James Teale’s Blog

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I know, I know… it’s a little bit late, but anyhow, here’s the latest installment of my short but sweet copywriting tips:

Tip #6: “Why Have You Said This?”

This is actually one of the most simple and straightforward copywriting techniques available to you, and yet one of the most powerful. What’s more, the number of people who I see trying to sell their products online that don’t use this is quite shocking!

In fact, the idea behind this technique is so blatantly obvious… I’m almost embarrassed to point it out. Well anyway, here goes:

When making any kind of statement/claim about yourself or your product in your sales letter — e.g. your level of expertise, the benefits your product offers, its value, the low price etc. — you should always back it up with a valid reason why…

See, I told you it was simple!

But you’ll be surprised how powerful it is, and how many people just aren’t using it.

What I haven’t told you here is that there’s also a secret word that makes this technique even more powerful. I say “secret word” but it’s actually a common everyday word that’s so obvious, it often gets overlooked.

To find out this word you’ll have to check out my FREE ebook (I know… how mean of me!) and look up the ‘Reason Why’ section:

>>Download Your Free Copy Here<<

Tip #7: “Stop Being Everyone’s Friend”

Sounds a bit counterintuitive doesn’t it? Surely you want to be friends with as many people as possible so you can make more sales… right?

Well… no… not really.

That’s because whenever you’re selling any product, there’ll always be a group of people who will be the most receptive to your offer, and thus, far more likely to buy.

This is your target audience.

And these are the people you really need to “make friends with” in your sales pitch. It doesn’t matter if you annoy anyone who’s not in your target audience because they’re probably not going to buy anything anyway.

Just make sure to do your research and find out who your target audience actually is… and then find out everything you can about them! That way you can target your sales message towards them — and only them — and enjoy a much, much higher response!

Tip #8: “Hurry Up Already!”

When you’ve raised the interest levels of your potential buyer to the point where he/she’s actually considering buying what you have to offer, you need to overcome a certain something that will kill any sale — no matter how much your potential buyer wants your product.

One word: ‘Procrastination’

It’s just so much easier to put things off until later. Far easier than actually pulling out your wallet and going through the effort of entering your credit card details on a web page — especially if there’s no real reason for you to do it right away! And what usually happens, after a brief spell of procrastinating on your potential buyer’s behalf, is that he/she will probably no longer have any interest in your product. The impulse to buy is just not there any more.

So, your job is to completely crush any tendency for your prospect to procrastinate… and to close the sale as quickly as possible.

You can offer valuable bonuses for fast action, sell at a special offer price for a limited time until the price goes up, if there’s a limited number of stock… mention it!

Just be sure to include reasons why your potential buyer needs to jump on your offer right away… today… not tomorrow.

These reasons need to be truthful, mind you. If you’re selling an ebook, the old “We only have X copies left in stock…” trick just isn’t going to work. What’s more, you’ll be branded a liar — and that’ll do you more harm than good (no surprises there!)

Tip #9: “Now Take A Look At Exhibit A”

What am I talking about here?

Proof — that’s what.

Even if you’ve never told a single white lie in your life, the natural tendency for anyone (especially a new prospect) reading your ad is to not believe a single word that you have to say.

Don’t take it too personally, though. People are more skeptical these days than ever!

Instead, don’t give your prospects any reason to doubt what you say by backing up your claims with solid evidence. The type of evidence I’m talking about here is more than just giving reasons why. It’s screenshots, testimonials from past customers, testimonials from respected marketers, video evidence of your product in action… basically anything that you could present to a jury and say “Look, here’s solid proof that this actually works!”

Tip #10: “Your Product Might NOT Actually Be Your… ‘Product’!”

(Okay, bear with me here)

You see, If you’re in the information business, then you’re not actually selling ebooks… videos… audio, per se — or at least, that’s what you shouldn’t be focusing on trying to sell.

The information alone — as well as the type of delivery system you’re using to transfer this knowledge to your customer — is not your ‘product’. Your product is, in fact, what your ebook/video/audio does for your potential buyer.

So many people online seem to get too concerned with the actual features of what they’re selling — e.g. “For just $X you’re getting 10 high quality videos packed with information on XYZ… etc. — when your potential customer really just wants to know about what your information will actually do for them. How will it improve their life? What will they be able to do after receiving your product that they can’t do now?

In other words, sell them the benefits.

So, try to look at your product from an overall perspective, and decide what it is you’re actually trying to sell… and then focus on selling that. Mention the features, yes, but make sure your main pitch is centred around what your product actually does for your customer and you won’t go far wrong.

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Okay, that’s it for part 2. Part 3 will be here in the next few days — not weeks!

