To many this will be new and to some digital marketers/copywriters this is straight classic fundamental material. Yet I still see a ton of websites/small business’s never doing this or making it way too complicated.
Below I will break down the formula and give you the easiest way to apply it to your website now.
I was watching one of my digital mentors Dan Lok “The King of High Ticket Sales” and he had this amazing video that condensed this formula –
1. Headline – Grab Their Attention Now
2. Opening – Help Them See the Vision, Tell the Story
3. Credentials – Why Should I Listen to You?
4. Offer – What Do They Get Now?
5. Bullets – Show Bite Sized Benefits
6. Testimonials – Third Party Verification
7. Value Justification – The Problem Solution Scale
8. Risk Reversal – Guarantee / Promise
9. Call to Action – Make it Obvious
10. Urgency – Why Do I Want to Buy Now?
Here is a video I did just in case you would rather watch a summary instead of reading the article. (10 minute video)
Now most people wouldn’t know this but Dan took inspiration from Gary Halbert and John Carlton and probably others on this formula.
Gary and John are two of the most well known and “ripped off” marketers/copywriters who have ever lived. These guys have transformed the way all of us do digital marketing forever.
They are legends of their time and have done some insanely successful marketing that only a few have gotten close to achieving.
So it’s no wonder that everyone including Dan Lok and I will take inspiration from them whenever we can.
I’ll be adding some of my favorite pieces from Gary and John, the video from Dan and some of my favorite tips to add or make sense of everything for the general business owner or upcoming digital marketer.
For the general business owner – I do not expect you to learn how to do this but it is your DUTY to understand what great copy looks like and how to decipher it so that you can make money online, save money from scams and know the best person to hire when you want to make things happen on your website.
For the upcoming digital marketer – I hope these tool help you in any way and I wish you good luck.
1. Headline – Grab their attention now
Headlines are the single most important thing you could possibly worry about when crafting your page. Why? Because without a solid headline people won’t bother reading the next words. Do you think the headline is there to sell you or get you to put your info in the box?
Its neither.
The headline’s main mission is to get you to read the next paragraph.
That’s it. Nothing more. Nothing less. You need to get them to stop skimming, stop checking facebook, stop checking their phone and get them to start reading or watching your video ( more on this later ).
Here are some of my favorite headline formulas –
- How to (desired result)
- Why (blank) Fails and (blank) Succeeds
- Top 10 reasons why (blank)
TIP: Typically I like to come up with a minimum of 20 headlines before choosing one, for any post, page or ad. There are hundreds of swipe files for you to grab out there.
2. Opening – Help them see the vision, tell the story
Use words like “imagine” and “think”to help position yourself as the expert while talking about their challenges, their fears and where they are at in their journey to their vision/destination.
This is where you will need to develop a buyer’s persona or a customer avatar. In case you don’t know what that is a simple definition would be –
A fictional character that represents your ideal prospect. By figuring out their challenges, struggle, wants and needs you can gain a tremendous advantage in copywriting/sales writing.
3. Credentials – Why Should I Listen to You?
This is where you must be interesting in some way. How can you prove that you’re an expert or at least give off the vibe that you are an expert and know what you are talking about?
Sometimes this is amazing insightful information that makes them go –
“Whoa how did they know?”, or a great story of why you the expert and how your story will help guide them to their victory.
4. Offer – What do they get now?
What will they get when they take your action? What will they get once they have a call with you? Or put in their email?
People are skeptical! Even more so with everything that is grabbing their attention. You must be concise, clear and very very easy to understand.
Dive into the seven sins a bit, play into laziness, greed, gluttony, lust, pride, envy or wrath.
For example: If you know that your crowd is usually extremely frustrated, then help them vent out that frustration by meeting them there and agreeing with it as if you were there in person. Show them you understand their wrath, their fury and their pain with their problem.
Onward.
5. Bullets – Show Bite Sized Benefits
Do you know enough features, advantages & benefits for my services ON my website to help the prospect make sense of taking any action?
Do you know the differences between features, advantages and benefits?
Are you sure?
Not to beat a dead horse but more often than not many people, especially people who have been in business for decades, have lost touch with what actually gets their customers to purchase in terms of FAB (features, advantages & benefits). And more often than not, they don’t even have it written down.
Below are examples of what we use for video promotion when speaking to our customers/prospects :
Features |
– A video sales letter of your site to promote your product
Advantages |
– According to the Social Science Research Network 65% of people are visual learners, by using video you will be able to access that audience, where you wouldn’t be able to without a video promotion.
