Order Button Triggers
From: Jonathan Mizel
Cyberwave Media, Inc.
Dear Friend and Subscriber,
It's long been known that making sales with direct-response marketing, both online and offline, is a function of your ad copy. However, what's recently come to light is the fact that it's possible to use language patterns and other tricks to put your customers in a buying state, simply by using triggers.
Triggers are psychological flashpoints that create emotions, thoughts, or memories in the minds of prospects, causing them to take action.
I was recently interviewed by Michael Nicholas about the triggers we use in our ad copy that get people to click through to the order form and buy. Below are the highlights, which can help you make more money regardless of what (or how) you sell.
Michael Nicholas: How would you best describe the methods you use to put your customers in the "buy it now" mood?
Jonathan Mizel: The real secret is attracting the right prospects when generating your traffic. If you do that correctly, most of the people who hit your sales page will be in a buying mood when they arrive.
So, if you were purchasing pay per click search engine traffic, you would use negative qualifiers to get the most responsive visitors. For example, you may use a link headline like, "Excellent for Moms with newborn babies." This will qualify most of the people who click on this link as being a Mom with a newborn, or someone who is concerned about new mothers.
Another technique is ensuring all the pieces of your marketing puzzle have one integrated theme. For example, it's been proven time and time again that the teaser ad, banner, e-mail piece, or search engine listing copy MUST match the landing page you are driving the traffic to so you can maximize your visitor value and conversion rate.
Some of our most successful promotions were created by simply 'borrowing' the headline from the landing page, and building the teaser ad around it. This means, when the prospect arrives at the landing page, they are already expecting to see content which matches the teaser ad they just clicked on. No conflict exists, their mind is at ease, and they continue to proceed through the sales process.
Michael: How do you use or embed triggers (the copy ideas that help induce order clicks) within your sales page to encourage the decision to buy?
Jonathan: We use a form of written neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) we learned from our copywriting mentors. The trick is to write ad copy as you normally would, and when you are done, go through it again and again to identify the hidden commands and trigger phrases. Then highlight (bold, different color, yellow background, etc.) these phrases to offset them in the mind of the prospect.
For example, in the following sentence, there are four commands:
| By now, you can probably see the value you get when you take this amazing mineral supplement to improve your health today. |
Did you find them? They are:
| By now, you can probably see the value you get when you take this amazing mineral supplement to improve your health today. |
Of course, you don't want to highlight all of them, or the effect would be diminished. In this example, one of the hidden triggers is also a play on words (buy now vs. by now) so you definitely want to keep that subtle. Choose the most important commands to bring to the attention of your prospect:
| By now, you can probably see the value you get when you take this amazing mineral supplement to improve your health today. |
If you can't find commands in your existing ad copy, simply re-write your copy to include them. We usually review all sales materials at least four times focusing on different aspects:
- Proofreading: Spelling and grammar
- Formatting: Sentence and paragraph length, and white space
- Flow: Readability, order of important elements (offer, guarantee, price, etc.)
- Selling power: Command language, motivation, urgency
Michael: Is there a formula to where and why you place your order button/links at specific places within your sales page?
Jonathan: It depends on the letter. We usually have just one at the bottom of the page. This can increase the likelihood the prospect reads the entire letter and is anticipating learning what the offer is. By having only one link, you actually create suspense.
However, we have tested different link placement, and have tracked clickthroughs using an ad tracker. What we have found is, people click on the first order button they see IF you captured their attention in the first 250 words. If not, you'll see people clicking on the bottom link and not buying, or not clicking on anything (except their back button).
Michael: Do you find that placing emotionally charged copy triggers preceding an order button/link gets better results?
Jonathan: Absolutely! Your primary goal is to make your prospect either excited or angry enough about something they want (or want to avoid) that they take action. It's better to stimulate intensity than ambivalence any day.
- Ambivalence means they can buy it any time.
- Intensity means they have to buy it now!
Michael: Where and how do you use bullets in your sales page to boost your order button clicks?
Jonathan: Bullets are a great way to excite your reader with succinct bits of information, kind of like a sound byte for TV. We often use bullets to visually break up the page.
Clumped together in groups of 3 - 5, they make it easy for the prospect to scan the letter and discover their own reasons for wanting to buy.
You can put a lot of selling power into bullets, which we often formulate from unused headlines and sub-headlines. They are a great place to reveal "hidden benefits" that aren't obvious to the everyday reader.
