Sales Copywriting Sales Talk—What a Difference a Phrase Makes on the Bottom Line

Small business owners beware—your sales copywriting and sales talk, the written or spoken words you use to describe your products and services, can have a huge impact on your bottom line. Yet most of us never think of carefully planning precisely what words or phrases we need to use every time we introduce our business to others in print or in person. We often fail to consider what words will compel someone to take action.

Big companies hire experts to take care of sales copywriting for them. Some of them succeed impressively; others still don’t hit the mark. But as a small business we need to master the skills of writing sales copy and the 30 second verbal sound byte. We are constantly bombarded with marketing messages to the point where we tune out a majority of them. Knowing how to make your message stand out above the crowd is essential if you want to see significant business growth take place.

Over and over I see small business owners make the same mistakes, causing potential customers to pass them over or ignore their message, when just a few tweaks in wording could have captured that person’s attention. As competition has heated up in every industry, and as the Internet has made marketing innovation essential, staying cutting edge with your message has become enormously important. The Internet has exposed us to creative marketing minds from all over the world. We are no longer only competing with the ads in our local publications. Our message gets measured against global standards, even if our business is primarily locally based, and many small businesses are coming up short and experiencing disappointing results.

Here are a few glaring sales copywriting mistakes that can cost you plenty and some ways you can correct them:

Web content—many websites read like a 1980’s sales brochure. “We” this and “we” that, all about what we can do for you. This is boring and uninteresting and it doesn’t engage the reader by letting her know up front that you get her pain or problem clearly.

· Re-write content, particularly on your home page, using bullet points and short paragraphs that immediately capture the visitor’s attention by listing the problems you solve and the benefits you offer. Then include text links to your different service and product pages. Writing web content is an art that can strongly impact how you rank with the search engines and how many visitors you convert to prospects or clients.

Web product/services pages—Take a look at the pages on your website that introduce your products and services. Are they simply a listing of what you offer?

· Instead, most of the copy should be dedicated to defining in detail your customer’s precise problem, pain or want, then giving them a wish list of solutions, a good reason for solving their problem immediately, and finally explaining how your product or service will do just that. On the web, a guarantee of some sort is a very wise idea, since you may attract buyers who don’t know you or your company personally.

In-person networking intro—How many times have you gone to a networking event and asked someone about their business and they say something like, “I’m a financial planner”, or “I’m a personal trainer”. Boring!

· Write and rehearse a simple, sincere 2 or 3 sentence introduction that talks about the problems your customers face and what happens after they’ve worked with you.

For example, the personal trainer could say something like: “I work with stressed business owners who are having trouble finding time to exercise, but who want to be healthy and in shape. I go to their offices to give them a customized 30-minute workout and they love the convenience and how they feel afterward.” If you’re a stressed business owner who is feeling guilty because you haven’t been exercising, your ears might perk up when you hear that introduction.

To get specific ideas on how to write sales copy that works, search competitors' websites for sales copywriting you find intriguing, or look at websites you know sell lots of products or services and have tons of traffic. An example of a product page on my website can be found here: www.smartrack.net

Little by little, spend some time re-writing your web copy and re-thinking your live introduction. Simple re-writing of a single key phrase can have an impact. You will definitely see better conversion rates as you begin to use more customer focused sales copywriting and sales talk.

Copyright 2006 by Janis Pettit

Sales Copywriting Sales Talk—What a Difference a Phrase Makes on the Bottom Line - To learn more about this author, visit Janis Pettit's Website.

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