It might sound obvious but this happens so too often, businesses leaving money laying on the table because they didn’t tell or show them why or how to order from them. You need to make it clear and simple for them to take action.

If there is no reason for anyone to respond, no offer, or no call to action then they won’t.

Why would anyone want to respond? They won’t and they usually don’t. You need to have one objection, and that’s to get people to respond to your ad, whether it is to buy something or to receive something. You could be giving away something for free but if they don’t know how or its just too difficult to place an order with you, they just wont bother. Your loss!

The who point to all this is for them to give you money, so getting them to take action is ABSOLUTE PARAMOUNT! To get someone to take action and to respond to your ad you need a reason for them to do so, don’t believe for an instant that just because you have a product that people may need or want doesn’t mean they will buy it from you unless you offer them the big WIIFM! You need to make them an irresistible offer that they just can’t say no to. It needs to be generous, outrages and risk free.

How to Tip Your Customers Over The Edge And Get Them Begging For Your Product!

The secret of making an offer irresistible lies in putting together an outrages irresistible offer that they just can’t refuse, you will need to make the offer strong enough for them to give you money for it. Where there are so much competition you may need to give multiple reasons.

However in many cases most businesses don’t even make any offers and if they did it’s usually on price alone. In today economy people look for higher value and better quality much more than just on price. Yes, people like bargains as long as it does not effect the quality and service. People are much less price driven than ever before, they are more value and quality driven and in most cases are prepared to pay for it if you give them a good enough reason to do so.

12 Guaranteed Reasons Why They Will Buy From You:

1. Price
2. Create High Value ...
3. Reverse All The Risk From Your Customer
4. Offer An Absolute Iron-Clad Guarantee
5. Price Inducement or Discount
6. Offer an Unrefusable Offer
7. Free Gifts
8. Give Them A Premium
9. Have A Limited Quantity or Time Deadline
10. Show Them What Exactly They Will Get
11. Show Them Exactly How To Place The Offer
12. Make It Really Simple And Easy
13. Price. This is a very powerful marketing tool, but the problem with the price, it is also a double edge sword.

If it's not enough people will think it's cheap, and you could go out of business as you may not making any money. Or if it is too much then people think you are too expensive and still not buy from you, and you still go out of business due to lack of business. Either way with both options you go get it wrong and go out of business. Pricing is one of the most frightening aspects of running a business, getting this right is the key to survival, getting this wrong, well...

The first and most important thing is to get your price right and to find out how much you should charge. This is done when you have worked out your costs and expenses. Then you need to speak to your experts on what is acceptable to charge. Who are your experts? Your market, of course, you can have full access to the most important experts to your business if only you ask. So do your market research.

Where most businesses get it wrong is they follow the herd, and place their price next to their competitors, either slightly higher or lower. Forget your competitors’ price, it has no relevance to your pricing structure. Just remember your competitors don’t have your costs and expenses so their price may not work for you. If your product or service is going to cost more than what your competitors charge if all comes down to your market research and your marketing. But what if your product or service is of equal quality to your competitor’s product? The answer is very simple, Increase the value of your product.

Creating High Value. As you are more expensive you have the advantage, to your audience, you look to be more of higher value due to your higher price, so now you need to offer ways to become higher value so they won't be disappointed. Offering value could come in many forms, but it must be of value to your customers and not going to cost you too much so you can still make a profit. It could be a cheaper product added to your offer, or you could add another service that would appeal to them, or one of the better and cheaper options of offering good value is to offer free advice or free insiders information. This would cost you very little to create and produce but could add serious value to your product. Your customer will value you if you offer them expert knowledge and advice, tips and ideas and in turn make their buying experience much more pleasurable.

Giving out something for free before the sale with no pressure or obligation to complete the sale will build a solid relationship with prospects that will also build trust and loyalty. This is a great way to build respect within your prospect list. It offers high value to your customers and they will most likely order from you when they need you. You need to take responsibility to start a relationship with your customers. However you don’t want to give away too much, just make sure that you are giving away something of very high perceived value to your prospects. Give them something of value and is worth to them as much as the product you are selling to them.

Reverse All The Risk From Your Customer. It’s very common for companies to DOUBLE or even TRIPLE their sales once they start using ‘Risk Reversal’ in their marketing!

Most people like you and I always think why should I give you my hard-earned cash to a business that I have never used before, they may not perform as promised (an uncertainty). In most cases with most transactions, the customer takes all the risk. Why not reverse it so that they have no reason not to trust you and give you their money.

Your customer will make the decision of whether or not to buy from you based on two factors:

The degree to which they believe that your product or service can or will solve their problem (and they will be better off for having used you) or,

The level of risk (monetary, likelihood of getting a result, ease of use, level of satisfaction, etc.) associated with the buying process of buying your product.