For example, a lot of people think of pop-ups only as a way to promote alternative offers. But we know they are one of the best ways to capture opt-in names. So, on our AmazingPopups.com website we highlight them as great opt-in tool throughout the letter, and especially in the bullets.
Here are two specific bullets we used in the Amazing Pop-Ups sales letter:
- Capture up to 525% more opt-in names for your mailing list or newsletter. With a big mailing list, you can literally generate "cash-on-demand" anytime you need it. Just send an offer to your prospects, and watch the money roll in!
- The secret of using pop-ups to collect opt-in names. This is the easiest trick in the book, and is guaranteed to substantially increase the size of your opt-in list quickly.
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Michael: I have noticed that triggers are layered throughout sales pages where they keep building interest leading directly to the order button/link, how do you approach this?
Jonathan: They call this the "greased chute" effect of a great sales letter. The prospect sits down on the chute when they read your headline, and as they keep reading, they slide closer and closer towards the end of the chute and towards your order button. If you've done it right and your process is seamless, you put your prospect into a hypnotic trance where they literally don't come out of it until the order is completed.
The easiest way to approach this method is to tell a story with your ad copy. People love reading stories where they can imagine themselves as the person they are reading about, and where they can imagine an excellent outcome for themselves.
Michael: Have you ever placed testimonials close to an order button/link and found that it helps trigger more sales?
Jonathan: Yes, we use testimonials to overcome natural objections and create emotional intensity, and we often place them near the order buttons. When we have the ability to control the order form, we may also add a testimonial there as well. This helps to remind the prospect of the product's good qualities (with a 'neutral' third party endorsement) right at the point of purchase.
We have a client who sells a mineral supplement and he uses testimonials to build credibility. Since it's a relatively new product, it's critical he create believability with his audience that the supplement actually works. Therefore, we have three sets of grouped testimonials, each with it's own separate order button, to encourage people who "see themselves" within the testimonials to buy now.
Michael: What do you find are the hot buttons of buyer behavior and how do you access them effectively to get more order clicks?
Jonathan: Our philosophy is to effectively target our prospects before they get there. Remember, we don't want more clicks, we want more orders. Using the right keywords and matching the landing page with the expectation set in the teaser ad (or banner, pop-up, search engine listing, etc.) is largely how to hit those hot buttons.
However, there are several universal appeals all humans share, and one of the things we do is try to link one or more of those appeals with our product or service. For example, almost everyone wants...
- To be financially successful
- To be popular
- To be attractive
- To be secure
- To be influential
- To be healthy
- To control their own time
It's not hard to connect the benefits of almost any product or service with one or more of these outcomes, especially if you focus on the end results people want when they click your "Buy Now" button.
Michael: How many different forms of payment do you find helps to increase sales conversions?
Jonathan: Generally, the more ways you accept payment, the more money you get. We take all major credit cards (Visa, MC, Discover, Amex), checks, checks-by-phone and fax, PayPal, bank transfers, even cash.
Back in 1990 when we were just getting started in direct marketing, we only took checks and money orders. When we started taking credit cards a few years later, we noticed our sales immediately doubled. Today, with all the options to get access to a merchant account (via PayPal, ClickBank, PaySystems, etc.), there's no reason not to accept credit cards and if you don't, you'll surely be limiting your sales.
Michael: Do you find that showing the product price on the sales page yields better sales conversions or revealing the price on the order form page?
Jonathan: Great question! This would depend upon several factors including the products, the industry and the promotional medium.
We usually put the price on the sales letter as opposed to making the prospect click through to a different page. This is simply a respect issue. The customers we target are busy, and I know how much I hate hunting for a price, so we make ours easy to find.
There's a well-known marketer who does it the other way however. He teases you in the letter, and even on the first page of the order form with the benefits, yet he lists no price. It's only after you enter your name, address, and other contact info that he takes you to a confirmation page where you finally learn how much.
Frankly, even if this trick increased sales, I still wouldn't do it since I think it shows little regard for people's time. The usability of a Web site (speed, design, navigation) definitely plays a part in the conversion process. If it isn't a clean looking, fast loading and easy to use (and understand) Web site, profits will suffer.
Michael: How do you feel the price point of a product effects a customer's buying decision?
Jonathan: It really depends on the market and nature of the product. It's been said you can charge as large a price as the problem you are solving or the passion you are satisfying. If you want to build a list of buyers quickly, definitely use a low price point. This is called a lead generating product and it allows you to build your list fast.
