Sales Letter Copywriting Tip: Promote the Fear

When it comes to writing great sales copy, promoting ‘The Fear of Loss' is a tried and tested technique. It's an old favourite of the salesman, because it turns undecided shoppers into hungry buyers!

Now, when I use the word "fear", I'm not talking about scaring your readers! What I'm talking about is letting them know that if they don't buy your product NOW, they either risk having to pay more at a later date, or lose out on the product completely.

It's a very effective call to action!

Obviously, in order to reach a point where the prospect fears losing out on what you have to offer, your sales letter must have done its job in the first place, and convinced the prospect that your product is something they MUST HAVE.

You need to make the customer feel as though they simply can't live without your product or service, and then give them a reason to buy NOW, or risk losing out on the fantastic offer that you've placed before them.

Here are four tried and tested ways of doing this:

1. Limited Quantity – "I only have 100 products left…"
2. Price Increase - "After December 15th, the price will have to rise to…"
3. Limited Memberships - "I can only take on 10 students…"
4. One-Time-Offer - "This offer is for TODAY ONLY…"

If we take the one-time-offer as an example, you could include a time limit on your product offer to encourage people to buy now. You could also offer your product at an introductory price of £49.95 for the first 100 copies, then after that, your potential customer will have to pay the regular price of £99.95.

In essence, they will be losing out on a £50 saving by not taking action straight away and ordering your product.

To increase your chances of making a sale even further, you could also use a clock counter on your sales page, telling the visitor that your offer will end in a certain amount of time, with the clock ticking to provide proof of this.

Clock counters create urgency and have the effect of kick-starting customers into taking action as they'll fear losing out on what you have to offer. (Any website designer will be able to include a clock counter on your sales page.)

Another way of using this "hurrying" technique is to explain that the first x amount of customers to buy the product will receive a free gift, a special bonus or a huge discount, for example.

From my own experience, I can almost guarantee that if you include at least one of these techniques in your sales copy, your conversion rates will improve.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/sales-letter-copywriting-tip-promote-the-fear-5069548.html

Nick Cobb is a freelance copywriter, online marketing consultant and the founder and Managing Director of Write For You Ltd, a copywriting agency based in London. His principal website; My Freelance Copywriter provides copywriting services to domestic and international businesses, both large and small. Alternatively, go here for an order-grabbing, profit-pulling sales letter!

Labels: sales copy, sales letter, sales letters, sales pages

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