Note that video can be used as a tool to assist with all 3 potential stumbling blocks.

1. At this point in time, video is inherently exciting and engaging as a novelty, though that is sure to wear off in time when it becomes the norm.  The sales message still has to be meaningful to the audience, of course.

2. Video can be used to show people exactly what to do or what to expect.  But website clutter and disarray distracts in any circumstance.

3. Video is a great way for building rapport and helping people feel like they know and trust you – as long as you don’t look like a used car salesman!

Chuck

Thanks for helping clear this up and making it something to consciously avoid. I admit I’ve been guilty of doing one or more of the above on occasion, but I’ll be sure to never let that happen again.

Keep posting these great articles. By the way, I just bought The Ultimate Desktop Copy Coach a day or so ago, and I can’t wait to get it and start reading everything! I feel like a kid waiting to get my candy reward.

Rich Boy
http://www.TheRichBoy.com

Your 3 tips on _
How-to :
‘polish-silver-bullets-beneath-a-full-Moon.’

….well , not your words exactly….
but my take on it.

Why ?…

because :
sometimes ‘the wolf’ called_ "make killer-copy"…

can be More about Itself Than_
the visitor/potential customer.

Your 3 keypoints
helps remove ourselves…
& Focus on visitor/customer 1st.

We actually create personalized URL (PURL) for every recipient of our email or direct mail campaigns - YOUR name is definitely something that gets your attention.  When people see their name in a URL, email or direct mail they are compelled to find out more.

This is an excellent article!

(And thank you also to the Total Package folks.)

Interestingly, your third point is very "warm" in my mind just now.

About an hour ago I bought some new software (for a common business need I won’t identify). I’ve been shopping around and test-driving and snooping and probing for a little while now. And one solution kept popping up. I looks very good.

Here’s the interesting thing. The person who sells it has demonstrated the "one of us" element many times. And I actually feel that this person is perfectly trustworthy.

So why didn’t I buy?

There is, I think, another element–closely related to the trust factor: Confidence. That is, confidence in the vendor.

I’m not confident that I could get support if I needed it pronto. Maybe I could. I don’t know. But there are a number of things that make me feel as if I couldn’t. And this is what had me baulking several times even though this software is highly recommended and blah blah blah…

Then, recently, I noticed some software developers I’ve been doing business with using another piece of software for the solution I was seeking so I started checking that out and looking into it further.

I went to that developer’s site and hunted around and there were tiny little things that made me feel confident in the quality of the program and the level of support.

So I contacted the programmer and got a fantastic reply and some extra information that gave me even more confidence that this was the right decision–because as I said, support is an issue for this type of software.

I’m afraid I can’t elaborate further, but I thought it worth mentioning that while trusting the seller is certainly an issue, the copy and the site and the interaction with the prospect also have to instill confidence that whatever product or service is being offered will perform/deliver as promised and that if it doesn’t, that the seller will sort it out pronto.

An contrary example springs to mind: There is someone in the IM-niche whose salespages say at the bottom "I do not respond to email EVER!" (or something to that effect). Now, this person is, as far as I’m aware, reasonably successful (maybe even wildly so; I have no idea!). But I doubt we will EVER do business together.

Anyway, thanks again. I’ll definitely be looking over some of my pages that I know are more than a little shaky on a couple of these points.

The NightOwl

I think you’re really onto something here.  I’m doing some web-site effectiveness consulting, and
admit to swiping a lot of ideas from you and Clayton, et al and one of the things I’ve really been
emphasizing to my client is the need to establish a relationship bond.  He sells tractors and other
equipment to farms, agriculture and construction.  So instead of the usual, dry "About Us" page
that says we do this and we think that, I cast a whole new approach:  Let’s look at the owner
and his company from the eyes of a customer (me) and vendor (also me).  And I told a story to
convey the message – a story of the owner starting at age 14, learning and advancing, then
suddenly unemployed when his employer went belly up.  I tell of his involvement with kids
in high school.  For one of the brands he carries, I tell the story of the company founder and
how he started with almost nothing and built a huge company still run by the same family.

Then I found a neat music video that was a #1 hit in Britain telling of a 5-year-old kid
who was bullied and had trouble with teachers due to dyslexia, but became an entirely
 ifferent person when his dad picked him up in his JCB "digger" (what we call a backhoe in
 the states).  It’s something anyone who’s been picked on will relate with.  And I think it will be very effective at breaking down that wall against trust.  I don’t know for certain yet because we haven’t launched the new site.  But the video at http://www.jcbsong.co.uk/jcbvideo.asp made
a huge hit with me because I had kids picking at me from time to time (one’s my
brother-in-law now – sheesh!).

I have a favorite saying I got from others: "People don’t care how much you know until
they know how much you care."  I think the barriers to trust are best attacked by showing
you really do care about that person coming to your site.  You’re not just there to get their
money.

The irony is, the money doesn’t really come until you get your eye off of you and onto
them, and see the world from their eyes.  What a concept!

I suppose this really is little more than a natural part of "the right way" in the 5 R’s.

Clarke