If you can reduce or even eliminate any risk to them in doing business with you, then converting your prospect into a buyer is exponentially easier! Experience and studies have proven time and time again that reducing or eliminating your client's risk WILL increase your sales significantly above and beyond any payout you might experience in refunds.

Most people are not out to put rip business owners off … they just want a fair and honest deal from businesses that they can trust. Try it out by taking a small sample of your prospects and test it with a guarantee and see how it goes.

So how do we reverse the risk? Simply offer a Guarantee.

The key to remember is that, though risk reversal can sound a little intimidating, experience and studies have shown time and time again that reducing or eliminating your client's risk WILL increase your sales significantly above and beyond any payout you might experience in refunds.

Offer An Absolute Iron-Clad Guarantee. Guarantees are a great way to overcome resistance and mistrust. If you are going to ask your customers to trust you with their money you must also give them a solid reason why they should. Today we need to stand out from all the bogus offers and false claims, if we offer a good product and service we need to PROVE IT and the best ever way to prove it is to offer a guarantee to your customers so they can trust and believe you.

There’re a few types of Guarantee you could offer.

Satisfaction Guarantee is where only if they are not completely satisfied with their purchase, you will give them their money back. This could involve them having to prove that they are not completely satisfied by sending it back to you or if they can prove it did not work or unsatisfied result.

Full Money Back Guarantee is much more compelling than just a Satisfaction Guarantee it strengthens your guarantee regardless whether or not that they are completely satisfied or not.

When compared to your competitors – the better your guarantee the more you will dominate your market and make your competition completely irrelevant!

My favor is the Better Than Money Back Guarantee. This simply states that if you’re not completely satisfied with your purchase, not only will you get your money back – you’ll also be able to keep a bonus incentive just for trying it out. You must have seen this approach in infomercials, so why do you think they make these types of offers?  Because they really do work.

Emotional Guarantee.  This works when it might not be practical to guarantee results with a money-back guarantee (like in the case of a medical professional, consultant, real estate agent, accountant or lawyer for example). In this case, you may want to consider giving them “results in advance” – such as a free initial assessment or free service audit.

The whole point of the emotional guarantee is to reduce their fear of doing business with you and increase their confidence in you … making it easier for them to say “yes” when it comes time to pull out their wallets.

Any increase in sales largely compensates for any customer that does take advantage of the guarantee (disclaimer: your product DOES have to work; otherwise, everyone is going to return it!)

You could offer any sort of free gift, special report, information, etc.  Creativity wins this game.

Price Inducement or Discount. As we often suffer from a fear of being priced too high, and therefore losing a sale, we end up resorting to reducing our prices. Most small businesses don’t fully understand that reducing the prices is a specific marketing tactic and should be used correctly, as there are a correct time and place to use sales and discounts. The best way to offer any type of discount is to limit it as a special offer. Don’t just discount or reduce your price unless you have a very good reason too, as it will be extremely hard to increase them again once you have. So the way to get around that its to have specific reasons why you are having an offer and be very clear about it too.

When used correctly discounts are a great way to increase sales for short periods or to increase sales on specific items or even on quiet periods when sales are slow. It’s also the way you do it too that counts, so don’t just cut prices, use marketing tools like a voucher that makes it more official and visually displaying a limited offer so they know the price reduction is temporary and will increase back up after a certain time limit, after the offer as finished. This way there is no shock of a price increase, you can keep the offer running as long or as short as you like, thus allowing you to keep your price higher value (RRP) but can always offer the discounted price to all your favorite and better customers when and wherever you choose to.

When it comes to launching a product or offer you can use this to your advantage, you can then see your customers reaction when the offer end and the price increase, if you get a negative response you can bring always bring back the offer as and when you need to. Remember you can always discount a higher price, but you are stuck if your price is already too low.

Reducing the price is often one of the most popular ways to launch a new product or service, as everyone ‘Loves A Bargain’ it also gives the customer an opportunity to try it without the full risk of paying full price.

Many companies use discounts very effectively and produce great results, but do it in the correct manner. Using some kind of voucher offer to discount give an official feel, and people will respond better knowing the offer is limited.

Offer An Unrefusable Offer. There are basically two types of offers, a ‘Direct Purchase’ offer, and a ‘Lead-Generating’ offer. A ‘Direct Purchase’ offer is simply an offer to entice the reader to respond and buy from you from the ad or copy there and then, by sending in or placing the order directly. Whereas a ‘Lead-Generating’ offer is when you are looking for potentially interested customers who are not obligated to spend any money at this time but to collect their details to follow up with a more personal sales campaign. This tends to work well with higher-priced items or services, so it gives you the ability to go deep into benefits and become more personal with your copy. This also is a great way to promote trust and build a relationship with them before they even buy from you.

