Five Ways to Give People a Reason to Buy Your Product or Service

Overcome lackluster copy and lack of product sales by usingthe passion approach. Announcements, such as "Here's myproduct!" do not work. Sure, you put a picture up and maybea list of its features. What's the promise? Where's the benefits?How will your potential buyer's life be better by obtaining yourproduct? How does a picture or list of features compel yourprospective buyer to buy? The consequence? You miss manysales.

Write compelling, emotional copy to inspire people to buyyour unique, wonderful creation. Use these powerful OnlinePromotion techniques:

1. Include your signature box on every email you send out.

Your signature or resource box, usually 4-6 lines, is yourbillboard to let people know who you are, the benefits theywill receive, and what expertise and products you have toassist them. Without it or with a lackluster one of just yourname and contact information, you are guaranteed no actionthat leads to connecting with you, better yet-- sales.

Your signature box is more important than your article, email,or ezine's message. Be sure to put some thought and time intoit. Be willing to edit it at least 5 times. You want more than justyour name and contact information. Remember your resourcebox is a call to action. Write it so your reader takes action--either to send an email, phone you, or visit your Web site.

Once you get a reaction, it's up to you to make the nextcommunication powerful and convincing. It's a good idea tohave your sizzling headline and ad copy written out for phoneand email responses. Even if you don't have a Web site, youneed to have compelling headlines and sales letters ready.

If you send an email, be sure you include more specificbenefits and the feature of your product they relate to. Forinstance, "Quadruple your Web sales in less than one monththrough submitting free articles to ezines."

When potential buyers visit your Web site be sure your homepage has marketing pizzazz with benefit-driven headlines.Click herehttp://www.bookcoaching.com/freearticles/attractpizzazz.shtml

Include your signature or resource box at the bottom of eacharticle, business communication, and ezine you send out. Usea separator such as ===== at the bottom of your messagejust before your signature.

Signature Box Examples and Feedback.

Here's one listed at the bottom of an article sent to opt-inezines:

Person's name-- retired from a 30-year sales career is now aSales Consultant. I recently wrote a manual for small businessowners titled, "How to Build your Small Business Fast withFree Articles," and several other publications to help smallbusinesses grow and prosper. Form more information...mailto: name@email host. Phone: xxx- xxx-xxx .Or Write:Name and PO Box.

Book Coach's Feedback:

It's all about the author, and not about his customer. We don'tcare if he is retired, Just one line of his name followed by histitle "sales consultant" is enough. Always write with "you" inmind (your customers).The second line could be the title of hismanual. I wonder is it e or print?

One benefit is "fast," but I want more. Will he help me buildcredibility? More customers? The feature is "free articles,"which when added to the benefit is strong. It's good heincluded his audience in his manual title, so his customers aretargeted.

He includes information to stay in touch with him: an emailaddress, phone, and address. I'd say his next step is to get adomain name or submit his manual to another book-sellingsite. For that, he'll need a compelling headline, sales letter,and ordering information.

Author's Tip: Feature one special offer in each signature box.Include your Phone number so out-of-country people can talkto you.

In my signature box I include the Web address:http://www.bookcoaching.com/discounts.shtml to leadreaders to services or products related to the subject of thearticle that I submit to opt-in ezines.

Last month I sent out an article on Online marketing with alink to my home page "Discounts of the Month," where Ioffered two eBooks for the price of one. In another articleentitled "Teleclasses: Raise your Credibility and Profits,"I included the words "teleclasses" and a link to my site wherethey are offered.

Put more time into writing your signature box than all otherwriting Send out a casual marketing survey to your friends andbusiness associates to vote from 1-10 on the most powerful ofthose 4-6 lines. Ask them which of the phrases would compelthem to take action. Edit it 5 times until it's as powerful asHoover Dam.

2. Use "Passion Copywriting" rather than the "plain" approachon your Web site home page. Without this effort you willwaste all that Web planning and creating time. Even worse,the money you paid to upload your information before yougave it a marketing eye.

If you are like many professionals out there, you know yoursubject, you are an expert speaker or coach in your field, areeven passionate about it. But, you may not know how to tellpeople about your services and products to get them to buybecause...(you fill in the blank with your reasons).

Visiting many Web sites, I've noticed long, long paragraphsand flat product descriptions. You have only 8 secondsto capture your visitor's attention. Make every word count.

Write dazzling home-page copy that gives your customers aReason to click onto your links leading to your products orservices. After they "click here," display a short sales letter orbulleted benefits and a choice to "buy now." Before I learnedthis ultimate powerful technique, my Web sales were flat.Serving up plain, flat copy when your visitors want passion,wastes all the effort and time you put into your product. Sinceincorporating "passion copywriting," my brand new Web sitesales jumped from $75 in August to over $2265 by December22..

Consider how fast these sales increased in less than fourmonths. Just think what sales you can create when you usethese techniques. Remember, your visitors will always say,"So what? Why should I buy this? What's in it for me?"

Author's Tip: Place the most important message in the top halfof your Web site home page. Make sure you use my "PassionCopywriting" system.

On my home page I include two "Passion Copywriting"benefit statements: "Quadruple your Web Sales in Just OneMonth" and "Design Every Part of Your Book to Sell MoreCopies" with links that lead them to the product benefits andthe "buy now" signal.

