The first step in creating sales copy that hits the mark takes place before tapping the first key on your keyboard.

To create effective copy, it’s important to understand your market’s demographics – from values and interests to buying behavior.

Many small businesses and solo Internet marketers overlook this important step, as often do inexperienced copywriters.

If you hire a copywriter, expect to answer questions about your market (usually in the form of a questionnaire) or to pay the copywriter to research it.

A good starting point is to consider what things motivate most of your prospects? This could be recognition from others, money, security, time freedom, children, fun, health issues, etc. Also consider values (family, career, social responsibility, etc.) and interests (travel, entertainment, spiritual pursuits, etc.).

It’s also good to know how your prospects like to shop online. Do they prefer making fast decisions, reading as much as possible about a product or service, feeling a social connection with the business owner? Is a “special offer” or proven quality a deal closer with your market?

If your target market is made up mostly of a specific age group, check on trends for that group. Sales copy is targeted very differently to Generation Xers than to Baby Boomers.

As you may be gathering, the reason so many small business marketers skip the market research is it can take a lot of time.

Look at it this way – just as you wouldn’t expect to snag a bunch of great job interviews from sending the exact same cover letter and resume to potential employers, you can’t expect to pull great conversion rates with generic sales copy. (A good conversion rate is whatever you want it to be; on the average websites convert a 1 to 3 percent, but you can always increase that).

If you’ve done some market research, then you’ve no doubt run across reports that sell for hundreds, often thousands, of dollars. Here are a few ways to gather this information on a small budget:

- Read about trends on industry sites. For example, if you have a travel niche, you’ll find data on the tourism authority sites, such as tourist spending habits, age groups, if they are interested in luxury or eco travel, etc.

- Create a survey and offer a reward for completing it (such as a coupon for a discount on a product, good  for 30 days, or valuable eBook). Send the survey link to your email list and make the page readily available to website traffic. Make the survey quick and easy to complete by using formats such as statements followed by “Agree, Sometimes Agree, Disagree, Sometimes Disagree.”

- Look at magazines that serve your niche. Pay attention to the ads. They usually will be targeted well to the readership. Better yet, many magazines make data about their readership available for potential advertisers on their sites or via mail upon request. So if the magazine serves your niche, you can learn a lot about your market this way.

Perhaps you have a cross section of demographics in your market. Unlike large companies, we can’t always find the time or money to create a separate campaign for each demographic. So if this is the case, consider sales copy that primarily targets the largest segment of your market while including elements that will appeal to smaller segments without sending them running back to search. You can’t please everyone, but your goal is to please as many as possible.

Whether you are writing your own copy or outsourcing, be sure you follow the first command of sales copywriting: Know Thy Market!

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The headlines are the most important parts of any sales copy. Yes, the reader also wants bullet points of benefits, testimonials, and a rock-solid guarantee, but they often skim the content to read the headlines and see if your offer is worth the investment of their time to read in full.

You should take ample time to craft your headlines – especially the very first one a visitor will see on your website. If they don’t get a great first impression, they’ll click out and never return to your website.

As you scour the ‘net on a regular basis, start adding to your swipe file (a file you should be collecting of effective ads and copywriting you’ve come across that provide you inspiration when writing your own ads) to keep track of headlinesm you really liked. You won’t want to copy them word for word, but you can emulate that success and possibly use the same approach for your own target audience.

Headlines are all about gut reaction. How will the words you use affect your consumer? Will it make them panic for a solution? Nod their head in agreement with you? Get angry and want to read more?

Since the consumer is seeking a solution to a problem, you want to show them that you understand their problem and know exactly how they can solve it. Some headlines are over-the-top hype, and in many instances – it works!

But you don’t have to use excessive hype to sell a product or service. Let’s look at seven ways you can compel your audience to buy whatever you’re selling:

1. Zap your reader with a shocking fact or possibility!

If you’re a business owner, then you want to protect your share of the market that you already have. You’re always on the lookout for ways to improve your profitability. If you clicked on an ad for an autoresponder tool and saw this headline, how would you react?

“While You Were Sleeping, Your Competitor Stole $7,348 ,Worth of Sales from Your Site!”

That would probably irk you. It would make you feel as if they stole something right out of your pocket! Now you’d want to learn how it happened and how you can prevent it from happening again.

2. Be rude – but only to get them riled up and reading more!

Sometimes a marketer will use a rude headline, insulting the visitor – so that they’ll continue reading more. The Rich Jerk is famous for using this tactic, and in some cases it works. You have to realize that not all visitors will think it’s funny – many will click out, truly insulted.

3. Use the words of another person!

A quote can go a long way in making an impression because it’s a firsthand account. You can use a famous quote, but it’s better if it’s coming from someone the reader can relate to. For instance, if your product is about improving your golf game, then you might use a quote from a golfer that says…

 “It Took Me 3 Days and 2 Bags of Balls to Break 80!”

The headline is incredulous – who could break 80 in a weekend? But what you’ll explain is that they were on the verge of breaking 80, but couldn’t do it until they spent a weekend at the driving range using what they learned in your “How to Break 80 eBook.”

4. Make bold promises!

If you offer a strong guarantee, then you may want to make a bold promise that provides the reader with exactly what they’re wanting. You could use a headline like this:

“In 10 Days, Your List is Going to Grow to Over 10,000 People -Guaranteed!”

If your product provides a way they can reasonably do this, then a bold promise can hook the reader and virtually convert the sale on that very first line of text. Just don’t make promises ,you can’t keep because then you’ll be facing a hefty refund rate.

