Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Are You Throwing Mud at Your Potential Customers?
The vast majority of beginning businesses online do nothing more than throw mud at their potential customers. Are you guilty of this?

Yeah, I realize you're not standing out on the street tossing globs of gunk at anyone who might be interested in buying your product or service. But if you do what most new businesses do online, you're guilty as charged.

What I'm talking about is a failure to figure out who your customers are and what they're REALLY looking for. When you know them—and I mean their emotional needs, their fears, their uncertainties that lead them to consider buying from you—you can tailor your copywriting to appeal directly to those things that make them say, "Yes!" to your product or service.

If you don't know those things, all you can do is write bland, generic copy devoid of emotional triggers. And when all you write is generic copy—believe me—all you're doing is throwing mud at them and hope that it sticks.

You can't rely on your product or service to sell itself. You can't rely on it to intellectually convince them to buy based on the bare facts that you tell them. You will not get around the basic principle to selling that states: "People buy based on emotion; then they look for rational reasons to support their decision."

You cannot sell without tapping into your potential customers' emotions.

So how do you do that?

Take time to figure out who they are. As much as you'd like to think your product will appeal to everyone, you need to target your MOST LIKELY customers and focus on answering their needs. If you try to be generic enough to not exclude anyone, you'll actually lose the people who are the most likely to buy.

Figure out their age range, their gender, anything in their situation that might influence them to seek out your product or service.

Once you have a good handle on who they are, figure out all of the benefits your product offers them. Not just one or two benefits. Brainstorm the feelings that having your product will give them. Why will they be glad they got it? What emotional needs will it fill for them? Brainstorm dozens of benefits. Ask people who manufacture it. Ask people who have bought it. Ask anyone who has any connection with your product what makes it worth owning.

Think back to a time in your life when you needed a product like the one you sell. What needs did you feel? What desires drove you to buy it?

Don't skim over this. This is essential to your sales.

Then figure out what obstacles in their minds might hold them up from buying. Shipping time? Shipping cost? Breakage? What if it doesn't turn out to be what they expect? Are they sure they can trust your business to treat them fairly?

Think of all the potential roadblocks between them and a sale and make sure you work the answers in at the points where those concerns will arise.

Again, take your time with all of this. If it takes a couple of days to put yourself in your customers' shoes, take that time. The ability you gain to tap directly into their emotional needs will more than pay off.
Jeff

Making Your Product Stand Out With an Attention-Grabbing USP
Are you missing out on a chance to really stand out among your competitors?

Before getting to work on improving the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for a client today, I decided to see what his competitors are using for theirs. I was surprised at how weak most of their USPs were.

Here's how my research went. I go to the first site and hunt around for something that seems to sum up why visitors should do their business there. Eventually I found, "Your best place to shop for..." I go to the next one and find, "Your best place to shop for..." And on the next one I find, "Your best place to shop for..."

Hmm. I think I'm detecting a pattern here.

Folks, these aren't USPs. They're hype. And the same thing goes for slogans like, "Great prices, better value!" They're creatively bankrupt, giving absolutely no compelling reason for visitors to choose that business over its competitors.

The good news in all of this is that if the competition is so willing to plug in recycled hype instead of a real USP, you can give yourself a competitive advantage by simply crafting a good one.

Now, I'll admit that that's easier said than done. Zeroing in on a compelling USP for a business is incredibly challenging. But when you accomplish it, it can become the key to all of your copywriting for that business. And it can dramatically increase your sales.

So what makes a compelling USP? Here are the three key elements.

1. It must be unique
And I mean it must be unique in the true sense of the word. It must be one of a kind—something that no competitor either is able to or willing to offer. And that is the biggest challenge to find.

Usually, it's something that isn't immediately obvious even to the people who run the business. It takes some digging. One time a copywriter was trying to come up with something unique about the pianos from a mid-market piano company.

The company didn't make the highest quality pianos, but it didn't make the cheapest either. Their pianos were incredibly ordinary. He kept pressing the owners for something unique about the pianos, but they couldn't come up with anything.

So he went for a walk in the factory, poking around for something—anything—that seemed unique. After a while, he spotted a pile of iron bars.

He asked a worker what they were. The worker answered, "Those? Oh, we put those in to keep the frame from warping."

"What would happen if the frame warped?" the writer asked.

The worker replied, "Over time, the piano's tone would change and you'd have to tune it more often."

"So all piano makers put these bars in their pianos?"

"No," the worker replied. "I think we're the only one."

Bingo! The writer used that little, forgotten manufacturing detail to brand that company's pianos as "Manufactured to sound the same as the day you bought it even twenty years later." And that USP shot sales through the roof.

