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The Number One Secret To Home Business Success
Nothing will help your home business succeed or fail faster than your copywriting. Good copywriting will earn you the kind of money you can only dream about. Bad copywriting will sink your home business faster than a nuclear warhead!
Everything begins and ends with your copywriting. Good copywriting is a great deodorant. It can cover up and mask a lot of things that may stink about your home business, like an inferior product, poor website design, poor customer service, etc.
When writing an ad or sales letter, there are two critical points you must NEVER, EVER forget:
1. Most people don't make a buying decision based on logic. They make a buying decision based on their emotions. They justify their decision later with logic.
2. People don't want to feel like they're being coerced or pushed into anything. They want to feel like they arrived at a buying decision completely of their own free will.
Here's the key: You MUST write every single ad and sales letter using the following classic AIDA formula:
A=ATTENTION I=INTEREST D=DESIRE A=ACTION
Let's break down each letter, so that you can understand the full import of the formula:
A=ATTENTION: The very first thing your ad or sales letter must do is get your reader's attention. The very best way to do that is with an effective headline.
When it comes to copywriting, nothing is more important than your headline.
Believe it or not, just changing the headline has been known to dramatically improve the effectiveness of an ad or sales letter by up to 1700 percent!Yes, headlines are that powerful--and that important!
An effective headline will do many things at once. It will attract the reader's attention, convey benefits by appealing to the reader's self-interest and it will set the stage for what is to come. It will also target the audience for which it was intended.
But the number one thing a headline should always do is answer the question, "What's in it for me?" Why? Because that's all any of us really care about.
Next, we come to the second letter in the aforementioned AIDA formula: I="INTEREST". After you get your reader's attention, you want to get them "INTERESTED" in your product or service. You do that by immediately telling them what your headline promises. You don't waste their time with a bunch of fluff and garbage that nobody but you cares about.
Tell them what they want to know, starting with the very first paragraph, and continue to tell them, right through to the very last paragraph. If you keep them interested, they'll keep reading, right to the very end.
Next comes the third letter letter in the formula: D="DESIRE". You have to make your prospects "DESIRE" your product or service. And the best way to do that is with benefits, benefits and more benefits!
Remember, just keep telling your reader's what your headline promised. Also, tell them what they stand to gain by purchasing your product or service. More importantly, tell them what they stand to lose, if they doesn't purchase.
Push their emotional "hot buttons", by using magic selling words like, new, save, amazing, free, guaranteed, security, no-risk, look younger, feel better, etc!
Finally, we come to the last letter in the formula, but certainly not the least: A="ACTION". You want to close your ad or sales letter with a call to action! In other words, ask them for the order. It's important to ask for the order at least three times, preferably six or more.
Here are a few examples of effective closes:
1. "Just click on the button below to order NOW, Risk-Free"!
2. "To get your FREE website, Order NOW"!
3. "Don't waste another minute! Order NOW"!
Something else that's very effective is to include a post- script (P.S.) at the end of your ad or sales letter. Your post-script should include an enticement of some sort, to get your prospects to order NOW. You should also use the post-script as a final call to "ACTION"!
Here's an example of an effective post-script:
P.S. "Don't forget, if your order within the next ten days, you'll also receive a personalized calculator mouse pad FREE, with your company's name embossed in gold lettering! Order NOW"!
You can also use a post script to tie everything together, by summarizing your most important benefits.
Another reason that you should use a post-script is strictly elementary. Studies have shown that most people, when reading an ad or sales letter will read the headline and then immediately zoom right down to the bottom of the page to check out the price and see if your offer is anything that they'd be interested in.
Follow the formula faithfully and it will rarely let you down.
And remember, when writing your ads and sales letters, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS answer that one question we all want to know: "What's in it for me"?
About the Author Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net
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