Copywriting Dean

I recently was reminded of a quote from Michel Fortin that I blogged about once before. In one line, he sums up the problem with many of the new copywriters sprouting up on the web:

“The biggest error that most people commit when they write copy is that they try to be clever, trying to ‘WOW’ people with every sentence.” ~ Michel Fortin

EXACTLY. Here’s an example to show his point.

The prospect asks himself…

“How can I retire at 50 on my current income?”

The faux copywriter writes this headline for the prospect…

Attention! You Are About To Discover How You Can Unleash A Flood Of Interest-Generating Cash In To Your Bank Account So You Can Retire Young And Never Worry About Money Again!

The pro copywriter writes this headline for the prospect…

“How To Retire At 50 On Your Current Income.”

Copywriting isn’t about trying to impress the reader, it’s about connecting with the reader. While it’s important to get the prospect excited, it’s just as important to make your ideas as exciting as your words… or maybe more so.

Just about any money-makin’ plan you might pick online requires that you start a web site. And if you’re like me, you’re starting new sites all the time.

So I wanted to share with you how I, as a copywriter, find the perfect domain name.

Pretty much every word in the dictionary is taken. There are plenty of two word combinations available… but the most obvious ones are usually taken. A lot of what’s left over doesn’t necessarily make a lot of sense without good marketing.

MySpace.com, FaceBook.com and YouTube.com might seem like self explanatory domains to you now… but if you didn’t know what the sites were. They’d be a mystery.

Those two domains are a good example of what’s left.

BUT… those domain names aren’t bad at all. I just helped a client find the perfect domain name for his new product. It’s two words. Easy to remember. Easy to spell…

Well, why don’t I just go ahead and tell you my rules for selecting domain names.

1. They must be extremely easy to spell. Short words like… cat, hat, free are great. Stuff like “genius” isn’t good. You may think it’s easy to spell, but you’d be surprised how easy it is to mess up.

2. I like to avoid double vowels between words, and sometimes double consonants. For example, giveeasy.com is a domain name that I once considered, but that double “e” in the middle. It’s a little confusing. This can happen with consonants when double l’s or t’s get involved.

3. Less than 3 words. You can get away with breaking this rule every now and then. But in general, keep working ’til you find something that doesn’t take an hour to type in.

4. Benefit-laden. IF POSSIBLE, it’s great to have a domain name that states the benefit of your product or service. Why? Because the domain name can act like an ad for your site. It’s almost like a headline!

I bought a domain name a while back called snackawaypounds.com. Check out that benefit. Putting a benefit in the domain ALSO helps people remember the name.

Ok, those are my 4 biggest tips for selecting domain names. I could have said, always go for a .com. But you should know that.

If you want to start a successful online business, here’s what you need to do…

Create A Product
3 Quick Ways To Judge Your New Product Idea

Create A Squeeze Page
Should You Use A Squeeze Page?
7 Steps To A Successful Squeeze Page
Ballooning Squeeze Page Conversions With Winning Audio Scripts

Send Traffic To The Squeeze Page
Clixsense – Penny Traffic That Converts
A VERY Telling Conversion Story On Twitter

Send Subscribers To An Awesome Sales Letter On Launch Day

Stephen Dean’s Copywriting Services

Step 3 of 7 Steps To A Successful Squeeze Page is adding an animated video that starts automatically.

You can create this at SitePal, but you need to write your own audio script.

What should your audio script say? I’ll be testing different strategies in the future, but this script helped balloon the conversion rate (2x-3x higher) and is extremely easy to put together.

Here’s a winning squeeze page audio script in 6 pieces.

Piece 1: Say, “Attention!” or a similar phrase to alert the visitor. This works well for cheap traffic.
Piece 2: Read the headline of your squeeze page. (And maybe the subhead if you have one.)
Piece 3: State the “Reason Why” they should give an email address.
Piece 4: Tease them with information they’ll discover after giving their email address. (This might be simply reading the bullet points of your squeeze page.)
Piece 5: Call To Action: Specifically tell them to enter their email address in to the form now and restate the “Reason Why.”
Piece 6: Tell them what will happen if they don’t. What will they miss out on? What will they be too late for?

And that’s that. You may see an instant increase in squeeze page conversions.

Of course, then you’ll need to send them to a killer sales page. To get one, fill out an application at CopyProductions.com.

At CopyProductions.com you’ll find I can create your squeeze page, thank-you page, sales page and more. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, fill out an application now.

If you’re going to sell a product online, it’s often smart to get your visitor’s email address before sending them to the sales letter.

This gives you the benefit of emailing the visitor in the future with links to the sales letter, alternate sales letters, and maybe to someone else’s sales page through an affiliate link.

