Whats Wrong With Your Sales? Teach Yourself Copywriting With These Jaw Dropping Ad Copy Secrets
Here’s a really simple way… to turbo charge your ad copy production.
This is one is the major things that a majority of internet and affiliate marketing from all ranks are missing today. Copy writing skill and sales page writing skill.
But it is fixable… Here is how to Teach Yourself Copywriting With These Jaw Dropping Ad Copy Secrets!
1. Use a hand written letter on your ad copy instead of text. Write the ad on a piece of paper, scan it and publish the ad on your web page. Adding a personal touch will always increase your sales.
2. Publish a list of famous and respected customers who have bought from you on your a copy. People will think that if these people bought from you, they should also trust your business and purchase your products. Make sure to get their permission first.
3. Show before and after photos for your products on your web page copy. Show the problem picture and then beside it, show the picture of the resolution to the problem when they use your product.
4. Include an article or review that has been written about you or your business with your ad copy. This will show people that your business is respected and will increase your credibility.
5. When you offer free bonuses in your ad copy, also list the dollar value beside each bonus. People will feel they’re getting a good deal and it will increase the value of your product.
6. Hire a famous person to endorse your product or service. Make sure the person is well known to your target audience. Include their picture and statements on your ad copy.
7. Include your own picture on your ad copy. This will show people that you’re not hiding behind your ad copy and will increase their trust. Also, include your contact information below the picture and a brief statement or quote.
8. Lead your readers to the conclusion you want; that is to say, Yes to your offer, by asking them several yes and no questions in your ad copy that have affirmative answers. Have the questions be based on the main offer and focus on what will happen if they do not buy. But don’t set a negative tone by having them reply No. Or by the time they’re through reading, they might say, No to you!
9. Tie in a percentage of your sales with one of your favorite charities. And make mention of this in your ad copy. This is a win-win strategy because your company gives back to society plus your clients read about it; it improves your image in their eyes and shares your concerns. And they give, too. Everyone helps each other.
10. Include a good, solid guarantee in your offer. For examples, look at the last thing you purchased and check out the guarantee. In a nutshell, make it a lifetime offer and/or give them back MORE than they gave you.
11. Since most people look for this feature, add it! Say something in your P.S. - like give them a Bonus offer if they reply by a certain deadline. Or focus on your best reason why the reader should buy -and NOW.
12. Tell your potential customers on your ad copy that you will donate a percentage of their purchase price to specific charity. This will show them you really care about the people. They may just buy your product to donate to the charity.
13. Ask your potential customers plenty of yes and no questions in your ad copy. The questions should remind them of their problem and make them think about what will happen if they don’t purchase your product.
14. Tell your potential customers they will receive a free prize if they find the five words in your ad copy that are misspelled or spelled backwards. The longer you can keep someone reading your copy the greater chance of them purchasing.
15. You could ask your reader questions through out the ad copy. They will answer the questions in their own head as they read your ad copy. The questions you ask should persuade the reader into buying.
16. You could highlight keywords through out your ad copy. The keywords should be attractive to your target audience. You could highlight them with color, underlines, italics, etc.
17. You could bullet or indent your benefits on your ad copy. Must people won’t read a whole ad copy, so make your products benefits standout and you won’t lose the sales from all the skimmers.
18. You could change the size of your text on your ad copy. You want to make your text large enough so it’s not hard to read. You also want your headline and major points to be larger so they will standout.
19. You could raise or lower the price on your ad copy. A higher price could increase the perceived value of your product and a lower price could lesson your product’s value.
20. You could add proof of results on your ad copy. You should include testimonials, endorsements, and factual statistics to prove your product’s claims.
Now you have just learned a lot… with Teach Yourself Copywriting ad secrets? It’s time for you to take some action…
Steven Gwillim is an copy writing expert and he able to provide you with…
A $30 discount for Underground Sales Letters from the link here: http://www.ewenchiaautopilotprofits.com/usl/
It’s truly dangerous stuff!
The Top 3 Things You Need To Have In your Headline
When you’re writing a sales letter or creating a landing page for your site, one vital thing you definitely need to have is an extremely good headline. What a good headline does is to help capture the attention of your visitors, increase the length of customer visits, improve your website conversion rate, increase the number of your subscribers and more.
