New Copy Hacker Question

[box type=”note” style=”rounded” border=”full”]tldr: if i don’t have a miracle product, should i write a sales page?[/box]

Hey Joanna,

I just finished the second video in your book, and I’m really happy I bought it.

I wanted to ask about short-form copy because early in the start of your book you suggest that long-form works primarily with products that are “miracle products”. I’ve been going to and fro deciding whether mine is or isn’t… The weird coincidence was that just after I read that, one of my prospective customers emailed me about a free version of my book I was giving away as promo and said:

“The best thing was, it was not artificial or too over. From the very start, it made this clear that no miracle would happen, one would definitely *have* to study :D”

Which was almost like some kind of cosmic sign, lol. I’ve felt like I’ve learned a TON of things from your book already so it’s likely I’m going to buy the rest of your bundle anyway. I run another “real-life” business where those skills would be super helpful, even if I don’t use them in the ebook I’m trying to sell.

But I was wondering if you could quickly give me your opinion on this as regards my online business.

Here’s a link to my homepage/landing page: www.stressintofocus.com and you can see my current attempt at a long-form sales page (written before I got your book) at www.stressintofocus.com/examstresstips.php

I know it’s quite a big thing to ask, but in your opinion, should I use a long-form sales letter for this kind of product?

I should stress that the content of my book is not really “miracle” based, though I do think its extremely effective and I’ve had a number of people email me (unprompted) to say so. It does take work though. I guess that is the key different from it being a “miracle” product.

I understand if you don’t have time to reply to this email personally, but if you do I’ll really appreciate it! As I said, I’ll likely by the rest of your bundle anyway – so you don’t stand to gain or lose a customer here – but your answer will help me choose direction in which to put my efforts.

Thanks,
Matt

[hr]

Old Copy Hacker Answer

Hey, Matt –

Ah, yes!—–the “miracle product” question.

When I wrote that part of the book, I was very torn about it because I didn’t want people who don’t have a “miracle product” to feel put off… But the fact of the matter is that long-form pages do work better for miracle products than for products that are not so aggressively sold. More precisely, they work better for visitors who are open to believing in miraculous cures; people who do not believe in such things generally require short copy, perhaps with PDF downloads and FAQs pages to fill in the gaps / overcome objections.

The type of page you choose is really about the product and the customer — not just the product.

So if you choose to write a long-form page, you should do so after answering this question: will my target customers respond well to this style? It’s likely that you’ll answer, “Well, X group won’t, but Y group probably will.” In which case you write a long-form page targeted at Y group, with Y group traffic directed there. X group gets to see short copy only.

(Naturally, the traffic lines are almost never this clearly drawn, but the idea is to know who you want to target with this type of page, and target them accordingly.)

Ask yourself 2 questions:

1. Is there a subset of your market that WILL respond well to a long-form page in which your product is positioned as a miracle cure?
2. Are you comfortable with positioning your product as a miracle cure to those people?

Now, all of that said, there is, in fact, no such thing as a miracle cure. No product is a miracle cure. Your product is not a miracle cure, nor is mine. And the phrase “miracle cure” should never appear on your page.

The miracle cure is all in your head as the copywriter.

You need to believe that “Stress Into Focus” is a miracle cure for overworked, sleep-deprived, uber-stressed students. You need to believe it. Because, on some level, it is a miracle cure… because it eliminates a major pain in ways that your customer was previously unable to do. (If it doesn’t eliminate a major pain, why does it exist?) Believe it. And then write it. Let your enthusiasm for the product explode all over the page. This is the only way to sell with a long-form sales page.

Your long-form page cannot be tentative. If it is, scrap it.

This is a sales page.

Sell.

It is your right as a business owner to sell your high-value product with a powerful long-form sales page.

You cannot let that one nagging voice —- “I’m so glad you didn’t act like this is a miracle cure” —- overtake your thoughts… because that one voice is just one voice. And it may be the voice that’s keeping you from converting more people, which means it’s the voice that’s actually preventing you from growing your business, paying your bills, building up your savings account, and achieving your dreams. Sounds cheesy, but I’m serious. It’s the fear of someone not liking what we’ve done that keeps us from writing aggressive sales pages. It’s that very fear that keeps our conversion rates low. The old adage is a good one: if you try to please everyone, you’ll please no one.

If I were you, Matt, I would create a nice (very well-designed) short-copy site for Stress Into Focus… and at least one very strong long-copy page in which you get into the mindset of “this is a miraculous cure” before writing a word. Try to get the short-copy site to rank well organically —- put your SEO efforts there —- and try to get highly qualified, targeted traffic (e.g., long-tail PPC, emails) to your long-copy page.

Side note: short-copy sites need to look very professional to be well-received and to ensure you appear as credible as you are. So you may need to hire a graphic designer… or purchase a slick-looking WordPress or Shopify theme. In short copy, don’t underestimate the value of a great-looking UI.

Does that help?

Talk soon,
Joanna