Kikabink News

Today I reproduce an email sent to me by a Kikabink News subscriber (published with his permission).

WARNING: if you are easily offended, don’t read on.

If, on the other hand, you’re ready for a rather confronting article, go ahead. It’s controversial… I don’t necessarily agree… and it’s definitely food for thought (if you think deeply about the underlying ideas)…

*

“Websites that Hypnotize Your Prospects… and COMMAND them to buy! Hypnotic Websites, Hypnotic Email Messages, Hypnotic PR… We’ll show you step-by-step how to create marketing that literally tricks your prospects into obeying your every command…

“Steal this”

“Murder your job”…

and the list goes on.

Can you show me any reason other than greed, as to why anyone would tell you they have a way to MAKE people buy your items? Can you tell me why we have to “steal” this or that to make it on the Internet?

What is wrong with the old fashioned way of selling?

Do a sales page and whatever else it takes to bring prospects to you, and if they want, they will buy. Hell, do a 33 page sales page as some do, but do it right and honestly. Would you want someone to sell you something you do not need just because they found a way to MAKE you like it or think you want it?

Here is an example for you and a crude one at that: would you want someone to put a drug in a drink and take advantage of you, against your wishes? Now you may ask, “what has that to do with Internet marketing?” The reason is that in both cases someone is taking advantage of you in a way you would not normally want.

In your right mind you would not want to go anywhere with someone who spiked your drink, just as in your right mind you would not buy something you really don’t need.

And what about the people who tell you to “steal this” from someone.

Why should I have to “steal” anything? I know it’s a gimmick, and the idea is not really to steal anything. But the use of “stealing” still leads people to believe they’re getting something for a cheaper price. And, if you think about it, such language is appealing to that part of people that is negative and greedy.

I don’t need to steal anything and I don’t need to cheat or dupe people into thinking they need to buy from me. This Internet marketing business should be honest, but it is getting worse every day. Why not call it the “IM419 Marketing”. If you don’t know what a “419er” is, go to Google and search on it. You will find out what I am talking about.

Why should anyone have to “trick” “steal, “kill”, “hypnotize”, “lie” and so one to sell a product? All of those words are negative and appeal to the base side of all of us. Do we need to be criminals to participate in the Internet marketing arena?

If a product is good and serves our purposes then we can buy it. We do not need to be browbeaten and lied to. Nor should we be told how to cheat others to sell. A good sales letter of a few pages to a few dozen should do the job. I don’t think anyone should advertise for a company that advocates what these people are saying.

Besides… what happens when someone wakes up and realizes they have been screwed? Refund time and a host of other problems they wouldn’t have experienced had they been honest. If your product is good, then sell it proudly and with honor. If it is bad, then redo it and try again. How much more simple can it be?

*

What do you think? Agree? Disagree?

A Kikabink News reader wants to know why he has to:

read as many as 15 pages or more at times of sales page to get a damn price… and even then at the end of the long ass pages they still do not tell you the price until you click to order. Maybe I am old fashioned, but I want to know the cost now and not later…

In the last two feature articles I likened sales letters to sales people. Well, let me ask you… how many times does a top salesperson introduce himself or herself and tell you what the price of their product or service is straight away?

Now, they might do this to work out whether or not you’re a legitimate prospect who can afford their product, but if they suspect you are willing and able to buy, chances are they’ll start their sales presentation by asking you lots of questions about your circumstances, problems, goals, needs, wants, etc in order to tailor their presentation to you. Then, based on what you’ve revealed, they’ll present their product or services as the solution to your problem or the passport to the opportunity you seek. Then they’ll build more and more value into what they’re offering. And then, when they’ve sold you on the product, they’ll explain how the price is a mere fraction of the true value of their solution.

Or something along those lines.

Point is, like a sales person, a sales letter is designed to reinforce your desperate need for a solution (to solve your problem or achieve your goal), persuade you that the product on offer is the ideal solution, build up even more value, and then, when you’re convinced that the product on offer must be worth many times more than you’re capable of paying, introduce the price as being a mere fraction of what the product is worth.

The process of building up your desire and your perception of value in the product BEFORE introducing the price is integral to making the sale for the kinds of products on offer via sales letters. Sure, it may not be necessary for selling a tin of baked beans, but for items that require much more persuasion, this process is usually necessary.

And, once again, there’s a reason why the most successful direct response companies structure their sales letters in this way. It’s NOT to deceive you. It’s to sell you. And, yes, I’m sure we could all argue about the sometimes fine line between being misleading and selling. (I’ve given legal advice on that line plenty of times). But I truly believe that any company that aims to be in business for the long haul - and I’m thinking of 9-figure direct response marketing companies such as Agora Publishing and Boardroom, Inc. - just can’t afford to mislead.

So the aim is not so much to ‘hide’ the price, but to present it in the best possible way, at the best possible juncture within the structure of a sales letter.

Of course, if you want to know the price straight away, it’s generally a simple matter of using the ‘find’ button in your browser and typing in the dollar sign! And if the sales letter doesn’t reveal the price (something I DON’T agree with), just click on ‘Order’ to see what it is. You won’t have to hand over your credit card details to see the price. (If you do, just leave the site).

According to Andy Jenkins, your prospects are all just ‘lazy skeptics’ who read your sales copy with two thoughts upper-most in mind:

“Why should I bother?”

“This can’t possibly be true.”

