You can make a truly exceptional living online.
But it isn’t enough to write good copy.
Your words must convince, convert and guide your reader all the way to the finish. You can’t be a great copywriter until you can close the deal and turn your reader into a smiling buyer.
Without that ability, even the tightest copy ultimately disappoints. Learn to consistently close the deal, and you can charge a premium for everything you write, while also developing the ability to build passive income for yourself.
Fortunately, much of what turns good content into great copy is universal. Here are 24 powerful techniques that can help you close the deal, every time.
1) Use Attention Grabbing Headlines
The fight for online attention is fierce, and you have less than a second to claim it. By using a highly charged, attention catching headline, you will draw your reader to your copy. Even better, a well written, relevant headline lets your reader know what your page is about and hints at the benefit to them, while adding just enough intrigue to capture the click.
Use a powerful headline at the top of your sales page in large letters and bold type. You can take your headline and slightly redraft it for use on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, too. When promoting your content off-site, you want to sell the click, not the content, so shaping your headline with enough curiosity to pique interest and capture the click can give you the chance to deliver your content.
2) Keep Your Reader Reading From the First Word to the Last
Whether writing a sales letter or bestseller, your aim is exactly the same: to keep your reader reading until the very last word. The goal of the headline is to sell your reader on the page and move their eyes onto the first sentence. The goal of that first sentence is getting your reader to read the second, so on and so on, all the way down the slippery slope of your copy.
Use attention catching words at the beginning of each paragraph to keep your reader engaged and hold their attention. Start your paragraphs with spicy, engaging, or thought provoking language, and your reader will naturally follow your flow without even thinking.
3) Keep a Swipe File
Creativity is borrowed.
Every great writer borrows from their favorites, even if they do so unconsciously. I’ve been reading Stephen King since I had a single digit in my age, and there are beats in my rhythm that owe their flow to him.
Borrowing from those who came before you is especially important when trying to close the deal, since conversion is less art than science. Study the effective selling techniques of other marketers, and you will sharpen your skills at an accelerated pace.
Don’t build a better blueprint; use your unique tool set to build a better house. Keep a swipe file of powerful sales copy, and when in doubt, check it against your own.
4) Use Eye-Catching, Effective Photos
If you prominently display quality, relevant, high resolution images throughout your copy, you will hold the attention of your reader, add professionalism to your pitch, and increase the visual appeal of the entire presentation.
Humans are visual creatures. Use your words to draw the picture, but use the right images to fill it with color.
5) Alter Price Perception
Removing price as an objection to buying is one of the most effective ways to bolster sales, and there’s a simple technique that makes this easy to do. By playing into the natural human tendency to compare apples to apples, or even apples to oranges, you can make a high price seem much smaller than it actually is.
Compare the price of your product to other things that are far more expensive. For example, if you are selling a downloadable information product, compare it to an in-person lecture. Sure, there’s a difference between the two; one holds the promise of eye contact and the other is just bits and bytes, but both offer the potential for knowledge and therefore offer a common hook to hang your argument.
You can also calculate a positive return on your buyer’s investment by showing them the difference between what they will spend and everything they get, or extrapolating how the benefits of your product will greatly exceed their small, initial investment.
6) Make a One-Time Offer
By creating an offer where your buyer only has one opportunity to buy, you will trigger their natural sense of urgency.
This is a great way to get readers sitting on the fence to jump off and get their toes in the grass. However, you should only do this if the offer is truly one-time only. It is never a good idea to dilute the lifetime value of your credibility just to make a single sale.
7) Offer a Limited Number of Copies
Like making a one-time offer, limiting the quantity of your available product creates a sense of urgency and triggers a buyer’s drive to click. And just like that one-time offer, you should only do this when there are genuinely a limited number of copies available.
8) Keep Your Shopping Cart Consistent
Make your checkout page look as though it’s part of your site and you will greatly reduce your shopping cart abandonment.