Benefit |
– Increasing conversions, opt ins and allowing your visual learner audience to be pre-sold on your service and your brand, plus pre-positioned before they even get to you.
6. Testimonials – Third Party Verification
You can sing about your product all day long but at the end of the day third party verification is 10x more valuable than your own.
People crave safety when purchasing or making an investment so it’s no wonder that testimonials can increase conversions, credibility and authority all at the same time.
TIP: The number one reason most people don’t have testimonials: THEY DON’T ASK. You need to ask. Don’t be afraid or push this to the side. You have to have this when trying to demonstrate the value of your product/service.
As Dan says ” The prospect is skeptical. Everyone is always asking ‘How do I know you are telling the truth?’ “
7. Value Justification – The Problem Solution Scale
Does the value of your product/service exceed the price it is listed at. Everyone in the world does this when purchasing a product. As Grant Cardone (another digital mentor of mine) says, are you giving them a “Winners Exchange?”
Winners Exchange
Imagine purchasing a book for $30 dollars, and it was an ultimate selling manual for you to reach a million dollars in less than a year. Do you really think the value of the book is $30 dollars when you are purchasing it? Or do you think its worth more than $30 and that’s why you’re purchasing it?
Of course you think that book is worth more than $30. That’s why we purchase things. If I thought that book was worth $30 I would never have bought it, I imagine it will be worth far more than that and that’s why I purchase.
TIP: As Dan says ” Think of a scale in the minds of the buyer. They are always weighing out the options”
8. Risk Reversal – Guarantee / Promise
What can you guarantee this person so they feel 100% comfortable with moving forward? It doesn’t matter whether you want them to call, send an email, or register. You have to figure out a way to reverse their risk.
How can you make it so easy to call or take action, where it would be crazy for them not to at least give it a try?
Some famous examples of guarantees :
Red Wing Shoes – Returning footwear can be a problem because most companies require the shoes to be unworn or in like-new condition. Red Wing gives customers 30 days to break in a pair and return them for “whatever reason, no questions asked” for refund or exchange if accompanied by a receipt.
Nordstrom – “Free shipping, free returns. All the time.” No minimum purchase required.
HEB Grocery – 100% Guarantee Promise (My personal favorite)
If you aren’t completely satisfied with your product we’ll be happy to replace it or refund your money. You have our word on it.
TIP: In the video below Dan makes a very good point that you should craft a guarantee that is uncomfortable for you to offer. If it is uncomfortable to the point where you worry that people will take advantage then it is probably a good guarantee and you should use it.
9. Call to Action – Make it Obvious
Make this as simple as humanly possible. Spell it out. Do not leave anything to chance. Make it dummy proof. Too many people take it for granted that, since its a digital world, everyone obviously knows what to do.
They don’t. Nor do they care.
You must make it simple, clear and concise. It has to be a no brainer for them.
10. Urgency – Why do I want to Buy Now?
This is probably the number one thing that people fail to do every single time. They do not create urgency. Either because they are scared to seem too scammy, or advertisey or salesy or any other silly excuse.
Stop. Hammer time.
Time to hammer down on why they need to act now. Use an expiration date on your offer. Offers must expire before people actually move on to something. It’s human nature.
People will procrastinate if you let them. They will always procrastinate! Right? You know this is true. So why would you let them leave your website, your office or your meeting without actually servicing them?
If you are offering a first rate product/service, (which I am sure you are if you are reading this far) and you have properly qualified, then you are doing a serious disservice to that person by not nudging them into a close.
When you don’t close, everyone loses. You lose. Your customer loses the chance to be better. The economy loses.
Get. Them. To. Move.
Here are some of my favorite articles from John Carlton and Gary Halbert – so there you have it. A quick and dirty crash course on how to check if your website is a salesman in digital print or just a glorified business card online.
Here is Dan Lok’s video if you would like to see it. It’s 30 minutes long so make sure you have some time to view it.
P.S.
If you’re local to Austin, Texas then I would encourage you to give me a call at 210.362.8163, so we can chat sometime on how my team could help you save time, and make money online. It doesn’t matter if you’re service or product based, B2B or B2c, these principles will always apply.
Give me 15 minutes and I promise it will be worth your time.
Our mission is to help 202 business make 0- $10,000 online by 2020. That’s what we’re aiming towards. So if you’d like to be a part of that, then send us an email or give us a call now at 210.362.8163.
P.P.S.
Right now we are offering a free homepage demo and a free mastermind session checklist for this week only. So make sure to call now.
210.362.8163
Recent Comments