Don’t “explode” their results, “skyrocket” their sales, or “revolutionize” their world. Get real, talk like a human being, and build trust. Gimmicks and hype might get you somewhere, but in the end you’ll fall short of your ultimate goals.

Check out the video below, which shows that a large beer and a small beer at Qwest Field are actually the same size!

Update: Qwest responds: We weren’t ripping off fans who bought large beers, we were giving extra to fans who ordered small beers.

Carline Anglade-Cole – Sizzling Hot Copy – Written By Y.O.U!
“Trigger words are extremely powerful – so powerful they can scare the heck out of your client’s legal department. Some of these words may make some clients queasy. But that’s ok…

…Not just better vision – but EAGLE EYES!
…Not fast – but BREAKNECK SPEED … or PUSH-BUTTON HEALING!
…Not depression – but BANISH THE BLUES!
…Not good for your mind – but BRAIN BOOSTING!
…Not great – but PHENOMENAL … AMAZING … and WOW!
…Not unique – but THE ONLY KNOWN CURE or … LITTLE KNOWN REMEDY …”

Sean D’Souza – You Are Not Your Consumer
“You may, for instance, like the colour of your website.Your customers may hate it.

You may personally detest long copy.

Your customer may want to read the complete details.

You may personally want whatever you want. Your customer will tell you that you should be listening and giving the customer what they want…

…the biggest mistake most business owners make, is they fall in love with their products and services. And ignore what the customer is saying to them.”

Ray Edwards – How To Annoy Your Customers
Just click the link. It’s a short post and it comes with a podcast. NICE!

Sean D’Souza – Is Your Headline Good or Bad? Give it the Breath Test
“When your headline can’t be easily said aloud in a single breath, your message gets garbled.”

Roger Dooley – What Color Makes The Most Green?
“Could wearing a particular color influence the results obtained by a salesperson? If that salesperson is selling to a buyer of the opposite gender, the answer may be, ‘Yes!’…

…The magic color? Red.”

Do you think this also applies to online sales? I think so…

KISSmetrics – How do colors affect purchases?
“For retailers, shopping is the art of persuasion. Though there are many factors that influence how and what consumers buy. However, a great deal is decided by visual cues, the strongest and most persuasive being color. When marketing new products it is crucial to consider that consumers place visual appearance and color above other factors such as sound, smell and texture. To learn more about color psychology and how it influences purchases, see our latest infographic.”

Jay Steinfeld – Make Eye Contact With Customers — Even When You’re Not Face-to-Face
“What makes eye contact so powerfully effective when communicating? Think of what you might infer when someone doesn’t look you in the eye: Maybe he doesn’t care much about what you’re saying or he is afraid to face the truth. Is he hiding something?

A customer of mine last week not only reminded me how important eye contact is, but how you can make it even when you’re not face-to-face with your customer. That’ right — ‘eye contact’ is possible even when you and your customer are separated by a phone line or a computer…”

The purpose of a landing page is to direct your prospects to take some sort of action – whether it is purchasing a product, subscribing to a newsletter, or registering for additional information.

Your prospects may arrive at your landing page from a variety of sources – blog posts, emails, PPC campaigns, search engine results, advertisements, or other sources. Once they arrive at your site, it is imperative that you have the design and content that will lead to a positive action.

Here are 15 tips you can use right away to create effective landing pages and increase your conversion rates:

Better Design

1. Think Simple
Your design doesn’t have to be fancy, it needs to be effective. Don’t distract your readers from the message. Instead, use a single column format with no sidebars and plenty of white space to enhance the readability.

2. Limit Loading Speed
Your landing page should load quickly. If you can’t make it appear within 3 seconds on an average connection then you need to make changes right away.

3. Add Audiovisual Enhancements
Adding graphics, audio, and video to your copy can do two things: greatly improve what you have going or gravely cheapen it.

Like the writing itself, it’s not the quantity that matters but rather the quality. Don’t bother with dime-a-dozen clipart images or fuzzy video. If you want to add audiovisual elements to your landing page then do it right or don’t do it at all.

