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THE TRIAD THAT SELLS MORE: IRRESISTIBLE OFFERS, RISK REVERSAL, AND POWERFUL CLOSES

While it’s true that proof elements, bullet points, and other factors enhance conversions on your website, you could construct a sales letter using nothing more than the following four elements:

That’s why you must pay attention to what I call the triad of selling—the offer, the close, and the risk reversal segment. These three elements support the entire structure of your ad. Remember, whatever copy we’re writing is an ad whether it’s a sales letter, e-mail, landing page, or even an eBay ad—they’re all ads.

We’ll dive deeper into writing closing copy and guarantees in the next two chapters, but for now...

Here are twenty-one steps to writing irresistible offers, rock-solid risk reversal copy, and powerful closes:

1) Make your offer stand alone.

Think of it this way. If the offer section is the only part of your sales letter that your prospects read, can they make a buying decision? You should be giving them all the information they need to make a buying decision.

Construct your offer so it’s like a miniature sales letter. It needs a headline, a little deck copy, a string of benefit-rich bullets that describe what the product is about, and exactly what your prospects are going to get when they buy.

Then give them a call to action, where they can click and actually order your product or service.

2) Apply the P.A.S.T.O.R. Framework™ to your offer.

Here’s a brief recap of the P.A.S.T.O.R. Framework from chapter 1:

3) Enclose your order area copy in a differentiating text box.

In old-style direct mail, this looks like a coupon you might clip out from a newspaper or magazine. There’s often a dashed border around the edge of this “order area.” In the old newspaper or magazine ad, this indicated the part of the page to cut out with a scissors and mail in with your payment. But I’m willing to bet you’ve seen these dashed-border style “offer boxes” on web sales pages. Why does this work online? Why is it that so many websites use this device? Nobody needs the “clipping guide” on a web page. The answer is ... I don’t really know!

I suspect it’s a visual cue that we’ve linked up in our nervous system that says, “Oh, this is where they’re going to talk about what it is I’m supposed to get if I buy their product or service.” I think we’ve probably been trained over the years to think that this is what an offer is supposed to look like.

But, the truth is it doesn’t matter why. It simply matters that it is effective. It’s another case of not worrying too much about whether we think it’s aesthetically pleasing, whether we like the way it looks or not, but realizing that it does work and that effectiveness is what we’re after with our sales copy.

4) Use the prospect’s positive voice in the offer.

Give your prospects the words to say inside their own minds.

I’d like you to take a moment and imagine you’re looking at a page on a website or in a book. You’re reading the words on that page. You look at the page; the light reflects off the page and into your eyes; that signal is sent to your brain; your brain looks at the symbols on the page and interprets them as words; and your inner voice speaks the words in your mind.

Think about the power of that. This is why copy works. You are thinking thoughts for the reader. If you don’t believe that, I’d like you to go back and reread what I wrote in the paragraph above. Isn’t it true that you’re thinking the thoughts I told you to think?

The reason this is so powerful when related to offers is that when you write in the prospect’s positive voice (“Yes, Ray, I want to take advantage of your Copywriting Academy Coaching Program. I want to possess the power of turning words into wealth.”), you’re telling him or her what to think. Even more, I would submit you’re thinking the thoughts for him or her, using your voice.

The mind is the instrument that your voice is played on.

5) Use aspirational language.

Invoke your reader’s desire. Focus on the outcome your reader desires and use language that aspires to that outcome, to gain the emotional state or the sense of being that this outcome will give them.

For instance, an aspiration is contained within the words I just gave you from the offer for Copywriting Academy Coaching Program, the copy that says, “Yes, I want to possess the power of turning words into wealth.”

6) Use credit card logos and secure site symbols.

Why is this important? These are symbols that we’ve been trained to accept as trustworthy, reliable, and stable. By including them, you are reassuring your prospect that your site shares the same qualities.

Remember, the number-one fear prospects have when they come to your selling website is that you might rip them off. They’re going to give you their credit card information even though they’re not certain what you’ll do with it.

In most cases, they’ve never met you. They don’t know that much about you, so there is a measure of fear in this process. Everything you can do to remove that fear is vitally important to closing more sales. So use the credit card logos, which are familiar and trusted icons in our society, and include your guarantee. This is all inside the offer box.

We’re going to talk more about the guarantee on its own, but now I’m talking about including the guarantee inside the offer box and also the Better Business Bureau logo if you are authorized to use it.

Give them every opportunity to succeed at giving you money.

7) Use both an order button and a text link (such as “click to order”).

I prefer the html order button for one simple reason. It works and looks right in all browsers, which may or may not be the case for a graphic icon or button. So why do I recommend you use both the button and a text link? It’s always best to assume that your user or reader doesn’t really know with 100 percent certainty what to do next. Give them every opportunity to succeed at giving you money.

8) Do not sleepwalk through the guarantee.

The guarantee is also known as the “risk reversal” section of your copy. Why do we call it risk reversal? As we said earlier, the biggest fear prospects have when they come to your website is the fear that you are going to rip them off.

