3 Tips to Persuade People to Buy

 




There really is no magic formula to get people to buy your product. But there are a few things you can do to make your product stand out in people’s minds.

In marketing terms, this is called creating a “unique selling proposition” and it’s one of the most important things you can do to create a desire or a demand for what you’re selling.

First let’s define this phrase:

Unique: Special or different from others in a way that makes somebody or something special and worthy of note.

Selling: Make people want to buy something to increase the sale of or the demand for a product.

Proposition: A proposal, idea, offer, or plan put forward for consideration or discussion

Don’t confuse a USP with branding. It’s not the same thing. You will hear people say a USP is the same as having a fancy logo or catch-phrase that people will remember, such as “Java Jacket”, or “Dirt Devil”. This is the process of using easy to remember words when naming your product. It’s creating Brand-Recognition – a totally different concept from a USP (and a subject for another post).

You don’t need to have a brand to stand out in people’s minds – but it does help. What you need is a way to set yourself apart from the competition. Here are 3 tips to help you do that. If you want to create loyalty and repeat customers, it is wise to first create your USP. Using your USP as your foundation, you can begin to brand yourself (or product or service).

1. In order to increase the demand for a product when there are potentially hundreds or thousands of other products out there just like it, you must either make it unique or find out how your product or service does something the competition doesn’t do at all (or not very well).

Example? Starbucks is a terrific example of a business that found a USP and then built an empire from that (we are not talking about the current trend of positioning itself against McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts as a convenience store coffee house either).

From its humble beginnings, Starbucks became known as a warm, inviting atmosphere where one could go and read and sip coffee to while away the time. You knew that no matter what Starbucks you went to the experience and the coffee would be the same. Consistency is key with Starbucks.

Can you say that about all coffee shops?

That’s a unique selling proposition.

2.  This difference must be something that benefits the prospect and motivates him to buy.

In the Starbucks example, people are motivated to buy their coffee over the coffee shop down the street because we know if we order a Latte in Chicago on a business trip, it will taste just like the one we order at the Starbucks in Portland. Perhaps a Starbucks latte isn’t the best latte around, but it’s also not the worst.

3.   Looking deeper into this, we can see that any Starbucks barista has the same training no matter what location he is hired at. Also, the machines are the same at every location. This is what creates the consistency we have come to expect that motivates us to buy. Now,  they have a business model that sets them apart from the competition.

Then there’s the price. Starbucks certainly isn’t the cheapest cup of coffee around, but it’s worth it to most because of the peace of mind knowing you will get exactly what you ordered.

Summary

Putting this all together we can see a Unique Selling Proposition (or, a USP) is making a product or service more different or more special than anything else out there for the purpose of making people want to buy it. Then coming up with an offer people can’t refuse.

What’s your Unique Selling Proposition?

Build Your Sales Argument In a Simple, Straight Line

Once you have captured a reader's attention with your headline, don't assume that you will keep that attention after the first line, second line or third line.

Most readers won't read your entire web page. Most will bail well before the end.

How come? Because something you write will make them feel that you are not taking them directly towards finding what they want.

Here are 3 ways to ensure that you keep moving forward in a straight line …

Follow these three guidelines and you will significantly increase the number of people who read all the copy on your page and, of course, you will increase the number of people who take action at the end of that page.

#1. Be clear about your page's objective.

Before you start writing, determine the objective of the page. What is its purpose?

And if you're thinking, "Well, there are a few things I want to achieve with this page", be very careful. Because by writing to a few different objectives, you are giving your readers a few different reasons to bail on you.

You'll achieve far higher conversion rates by sticking to a single topic or message per page.

In fact, that's why landing pages were invented. Marketers understood that their general web pages were not converting very well. So they started creating stand-alone pages, or landing pages, which were created with a single objective in mind.

The need for landing pages tells us we are not very good at creating and writing regular site pages that are focused on a single, clear objective.

#2. Let your readers see the final outcome, from the beginning.

In other words, let your readers see where they are going.

For instance, if you want to sell me a vacation in Greenland, let me see the road ahead.

A typical way of doing this would be to write a headline that says something like, "5 reasons why Greenland has become the #1 travel destination for adventure lovers."