Also, with your audio and video it is important to write the script with as much effort as the copy itself. Nobody wants to hear rambling – get to the point by offering compelling reasons to listen, credibility boosters that sound personal, and benefit statements that excite.

4. Use Effective Buttons
If you’re going to use order links throughout your copy, that’s fine – because it doesn’t distract from the message. However, when it comes time for the call to action, you should use a button that demands attention.

There are five features of an effective button that you MUST master if you want to maximize the results: size, color, feedback, border, and wording.

Better Readability

5. Size Matters
As Clayton Makepeace says, “this is not an eye test.” You want to make your copy font large enough to be read by anybody. Never use text smaller than 12 pt and stay away from annoying ALL CAPS.

You’ll also want to compare different font colors and styles for the headlines and body.

6. Short Paragraphs
People like easy reading – and long paragraphs are not easy to read. In fact, they’re intimidating. By keeping your paragraphs around 2-3 sentences in length, you’ll dramatically increase your landing page’s readability.

7. Short Lines
Excessive line length fatigues the eyes and causes your readers to stop paying attention. In a book, this wouldn’t matter so much…as they’d simply set the book down and revisit it at another time. With a landing page, however, you can’t afford to lose readers in this way.

You should make your column width around 12-16 words in length.

8. Break Up Your Headlines
Each line of your headlines and sub-headlines should read as a single, coherent thought. As in…

Pay Less For Your Green Fees
WITHOUT Playing at Dawn or Dusk!

Instead of…

Pay Less For Your Green Fees WITHOUT Playing
at Dawn or Dusk

Or…

Pay Less For Your Green Fees Without Playing At Dawn
or Dusk

Better Credibility

9. Measurable Testimonials
Instead of having general testimonials, only use testimonials that demonstrate measurable results. People don’t want to hear hype, they want to see facts. “The XYZ golf driver increased my distance by 50 yards” will outsell “The XYZ golf driver is great” a hundred times over.

10. Create a Personal Portrait
While you don’t want the copy to be focused on you, you still want to come across as an individual or company that can be trusted. By including a photo as well as a brief introduction about who you are and why you’re the right person to buy from, you’ll establish a sense of trust that would otherwise be impossible.

Make sure to include relevant credentials and unique areas of expertise.

11. Iron-Clad Guarantee
The easiest way to lower risk and increase sales at the same time is to introduce an unbelievable guarantee. Actually no, you want it to be believable – but extremely impressive.

Most products should have a 100% money-back guarantee that can be redeemed for at least 3 months after the sale. Studies have shown that longer guarantees work better for two reasons: they sound more impressive and by the time the deadline comes around the buyer will most likely forget to ask for a refund even if they were planning on it for whatever reason.

12. Unarguable Truths
You must make sure that a logical argument flows throughout your copy. While it’s important to tug on emotions, the rational left-brain also plays a major role in making the final buying decision.

The best way to create a logical argument is to load your copy with unarguable truths – meaning, things that your key prospects will always agree with. You can start out with “back pain is frustrating”, move to “you need something that works”, establish credibility and expand on benefits, and then close with “XYZ can cure your back pain” before (or after) tossing in a few testimonials for proof.

If your prospects agree with you every step of the way, your landing page will have an incredible conversion rate.

Better Writing

13. Write a Relevant Headline
It doesn’t matter how great your copy is, if it doesn’t speak directly to your reader then you’re not going to make a sale. If you are running PPC ads for “Free TVs” and you’re not giving them away for free, you’ve got a problem that will cause your conversion rates to plummet. However, if you match up your headline with exactly what your prospects expect to find, you’ll be able to compel them to read more.

14. Focus on the Reader
Stay focused on your reader more than anything else. Prospects don’t want to hear “we”, “me”, “us” and “I” all the time. By making use of “you” and “your” you will create a relationship with your reader and cause them to feel like you’re talking directly to them.

