I don’t believe you.
That’s your second biggest enemy beyond having your message heard… It’s convincing your customer to believe your what you’re saying is true.
People are skeptical. They need to be skeptical.
And that’s your next biggest obstacle, convincing them to believe a word you say. Because you’re just some random website on the internet, and there are thousands of sites just like yours who make the same grand promises.
So what can you do?
PROVE IT.
Proof is the key.
And I’m not just talking about testimonials. Everyone has testimonials… Testimonials can be manufactured or “encouraged” and buyers know this.
Screenshots are another “iffy” form of proof.
I’m not saying don’t use them… I’m saying they’re not enough. And in many cases this type of proof isn’t even necessary.
Let’s look at a few different ways to offer real proof.
Be An Authority.
Gary Halbert was the greatest copywriter who ever lived… It says so right on his website.
A lot of great copywriters would agree, but he would have never been known as the “best” unless he believed he was the best, acted like the best, and told people that he was the best.
You can’t do that if you can’t back it up, but if you can, no one else is going to appoint you as “the best” at anything until you take that position for yourself.
In relation to your marketing, you need to be an authority… I used to sell pianos. I could barely play a lick, but aside from playing them I knew everything about them.
I knew the bright sounding pianos from the mellow pianos. I could tell prospects about where they’re manufactured, why one soundboard is superior to another, every little detail.
I could answer anything people wanted to know about purchasing a piano. I’d rarely touch a keyboard when selling a piano, but I sold a lot of them.
Because I knew what I was talking about. And it doesn’t matter what your niche is… Anything from traffic generation to investments to gardening…
If you can speak as an authority on the subject, people will listen. And if you really know what you’re talking about, people can tell.
Just being an authority on a subject can give you a huge amount of credibility in any market.
Use Indirect Proof.
This is something that can be tricky, so you have to be careful.
For the purposes of this post, I’m making up statistics for examples… Don’t assume these are true. You obviously want to use real statistics and facts for your own products…
Say you’re selling an SEO product… Indirect proof may be…
There are over 6 billion searches on Google every month, and there are still millions of profitable search terms out there that are simple to rank for… Just one of those long tail keywords can easily be worth thousands of dollars a month for your business…
Or an Adwords product…
95% Of Adwords users ultimately lose money and give up… However for the 5% who DO turn a profit it can be life changing income. We’ve interviewed dozens of successful Adwords advertisers, and we’ll show you exactly what it takes to drive cheap targeted traffic to your website AND how to convert that traffic into a profitable Adwords campaign…
Or an investment newsletter…
“Warren Buffet once said “In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.” And we believe this type of thinking has been critical to his success… At XYZ newsletter we know that past performance never guarantees future success, and because we always keep our eyes on the road ahead, our subscribers have made a consistent 24% ROI over the last 12 months, even during the recession.”
This type of proof can be applied to anything… And while it’s not a testament to the quality of your product you are backing up claims you make with real, verifiable data.
The Amazon Effect.
How many books have you bought on Amazon based solely on the reviews? If you’re anything like me, probably a lot.
But Amazon reviews are MUCH more powerful than testimonials… Because anyone can post their opinion. If a book is great, it’ll get a ton of positive feedback. If it’s not, it’ll get bad reviews.
But that’s REAL social proof. There’s no screening. The author can’t hand pick testimonials. For some products or services, this can be applied to your marketing as well.
As a copywriter, most of my work comes from word of mouth. A satisfied client recommends me to a friend, and that’s the best social proof I can get.
When I was starting out, I’d post on forums… I still do. I remember when I posted one of my first offers. At first, it was a little slow. Then I got a taker. I did the copy, the client tested it, and posted feedback in the thread…
Then it was a snowball effect. Before long I had quite a few clients all posting in my thread, commenting on the quality of work, my work ethic, etc… And once I had that social proof built in, I started getting a lot more inquiries.
This can be applied to most products online… If you promote in forums, or run a forum, or a blog, and you provide real value to people and give them the opportunity to post feedback, they’ll do it. And that’s extremely powerful, much more than handpicked testimonials.
Get Creative…
Why was Billy Mays so successful? Because he proved the claims he made about every product through outrageous demonstrations…
Why is the Prius so popular? Because they took advantage of a trend (environmental awareness, high gas prices) and proved that they provided a solution.
This post is just a few ideas, there are hundreds of ways to get your message across and prove it in the process. So far we’ve talked about getting your sales message read and providing undeniable proof about your product… Keep an eye out for the next post within a week or so.
Are you proving every promise you make in your sales copy?
Proof is critical to your success… If you have any ideas on how to provide proof, please leave a comment.
Peace,
-Scott Murdaugh
P.S. Right now is a GREAT time to hire me… December is a slow month for copywriting, and I’ve got some time to help with your marketing, but not for long. Leave a comment, or fill in the form at ResultsCopywriting.com and I’ll let you know if I can help.