When you write a headline like that, the reader knows where you're taking them, and they know you are trying to sell them a vacation. They even know there are exactly five steps between the beginning and end.

But if the headline were to say, "Greenland grabs hearts of outdoor adventurers," then I don't really know where you're taking me. Is this a general description of the country? Is this about travel, or about conservation? Are you trying to inform me? Or sell a vacation package?

When you make the purpose and objective of the page clear from the beginning, the reader doesn't have to be distracted by these questions.

#3. Write in a straight line, without detours.

When writing editorial there are some excellent reasons for taking the scenic route.

You can add character and depth to a story with a paragraph that begins with the words, "Which reminds me … " Or, "By the way … "

These scenic diversions make editorial content all the more interesting.

But when you are writing to sell, you would do better to take the direct route.

When people come to the web to make a purchase, they are task oriented, impatient and anxious to find what they want and get the task completed quickly.

This means readers want their sales information given to them straight. No meandering. No side trips. Get to the meat of the message quickly, and tell them why your product and service will deliver exactly what they want and are looking for.

Conclusion …

The reason behind the need to build your sales argument in a straight line can be found in that last section.

Compared to print or other offline media, users of the web are impatient and generally have a specific goal in mind before they even arrive at your page. If they want to buy something, then they want to find what they want quickly.

No side shows. No diversions.

Keep your sales pages direct, straight and uncomplicated.

And if you haven’t done so already, I strongly recommend that you learn about my course, Copywriting 2.0: Your Complete Guide to Writing Web Copy that Converts.

This article is by Nick Usborne and appears courtesy of American Writers & Artists Inc.’s (AWAI) The Golden Thread, a free newsletter that delivers original, no-nonsense advice on the best wealth careers, lifestyle careers and work-at-home careers available. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.awaionline.com/.

FREE "Dude I Hate My Job Case Study":

Hot-Pink Hair, Social Media & 4 Steps to Finding Your Ideal Client

In his book, the Answer, Law of Attraction guru, John Assaraf, says:

"There is no marketing force more powerful than positive word of mouth from a satisfied customer."

Great advice (and very true) -- but the real question is, how do you create that positive word of mouth?

Sure, you can give excellent customer service, but the real goal here is to create a thriving business with ideal customers who not only buy your product or service, but also LOVE it and feel he or she can't live without it.

Plus, the more ideal your customers are, the fewer the returns and complaints, right?

The real key here is to get the RIGHT message to the RIGHT customers. Once that happens, they'll not only continue using your service, but they'll also tell all their friends and family about you.

In order to do this, you must leverage exactly who your ideal customer is and create marketing pieces that speak directly to everyone else out there exactly like them.

Here are 4 Steps to Finding Your Ideal Client:

Step One: Write down a description of who that person is. Who is your ideal customer?

If you're an insurance company, it might be a woman between the ages of 25-45 who cares about the safety of her children and grandchildren.

Step Two: Describe Your Current Customer.

Are they mostly men? Women? What age group? Single or married? What's their income level?

Step Three: What Are the Needs of Your Customers?

Demographic information, while helpful, is not enough. You must get into the heads of your customers to find out what makes them tick. Once you've identified the group of customers within your customers that is closer to the ideal, you can interview a handful of them to gain an insight into their needs.

Step Four: Define the Gap Between Your Current Customer and Your Ideal Customer.

Once you have gathered all of this information, you can now look over your list and see where the gap lies between what your ideal customer is and wants, and what your current customers are and want.

Are your current customers a match? If not, you now know how and whom to target your marketing to.

After gathering all of the above information, it's time to make a critical decision. If you want your business to thrive, you can't be all things to all people. Do you want to continue putting efforts into attracting more of the same clients or do you want to throw your resources behind marketing that will speak to your ideal customers out there?

Smart marketing choices backed by a clear description of exactly who that ideal customer is, will take your business to new heights you've never seen before.

Once you've figured this out, the other thing you need to focus on is getting them to flood your way. Here's a great tool that will help you take advantage of the social media way and help make this happen:

It's called, "Let's Get Social" and it's a free video about a girl (with hot-pink hair) who's a social media genius and has done some amazing things with social media for her clients.

