Incorporating Proof and Believability

When your prospect reads your ad, you want to make sure he

believes any claims you make about your product or service. Because

if there’s any doubt in his mind, he won’t bite, no matter how sweet

the deal. In fact, the “too good to be true” mentality will virtually

guarantee a lost sale…even if it

 

 

is

all true.

So what can you do to increase the

 

 

perception

of believability?

Because after all, it’s the perception you need to address up front.

But of course you also must make sure your copy is accurate and

truthful.

Here are some tried and tested methods that will help:

•

 

 

If you’re dealing with existing customers who already know you

deliver as promised, emphasize that trust. Don’t leave it up to

them to figure it out. Make them stop, cock their heads, and

say, “Oh, yeah. The ABC Company

 

 

has

never done me wrong

before. I can trust them.”

•

 

 

Include testimonials of satisfied customers. Be sure to put full

less believable than “Andy Sherman, Voorhees, NJ.” If you can

also include a picture of the customer and/or a professional

title, that’s even better. It doesn’t matter that your testimonials

aren’t from somebody famous or that your prospect does not

know these people personally. If you have enough compelling

testimonials, and they’re believable, you’re much better off

than not including them at all.

•

 

Pepper your copy with facts and research findings to support

your claims. Be sure to credit all sources, even if the fact is

common knowledge, because a neutral source goes a long way

towards credibility.

•

 

For a direct mail letter or certain space ads where the copy is in

the form of a letter from a specific individual, including a

picture of that person helps. But unlike “traditional” real estate

letters and other similar ads, I’d put the picture at the end near

your signature, or midway through the copy, rather than at the

top where it will detract from your headline. And…if your sales

letter

 

is from a specific individual, be sure to include his

credentials to establish him as an expert in his field (relating to

your product or service, of course).

•

 

If applicable, cite any awards or third-party reviews the product

or service has received.

•

 

If you’ve sold a lot of widgets, tell them. It’s the old “10 million

people can’t be wrong” adage (they can be, but your prospect

will likely take your side on the matter).

•

 

Include a GREAT return policy and stand by it! This is just good

business policy. Many times, offering a double refund

guarantee for certain products will result in higher profits. Yes,

you’ll dish out more refunds, but if you sell three times as many

widgets as before, and only have to refund twice as much as

before, it may be worth it, depending on your offer and return

on investment. Crunch the numbers and see what makes

sense. More importantly,

 

test! Make them think, “Gee, they

wouldn’t be so generous with returns if they didn’t stand

behind their product!”

•

 

If you can swing it, adding a celebrity endorsement will always

help to establish credibility. Heck, if ‘ol honest Abe Lincoln

recommended your product and backs up your claims, it must

be true! Ok, you get the idea, though.

•

 

When it makes sense, use 3rd party testimonials. What are 3rd

party testimonials? Here’s some examples from some Web site

copy I wrote when there weren’t many customer testimonials

available yet:

“Spyware, without question, is on an exponential

rise over the last six months.”

-

 

Alfred Huger, Senior Director of Engineering,

Symantec Security Response (maker of Norton

security software)

“Simply clicking on a banner ad can install

spyware.”

-

 

Dave Methvin, Chief Technology Officer, PC Pitstop

A deployment method is to “trick users into

consenting to a software download they think they

absolutely need”

-

 

Paul Bryan, Director, Security And Technology Unit,

Microsoft

Do you see what I did?

I took quotes from experts in their respective fields and turned

them to my side. But…be sure to get their consent or

permission from the copyright holder if there’s ever any

question about copyrighted materials as your source.

Note that I also pushed an emotional hot button: fear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s been proven that people will generally do more to avoid

pain than to obtain pleasure. So why not use that tidbit of info

to your advantage?

•

 

 

Reveal a flaw about your product. This helps alleviate the “too

good to be true” syndrome. You reveal a flaw that isn’t really a

flaw. Or reveal a flaw that is minor, just to show that you’re

being “up front” about your product’s shortcomings.

Example:

“You’re probably thinking right now that this tennis racket is a

miracle worker—and it is. But I must tell you that it has one

little…shortcoming.

My racket takes about 2 weeks to get used to. In fact, when you first

start using it, your game will actually get worse. But if you can just

ride it out, you’ll see a tremendous improvement in your volleys, net

play, serves, …”

 

 

 

And so on.

There’s a tendency to think, with all of the ads that we are

bombarded with today that every advertiser is always putting

his best foot forward, so to speak. And I think that line of

reasoning is accurate, to a point.