But either way, the offer must be outrageously unrefusable, don’t forget that the whole point of running your business is to get sales, there’s no point wasting your time, so SELL!

Hesitation and procrastination are the two most common reasons why they won’t buy from you right now, so you need to give then a very good reason to respond now, so offer an offer that they will not nor can not refuse. Make it more than it’s worth to them, give them not only what they want but a lot more of it too, the bigger and outrageous your offer is, the better your sells will become, so think BIG!

Its just human nature, people are most likely to buy from an offer than any other time in the whole buying process. An offer must always be accompanied with a quantity or time limit deadline to promote a seance of urgency, as people are motivated by the threat of losing out.

Free Gifts. First of all, your gift should be of high value, quality and standard to your customer, but should cost you very little whether or not you buy or produce it yourself, it should be worth a great deal more to your market who really wants it. (See Create High Value).

Everyone ‘Loves Free Gifts’, especially when if it is worth a great deal more than what you are asking for it, ‘FREE’, so why not use it to your advantage. While most businesses are trying to cut their costs and reducing their spend, in-turn reducing their value. You, on the other hand, should add value to your product or service, as your customers will judge your price based on the value they receive – not by what they spend. Simply adding more to the value will not only increase the perceived value of the product or service but will also help you to increase your price without seeming too expensive.

So think about what add-ons could you include to increase your product or service’s value without costing you too much? It could even be in a form of collecting stamps over time, each time your customer purchase something, or visits, or has a service provided, you could offer them an upgrade, or a free pass, a free gift or something of great value to them, but make it worthwhile.

Give Them A Premium If you are unsure of what people will pay for your product or service, why not offer them the choice, between a low budget and higher-priced options. This is very popular amongst service type businesses, where you can offer a very basic no-frills service for a cost-effective price, right up to a full-on total deluxe version, with all the trimmings for a much higher premium price option.

People like choices, they don’t always like just one option, not everyone is the same and they don’t all like the same things. Some people love to pay a higher price believing they will get a much higher service, and quite often do. This will give you more room to maneuver with your pricing, it will also open more doors to the lower end right up to the higher end of the market.

Package and bundle your products together and offer a special if they brought them all together, it could be a product tied in with a service, or just a bunch of services or products together. This offers great value and in most cases uniqueness, Think of a simple pint of milk, you can get milk in dozens of places for a very, very cheap price, so why would anyone what to pay a premium for it? But thousands of people do!

It’s because they want it on their doorstep early in the morning ready for the day rain or shine. They pay a premium for a cheap product but tied up with a unique service they can’t get anywhere else.

People don’t just buy on price alone, they want value, good value, so give them what they want, increase your perceived value. But remember when working on your higher-end the premium product or service you will need to offer outstanding ultra-high-end value.

Have A Limited Quantity or Time Deadline Why? Because they work! Plain and simple.

You see it all over on many promotions and offers. So why doesn’t everyone do it? I have no idea. It is a vital component of any offer. Why does it work? It portrays a sense of urgency to act,

Good intentions don’t pay the bills. What do I mean? Well, we live in a very busy world, we quite often have no time to stop and think anymore. Even if we plan on doing something for sure, for many reasons for one reason or another sometimes we don’t always do it, we may forget or just too busy as many things may get in our way, family, work, paperwork, you name it. At the same time, we are constantly being bombarded with messages each and every day to buy many other things too.

Lots of other things may have happened so the impact of our message and offer is forgotten, so it’s not too difficult to understand why many of our potential customers don’t buy from us straight away. So we need to change that. Having a sense of urgency helps to prevent that happening as it promotes the importance of acting straight away.

People hate missing out, the fear of loss and not being apart of something special. So let them know what they will lose and why it is so important that they order now. It could be that you only have a limited stock, and once they are gone, they are gone for good. Or It’s exclusively limited to just a few special customers, are you one of them? Or even, a time-limited offer that ends at 2 pm this Thursday 01/01/01 (don’t forget to put the full date).

Having a wicked Limited Quantity or Time Deadline is PARAMOUNT to the success of your business.

Show Them What Exactly They Will Get This might also sound obvious but it is amazing how many businesses fail to do so correctly. It is paramount that show them exactly what they going to get from you, no secrets or surprise. Whether it comes with payable options, tell them, don’t be afraid, they need to know. If you don’t it could backfire and they won't trust you again. An example is, if you brought some outdated ex-catalog stock or even damage stock tell them, don’t pretend it is the latest fashion brand new items. If you offer a low price option tell them why it is low priced, give them a reason to trust you. Trust goes a very long way.

Also, it will help to sell your product and services, it amazes me that so many businesses or even their sales assistance or even their sales reps, don’t even know how to sell. If I’m buying something and want some help and advice to help make a decision, quite often I find that the sales assistance or even their sales reps put me off from buying it because they don’t listen to the customer or understand the customers buying process. If they did, they would sell each and every time.