15. Follow a Formula
There are many proven copywriting formulas that have made companies millions of dollars year after year. If you think you’re above using a formula, think again – unless you’re making millions doing what you’re doing.

The fact is that formulas are widely used because they work. Much like a lawyer putting together a case, as an internet marketer your landing page has to convince others to act through emotion and logic. Here are a few solid formulas that I’ve seen used on landing pages to deliver consistent results:

AIDA
Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

This formula is the most widely used method among copywriters and internet marketers. It asserts that any landing page must use all four of these ingredients in order to make a sale. If any one of them are missing, the message will fail.

QUEST
Qualify the Reader, Understand the Problem, Educate them on the Solution, Stimulate on the Value, and Transition them Into Buyer.

Michel Fortin’s system for outlining a sales letter has also proven to be quite profitable as a landing page sales sequence. By taking the prospect through these five steps in the order they are listed, you’ll experience impressive conversion rates.

MIND
Magnify the Pain, Introduce the Name, Novelize the Claim, Demonstrate the Gain.

This self-explanatory four-step process mimics the ideas described by Patrick Renvoisé and Christophe Morin in their book “Neuromarketing: Understanding the ‘Buy Buttons’ in Your Customer’s Brain”

There you have it… my 15 big tips for creating better landing pages.

But you and I both know there’s much more than 15 things to look for. What did I miss? What have you used in the past that led to extraordinary results?

Naomi Dunford – Make Them Love You. THEN Ask For Money
“Let’s say you need $20,000 and you need it 29 days from today.

The reason most people fail when given a task like this one – and when I say ‘fail’, I mean a level of fail that is so bad, they may as well have not bothered because they probably managed to LOSE money in the process – is because they try to start making money today…

…Let’s see how that’s likely to go. If you start today and you need $20,000 by 29 days from now, you need to make $689.65 every day for a month. No short falls. No internet outages. No sick days.

How likely is that?

Even for the most motivated person on earth under the best of circumstances, it’s just not going to happen. Add your innate awareness that it’s nigh on impossible and your motivation will flop. You won’t try as hard, making it more impossible.

Now let’s imagine you did it the Totally Awesome Business SuperStar™ way. What way is that, you ask?…

…Spend the first 28 days being totally, ridiculously awesome. Plan to make 100% of your money on the 29th day.”

Seth Godin – Little lies and small promises
Sorry. No excerpt. Just go and read it.

Dave Navarro – How to Write Eye-Catching Headlines that Transform Buyers into Customers
“In order to stop readers in their tracks, capture their attention through every word of your copy, and persuade them to click that ‘Add to Cart’ button without a second thought, you need to master the ‘headline reading psychology’ of your soon-to-be customers.

Once you understand why magnetic headlines pull readers in, you’ll know how to do it for your own sales pages, every time. Follow along with me for the next ninety seconds and I’ll show you exactly how you can turn a casual browser of your sales page into an avid reader, curious to drink in your copy until ultimately hitting the ‘Buy’ button.”

Brian Clark – The Three Key Elements of Irresistible Email Subject Lines
“Email is back.

Despite repeated proclamations of its extinction, rumors of the death of email marketing have been greatly exaggerated — especially since email and social media are a powerful combination. You might not reach the average college freshman, but for slightly older types (you know, the ones with the money), email is still the way to go in many lucrative mainstream niches.

You must first, of course, get your emails read. And it all starts with the subject line.”

Your Offer = Main Product + Free Bonuses + Price + Delivery Details

Many businesses, especially in online marketing, wonder why their conversion rates are so low – yet if you look at their offer it is obvious that they were lazy. Oh sure, they have a decent product selling for a decent price (which is enough to convince some), but they don’t have a jaw-dropping proposal that practically forces fully qualified prospects to pull out their credit cards and buy.

In advertising, the headline is used to grab hold of your prospect’s attention, the body copy is meant to provide the details and add excitement to your product, and the offer is intended to close the sale. If you want to persuade more people to buy your product, you must master the art of creative powerful offers.