She works a few hours per day managing the social media accounts of some very big names.

She got one of them up to over 100,000 followers on Twitter!

Her story is inspiring. Check out this video to find out more about her, how she did, and how you can do this too.


Tell me in the comment field below who your ideal customer is, or contact me today to get help figuring this out. I am happy to help in any way I can so your business thrives this year.

Vanilla Marketing (yawn)

Definition of Vanilla from UrbanDictionary.com:
Unexciting, normal, conventional, boring.

With a plethora (that means "a lot") of choices in the marketplace, and even more marketing messages to "Buy now while supplies last!", customers rarely feel obligated to support you. 

Most products become boring. Most marketing messages are unexciting. Thus most customers have zero enticement to buy your product over someone else's.


You can tell yourself it's the opposite all the way to bankruptcy. You can spout how wonderful your company is if you want. But the harsh reality is that's just not true. Not in the eyes of the millions of consumers out there. 

And telling people how great you are will just alienate them further from you.


Nobody cares about how you have the best widgets or how your widgets are built with the highest quality or how you've been around since 1927.


What people want to know is how can your widget solve their problems. 

There are several things businesses should keep in mind before any marketing piece is ever crafted. 

Here's a crash course on how to spice up your marketing.

Don't Sell Yourself Broke, Bloke

With a tired (albeit gradually awakening) economy, the challenge of getting buyers to respond to your marketing is more difficult than ever before. And speaking of bankruptcy, the solution is not to lower your prices below those of all your competitors to try to draw people in.


To the contrary. Often, higher priced products and services are perceived as having more value, whereas the cheapest price is looked upon with suspicion and fear. Aka, "There must be something wrong with it if the price is so cheap."

Why do you think Ninja Girl is so damn expensive? (Besides the fact that she's worth it.)


So, what's the solution? And how do you get customers to turn to you instead of the competition?


Be Unique


The real solution is to offer something of value, which you probably do, and target exactly who will benefit from that value.


In order to be very clear about the value you're offering, you have to find a way to set yourself apart from all the other widget sellers out there and narrow the playing field.


Let's take dentists as an example...

Joe Dentist is trying to sell his teeth whitening services. He needs to find a niche within the teeth whitening consumers. Dr. Joe does a real-time search using Search.Twitter.com and discovers that brides-to-be are very interested in having beautiful, white teeth on their wedding day. Hmm.

Dr. Joe then crafts a targeted promotional offer and sends out a bunch of postcards to brides-to-be, or runs Facebook ads to any and all brides-to-be within a 30-mile radius of his office.


By tightly targeting his marketing, Joe may worry that he will miss all the other people who want whiter teeth. However, if he thought that, he'd be missing the boat on what makes marketing work.


Summary   

• Figure out a specific group to target (a group within a group).
   
• Create a unique benefit to that group that addresses a specific need.
   
• Drive people to you and funnel them up the channel by always reminding them about the problem you can solve with your product or service.
  

Find ways to do this, and you will see your marketing results soar.

Need more help? Just ask Ninja Girl in the comment box below...

The Crimes We Commit Against Our Stomachs When We fly

The inflight magazine of Continental airlines displays a beautiful picture on the front cover of a Chinese man pouring tea in a Hong Kong tea house.

Flipping ahead a few pages, the “Welcome Aboard” letter from Chairman, President and CEO of Continental Airlines,  Jeff Smisek, quotes him saying,

“We continue to invest in our product even during the challenging times that continue to plague the airline industry.”

The letter goes on to talk about how Continental listened to their customers and invested in flatbed seats so BusinessFirst passengers on longer flights can actually lie down and sleep. Comfortable seats are always a plus.

Then there’s the fact that as I’m writing this, my laptop is happily plugged in to an outlet just below my seat. Also a plus.

So what’s the problem?

I’ve done a lot of traveling lately. And I’ve been on several different airlines too. From Virgin America, Alaska, and Horizon…to Southwest, Delta, and, now, Continental.

