This has been gnawing away at me for some time now, and so I’ve decided its time to jump up on my soap box and have my say!
You see, its time for me to stand up and let you know what’s wrong with all the internet (and other) marketing seminars out there.
I’m sure you know the types of events I’m talking about. One or more days with either one expert, or a whole series of them.
And these events are usually pretty good. I’m NOT saying that these events aren’t top quality events, nor am I saying you wont learn a lot of secrets that’ll help you pull in more profits. Its not about what they tell you…its about what they DONT!
OK. With any business, and particularly an online one there’s a lot of things you need to know. And I’ll stick with online businesses here, but really it applies to any business.
You need to know how to generate traffic, put together an irresistable offer, get people’s names and email addresses, use auto-responders, develop the backend, create products and on and on and on.
Lots of things to do.
But the one thing that most (not all, there are some exceptions) seminars gloss over is how to write the copy to sell the damn product.
And here’s the thing. Its the NUMBER ONE thing you need to know.
Here’s why…
Lets say you’ve got 100 prospects on your website. And you’re selling a product for $27.
Now if you sell 2 products with ordinary sales copy, that’s $54 in your pocket.
But what if you could make some changes to your sales page. It would be easy to get that up to 5 sales, maybe even more.
So by not using good sales copy you’ve just LOST $81!!!
But it gets worse — because if you’ve developed a really strong backend business, each person who becomes a buyer could come back and spend $100 more! Now, lets say that 1/3 of your front end customers DO become regular customers and they’re worth an extra $100 to your business.
Well, since you lost 3 customers with weak sales copy, not only are you down $81 on the front end, you’re down an extra $100 on the BACKEND TOO!
So, now you’re down $181.
And that’s over only 100 prospects.
Now, the big question is…
…how many prospects are coming to your site and how much might you be losing with poorly written sales copy?
But I see so many seminars that claim to tell you everything you need to know about making money online. And very few of them feature any real content on writing sales copy that’s going to sell. Actually, you’re getting the car…without the engine!
I dont know why this is. Maybe because its too hard to teach people to write good copy. Hey, it would take 2 solid days to get the basics down pat. And then a lot of practice, peer review and so on to get it really good. And maybe for a lot of people its easier just to outsource this part of their business.
But the message is clear. You should be spending more time on writing the copy for your sales page and less time setting it up. A simple page with a really good sales letter will always make more money than a complicated one with a poor sales message.
And my message for all the seminars out there?
“Make sure you teach people how to write good sales copy, and tell them what they need to do after your event to continue with their copywriting education.”
Well, I dont feel comfortable unless I leave you with some practical tips you can use, so here goes.
1. The headline is where you’ll generally get your biggest change in response. If you dont get your prospect with your headline, you wont get them at all.
2. The same thing applies to the opening page or screen of your sales letter. It has to be clear what your sales letter is about, and why your prospect should read it. If its confusing, its game over.
3. Improve your copywriting education. If you’re new to this blog, read some of the older posts. One of the best sites you’ll ever find is www.thegaryhalbertletter.com so spend some time there.
www.makepeacetotalpackage.com is another great one too as is.
Oh, and I CAN’T forget this one…http://bencivengabullets.com/ – brilliant stuff!
4. Go and get some copywriting courses as books or DVDs. If you want some recommendations I can certainly let you know some. Get in touch and let me know what you’re trying to do and I’ll recommend some to help you. Make sure you get something with a list of successful headlines.
5. Collect a swipe file of successful sales letters and websites that you can use as references.
6. Spend the time getting inside your prospect’s head. I’ve posted on this topic before. What you want to know is what they’re thinking about. What is it that gets them excited, or scared. What is the problem that you can solve for them?
7. Write in a conversational tone. So much so that you can read your letter out loud and it sounds like you’re having a normal conversation.
Look. Here’s the crux of it. You need to make a decision.
Do you want to write your own copy or not?
If you do, then be prepared to pay in terms of time and money. You’ll need to spend money to get an education. And you’ll need to spend a lot of time studying and practicing.
But once you’re there the pay off can be spectacular, because you’ll be miles ahead of your competition. And considering I recently did a job writing a whole bunch of emails for affiliate products on clickbank, I think I speak from a position of authority when I tell you that it wouldn’t take too much work to out-write a lot of your competitors!!!
And if you dont want to do the work, then don’t waste time on it. Your time is far better spent developing your business. Having said that, its worth doing some background reading on copywriting so you know how to spot whether your copywriter is doing a good job or not. But don’t spend too much time learning something you’re not going to use. Ultimately it’s YOUR decision on what’s the most profitable way to spend your time.
But above all else, don’t fall into the middle ground where you’re spending hours writing copy that just isn’t going to do the job. Either pay the price to learn how to do it properly…or get outside help to do it for you and spend your time on far more productive things.
Next week I’m going to let you know how to get in the right frame of mind to write copy.
Until then, feel free to contact me, especially if you want to talk about copywriting resources.
All the best
Hugh Thyer
www.salescomefirst.com