2. It must clearly define a specific benefit that the customer will enjoy
You notice the copywriter didn't write, "We stick iron bars in our pianos." He focused the USP on the benefit the buyer would enjoy. He focused on the fact that buyers could count on that piano to sound just as good as it does right now for its entire lifetime.

He focused on a benefit that gave customers the impression of those pianos actually being higher quality than the most expensive brands. Yet, other than the bars, they were no different from middle-of-the-line brands.

3. It must describe a benefit that is strong enough to move people to buy
The quality implied by that USP was just what many piano buyers were looking for. A piano is a big investment. You buy one and you expect it to last a lifetime. And the assurance that these pianos would sound good for a lifetime while other pianos would age and change was strong enough to move people to choose that brand over others.

Now, granted, when you write a compelling USP, your copywriting work isn't done. But it does become a lot easier. You can weave that unique benefit through all your copy, expand on it, develop it, so that that single, unique element becomes your clincher to make the sale.

And considering how weak most USPs on the Web are, if you can craft a good one, you instantly have a unique advantage over your competitors.
Jeff

How to Super-Size Your Copywriting (and its results)
Want to build your credibility with your readers and improve your results? Then look for places in your copy where you can Super-Size the credentials of your product and your company.

No, I'm not talking about bloating your copy with unnecessary blather. I want you increase your credibility by associating your product or your company with something bigger than you're claiming right now—and do it in ways that are totally honest.

I call it Super-Sizing. It relies on the basic principle that people's resistance to paying decreases when they feel they're getting more than they're giving in exchange.

McDonalds added billions to their profits with this strategy, offering customers a chance to add what seemed like a lot more to their meal for less than a dollar extra.

The real difference was insignificant—a few ounces of drink and a slightly larger pack of fries, both of which cost McDonalds almost nothing. But in the customers' eyes, the larger appearance made the increase in value seem huge. So millions of people gladly spent more to get what felt to them like a much better deal.

But what if you don't sell a food product that you can Super-Size? How can you put this same principle to work generating bigger sales for you?

Look for ways to associate your product or your company with something bigger. Wherever you can do so honestly, Super-Size your claims.

Look for more impressive terms to use
Have you been in business for 8 years? Point out that you've been satisfying customers for nearly a decade. Psychologically, a decade sounds bigger and more impressive than 8 years. Two decades sounds more impressive than 20 years. A quarter century sounds more impressive than 25 years. And so on.

Look for connections to respected people or companies
Does your product deal with a problem that has been discussed on a prominent media outlet? Make that connection to your product. Hey, if Oprah has discussed getting rid of age wrinkles on her show and your product does a great job of doing that, there's no reason you can't make the connection.

Granted, you don't want to claim that Oprah recommended your product if she didn't. But if she considered the problem important enough to discuss on her show, there's no reason you can't point that out before you describe why your product does a superior job of that. And the same thing goes for the Wall Street Journal, or Better Homes and Gardens, or any other respected
media outlet.

Ever heard of the business "As Seen On TV!"? They've built their whole business around selling products whose dubious claim to credibility is that someone, somewhere paid for at least one TV commercial for them. But the business plays off of people's respect for TV by using that respect as a selling point for their products.

As long as you don't claim more than you can back up, you can use the same strategy.

Look for ways to associate your product with something that has greater perceived value
One final example of Super-Sizing your product in potential customer's minds. Have you ever seen sales copy that said something like this: "This isn't just an ebook; this is a complete system for increasing your wealth"?

That's Super-Sizing, too. Have you tried to make your product a great value for your customer by making it more than just the run-of-the-mill whatever that your competitors sell? Then point out that extra value by associating your product with something a step up the ladder of respect.

By doing so, you instigate the following comparison in their minds: "Hey, a [next step up] is worth a lot more than a [typical, ordinary product]. But they're only charging what I would pay for a [typical, ordinary product]. This is a great deal!"

And that is exactly the way you want them thinking. Just like with McDonald's Super-Sizing, they start to see your product as a bargain and their sales resistance decreases.
Jeff

The Four U's That Help You Sell
Top copywriter Bob Bly shared with our small group at a recent seminar four U's that he uses as a checklist on all his copywriting:

• Urgent—your copy has to have a reason to buy now, such as a limited time or supply that keeps readers from putting off a decision
• Unique—your product and your offer has to be better than what others offer
• Ultra-specific—you need to avoid generalities. You can't succeed by trying to be so general that what you're selling appeals to everyone. By being ultra-specific, you aim your copywriting arrows at a specific target audience instead of shooting blindly in the hope of hitting something
• Useful—your product must be presented in terms of the benefits it gives your readers

I found it a great checklist that can improve almost any copy instantly.
Jeff