In a powerful headline, as in copywriting strategies, you need to tap into your customer’s emotions. In order to do this your headline must have a huge impact on your visitors.
Thus, the top 3 things you need to have in your headline are:
1. Make It Credible
Ask yourself if your headline is credible. Consider a headline like this: “Lose 10 Pounds In Two Days! Normally only a small amount of people will believe that headline if it comes with a good body copy. However, do you think a majority of people will bother to read the body copy with that kind of headline? As you can see, credibility matters on whether the headline makes sense to the reader.
2. Does It Invoke Curiosity?
Your headline has to make your visitors curious about what you have to offer. The more curious your headline is, the more your visitors want to know what product it is and how much impact it can have on their lives.
Curiosity makes your readers head on over to your sales letter, where they can read and feast their eyes and minds on the product and its benefits.
3. Is It Benefit-Driven?
Your customers want you to answer this very important question, which is ‘What’s In It For me?’ This is the first and foremost question you have to answer before you fill up their head with even more benefits that can make them excited and whip out their credit card to get your product.
Customers want to know how the product can improve their way of life. People normally get sensitive when they have to impart with their money, so they want to know what the product can do for them in exchange for their money and if the product is worth to buy.
These top three strategies for your headlines can help play a huge part in giving your customers a good first impression of your product. This is what your customers need as an assurance that your product is not a sham and that it is something authentic.
Jo Han Mok is the author of the #1 international business bestseller, The E-Code. Unlock the code for unlimited online profits for yourself by visiting his website today at: http://www.SuperFastProfit.com
Ghostwrite For Money Online
One way to write for money online that is highly in demand is to write articles for webmasters. This is one that does not require any special writing skills. If you can write an article like this one you can be successful in this business. Just create a small sales page or announce your service in outsource programs. All you need to do once you receive the order is do a little research on the topic and write an article similar to this one on the subject. You can make anywhere from five dollars to fifty dollars per article doing this.
If you are an experienced ghostwriter you can make money by writing books. If this is your specialty there are many outsource programs out there that you can sign up for and bid on projects. If you win the bid you complete the project and the person will pay you through pay pal or another trusted payment method. The money paid for this type of project will vary but usually proves to be extremely profitable.
One of the best ways to get started is to create a small sales page and advertise on pay per click advertising programs like google adwords. With this type of advertising you create an ad and when someone is searching for a ghostwriter your ad will pop up on the sponsored search area. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad and you control how much you pay per click. If your ad is written well and it gets a lot of click compared to the number of times it shows up you will pay less than what you bid. You can pay as little as fifteen cents per click and have a very successful campaign.
If you prefer another method of advertising your ghostwriter business you have other options. You can join forums that relate to ghostwriters and put your link in the signature block. This way every post you make is a free advertisement for your service. You can start off with one or two good customers and if you do a good job they will refer your ghostwriter service to their friends.
When it comes down to it there are many ways to be successful being a ghostwriter. Taking action is the key, remember you do not have to be experienced or have a special talent in writing in order to profit from this. Create a plan, do a little research and stick with it.
Joshua Spaulding is an author and webmaster of http://ez-onlinemoney.com where he gives free training on how to Make Money Online. Joshua also owns a Quality Article Directory at http://www.articlesarea.com
Copywriting Training: The Fundamentals You Need To Understand When Writing Copy
When you are trying to learn how to write an effective sales letter in any copywriting training course, you need to first recognize and understand the basics. The basics are crucial in order for the sales letter to flow nicely. I will briefly elaborate on them.
1. The Qualifier
A qualifier is a term to let the reader know to whom this sales letter is intended to. A pre-header if you will. If you did not apply a qualifier into the sales letter there could be a misinterpretation of information. For example, a man looking for ways on how to fish better would not want to read a sales letter on copywriting training.
For example: Attention: All fishing enthusiasts who have always dreamed of finding the perfect lure!
You may have seen this kind of qualifier before and this is what you call a qualifying statement. There is no doubt who this sales letter or web page is for.
2. The Headline
First, adding open and closed inverted commas or a quotation mark somehow appeals more to the eye when a headline is being read. It is almost like the eye-catching sensation when you read a fiction book, where you prefer to know what the character is going to say rather than what the narrator is trying to tell you.
“Think about the quotation mark is a sign of me trying to tell you something and you have no choice but to read it.”