Find out what exactly the customer wants from your product or service, then tell and even show them exactly what they want from your product or service. You won't know until you stop and listen to your customer first. Tell them all the benefits that your product or service will give or do for them.

If you are giving away any offers, let them know what they are and how they too will benefit them with their own benefits, yes more benefits. Remember people always love to hear ‘WIIFM’.

Show Them Exactly How To Place The Offer When it comes to placing an order don’t leave it to chance that they want it and will find you first, that just does not happen hardly ever. If they find it a little difficulty they will go somewhere else. We all do it, get frustrated trying to place an order and get feed up and end up going elsewhere. So don’t let that happen to you. People don’t like not knowing what to do.

What To Do Next! Tell them what to do or what to do next and how to do it, give them clear instructions, even show them. People are so busy nowadays they don’t really want to spend much time figuring out how to go about placing an order, they just want you to quickly show them so they can carry on with their day.  Let say you are working on your website, Instead of using the standard ‘Buy Now’ button, why not use the ‘Click Here to Buy Now’ Button. It might should a little too obvious but believe it or not you will find that you will get a much better response with the latter, just because you were much more clear about your instructions.

If you need them to send anything into you so you can work on their order tell them up-front so they know they need to prepare it. If you only take credit cards make it clear and show them how to order from you, whether it is over the phone, on your website or in person. Tell them how long it will take before they receive their item. Give then an order form, an envelope if needed, highlight where they need to sign. SHOW and TELL them, don’t leave it to chance, your income depends on it.

Anxiety shoots up when asked to do something while unsure of doing it correctly. This feeling of anxiety will lose your business if they are unsure of what to do when placing an order. Put the heading ‘What to Do Next!’ Above your instructions. Also tell them what to expect, by putting the heading ‘What To Expect when...!’ Letting them know in advance what they expect from you once they have placed the order.

Make It Really Simple And Easy  Look at Amazon, they have a ONE CLICK option, where if you want to purchase an item, (once you have signed up for this service), it allows you to order it with just one ‘Click’ of the mouse, done, its on its way, no fluffing around through shopping carts and security and payment methods and typing numbers etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, and so on, get my drift. MAKE IT EASY!

Many orders are lost because of the lack of easiness and confusion of placing an order. Ordering a product or service should be a very simple and easy thing to do, as that’s the whole point of the business offering the product or service in the first place, so why confuse people or make it difficult to order?

Make sure you have an easy way of paying, if in doubt why not use PayPal or something similar on your website, that way anyone can easily pay any time of the day without you even being there. If possible give then a few options to pay. If you do not have a shop of some kind, go to them, deliver and pick up the cash in person if that makes it easier for them to buy from you.

If they have a question before they buy, make sure you are easily assessable somehow, either via email, instant chat, or a phone number, that way they will also feel that they will be well looked after once you have taken their money. Just remember how frustrating it is when you try to call a business and takes you forever to local a number to call.

If they need to post something back to you, ALWAYS include a PAID STAMPED ADDRESS ENVELOPE for them to send back to you, nothing is worse to find out that you need to hunt for an envelope and then visit the Post office for a stamp. They just won’t be bothered.

Don’t make them jump throw hops to buy from you, do as Amazon do, make it so easy and simple that they really enjoy the experience of buying from you, so not only will they come back time and time again, but will recommend you to their friends and family. Think of ways that you can make your customers buying experience much more simpler and pleasurable.

And Finally, It doesn’t end there. There is so much more but as copyrighting your ad or letter goes, that should help you to get started and you should defiantly see some big rewards if you implement everything you read here in your marketing ad/copy.

Just remember to send out your order and deliver on time, and not forgetting to add your free gifts, and ALWAYS, ALWAYS, follow up and make sure they are happy with there buying experience with you.

If you have a guarantee or a warrantee always follow up a few days later, don’t send it with the order. That way you have the perfect reason to follow up, you could also discreetly add in some extra offers for other product or services you offer or even ask them if they want to upgrade (up sale) to the premium packages that you offer. But be sure to follow up and keep-in-touch regularly. Don’t forget them, as they WILL forget you if you don’t keep you or your business in their minds regularly. It’s not their responsibility to remember you, but it is your responsibility to remind them of you.

Give them a reason to be happy buying from you, offer an OUTSTANDING OUTRAGEOUS SERVICE, so they don’t forget about you. Always ask, in fact always tell them you expect referrals as long as you deliver your promises, you will expect them to refer others to you, it’s the only fare, after all, if they love what you do for them, why wouldn’t they not want to recommend you to their friends and family.

MJ © Copyright 2016 Marketing Madness