You want to reassure them—as much as possible—that the decision they’re making is the right decision and that they cannot make a mistake. That’s what the “risk reversal” section is all about. This is where you make it clear to them you’re taking the risk off their shoulders and placing it squarely on your own shoulders.

If you don’t believe this is true, I’d like you to think about something: If someone orders your product or service and he or she is not satisfied with it and asks for a refund, you have to ship the refund back to him or her and he or she has to ship the product back to you. Who was the loser in the transaction? If you require your buyer to pay all the shipping and so forth, you might think you haven’t really lost anything ... but you have.

At the very least, you’ve lost the time and energy it took to fulfill the order, to deal with the refund request, to make the refund, and then to restock your item. Haven’t you then taken the risk away from your buyer and taken it upon yourself?

By offering a guarantee, aren’t you really saying, “I’m willing to stand by the quality of my product or service, and I’m so confident of the quality of that product or service that I’m willing to take the risk of giving you a guarantee even though you might choose to send my product back”?

I choose to think of it like this: Even though I know my product is top quality and delivers more than I promise in my sales letters and communications, I know that some people—for whatever reason— will choose to not honor our transaction and will request a refund (perhaps even after copying the material I’ve sent them!). They may even order my product, never open it, and then right before the guarantee period is ending, send it back to me quickly. I feel they have dishonored our transaction by not opening the material, looking at it, or reviewing it, or by deciding ahead of time that they were just going to order the material, copy it, and send me back the information.

Even though I believe that kind of behavior is dishonorable, I’m still willing to honor the guarantee, because the truth is, if you do your job in the sales copy and you do your job delivering your product or service, the number of people who will rip you off by requesting a refund is very small.

I really want you to get—deep in your bones—the fact that risk reversal is exactly what it says. It’s not some semantic trick of language; it truly is reversal of risk.

Don’t sleepwalk through writing your risk reversal or guarantee section. Don’t just write “100% money back guarantee.” I think you should offer that, but it’s important to give it an extra dimension. Describe your guarantee in fresh unique ways. We’re going to look at guarantees in-depth in the next chapter.

9) Put your risk reversal inside a certificate.

This creates credibility, and it increases conversions. Putting something in certificate form lends it credibility. I know from testing that putting the risk reversal or guarantee inside a certificate increases conversions. It just works.

10) Keep selling, especially in the risk reversal section.

This is a perfect place to restate the benefits of your offer. People are going to look at your guarantee. It’s quite possible it’ll be one of the few things they actually read on your page before making a buying decision.

It’s an opportunity for you to restate your benefits. How do you do this? It’s a very simple technique. Just describe the benefits in your guarantee or risk reversal language.

Let me give you an example. “Order my e-book, read every page. If you’re not delighted with the results, if in fact you don’t lose at least 30 pounds in 30 days, find it easy to eat the right foods without feeling hungry or deprived, know in an instant what you’re supposed to eat without ever having to refer to a calorie chart or point system, then I refuse to keep your money.”

See what I did? Didn’t I just restate the benefits in that sentence, which was part of a guarantee? You can do the same, and you should. Keep selling even in your guarantee section.

11) Use “100 percent money back”” language, but don’t rely on that to convey the message of your guarantee.

Use active language to dimensionalize your guarantee. I’ve already described this, but pay attention to this step carefully.

I do believe you should include the “100 percent money back guarantee” language. Some people simply look for that phrase as their assurance that there are no tricks involved in your guarantee. For some, it’s important that you use that specific language in your guarantee. Use it, but don’t make that the only guarantee you offer; be more descriptive.

12) Add video to your risk reversal section.

Make your risk reversal or guarantee personal, persuasive, and passionate. One of the best ways you can do that is by using the human voice and face, especially if your personality is part of your marketing. A video of you personally delivering the guarantee is more powerful than text alone.

13) Use your signature in the risk reversal section.

It increases conversions. Why? If it’s signed, we feel like it’s a deal; it’s official; it’s a contract. If I put my signature on something, I’m making a statement that says I identify with this guarantee, with this product, or with this risk reversal. My word is my bond, and here’s my signature to prove it.

Some people are concerned about using their actual signature online. There are a number of solutions to that problem. First, you can have someone else sign so the signature would be distinct from your own. Then, there would never be a problem with forgery. You can also use handwriting software that generates handwritten text that appears to be real but isn’t your real signature.

I recommend against using the handwritten fonts that you have in MS Word. They’re not very convincing. People have seen them before, and they will know that’s not your signature. When people look for a signature, they want to see a real signature from a real person.

So if you’re going to use a software or handwriting font solution, then I recommend you invest in a good one. Use your signature and sign the deal, which leads to ...

14) Use a handwritten guarantee.

If a signature works, a handwritten guarantee often works even better. Handwritten guarantees have been shown time and again to authenticate the guarantee in the reader’s mind and increase conversion dramatically.

If you’re going to use a handwritten guarantee, make sure that it’s short, powerful, and most important, legible. Nothing is worse than a guarantee where the handwriting is so bad you can’t read it.

15) The “close” is you asking for the order.

This is where you’re asking for the sale, the order. You’re taking their money and giving them the product in exchange. In chapter 8 we will explore closing copy more in-depth.

16) Use all the tools that are available to you at the close.

