Sales Come First

Hi there

Last week I spoke at length about marketing funnels. This week I want to just straight back into the nuts and bolts of writing sales copy.

You see, getting your prospect at the beginning is only part of the battle. There are heaps of places you can lose them along the way.

For example, they might not like your offer. They might not be convinced you’re the ‘real deal’. Perhaps you haven’t done enough to justify your price or your close just fails to move them from a ‘Maybe’ to a ‘Yes’.

But even if they get to the very end and make their decision to order, you can still lose them at the final hurdle…the order form.

OK, look. An order form isnt just a place to put a place for payment details. Its actually a mini-sales letter in its own right. And while this is more important to offline marketers its still very relevant to those of you online. Actually, people often read the order form first, before they read your letter so its critical to tell your story on your order form. This way they’ll be encouraged to go back and read your letter.

So, an order form should contain a number of key elements:
1. A summary of the benefit your prospect will get from your product
2. A reminder of the guarantee
3. A reminder of everything in the offer WITH what each item is valued at, all listed out.
4. A figure of the total value at the bottom.
5. A couple of testimonials
6. The price should be clearly stated, and compared to the total value. For example “That’s $1497 worth of value for only $197″
7. Urgency. Remind them why they should order NOW. For example, a time limited offer or limited stock.

For example, the first paragraph could be something like this…
‘YES! I want to learn how to dress like a movie star! Please rush me xyz for the discounted price of $x. I understand I’ll receive (xyz) and if I’m not absolutely thrilled I can get a full, no questions asked refund straight away’

Next, make sure it stands out. The best colour for an order form is bright yellow.

And the biggest tip I can give you here is to make it simple. I’m not kidding here. You’ve got to tell your prospect EXACTLY what to do, right down to where to fill in their payment details, who to send a cheque to, where to fax it, or to press the ‘Complete Order’ button. There must be NO confusion here, or you will lose orders. In fact, this is a good point to remind you about keeping your offers simple to understand too, and if you’ve got one offering, limit it to two (three at the most) different options.

The funny thing is, writing this post has reminded me I need to talk about the Double Readership Path in long sales letters. Its one of those concepts that can make a big difference to your response rates. Unfortunately a lot of people writing copy are either too lazy to do it, or just dont understand it, but its easy to do and if it helps you get more sales then its really money for nothing. My favourite kind!

All the best,

Hugh Thyer
www.salescomefirst.com