Thanks for reading

- James Teale

Click Here To Grab Your FREE Copy of Pure Selling Secrets

When confronted by the task of writing a sales letter, it’s all too easy to be slightly overwhelmed by the sheer size of the daunting mission ahead of you…

…unless, of course, you have a step-by-step process you can follow each time.

You see, it’s much easier to complete any big task by breaking it down into small, manageable chunks. Not only does it save you time, but it can also help you to maintain the momentum you need in order to just get the job done!

So… can you guess what the topic of my first newsletter is all about?

Yep, in issue #1 of my newsletter I’ve documented the entire process I go through every time I want to blast out another sales letter as quickly, and effectively, as possible.

And by following this process for yourself, I’m convinced you can do the same thing, too.

That way, you’ll have more time to spend on other areas of your business without getting bogged down with the frustration of trying to write a “silly little sales letter”… ever again!

To access the first issue (and future issues) of my FREE copywriting/making money online newsletter, you need only sign up using the order form at the following link:

Issue #1: “7 Easy Steps for Creating Your Own Sales Letters From Start to Finish”

Thanks for reading,

James

P.S. I haven’t forgotten about Parts 2 and 3 of “15 Short But Sweet Copywriting Tips”. They’re on their way. To be honest, I’ve had the mother of all headaches over the past few days –- apparently it’s sinus-related — so I’ve been spending as little time in front of my laptop as possible. Thankfully, after 3 days of intense pain, it’s starting to shift!

Inspired by a recent blog post made by fellow internet marketer John Szram, I’ve decided to put together a 3-part blog post containing a few essential copywriting tips for writing your own ads.

Enjoy!

Tip #1: Your Reader = Your Best Friend?

When you’re writing a sales letter that will potentially be seen by thousands of people across the world, it’s all too easy to become a little… daunted! What’s important to remember, however, is that it’ll only be one person on their own reading it, at any one time — in 99.9% of cases.

It’s therefore necessary to write your letter as if you’re writing to just one person: your reader.

Personal-style letters that address a reader as if you’re speaking to them one-on-one, tend to be more successful and get read far more often than letters that appear to be written with numerous people in mind. And the easiest way to do this is…?

Pretend you’re writing to a friend.

And not just any friend. It should be a friend that you communicate with quite frequently and share a lot of banter with.

So… when writing your letter, just picture your friend in your mind and imagine you’re having a normal conversation with him/her then put it into the words of your advert. You can always edit later, so don’t worry about making it too personal in your first draft.

Just make sure that your writing connects with your reader on a personal level and doesn’t come across as stiff, ‘corporate-speak’ which is usually a massive turn-off even to the most discerning reader.

Tip #2: Don’t Bore Your Readers

The last thing you ever want to do, when it comes to writing sales copy, is to be boring!

There’s nothing that will murder a potential sale quicker than a bland sales letter.

I’m not saying you should make your advert “hypey” — far from it. Instead, I’m talking about injecting words into your advert that make your writing appear to ‘come alive’.

Consider the following sentences:

“John opened the door and walked into the room”

“John flung open the door and burst into the room”

Now, that’s an exaggerated example. But I hope you can see that the second sentence creates a livelier mental image in your head about what’s going on in the story. And it’s this mental image that keeps your prospect hooked and willing to keep reading — instead of switching off and becoming bored by your advert.

The tip here is to sprinkle action words (verbs) throughout your writing, in places where you can bring mental images to life in your reader’s minds. Don’t put them in every sentence, otherwise you’ll overwhelm your reader and come across as ‘too keen’. Just drop them in here and there — especially in places whereyou want to convey strong emotion — and you should see your readership numbers start to soar.

Tip #3: Less is Definitely More

When writing adverts, it’s vitally important to understand that people in general hate reading — especially online! So with that in mind, you don’t want to give your readers too many words to pore over.

By this, I’m not saying you should shorten your advert by chopping out big paragraphs or totally removing the last page etc, just for the sake of making it shorter. If there are important points contained in those paragraphs, then they should stay — for obvious reasons.

You just need to communicate your points with fewer words.

This is actually an editing technique and you need not worry about it whilst writing your first draft — for this you can use as many words as you want. But, when you get to the editing stage you need to go back over what you’ve already written and start tightening things up.

Try playing around with sentence structures and word order to see if you can take out words that are simply taking up important space and aren’t necessary for getting your selling points across.

When you do this, you’ll find that your advert should be easier to read and will put your points across with much more speed and precision than a huge, waffling advert that tends to stray from the main points.

Tip #4: Don’t Overdo It!

When it comes to adding emphasis, it’s easy to fall into the trap of using too much highlighter and making too many words ‘bold’ in your advert. You really only want to emphasize the most crucial key points, otherwise with highlighter and bolded words all over the place it can turn into a great, big mess of ’sameness’.

And this actually has the adverse effect.