It also means more people will drop off at the squeeze page and never see the sales letter. So at times it can be more important to maximize the conversion of the squeeze page than the actual sales copy!

I’ve had squeeze pages convert at over 50% of visitors to relatively targeted visitors. (The same squeeze page will convert at around 2-5% with untargeted traffic.)

These are the 7 elements I use to get these high conversion rates.

1. Give A “Reason Why” They Should Give Their Email Address

Take a step back and look at your business from an outsider’s perspective. No one wants to give you their email address just because you exist.

There must be a reason why.

Most people use a freebie as their reason why. I’ve given away ebooks, videos and software free with great success.

But some freebies are better than others! Ryan Deiss stresses testing your freebie to see which leads to the most new customers. (And that’s CUSTOMERS, not simply subscribers.)

I suspect I’m giving away an ebook right now that’s hurting sales. Either because it’s too long, takes away from the sales process or some other reason. So I’ll be testing it against another squeeze page offer.

And that offer may not be a freebie at all!

One of my favorite squeeze pages converted at more than 50% and didn’t give anything away. It simply built curiousity and suspense in a few sentences, then asked for your name and email to discover the resolution.

PERFECT!

Curiousity is a GREAT tool for squeeze pages.

I’ll analyze this type of squeeze page on the blog in the future.

2. A Great Headline

I don’t use much copy on the squeeze page at all. For me, the headline carries the weight. I’ve added more copy only to see my testing software determine it wasn’t helping sales.

A great headline will satisfy Michael Masterson’s 4 U’s. That means writing something that’s…

Urgent
Ultra-Specific
Unique
Useful

Add a strong dose of curiousity to the 4 U’s and you’ll have a strong headline to take center stage.

3. Get An Animated Video That Starts Automatically

An animated “talking head” video (see http://www.sitepal.com/) that starts automatically can do amazing things for your conversion rate.

ESPECIALLY for low-quality traffic. I’ve seen conversion rates jump from barely recordable to 2-5% just by adding an animated “talking head” video.

Ryan Deiss found an “animated” video actually outperformed live-action videos!

SitePal is fairly easy to set up, so I highly recommed giving it a try. (They have a free trial.)

4. Keep Your Opt-In Form Above The Fold

In the past I’ve noticed that adding several blank lines before your headline can increase conversion. But I’ve noticed the exact opposite for squeeze pages.

I’m assuming the reason for that is it can push your opt-in form down the page so the visitor can’t see it without scrolling. That’s called “below the fold.”

From memory, all of my highest converting squeeze pages had the opt-in form “above the fold” so the visitor didn’t have to scroll.

5. Put A Box Around The Opt-In Form

A great way to draw attention to your opt-in form is to put it inside of a colored table. The code below won against no table at all. Just insert your opt-in form code between the two lines.

<table cellpadding=10 bgcolor=#EEEEEE> <tr> <td>
</td> </tr> </table>

6. Use Arrows To Draw Attention To Your Opt-In Form.

Another way to draw attention to your opt-in form that has won in tests is to point at the opt-in form with red arrows.

You can usually find graphics like these at stock photography websites.

7. Ask For An Email Address Only

Yup, simply asking for an email address beats asking for name and email. My test results show this, and so do to tests by numerous other marketers.

And that’s that, 7 steps to a successful squeeze page.

From there, of course, you need a successful sales letter and email follow-up campaign.

If you’d like a stellar squeeze page, sales letter and email sequence you can fill out an application here.

There’s an inevitable question most business owners face when setting up a new product site…

Should you make the main page a squeeze page or send them directly to the sales letter.

A squeeze page captures the visitor’s email so you can send follow up emails to try and make the sale more than once. With a sales page only, you often get just one chance.

So arguments can be made for both sides, but there’s an easy way to test how it will effect initial sales. Set up a split test.

Instead of making the squeeze page or the sales page the root index page (i.e. the home page of your domain), set up a split test with either Easy Split Test, Muvar, or Google Analytics.

Version A of your test can redirect the visitor to the squeeze page.

For the testing programs above, you’ll need to use the Meta Refresh redirect. Just change the URL below to your squeeze page’s URL and then insert this code in to the HEAD section of your HTML page.

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://www.example.com/squeeze.htm">

Version B will redirect to the sales page using similar Meta Refresh code.

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://www.example.com/salespage.htm">

The “Thank You” page code goes on the product thank you page just like normal. And as the sales come in you’ll get to see if your squeeze page and follow up emails are helping or hurting sales.

This will give you a basic answer to the question of having a squeeze page.

Of course, after the squeeze page you need an amazing sales page to close the deal.

But there is one flaw to the above test. Can you spot it? If you have a guess or know the answer, leave it as a comment!