Here are five powerful tips for supercharging your offer and increasing your sales:

1) Add Relevant Premiums: Bonuses are a great way to add value to your offer, but nobody cares about a freebie that has nothing to do with their needs. The best giveaways include accessories for your product, items closely related to the benefits you are already offering, or promised savings on a future purchase.

2) Leverage Partnerships: Whenever Jeffrey Gitomer – a renowned authority on sales and marketing – releases a new book, he partners with over 20 other top sales people in the nation to offer related material as free giveaways. This works wonders for everybody involved – Gitomer gets to add hundreds of dollars worth of material to a $20 book, the other authors and trainers gain exposure to his entire customer base, and the customers receive much more than they could have ever anticipated.

While you might not be able to do something so elaborate with your product, there will always be similar arrangments that could result in a win-win-win scenario.

3) Explain Your Bonuses: Don’t just give the title and price tag of your premium offers – position them as items your prospects would gladly pay for! By offering items with real-money value, your main offer’s perception of value will shoot through the roof!

4) Add Up the Total Value: Not only should you mention the true value of each item you’re giving away for free, but you should also add everything up at the end to emphasize how great your offer really is. As you might guess, a $50 product quickly becomes a lot more attractive when it comes with $400 worth of free gifts and savings.

5) Don’t Treat Your Prospects Like Idiots: I didn’t plan to have a negative tip on this list – telling you what NOT to do instead of what you should do. But this point is too important to miss. Don’t treat your prospects like idiots in any way – it will only insult them and cost you a sale. This goes for…

a. Faking Urgency: Don’t put a countdown timer (or similar gimmick) on your website unless there is an actual countdown. If your prospects see a clock saying the special offer is only good for 24 hours and they return later to buy your product only to see the same message, they will feel deceived.

b. Faking Scarcity: Much like urgency, scarcity is a fantastic tool if you use it in the right way. But faking scarcity in your marketing is something that rarely works. If you’re going advertise a limited supply, only do so when you actually plan on selling a limited supply!

c. Exaggerating Value: If you have never sold your product for $199, don’t tell your prospects that they are getting a product valued at $199 for much less.

Deceptive marketing is a terrible way to earn trust. Sure, you may get away with it for a short while, but these tactics will always catch up to you some time or another.

It doesn’t matter how incredible your product is or how amazing your copy reads, if you don’t make an offer that gives your prospects what they want for the price they are willing to pay then you simply won’t make as many sales as you deserve. By adding bonuses, you will be able to inflate the perceived value of your product, increase your asking price, and improve your conversion rates. Not bad, eh?

Seth Godin – Subtlety Deconstructed
“Subtle details demonstrate power. Instead of being in an urgent hurry to yell about every feature or benefit, you demonstrate confidence by taking your time and allowing people to explore. They don’t put huge banners on the Hermes store, announcing how good the silk is and how many famous people shop there…”

Dave Navarro – One Big Mistake That Keeps Your Prices Low
“I was originally going to price the program super-low (because I wanted a lot of customers & didn’t realize how that’s a strategy doomed to backfire), and this person hesitated to join in.

I think the exact words were something like “If you’re going to price it that low, give it away for free instead. Otherwise I can’t participate because I don’t want to be part of something with such a low price point.” I was going to charge $12, because it was 12 speakers, and that was clever … see? (Yeah. That was stupid, I know.)

At first I thought the response that was snotty as hell, but I quickly realized it wasn’t. This speaker was working a high-end business, charging quite a bit per hour, and to be part of a $12 program was a huge disconnect from the price point this speaker was building at that time. It wasn’t snotty or elitist – it just made sense.

If you’re charging $250 an hour and promoting a $12 program … your clients are going to wonder what’s going wrong with your business.”

Katie Morse @ Radian6 – Why Storytelling and Engagement Go Hand in Hand
“Storytelling is the big picture stuff. It’s the fuel that drives your advertising campaigns, the content that’s included on your website or in your collateral, and the foundation of what your executives share when they talk about your organization. It’s the stuff that sucks us in, makes us want to learn more, and urges us to share with others.