When you’re inventing a headline, create one that packs a hell of a punch. Make the reader stop to read your headline and be in awe of it. The choices of words you use are VERY important. Choose the words that arouse interest in the prospect. In turn, the reader moves on to the next line and eventually the whole sales letter, to see what you’re up to, and that is, promoting the product.
3. The Opener or Lead-In
The opening of a sales letter is like the opening of a conversation with someone. You may start by telling a story to invoke curiosity to make them want to read on and know more. The story could be a fantasy or a problem someone had. Make sure it subtly leads to the product you’re promoting or you might as well write a fairy tale right then and there.
4. The Body Copy
A BIG mistake among first-time copywriters and advertisers is their ability to sell a product’s features but not its benefits. If you sell a product’s features, the prospect will be thinking, “So what if the software is most updated in its technology? I want to know what it can do for me.” Thus, subtly try to make your prospect understand what it is about this product and why they must have it in their life.
Basically you want to answer the burning questions that your prospect has which are.
Who are you? Why should I listen to you? Whats in it for ME?
5. Sub-Headlines
Sub-headlines are a teaser for what’s coming right up in the sales letter. It could be a quote or it could be much like a headline, but with a little less impact.
Adding a subhead can increase the readership in your sales letter and increase the likelihood of closing the sale. When a prospect is reading your copy, and gets to a section that is either boring to them or looks like it is too difficult to keep reading, a good subhead will grab them by the eyeballs and force them to keep reading.
So in essence a good subhead can be somewhat of a headline styled point that pulls your reader down into your copy.
6. Bullets
Bullets basically summarizes up the product’s benefits. It tells the prospect what they will get and how their lives would change if they purchase the product to arouse deeper curiosity. Also, with bullets, it is much easier to read and understand rather than having to read the benefits of the product in a paragraph.
The key point with a bullet is to peak curiosity.
7. Testimonials
People respond easily to that product when they see that it has benefited others. It is human nature on our part, because our conscious mind does not allow us to put our trust in a certain product unless there’s proof big enough for us to trust it.
The beauty of testimonials is that it plays on a powerful force in human consciousness that compels us to believe in or against a decision. That force is the power of social proof.
Further study into human influence and persuasion is required to understand that point further. A good book on this is ‘Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion’ by Dr. Robert Cialdini.
8. Closing
This section of a sales letter is your last chance to prove to the prospect that the product is something worth having. You may state how different this product is, how rare it is on the market and how beneficial the product is to the prospect.
Another tactic to use in the close is the take-away or making the product or service scarce or limited availability. This tactic forces your prospect to think twice about leaving without ordering and a large percentage of them WILL end up buying.
Writing powerful copy is quite simple if only you understand your market and know what their needs, wants and wishes are. All too often people are quick to write a sales letter to close a sale yet never give concerted thought to WHO they are writing to and what they want and need. Research into your market is key but once you know who your market is and what they want, your sales will skyrocket as a result.
Jo Han Mok is a #1 bestselling author and one of the world’s most powerful copywriters. Discover his copywriting training secrets that have generated millions of dollars! Visit his website at http://www.internetmillionairecode.com
Treat Your Writing As A Business
Writing is more than just a creative process. It’s a business that can create a substantial income for you. First, however, you may need to change your entire mindset.
The dream of almost any unpublished writer is one day getting published. To have their material read by the masses of people who love to read. Then, secondary to that is the desire to even get paid for their work.
Writing is one of those passions that seem to rise up from deep within and whether money is involved or not, the writer is compelled to write. Words become a living entity that breathes life into the reader who consumes them.
This is fine except that when a writer needs to make a living, the business and financial end tend to land on the back cover of the entire publishing process.
It is important for any writer to realize that once they have completed a writing project, it is then time to stop being a writer and begin being a businessperson.
Time spent creating your work is time that should be charged to your company. If you’re not sure what to charge as an hourly rate, ask yourself what it would cost you to hire someone to write it for you.
Publishing contracts and processes take on many faces and all are negotiable. Having your book tied up at a publisher who will take upwards of a year to evaluate your work, and possibly reject it, is like trying to buy a car while you wait for the salesman to decide if he wants your business or not. Besides, you wouldn’t give someone a year to try out your couch before they decided if they wanted to buy it or not, so why would you do it with your livelihood?
