Pleasing Google’s bots and pleasing human brains seems to be more complicated than it should.

People who’ve studied  SEO (search engine optimization) know the <title> tags in a web page are part of the old 80/20 rule of success.  Which means, 20% of the elements on  page result in 80% of the search engine ranking boost.

With me?

Good.

Sometimes getting your “Keyword” in the title and grabbing human attention is a challenge.

Some people stuff keywords in and create titles that look like this:

Vancouver Trucking Company | Vancouver Trucks | Vancouver Truck Drivers | Vancouver Big Rigs

What’s wrong with this?   Well when you Google Vancouver Trucking Company, the <title> tag appears as the headline.   And the headline in the search results sells people on clicking on to your site which is what you want isn’t it?

Keyword stuffed headlines don’t draw clicks!

So what do you do?

You combine good human interest with elegant SEO keyword placement.

Here are a few of my suggestions.

Let’s say you are trying to rank for “Vancouver Car Dealership”

Title – “Vancouver Car Dealership Accused of  Theft For Selling Cars So Cheap”

How about a golf club.

Title – “New Golf Club Test Injures Kayaker Because Balls Clearing Range”

How about “Business Coaching”

Title – “The Case Against Business Coaching”

Anyhow.   The key to high rankings and high click rates is combining your keyword with human interest.

Try it out on your next SEO work.

If you’d like to have me work on your project a phone call is first, please head to the contact page below to start a friendly, no pressure dialogue.

Vancouver Copywriter

Today a giant beanstalk of black smoke dangled outside my window.

It lured me outside like a treat held to my dogs nose.

I wandered straight across town in search of its source.

What I  thought was going to take 1 minute, ended up being 5 minutes…then 10 minutes…and after nearly 20 minutes, I reached a smoldering boat being sprayed by a small army of fireman.

Why am I telling you all this?

Simple.   When you are approach a new customer you need to say something that did exactly what the fire did to me.   Yanked at my curiousity and drew me in.

Ask yourself next time you write something to create an important response, if what you say early is acting like the smoke.

If you’d like me (Ian Vecmanis) to create “Smoke” for you can get a hold of me at my Vancouver Copywriting contact page.

Vancouver Copywriter Dog

This is Angel Vecmanis.  My childhood dog.

She eats her own poo.   Likes to rest her head on your feet.   Once I saw her get in a bark off with a bull frog and she lost..

And believe it or not.   She can help you sell more goods.

How?

I’m glad you asked.   When you’re writing (and selling face to face) what you need before you try to sell is rapport.   Rapport is like an invisible beam being shared between to humans.   Real communication only occurs through this beam.

One way to build rapport is to demonstrate you are just like someone.   And one way to demonstrate you are just like someone is…to show a picture of your dog to a group of dog lovers!

Adding this human touch to your promotions and sales efforts will help build trust, and thus increase your sales.

Try adding a photo that demonstrates you are just like someone else.   And tell me what happens.

If you want a dog lover to work on your next promotion, you can get a hold of me through my Vancouver Copywriter contact page.

- I opened up an email from Frank Kern today and got smacked by a sweet copywriting weapon.

Paving a way for a claim to believed.

Here’s the chunk of email:

The FTC released new guidelines yesterday that DIRECTLY AFFECT YOU.

Lots of people in our community are talking about it, and most of them
are totally missing the boat.

Lucky for us, I (pay through the nose to) have an attorney who used
to work for the FTC …and he gave me the inside scoop.

Here’s a new blog post I wrote that tells you what I Iearned.

Did you catch it?

If Frank Kern had just said “I have the inside scoop on the new FTC ruling”.   It wouldn’t have had the same impact it did when paved the way for the claim to be believed.

This is an advanced copywriting tip.

Look at every thing you make a claim about and surround it with proof.   Your response will soar.

If you’d like some of the in your next promotion get a hold of me at my Vancouver Copywriting Contact.

Here’s why:

My name is Ian Vecmanis and I write copy from my home in beautiful Vancouver, Canada.

Over the past few years, I’ve learned (like top marketers preach) testimonials almost always boost response if done properly.

