Copywriting - 10 Keys To Making Your Copy Sell - Part 2

Welcome to the second (and last) in this (very) short series of hubs on how to put real "sell" and "pizazz" in your online sales letters.

Use these techniques to make sure your prospects not only read your messages but ACT on them as well.

So, without further ado, let's get back into it with Keys 5-10.

5 - “YOU” Density

What, you may ask is “you” density”? I’m sure you’ve heard of keyword density, well, the most key word you can use in your copywriting is “YOU”! (Good one, eh?)

You must speak directly to your reader and the way to do that is to use the words YOU and YOUR as often as you possibly can – get the idea? You simply have to sound like you are talking personally to your reader. As your reader is going through your copy they are translating “YOU” and “YOUR” in to “ME” and “MINE”.

It is key to make your reader think in this way if you want them to buy from you.

If you talk me, me, me, your reader will lose interest. Why? Because everyone looks for WIIFM (What’s In It For Me – pronounced wiffum).

So if you talk about “me” there is no WIIFM and you will lose your reader very quickly. You have been warned - talk about them (you).

6 - Speak Intimately

No, don’t get the wrong idea now!

Ask yourself, does your copywriting have a strong sense of personality when you read your sales letter?

The way I do this is to brain dump my initial run through down and then leave it for a day or two.

When I return to the copy I ask…

“Does it exude personality and character”?

“Does it get my desires burning”?

Now you may not be able to answer those questions, so it is best to get a close friend or family member, partner to have a look and offer their thoughts. I always like my partner to look through anyway, but do make sure it’s someone you trust and someone you don’t mind telling you if it’s wrong :>)

However, there is a technique you can use to help. Try visualizing yourself writing your sales letter to the perfect prospect. You should always write to a singular person anyway!

Make sure your personality and character “shine” through.

7 - Are You Really Firing Up Your Readers Imagination?

Successfully selling “off the page” is not easy, especially when you bear in mind that it is generally accepted that it takes seven contacts before a prospect is normally ready to buy. A powerful way to help overcome this “resistance” is to trigger mental images in the mind of your reader.

In a way, you are looking to tap into your prospect’s subconscious. As I am sure you know, the subconscious has difficulty distinguishing between vividly painted word pictures and reality.

So, when you get the mentally imagery going, it triggers emotion (that the reader has difficulty controlling).

The bottom line is you need desire before someone will buy and you can’t have desire without emotion.

And once you have created desire you then have control over emotion, which in turn gives you the power of suggestion. This then gives you the ability to direct action. Now that is real power!

You should be using metaphor, storytelling, similes, verbs, adjectives as well as being  very specific about what you are offering.

8 - Proof

This is a big one!

I mentioned earlier the power of third party referrals. Your customer probably won’t believe you, but if someone else tells them how wonderful your products…yep, you guessed it, they will believe them! Sorry, but that’s the way it is!

Testimonials from delighted customers and hard, convincing guarantees are essential.

All of your competition do this, so you need to as well in order to be competitive. More importantly you need to make your customers feel comfortable that they trust you and can order from you with confidence.

Guarantees should be cast iron and you should always offer a no questions asked, no quibble guarantee. That is to say a customer can return for any reason, no questions asked and you MUST adhere to your guarantee!

Some people will buy, rip you off and return for a refund. Don’t get hung up on this, it is a cost of doing business online. Refund every request without question. 99% of people are honest and won’t ask for a refund without good reason.

Your absolute minimum guarantee should be 30 days. I prefer 90.

Some online marketers now offer a year refund period, this is something I am currently testing! Now that is confidence in your product, although it could be argued there is an ulterior motive in that buyers will not think they need to ask for a refund immediately and will have forgotten come 12 months time. Interesting psychology!

9 - Is Your Offer Totally Irresistible?

People are both greedy and careful at the same time - they don’t part with their money easily - especially in a deep recession.

Your main offer must be totally irresistible. You should then use your bonuses to make it absolutely so.

Your “reasons why” should make the sale a complete “no-brainer”. Use your bonuses, time constraints and imminent price rises to create urgency in your copywriting. The aim is to promote immediate action in your prospect!

10 - Use a P.S. – Make It A Killer!

The P.S. you put at the bottom of your sales letter is important – it will get read a lot – in fact a lot more than your main body copy.

To be honest, it is logical. Think about it, if prospects read your headline and it “captures” them, where will they go?

Give you three guesses…you’ll only need one! Yep, straight to the bottom of the sales letter to find out the price. Once they have found the price, if they are still interested they will read the P.S! Not rocket science is it?

So, your P.S has to make your reader “stop in their tracks”, like a rabbit in the headlights!

The P.S is where you need to re-state the most powerful benefits in a powerful way (for example by re-stating scarcity or time constraints) that prompts the taking of the desired action (clicking the order button).

Used properly, the P.S is an incredibly powerful tool that will close many, many sales for you!

Well, that’s about it for this 10-point “learn copywriting” hitlist.

If you implement these key components in your copywriting, you will see your sales point very much in an upward direction!

Oh, one last thing…have fun with your copywriting, you’ll be surprised what you can “get away with”. Enjoy your copywriting and it will shine through your words and help close the sale – go for it!

For more great free copywriting information check out our Copywriting Blog at Write For Riches. it's updated with lots of fresh new copywriting information regularly, drop by and tell me what you think (but keep it clean :>) )