The Number One Secret To Home Business Success
Nothing will help your home business succeed or fail faster than
your copywriting. Good copywriting will earn you the kind of
money you can only dream about. Bad copywriting will sink your
home business faster than a nuclear warhead!
Everything begins and ends with your copywriting. Good
copywriting is a great deodorant. It can cover up and mask a lot
of things that may stink about your home business, like an
inferior product, poor website design, poor customer service,
etc.
When writing an ad or sales letter, there are two critical
points you must NEVER, EVER forget:
1. Most people don't make a buying decision based on logic. They
make a buying decision based on their emotions. They justify
their decision later with logic.
2. People don't want to feel like they're being coerced or
pushed into anything. They want to feel like they arrived at a
buying decision completely of their own free will.
Here's the key: You MUST write every single ad and sales letter
using the following classic AIDA formula:
A=ATTENTION I=INTEREST D=DESIRE A=ACTION
Let's break down each letter, so that you can understand the
full import of the formula:
A=ATTENTION: The very first thing your ad or sales letter must
do is get your reader's attention. The very best way to do that
is with an effective headline.
When it comes to copywriting, nothing is more important than
your headline.
Believe it or not, just changing the headline has been known to
dramatically improve the effectiveness of an ad or sales letter
by up to 1700 percent!Yes, headlines are that powerful--and that
important!
An effective headline will do many things at once. It will
attract the reader's attention, convey benefits by appealing to
the reader's self-interest and it will set the stage for what is
to come. It will also target the audience for which it was
intended.
But the number one thing a headline should always do is answer
the question, "What's in it for me?" Why? Because that's all any
of us really care about.
Next, we come to the second letter in the aforementioned AIDA
formula: I="INTEREST". After you get your reader's attention,
you want to get them "INTERESTED" in your product or service.
You do that by immediately telling them what your headline
promises. You don't waste their time with a bunch of fluff and
garbage that nobody but you cares about.
Tell them what they want to know, starting with the very first
paragraph, and continue to tell them, right through to the very
last paragraph. If you keep them interested, they'll keep
reading, right to the very end.
Next comes the third letter letter in the formula: D="DESIRE".
You have to make your prospects "DESIRE" your product or
service. And the best way to do that is with benefits, benefits
and more benefits!
Remember, just keep telling your reader's what your headline
promised. Also, tell them what they stand to gain by purchasing
your product or service. More importantly, tell them what they
stand to lose, if they doesn't purchase.
Push their emotional "hot buttons", by using magic selling words
like, new, save, amazing, free, guaranteed, security, no-risk,
look younger, feel better, etc!
Finally, we come to the last letter in the formula, but
certainly not the least: A="ACTION". You want to close your ad
or sales letter with a call to action! In other words, ask them
for the order. It's important to ask for the order at least
three times, preferably six or more.
Here are a few examples of effective closes:
1. "Just click on the button below to order NOW, Risk-Free"!
2. "To get your FREE website, Order NOW"!
3. "Don't waste another minute! Order NOW"!
Something else that's very effective is to include a post-
script (P.S.) at the end of your ad or sales letter. Your
post-script should include an enticement of some sort, to get
your prospects to order NOW. You should also use the post-script
as a final call to "ACTION"!
Here's an example of an effective post-script:
P.S. "Don't forget, if your order within the next ten days,
you'll also receive a personalized calculator mouse pad FREE,
with your company's name embossed in gold lettering! Order NOW"!
You can also use a post script to tie everything together, by
summarizing your most important benefits.
Another reason that you should use a post-script is strictly
elementary. Studies have shown that most people, when reading an
ad or sales letter will read the headline and then immediately
zoom right down to the bottom of the page to check out the price
and see if your offer is anything that they'd be interested in.
Follow the formula faithfully and it will rarely let you down.
And remember, when writing your ads and sales letters, ALWAYS,
ALWAYS, ALWAYS answer that one question we all want to know:
"What's in it for me"?