Most airlines today are handing out meal or snack packs on board for a $6 fee. Usually there are a few choices (none of them fantastic, but not too bad either). And while I really don’t relish the idea of paying a few hundred dollars for a ticket (and TSA fees and airport fees and taxes), and getting dinged for checking luggage on top of that, I actually don’t mind paying the $6 for the food.

So, when the flight attendants announced the food and beverage service on my Continental flight today, I had my credit card at the ready. But then I noticed something odd: They were just giving out the food – at no charge.

“Cool!” I thought. The flight attendant came to our aisle and began to hand me a container. Immediately, I noticed it was a hamburger. I asked if there was a vegetarian option. “No,” she replied.

Listen. I’m not a vegetarian, but I don’t like hamburgers. Grudgingly, I took the “burger basket” because I was starving.

Here’s what it looked like once I took it out of the wrapper and prepared to pour on the ketchup:

That’s “Real” American cheese folks. Ick.

Even though Southwest only hands out peanuts, Continental still rates lower in my book.

So, the winner of the “Worst Airline Food Contest” goes to Continental. Congratulations.

C'mon. Do you really think a vegetarian would be fully satisfied with the little baggie of baby carrots, the Fritos, and the Hershey’s chocolate bar?

What valuable marketing lesson have we learned from this experience?

If investing in your products is important to you, then get back to basics and invest in things that will satisfy the basic needs/wants/desires of your customers.

Remembering this rule will help turn more "average Joe clients" into "Business Elite Joes" and will increase the lifetime value of your customers -- rather than turning over a one-shot deal.

Marketing is cheaper when you establish a loyal fan base that keeps coming back.

In Continental's case? Invest in a decent meal program – even if you have to start charging customers $6 a pop. Sure sleep is important (and better when lying down). But you can't sleep if you're hungry.

When we’re hungry, we’ll pay for it…I promise. Feed us well, and we'll come back for more.

This rant has been brought to you by Ninja Girl.

Dude I Hate My Job...

I think one of the least talked about ways of making money online has to be promoting on the street. The reason is because as soon as the Internet became popular it was literally kicked to the curb!

But it's SO Ninja, it can't be ignored...

Originally, everyone was making money on the streets, either by handing out flyers, or placing lawn signs everywhere. I did this all the time as a kid when I sold my amazingly fabulous unicorn drawings (sigh).

But, if I were to tell you that you could still make money by doing this, you'd probably call me nuts! Well, if you really want to think that, go ahead because I think this needs to be talked about.

If you want to make a lot of money extremely quickly, do this, I promise it works!

What I want you to do first is go to a website called ClickBank and sign up (it's free). What they do is manage a bunch of different products that you can promote for a commission.

All you need to do is send traffic (people) to that product page, and if they buy, you make your commission. The correct term for it is, becoming an "affiliate".

Now the good part...

Once you've done that, the promoting on the streets comes into place.

After you pick a product that you want to promote on ClickBank, I want you to open up Microsoft Word, Notepad, whatever you use on the computer to write things.

You will need to write 2 sentences about the product you are promoting, and make it catchy!

Make the font extremely big and bold so that people can read it from far away. Then place your custom link to the product you are promoting at the bottom of it. (It's called your "Hoplink" and ClickBank creates it for you, it's extremely easy.)

Now after you have done that, I want you to print out about 100 of these. Fold them in half and take them with you on a walk around your neighborhood. When you're walking, place them on the windshields of parked cars... After you've run out, go home and log into your ClickBank account later that night.

I guarantee you'll be surprised!

This is exactly how the creator of DudeIHateMyJob (Adam Howritz) started affiliate marketing.

I know you're probably thinking that this would never work and that it's a waste of time. Well let me tell you something. When he used to do this, for every 100 he would hand out, he'd get around 10 people buying.

So lets say that he received $50 a sale. He would make $500 dollars every time he'd go out and do this! Sounds a little more appealing now, right?

So go out and do this -- I promise you if you just try it, you'll start seeing great results immediately.

And if you want more tips like this about affiliate marketing, Ninja Girl highly suggests you join his free 7-day Bootcamp where he explains exactly how to make money with affiliate marketing, from scratch!

And it's free, what's better than that?

Check it out here right now.