In fact John Carlton says (one of the top copywriters in the world) your entire ad can be testimonials if you know how to use them.

On the other hand as you may know poor testimonials, can wither the power of your sales message.

Junk testimonials also damage your credibility, and cause people to mutter “BS”…which means you failed in getting your message across.

Here’s the exciting news:  Below is the process I borrowed from John Carlton on how to actually go about digging up testimonials.  It’s a thorough process requiring effort and when you’re done, you’ll have bushels of ammunition for your sales pitch, and your clients will think you’re a miracle worker.  Maybe you know how to do it, maybe not…however when you’re reading it know this…when you’re done, you’ll read a great offer where you can simply…hire me to do the hard detective workt for you!  We’ll get to that later.

Here is a Refresher On Everything You Need to Know to
Materialize a “Sizzling Testimonial”

Top marketers know it and you know it.  A good pithy, testimonial can do wonders for a sales pitch.  They overcome objections, fuse belief and credibility into outrageous promises.  They are cash in the bank.  Except, you have to dig them up!

Obviously I can’t tell you how high your response rates will climb with good testimonials…however, I can say it’s undoubtedly one of the easiest ways to increase a clients (or your own) profits.

In fact, if you collect testimonials properly your entire sales pitch can be nothing but happy customers doing your selling for you.

This works like crazy if you are writing for a service professional, because you can just assemble a book full of killer testimonials, and have your client hand that to their sales leads.  The overwhelming social proof makes it easy for people to choose them.

This means you have to coach your customers on how to give you a great testimonial.

So how do you get a great testimonial?  If your customers are giving you lame feedback, what do you do?

Here is the exact process I use (which is swiped from John Carlton).

1) You need the name and phone number of a customer.  You are looking for authority, V.I.P’s or people your customers can easily relate to.

2)      You need to call them up, and instantly bond with them (be a good listener and mirror their voice tonality)

3)      You’re looking for before and after stories.  Get them talking about their life.  You won’t get the juicy details to support a rock solid testimonial until you’re deep in conversation.  Ask for specific numbers and details.

4)      Piece it together:  In the first five minutes the customer might have said what his life was like before they found your product.  20 minutes later they might have finally revealed how their life is better.  Connect the two and that’s your testimonial.

5)      Ask them if they’ll do you a favour and help other people who are in a similar situation make a decision by including their testimonial.  Ask for a photo (if they don’t have one, fed ex a disposable camera they can shoot with)

6)      Write the testimonial and fed ex a consent form to them which says you have permission to use the testimonial

7)       Add testimonial into the pitch at the right spot and enjoy results.

Remember: Specifics build believability…and…believability is what you’re striving for.

Onwards.

As you can see that’s a lot of effort, which means it probably works.

As I mentioned you can hire me to do all the hard work of clawing, digging and mining world class testimonials out of a customer base (or getting a new product into a few hands and prying testimonials from them)

If this sounds great then here are the details you need to know about this service:

I’ll talk with you (if you’re a copywriter I’ll talk with you and your client) for 30 minutes about your plans, efforts and results your sales copy is getting.  We’ll look at major objections , your U.S.P and find holes in your sales process we can plug with world class testimonials.

And then if I decide to work with you I’ll march off and do what needs to be done to get those testimonials including:

Creating bribes (if need be) to get people to spill their beans…phone conversations with happy clients to get them to cough up a testimonial…re writes of existing testimonials with permission from clients to use it…I’ll get pictures and…

You Won’t Go To Jail For
Not Having Physical Consent Forms

You’ll get legally valid testimonials with signed consent forms in case the FTC knocks on your door asking to see them (so you won’t get thrown in jail).  This includes signed documentation saying you have permission to use the testimonial as is.

