Are marketers desensitised to sales copy?

[Li Weng]

What's your take on this?

Would you still buy a product because the sales copy was so great that you were inevitably "hypnotized" into getting?

Or would you buy it because fellow marketers you know recommend it or that you have purchased good quality products from the same person in the past?

As a marketer, how much does the sales copy still play in helping you to make a purchase decision?

[fred67]

I have to say that if I open a Looooooong salesletter, I don't even give it the time of day. Unless of course it's from someone I already respect. Even then, I scroll straight past everything until I get to the 'meat' to see what's REALLY being offered.

I'm not a fan of wasting 15 minutes to read a load of persuasive bumph, graphics and testimonials.

Give me the meat please. I'm not stupid, so don't treat me like a drone.

Pete

[Will Edwards]

YES and NO!

Yes - we see it all the time. We know and understand the format: we know why you put your headline in red, listed your bullets and centered the 650 pixel table. We like to think that stuff does not wash with us but ...


No - we buy stuff, don't we? And since we generally don't see the product first, we must recognise that it is the sales copy/layout/graphics that convince us when we do!

Will

[jdmitchell]

I will read every bit of every sales letter that is half assed decent. Why? Because it is exploding my copywriting skills. Sometimes I will get annoyed when an infomercial comes on, but then quickly snap out of "consumer" mode,and into scientific investigative mode.

If you are reading a sales letter from someone you respect, or a mad successful product...swipe that page, and extract every drop of wisdom it contains.

JD

[nair]

Originally Posted by Li Weng

Or would you buy it because fellow marketers you know recommend it or that you have purchased good quality products from the same person in the past?

That's the only reason I buy any kind of product.

I don't read a sales page, and I don't believe more than maybe 20% of the population even reads a sales page.

Most products being sold nowadays are because people tell other people about products, not by how the business persuades the viewers to buy the products.

[colmodwyer]

As far as I'm aware, nothing turns direct response marketer's on more than a sexy sales letter.

Fact is, if you're a direct response marketer and that's not the case, then you're in the wrong business.

B.S. copy is another matter...

Colm

[Steven Wagenheim]

My buying decisions are based on the following:

1. Do I need the product? I'm past the stage of buying "MMO" products just
to find the new hot thing. If I hear of something that I've heard from reliable
sources might help me with a certain aspect of marketing, I'll look at the page.

2. When I do read the page, I skip all the hype stuff. I look for the bullet
points and the testimonials. I want to see what the product will teach me
and what others have to say about it. I look to see who these people are. If
it's somebody I know and trust, I pay extra attention to it.

3. I look at the price. Is it worth the return on investment I think I am going
to get from the information. Naturally, this is a judgment call and total
speculation based on experience. There's really no way to know for sure,
but after a while, you get a decent idea.

For example, one sales page I saw on site flipping. After reading it and
seeing what I could make realistically and seeing the price, I realized that
this would be a great investment. It was actually a non issue. Oh by the
way, until recently, I knew nothing about site flipping. With what I just
learned, I could make an extra 2K a month after expenses just flipping one
site a week. And the actual work involved is minimal if you outsource
everything. But I'm getting off the point.

Sales copy does nothing for me anymore, at least not the hot button get
me excited "autopilot...skyrocket my earnings BS". I know that it takes
work and nothing is that easy. So I look to see what I am going to learn.

If the copy is very vague "I'll show you how to put 30K in your pocket
each month on autopilot" and gives me no idea at all what I'm going to
learn, I stay away. But if I see copy on an Adwords book and it says it's
going to show me how to construct an ad that converts, how to lower
my CPC and so on, then I'll consider it.

I realize I'm not your average consumer and if marketing greats had to
depend on folks like me for a living, they'd be broke. I can count the
number of products I've purchased on 2 hands in regard to IM. I am a
very discriminating buyer.