Does your sales copy have all these three elements? Answer yes, and you have a blockbuster sales copy in your hands.
1. A Promise
2. Proof
3. Credibility
If your copy has all three elements above, it is going to be a strong copy. A big, bold promise of benefits or real solutions to real problems is what attracts them to your copy.
Proof and credibility keeps them attracted to your offer, and help you sell your solution.
Every marketer out there is a problem solvers. They promise mega benefits like:
Clear skin,
A healthy body,
An organized home,
Cheap long distance calls,
Profitable business,
Smart kids,
Healthy heart,
Ability to seduce men/women,
… and the list goes on and on.
#1 Promise
Think of the following as a bold promise:
Learn these male behavioral traits that send gorgeous ladies crazy for you. You are too occupied to notice that Playboy bombshell giving you puppy eyes because you are already surrounded with hottest girls in the town, eating out of your hands.
Give yourself a clear, beautiful and radiant skin that will give you the confidence of a princess and help you claim your ex back from your jealous friend.
Those two examples above tell you what a bold promise is. Such a clear, bold and solid promise is the cornerstone of any successful copy.
How to Make a Promise that Works
Identify what your product does. Does it give your customers a clear skin? A trim body? Smart kids? Cheap phone calls around the world? Ability to attract the opposite sex? Once you identify this point, connect that benefit with an emotional benefit. And you have a strong promise.
Love, pride, power, lust, fear, insecurity, etc are some powerful emotions to play with.
In the clear-skin example above, you make a girl feel proud of herself because of her smooth skin and her ability to finally revenge her jealous friend, who has stolen her boyfriend. She feels that self-worth growing within her as she reads your copy, learns how she can get a clear skin and how that clear skin would help her get what she wants (her ex back).
Your copy has played with her emotions and by the time she finishes reading your copy, she will be shouting at you to give her the solution. You have effectively played with a complex matrix of emotions – love, pride, insecurity, confidence, and the girl thingy that you can’t fully explain.
That is one example of a promise. Now, take a look at how you can use human emotions to sell long distance voice and video calls.
Staying in NY need not prevent you from seeing the first smiles of your grand child – even if she is in Melbourne, London or Tokyo. You can see your grandchild’s face in your screen, listen to her giggling and feel real close – as if there is no physical separation. You don’t have to wait for summer for your daughter to bring your grandchild home. You can see the newest little one in your family, any time you want.
Now that is the benefit of an IP based video calling solution. You appeal to a different emotion – of familial bonds.
#2: Proof of Benefits
Show dozens of testimonials, case studies, and real life examples of how your solution worked in the past.
With a little digging, you can discover tons of testimonials from customers who have bought your solutions in the past. Use such testimonials in your marketing materials. Your prospects will see you have solved the problems of others and that your solution will work for them too. They feel more comfortable spending money on solutions that have worked for others.
Case studies pack more power than a regular testimonial. If you can use case studies, you will have no trouble creating top-notch marketing materials that instantly win the trust of your prospects.
Case studies teach your prospects how someone had a specific problem, how he/she has tried different solutions, why some of the solutions didn’t work, how they used your solution and how it worked for the situation. Case studies are much more powerful than testimonials because they explain in detail ‘how’ the solution worked in a particular situation. It indirectly teaches the prospects how the solution would work in their situation too.
#3: Credibility
If your product is related to health care, skin care, etc, you can use research materials by physicians and other experts from the medical field. People trust experts like doctors and researchers.
When doctors prescribe a particular drug, you will take it – in most cases, without asking any questions. When a researcher tells you about a new discovery, you will have no trouble believing it. When a financial expert appears in the TV, you believe what he or she says.
Such professionals have credibility. If you use their own research findings, teachings and speeches, your credibility increases. You can use the names of the professionals, doctors, researchers, etc even if they don’t endorse your products. You can cite their research findings, published materials, etc in your sales copy.
As a sales copy writer, your job is to sell the solution in question. If the copy doesn’t sell, the product doesn’t make any money or profits. Now you have a clear idea of what constitutes great sales copy. Draft your own sales copy in the following formula:
1. Draw their attention with a bold promise they can’t ignore;
2. Prove beyond a shadow of doubt that your solution works; and
3. Show them how powerful people have good things to say about your product.
Follow the three simple steps above with the only focus on winning customers’ trust. When you send out your sales copy, it will attract the right prospects and help you sell your solution – and help you make money – as much as you want.
