Copywriting for MSPs – Part 13

Recap :    Last time we looked at : Assuming the Sale, Introducing Value Before The Price, Establishing a High Price, Reframing – Money and Time with Matching, Avoiding Commitment words and then Making Calls to Cction (And Button) stand out.

Rephrasing the Most Important Benefits in The Closing Offer.

There’s a good case for restating these near a p.s. or a call to action or a signup form. Remind people why they’re taking action.

As an aside, and as I’ve said a few times, people buy on emotion and justify with logic. So make sure you actually provide the logic and perhaps restate it near the call to action.  Whilst MSPs don’t typically sell indulgent things like ice-cream, there may be something you offer such as a paid-client event where you showcase your services and you’re including a meal or a luxury setting. Don’t knock it by the way – it works! But you still need to create a logical reason to balance that decision.

So tell people that they’re worth it and that life would be dull without a few days out at the races now and again to make work-life a bit more fun. It appeals to people’s sense of balance.

Make things Fast, Easy, Simple.  – Don’t Make it Seem Like Work.

People are naturally lazy. Even industrious people are naturally lazy. We’re hardwired that way.

So don’t make your product/service appear to be a chore. Play-down any effort and time commitments. People are coming to you to solve their problems so make sure that your product/service does all the ‘heavy lifting’.  In general, you can’t go too far wrong if you impress upon people that your product/service will address one or more of these benefits in terms of saving time, trouble, money and hassles Restate it in several different ways and let people imagine the benefits of them.

Remember to avoid “Commercial Words” such as buy, order, sign-up, money, spend, pay, payment, cost, purchase.   Replace them words like “invest” and “investment” (instead of money). Try words such as “join” or “proceed” or “continue” or “reserve” or “apply” … instead of “Sign-Up”.

Spelling Out Exactly What People Must Do

A ‘Call-to-Action’ can be like a miniature sales letter in itself.  Remember that people respond to embedded commands and people aren’t always 100% clear about what to do.

So, if they need to click a link to download a report, don’t just have a link or button called ‘Free Report’, make sure it literally spells it out For them something like  :

Click Here Now To Download Your Free Report >>

Notice

• It has an underline making it obvious that it’s a hyperlink.
• Each first letter is Capitalised.
• It Uses The Word Now.
• It includes a Specific Command
• It States the Benefit (technically it’s a feature but you know what I mean)
• It Uses the word ‘Free’. If your Call to Action is indeed Free, restate it.
• It has Chevrons. It suggests advancement – i.e. it’s compelling.
• Ideally links will be in blue – refer to the book “Don’t Make me Think” By Steve Krug

So, if they have to complete a form or click a button or enter their details – whatever – make it completely unambiguous and ensure they know what to do, why they’re doing it and that they should do it now.

A Note about CAPTCHA Forms

These forms are becoming more popular as they try and control spam. They stand for Completely Automated Public Turing Test…or something like that, named after Alan Turing, a mathematician that pioneered artificial intelligence and of course any self-respecting MSP will already know that.

In short, they might be necessary if your website is being spammed with auto-generated garbage. But they’re a pain in the neck for the user and can be quite rude at times. I was looking at a photographer’s website a while back and his contact form at the top said “Make Sure You Enter You Enter Your Information Properly Before Submitting”.

 This was followed further on down the form with a CAPTCHA device that asked me to add ten and two and enter the result to “Prove I am Human”.

It was designed by someone with  – shall we say – suboptimal social skills.

Just for the hell of it, I entered ‘Twelve’ (as a word) and it told me I was wrong.

In short, it was all rather insulting and dehumanising and didn’t compel me in the slightest to enter my details.

The Answer? Explain why you require them to enter certain details, thank them in advance and be as polite as possible. Make it as pain-free as possible and remind people with a link to your privacy policy that you’ll guard their privacy like your life depends upon it.

A Note About Images.

If you’re using images of people, apparently, pictures of babies increase response with women prospects and pictures of women increase the response in men and women! Make them relevant though, obviously. Headshots work well.

Adding a p.s.

Admittedly more useful in offline sales letter or and email. People go to the p.s. straight away. (Don’t you?) Use the p.s. to restate the main benefit and reason for acting straight away.

Sign in Blue.

Always sign your sales letters, emails or personal correspondence. Sign it in cobalt-blue to make it look as authentically a signature as possible – ideally like a real signature.

The Envelope.
A sales letter is only any good if it gets opened. If it looks like a circular or an invoice or spam, it’ll kill the sale. Try lumpy mail by including something so it’s lumpy and makes the reader want to open it. Try coloured envelopes. Envelopes with cards inside work. I’ve tried them all.
The higher the lifetime value of the prospect, the more you can afford to personalise the content and packaging and follow-up – all of which is worth doing properly.

Remember, people are several times more likely to open an envelope with a personalised handwritten address, (i.e. not printed). So, make your communications personal and add a signature – in blue – at the end helps with your response rate.  You can get a student or someone looking for extra cash to do this quite cost-effectively for you.

There’s a couple more tips you can use so we’ll finish up next time …