Hiya CopyStar!
My daughter #1 drives me CRAZY! She’s stubborn… hard-headed… skeptical… and full of attitude!
This is the kid who at the age of 6 months — while I was nursing her — bit my nipple so hard my toes curled!
My husband said she didn’t know what she was doing. Ha! I KNEW she knew what she was doing — so I shut down the cafeteria!
As she got older – we couldn’t just tell her what to do — we had to convince her… to persuade her — otherwise this kid would rebel.
But when she was convinced about what we told her — WOW! She followed our instructions to a T!
Little did I know this toddler was training me to be a better copywriter! Because the truth is…
… Your reader is just like my daughter #1.
They both have the “so what?” attitude! So do this:
Get into the habit of assuming that whenever you make a claim about your product –your reader is standing there with his arms crossed with a smirk on his face saying “So what?”
And your job is to deliver compelling reasons to turn that attitude into gratitude!
So how do you do that?
Keep the words “so what?” in the back of your mind when you write.
Read what you say out loud — and then say, “So what?” Did you answer that question? If not…
… re-write your copy!
But right now – I want to GIVE you 4 ways to deliver solid proof to your skeptical reader so you can nail the sale!
Proof element #1: Cite credible sources! Find every opportunity you can to “name drop” recognized professionals, institutions and medical journals in your copy. For example…
… in the alternative health field — names such as the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA)…National Institutes of Health (NIH)…American Diabetes Association… and Mayo Clinic are very credible sources. So – try to use them whenever possible!
And try to put credible sources in your headlines. It can really boost credibility!
For example…
… which headline has stronger credibility?
Probiotics help reduce flatulence by 88%
Or
A study performed by a team of scientists from Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, Venezuela reveals the secret to reduce flatulence by a whopping 88%!
The second headline gives you details supported by a credible source — and that just OOZES credibility! So – make it a point to slip credible sources in your copy to give weight to your message!
Proof element #2: Pile on the testimonials! Bragging about yourself is a turnoff — but having others shower you with praises gives you controls! That’s the beauty of testimonials.
You let other people tell your prospect how great you are! I always ask my clients to give me as many testimonials as possible. And guess what?
A few years ago — my client sent me over 300 testimonials for his product. No kidding! Most of them were so good — I created a testimonial-based promotion.
It was so easy to write because I really didn’t have to say anything. The satisfied customers did the work for me!
I’d write a couple of paragraphs and drop 5-6 testimonials in. Then I write a few more paragraphs — and plop! More testimonials! I followed that pattern throughout the entire promotion.
Man… that was the easiest money I ever made! That promo became a control and mailed for over 4 years!
What if you don’t have any testimonials? Go out and get ‘em!
Tell your client to send you samples of the product and get your friends… family… and even the mail carrier to try the product. And then ask them to write their experience.
Ta dah! You’ve got testimonials!
My friends know I’ll put their stories and experiences in my promos in a heartbeat!
And then once my client starts to receive testimonials from paying customers — I’ll swap out the original testimonials with new ones.
Proof element #3: Use graphs, charts and scans! Now I gotta be honest with you. I very seldom understand graphs… charts… scans — but it doesn’t matter. They just look so authoritative, don’t they?
They’re also great ways to convey visible proof to your reader! For example…
… I like to use thermal scans to show “before” and “after” photos. Take a look…