By keeping everything looking unified, you will amplify the trust in your reader and make it easy for them to see the entire sale through to the end. Though you want your shopping cart to look like a natural part of your site, as far as layout, colors, and overall design, you will also want to make sure you add elements of trust such as the Hacker Safe, SSL and Better Business Bureau logos, if appropriate.
9) Use Testimonials and Case Studies
Social proof is potent.
By prominently displaying testimonials from other people, just like your readers, you can deliver a clear picture of their expected results. You should use testimonials liberally throughout your site to highlight your authority on a regular basis, but when promoting a product or writing a sales page, you should always have at least 2-5 testimonials.
10) Use Multimedia Testimonials
Text videos are great, if that’s all you have, but audio and video will always exude more trust and lead to higher conversions. Text is too easy; anyone can tap out a testimonial and post it on the page. But with video, viewers can clearly see there’s a genuine face behind the smile, lending an instantaneous credibility text could never hope to touch.
You can use video testimonials on the sidebar of your site, or as a part of your actual sales video. Some writers choose to make their video testimonials auto-play as soon as the page is loaded, but I believe this is a mistake because you’ll lose a lot of people when they are surprised by the sudden noise, or in an environment where watching video won’t work for them.
11) Use Video Sales Letters
Though you can have images of your product in your copy, using a video makes it much easier to clearly demonstrate the benefits of your product. Most online marketers will agree that video outperforms text, nearly all of the time. Record a compelling or entertaining video, with the flow and formula of a well written, long-form sales letter, and you’ll have a sales channel on your site that places you far ahead of your text-only peers.
12) Offer a Crystal Clear, No-Hassle, Money Back Guarantee
This one is barely optional.
If you can include a money back guarantee on your product, you should. If you can’t, you should ask yourself why, then do everything you can to change the rules.
People want to know they’re not at risk, and this is especially true online. Including a money back guarantee with your offer helps you to increase trust, and remove or eliminate risk as an objection to buying.
If your product is sold at a premium, or it requires a high ticket for shipping and handling, you can add some restrictions to the guarantee, but you should still make your refund policy simple to find, easy to implement, and a confident extension of your offer.
13) Make a BOLD Claim
Boldly declare the benefits of your product, and clearly articulate why what you are selling is better than everything else on the market. Strong claims help to stoke excitement about your products or services, and a claim delivered with clear confidence that’s steers clear of arrogance can often compel buyers to click.
Never make a claim you can’t validate or a promise you can’t keep, and always have previous proof to back yourself up. Use your proof and claims to bolster the confidence in your copy, and the confidence of your readers will naturally follow.
14) Compare Yourself to the Competition
Just because you don’t want your buyer to consider the competition, doesn’t mean you can force them not to ignore it. It’s human nature to compare, and whether your buyer has gone comparison shopping or not, you must be prepared for the possibility.
Fortunately, this isn’t a problem for you since you’re the kind of writer who knows how to find the story, hook and truth in your product.
It’s your job to show your buyer why the product you’re promoting is better than the alternative. This means pressing your advantage in every possible way. Help your potential buyers see the difference between what you’re selling and all the other guys. Don’t exaggerate, as it’s all too easy for the modern buyer to do their own research, but find the hook that makes you different and play it for all it’s worth.
15) Use Bullets
Rather than giant chunks of copy that will make your buyers’ eyes tired and lead them toward a stall midway through the copy, use short, powerful benefit statements that keep your reader sliding down your copy.
Write many more bullets than you’ll need and fill them in as you move down the page. Revise twice and keep only the best.
16) Use Power Words
Add punch to your page by peppering it with powerful, vividly descriptive words. This will add emotion to your copy and make it easier for your reader to connect enough to become an eager buyer. Don’t over-spice your copy, or sacrifice your site’s natural voice, but add ample flavor wherever appropriate and conversions will naturally follow.
17) Use Attention Grabbing Subheads
The job of subheads, like your primary headline, is to grab your reader’s attention and hold it. Well positioned and well-written subheads will get scanners to stop scanning and actually read the copy that leads to the click.