A partnership with a publisher is essentially a joint venture between two companies - yours and theirs. Your mandate as a business owner is not to just hope that they will like your writing and decide to publish. Your job is to decide if your product and their company is a good match and to allow them to do the same. Whether you actually got paid or not, if you have billed your research and writing time to your company, then you are coming to the table with a major financial investment in your hands. If you couple that together with your talent and your ability to view the world in a way that others want to explore it then you have a valuable commodity to do business with. Never feel inferior.
Are you very creative? Can see things that others might not? Do you think that you can list and expand on all the benefits of a soup bowl? If so, then copywriting may be a style of writing you wish to consider as a business venture.
Copywriters write compelling advertisement copy for companies.
Have you ever bought a meal at a quality restaurant based solely on the succulent description you read in their menu? Or did you buy a product somewhere because of what you read in a magazine ad? What about the letters you read in your mail advertising everything from credit cards to antique grandfather clocks? Those are all the works of a copywriter.
This is a very lucrative field and copywriters can make thousands of dollars, if not tens of thousands of dollars, writing about just one product. Why? Because a seller knows that a good copywriter will generate far more money in product sales than what the seller paid for the copywriting itself.
If you want to see who is looking for writers, then go to elance.com online, or buy “The Writers Market” in your bookstore.
By changing how you view your writing, you can be both creative and financially rewarded. Keep writing!
Ricardy Banks is a regular article contributor on many topics. Be sure to visit his other websites Internet Advertising Solutions http://www.bestsearchestate.info , Media downloading revolution http://www.burnlounge.com/bankonit and Debt Consolidation http://www.loan-shopping.info
You Can Write Powerful Copy!
But how do you write this powerful copy (words which will sell your product), if you are not a copywriter?
Here are some basic guidelines:
Communicate directly to your readers, by writing as if you were talking to them. Correct grammar is not the most important issue - being understood is.
Don’t be frightened to use large headings that are witty and eye-catching - newspapers and magazines make good research places for getting to grips with powerful headings.
Grab Your Readers’ Attention
In the very first sentence! If you don’t you may lose them. We live at a fast pace. Concentration is not high on our priority list. Just look at the designs of many of the popular magazines and you can see that short, snappy articles, interlaced with plenty of pictures, are the normal layout. Pick up any Dorling Kindersley book and see how they have revolutionised learning from books with their layouts.
Make what you have to say exciting and interesting.
Word Choices
Choose your words carefully. Be aware of the sound words make. For instance, let’s suppose you want to inject some humour into your text, certain words are funnier than others. An example of this is one of Beryl Reid’s lines when she was doing a routine, knocking her girlfriend, Deirdre. She’d say, “Deirdre says her complexion is sallow, I call it yellow, what with her yellow face and her little black eyes, she looks like a small portion of prunes and custard!”
This dialogue wouldn’t have half the punch if Beryl had chosen to use apricots and custard, instead of prunes and custard, because prunes is a funny word and apricots isn’t.
Another classic technique for working out a punch line is to use alliteration. Example: ‘I bet he’s bonking some bimbo in the back seat! (Much funnier than, ‘I’m certain he’s having sex with some girl in the rear of the car.’ It means the same, but it certainly does not have the same impact.)
So if you’re stuck for a powerful headline or a business/company motto, then try alliteration.
Emotive Text
Stories or headings that appeal to our emotions and trigger fond memories, are powerful selling allies. For many people, life today is too stressful. We are bombarded from all sides, with calls on our mobiles at any time of day or night, emails to check, forms to fill in and too many rules to live by imposed on us by unworkable politics.
Any references to (say) the 60’s, conjures up images of much simpler, relaxed fun-filled days. It’s not important that the era was not perfect - no era is - or that they didn’t reap the benefits of the incredible technology of mobiles or the Internet.
Text which is geared towards family life, is also a powerful marketing tool, simply because the world can be a very frightening place, and the throw away society (which includes throwing away relationships) is taking a swing towards a desire for more stability through lasting relationships.
The Reason for Copywriting
The only reason you’re creating strong headlines and text is to sell a service, your ideas or products. So, if you want to write great copy, make sure it will produce the desired result of increased profit. Decide on the mood and pace that will initiate the highest sales in your particular marketplace.