You see, if it becomes ‘the norm’ to have highlighted or bolded words in almost every paragraph, then the desired effect of making the words ’stand out’ will be seriously reduced.

Another factor to take into account is that, as a reader, it’s a little overwhelming to have so many “important” points being dramatically thrust at you every step of the way. It gets to a point where you can no longer judge exactly what is important and what isn’t… and it’s easier — or less confusing — to simply stop reading.

So… just don’t overdo it, yeah!

Tip #5: Be Interesting!

This tip actually follows on from tip #2. You see, not only is it wise to ’spice up’ the individual words of your advert, but it’s equally important (if not more) to pay attention to the actual content of what you’re saying.

In other words, you need to be interesting.

It stands to reason that if someone’s going to take their time to read your advert, they’re obviously going to have some kind of interest in the subject matter that you’re writing about.

So why not educate or wow them with fascinating facts or ideas about the subject matter to gain their interest and — as in tip #2 — not bore your reader into clicking away.

Remember, the key to do doing this right is to tie in your fascinating facts with the selling angles of your product. Don’t just randomly spew out facts for the sake of it. Make them relevant to your advert and try and relate them to how your product will make your reader’s life better off after they’ve purchased from you.

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Okay well that’s it for the first installment of my 15 copywriting tips. Check back in the next few days for parts 2 and 3.

If these tips have proved helpful, then please share them with others using the buttons below.

Thanks for reading,

James Teale

Pure Selling Secrets

I was drunk…

“Wrecked”… “Steaming”… “A little worse for wear”… – it doesn’t matter what you call it – this was how I randomly stumbled upon the weird and wonderful world of Internet Marketing… and it all happened around 3am after coming home from another decidedly average night out, back in the summer of 2004.

Picture the scene: I was sitting – no, wait – swaying at my desk whilst checking the old eBay – as you do after a heavy night out (oh, I had my reasons). At the time I was selling a dozen or so prized bottles of £80 champagne, virtually given to me during my brief employment in a well-known UK supermarket, back in my uni days. With no licence to sell alcohol, making a profit from these over-priced bottles of champagne hadn’t even crossed my mind until I discovered I could list them on eBay as… “Collector’s items” – riiiiight!

So anyway, there I was, minding my own business and looking through other people’s feedback comments – I must admit, the vicious, negative feedback comments exchanged by eBayers really used to entertain me in those days – when all of a sudden I came across a positive feedback comment with the words ‘life changing’. This piqued my curiosity, a little. Just enough to click on the item responsible for provoking said positive feedback, which led me to a sales page for an item that turned out to be an ebook written by the wonderful Sara Brown – real person… or pen name of respected UK Internet Marketer, Tony Shepherd? Who knows!

In any case, I was sucked right in by this mysterious sales page comprising of nothing more than black text on a navy blue background – major faux pas even in those days… but it worked. And the result? I couldn’t dig my credit card out of my wallet quickly enough to receive my copy of an ebook that would be sent to me… *sigh*… the next morning. This was before automation had caught on. And what’s more, I also then had to wait another few hours to receive my secret password so I could open the ebook – sheesh! Side note: anything with a secret password has got to be good, right?

So was it worth it? You bet.

Because, to cut a long story short, from that night onwards… I was hooked.

The sales page alone made damn sure of that – somehow. I say ’somehow’ because there were no pretty graphics. No pictures. No testimonials. No fancy fonts. In fact, it was probably one of the ugliest sales pages I’d ever seen! But looking back on that fateful night… there was something about that modest-looking sales page that jumped out at me and just wouldn’t let go until I’d parted with my money. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. What exactly drove me to make that purchase? I mean, I’d seen plenty of sales pages before, promising me the world, yet I hadn’t believed a single one. In time, I eventually discovered why.

I was motivated by the compelling use of words.

Simple as that, really. And when I’d made this profound revelation – fuelled by my passion for all things related to human psychology – I decided to devote a huge chunk of my time to figuring out exactly how this copywriting/salesmanship stuff works – as a hobby! In a word, I was obsessed.

So in a nutshell, that’s how I’ve got to where I am now. And it’s really only now that I’ve actually started to fully apply myself to internet marketing, and consider it as a full-time living – being in a band for the past 4 years didn’t leave much time for anything else!

But I’m out of all that now… for the time being.

This is the start of a new chapter.

Peace,

James Teale

P.S. If you’ve stumbled on this blog and haven’t yet read my 84 page ebook outlining many of my findings on this exciting – and quite frankly, fascinating – skill, intrinsic to Internet Marketing, then be sure to visit the following link where you can download your copy for free – no hidden up-sells, one-time-offers, or any of that kind of nonsense. Just pure information you can start using today.

Go grab your free copy now:

Click Here