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Computer Help
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1. Start by choosing a single benefit of your product or service that you wish
to highlight above everything else. This is your "principle selling position" or
PSP. To choose this, ask yourself what specific benefit makes your product or
service different, better, or special. Is it the price? The convenience? The
reliability?
2. Write attention-grabbing headlines. This is very important. People are
overloaded with information, so they skim read, particularly on the Internet. If
your headline doesn't get their attention everything else is probably wasted
because it won't be read. Your headline will often be based around your PSP.
3. Write a list of all the features of your product or service then translate
each of these into a benefit for the customer. One way to do this is to look at
each feature in turn then ask yourself "So what?" Imagine you're a customer; why
should you care about this feature? Ask "What will it do for me?"
For example, don't just say that you product is fast (a feature) tell the
customer that it will give them more free time (a benefit). Better still, paint
a picture of them using their free time to go to the beach, read a book, or
relax.
4. Write copy that emphasizes the benefits in a way that makes an emotional
connection. For example, let's say you're selling toothpaste. A feature might be
that it contains fluoride. Sure, but that's boring. Rather, say it "Lessens
Tooth Decay!" or even better: "Brush with Boffo and Avoid the Dentist's Drill!"
See? You've turned a dull feature into a strong emotional benefit linked to
people's fear of dental procedures. Isn't that more effective than "Contains
fluoride"?
5. Start with your strongest selling points. The first few paragraphs are
particularly important. Use them to create a desire for your product or service
by briefly touching on the major benefits it will bring the customer. You don't
have to go into too much detail up front as you can expand on these benefits
later. Do try to get your big guns in early, though.
6. Testimonials sell. Good, believable testimonials from real people will help
sales, particularly on the web where establishing credibility is a tough job.
For even better credibility, ask your testimonial writers if you can include
their contact details along with their testimonial.
7. Write with a natural style. Don't try to be pretentious or over friendly.
Just write it the way you'd say it.
8. Decide who you're writing for and why. What tone are you trying to convey:
light hearted?, serious? What level of jargon are you going to employ? Suit your
language to your intended audience.
9. The final sales pitch, when it comes, must have three specific parts:
It must incorporate a good deal; e.g. "40% off!" It must be urgent; e.g. "Only
seven more days!" It must be risk free; e.g. "Backed by a 90-day,
no-questions-asked, money-back guarantee!"
10. End by telling the reader what to do; e.g. "Ring now" or "Click here to
order now for immediate delivery!" Needless to say, ordering details must be
clearly visible and simple to follow.
Looking at these tips, it may seem that good advertising involves manipulating
the emotions of your customers. Yes, it does.
Selling is a blatant form of emotional manipulation that involves convincing
your customer that they want to buy your product or service, and they want to do
it now.
Is this unethical? Well, it can be. It depends where you draw the line. In point
9 I said that your sales message must include a sense of urgency. A common ploy
on the web is to include a claim like "Offer closes this Saturday". If you go
back to the site the following week, though, the offer is still available. If
you were tricked by such a claim, would you order from that company again?
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So, by all means, use the 10 tips above to write as persuasively as you can, but
remember that if you attract sales by deceiving your customers you risk not only
legal action but poor word of mouth, no repeat business, and more refund
requests. So, be as persuasive as you can possibly be, but avoid the temptation
to be "too" persuasive.
Here are a few proven PPC strategies:
Monitor your ads
PPC is an auction like eBay. If you want to maintain your position, you have to
bid often and monitor your bids even more often.
As Overture.com distributes its top 3 results on 5 major engines (Altavista,
MSN, Yahoo, Lycos, Hotbot). If you're in one of the top 3 positions in Overture,
watch your campaign carefully. The traffic amount on different keywords is
constantly subject to change. Because of so much exposure, your listings can get
more click through than you expected, so the cost may be higher than the
originally planned.
It is easy to lose your position especially if you aim at #3 and therefore lose
the precious traffic.
The rule of the thumb is: think broad, not deep. Try to have as many keywords as
you can possibly think of, instead of focusing on most popular ones and playing
the 'king of the hill'.
Bid higher or even
Ad with the highest bid comes on top, then a lower one and so on. To jump to the
top spot, you have to bid $0.01 higher than it's current occupant.
(useful tip: if you are using Kanoodle, it is enough to bid the same amount as
the previous #1 in order to become the new #1)
Avoid bid gaps
There are many reasons why you should aim at #1 position, but never forget your
common sense! In the following situation:
#1) $0.25
#2) $0.02
#3) $0.01
you should rather bid $0.03, than aggressively come up with $0.26, as your
competitor is likely to make it $0.27 tomorrow, and in a month, one of you will
be paying well over $0.50 which is rarely cost effective?
On being #1
?The winner takes it all? is the rule in the PPCs. In almost every business it
is clear that being #1 is a much better than being #4 or number #11. But in the
PPCs this is especially true. While #1 acquires % of the traffic, #2 gets and #3
only. It is clear now why you should want to be #1.
Another reason is that the top three results from Overture.com appear on major
search engines, so you are more likely to get MASSES of traffic from them.
Actually, being #2 is not that bad ? you get less traffic (and therefore pay
less), but the results in sales are similar. Some say that people click on #1
but are not ready to close the sale until they click on #2? You will just have
to see what's working for you.
Be careful with auto bidding and bid optimizers?
Both tools: Auto Bidding (from Overture.com) and Bid Optimizer (available at
Findwhat.com) sound as a great advantage to busy advertisers who don't have much
time for managing the bids.
The idea is to set the so called max bid which is the maximum amount of money
you wish to pay for particular keyword.
The system changes your bids within the limit you set. But don't make the
mistake which made some keywords worth $8.00 from a mere $1.01? The thinking was
probably like this: if I set $6.00 barrier as the max bid, there would be no one
willing to pay so much so I will have #1 all the time, for the cost of just one
cent higher than the #2 bid ($1.01 in this case)
#1 $6.00 (Max Bid in Auto Bidding, so advertiser pays just $1.01)
#2 $1.00
#3 $0.99
But what if #2 bidder starts to use the Auto Bidding feature and sets his Max
Bid to $5.99? Sad for the #1 bidder, because now he is paying $6.00 while #2
bidder is still paying $1.00. I've seen this happen?
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