Five Ways to Give People a Reason to Buy Your Product or Service

Overcome lackluster copy and lack of product sales by using the passion approach. Announcements, such as "Here's my product!" do not work. Sure, you put a picture up and maybe a list of its features. What's the promise? Where's the benefits? How will your potential buyer's life be better by obtaining your product? How does a picture or list of features compel your prospective buyer to buy? The consequence? You miss many sales.

Write compelling, emotional copy to inspire people to buy your unique, wonderful creation. Use these powerful Online Promotion techniques:

1. Include your signature box on every email you send out.

Your signature or resource box, usually 4-6 lines, is your billboard to let people know who you are, the benefits they will receive, and what expertise and products you have to assist them. Without it or with a lackluster one of just your name and contact information, you are guaranteed no action that leads to connecting with you, better yet-- sales.

Your signature box is more important than your article, email, or ezine's message. Be sure to put some thought and time into it. Be willing to edit it at least 5 times. You want more than just your name and contact information. Remember your resource box is a call to action. Write it so your reader takes action-- either to send an email, phone you, or visit your Web site.

Once you get a reaction, it's up to you to make the next communication powerful and convincing. It's a good idea to have your sizzling headline and ad copy written out for phone and email responses. Even if you don't have a Web site, you need to have compelling headlines and sales letters ready.

If you send an email, be sure you include more specific benefits and the feature of your product they relate to. For instance, "Quadruple your Web sales in less than one month through submitting free articles to ezines."

When potential buyers visit your Web site be sure your home page has marketing pizzazz with benefit-driven headlines. Click here http://www.bookcoaching.com/freearticles/attractpizzazz.shtml

Include your signature or resource box at the bottom of each article, business communication, and ezine you send out. Use a separator such as ===== at the bottom of your message just before your signature.

Signature Box Examples and Feedback.

Here's one listed at the bottom of an article sent to opt-in ezines:

Person's name-- retired from a 30-year sales career is now a Sales Consultant. I recently wrote a manual for small business owners titled, "How to Build your Small Business Fast with Free Articles," and several other publications to help small businesses grow and prosper. Form more information... mailto: name@email host. Phone: xxx- xxx-xxx .Or Write: Name and PO Box.

Book Coach's Feedback:

It's all about the author, and not about his customer. We don't care if he is retired, Just one line of his name followed by his title "sales consultant" is enough. Always write with "you" in mind (your customers).The second line could be the title of his manual. I wonder is it e or print?

One benefit is "fast," but I want more. Will he help me build credibility? More customers? The feature is "free articles," which when added to the benefit is strong. It's good he included his audience in his manual title, so his customers are targeted.

He includes information to stay in touch with him: an email address, phone, and address. I'd say his next step is to get a domain name or submit his manual to another book-selling site. For that, he'll need a compelling headline, sales letter, and ordering information.

Author's Tip: Feature one special offer in each signature box. Include your Phone number so out-of-country people can talk to you.

In my signature box I include the Web address: http://www.bookcoaching.com/discounts.shtml to lead readers to services or products related to the subject of the article that I submit to opt-in ezines.

Last month I sent out an article on Online marketing with a link to my home page "Discounts of the Month," where I offered two eBooks for the price of one. In another article entitled "Teleclasses: Raise your Credibility and Profits," I included the words "teleclasses" and a link to my site where they are offered.

Put more time into writing your signature box than all other writing Send out a casual marketing survey to your friends and business associates to vote from 1-10 on the most powerful of those 4-6 lines. Ask them which of the phrases would compel them to take action. Edit it 5 times until it's as powerful as Hoover Dam.

2. Use "Passion Copywriting" rather than the "plain" approach on your Web site home page. Without this effort you will waste all that Web planning and creating time. Even worse, the money you paid to upload your information before you gave it a marketing eye.

If you are like many professionals out there, you know your subject, you are an expert speaker or coach in your field, are even passionate about it. But, you may not know how to tell people about your services and products to get them to buy because...(you fill in the blank with your reasons).

Visiting many Web sites, I've noticed long, long paragraphs and flat product descriptions. You have only 8 seconds to capture your visitor's attention. Make every word count.

Write dazzling home-page copy that gives your customers a Reason to click onto your links leading to your products or services. After they "click here," display a short sales letter or bulleted benefits and a choice to "buy now." Before I learned this ultimate powerful technique, my Web sales were flat. Serving up plain, flat copy when your visitors want passion, wastes all the effort and time you put into your product. Since incorporating "passion copywriting," my brand new Web site sales jumped from $75 in August to over $2265 by December 22..

Consider how fast these sales increased in less than four months. Just think what sales you can create when you use these techniques. Remember, your visitors will always say, "So what? Why should I buy this? What's in it for me?"

Author's Tip: Place the most important message in the top half of your Web site home page. Make sure you use my "Passion Copywriting" system.

On my home page I include two "Passion Copywriting" benefit statements: "Quadruple your Web Sales in Just One Month" and "Design Every Part of Your Book to Sell More Copies" with links that lead them to the product benefits and the "buy now" signal.

