Steven Lewis's Blog, page 10

Copywriting a website that makes money

“How to write a website that makes money” was the title of my segment on The Morning Kick with Andrew Pitchford from Excite Media. We talked about writing landing pages, reviewing landing pages, copywriting for websites and how you can tighten up your own landing pages with Taleist’s free landing page checklist. We also talked…

Anatomy of a flawed landing page

This is a case study of a landing page with poor copywriting. In the video, I break the copywriting down to show how the conversion rate could be improved. Facebook served me an ad for a product that caught my eye, so I looked at the product’s landing page. The landing page is a great…

Why webinars work for (some) lawyers

Law firms running webinars when they can’t do business development face-to-face is as natural as restaurants switching to takeout in a lockdown. However, many law firms are finding they’re not getting the client work they hoped to from the business development transition to webinars for law firms. If your firm isn’t getting the results other…

How to write a perfect press release

In 2012, I wrote about a book about writing press releases. Today, that book is this exceptionally long blog post (so you might want to download the free PDF). Shortly after I published the book, it was picked up by the University of Sydney, where it was taught as part of its Master of Strategic…

Better. Stronger. Faster.

Ideas that are working right now for gaining clients, retaining clients and pivoting — even in the time of coronavirus. At the beginning of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the camera tracks across a cell in a mental hospital. The camera finds Sarah Connor doing chin-ups on her upended bed frame. In 18-seconds with no dialogue,…

The direct response copywriter’s answer to writer’s block

Writer’s block: being paralyzed by the blank page. And you don’t have to be a professional writer to experience it. We’ve all put off writing something until the last minute. (And sometimes even later.) That blank page can be intimidating, but there’s a reason direct response copywriters spend less time with writer’s block that most…

Killer Contact Us pages

One of these humble Contact Us pages will convert much better than the other. More importantly, which of them is more like your Contact Us page? Here’s why it matters… I’m often asked why the lowly Contact Us page is included in our critical website copywriting package… “But the contact page is just for our…

Copywriting tips from the dark web

Castration for $30,000 too expensive? How about a beating for just $2,000? The surprisingly beige truth about hiring a hitman on the dark web… The New York Times recently featured two screenshots from hitman-for-hire websites on the dark net… Naturally, I reviewed the copywriting in the screenshots and I was amazed. These purported hitmen have…

Why you need a Language Well™

How did I describe that last time? What did I call that again? What did I say the service was good for? It’s frustrating when you know you’ve already found a great way to say something, but you can’t find the old email. So what do you do… Coming up with new copywriting every time…

You’ve heard of FOMO but are you ready for FOBO?

You’ve heard of FOMO, but you need to know about FOBO. Your prospects have it and sales are suffering…

The guy who coined FOMO (fear of missing out) also coined FOBO — the fear of better options.

Now, FOMO is a marketer’s cattle prod…

⚡ ️”Tickets selling faster than an Instagram influencer’s moral compass…”

⚡️ “Georgio will make only 200 of these cow scrotum clutches…”

FOBO, on the other hand is the opposite.

FOBO is why it takes you three apps and nine websites to book a hotel room.

That first Google search throws up five perfect hotels…

… but you don’t book…

… because you’re worried you haven’t yet found the one that is also throwing in half a million frequent flyer points and butler who’ll follow you around with a silver platter of tiny fruit tarts.

FOBO is a marketer’s enemy. It’s another excuse for prospects to do their favourite thing — nothing.

But if you can address FOBO in your copywriting, your conversions will go up.

How to conquer FOBO with direct response copywriting

Go long with your copywriting

If your prospect is worried your options aren’t good enough, you need to lay them out exhaustively, layer benefits on benefits on feature after feature. Consider a special landing page designed to convert.

Pivot to FOMO

Your prospect is worried they’re going to find something better, so make them worry they’ll be missing out if they don’t go with you. Offer them something special to sweeten the offer.

Throw in urgency

Your prospect can’t procrastinate if they don’t have time to procrastinate. If the offer (or part of it) expires soon, your copywriting will focus the prospect’s mind on acting now.

Make yourself scarce

Limited offers are another way to turn FOBO into FOMO. Scarcity is another arrow in the heart of procrastination. (Read more and watch our video on using scarcity in copywriting.)

Guarantee it

Offer your FOBO-paralysed prospect a guarantee as a salve for their nerves. If they can buy you and keep shopping because they can always get a refund on you, they’ll relax. (Also, they’re unlikely to take you up on the guarantee because they’ll stop shopping once they’ve seen how good you are.)

Point out the cost of not working with you

“Every day you hesitate, you lose…” But what? What do they lose? … A month without a buyer’s agent costs thousands as house prices go up in the meantime? … A month of no gym membership means another kilo of weight gain?

Want some help curing your prospects’ FOBO? We’re here to help.

The post You’ve heard of FOMO but are you ready for FOBO? appeared first on Taleist Agency.