That means you want a headline on the order page just as I described: one that’s affirmative, congratulatory, and lets them know they’ve made the right decision. You want to recap all the major benefits, probably the same ones you had listed in your offer box on the sales letter page. Restate your guarantee or your risk reversal.

You want to use urgency, scarcity, and reward. Urgency and scarcity can be accomplished by setting limits. Set a time limit: “You must order by Friday at 5:00;” or a numerical limit: “We only have 13 of these kits available. You must order before they’re all gone;” or a date limit based on a sale’s expiration. If you can introduce some urgency into the selling process ethically and honestly, then you should do it.

For a reward, you might offer, “For the next 10 people who order this product, we will also give you a special report on ...,” or “... we’ll give you a second gizmo,” or whatever the appropriate bonus offer might be. That rewards fast action. Make sure you’re offering a limited number or a limited time on your bonus items, and make certain it’s all honest and ethical.

Make your promotions real, honest, and ethical.

Nothing can hurt your credibility more than if you say, “We will offer this bonus only until Friday at 12:00 noon!” Then your reader comes back Friday at 1:00 p.m. to see if you were lying or not and discovers that, in fact, you were lying. In fact, you’ve changed the date on the website using a sneaky little script.

Don’t resort to those kinds of tricks. Make your promotions real, honest, and ethical. You will be rewarded in return.

17) Tell your reader what to do to close the deal.

This is where you need to be as specific as possible. In fact, you might even feel as though you’re writing to a third grader. You’re going to use language like this: “Okay, now’s the time to type in your name and your address, double-check that the information is correct, then type in your credit card number and click on the ‘Buy now’ button.”

You want to be just that specific in your instructions. If you can give these instructions in audio or video, that’s even better.

18) You want to reassure and praise your readers.

Everyone craves affirmation. Give them what they want. If you’ve created a truly useful product or service that makes a difference in the lives of buyers, you should have no shame in saying, “I’m so proud of you for making this decision to buy my product or service, and I’m so excited about the difference it’s going to make in your life. I can’t wait to hear your success story, and I do hope you’ll share it with me. Here’s what you should do right now, type in your name, address, and credit card information and click the button that says ‘Buy now,’ so I can rush your items to you right away.”

Reassure and praise your reader for the good decision he or she made.

19) Explain what’s going to happen.

Tell them exactly what’s going to happen when they press the “Submit” or “Buy now” button. This is a question your reader is wondering about. “When I click on this, am I going to get a printable receipt? Am I going to be taken to a download page? What’s going to happen when I click that button?”

The best way to reassure them is to tell them what’s going to happen or even show them if you can make a screen capture video that shows exactly what’s going to happen. Have a message or arrow pointing to the video that says, “Click here to watch a video about what happens next.”

You could have audio that plays, saying, “When you click the ‘Buy now’ button, you’ll be taken to a page where you can immediately download your items, and you can also print out your receipt and proof of purchase on the next page. Go ahead and click the ‘Buy now’ button now.”

20) Maintain the look and feel of your website.

Your order form should look exactly like your website. In many cases, the order form will be hosted somewhere other than your own server. Usually, it will be hosted through the shopping cart system.

There is a problem, however, when the order page looks entirely different from your actual website. Unconsciously, your buyers will feel there’s a disconnect between what you’re telling them and what you’re selling them.

Make the transition seamless. When people enroll in my Copywriting Academy Coaching Program, they probably don’t even notice when they go from clicking on the order button to getting to the download or access page that they actually switch servers two times. That’s by design. We made sure the pages look exactly the same when you make that transition. You should do the same—keep the look and feel identical.

There is a phenomenon I call the Instantaneous Subconscious Association (ISA). This simply means your readers are noticing the look and feel of your website, and if it’s inconsistent, they feel that you are inconsistent—that your business is inconsistent.

How do we feel about people in our lives who are not consistent? How do you feel about a business or institution that treats you in an inconsistent manner? Don’t you feel you can’t rely on them; that you can’t trust them to behave in a certain way? You don’t want your readers, prospects, or buyers to feel that way about you, so don’t give them a reason to.

21) Test your order form.

Sometimes it’s the simplest things that can trip up your shopping cart system. If you haven’t tested it before your Web visitors use it, you could potentially be in for some embarrassing and costly problems.

Order your own product. If it’s an expensive product and you want to minimize your processing expense, set it to zero dollars or one dollar and make multiple orders. Try to break your order form; try to put in erroneous information. Think about what your prospects might do on your order page that could possibly trip up your system and then do those things and see what happens.

It’s better if you know in advance, rather than discover it when you get that complaint call from an unhappy buyer or when you watch sales trickle through your fingers because your order form didn’t work properly.

Many times I find that clients and companies don’t even realize they’re losing orders. This is where many orders are lost, at the actual order page in the shopping cart. Make sure you have a backup plan. What’s going to happen if the customer’s credit card is declined or the transaction doesn’t go through? Do you call him or her? Is the customer taken to a different Web page? Think about what happens next in that process and plan for it. Recover from declined cards and abandoned shopping carts and you will increase sales.

In the next chapter, we deep-dive on writing powerful guarantees.