Preparation Tip: List all of your Product's Benefits and Features

Begin by putting yourself in your buyer's shoes. For each book, product or service, write as many benefits you can think of. Benefits include helping people make more money, develop more confidence, create better relationships, or learn a particular skill.

List your product's features such as tips, charts, number of pages, and how-tos for each product or service.

Later, transform the benefit into a "passion" statement placed in the top half of your Web site home page. Another example is "Design Every Part of your Book For More Sales."

Add a link that takes your visitor to the product page or order form. This technique sells far more products than hard-to-read onscreen information about you and your company. One of the biggest mistakes of author's Web sites is that long Table of Contents. Who cares? Always think what's in it for my potential buyer?

Make all your copy short and punchy, and avoid large graphics. Visitors get discouraged at the slow loading time and may leave. Remember your Web site's purpose! To sell products and services! Are you making it easy for your customers to buy?

Avoid large doses of red, which can overpower, even bring suspicion to some of your visitors. Remember your visitors are visual and emotional. Everything on your site should appeal to their senses.

3. Sell more products and services with testimonials.

My ezine subscribers to "The Book Coach Says..." doubled in one month when I added a short testimonial from author of The Self-Publishing Manual and self-publishing guru, Dan Poynter: "Book writing and marketing nuts and bolts-- Definitely worth your time."

If you offer a service, include client testimonials. Place them in your ezine and your Web site right before you list your service.

When you send out a free article include a testimonial about your free articles right above the article. Those rave reviews may be just the thing to get people to read on, and even download your article to share with other opt-in ezines with thousands of members. They in turn may pass it on, check out your ezine or Web site, and even buy a product or service from you.

On your products ordering page, include a testimonial from the "rich and famous" at the top.

The one time I would use a pop-up window that only pops up once is on the product order page. Include one "click here for more about the book." Within that window, list 3-5 benefits and a glowing testimonial from someone your visitor knows or respects. Put this information at the top before the title and price. For more information on "How to Get Testimonials >From the Rich and Famous" see http://www.bookcoaching.com/products.shtml.

4. Convince your Web visitors to return often.

You don't win your visitors' trust right away. It may take from 4-7 visits before they buy.

Upload new, original, and useful content often. On every page put a notice: Bookmark our site. We update material weekly. Then, follow up and put those free articles, book excerpts and tips up. Blatant ads such as banners turn visitors off. Give them original information they can't find anywhere else, and give it free. People want and expect free information on your Web site.

Publish your own ezine. Target it to your specific audience. Start with a monthly, then see if you can do it bi-weekly. If you don't stay in regular touch with your possible buyers they will forget you and your products. People want to connect Online to trust you as their savvy friend. If they like your eMag they will recommend it to others. See "Why you Should Visit my Web site" example here:

To bring back your visitors more often, host a discussion group on your site where people can interact fully as you share your knowledge and offer suggestions. This project will take more of your time than others, may be worth it.

Include "useful links "as a navigational bar on your home page where you post other related Web sites and a short description. This adds value to your site because people like the convenience of shopping for services and products-all on one Web site-yours!

5. Make it easy for your customer to buy.

They aren't psychics! They hate to go on a wild chase that wastes their time. They want information and results instantly!

One new coaching client wanted me to go to Amazon.com to view her book cover and title, read its table of contents, and read the book reviews there. She told me to just click "books" and it would take only two seconds.

In four minutes, I still hadn't found her book. I felt frustrated that I couldn't find the book, and also, that it should have been much easier. It boils down to: give explicit instructions as though your visitor is brand new to the Internet.

If you are like me, and consider yourself a non-techie, remember the times you tried to buy something Online, and just couldn't do the required steps, or found a broken link and couldn't complete the purchase? Don't you wonder how many other would-be customers lost their way and didn't buy?.

If you want people to go to a Web site to buy your product, put exact step-by-step directions into your email. Test your directions, because you may have made an assumption and left an important piece of the puzzle out.

If you are marketing a book on your site or another one include in each email, just as you would in a post card, your title, your full name, your ISBN # and publisher. In case the first attempt doesn't work, this information is necessary to further search. If I had had this information, I could have found the book in question on Amazon.

Check and correct all of your Web site links to make sure none are broken. When a person is ready to buy your product, make it easy for her to buy. Discouraged because your telephone line is busy, your Web site doesn't load fast or even come up, or your particular instructions don't get people where they want to be fast, your visitors will leave and give their time and money to another easier to navigate site.

You waste all of your time and money when you don't keep your potential customer or client in mind in all of your Online correspondence. Start incorporating these tips today!

Judy Cullins c.2005 All Rights Reserved.

Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in people's lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Judy is author of 10 eBooks including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast, Ten Non-Techie Ways to Market Your Book Online, The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Your Targeted Web Traffic, and Power Writing for Web Sites That Sell. She offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, "The BookCoach Says...," "Business Tip of the Month," blog Q & A at http://www.bookcoaching.com and over 185 free articles.

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Email her at Judy@bookcoaching.com or Cullinsbks@aol.com Phone: 619/466-0622 -- Orders: 866/200-9743