The Marketing Viking

“There is no more powerful nor consistent way to explode your response. Surround your claims with stronger, bolder proof and watch your response soar” – A-list Copywriter, Gary Bencivenga

We live in a sceptical society.

So much advertising is just empty hype – “we’re experts in this”, “we’re the leaders in that” – that your prospects rarely believe anything you say unless it’s backed by third party proof.

There are many ways to add outside credibility to the claims you make in your copy. Here are seven: 

(1) Customer testimonials

These are very important for service businesses. You need multiple testimonials and you need to put them on your main pages. Don’t just stick them on a testimonials page. 

(2) Product Reviews

These can be reviews by customers – like you see on Amazon.co.uk – or quotes from respected magazines or review organisations.

(3) Scientific Studies

If the design of your product/service was influenced by the results of 3rd party research, then quote that research.

e.g. if you’re selling a service where you offer remote server backups, you could say something like (assuming the study existed):

“A study by the CBI showed that 20% of companies that lost their server data without having a recent back-up went out of business within 3 months…”.

(4) Expert quotes

This article starts with an expert quote. By using it, I borrowed from Gary Bencivenga’s reputation – he’s probably the most respected copywriter alive – to add weight to my argument that proof is an essential part of successful sales copy.

Is there an expert in your field that could add credibility to your sales message? 

(5) Media Appearances

If you’re selling your expertise, then media appearances carry a lot of weight. You can see a great example of this here:

http://www.martinweiss.com/about/martinweiss.asp

“Dr. Weiss has appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNBC, and network news programs, including The Today Show. He has been quoted in hundreds of newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, Esquire Magazine, Money, Business Week, Fortune, and The Institutional Investor.”

Doesn’t that make him sound like an expert?

(6) Association Memberships

Being a member of a trade organisation is another way to borrow credibility.

For e-commerce sites, using security logos like “Hackersafe” have been shown to increase sales and, if you place them high on the page, that increases sales even further. 

(7) Guarantees

Guarantees are the ultimate “put your money where your mouth is” proof element.

However, to be credible, a guarantee has to be specific, needs to have consequences for you if you don’t live up to it, and the prospect needs to be able to exercise it.

So, something like “low prices” isn’t a guarantee. It’s an empty claim and there’s really no of determining whether your prices are “low”. 

“Never knowingly undersold” is better, but there are still no consequences of you being undersold.

(“sorry, mate, I had no idea everyone else was cheaper…”)
A real guarantee is “If you find it cheaper anywhere else, we’ll refund the difference plus 10%”.

It’s specific, there are consequences, and it’s fairly easy for the prospect to understand how to get the refund. 

Summary

Gary Bencivenga has said “never make your claim bigger than your proof”.

This is because it’s the proof that sells your claims. And, without that proof – or with inadequate proof – your claims will be dismissed as hype by most of your prospects.

Steve Gibson

Pe

This letter was written by the great copywriter Gary Halbert and was mailed an estimated 600,000,000 times.

(when people are willing to pay to mail out 600 million copies of a letter, it must be making a profit!)

Before I critique the letter, here is the letter in full: 

—-

 

Bath, Ohio 44210

Phone: 1-216-666-9356

 

Dear Mr. Macdonald,

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Effective copy - whether it’s an advert or a web page - tends to have certain elements and each of these elements serves a purpose and should appear in a logical order.

And one of the key copywriting mistakes I see from non-marketers is that they cripple their response rates by leaving out essential parts of the sales message.    

Different marketers have different formulae, but here’s the basic 5-step approach I tend to take: 

• This is what I’ve got
• This is what it can do for you
• This is why you should get it from me
• This is why you should believe me
• This is how you can get it

It’s not cast in stone - as I said other copywriters have different steps - but it’s a great place to start. 

If you look at your own ads or your website homepage, does it have those elements? And does it have them in this order?

- Can the reader quickly see what the offer is? 

- Does it explain why he or she should buy from you instead of your competitors?

- Is there evidence that backs up the claims you make about your product or service?

- Is it obvious to the reader what he or she should do next?

If the answer to any of these questions is “no”, you’re probably letting a lot of money spill through your hands.  

Steve Gibson

Some people try to write their own copy, but their grammar is awful.

So, to help them out, I decided to share the following 17 rules of copywriting grammar found by top copywriter Clayton Makepeace:

1. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

2. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.

3. Be more or less specific.

4. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.

5. No sentence fragments.

6. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.

7. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.

8. One should never generalize.

9. Don’t never use no double negatives.

10. Avoid ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

11. The passive voice is to be avoided.

12. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.

13. Never use a big word when a diminutive or miniscule one will suffice.

14. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.

15. Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earthshaking ideas.

16. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

17. Proofread carefully to see you any words out.  

To read Clayton’s real guide to copywriting grammar, check out his article: Say No To Crack

Steve 

Split testing is one of the most powerful tools available to marketers - but one that’s overlooked by most businesses.

With the release of Google’s Website Optimizer, website split-testing is now free for anyone.

And, one of the benefits that Website Optimizer offers is that it allows you to test more than one element at a time.

For example, I have a client who has a lead generation website.  We recently tested two variables on his sign-up page: headline and deck copy.

We had two different headlines and two versions of the deck copy, giving us four combinations.

Website Optimizer then rotated these four combinations until we had enough visitors (and sign-ups) to produce meaningful results.

Once the testing was over, Google gave us estimates of the difference between the headlines and copy.

Because our goal was to find the winner, rather than to know the exact difference in performance, we stopped the tests once there was more than 95% confidence in the results.

So, Google’s estimates have a certain degree of uncertainty.

Here are the results:

Headlines: headline 1 (the original headline) was 21.7% better (with +/- 11% uncertainty) than headline 2 (the test headline).

Deck Copy: copy 2 (the new version of the copy) was 37.5% better (+/- 16%) than the original.

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