At the end of it all you’ll have 8 shiny testimonials like this:

Picture with caption here – “Dude your course almost got me thrown in jail.  When I tried to stand up for my girlfriend I got my ass kicked by a punk smaller than me.  Humiliated and dejected I invested in your course, and the same thing happened again…except I used your “ultimate punch” technique and caved this guys jaw in. The Police thought I hit him with a hammer!” – Pete Lamper, 28 years old, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Or it could look something like this:

Picture with caption here – “My sales page was converting at around 1.8% and I was just eaking out a living.  Then I ran your software on my copy, it made some formatting changes and presto, I’m chugging along at 2.6% conversion rate!  I feel like I ripped you off” – Jason Price, 30 year old CEO of magictricks.com, New Jersey.

In summary…

This is a Fire and Forget Way to Get Testimonials You Know You Need!

Time for some more value building:

Listen: how much extra cash will end up in your pocket if your sales machine gets a few bumps up in conversion.

If you have an existing sales machine making you money this is a “Just add water” quick fix you can use to permanently multiply your conversion rates.

Here is what this investment costs you and what I guarantee:

I’ll do all the grunt work of talking, persuading and bonding with your customers to pry them out.  And I’ll handwrite a nice thank you note to everyone who submits a testimonial.

You’ll have 8 sales worthy testimonials to bump your response by shattering objections, proving claims and making your credibility rock solid.

Look:  There are lots of ways to use testimonials, but if you put them in the wrong spot you can kill the flow of your sales message.  You need to place them where people want to read them.

For instance:  When an objection of price pops in your readers head, a testimonial pops in and says what a bargain your price was.

Or, if someone doesn’t believe a claim you are making, a testimonial pops in and says a person received the benefit of the claim.

If this seems complicated don’t worry because when I deliver your testimonials, I’ll help you put them in the right spot for maximum results.

Because I’m a decent copywriter too, I’ll dig for the testimonials with authority and similarity built into them (Which is like choosing depleted uranium slugs over pellets).

This service costs $1600, but essentially it’s free with my guarantee…

My Guarantee

Listen:  If your sales page is converting already and you track response then I offer this guarantee.  If you put the testimonials in where I tell you too and the increase in sales doesn’t clearly make my fee seem like a drop of water in an ocean then I’ll refund the entire $1600 without any complaints or troubles.

Once this is done and you agree this is a no brainer investment pays out 10 to 100 times the cost of hiring me, then we can begin right away.

Side note: There are a couple of reasons you should not hire me.

1)      Your product is crap!  I can’t convince people to give a good testimonial if your product is junk.  So if this is the case, please save us both the time and don’t call me.

2)      If you’re a lame copywriter or marketer who will end up censoring a sizzling testimonial…Don’t call me.  I don’t want to cry after seeing buckets of paint splashed on my Mona Lisa.

This Service Will Not Be
Around Forever

Here’s why: I have a selfish reason for offering this service besides money.  I want to build up a rolodex of good copywriters and start writing copy myself.  This won’t stay around forever (I’ll bundle into my freelance copywriting services.)  And because I’m one guy I can only take a few clients on at a time.

That’s it:  If you’d like to hire me as a sales detective its very simple.  Email me at ian at ianvecmanis.com .  Tell me who you are, a good time to call you, and leave a phone number.  Easy.  I need 2 weeks to gather 8 testimonials.  If your product is new, we’ll have to drum up some clever ways to get the testimonials so it will be a little longer.

Act now, and if I like you and your project you’ll have some sales boosting testimonials in just a few weeks.

Sincerely,

Ian Vecmanis

He would literally mesmerize people, and say things they couldn’t say no too.   I’m going to show you some of those secrets here.

I pulled them out of his out of print book going for “$54.98 to $259.79” on Amazon.

Although Feldman didn’t name them, Robert Dilts and Richard Bandler certainly did.

How Ben Feldman Approached People

A bad life insurance salesman calls up and says something like this: ““Hi I’d like to talk with you about life insurance do you have 30 minutes?”.

And the poor guy on the other end of this amateur pitch pukes a little bit and quickly tries to shoo the guy away.

Here’s how Feldman approached the call.

Mr. Jones, I have money for sale.  At a discount.   You’ll need that someday to pay your taxes.  May I present an idea that has been very valuable to a lot of people?