Don’t forget to actually ask for the outcome you want! Sounds simple I know, but its amazing how many people forget to actually ask the person on the other end of the communication to take some action.
If you have no desire to write your own copy, then there is the option of employing a copywriter on a freelance basis as and when you need copy, or you could take on a marketing person as an employee if the volume of work is sufficient.
Nick Summers runs Content Cow Article Directory, a directory dedicated to offering the best of the web’s articles formatted the way you want them. Visit http://www.contentcow.biz today for all your content requirements.
The 3 Things You Must Remember When Writing Your Sales Letter
Writing sales copy is a learnable skill. You aren’t writing the next great novel but a short novella that persuades your reader to your desired action. Sales letters are really salesmanship in print. Have you listened to a good salesman before? Not the typical used car type but the smooth salesman who has a quality conversation with you. You have walked out of the store with a new widget and you are convinced it is the smartest purchase you’ve made all year.
This type of salesmanship is learnable and easier since it’s in print. In print you have the opportunity to change your mistakes before publication. However, you don’t have the chance to modify your information based on the reader’s objections.
The first step is to outline and plan your information so that the points flow seamlessly through the letter. In order to do that you have to know where you are going. In a statement, define the objective of your letter, beyond ‘get the customer to buy.’ You want the statement to outline what your want your readers to think, feel and eventually do. Use that statement to guide your reader from the beginning to the final sentence where he will take a specific action.
The second point is to make your copy more conversational and engaging. Most people write copy in a straightforward factual manner producing dull and boring reading. Conversions revolve around emotions and feelings, which is beneficial to the sales page since people buy on emotion and justify by logic or features. People purchase benefits, not features. Features are facts and objects you can touch. Benefits are emotions you can feel and experience.
If your copy is conversational and engaging you’re probably touching the reader emotionally and have a greater chance of conversion. Is it difficult for you to write with passion and animation? You aren’t alone. Most people are much more compelling and passionate when they speak than when they write.
There is a shortcut to use to get the copy started. Remember, copy is nothing more than spoken language in written form. Use a tape recorder and sit down with a friend or business partner. Explain your product; tell them what you want them to know so they’ll purchase your item. Now go back to the computer and transcribe your speech. This transcription can be the basis for your first draft. It will be compelling, passionate, animated and exciting. Try not to tone it down too much!
An important criteria to conversion is how well the letter flows. If your reader gets stuck in the middle of the sale because your points don’t flow and the copy is choppy you’ll find the reader leaves quickly. This is where the objective definition also is essential. Within the objective statement should be 3-5 points, or benefits, you want to discuss.
When you come to the end of one benefit ask a question and leave a “cliffhanger” to encourage the reader to move further into the sales letter. You can use subheads between the points to place emphasis on parts of the benefits. However, you should never give a complete answer in the headline or the majority of the subheads. Although a reader should be able to read all subheads and get the general gist of what your topic is covering you shouldn’t give all the answers in the subheadings.
There is a line between giving too little and too much. Too little information in the subheads and copy and your reader is left feeling motivated without direction. Too much information and the reader wonders how much more could be in the information product? Is there really anymore or was it all left on the table? Give your reader enough information to understand that you are an expert in your field but not enough that the reader now knows just as much as you do.
Write your sales letter with intention and direction. Persuade your reader to take a specific action that you desire. You writing skills will improve and your sales conversions will increase.
Jo Han Mok is a #1 bestselling author and frequent featured speaker at Internet Marketing bootcamps and conferences. Visit his website for a simple step-by-step plan to profit online in 21 days or less!
http://www.SuperFastProfit.com
What’s The Big Deal with Copywriting Training?
Copywriting is an art.
It is the art of writing sales related materials such as sales letters, e-mails and advertisements. It uses the direct response or direct marketing technique to persuade the reader to ultimately act upon subscribing or buying products or services.
Have you ever been stumped as to why you feel compelled to buy a certain product when you do not really need it? Ever wondered why you feel that the product is extremely necessary even though it really is as normal as it gets?
If you answered yes to both questions, this is what great advertising can do to you. It makes your brainwaves all react and become vigorous, wired up and active when you hear or read of a certain product and how grand you suddenly think it is. It makes you need that product and you think about it most of the time until you get it.