Engagement is focused on the micro level. It’s the follow-up to the story that was shared, including absorbing and responding to the reactions. It’s the action of connecting with someone that was affected by your story in one way or another and the potential beginnings of a relationship with that person. Engagement can often unearth new stories, which then starts the cycle all over again.”

Gord Hotchkiss of Enquiro – How Our Brains are Wired to Read
“How do we read? How do we take the arbitrary, human-made code that is the written word and translate into thoughts and images that mean something to our brain, an organ that had it’s basic wiring designed thousands of generations before the appearance of the first written word? What is going on in your skull right now as your eyes scan the black squiggly lines that make up this column?”

Finally you get a hold of an employee and tell him what you need. He thinks for a while and eventually leads you down the aisle and points out two different models.

“Both of these will do everything you need, but the one on the left is $100 less.”

“Well, the brand isn’t as popular – but everything is the same, it’s just less money. In fact, the parts were probably made in the very same warehouse.”

You’re still puzzled. Why isn’t the brand as popular? Is it reliable? Is it trustworthy?

“It’s up to you,” the store employee adds. “They both come with a full 2 year warranty. If you ever have a problem we’ll loan you an equivalent computer until yours is fixed, free of charge. And if you have three problems we’ll give you in-store credit equal to the initial purchase price.”

A minute later you’re in the line with the less expensive model, feeling secure in your choice. Why? Because the employee eliminated the concerns you had. With a two-year full-replacement guarantee, it didn’t matter if the computer was made poorly or not, you were guaranteed to get something that worked… and you saved a hundred bucks!

Now think about your product. Are you doing what it takes to put your prospect’s mind at ease?

In their book, “Neuromarketing: Understanding the Buy Buttons in Your Customer’s Brain“, Patrick Renvoisé and Christophe Morin point out that people make emotional decisions when they are first attracted to a product, but must then rationalize the decision before they buy.

The best way to help somebody to make a rational decision is to offer a head-turning, mind-boggling guarantee.

Before your customers can be sold on the quality of your product, you must first show them that YOU are sold on the quality of your product. You need to demonstrate that you are so confident in what you’re selling that you’re willing to GUARANTEE it will do everything you say it will!

Here are five ways to pump-up your guarantee so you can convince even the most skeptical buyers that your product is worth its weight in gold:

1) Clarify Your Offer: In order for your guarantee to be believable, you must first ensure that your potential customer can actually benefit by what you have to offer. By clarifying your product’s benefits you will manage the buyer’s expectations.

2) 100% Money-Back: A guarantee isn’t a true guarantee unless you are willing to absorb all the costs of the consumer. It has been proven that money-back guarantees increase sales… and offering to cover the shipping and handling costs helps even more!

3) No Questions Asked: Product manufacturers will usually guarantee the quality of a product – protecting the customer against it breaking for a certain period of time – but they rarely promise anything else. By offering a no-questions-asked return policy, you’ll give your buyers 100% peace of mind because they’ll know that they can return your product for any reason whatsoever.

4) Extend Your Return Policy: It is common to offer a 30 day return policy, but by extending this to 6 months or even 1 year you’ll notice even better results. Extended guarantees don’t just help to put the customer’s mind at ease; they also result in fewer returns since people usually forget about returning something when it isn’t urgent.

5) Place it in the Spotlight: Don’t hide your guarantee in small print like you’re selling potato chips. Give it the respect it deserves by emphasizing it in all your copy.

A powerful guarantee does more than simply relieve risk, it will also show your prospect that your claims must be true. Why else would you put your money on the line by offering such a bold guarantee? By reducing the risk and adding value to your promises, you’ll quickly realize that people love to buy… as long as they can rationalize the decision.

Note: By offering these policies you will undoubtedly experience more returns than before. Not everybody is going to be completely satisfied with your product. Nonetheless, the additional sales you receive will not only cover the costs, but also propel your business to the next level.