When you are in the business of selling online, you have to expect that at least some of your potential customers will exhibit resistance to purchasing.
A sales person’s job is to overcome objections. But when you’re selling over the internet, that’s not always possible, unless you anticipate potential objections and address them in the copy. That’s why so many master marketers use 10,000 word sales pages. They cover all the bases!
When you overcome resistance before the consumer has the chance to exhibit it, you can more easily convert more visitors to buyers. It does take a bit of research, but the result of increased sales will more than pay for your time.
Answer Questions Before They Are Asked
This is an important concept in successful sales copy. You need to get inside your customer’s head and answer their concerns before he or she has the chance to voice their opposition.
How do you do this? You need to identify and thoroughly understand the profile of your target market.
Presumably you are selling the products or services offered on your website because you have some kind of interest in them. If you do, you know what would make you want to buy your product. If you don’t, you’ll need to do some market research so that you can relate to your target demographic.
Remember back to the days before you started your business, when you were a consumer like those you are now marketing to. What was important to you? What made you decide to buy from one company but not another?
Analyse all the information you have already compiled on your existing customers. Are they low-income or affluent? Young or old? Living in rural areas or in the midst of big cities? All of this data presents a clearer picture of those people likely to buy your products or services. Do some research on the internet if you don’t have enough to work with from your own database.
Create a list of FAQs that answer all the questions this demographic might have. Do you sell fishing lures? Then your clients are likely to want to know about how effective they are for attracting certain types of fish, how well they are constructed, under what conditions they work best, and if you take custom orders. Selling a membership site on how to make money with WordPress blogs? Make sure you know how to appeal to people who want to make money through this method and that you have the expertise to put together a great product.
Overcoming Objections
In the above example, the avid fisherman might not consider price to be a resistance factor, but return policy or guarantee might be an area of concern.
If price is a factor, justify the cost of your goods or services. Let visitors to your site know that your products are high-quality, hand-crafted, or not offered in retail stores.
Clearly identify the value to the customer. Show how the items you offer will make the consumer’s life easier, better, or more enjoyable. This value proposition should be the foundation of your business, feel free to restate it several times throughout your website. People want to know that they are making a good decision by purchasing from your company.
Sales will come much easier when you identify possible objections ahead of time and then overcome them through the text in your sales copy. With a bit of research and some creativity, you can easily combat buyers’ resistance and increase your conversion rate.
About Sean Rasmussen
Great post Sean!
Do you believe that there is still a market out there for the ‘long’ sales copy, or has it been and gone?
Many places are now starting to use a short article.
Hi Cemil,
I do believe long sales copy still has its place online, with long copy you can let your readers know absolutely everything about your product. This will reduce the amount of queries and buyer resistance. However with online videos becoming so popular, it is now quite easy (and popular) to add all of your information into a video which can greatly reduce the size of your sales page.
Regards – Sean
Hi Sean,
A long sales page is ok as long as is not repeating the same thing over and over, often I have just clicked off a page that does that.
Rita
There are some very successful copywriters who use long copy. People don’t read everything blah, blah, blah, blah and scroll… blah, blah, the copywriter makes their point using compelling language blah, blah, blah. So the success rate of successful copywriters who use long copy is good – I know one successful person, personally. Actually – two if we include Sean Rasmussen… not that I know him personally but he did use long copy for YOTA book – & he is super successful!
So although their seems to be some debate about long copy vs short – the proof is in the pudding.
Hi Sean,
I still think that I would outsource this as it’s not a strength with me. I agree that the best way to overcome buyer resistance is to anticipate their reservations around buying the product. I think some places where you can find out what people are saying about the product is Twitter and Yahoo Answers.
I agree with Rita. I don’t like the long sales pages either. I guess I would want to do my sales page differently but then maybe it wouldn’t be as effective.
There is nothing wrong with outsourcing various things that are not your strong points Jazz.
Great selling information here, thanks Sean.
I’m inclined to agree that a long sales copy is not always appropriate. I’ve had instances where I am ready to purchase half way down the page and have lost interest towards the end. A Sales Copy with an accompanied video is good. If I have done enough reading and still want to know more about the product I can go to the video and listen to what’s been said and possibly from the horses mouth. Sean Rasmussen does this well with lots of videos and webinars available to support his offer.
Like you said in this article Sean. Answering questions is most important and to have them all covered. If this is achieved my experience is that the sale is a certainty.