Seems like the economy has people tightening their belts. It’s not as easy to throw money at business opportunities these days.

And one thing I’ve noticed for sure is that people are being more cautious before hiring a copywriter.

Good.

One question I get a lot is, “Are you sure you can improve my conversion rate?” Or, “Can you promise a 2% conversion rate?”

Sounds to me like many online marketers are getting burned. And while I tend to agree with Bob Bly who says it’s dishonest to guarantee a conversion rate, I refuse to be a copywriter who turns his back on a client after handing over the copy.

So when you invest $4 to $6k with me for your sales copy, I’m ready and willing to help you test and track your copy for 30 days. With software I even customized myself to get results as quickly as possible.

Often times underperforming copy can be fixed with just a tweak here and there, and multivariate testing can help you find it.

So if your new copy is missing the mark a bit at first, I’ll be tweaking the copy to fix the problem maybe even before you notice!

This makes it easy for potential clients to decide…

…which copywriter should they hire in a recession when every dollar counts?

The copywriter who sticks around to test and track your copy to make sure it’s a winner? Or the copywriter who hands it over and is done with you.

The answer is clear, and you can fill out an application here: Copy Productions.

If you’re not currently testing your sales copy, get on it! I suggest either using Easy Split Test, Google Analytics or, my favorite, Muvar which comes free as a bonus at this link.

Then try setting up these quick 10 tests.

1. Try removing your PS’s or applying my rules to your PS’s.

2. Try a blue gradient background.

3. Try using the Ultimate Submit Button or the Belcher Button.

4. Try removing any language or dead giveaways from the top of your sales letter that tips the reader off that you are selling a product/service. (An obvious example would be an order button.)

5. Try removing the first 3-5 paragraphs from your copy. Often when you write, the first few paragraphs can be awkward before you’ve warmed up and reached your “zone.”

6. Try making your body text and your margins (top, bottom, left and right) larger.

7. Try a new headline. Maybe one that starts with “Discover,” “Amazingly Simple Method For…” or that comes across as “newsy,” like you might see on the front page of a newspaper.

8. Try adding new audio or video to the top of your sales page, that starts immediately after the page loads.

9. Try rewriting your subheads so that if you deleted all the body text, the reader would still understand the core ideas of the copy.

10. Try adding stock photography. Maybe under the headline or when Screaming For Attention.

When I do multivariate testing for clients I typically break up the copy in to several distinctive sections, and test each part of the copy against absolutely nothing.

That’s how I discovered that so many beginning or amateur copywriters write terrible PS’s. I tested their PS section against saying nothing at all. And saying nothing at all often beat poorly written postscripts.

Over time I get a good sense of which sections almost ALWAYS improve conversion. And I recently found one you may not have thought of.

I call it SCREAMING for attention. Typically I see that as a bad thing, but if you do it at the write time in copy it works, and it works well.

Picture this. You’re building the logical argument for why your product solves a problem they’ve been consciously or subconsciously meaning to solve… you’re providing proof… you’re demonstrating how easy your product is to use…

…and then, to make sure they’re excited and paying attention, you say something drastic.

I’ll Let Mike Tyson Slug Me In The Jaw If This Doesn’t Work 100% Of The Time!

Or…

It’s So Easy Even A Total Jackass Can Do It!

Or…

And If Not I’ll Drive This 3-Ton Bulldozer Over My New Ferrari

Saying something outrageous and unexpected like the examples above in a subhead almost always increase conversion for me.

I typically follow the lively subhead with a ridiculous picture to really bring home the point. Maybe boxing gloves would work, maybe a live-action punch to the jaw, maybe a picture of a donkey (a jackass), or a picture of a bulldozer creeping up on a Ferrari.

This subhead is a blatant SCREAM for attention late in your copy that can refocus the attention of anyone you may be losing. And putting a strong sales argument right after this subhead is a great way to bring them back.

Thinking back, I can’t think of a time when “nothing” beat this “SCREAMING for attention” approach.

If you give it a try, let me know how it works out for you!

Recently I was hired to do a rewrite for a client’s sales copy that wasn’t converting.

Before I got started I decided to set up tracking software to see how his copy was converting… AND see where his traffic was coming from.

Remember, last month I wrote a post about how traffic sources affect conversions. The idea is that different traffic sources can affect conversion rates BIG TIME.

Some sources of traffic will convert MUCH BETTER than others, to the same sales copy. (A member of my Copy Mentorship recently discovered this as well. We discussed it in the latest Q&A session.)

Because of this, I’m more interested in knowing the conversion rates from individual traffic sources than just the overall conversion rate.

Now that the test has been running for more than a week, I can see that the biggest source of traffic is from traffic exchanges and other very low-targeted traffic sources.

If you just excluded these low quality traffic sources, the overall conversion rate would double. That says a lot.

So now when I rewrite the copy, I’ll be able to better judge the success of the letter by excluding the traffic sources that don’t really pick up any sales. In fact, I’ll probably ONLY compare conversion rates from traffic sources that made at least one sale.

To track conversion rate by traffic source, I use Muvar. (Although it now looks like Testivar might be the new name for the software.)

If you’re working to get your conversion rate up, I recommend using software like Muvar to help you discover your true conversion rate… AND to tell you something about your customers. But I’ll get to that in another post.