How to you state an unbelievable claim

As the audience will be skeptical - you could start by saying "Unbelievably...

You'll need to prove it beyond any doubt in your copy.

Screenshots are Ok but many will think these could be "faked"

A letter confirming the results from an accountant and/or a lawyer would be good.

Ideally you want a telephone number for them - so prospects can phone and get confirmation that what you're saying is true.

And ask prospects to do this.

It would be great if the call was answered "live" - if that's not practical a recorded message (not from you - from the accountant/lawyer's offices) would be the next best option.


Steve

I would use strong & decisive words throughout the copy - 'confident', 'experience', 'qualified', just to name a few. Let your readers know that you do know what you're talking about, and that you do have experience in this area.

It's very important to sound sincere. Don't make big empty promises that you can't keep, so avoid overtly promotional words like 'guaranteed results'.

Reviews can help add sincerity to your message, because you can't fake the kind of honesty from a candid & real-life testimony. Don't forge the reviews though - customers can tell!

Concentrate on developing a provocative headline that states the claim.

Then support with evidence & testimonials.

Caples swipe: "They told me it was impossible for a rank amateur to out-perform the top hedge funds...but when I showed them my bank account!"

That's my 5-second example. With some thought I'm sure you can do better.

For the evidence, the quality of the questions you pose and the answers you give in the copy will tell experienced and knowledgeable readers that you know what you're talking about.

Hi ISavant,

It's NOT about making your reviews sound "realistic."

It's about offering proof that matches or exceeds the size of your claim.

If the claim is big, big proof would make a huge difference in conversions.

If the claim is claim is small, little if any proof is required.

So a picture of someone's stock statement is good.

A video of a person with a person who logging into his stock account dashboard showing his balance is wonderful.

But a before and after video of a person logging in one month and then a month later showing his balance the next--or better yet, showing it day by day is very convincing. Wouldn't you agree?

And if you got 10 people to do that, for the same period in time, wouldn't that go a long way towards convincing someone?

Plus, if you had the author doing it as well...

You have the tools, just need a bit of imagination.

- Rick Duris

David Garfinkel and I chewed into this exact topic for an hour and a half just last night for our monthly training webinar.

I think my favorite segment was the discussion on Gradualization ala Gene Schwartz to build your way up to a claim that's tough to swallow up front.

Here's a quick screen grab of that slide:


So, how would gradualization work with your example...

Your Claim:

Your little-known investment strategy returned over 50% last year, beating even the top-performing hedge funds.

Gradualization: (These are thoughts, not really copy...)

1) Even the most savvy investors can't be on top of every new high-yield investment breakthrough.

[Get them to agree that no matter how informed they may be, there's stuff out there they haven't seen before]

2) Smaller, little-known investment vehicles often give investors in the know a unique window of opportunity for explosive growth

[greater rewards for early investors]

3) Plus, top hedge funds suffer from (whatever they suffer from) that causes them to (something bad).

[it ain't all rosy at the top - there's some problems]

4) They deserve the chance to profit early, instead of all the big gains going to the insiders.

[drive an emotional wedge between prospect and the top hedge funds]

5) What would it mean for their long-term strategy if they were able to achieve monstrously large gains in 2012 that dwarf the boring, typical returns everywhere else?

[get them visualizing the compounding of reinvested profits]

6) Your little-known investment strategy returned over 50% last year, beating even the top-performing hedge funds.

[Your claim, now easier to believe is possible.]

Make sense?

Best,

Brian

Yep. It's similar to what the persuasion experts and mind control freaks call leading your prospect to a "forced conclusion". A conclusion you don't come out and say explicitly-- but you leave to the imagination and logic of your prospect to figure out on their own.

Another way you can make a big claim more palatable for your prospect is to concoct triplets with a twist of bold claim.

You can state 2 facts your prospect is sure to already know to be true and then slide the third one in after the first 2.

It makes it easier to swallow.

For example:
Most internet marketers know increasing your sales conversions increases the money you make. Most internet marketers know you should hire a professional copywriter to increase your sales conversions and most internet marketers know Doug's results for internet marketers and business owners have come out on top once again in 2012, so far, (spanking the pants off the closest competitor's efforts by a split-test verified 326% more sales with the same volume of traffic.)

But if you keep up with the industry you probably already heard about that.

That's obviously a very simplified way of stating it and this tactic takes finesse to do correctly, but gives you another simple, strategic, yet effective way to drive the point home for more sales for you with your copy.