Please tell me you're not lying

A lot of website use hype these days and that can increase sales a whole lot for them.

It seems that there are more and more like that popping up each day.

But you know what......

A little hype does not hurt at all.

Tal

Sounds like my kind of guy.

But yeah ... salespages that don't make false or outrageous income claims or other unbelievable claims are the ones that get my money. I don't buy hype ... I want a good solid product.

Here is what Mr. LL Bean posted back in 1916 in his store:

"I do not consider a sale complete until goods are worn out and customer still satisfied."

And he lived by that credo.

That is all you have to do to have a business that is still in business nearly 100 years later.

-DTM

well, i think it depend upon person reading your webpage. If i am type of person, who constantly engage in day dreaming. Dont do any work and i seriously pray for magic bullet. Then, by all means include as much hype as you can in your salescopy.

Same way, if your product is like "Eat chicken ass and get rich in 20 days". Then you got to be hype.

However, if you are providing some really good service. Like good script, software or brilliant information. Then, we can assume person reading salespage would be somewhat intelligent. Then, please stick to truth.

It all depend upon your product and target audience. Some people seriously crave for someone telling me that magic bullet do exist on this planet.

Today, Mr. Vu is retired from pitching real estate get rich quick schemes and is active as a professional poker player. Who says BS-ing people doesn't pay?

It is the difference between writing copy for an impulse purchase or a considered purchase.

With an impulse purchase being as hypey as possible and making outrageous guarantees works, it's why people do it. I find with considered purchases, stripping the hype and concentrating on value is the key to crack the high ticket sales. But then again, it all depends on who you are marketing to and their current perceptions.

Its basically not saying "I mad $400,000 in a week using this method without any skills blah blah". Only the absolutely idiotic believe that rubbish in this more "web savvy" age.

It doesn't matter what WE think.

It's what our TARGET MARKET thinks that matters.

Of course you should tell the truth. You should never LIE in copy.

But sometimes you need to be careful about the kind of truth you tell your audience.
What do you think of my truthful sales letter below?



Now I'm off to split test this......

It's not a secret weapon - some of us always tell the truth - it shouldn't be some weird and unusual concept in your business.

I know this is a "which comes first: the chicken or the egg?" kinda statement, but there's a simple solution to feeling any kind of need to stretch the truth in your sales copy...

Social proof.

Sure, when you're just starting out there's great temptation to fudge a little and hype it up. Nobody knows you yet. But there's a risk there if you go over to the dark side. You may increase the odds of more immediate sales with your unknown name, but the cost might just be your long-term business viability. Fool people into buying from you once and it becomes a "one step forward, two steps back" kind of thing. You sacrifice the branding of your name for a few more shekels up front. No thanks.

Flip that around on its head. Be willing to knowingly give up a few extra sales in the early days by being honest in your sales material. Then overdeliver like crazy. The social proof (testimonials, word-of-mouth recommendations, etc.) will flow like an unstoppable river. Goodbye quick profits. Hello long-term viability. Especially in the IM/MMO niche!

John

Everybody lies. Period.

Hype and no hype are two different demographics.

Selling cars, those that told the truth, in 99 out of 100 times, did not sell the car. Telling the truth does not 'fit' with everyone's personality, it would seem. About 1% or less of salesmen could sell cars and not lie. Customers DEMANDED the lie! In fact, they lied more than the salesmen! The customers told the most and biggest lies always gave the best customer satisfaction scores (even 3 years later), bought the most cars (over and over were the best repeat customers), paid the most money and referred the most people.
What do you do when IF you do not lie, you do not succeed? The car buyers wanted a show. They did not want the truth. They wanted want they wanted. They are still in so much denial years later. Selling cars, you can take the time to sell the truth. On a web page, you have 7 seconds to 'Wow' them before they are gone. Tough job. My hat is off to all those that sell the truth here. I know a lot do, but it is not a secret that necessarily is helpful to increasing sales.
Sure a small percent won't buy hype and lies, but when 95% of customers in that niche demand the lie, what do you do?
(I was one of the 2-3 people I met in 27 years selling cars that sold cars without lying. I still put on a show, though. Lol.) I also spent as much time selling the 'deal' as the car! People want the lie, ask Hitler. If that wasn't true, he never would have been. To sell a car without lying usually meant selling the truth. That is 1000 times harder than selling the lie. For my peace of mind it was worth it, for most, I do not think so.

(Almost EVERY customer asked me, 'Is that the best you can do?' To say 'Yes', is a lie. To say no and then justify the price, now that is selling. Few are able to do it.)

Truth is the new hype.

