Mon Dec 24 12:03:23 PST 2018

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If you write too broadly, or try to make too many people happy, then your ideal
prospects will not convert as well, as they may become disinterested or offended by
attempts to write to less-targeted prospects. The lower quality prospects are going
to convert poorly no matter what you do.
The reason many hyper-focused sales letters are still a mile long is because the
people who are most interested in the topic are more inclined to want to keep
reading.
I did SEO for a customer where we increased his monthly sales from $3,000 to
around $22,000. I then tuned his page copy for his ideal client. With the same
marketing spend and same rankings, we increased his sales from $22,000 to over
$40,000. Even better yet, he was making greater profit from fewer customers by
targeting the larger spenders.
Sales Letters
Some websites are exceptionally transparent in that you can tell they are all about
making as much money as possible. By reading through the sales letters of various
written-to-sell websites, you can see some of the tricks they use to sell.
A hard sell does not make sense for all people (and may offend some of your
customers
, but I could probably increase my income by about 50% if my sales
letter was harder selling. Sometimes it is a bit hard to balance profitability and
being easy to link to.
Clarity is Key
Many organizations aim to manipulate language to make it lose its meaning. If you
are small, one of the biggest advantages you have over competitors is that you can
put yourself into your brand and ensure that your writing is clear and easy to
understand. Since you have fewer stakeholders, it is easier for your writing to more
clearly represent your thoughts.
Usability
Real Life Example
Memorial Day weekend of 2003. I decided to take a risk. I drove my car until the
gas was just about gone. The engine was sputtering when I pulled off at a gas
station near no others and went to fill up. I pulled up to the first pump and it had a
?credit cards do not work? sign on it.
I went in to pay cash and the cashier explained it was full service. There was no
service man out there. I got rather angry seeing the long line of cars waiting to use
the few pumps that worked.