Can You Write Sales Copy Without Manipulating People?

Since the fantastic feedback from my webinar about Copy That Sells With Heart, Not Hype, I wanted to delve in a little more into this subject with a bit more detail.

Writing sales copy is essential if you want to connect with your perfect customer but sometimes it gets a bad rap for being pushy, high-pressured and manipulative.

And there are unfortunately many examples out there of this.

But there are also a lot of great examples of sales pages that are sincere and authentic and if you’re here, it’s probably because you want to know how to write the kind of copy that sells, but lets you sleep at night.

Well here are 5 quick tips to help you do just that.

Write To The Right People (For You And Your Business)

Before writing anything, spend a little time thinking about who your ideal customer is. Remember, this isn’t just someone you can help, this is also about who you want to work with. For example, the strategies you use in your new marketing service might be able to help solopreneurs get more clients, but your premium rates might mean that mid-large businesses are a better fit for you.

Also think about the personality of clients you want. Do you want to attract people who are like you? Are they creative? Shy? Adventurous?

If you know your ideal customer has a larger than life personality, you know your content can be bubbly, you can use exclamation marks and smiley faces for example! 🙂 . If your customers are a little more reserved, you might have to adopt a softer style if you want to connect with them and keep their attention.

Focus On 1 Benefit At A Time

There are so many wonderful reasons your target market should be interested in your business, but you have to prioritise what you tell them. If you list a huge amount of everything that you can do whether on your website or in a brochure, you can overwhelm and confuse your customer.

A great way to avoid this is to think about the primary benefits of your offer or service, and then list the secondary or “bonus” benefits.  Having this in front of you when you’re writing sales copy, or a leaflet makes it easier to know what you should focus on. For example:

Product

4 week Bootstrapping marketing class for life coaches

Primary Benefit:

Giving life coaches affordable marketing strategies to get them more clients

Secondary Benefits: 

• Increased exposure could lead to speaking engagements
• Increased income from more clients could lead to expanding their practice
• Building a bigger client base could create opportunities to launch products and classes as additional income streams.

Whilst those secondary benefits are important and should be included later on in your sales copy, by keeping the emphasis on the primary benefit you don’t overwhelm your customer and you can drive home the main selling point to make a bigger impact.

Remember Sales Copy Is About Helping People

Despite being fierce advocates for our friends and other services, we can find it more of a challenge to talk about our own skills. As a result, many successful business owners feel uncomfortable when it comes to writing promotional content.

One way I’ve coached people to get around this obstacle is to imagine you are writing a review rather than a “sales piece.”

Picture someone that you know would enjoy your product or your service and then imagine you’re writing a review for them. Just as you would read a review of a movie to see if you want to go and watch it, write a review of your service that gives them all the details they need to know if they want to hire you or purchase your product.

For example you would explain:

• Why you want to let that particular person know about your offer
• What your offer is
• What problem it solves
• Why you think they’ll like it
• How they can find out more or buy it
• Why they should respond sooner rather than later

It doesn’t have to be pushy, just remember, if you know your product can really help people and change their lives, they won’t want you to keep it from them!

Explain Why People Will “Love” What You Do

Quite often, we tell people about what we can do rather than why someone should love it. This is known as talking about the “features” rather than the “benefits”.

Features are what your product or service does, and the benefits are what makes your customers feel good about your service.

Most business owners know it’s important to sell the benefits instead of the features, but don’t always know how to put this into writing. A great quick tip is to just tell them why your different features will make them “feel good.”

For example:

• “We give you next day delivery so you don’t have to worry about not having shoes for your last minute party”
• “We have a 24 hour support line so if your servers have a hitch in the middle of the night, you’ve still got peace of mind”
• “We can do coaching face to face or by Skype so you feel reassured with the flexibility of a coaching offer that suits your style and schedule.”

 Tell People Clearly What To Do

One of the biggest mistakes when it comes to writing copy or content for your website, even in your blog, is not telling customers clearly what you want them to do next. It could be as simple as asking people to retweet your post or tweet, or to share on facebook, or to sign up for your newsletter.

Remember, sales copy doesn’t have to be pushy, it doesn’t have to be manipulative, it is a vital part of your business and is a means to letting the right people know that you have something that can help them.

Keep believing…

Amy