8 Ways To Boost Email Open Rates
Once you get past the challenge of getting your emails delivered You need to get them opened. Here are 8 proven ways to increase open rates with your subject lines ( There are many more ) Use specific numbers. Instead of having a subject line like… How I made 140,000 last year Try: How I made $142,473.62 Use question marks. It peaks curiosity, people like to think they know the answer and sometimes they want to know the answer. Here’s one: The End of Internet Marketing? Use percentages. This diet worked with 87% of test subjects Use Video: [new video] reveals #1 secret to burning belly fat Use free report [FREE REPORT] Slash 20 strokes of your next round Use RE in front of subject line: RE: Chinas Secret For Acne Personalize: You, Your Scarcity: FINAL...
read moreHow to Build a Sales Funnel
The first rule of how to build a sales funnel that is effective, is to keep it simple. Second rule is to think of your end game. What is your desired outcome? If you are running a business that offers Yoga instruction. Is your ultimate desire to run retreats for several days on an exotic island where they eat healthy and teach them Yoga on the beach? Your sales funnel might look like this. FREE GIVE AWAY(to get emails or someone to phone)>LOW END PRODUCT (No more than $20)>MAIN PRODUCT OR SERVICE> HIGH TICKET ITEM> CONSULTING>ISLAND RETREAT If you can’t come up with a free giveaway or low end product .Think about your main product and service and everything you offer and how you can break that down. How can you offer one of those things for less? How can you give one of those things away? It’s pretty straight forward when you work backwards. Ultimately your goal is to get people to that high priced ticket item. But not everyone is going to want that. You must build trust – Free Item You must develop a relationship and get them to exchange money – Low item And continue working up the...
read moreHow to Improve Your Sales Copy
So your sales copy sucks? Maybe you’ve pulled out the big guns and hired a copywriter, but you’ve discovered that you are still falling flat on your face getting anyone to take action? Listen, besides the obvious steps you should be taking — You need to be split testing! Here’s one that is critical. If any sales copy is going to fail, it usually boils down to three things: Your message is not clear It doesn’t convey what the benefits are The call to action is buried, non-existent or confusing. Now this is bearing in mind that you have a product or service that people need and your marketing is rocking. First off, any time someone sees an email, a website, a direct mail piece, or a video. You have to imagine that they have three questions going through their head. 1. What is this about? 2. How does it benefit me? ( Basically why shouldn’t I click away and get back to the million and one distractions that are far more important than you?) 3. What do you want me to do? You need to be able to answer those questions in the clearest, most efficient and compelling way. Approaching any advertising efforts with these three questions in mind, will break down even the most complex products, services or goal that you might have. If you are not clear enough, you will lose people before they even see the benefits If you are not efficient enough, and you ramble on about what your think people want to know, again you will lose people If you don’t present what you have to offer in a compelling way, you will lose people. Remember, people are SUPER BUSY. You might think your product or service is the next best thing, since sliced bread but trust me, having created advertising for over 13 years now. I can tell you that most people just want the facts. The only reason you should be waffling on for a long time, is if each sentence matters to them. If it doesn’t, get rid of it. This answers the question of: How long should sales copy be? Answer: As long as it takes to convey what they NEED to know. I emphasize the word NEED as all too often, advertising is filled with unnecessary verbiage. Keep it clear, keep it directed at what they get out of it, and make sure there is no doubt as to what you are asking them to do. Don’t throw phone numbers, websites, and the whole kitchen sink at them if you only want them to click a...
read moreHow to Avoid Hype In Your Sales Copy
This is likely to be the shortest blog post ever! Occasionally I get a client who wants new sales copy but wants to avoid hype. I always ask them what they mean by that. The reason I ask, is because everyone is different in what they perceive is hype. Some think SALES HYPE is using words like Amazing, Great, Powerful, Astonishing, Incredible, The Best, The Only, etc. Other’s assume it’s bolding words, using underlines and excessive amounts of yellow highlighting. It’s not! If you want to avoid hype in your sales copy. Remember these three things. Don’t write anything that is NOT true. Don’t make claims you cannot prove. Don’t make promises you cannot deliver on. If you think your product or service is the best thing since sliced bread. Get in line, so does everyone else. But seriously, if you think yours is THE BEST. The one product that is ahead of the pack. It’s completely ok to say it is, as long as…. YOU CAN BACK IT UP YOU CAN DELIVER YOU CAN PROVE...
read moreHow Much Should It Cost To Hire A Copywriter?
Please understand… I’m not talking about someone who writes articles If you have spent anytime reading this blog, you would know by now that there is a huge difference between a WRITER and a COPYWRITER Recently a client I had worked with in the past wanted to know if I could take on a new project. He was keen to work with me again because according to him, I had increased sales on the last project by 75% Just to put that in perspective… That means for every 100 people who showed up at his site. 75 people were buying. That is a pretty damn good LEAP in sales, just by having me handle the sales copy ( It was a standard long form sales letter ) Now I could jump up and down, do a dance and blow my horn! But the truth is, that just because a copywriter gets 75% for one guy, it doesn’t mean he will get the same for the next client. There are many things that come into play: Social proof Trust Pricing Decent product Marketing Unfortunately not everyone has all that in place and yet they still expect to get the same results. People rant and rave about conversion rates as if that is the ONLY determining factor of whether or not a copywriter is any good. That should never be the reason you hire a copywriter. Please understand there is a difference between getting results and conversions. I’ve covered the topic of conversions at great lengths, so I won’t rehash it. I will just direct you to 2 posts. One on my site called The Ugly Truth and one on Ben Settle’s Website But back to the reason I wrote this… How much should it cost you to hire a copywriter? Well before I provide that answer, here are four questions you should ask BEFORE you ask them how much. 1. How long have you been a copywriter? Look, you don’t want someone who fancies him or herself as a copywriter. i.e The guy or gal who knows how to write an article but it’s not paying enough so they think they can write sales copy. Remember this is your money we are talking about here. I wouldn’t consider anyone under 5 years. 2. Have you made any money selling your OWN products & services with your OWN sales copy? Not all clients reveal what their product or service is making to a copywriter, so how can you tell if the copywriter your hiring has had real world experience in selling? Find out if they have products themselves. A decent copywriter will! Why? because they can get results and who better to get results for than themselves? 3. What do clients say about your work AFTER it was tested? Not before as that means nothing. This is just a no-brainer. Clients of course are going to jump for joy when you deliver copy that makes their copy look like a kid wrote it. But their feedback is NOT what determines if the copy is good. The results are and you only get that AFTER testing. 4. Do you write the copy yourself or do you farm it out to cheaper copywriters? Trust me I know a number of “WON’T MENTION NAME” copywriters who farm out their copy to other copywriters for a 1/3 of the cost and then pocket the rest. Quite frankly it’s a joke! But how can you tell it’s them writing it? Well do they say they are an AD agency? if so they are probably farming it...
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