Robert Dilts would recognize this as a “Redefine” sleight of mouth pattern.   Ben redefined insurance as selling money at a discount, and eliminated that objection.

Feldman was renowned for selling high ticket insurance and often ran into the objection “This costs way too much”

He dealt with this using this consequence Sleight of Mouth pattern:

If you can’t put away 3% now, how are you going to find 100% later.

What he meant here was when the person buying insurance died, the creditors would come knocking looking for estate taxes.   And the cash won’t be there.

Anyhow.

When you get good at Sleight of Mouth, you can start weaving persuasive messages as easily as you type.   How do you get good?  Start with my email program here.

Sleight of Mouth Email Course

Remove them early in your copy and your response rates climb.

Here’s how to use Sleight of Mouth patterns to do it.   Using these patterns to shatter a belief is like shattering a window.   Sometimes it takes one blow, sometimes it take 3 or 4.   I stick to three in copy.

Let’s shatter some objections!

Let’s sell an accounting service today.

Objection #1:  It’s too expensive.

Apply to self:  Paying 20% of your income in taxes is expensive.

Analogy:  Paying my fee instead is like going from 20% tax rate to a 1% tax rate.

Consequence pattern:   Without my help you’ll pay $128,000 more in taxes than you should, my fee is $6,000.  What is more expensive?

Objection #2: I have to think it over.

Hierarchy of Criteria:  What’s more important to you…getting  back money the government took from you, or thinking about how to get it back?

Counter example:   I had client tell me just the other day, that each day I worked with him saved him $500 a day.   Do you want to get that money now or after you think it over?

Objection #3: I have to discuss it with my spouse / business partner.

Redefine: You are going to show them how you are going to save $500 a day, is that going to take much discussion?

Change Frame Size: Every time your spouse asks why you didn’t discuss it with me, it would be nice to remind her of today when you made a decision that paid for your son’s college tuition.

Summary:   You should assume these objections are in the back of your prospects head.   Attack them early in your sales copy and you will remove barriers to buying and make more sales.

There is a fourth little known objection most copywriters fail to address.   This is especially true when you’re selling an information product.   It’s a huge anchor stopping people from buying, and its a rigid belief requiring surgical word smithing to dislodge.   I discuss it in my Free Sleight of Mouth email course.  Sign up for it here.

Sleight of Mouth Email Course

Ready?

First a preamble.

Everyone’s brain is as unique as a finger print.   They have built up in their heads a belief system and model of the world which all input gets filtered through.

Like a prism distorts light beams.  This “map of the world” distorts reality.  (Almost all human conflict comes down to not understanding people have different maps)

This is why logical arguments almost never persuade anyone, because the logic gets distorted and twisted by a persons “map” of the world.

If you want to slip suggestions past people’s maps, you have to something my mother did when I needed to take some foul tasting medicine.  You stuff it inside something I liked (like hot dog or a big spoonful of Jello).

One way to do this is a technique called pacing and leading.

A pace is when you say something that is verifiable in your readers (or customers) model of the world.   A lead is when you suggest something you want them to believe.    The more you pace, the more powerful the lead becomes.

Here’s an example, let’s see if we can help sell some Chiropractic services. (The paces are underlined and the lead is bolded)

This is a pace, pace, pace, pace, lead.

Back pain slows you down.  Back pain sufferers can’t stand for long periods of time.  Bending over sends sharp pains up their spines and feelings of frustration because the pain keeps them from playing with their kids.  And a good chiropractor can stop this.

Let’s try a financial advisor appointment fetching letter:

You can get good paces by paying attention to the big news going on.   The news has a huge effect on people’s models of the world (Which is why you shouldn’t pay attention to it).

Another bank fails in the United States.  The stock market is stagnant and people’s savings aren’t growing as fast as they want.  Because of this meeting with a knowledgeable financial planner is more important than ever.

I’m wondering if you are starting to realize just how more powerful claims are, if you pace first.

Ok, let’s get to the…

Love Letter

The goal of this letter should be to make your partner feel loved.  Sometimes they don’t believe, a simple “I love your more than anything”.     So let’s use our pacing first to make the “I love you” twice as powerful.