If there is a great product on the market, but it is not advertised correctly, the response to it will be much lower than expected. Sales will not be soaring for that product as consumers were not aware of its benefits and how it would dramatically improve their lives.
Only through a great sales letter can optimum sales be achieved. I’ve written tons of sales letters in my life and how do you think people have reacted to them? Like brown bears fighting over honey. With that being said, how would you like to be the brains behind a sales letter that forces people to buy?
How would you like to obtain the iron-grip power to influence people and maximize your sales?
The thing is, in this world, copywriters are not born, they’re made. It’s a skill waiting to be perfected only by the right copywriting training. The chance to learn copywriting is simply too valuable to be set aside, as it is considered the heart of every sale.
When you have mastered this skill, you can actually use it to promote your own products or other people’s products on the internet or in the offline world. Studies have shown that through direct response copywriting, sales have increased as much as 63% and that’s a VERY conservative number. Instant sales conversion rates of websites selling physical or digital products have boomed just by adding miraculous power of emotional direct response copywriting.
Copywriting training is beneficial for you if you want to become a top-notch copywriter or if you want to increase the sales of your products. Extremely skilled and experienced copywriters have been known to charge as much as US$15,000 to US$25,000 per sales letter. That goes without saying that copywriting is one of the most highly paid skills in the world.
With the right copywriting training you’ll learn:
* How to properly administer the step-by-step selling techniques used in the best sales copy.
* How to use advanced mind control techniques to stir the prospect’s emotions.
* How to make your customer desperately need your product.
* How to make that customer practically beg to buy your product.
* And much more!
Copywriting is the skill you must master if you’re serious about building and maintaining a great career or business. It truly is the golden opportunity to transform yourself into someone desperately sought after by large organizations or into being your own boss.
Jo Han Mok is a #1 bestselling author and frequent featured speaker at Internet Marketing bootcamps and copywriting training conferences. Visit his website for a simple step-by-step plan to profit online and become the next big internet success story! http://www.InternetMillionaireCode.com
The Ultimate Power Of Using and Testing Headlines In Your Website
A headline captures the attention of the prospect. This in turn, subconsciously asks the prospect to further read on the content of the website. Headlines have the power to tap into your emotions, wants and needs. Mere words have a psychological impact on you. This is because when you see or read something that caters to your desires you tend to act on that desire to sate it. You have no choice but to read on to see how the website is going to help you.
Powerful headlines could increase your website conversion rates to above 73%. Website conversion rates simply means the number of visitors that come to your site who converted into your customers. Headlines, however requires rectification and testing in order for it to perform in its optimum.
In the Marketing Experiment Journals done by www.MarketingExperiments.com on improving website conversion rates through headlines, the headline-”Dental Plans for $8.33 a month. Acceptance Guaranteed.” was the most effective in increasing web conversion rates. It was found out that stating a specific, low priced amount for a product or service with a guarantee succeeded in producing a larger amount of click throughs and lead generation.
In another experiment, is was found out that a benefit-driven headline was very effective because of its means to emphasize on the benefits of a product or service. The headline was-”Say Yes when a client asks you to review FIVE MILLION separate documents.” However when the headline was added with just two words, it became-”Say Yes when a client asks you to review FIVE MILLION separate documents. And smile.”, the headline dismally didn’t perform at all with no clickthroughs and lead generation. This shows that words you use in headlines are extremely crucial in making your headlines perform.
To test out various headlines, you have you have to do the following:
1.A/B Split Testing
It is a test to determine which headine performs better than the other one. You could make use of the same landing page with different headlines and observe which page gets the more clicks or more website conversion rates. You could test them out for about 2-4 weeks, based on your preference. Once you observed the page that has more clicks and conversion rates, you’ve found the headline you should use for your website optimization. Also, take note of the headline your visitors prefered to click on. Was it benefit-driven, emotionally-driven, etc?
2.Pay-Per-Click Search Engines
Using pay-per-click search engines like Google Adwords, you can create ads to test out the different headlines. You should use effective phrases or key phrases that people use to find products or services. After a cerain amount of time, choose the ad that has the most click through rate and website conversion rate and continue to only use that ad to bring visitors to your website. Do bear in mind that the costs of paying for these pay-per-click ads should be covered by the revenue made from the website.
