"Psychological Selling Tactics"

[onefreekiwinz]

Human beings respond to incentive.

If you want to entice people to act on your suggestions you
must give them some kind of incentive that's clearly spelled
out in language they can understand.

That incentive can be:

1) A way out of a problem they're dealing with.
2) The acquisition of something they want.

It's said that in Direct Marketing, the following formula
applies to the success of any marketing endeavor.

1) Quality of your sales copy accounts for 33.33% of your success.
2) Quality of your list/prospects accounts for 33.33% of your success.
3) Quality of your offer accounts for 33.33% of your success.

This is where many marketers miss it. Even if you
have outstanding sales copy, and targeted prospects, if
your offer isn't tantalizing enough to make them act alone
on the power of the offer, they'll just shop somewhere else.

What exactly is an offer?

It's simply this:

"I'll do this for you, and in exchange, you do this for me."

With this in mind, you want to clearly show Mr. Prospect
that he's going to get more value than he perceives his
money to be worth.

Reread that sentence again. It's powerful.

You want to articulate to your prospects and customers
the following:

"This service is ten times more valuable to you than your
investment in it."

"Your investment will pay for itself at least five times over."

"Mr. Jones, 95% of my clients report a sales increase of
30% to 400% or more, what would a sales increase of that
magnitude do for your business? Obviously your investment
will pay for itself in no time."

Let's move on shall we?

So how do you ensure you have enough incentive built into
your marketing and sales copy for people to act on your
suggestions?

Just apply the following tactics:

1) Appeal to people's desire to get a valuable freee bonus.
2) Appeal to people's desire to get a better deal.
3) Appeal to people's desire to get the finest product even
if it's the most expensive of its kind available.
4) Appeal to people's desire to belong to an esteemed
group or organization.
5) Appeal to people's desire to collect things.

Never assume that by lowering your prices that you're
going to get an influx of business.

Consider this ... there will always be a market for super
expensive products and services.

Why not be one of the providers of high priced products
and services and capitalize on the staggering sums of money you
can make? (If indeed you can deliver on quality.)

Here's an exercise for you.

Spend an hour today, thinking about what you could do
to add more value to your product or service. What bonuses
could you add? What groups or perceived social groups
can you make your prospects believe they'll be a part of
when they purchase your product or service?

What other benefits can you add to your sales offers that'll
increase the value of being your customer?

Would an extended warranty work? How about a special
customer service program? Or, what about a consultation
follow-up program? The ideas are only limited by your
imagination.

[dannycapri]

Thanks for the info.

Useful for all newbies

[Greg123]

This is much appreciated. Thanks

[Article Writer]

Great Gems of information.

[TimSchaefer]

Originally Posted by onefreekiwinz

It's said that in Direct Marketing, the following formula
applies to the success of any marketing endeavor.

1) Quality of your sales copy accounts for 33.33% of your success.
2) Quality of your list/prospects accounts for 33.33% of your success.
3) Quality of your offer accounts for 33.33% of your success.

This is where many marketers miss it. Even if you
have outstanding sales copy, and targeted prospects, if
your offer isn't tantalizing enough to make them act alone
on the power of the offer, they'll just shop somewhere else.

You're being awfully generous to the copy

The "rule" is generally more of a 20/40/40 split, respectively.

It's why businesses can still hobble along with mediocre copy.

But your point still holds: People respond to incentives and added value. (Mainly because we're selfish little things.)

[raj564]

very solid info you priovided. cheers!

[jayden.fellze]

This is really very informative. Your facts are very reliable and i must conclude that if your information will be followed a huge success will follow soon after. thanks again.

[azurews]

Awesome info. Thanks for taking the time to share!

[Mmfh]

You just gave me a couple good idea's!
Thanks!!

Mm

[Raydal]

Originally Posted by TimSchaefer

You're being awfully generous to the copy

The "rule" is generally more of a 20/40/40 split, respectively.

It's why businesses can still hobble along with mediocre copy.

But your point still holds: People respond to incentives and added value. (Mainly because we're selfish little things.)

I agree with Tim here, no copy can pull a poor product or offer
out of the ditches. Copy is important but I wouldn't give it
that much weight. (Hurts saying this as a copywriter, but it's
the truth.)