Dear Zelda,

We’ve been together for 7 months now.    I am not perfect.  You know I tend to leave my clothes hanging around, and I tend to leave my dishes sitting out.   You handle my minor video game addiction like a champ, and you cheer me on when I’m playing my friends.  And you should know “I love you more than anything”….

Simple stuff…Super powerful.

A simple pace, pace then lead isn’t going to do a full selling job for you.

It is just another brick in the road leading your prospect from a state of not wanting your service to a state of wanting it.    Good paces require research into the person you are writing to.   Something most copywriters do not do.

In summary:

Take a look at the major claims you are making in your web pages, sales letters and emails.  Try and soften the blow by pacing first.  It makes arguments very compelling, and will boost your sales.

Peace.

P.S.

If you’re thinking of hiring a copywriter then you should give me a shout by following this link.   Talk to Ian about a copywriting project.

If you present well,  and demonstrate such a high value then price should not come.   But sometimes…people get to the end and they say, I just think it’s too expensive.

So, we’ll go back to our handy friend Sleight of Mouth and silently kill the objection.

Here’s how.

You’re customer says “The house is too expensive”

You pace (never tell people they are wrong, you’ll snap rapport and lose the power of influence).

“You’re right, this house has a lot of value”. – This is a simple redefine of expensive means high value.

“The additional monthly cost to your mortgage is $127.   Which is almost the price of a Starbucks coffee each day” – this is a change of frame size where they can see the costs each day are less.

“What’s more important to you, saving the price of a Starbucks latte each day or having a home with the backyard overlooking the ocean and mountains like you’ve always wanted”  – this is a hierarchy of criteria and I assume ocean and mountains is an important criteria.

When you use Sleight of Mouth it can take 1 pattern or 3, never usually more than 4.   The more you stack the more the objection disappears.

It works like magic and will lubricate social friction for the rest of your life.   If you’d like to get good at it, real fast then you should read about my Sleight of Mouth course here.

It’s true.

And, the reason why can help glue people to your sales message and help you sell like free money.

A mistake everyone makes in their elevator pitch!

Listen:  Has someone ever asked you what you do and you go on to say:

“I am a lawyer”

“I am a real estate agent who helps people buy their dream home”

“I am copywriter”

“I am a recently graduated engineer….”

Have you?

Well…you are a certified hypnotherapist because the moment you say that people zone out and say too themselves “I don’t need it” and move on.

Test this yourself.  Next time you’re talking with someone you give that answer to…if they start saying a lot of “Uh huh…uh huh…yep”.

That’s code for I’m dreaming of a beer and my couch, and your words aren’t even going in my ear.  (You should shut up at this point and get them talking).

So how do you make your message stick?

How do you give your message the impact of a Mike Tyson uppercut?

Here’s the truth.

You see.   The reason Alzheimers patients can remember songs, is because the songs stir up emotion.

And your elevator speech, marketing communications and sales pitches (in fact all good writing) has to stir the emotions.

First tip:   Never say “I am”.   It’s flaccid, weak and should be reserved for soul less government bureaucrats.

Second: Use hard numbers wherever you can.   We’re trained by the media to look for specifics.

Let me give you some examples:

“I am a divorce lawyer” can become “I negotiate for battered women and on average hand them $86,000 a year income for life and full custody of their kids”

“I am a wedding DJ” can become “I lead 500 people on to a dance floor and keep them there for 4 hours.”

“I am a business coach” can become “I speed up retirement for business owners on average 8 years and help them sell their businesses for 567% of their annual revenue.”

“I am a real estate agent” can become “I take people who are renting, and turn their monthly rent payments into a mortgage payment for a home 10 times the size of their apartment.”

Think of that opening sentence as a knife wound.   You want people squirming and uncomfortable.   That discomfort will glue them to you.  And make them want to BUY from you.

Anyhow that’s it for now.   One more before you go.

Here’s one of my pitches for my Vancouver Copywriting business:  I create an extra $50,000 a month in sales for small business by making Google their best salesman.

Peace.