George Wright

SALES COPY ARE BULL PERIOD, HOWEVER SOMETIMES EVEN IF THE SALES COPY IS ALL HYPE, THE PRODUCT MAY NOT BE, SO JUST SCROLL DOWN TO THE MAJOR PARTS AND READ BETWEEN THE LINES

I know this sounds bad but it seems like people are competing to be more deceitful and hypey in not only sales pages but other forms of copy as well ...just check your email inbox

I guess the people who use less than 'normal' hype are the ones who really stand out aren't they?

Some of this has to do with Copywriting as a Biz-OP. So some of it starts there.

Most salespeople (copywriters) have heard of the AIDA formula, but I learned it this way.

Attention
Interest
Desire
Conclusion
Action and the one they all leave out:

SATISFACTION. A satisfied customer has a life time value that could be worth 10 to 20 times the profit of the initial sale.

YET, this is NOT the same as a money back guarantee, and of course, there are a few that won't even honor this...

But the Internet makes it easy for people to get started selling something, and the SATISFIED customer has taken a back to seat to the "make money" NOW copywriting that is so pervasive online.

Keep your prospect as your PRODUCT, that is, sell products which have the big S.

SATISFACTION.

And truth is the most satisfying benefit of all.

gjabiz

I know from my days selling network marketing bizops that people
will say they want the truth, but they don't: they want the illusion
concerning get-rich-quick stuff.

Many customers for get-rich stuff have a lottery mentality. They
buy get-rich stuff just as reflexively as gamblers pump money
into slot machines. There are a lot of them out there. They are
not suckers, necessarily, but if your marketing message hits their
hot buttons they will buy eagerly if they can scrape the money
together.

The discerning potential in the human brain can only be developed
after the age of 24, which is when the biological part of
brain development stops. This is why young people do so
many dumb things. Beyond that age, some people just keep
making mistakes and as we know, "hope springs eternal",

... especially among folks who want to get-rich quick.

I'm not disagreeing that telling the truth is the best approach in
many marketing situations.... but you know, people buy different
things... the person who buys an obvious B.S. money-making
thing isn't buying reality, he or she is buying a fantasy, which
has value to him or her.

I tried to be honest when selling bizop stuff, but I observed
that people really bought the idea that it would be easy for
them to make a lot of money in spite of their own personal
limitations.

Thanks for giving this article.A lot of website use hype these days and that can increase sales a whole lot for them.About 1% or less of salesmen could sell cars and not lie. Customers DEMANDED the lie!. It is fact that most people tell lie but why it depends upon them.

Hi all,

As I read the posts on this thread, I see truth and experience in each.

While I made the "secret weapon" comment, my point was not whether to tell the truth (or not.) Or even to challenge people to tell the truth when they market.

My point was many marketers underestimate the power of the truth when it resonates.

For instance, I recently did a video shoot with a permanent make-up artist. Basically these artists tattoo your lips, eyeliner and eyebrows for about 90 minutes.

One of the question she HAD to respond to was: "Is a permanent make-up procedure painful?"

She could not deny. There is pain.

In her response, she handled it brilliantly and truthfully. She said "In my work, there are two topical numbing products I use. These alleviate the majority of the discomfort. And in 14 years and thousands of procedures, I have never had one Client who wanted to end a session early because they could not endure..."

That's powerful. And it's true. And competitively speaking, people will trust her more than someone else who glosses over or avoids the question altogether.

- Rick Duris

There are too many of these crappy overhyped sales letters now that make you run a mile away the moment you see these outrageous claims. Do they really think they can fool anyone except the innocent newbie who's just browsing through his first few "make money online" websites?

They've taken it even a step further now with a ridiculous guarantee (I've seen it on a few new products recently) that states you can get your money back if you don't make $1,000 your first week. I guess they must think that the guarantee provides compelling proof that their product really does work. Sometimes even that is not extreme enough, as I've seen some sales letters with double guarantees that promise to pay you extra (on top of your refund) if you can actually prove you followed the system and were not able to generate the income that was promised. Seriously, who are these people trying to fool?

My favorites include:

You can make a gazillion bucks guaranteed...

Even if you don't know how to use a computer!
Even if you have never sent an email or ever browsed the web!
Even if you don't know how to write!

But the weird thing is, this is on a internet squeeze page...

I cannot think of anyone that ever got harmed by doing the right thing, by being ethical, and by providing more value than what was charged.

Being honest is easier than being dishonest.

Be Well.
Paul.

Not all hype is a lie. You can hype the truth just as much as you can hype a pack of lies. The problem is hype has become annoying. Any time something is overdone it loses it's effectiveness. The reason there's so much hype is because it sells (or used to). But now, people are sick of it, so smart marketers are taking a low-key approach and cashing in. It's just like the automated attendant that asks you to "push 1 for sales, push 2 for billing..." Businesses big and small used it to save time and money until customers got annoyed with it. Then, the smart companies went back to live operators and won HUGE customer service points. Others are still using it and annoying the crap out of their customers. To annoy or not to annoy... that is the question!