A well-written subhead must grab the reader’s attention, while also giving them reasons to continue reading by laying out a benefit of the product or hinting at what’s to come.
18) Always End With a P.S.
No sales letter should ever end without a P.S., and that P.S. must always be compelling. Readers often skip to the bottom of the page to determine their overall interest. An interesting P.S. can compel them to scroll back to the top and read the rest of the copy.
Use your postscript to summarize your sales page and recap the main benefits of the product. No matter how long or short your copy, the P.S. should effectively boil down the essentials of the page and remind the readers exactly why it’s in their best interests to buy.
19) Use Multiple Buy Buttons
Each of the buy buttons on your page should be large, clearly visible, and sprinkled throughout your copy in multiple locations. The more buy buttons you have, the easier it is for your reader to make a purchase. Don’t be obnoxious by putting them everywhere, but strategically place them throughout the page so you can capture the impulse to buy whenever it may strike your reader.
Large buttons outperform small buttons in split test after split test, so make sure your button is as large as can be, without being intrusive.
20) Admit the Failings of Your Product
By admitting to a small drawback, that isn’t likely to prevent your reader from buying, you are embedding a modesty into your sales pitch that will lend credibility to your claims.
Well done, declaring a drawback will increase conversions rather than reducing them. For example, say you were creating a series of templates to help clients organize their business. You could say, “A small word of warning – I’m not much of an artist and these templates aren’t exactly beautiful, so if that’s important to you, you probably shouldn’t buy them. But the information is great, and they will help you to organize your day.”
No product is perfect, and your buyer knows it. Let them know you know it, too.
21) Social Proof
Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd. When you prove to your potential buyer that others have used and benefited from what you are selling, they will be far more likely to join the crowd.
Fortunately, if you have a quality product these days, social proof is easy.
Comment threads on your blog, populated forums, pages of testimonials, posts at Facebook and tweets on Twitter are just some of the many ways you can use the positive feelings of others to easily promote the quality of your product.
22) Offer Installment Plans
Allowing users to buy a product in installations reduces the barrier to entry and dims the financial pressure of the purchase. In addition, it gives your buyer a chance to test drive the product before actually paying for it.
Many customers are perfectly happy to pay all at once, but by offering installments (at a slightly higher price than the all-at-once total), you will likely convert many buyers who opt to “think about it,” but will never return.
23) Stack the Bonuses
Add as many bonuses to your offer as you possibly can. Ideally, these should be of low or no cost to you. PDF’s, worksheets, audios, or anything else that can be downloaded in bits and bytes is great since there is no hard cost outside the initial production time.
Regardless of the cost to you, bonuses add perceived value to the sale, and make it easier for the buyer to pull the trigger.
24) Use Your Thank You Page as an Opportunity For an Upsell
When a buyer makes a purchase online, they are redirected to a Thank You Page; the best possible place to offer your buyer an upsell. Your buyer has just committed to giving you money and are highly interested in what you have to offer. They are already in a buyer’s mindset and will often make an additional purchase, so long as you create the right offer.
Add some short copy to the Thank You page that acts as a compelling short form sales letter. Make your offer irresistible and you will no doubt add a nice percentage to your bottom line.
Do a great job at closing the sale and you can make more money for every product you create. If you’re writing copy for others, your conversions will be higher, your copy will be worth more, and you can charge more for every word you write.
Closing the sale is the final, and perhaps most important, step in the online sales process. Use these 24 time-tested tactics to double or triple your success. Test and track the various techniques, discover which perform best for you, and use them at every opportunity.
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About Sean Platt
Great tips Sean. I’m only just getting the idea that a great headline can make all the difference. It’s a skill that doesn’t come naturally to me but it’s a fun thing to work on. At what point do you decide on the wording for the headline?
I also thought Number 24 was a fantastic idea!
Lately, the headline has informed the copy, at least to start. But there is no hard rule. Sometimes I’ll rewrite a headline several times before I’m happy with it. In fact, sometimes I’ll even change it after it’s gone live!