On the other hand, if you want a list of highly qualified prospects, and you intend to start the back end marketing process right away, a larger price will definitely separate the kids from the adults.
Personally, we are big fans of high price points for several reasons:
- We want sophisticated customers, not newbies, wannabes, or the get-rich-quick crowd. Higher prices attract higher end customers who are willing to pay more for solutions to their problems. While lower prices mean more customers, these are people we generally don't want to do business with. Time is valuable, and we want to focus on tasks and prospects with the highest pay-off.
- Higher prices create the perception of value, and customers are far more likely to follow through with something when they invest a substantial amount to learn it. We have more success stories than other marketers because our clients execute the ideas we give them, sometimes in hours.
- Quite simply, you make more money!
Michael: What call to action phrases do you use as your order button/links, and which do you find pulls more orders i.e. Buy It Now! or Click Here To Order, etc?
Jonathan: We usually use something simple. Here is the actual order-link copy from our most popular sales letters:
- Click here to order now!
- Click here for instant access to Amazing Pop-Ups!
- Click here now to instantly order
- Click here to try Millionaire Marketing absolutely risk-free
- Download now and clean up your computer in the next 20 minutes!
Michael: Have you found a 'P.S.' is a good spot to place an order button/link, or even a location that is close by?
Jonathan: We usually use the P.S. to reinforce benefits, create last-minute qualifiers, and to offer our "Click here if you are NOT going to buy" link. It's been said the P.S. is one of the first things people will see when looking for a price, since they usually scroll down to the bottom of the letter first.
In our MarketingRollout.com sales letter, which Yanik Silver wrote, he put an order link in the P.S. which I think works great. Here's the entire text so you can see how he integrated that with both urgency, and our guarantee:
| P.S. There's no way this offer will last forever. In fact, Jonathan is considering raising the price more in line with the true value of this program. So if you want to get in on this surprisingly modest price of $49, you must act quickly. Wait too long, and it may be too late. Besides, his "Ironclad 100 Times Guarantee" makes it crazy not to take us up on this offer. |
Michael: Do you find that it helps to highlight certain buzzword/phrases in bold or italic letters to help access the "but it now" triggers?
Jonathan: This is critical! Persuasion expert Kenrick Cleveland taught us the human eye can't always distinguish command and trigger phrases in ad copy. There are literally hundreds of different ways to read something, and individuals tend to emphasize the words and phrases that are important to them.
By highlighting, you mentally guide the reader by setting the intonation of a sales piece, and help them understand your point faster, using more deliberate, persuasive language.
Highlighting also helps you to add pauses, volume, sarcasm, even empathy to your ad copy, making it more conversational and easier to read. Remember, good ad copy joins in the conversation that is already going on in the head of the prospect.
Michael: What is your current approach to offering bonuses to entice more order clicks?
Jonathan: It really depends on the offer and the market you are selling to. Generally, good bonuses can put a customer over the top and get them to order, especially if there is the perception of scarcity or urgency involved.
However, we've been scaling back our bonuses. One perception online today is marketers use them to reduce refunds for a bad product, thus people are starting to see them as sales gimmicks. Since we offer high quality products and services, we like to follow these rules:
- The bonus must be relevant to both the product and the market. Ideally it's an enhancemant or add-on to the primary thing you are selling.
- The bonus must be something truly unique to add value. A three-year-old e-book that everybody already has may look pretty on your sales page, but it does nothing to increase conversion, and may in fact hurt your response.
Michael: How do you use a guarantee to lock in consumer buying confidence and do you feel it is one of the more important sales triggers?
Jonathan: We use many different guarantees, most "unconditional" in nature, and we do this to make the prospect feel safe with their purchase. This is critical for us, and just about everything we do is guaranteed.
We have tested 30 day, 60 day, 90 day, 1 year, 10 years, 40 years, and lifetime periods. By and large, the longer you make your guarantee, the higher the response you'll get. There are exceptions though, and there are reasons to offer no guarantee as well.
Here are several general rules of thumb. You must have a guarantee if:
- You are new to the market
- You are asking the prospect to try something different and unproven
- You aren't building credibility in your sales piece
- You don't have any testimonials
On the other hand, you don't need a guarantee (or as strong a guarantee) if:
- You want to attract the most qualified prospects
- You are well established, with lots of testimonials and a great reputation
Michael: Thank you Jonathan, great answers!
Jonathan: Thank you Michael.
Respectfully submitted,
Jonathan Mizel
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