But isn’t it refreshing when someone stands out from the crowd

and is honest? In other words, your reader will start to

subconsciously believe that you are revealing all of the flaws,

even though your best foot

 

 

still

stands forward.

•

 

 

Use “lift notes.” These are a brief note or letter from a person

itself. As always,

 

test!

•

 

If you are limiting the offer with a deadline “order by” date, be

sure the deadline is real and does not change. Deadline dates

that change every day are sure to reduce credibility. The

prospect will suspect, “if his deadline date keeps changing, he’s

not telling the truth about it…I wonder what else he’s not

telling the truth about.”

•

 

Avoid baseless “hype.” I discussed that in my previous tip.

Enough said.

The Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Also known as the unique selling

 

position, the USP is often one of the

most oft-misunderstood elements of a good sales letter. It’s what

separates your product or service from your competitors. Let’s take a

quick look at some unique selling propositions for a product itself:

1)

 

Lowest Price – If you’ve got the corner marketed on budget

prices, flaunt it. Wal-Mart has made this USP famous lately, but

it’s not new to them. In fact, selling for cheaper has been

around as long as capitalism itself. Personally, I’m not crazy

about price wars, because someone can always come along

and sell for cheaper. Then it’s time for a new strategy…

2)

 

Superior Quality – If it outperforms your competitor’s product

or is made with higher quality materials, it’s a good bet that

you could use this fact to your advantage. For example,

compare Breyers Ice Cream to their competitor’s. From the

packaging to the wholesome superior ingredients, the quality is

evident. It may cost a little more than their competitor’s ice

cream, but for their market, it sells.

3)

 

Superior Service – If you offer superior service over yourcompetitor’s, people will buy from you instead. This is

long-distance, Internet service providers, cable television, etc.

4)

 

Exclusive Rights – My favorite! If you can legitimately claim

that your product is protected by a patent or copyright,

licensing agreement, etc., then you have a winner for exclusive

rights. If you have a patent, even the

 

President of the U.S.

must buy it from you.

Ok, what if your product or service is no different than your

competitor’s? I would disagree, because there are always differences.

The trick is to turn them into a positive advantage for you. You want

to put your “best foot forward.” So what can we do in this scenario?

One way is to present something that your company has devised

internally that no other company does. Look, there’s a reason why

computer store “A” offers to beat their competitor’s price for the

same product by X%. If you look closely, the two packages are never

exactly the same. Company “B” offers a free scanner, while company

“A” offers a free printer. Or some other difference. They are

comparing apples to oranges. So unless you find a company with the

exact same package (you won’t…they’ve seen to that), you won’t be

able to cash in.

But what if you truly have the same widget for sale as the guy up the

road?

Unless your prospect knows the inner workings of both your and your

competitor’s product, including the manufacturing process, customer

service, and everything in-between, then you have a little potential

creative licensing here. But you must be truthful.

For example, if I tell my readers that my product is bathed in steam

to ensure purity and cleanliness (like the cans and bottles in most

beer manufacturing processes), it doesn’t matter that Joe’s Beer up

the road does the same thing. That fact that Joe doesn’t advertise

this fact makes it a USP in your prospect’s eyes

 

 

 

 

Want some more USP examples?

•

 

 

We are the only car repair shop that will buy your car

if you are

not 100 percent satisfied with our work.

•

 

 

Delivered in 30 minutes or it’s on us!

•

 

 

No other furniture company will pay for your shipping.

•

 

 

Our recipe is so secret, only three people in the world know it!

As with most ways to boost copy response, research is the key with

your USP. Sometimes your USP is obvious, for example if you have a

patent. Other times you must do a little legwork to discover it (or

shape it to your target market).

Here’s where a little persistence and in-person selling really pays off.

Let me give you an example to illustrate what I mean:

Suppose your company sells beanbag chairs for kids. So you, being

the wise marketer that you are, decide to sell these beanbags in

person to prospects before writing your copy. After completing

twenty different pitches for your product, you discover that 75

percent of those you visited asked if the chair would eventually leak.

Since the chairs are for kids, it’s only logical that parents would be

concerned about their youngster jumping on it, rolling on it, and

doing all things possible to break the seam and “spill the beans.”

So when you write your copy, you make sure you address that issue:

“You can rest assure that our super-strong beanbag chairs are triplestitched

for guaranteed leak-proof performance. No other company

will make this guarantee about their beanbag chairs!”

For a really in depth look at how to perfect a better USP checkout

http://www.informativebooks.com