Congratulations! You have made it to the final hurdle. Over the past few days you have been learning how to grab your readers’ attention, get their interest, and create a desire for your product. At last the finish post is in site: now all you have to do is get them to take action.
Just because you have managed to create a desire for your product, doesn’t necessarily mean that your reader is going to buy. The best way to get your reader to take action is through the use of testimonials.
These are a great motivator and a tool that every freelance copywriter should have in their writing arsenal. People love to hear about the experiences of others. If your past clients have produced their own testimonials don’t edit them. They may contain the odd grammatical or punctuation error but this is exactly what you want – it makes them real.
Another way to get your readers buying is by offering free samples, statistics, a free trial or money-back guarantee. If you have these available why not use them all or a combination plus testimonials – just do whatever you feel necessary to get your reader to take action.
The call to action
If this is weak, the rest of your hard work would have been wasted.
They don’t have to be saved for the final paragraph. Sprinkle them throughout the sales letter or, if using email, use hyperlinks so once the decision to buy has been made your reader can act immediately.
Here are a few things to avoid when writing your CTA:
Ambiguity is bad – don’t confuse your reader
Watch your wordiness – you’ve made your pitch now get straight to the point
Don’t be vague – leave them in no doubt as to what they need to do
Put simply, your CTA should be short, simple, direct and clear:
Give them different ways to get in touch/place their order (e.g. email, fax, phone)
Give them a clear and simple-to-complete order form
Make it a command – ‘order now’ ‘order by 1st February’
There you go. That’s it. Your lesson is now over.
These techniques aren’t exclusively for sales letters. No matter what you are writing always remember: AIDA – Attention – Interest – Desire – Action and you can’t go wrong.
If you have been following this series of articles you now have the skills to created a killer headline to get the attention of your readers. You have sold them the benefits of your product to get their interest. So now all you have to do is create a desire.
Ask any sales person and they’ll all agree that getting someone interested in something is one thing, but to get them to want it is entirely different.
Why? Because what we actually want constitutes only a small percentage of the things we are interested in.
As a freelance copywriter I always keep one thought in mind whenever writing for clients – when someone wants something they’ll convince themselves that they really need it.
Bring the product to life
Use words to create a picture – make them ‘see’ what their lives would be like with your product. Play on their emotions. Will it give them kudos? Will they appear more successful, more attractive to the opposite sex…?
Restrict the supply
This is guaranteed to increase the ‘want factor’. You can limit it by time by having a cut-off date after which it won’t be available (or a special offer price for a limited period). Or restrict the supply in numbers e.g. attendance is limited to just 50 people.
Desire drivers
Try one of these:
Your reader has been specially selected
They are among the first to get the offer
People they respect have bought the offer
Only your offer can give them the benefits they want
How easy you’ve made it for them to act
Wow, we’re really cooking now. Your reader is on the verge of buying your product. There is just one final hurdle that has to be cleared – you have to get them to take action.
Are you guilty of filling your sales and advertising writing with jargon?
Come on, be honest. It is a very easy trap to fall into. After all, you speak it every day to colleagues so it becomes part of your natural vocabulary.
But guess what? It’s a real turn-off for those not ‘in the know’.
If you want people to read your articles, websites and sales literature with interest, you have to write clearly.
I have put together a Hubpage on this particular subject so follow this link to read about how copywriters don’t do jargon.
Are you ready for the next step? Do you want to know what happens next? Well, now that you have honed your headline writing skills and got your readers’ attention, you have to arouse their interest in what you’re selling.
How do you do that? Well, let’s suppose your reader has a problem – they could be feeling stressed, bored or unfulfilled. Your job is to find a way to tie your product to their problem as the solution.
A metaphorical arm around their shoulder
Freelance copywriters could also be described as counsellors as we have to show our readers that we understand how they feel and then we promise to take the problem away. What do they have to do? Simply buy your product.
The golden rule here is to ensure you write about the solution not the problem – negativity will result in your letter being folded into an aeroplane.
Try to answer this: ‘How will my reader’s life be improved if they do what I want them to do?’ Answer it in the first sentence or paragraph – they’ll want the answer immediately. If you’re not sure what your reader really wants bring in as many benefits as possible and be specific.
Sell the benefits
Remember benefits are anything your reader perceives as valuable or worthwhile – something that will help them make/save money, save time, get them promoted, make friends etc.
Make sure it is the benefits that you are selling and not the features – yes, the product might be recyclable but that is a feature. The benefit would be that it helps preserve natural resources. Get the idea?
Sounds simple doesn’t it? Well, it will take practice to master this but it will be worth it. So now you can get your reader interested in your product because you have identified why your product will be of benefit to them. Brilliant!
But it doesn’t stop there. Just because they are interested and can see the benefits, doesn’t mean that they’ll simply hand their credit card over. You still have a bit more work to do before that happens.
The next stage is to learn how to create a desire for your product. See you in a day or so.
This post is a little out of character as it doesn’t have anything to do with copywriting. In fact, copywriting won’t be mentioned at all (well, apart from those two occasions).
I received an email this morning with this YouTube clip. If it can make me laugh at 8am on a Wednesday morning then I thought I ought to share it with you.
Surely this will pip Alexandra to the Christmas number 1?
