Copywriting - Getting the Sale: Science Proves People Make Emotional Decisions

By Carol Bentley

In any sales situation; whether face-to-face, on the web, in an advertisement or through direct response letters, the experts have always maintained that decisions to buy are emotional justified by logic. Painting the picture of the pleasure or satisfaction a purchaser gains or the problem or pain they avoid or cure is the most powerful way of persuading people to buy and is frequently used in marketing material.

Now our inherent experience and knowledge has been proven scientifically by Dr Joe Arvai, who is a professor of judgement and decision making and heads up the Skunkworks Lab at Michigan University.

As part of his research he and Dr Robyn Wilson ran a study on decision making, asking 210 participants to judge how much of a budget should be allocated to risk prevention in two areas in a National Park; Mugging and Bag Snatching or Accidents Caused by Wandering Deer within the park. The published results in March 2006 showed that, in spite of statistics indicating the deer problem actually had a slightly higher risk, the volunteers judged it as lower and therefore a higher budget allocation was given to the emotive problem of mugging.

So how does this impact on our marketing material? It demonstrates that emotion, experience and perception all affect our decisions. Which is why it is so important to really understand your target prospect. What are their experiences; what appeals to them; what excites them; what angers them; what worries them; what do they REALLY WANT - rather than need? People take more notice of their emotions than any logical argument.

And of course we see this all the time; otherwise why do people buy high-status cars or houses or designer clothing when a cheaper unbranded item does the job just as well? They want to enjoy the status, and maybe even envy, in the eyes of their friends and colleagues.

Before sitting down to write any sales letter, advert, brochure, email, web page or even an article like this, describe your ideal customer. Then when you craft your message keep this picture in mind and clearly show the results they can expect to enjoy.

Once your prospect has made a decision to buy they will need to justify the purchase to themselves - and perhaps other people - especially if your product or service has a high-ticket price. You can help them do this by describing the features of your offer and reasons-why they made a decision in your favour.

Having trouble describing or picturing your target prospect? Look at your existing customers; why did they buy from you? What influenced their decision? Is it something you can use to encourage other prospects to make a good buying choice?

©2007 Original Work by Carol Bentley

Learn more about Persuading People to Buy... Subscribe to your free reports, with no commitment, at http://www.CarolBentley.com

Carol, who is the author of 'I Want to Buy Your Product... Have You Sent Me a Letter Yet? (Rated 5-star on Amazon), is launching a unique copywriting programme in the UK. Download a 17-page interview transcript where she reveals more about these powerful techniques and register your interest with no commitment. Visit http://www.WriteLettersWinSales.co.uk

Carol has extensive experience in writing copy for direct response campaigns. If you would like to talk to Carol's office about having her work on your current or next sales project you can use the contact form on her website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carol_Bentley

19 secrets to making your ad copy more effective

Are Web Users Dense?

By Rick Sloboda

Clients and students frequently question why website writing should hover around a grade eight level.

The purpose is to promote readability.

It’s well known in the web writing community that the vast majority of online visitors don’t read word-by-word -- they scan.

That’s why plain language works well on the Web.

When you present clear web writing, you get your message across, connect with your audience and promote positive online experiences.

So how do you gauge the grade level of your web writing? Consider the following chart as a guide:

Grade Publication

6 TV Guide

8 Reader’s Digest
10 Time, Newsweek
11 Wall Street Journal

You can also use the Flesch-Kincaid readability statistics formula, which rates writing on a U.S. grade school level based on the average number of syllables per word and words per sentence. This article, as an example, scores 7.0.

You can determine the Flesch-Kincaid grade level of your web writing with MS Word by selecting the ‘Check grammar with spelling’ and ‘Show readability statistics’ options in the Spelling and Grammar tab (go to Tools, Options). Then do a spell check to view your readability score.

In addition to ‘plain language’, here are other web writing tips to promote website readability and usability:

• Keep a consistent style

• Use active voice versus passive voice.

• Passive voice: the subject is acted upon. It’s impersonal and static: “a delightful pizza was made by the chef.”

• Active voice: the subject takes the action. It’s strong, dynamic and direct: “the chef made a delightful pizza.”

• Use second-person narration (“you” and “we”) rather than first person (“I”).

• Keep it personal and informal -- speak “to” your audience, not “at” them.