In other words, they don’t want to do anything they perceive as hard work - whether it’s taking out their wallet or following your home study course - and they don’t believe what you’re saying anyway.

If true… such beliefs surely lie in the way of converting your prospects into customers. So how do you overcome such barriers and get them to buy from you.

Andy Jenkins recommends harnessing your prospect’s inherent laziness and skepticism to your benefit. To do so, you emphasize how EASY it is to take the desired action… and that what you’re offering DOES sound too good to be true (appealing to their latent skepticism) but really isn’t.

Take a look at Andy’s article for how he recommends you do this, but here are two ways you might appeal to/dismiss prospects’ laziness and skepticism respectively:

1. Laziness

Use words such as ‘easy’, ’simple’, ’step by step’, ‘in just 3 steps’, and so on. For example, which of the following appeals to you?

“A weight loss guide”

“An easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to losing weight”

2. Skepticism

Agree with the prospect (never DISagree with them!) that what you’re offering sounds too good to be true and provide a LOGICAL reason why your solution is an exception to the rule. For example, if you build up the value of a software program to such an extent that it could reasonably be worth hundreds of dollars, but then offer it for just a fraction of the price, a skeptical prospect may wonder if the product really is as good as you say it is. To combat that response, you might use a logical argument that, for example, you wish to ‘beta test’ the product among a select group of people before you formally launch it, or that you are offering the software as-is with no helpdesk support, etc.

Source: Andy Jenkins, “Use Emotion AND Logic to sell MORE”, StomperBlog, October 1, 2008

If you’re interested in buying a product - let’s say it’s an information product - do you read the sales letter from start to finish?

Or do you, as Kikabink News subscriber, John H. does, scroll down to the bottom to find the price and then skim the bullet points.

Or do you do something else entirely?

Well, it’s the very fact that different readers approach sales letters in different ways that they - the more effective ones, that is - are structured and written in a way to accommodate different kinds of reader.

There are readers who read every word… skimmers who catch the main points… and ‘pick and choosers’ who look for, and focus only on, the details that matter to them. And there are those who may do any of these depending on the kind of product they’re buying, whether it was preceded by a huge pre-launch campaign of videos, etc, and other factors.

For example, when I bought my first information product in the Internet marketing niche, I read every word of what was something like a 20+ page sales letter. Just recently, when I invested in another - much more expensive - program, I focused only on some of the main points.

The difference for me was that in the first case, I had no familiarity with the product, the company behind it, or what benefits it would bring. I felt that I needed to understand exactly what I was being sold. In the second case, however, I was familiar with - and trusted - the marketer, had experienced an extensive pre-launch campaign, and was really only looking for confirmation that what was on offer was right for me.

Yesterday, I mentioned my view that if you are aiming to sell a product online that would ideally be sold by a real-life salesperson, then a sales letter is probably ideal. Similarly, a sales letter - just like a top sales person - should accommodate as many buyers as possible. It should deliver both the detail… and the salient points… it should allow for people to understand all the features and benefits… as well as convey the overall benefit… it should appeal to the emotions… and also appeal to the rational mind with logic…

The end-result is often a long sales letter. Will this turn off some people who don’t like scrolling? Probably. But, if it’s good, it will capture more people than it loses.

And remember, although YOU may not like reading through reams of copy… it doesn’t mean many of your prospects won’t. Or that they won’t simply skim or pick and choose what they read. As always, your customers (or lack thereof) will tell you whether you need to change how you present your offer.

The issue of using sales letters on websites… and how long or short they should be… is one that seems to attract earnest debate.

My guess is that many newcomers to the Internet marketing niche, as well as various other niches on the web, are unfamiliar with the use sales letters on websites and wonder why many marketers use them. Especially when most brand name websites are designed and structured in an entirely different way.

I know that I was unaccustomed to long sales letters when I first learned about ‘Internet marketing’ in 2004. And this was AFTER my husband and I had previously built and sold an Internet business. I wondered why all these people selling information products used websites that often had no logos, no navigation, no ‘About’ or ‘Contact’ links, few graphics, and nothing but a long sales letter with a price hidden within the copy and an ‘Order’ button at the bottom.

And why were they all so long?

But when I bought my first Internet marketing info. product (after reading the sales letter) and then started learning about Internet/niche marketing in earnest, it all started to click.

Sales letters work.

Not in all contexts. Not for selling all products. But certainly for selling products that:

• Are intangible - can’t be touched or ’seen’ to be understood or appreciated
• People don’t know they want or don’t think they need - where considerable persuasion is needed
• Have an intangible benefit - where the result is more psychological than physical
• Carry a high price

I like to think of it this way. If you’re selling a product on the web that would ideally be sold by a real-life salesperson… i.e. someone would explain the benefits, features, etc then use a sales letter. Or, with the advent of online video, a sales letter with some video elements (we’ll discuss video in a later article).

If, on the other hand, you’re selling a product that wouldn’t need to be sold by a salesperson (and, in fact, having a salesperson would hinder the sale) then a salesletter is probably not a good idea. A simple product graphic, some copy and the price may be sufficient.

At the end of the day, marketers big and small - from big direct response marketing companies such as Agora Publishing, Boardrooms and Weiss Research to small companies like ours - use sales letter style websites because they make money.

As for whether many of these sales letters are too long… and whether anyone actually reads them… let’s discuss that tomorrow…