Preparation Tip: List all of your Product's Benefits andFeatures

Begin by putting yourself in your buyer's shoes. For eachbook, product or service, write as many benefits you can thinkof. Benefits include helping people make more money,develop more confidence, create better relationships, or learna particular skill.

List your product's features such as tips, charts, number ofpages, and how-tos for each product or service.

Later, transform the benefit into a "passion" statement placedin the top half of your Web site home page. Another exampleis "Design Every Part of your Book For More Sales."

Add a link that takes your visitor to the product page or orderform. This technique sells far more products than hard-to-readonscreen information about you and your company. One ofthe biggest mistakes of author's Web sites is that long Table ofContents. Who cares? Always think what's in it for mypotential buyer?

Make all your copy short and punchy, and avoid largegraphics. Visitors get discouraged at the slow loading timeand may leave. Remember your Web site's purpose! To sellproducts and services! Are you making it easy for yourcustomers to buy?

Avoid large doses of red, which can overpower, even bringsuspicion to some of your visitors. Remember your visitors arevisual and emotional. Everything on your site should appeal totheir senses.

3. Sell more products and services with testimonials.

My ezine subscribers to "The Book Coach Says..." doubledin one month when I added a short testimonial from author ofThe Self-Publishing Manual and self-publishing guru, DanPoynter: "Book writing and marketing nuts and bolts--Definitely worth your time."

If you offer a service, include client testimonials. Place them inyour ezine and your Web site right before you list yourservice.

When you send out a free article include a testimonial aboutyour free articles right above the article. Those rave reviewsmay be just the thing to get people to read on, and evendownload your article to share with other opt-in ezines withthousands of members. They in turn may pass it on, check outyour ezine or Web site, and even buy a product or servicefrom you.

On your products ordering page, include a testimonial fromthe "rich and famous" at the top.

The one time I would use a pop-up window that only pops uponce is on the product order page. Include one "click here formore about the book." Within that window, list 3-5 benefitsand a glowing testimonial from someone your visitor knows orrespects. Put this information at the top before the title andprice. For more information on "How to Get Testimonials>From the Rich and Famous" seehttp://www.bookcoaching.com/products.shtml.

4. Convince your Web visitors to return often.

You don't win your visitors' trust right away. It may take from4-7 visits before they buy.

Upload new, original, and useful content often. On every pageput a notice: Bookmark our site. We update material weekly.Then, follow up and put those free articles, book excerpts andtips up. Blatant ads such as banners turn visitors off. Givethem original information they can't find anywhere else, andgive it free. People want and expect free information on yourWeb site.

Publish your own ezine. Target it to your specific audience.Start with a monthly, then see if you can do it bi-weekly. Ifyou don't stay in regular touch with your possible buyers theywill forget you and your products. People want to connectOnline to trust you as their savvy friend. If they like your eMagthey will recommend it to others. See "Why you Should Visitmy Web site" example here:

To bring back your visitors more often, host a discussiongroup on your site where people can interact fully as you shareyour knowledge and offer suggestions. This project will takemore of your time than others, may be worth it.

Include "useful links "as a navigational bar on your home pagewhere you post other related Web sites and a shortdescription. This adds value to your site because people likethe convenience of shopping for services and products-all onone Web site-yours!

5. Make it easy for your customer to buy.

They aren't psychics! They hate to go on a wild chase thatwastes their time. They want information and results instantly!

One new coaching client wanted me to go to Amazon.comto view her book cover and title, read its table of contents,and read the book reviews there. She told me to just click"books" and it would take only two seconds.

In four minutes, I still hadn't found her book. I felt frustratedthat I couldn't find the book, and also, that it should havebeen much easier. It boils down to: give explicit instructionsas though your visitor is brand new to the Internet.

If you are like me, and consider yourself a non-techie,remember the times you tried to buy something Online, andjust couldn't do the required steps, or found a broken link andcouldn't complete the purchase? Don't you wonder how manyother would-be customers lost their way and didn't buy?.

If you want people to go to a Web site to buy your product,put exact step-by-step directions into your email. Test yourdirections, because you may have made an assumption andleft an important piece of the puzzle out.

If you are marketing a book on your site or another oneinclude in each email, just as you would in a post card, yourtitle, your full name, your ISBN # and publisher. In case thefirst attempt doesn't work, this information is necessary tofurther search. If I had had this information, I could have foundthe book in question on Amazon.

Check and correct all of your Web site links to make surenone are broken. When a person is ready to buy yourproduct, make it easy for her to buy. Discouraged becauseyour telephone line is busy, your Web site doesn't load fast oreven come up, or your particular instructions don't get peoplewhere they want to be fast, your visitors will leave and givetheir time and money to another easier to navigate site.

You waste all of your time and money when you don't keepyour potential customer or client in mind in all of your Onlinecorrespondence. Start incorporating these tips today!

Judy Cullins c.2005 All Rights Reserved.

Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in people's lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Judy is author of 10 eBooks including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast, Ten Non-Techie Ways to Market Your Book Online, The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Your Targeted Web Traffic, and Power Writing for Web Sites That Sell. She offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, "The BookCoach Says...," "Business Tip of the Month," blog Q & A at http://www.bookcoaching.com and over 185 free articles.

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Email her at Judy@bookcoaching.com or Cullinsbks@aol.comPhone: 619/466-0622 -- Orders: 866/200-9743