for not writing earlier.

+ For the 404 error in my last post. (The guys at the office wanted me to take it down because it was a bit too aggressive. I have put it on a secret page and will email to you if you want it.)

+ For not telling you the ultimate principal in copywriting that lifts your conversion rate of your copy every time, this principle is so important that:

If you Don’t learn this copywriting principle, At 4:35pm on Friday your electricity is going to stop, your gas will be switched off and a large groaning mob is going to be standing at your door with axes and pitch forks looking for you

Before I let you in on the secret you need to get a full grasp of the current trends in the market and how they are effecting your online marketing.

The top 3 fallacies You Could be experiencing with copy on your website, as it stands today

1. People don’t read - Every man and his dog is telling you that people don’t read copy on websites anymore. Let me give you some insight as to why people are telling you this:

+ The people who are telling you this are exceptionally unproductive and cannot focus for 15 minutes to read and learn new information. Unfortunately they go on to make the fatal mistake to assume everyone in the market is just the same as them and start spruiking that “No one reads copy on websites”.

X - Fallacy - The actual people that you want to deal with are the people who are reading all the words on your page. In fact the people who are interested in what you are offering will read ALL of the words you have to say on your website. They will literally vacuum up every bit of content. Old direct marketers sometimes used to print extra text in their ads in the margin of the page. Why? Because they knew the people who were interested would read it and they applied the principle I am going to teach you.

+ Lazy web analytics people see high bounce rates and low site visit times and assume its because no one reads anything on websites anymore. These people just look at the big numbers and make poor assumptions.

X - Fallacy - The actual reason why most people immediately leave a website is because the content they were seeking wasn’t there. Instead I recommend you realise there is a lot of traffic that doesnt just leave your website immediately and figure out why. Remember the law of small numbers that you may only be dealing with a small group of people to make your website work. Focus on your content for small niche audiences and apply the principle I am about to teach you.

2. Attention spans have gone to hell - I must admit I am almost ADD in my web behaviour, but I know the difference between productive work and non productive work. Unproductive work is when you jump all around the place and don’t focus on something and finish it. Most people call that short attention span. I play more Computer games than the average bear, at least 5 hours a week, but I focus on the one game for a significant period of time.

X - Fallacy - Just because people are jumping around between things and don’t focus on websites for long doesnt mean that when they are interested in buying something they don’t focus and make a considered decision. There is the exception like the “Ringtone” market where kids just signup on a whim and don’t think about the consequences. That is a minority compared with the majority of people who plod their way around and take a small bit of thought before making a decision. Normally when web visitors are going to buy something the majority will spend the time and learn a bit about it before immediately pressing “Buy Now”. Even though attention spans are shorter, people will still focus when interested, this is why you need to write compelling copy and use the principle.

3. Copy on webpages is boring - This is probably the most unimaginative thing you could hear from someone. If someone says this to you, ask them “If they put only pictures in a newspaper would more people read it because it was more fun?”.

X - Fallacy - The cosmetics of copy is something which you must address, especially if you are writing longer copy.

Use: Dot points, bolds, highlights, titles, headlines, mid way headlines, subheads, italics, boxes, ticks, stars, pictures, graphs, videos and audio to bring your copy to life.

The main reason that people have boring copy is because they havent applied any Cosmetic “Copy” Surgery to give it some life and to break the page up.

What “Beaten into short dot point copy” Online Marketers can use to Defend Arm Chair Copywriting Experts

Firstly you need to explain to them the 2 types of customers which you can attract with your marketing:

Bad customers

The customers who you don’t want to talk to do the following:

1. Research nothing
2. Don’t make considered decisions
3. Make impulse purchases

These customers are a nightmare because they:

1. Ask for refunds
2. Are cheap
3. Won’t buy from you again (Their lifetime value is low)
4. Waste all the time and money you spent in attracting them
5. Are a pain and a hassle and clog up your customer support
6. Lose you Boat Loads of Money

Good Customers

Instead the customers you want to attract have the following qualities:

1. Research and make considered decisions
2. Are committed to their purchase and will not refund
3. Will come back and buy more
4. Are a delight to work with
5. Make you lots of money

Think about these qualities and these types of people, imagine what kinds of questions they would be asking you. Imagine how they act and what they do, these are the customers you want.

You then use the principle I am going to share with you now to attract the good customers and leave the bad customers alone.

This principle which I am going to share with you has been shared with me from generations of great copywriters (Gary Halbert, Dan Kennedy, John Caples, Michael Kiely) its not my innovation, its just a prooven principle.

The next time you are critiqued about the length of your copy on a web page simply explain this principle: “The More You Tell, The More You Sell”.

You will inevitably create longer copy and explain as many benefits, allay as many doubts and objections as the page will allow you.

Let me share you a secret: The long 30 page scrolling pages with the Yellow backgrounds convert. They leave absolutely nothing on the table untold.

Sure most people are already sold before they even reach the sales letter and scroll to the bottom and just buy, but a lot of them arent and read every word of those web pages. I have heard of one guy falling asleep reading the sales letter only to wake up and find out that the special offer was now closed!

Reject the peer pressure and tell your story in the copy, leave no stone unturned persuading your customers.

P.S. The search engines will love you for it too!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 9th, 2008 at 4:47 pm and is filed under copywriting, online marketing strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.