Selling Blue Elephants for Fun and Profit.

Written by Aaron Colman
info@ibasics.biz
http://www.ibasics.biz

AIDA.
I hear it all the time. People trying to teach sales skills or ad copy. People that have watched one too many sales-based movies.

This doesn't mean that it's not a valuable thing to learn... but it's one thing to say "Get someone's attention" and it's quite another to teach people how to do that.

So what is AIDA?

In theory it's the 4 steps to getting a sale. Attention, Interest, Details/Decisions, Action.

You may have heard this a little differently, but by the time you're done reading this you'll understand why this makes more sense.

Attention:
So consider the situation. You're going along on the internet or maybe going thru a magazine and you see an ad. What will it take to get your attention long enough to change your pace?

Simple: Push a benefit and create a promise.
"A Free Year's Supply of Elephants! Delivered right to your door!"

If you like punky packyderms, that'd be enough to pull you into the ad. It also creates a promise. "Delivered right to your door!" At this stage, it doesn't have to be believable even... but it does help.

Answer this question: What's in it for me?

Interest:
So now you're glancing at the ad. But it's not enough to get you to actually read the ad. You can look at the form of the ad and skim the headlines without ever actually reading the text.

So how do you create interest?

Simple: Promise to Premise.
You start with the promise of daily Elephants and make it believable. Make it real. Create a full surround-style panoramic vision of floppy-eared Elephants gracefully ballroom dancing in your head.

Be certain to use effective headlines, _FONT STYLES_ that stand out and a careful crafting of ___white-space____ to direct their eyeball further down the page. Remember your USP. Use it.

Answer this question: Why you, over every other daily Elephant supplier?

Detail/Decisions:
Now that they're reading on and interested in your tusked delivery service. But before they mail in that reply card or point and click and credit card for their very own gray stampede they're going to want to know the details. More importantly, they need to make a decision about each detail. This is one of the biggest things that are missing in internet sales. Why does it take an average of 7 times for someone to buy from your website? Because it takes them 7 times to get used to, and comfortable with, making decisions on your site.

It doesn't have to be much.
1. We offer an additional elephant Rf-ID chipping service. Should you lose your elephant, we can track it anywhere with our patented GPS elephant tracking system! Would you like this add-on for only $19.95 per month?

2. Not ready for elephant ownership? Get ready with our new e-book "How to Win Friends and Influence Elephants" available for only $4.99 as an immediate download.

As you proceed to make the offer, include every detail that could come up. Shipping and handling, service costs, exactly what is and isn't included. A lot of people abandon shopping carts due to lack of information. There isn't enough info about what the product is and what it does, so they're reluctant to shell out their hard-earned cash.
It does make sense if you think about.

Answer the questions: How do you actually get Elephants to me? What do I do after I have them? What's this going to cost me? Can I get help if I need Elephant supplies?

Action:
Make a super strong call for action. A simple "Click here to buy" isn't good enough. Close actively. "If you buy today I'll throw in a month's supply of Elephant kibble for free!" as an added incentive.

Try something like:
"Buy before next month and get a free Elephant de-odorizer! Nothing is worse than a smelly mammoth!"

Or:
"Buy during our slow season and get 50% off our entire Elephant clothing line! Sweaters, t-shirts, belts... everything your Elephant needs to stay warm this winter!"

So now that you know what AIDA means, you're ready to begin using it.

And if you want an Elephant, let me know. I'm sure we can work something out ;).

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Aaron Colman, helping business make money online.

Web design, custom PHP scripts, MySQL databases and more.

Free e-Course:
Mastering Internet Lead Generation
http://www.ibasics.biz/leads
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