"A gifted product is mightier than a gifted pen" -Rosser Reeves

-Ray Edwards

[bigcullie]

Thanks Gary,

This is just the information I need right now. Gordon.

[colmodwyer]

The "rule" is generally more of a 20/40/40 split, respectively.

If anything it's...

1.List (most important)
2.Offer
3.Copy (least important)

...As for any specific percentages, I think they're all made up.

Colm

[reedcopywriting]

I love this info - very useful!

I sometimes struggle with the offer and the close - so this info really helps me where I need it the most!

[Mr. Subtle]

Originally Posted by onefreekiwinz

It's said that in Direct Marketing, the following formula
applies to the success of any marketing endeavor.

1) Quality of your sales copy accounts for 33.33% of your success.
2) Quality of your list/prospects accounts for 33.33% of your success.
3) Quality of your offer accounts for 33.33% of your success.

This is where many marketers miss it. Even if you
have outstanding sales copy, and targeted prospects, if
your offer isn't tantalizing enough to make them act alone
on the power of the offer, they'll just shop somewhere else.

Who said the Direct Marketing formula for success is the "33.33%-33.33%-33.33%" rule? You must have it confused with the "40-40-20" rule for success in Direct Marketing. This rule was developed by Ed Mayer decades ago.

Also, you and every other blogger or article writer on the NET who mentions this formula gets it WRONG when it comes to "the offer." Mayer never said 40% goes to "the offer." What he said is the second 40% goes to who the MAILER is and WHAT HE HAS TO OFFER. In other words... the PRODUCT! There is a BIG difference as to what a company has to OFFER and what their OFFER is. The offer is part of copy and goes into the 20%. Your formula and everyone else who writes about this formula leaves the PRODUCT out!

The correct (offline) Direct Marketing formula is:

40% - list
40% - product
20% - everything else (copy, graphics, etc.)

Screendump from a REAL book showing the formula:

How copywriters see their importance in the scheme of things:

[Paul Hancox]

LOL @Mr Subtle. If it's in a book, it must be true.

I'm just kidding with you, although there is a semi-serious point to it. I always keep in mind that copywriters and marketers also write books to SELL. In other words, who cares what the exact % figures are? 40-40-20 is a concept, with the figures chosen no doubt to be easily conveyed in a book.

I bet his actual results were more like 38.46-42.19-19.35... but who's going to remember the 38.46-42.19-19.35 rule?

Anyway, quibbling over figures aside, I do agree with your point about the PRODUCT.

Product definitely trumps copy, because even if the copywriter thinks they can sell snow to an eskimo, people aren't (that) stupid.

If it's a crappy product, people will find out and talk.

On the other hand, I've seen many people buy my products purely on the recommendation of someone else. I know at times they've barely even read my copy because of the speed at which it happens. It's like, recommendation... BAM... sale... in 2 minutes.

Word of mouth can trump copy most days of the week (except sunday, when it rests).

[CDarklock]

Engineers think the product is the biggest part of the equation.

Marketers think the target market is the biggest part of the equation.

Copywriters think the sales copy is the biggest part of the equation.

In my experience, it's all three, and if they're not equal - they're close enough for rock and roll.

[Loren Woirhaye]

Lets say that when DIFFERENTIATION is an issue in the marketplace,
skilled copywriting, appropriate to the list, nailing the right appeal at
the right time is extremely relevant.

If you have a unique product that's a no-brainer (ie. first on the market
and super-cool) then even if the copy is a misfire an appropriately
targeted effort can be profitable... for example tech-products marketed
at the list of geeks who gotta have the new toy FIRST!

When I work with clients I try to nudge, cajol, provoke and even bully
them into taking a stronger position in the marketplace. As an offline
business owner (yeah, we KNOW you were a cabinetmaker dude) I
confronted daily the issue that the product had to be competitively
strong (ie. better than adequate), the customer relations (crisis management
and salesmanship) had to be comparitively good, the price had to
feel right according to the desperateness of the customer, and
to win the customers in the right place snap and crackle in the
marketing helped but wasn't worth a damn if I screwed-up on making
a good product.

There's a lot to it. Fun work if you're bookish, creative and observant.
Torture if you're not.

[ajcox22]

Also you need to use fear of loss or sense of urgency, near the end of your offer

intro
beni's & product info
reward of gain
fear of loss
sense of urgency
offer
additional buy now incentive