5. Get personal with your audience!

Sometimes reaching out to your audience on a personal level really draws them into your message because they feel you can relate.A sample, personalized headline might read,

“When My Boss Dropped the Pink Slip on My Desk, Humiliating Me in Front of  Everyone, I Vowed That I Would Never Work for Someone Else Again!”

6. Use news to make your point!

Start reading the newspaper and/or industry magazines to soak up (and use) any current events stories that will help boost your sales.  If you’re promoting a product on flipping real estate, and the homeowner’s market is desperate like right now, use a headline from the news and make it your own, like this:

“Pre-Owned Home Sales Worst in History – But Turning Into a Boon for Investors!”

Then you could go on to explain how cheap it is to buy the homes and how you can turn a profit from them.

Every target audience is different. What works for one may not work for another. A level-headed parent looking for a solution to a problem may not respond to a rude headline, but a ‘net savvy entrepreneur could be intrigued. This is why testing and tweaking is so vital to your online success. You might  find out that a teaser headline results in an increase in conversions, while a personal approach drops sales significantly.

Start browsing other sites to see what headlines have a positive impact on you and then try to mimic that style with your own site’s sales copy. Make sure you keep records of what works and what doesn’t, so that you don’t return to a way of marketing that wasn’t making you money.

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Have you noticed a recent decline in sales? Are customers still buying in this economy? Maybe you haven’t noticed any negative changes, and if that’s the case – great! But there’s a good possibility that you have, or that you will. And no matter what, even in a great economy, you need to instill in your customers a sense of urgency.

So why is getting your customers to feel the urgent need to buy now so important? After all, people don’t like to be pressured – too much pressure will scare them off, right? And some people need to think things over, to take their time in making any decision. If you’re pushing them, it could backfire on you.

That’s all true, but creating a sense of urgency really isn’t about pressuring and pushing. It’s about recognizing and/or creating a real need in your customer and handing them a way to fulfill that need. It’s about saying, “This is going to make you feel better right now, and I’m going to make it very, very easy for you to agree with me and say yes – I need this right now!”

Here’s why you need to create urgency and your sales page needs to deliver a strong sense of urgency: Your prospect/client/customer already knows he or she has a need, but they’re going to hold out unless you make it impossible for them to wait.

Why do customers balk at buying? In this poor economy, it might be because they’re afraid to spend the money. In a great economy, it might be because they figure they can get a better deal from your competition. Of course, these reasons can cross over each other in a good, bad or middling economy.

Even if the customer knows or suspects they need and want what you have, they’re programmed to wait until the need is so strong that they can’t wait any longer. Your job is to point out that they’ve already waited long enough and that if they wait longer, their situation is only going to get more uncomfortable.

Your sales page may be a great sales page. It might be eye-catching enough, but not obnoxious. It might be full of compelling information about your product. It might use all the right words and catch phrases, and make it very easy for a customer to buy. But if it doesn’t create a sense of urgency, it doesn’t matter.

The sense of urgency is what will ultimately bring your customer to the point of getting out his or her wallet. They have to believe that they will somehow be cheating themselves or worsening their condition if they don’t make that purchase RIGHT NOW.

How can you create a sales page that delivers urgency? There’s no one way to do it. In fact, you should strive to create urgency in a variety of ways because not all customers will respond the exact same way to your tactics.If you deliver a sense of urgency on your sales page in several different ways, you will be increasing your chances of finding one that works for each person who lands there.

Pair the sense of urgency with an easy way to buy and you’ll have a winning combination, regardless of the state of the economy. Let’s take a look at some great ways to deliver a sense of urgency in your sales letter:

· Make sure they feel the pain. If you’re offering a great line of anti-aging skin products or an info product on natural skin care, make absolutely certain that your customer feels the pain of wrinkles, skin that is losing elasticity, age spots, sagging eyelids and dull skin tone.

Remind them that they don’t have to live with any of those problems one second longer. They can start to reverse these effects of aging from the second they click on the Buy Now button.

· Create a need out of their vanity. Everyone likes to stand out in a crowd. Everyone wants to be thought of as cool, or innovative or ahead of the pack. You can use this to create a sense of urgency. Don’t your customers want to get a jump on the competition or have something very few others do?

· Speak to their wallet. If your product is selling for $10 today, but the price is set to increase to $12 tomorrow, your customer might feel that they should just buy now and save themselves a couple bucks.

Make sure that you follow through with your timed increases or you’ll look untrustworthy if the customer returns the next day to find the same $10 price and the same notice that the price will go up tomorrow.

· Give your customer lots of incentive to buy. Pile on some excellent bonuses, and give a really good guarantee on your product.

· Use scarcity as a way to create urgency. If there are only 10 of your product left, the customer will feel more compelled to snatch it up! You can make it so that there is only a limited number of your product available or a limited time that you will be offering it.

Some have used countdown clocks or similar tools on their sales page to serve as a vivid reminder that your customer needs to act this minute or risk missing out. Remember, you have to follow through with what you’re telling your customers. If you’re counting down products or time, that countdown has to actually go down!

· Make it very, very easy to buy. Make sure that your sales page gives complete and easy-to-understand instructions for the purchase process. Be sure to have that Buy Now button very noticeable in a few different spots on your page. And give your customers a sense of safety by giving them a good product guarantee.

The results of creating a sales page that delivers a sense of urgency will be quite evident very quickly. You’ll notice that even in a poor economy your sales will remain steady and most likely will climb. You won’t suffer from the customer’s natural leaning toward holding out for a better deal or waiting until they just can’t take it anymore.

The sense of urgency you create will prompt your customers to take action when you want them to take action – now. There’s nothing wrong or unethical about creating this urgency. It just means you’re getting the sale first – before your competition.

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