If you think it's the great features of what you have to sell that will persuade people to buy, you have it backwards.
People buy when you clearly explain -- and they clearly understand -- the benefits your product or service can bring them. Can your product or service solve a problem they have? Can it fulfill a deep desire they have? How quickly can it solve that problem? How quickly can it satisfy that desire?
Think back on purchases you have made. Did you make the decision to buy based soley on what the ad or the salesman said? Or reading the features in a sales brochure? Or did you suddenly get the feeling inside you that you wanted and needed the product/service?
People buy on emotion.
One of the best sales people I have ever met is a man named Hilton Johnson. Hilton says that people buy for two fundamental reasons - fear or pain. Once you convert that fear or pain into a feeling of warm trust, the sale is essentially made.
He points out that the bake shop in the mall that hands out free samples as you walk by and smell the pleasant aroma coming from the shop, and the smell of popcorn as you enter the movie theater, are proven techniques of creating your decision to buy. It is an emotional reaction.
Once you realize that there is emotion attached to buying, you will understand that how people feel when they are considering a purchase makes all the difference to the likelihood of you making a sale. If you can tap into these feelings when you advertise your product or service, your chances of making sales will skyrocket.
Your Email Newsletters and other promotional copy should reflect these truths. Keep your buyers in mind as you write. Think as they would think, see as they would see, feel as they would feel. Ask yourself how your product or service can help these people, how they would benefit from it. I always pretend I am talking to a friend when I write promotional copy.