3.Presentation Of The Headline
Test out the presentation of the headline on your website. Make sure that it is easily readible by the prospect and the message is being put across. You might also want to test out the font and color of the headline to see which one works best. Hiring a web designer to align the designs on your website is recommended as well. Colour, size and visibility of headlines have been known to register more psychological aspects into the prospect’s mind.
Using and testing out headlines is a highly recommended procedure to be performed by copywriters. As proven by the headline experiments carried out, mere words, colors and presentation could actually contribute to the impact of a headline. It is all up to you as to how powerful a headline could be.
Jo Han Mok is a #1 bestselling author and one of the world’s most powerful copywriters. Discover the methods he implements in using and testing headlines in his websites that have generated millions of dollars! Visit his website at http://www.internetmillionairecode.com
Using Your Homepage to Tell a Story
A website is more than a brochure; it is an opportunity to start building a relationship with your prospective client or customer. The best way to do this is tell a story.
Everyone loves a story. As small children, before we could read, our teachers and parents used to read us stories. But even after we’ve acquired the ability to read, a story captures our attention and imagination. The most successful professional speakers are also known for telling engaging stories to their audiences.
A good website tells a story and engages the reader. The homepage of a website is probably the most important place to tell a good story. What you want to do is grab the attention of your visitor and keep them reading through the content of your homepage.
When you tell a story on a website, you are presenting the information with a beginning, a middle, and an end, as if you were telling a story to group of people seated in front of you.
Here is a simple plan to follow that will help you write better content for the home page of your website:
(1) Decide What the Purpose is for Your Homepage
This is probably the biggest mistake people make when putting together a website. Instead of targeting the homepage for a specific purpose, it becomes convoluted and the visitor becomes confused by multiple ideas that are presented in a disorganized fashion.
The information on the homepage may be excellent, but if it is put in the wrong order, without the right emphasis; the message is not clear.
Right now I’m working with a client who has excellent information throughout the whole website. However, that is the problem. In order for a visitor to find all the information they need to make a decision, they need to click through page after page to gather information. The homepage only answers some of the questions a visitor might have. It forces the reader to click from page to page to get answers. This is a big problem because people don’t want to take the time to click from page to page.
The first thing I did was ask the client what they wanted to accomplish as a result of having a website. The answer they gave me told me what was most important to emphasize on the homepage.
(2) Grab the Reader’s Attention
When someone lands on your website’s homepage, they need to immediately know that they have arrived at the right place. So make sure you have a headline that immediately captures the attention of your website visitor.
Create a headline that lets the visitor know you understand their pain or problem. You want a headline that in essence says to them, “Stop right here, you’ve arrived at the right place to get the answers to all your questions. We know what your problems are and we have the solutions.”
One way to do this is to ask a question. “Are You Looking for Innovative Sales Training?” is the type of headline that engages the reader and causes them to think.
Another type of headline technique is to use startling statistics such as: “Did You Know that One Out of Three Women Will Have Heart Disease in their Lifetime?” Headlines such as this will pique the reader’s interest and make them want to learn more.
(3) Decide on a Logical Order to Present Information
A homepage contains many ideas. It is an opportunity for a company to give an overview of who they are, what they do, and why you should do business with them.
Because you’re going to be presenting multiple ideas, it becomes very important that you have a logical order to your information. Here’s where you use the template or outline for creating a story to put the content together for your homepage.
The content of the homepage needs to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Each of these three pieces needs to be tied together so that there is a smooth flow and logical progression. One idea needs to flow naturally into the next idea without awkward breaks or disturbances.
Imagine you were telling a story to someone about how you discovered a new grocery store that had all sorts of interesting food. Just as you were getting to a really funny part, your cell phone rings. You stop telling your story and begin talking into your cell phone. The person who had been listening to your story with great interest, is now bored and walks away.
The same thing happens on a website. If you stick information in the wrong place on the homepage, it becomes like a cell phone ringing; the visitor becomes bored and leaves the site.
Conclusion
Use the storytelling writing technique for your homepage as a way to shorten the sales cycle. Give your audience the information they need to make a decision by keeping them engaged and entertained. Gently guide them to the right sales path without interruptions.
Michelle Howe, MBA, president of Internet Word Magic, specializes in writing irresistible copy for websites. Transform the way you do business. Visit her website at http://www.InternetWordMagic.com for a FR^EE chapter download of her new book “Turn Browsers into Buyers.”
