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Hype Sells, Like It or Not
By Tiffany | June 2, 2008
I’m so tired of them– aren’t you? You know what I’m talking about. Those hard-hitting
yelling-at-you-till-their-throats-are-sore sales letters. You know the ones. They’ve just discovered the quickest, and most lucrative way to make easy money on the Internet.
Or they’ve just discovered the cure-all for the human race that will save you from the ravages of just about every disease known to mankind. And did you notice they always, always have a gimmick?
Click here right now, because in three — count ‘em — three seconds this sales letter will self destruct! Now don’t we wish?
Well, as tired as you and I may be of that stuff, they aren’t going away anytime soon. I heard you sigh. I personally tried to resist that type of marketing when I started out on the ‘net.
But you know what I learned? I couldn’t live – economically speaking now –
without them. So, I figured if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em – but keep your integrity and reputation intact by learning the difference between hype and outright lies and deception.
Hype is just a buzz builder! But some marketers go too far and damage their credibility by promising things that aren’t realistic with their products.
I found out something about writing sales letters - those puppies are hard to write! When I sat down to write my first in-your-face ad, I struggled and struggled. I was writing for a ghostwriting client (one of those big guru names you all know and love to hate).
I emailed him – panicked. It just wasn’t flowing for me. I HATED writing like a used car salesman. So he ordered some books from Amazon for me to study – to learn why it didn’t have to be sleazy, but just successful.
The next time I needed to write a sales letter – BINGO! It was as easy as … well, not exactly pie … but it definitely made the process go much faster. And I’ll let you in on a little secret - you can write one of these letters too. It will increase your conversion rate dramatically.
Trust me on this one! I learned the hard way. Okay, so there are two books I recommend. One is the one my client made me read, and one (by Maria Veloso) is one I recommend to my own customers in Building an eBook Empire. Check ‘em out below:
Do you have a sales copy book that you recommend? What copywriter do you feel is most influential for online marketers? Does sales copy intimidate you? Sound off in the comments below!
Topics: Sales Copy |
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:34 am
Here’s what I find interesting…
Amazon sells books just fine, WITHOUT hypey sales techniques. Just book titles and user reviews.
Maybe that’s what’s needed on a salesletter….
That would be one heck of a split test!
50/50 between a ‘normal’ hypey salesletter, and a book cover, number of pages in the book, a book blurb, and some user reviews and stars.
Anyone want to take the risk and try it?
Lewis
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
I am interested in learning what you found useful about Maria Veloso’s book. Purchased it, read it, and threw it away. I didn’t find a single useful thing in it. While I don’t write my own sales letters, I do market successfully online, and have read a lot of books on copywriting. In my opinion, the best explanations on how to do it well are in materials by Joe Sugarman and John Carlton.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:29 pm
That is a good point about Amazon. Like you say Tiff I really struggle with being told all the time that to sell I have to have the same formula of sales copy that I really dislike myself. But as you say it does convert so we can’t escape it - all the time. But what really counts is building integrity and having a great product to stand by.
Maybe I will try your idea Lewis…..
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Recently bought your Building an ebook Empire and it was the best ebook I have ever read. You are so thorough in your explanations it is wonderful.Certainly well worth getting. Congratulations.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:03 pm
“And here is something very important for you to understand:
“YOU HAVE VERY LITTLE CONTROL OVER THE STATE OF MIND OF YOUR PROSPECTS.
“Although marketers throughout time have expended a lot of effort and resources trying, it is nearly impossible to ‘create a need’ or change the state of mind of an Investigator into that of a Buyer. If not impossible, it is very costly to try to manipulate the state of mind of your Prospects.
“This one concept is the root cause of much of the manipulative approaches to marketing and selling that have given marketing a bad name.
“It’s not about creating urgency. It’s about finding a profitable way to be there when your Prospects ‘warm up’ and their natural need becomes urgent enough for them to take action. And the way to do that is to build an Incubator.
“Can you imagine a chicken farmer trying to manipulate eggs into hatching? That would be ridiculous. I envision that poor farmer greedily grabbing the first egg that he comes across and trying to coax it into hatching immediately. What a waste of time and energy. Yet, this is what marketers and sales people try to do all the time.
“The egg will hatch when it is time. You just need to provide the right environment, care for it, and be there to feed the hatchling when it arrives.
“That’s what the prospect incubator is all about — giving you the time and the top-of-mind awareness required for you to be there when your Prospects are ready to take action. But instead of the heat lamps that chickent farmers use, you are going to use an automated series of communications as your Incubator.
“The Incubator can also serve to build a trusting relationship between you and your Prospect as well as to help educate them to make their buying decision easier.” —Doug Hudiburg
Regards, Elizabeth …
P.S. Hey, Tiffany, are you aware that you’ve got “nofollow” tags built into this blog? And that they are preventing links back to people’s websites who leave a comment here? You can take them out yourself; it’s easy. Just pop on over to Randa Clay’s site and read up on it and then grab the code for one of her UCOMMENT/IFOLLOW logos to put up in a prominent place on your blog so people know that, when they contribute a comment to your blog, you contribute a link to their site.
http://randaclay.com/blog/i-follow/
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:29 am
I’m not sure if I missed them… but your post has me waiting with bated breath for the name of the book your client made you read.
Thanks for sharing!
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:08 am
Hi Tiffany
just purchased your Squidoo ebook and read it straight through - I’ve purchased many ebooks these last few years and yours is the first one I have read in one go! Well done for an excellent style you have.
As to Sales letters/sites I really don’t understand why so many of them have to be about 15 pages long!!
I just give them a miss as so many promise so much yet deliver so little.
They seem to have forgotton the KISS Principal - Keep it simple stupid!
I shall buying more of your stuff in the coming weeks and months. Keep up the good work.
Regards
Bob
PS - Please send some of your Texas sunshine and heat over hear to Scotland - we need it desperately.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:44 am
Hey Richard - Robert Bly is who my client made me study
Bob, sending all my Texas sunshine your way! But you have to take the humidity that goes with it
I agree about the sales letters being so…LONG. I’m gonna try something new next time around. Stay tuned for it! And thanks for the kudos on the Squidoo eBook.
Barbara, thanks to you for the thumbs up on BAEE.
Lewis, I agree - that’d be an interesting case study for sure - you gonna do it for us?
NYGal - I’m sorry you didn’t find it useful. The book has 52 reviews on Amazon and a 5-star rating, so I’m not the only one who thinks it’s stellar
Alison, I agree - it gets annoying being told that. I feel that you CAN (and maybe should) be hypey, BUT - with 100% truth and disclosure in your sales copy. You don’t have to lie, overpromise/under-deliver and screw people out of their money.
Tiff
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Another recommendation (although it can be a bit hypey sometimes): Cash Copy by Jeffrey Lant. It’s especially useful for (copy)writers who have to struggle with clients using corporate-speak.
His copywriting formula in short: “Buy Benefit Now” (instead of “We are very proud to present the following features …)
Also, for net writers, check out anything by Nick Usbourne at http://excessvoice.com/
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Hi Tiff: I just recently started implementing some major changes on my site and this is a huge topic for me. I have redone the home page with an article about this same topic as I hate it myself. I have gotten a lot more subscribers since I have changed the direction I was going in. I really don’t think you need to scream at people for them to buy from you.