At the end of the day, web users are definitely not dense. We’re just not willing to waste time on convoluted websites when there are more than 100 million other sites eager to serve us.

Rick Sloboda is with http://www.webcopyplus.com Free website writing tool http://www.webcopyplus.com/tools More website writing tips http://www.webcopyplus.com/faqs

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rick_Sloboda

Diaries

Develop Site Content

By Bharat Bista

This lesson is designed to help you develop and gather content for a Web site. In this lesson, you will learn about content and how to organize it as well as what questions to ask your client. It is recommended that you attend the classroom lectures to get the full understanding of this lesson.

Web site content and structure Determine your menu and content for your site by deciding what service, product or type of site your client is needing. Some clients have no idea what they want, it's up to the designer to help the client understand the types of Web sites there are and how to get started. Clients you're working with usually have a better understanding of their business than you do. You will need your client to provide as much information about what they do as possible - have them provide samples of brochures, business cards, newspaper ads, yellow page ads or anything else you can think of hat will help you design and structure their site.

At this point, you may need to hire a copywriter to produce text for the site. If the client does not have this in their budget, then have the client provide text for you based on your guidelines. Some clients already have an idea of what they want. Use what they have and enhance it when necessary. The following are types of questions and information to get from your client. These questions will help you in the design process and better enable you to build a site map. Join Creative public and download the Web site questionnaire and use this form to interview your clients needs and wants.

Questions to ask

Purpose of Web site:
Ask your client what they plan to do with the site. In other words, are they selling a product like nuts and bolts or is this more of an information site, like a brochure.

Audience:
Who's the target audience? Who's most likely to visit this site? What age group are you targeting?

Type of Web site:
Make sure your client understands the types of sites that are out there. Help the client determine what they need, based on the "Purpose" of their site. Will this site be a portal, promotional, ecommerce, or a content site? It's up to you to educate your client so they can better understand what you are talking about.

Page links and page content:
Once you have a basic understanding of what the client's needs are, then it's time to determine links, content and how many pages the site will be. Each link will have to have content based on the information you gathered from the client. For example, the home page of the Web site will have the majority of the links. It's always best to start off with the "Home" page first and then follow with other pages.

For each page, you may want to add separate sheets of paper and write down the links they may have. Some site's "secondary pages" have links to other pages within the site. Later, you'll transfer this to a site map for a visual layout and structure of the site. Remember that you don't have to use these link names. Be creative with your link names, but keep them clear and understandable to your visitor. Suggested links for the "Home" page.

Company (about us):
Discuss company information. Tell how the company got started and how long they have been in business. Possibly list awards and business partner relationships.

Contact:
Information on how clients can contact you. Make sure to include email, phone, etc.

Services:
List what the company does, what services are offered, and possibly include a pricing section.

Product or project showcase:
Have a showcase for the client to display their projects. Whether it's art or construction, an area for displaying projects is essential.

Secondary page links "Product Page":
Let's say this site is a hardware store. For this example, you will have three links to three different product pages.
- Nuts and Bolts
- Tools
- Wood

Now for each product, you'll need to consult your client and have information provided to you on each of these areas.

Technical support questions:
You will need to find out who your client is using for a hosting provider. You may want to offer them a great hosting plan yourself or guide them to a company to get hosting services. Keep in mind that most clients are coming to you for full service. Most clients don't understand how the Internet works, they just want their Web site to work. Research hosting plans and come up with a list of ays to make money for yourself or find an easy way for clients to handle it.

Hosting (service provider)
Who's the client's hosting company. Discuss plans and costs for services needed.

FTP (file transfer protocol)
Get your server information from the service provider providing the hosting service, including username and password to access the site upload area.

Domain name
Find out if your client already has a domain name. You will need to get that account information to forward any domains to a new server location.

Keywords
Think of keywords that you want the search engines to be able to search for. For example, use words like: tools, nuts, bolts, wood, and hardware. These keywords ill help you set up the Meta Tag section of the site, which enables search engines to locate the page. Overall, this lesson will help you determine the client's needs. After asking these questions and getting all the necessary information, it's time to put it all together and create a site map. Once this is done, get with your client to approve copy and site structure. After that approval process is done, then move onto design.

Author: Jason Vaughn/ Posted & Edited by Bharat Bista

References: Dallas Graphic Design -Dallas Website Design -Website Design Dallas

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bharat_Bista

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