May 17, 2008
Smart Shopping Principles (I): Beware of the Long Sales Pages
By admin
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Maybe this might bother a few Internet Marketers, but it is real: many products are sold via an overrated value marketing. In plain English, it is the image of the product what sells and not the real value or the benefits that it might give to the consumer.
A few days ago I was reading one of my favorites weblogs - Daily Blog Tips - and found an article very interesting which (in the comments section) exposed how messy and annoying some internauts find the well known long sales pages. The content helped to raise my attention over such pages and seduced into doing my own investigations.
What Most of the Long Sales Pages have in common
As a result of long weekend afternoons reading many long sales pages, what i found is that all of such pages have some clear features in common. Before listing the main common features, i would like to state clearly and in an uppercased fashion: I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST INTERNET MARKETING.
1. Long Sales Pages claim that the product they sell is the best of the market.
2. They also claim that it is a lifetime opportunity.
3. They publish lots of comments and testimonials of happy customers.
4. They use the word MUST a lot all over the text.
5. There is no long sales page with less than 1000 words.
6. In general, the template seems to be the same,looking like a commercial spot all over the page.
7. Most of those pages state that there is a limit in the quantity of the product or that there is deadline to obtain the product, afterwards, it will not be available, at least not at the same promotional price.
8. There is no clear TOS or a link to it, so as to be aware of the limitations of the product offered.
9. Such pages lack a lot of information on the product itself, if compared to the apparent benefits heavily promoted.
10. Many of such pages are hosted in domains with less than 1 months of life. Bad, really bad.
11. Many of such pages do not provide a phone number as to make contact.
12. The feeling that such kind of pages produce is that of someone that is desperate to sell and tries to induce an urge in the visitor to make a quick purchase.
Not that I am all against the Internet marketing at all, but honestly, such pages raise my SCAM alert system whenever and wherever i read them (by chance).
How To Make an Objective Evaluation of the Product offered through a Long Sales Pages
It might be interesting - specially for the e-Marketers - to know that - at least, in my case - the pictures of the products are the most impressive section of the sales pages. As the old ones used to say: "An image is better than 1000 words".
What i would recommend - in general - to make a wise purchase is to follow the intuition, at first. Most of the people develop a sense that helps to recognize a scam, and it would serve to quit the page - and making no purchase at all. Nevertheless, there are some easy tips to evaluate the product in an accurate fashion.
1. Forget about the words "best", "must" and the like.
If somebody is prone to sell something, it will have to wait until you decide, no matter what. The world will not end by tomorrow or the next week.
2. Forget about the quotas and the false exclusivity offered.
Try to figure out this, you have a special product, that you will offer only to 100 persons. Would you sell it for a few buckets and spend lots of money trying to reach millions of visitors? Non-sense, isn’t it?
3. Focus on the benefits that you expect to obtain.
Do not forget what you were looking for, just before you entered the page and saw all those shiny, happy people cheer and celebrate their success after purchasing the product. If it is not what you need, say Goodbye!
4. Check the price of the product with other providers - use the information of the Shopping Review Portals.
Hell, yeah! I paid the price of novelty once that i needed a specialized project planning ebook. I googled and found a long sales pages with a "lifetime", "unique", "exclusive" opportunity that i MUST take, because it was the BEST price EVER for such an ebook PLUS two more ebooks as a PROMOTIONAL GIFT. After making the purchase, i found that i paid or the price of the 3 ebooks and a bit more. But, it was my fault, because there are lots of shopping review portals everywhere, where the customer can listen to the opinion of the other customers that have previously acquire the product that you are looking for.
5. Read carefully even the sentences in the tiniest font.
Some marketers put the worst of the product in Lucida 4px font, exactly where no one cares to take a look. There are some pages which offer online services extremely cheap and once you put your credit card info, you make the mistake of not checking carefully. A few months later you become aware of all the money that has been charged against your credit card via monthly SUBSCRIPTIONS. Please, be aware.
6. Obtain ALL the specifications of the product before buying.
Ok, there is a dozen of happy customers, so what? Even if the product is what it states, it might also well be what it does not state. That is, it may have worked for those people, but, will it be what you need?
7. Make a phone call.
Whenever I see a long sales pages, the first thing i do is to obtain the contact information. It "MUST" be somewhere in the page or i press the "X" button at the right of the internet browser. If the page provides a phone number, do not hesitate to make a call, even if you believe is silly just for the sake of listening to a human voice; there are strong chances that the company will be responsive.
8. Russia and some other countries are not good places to make online purchases.
Maybe some people ignore that lots of the scammers host their sites in Russia. Why? Just because the scammers exploit the advantage of being immune to the western system of Justice. Be aware and check the whois of the page (http://www.whois.org) and if it is hosted in an unsafe country, forget about it.
9. PayPal is a safe channel - instead of the credit card, but…
Even though paypal is a safer way to buy online, it is also extremely difficult to claim for a refund via PayPal.
10. Check if the Page or the Company has a Safe Online Salers Certifications.
Better Bureau Business is the best known certification authority in the field of ecommerce in the US. There is also one in the United Kingdom and many others all over the world. Please, check those portals by yourself and do not trust what you see on the sales page. Because, if the page or the company is enlisted by a Certification Authority, the probability that they are talking seriously about the products offered is very high.
11. Google, Yahoo, Ask or MSN the product for a scam alert.
In plain words, open your favorite search engine (may it be google, yahoo or the one you like) and put in the search box the name of the product/company or the web address of the long sales page together with the word SCAM. For example, you get to visit http://www.l0ngs4lesp4age.com, where they offer the best remedy for allergy alergianatte 2000. Open google and search: "www.l0ngs4lesp4age.com SCAM" or "allergianatte SCAM". In general, the real reviews that you will find in the results list weight much more than the testimonials in the long sales page.
12. Follow your instincts, cut the weed and be smart.
If you had to make an excerpt of the long sales page it would be no longer than 80 words. Believe me: cut the weed, you don’t need it. And if you feel that the site is unsafe, do not make a purchase.
Topics: Productivity |
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