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THE WINNING ADVANTAGE eZINE
Sunday, July 3, 2005
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Published by Earl Savage
ES World Marketing
http://www.esworldmarketing.com/blog/ezine/
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In This Issue:
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1. Message from the Editor

2. Feature Article – “An Internet Marketing Secret: Using Tie-Downs to Increase Sales”
by Mike Adams

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Dear Reader,

Thanks and WELCOME!

As always, I hope you’ll enjoy and profit from reading “The Winning AdVantage”.
Please feel free to post your comments at the bottom of this blog post. I am here
to help and welcome any help or advice you may offer.

Cordially yours,
Earl Savage, Publisher
The Winning AdVantage eZine
winning@esworldmarketing.com

P.S. If you like this ezine, please forward it to your friends, downline, upline, etc.
If you have ideas for improving it, please let me know. I’d love to hear from you.

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=>> Feature Article
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An Internet Marketing Secret: Using Tie-Downs to Increase SalesCopyright 2005 Mike Adams

If you could get your prospective customers nodding theirheads in agreement with every major point in your salescopy, that would be likely to increase your sales, wouldn'tit?

If you could get people saying "yes" to almost anymarketing statement of your choosing - long before theyeven get to the close - that would be valuable to you,right?

Did you find yourself agreeing with the last two questions?You've just experienced a sales technique called"tie-downs."  One very old direct sales principle is to getpeople to say yes to multiple little questions.  This getsthem agreeing with you and also gets them used to sayingyes.  Psychologically, they will then be more likely to sayyes when you ask for the sale.  One sales technique forachieving that is the tie-down.

Why use a technique from direct sales in direct marketing?In a famous advertising and marketing story, Albert Laskerwas a junior partner at the Lord and Thomas advertisingagency in 1905 when he read a note from John E. Kennedydeclaring that Kennedy knew the secret of what advertisingis.  Kennedy, a former Canadian mounted policeman, was newto copywriting and not yet known in advertising circles.But by an interesting quirk of fate, this was the questionLasker had been trying to figure out.  Lasker met Kennedy,and Kennedy declared that the secret is, "Advertising issalesmanship in print."  Lasker and Kennedy went on torevolutionize advertising and marketing forever with thosewords, and Lord and Thomas became one of the most famousadvertising agencies of the day.

No matter how many people are visiting your website andreading your marketing material, you are still talking toonly one person at a time.  You are still selling oneperson.  This sounds like a simple concept, but manyadvertising and marketing people still don't get thissecret.  That means that if you understand this, you havean advantage in Internet marketing.  You understand thatadvertising is salesmanship in print.  And you know thatyou just need to talk with this one person and get theiragreement to purchase your product.  And with the power ofthe Internet, you can do this with dozens, hundreds, eventhousands per day.

Tie-downs are one of the first tools to add to your newsalesmanship toolbox.  A tie-down is a short phrase thatcan be added to a statement to turn it into a question.You use a tie-down to turn a point that you want to makeinto a question that your prospect will agree with.  It'sone way of getting your prospective customer to startsaying yes long before you go for the close.

A few examples of common tie-downs include:

Isn't it?Wouldn't it?Wouldn't they?Wouldn't you?Aren't they?Aren't you?Wouldn't you agree?Don't you agree?Can't you?Couldn't it?Doesn't it?Right?

If you have been marketing for very long, you have heardabout the concept of "features versus benefits."  Featuresare what your product has or does.  Benefits are why yourprospective customer would want those features.  What willyour product do for them?  For example, if you havesomething that is metal instead of plastic, metal might bea feature.  But the benefit might be that it is moredurable, longer-lasting, or unbreakable.

A common practice on web pages that are written as salesletters is to use a bullet list to present features orbenefits.  Let's just imagine a couple bullet points forsome imaginary "tie-down creator" software.  Most peoplewould write the bullets as features.  A couple featuresmight look like this:

- Creates tie-downs automatically- Adds tie-downs to the end of every statement in a list ofstatements

Not very exciting bullets, are they?  (Wow... there's anexample of a tie-down that I want you to say "no" to!)

Now let's imagine how someone might write a couple bulletsas benefits:

- Get your prospective customers nodding their heads inagreement with every major point in your sales copy!- Get a prospect to say "yes" to almost any marketingstatement of your choosing - long before you get to theclose!

That's an improvement over writing the marketing bullets asfeatures, isn't it?  But although that might get theirinterest and even get them thinking of how they could usethe product, it doesn't build agreement yet.  Let's trywording them a little differently:

- If you could get your prospective customers nodding theirheads in agreement with every major point in your salescopy, that would be likely to increase your sales, wouldn'tit?- If you could get people saying "yes" to almost anymarketing statement of your choosing - long before theyeven get to the close - that would be valuable to you,right?

Would you agree those bullets do a better job of buildingboth interest and agreement?  (And did you catch thatexample of a tie-down at the beginning of a sentence?)

Now for your homework.  It's time to go look at yourwebsite with a critical eye, while this article is stillfresh in your mind.  Are you selling features or benefits?Are you using tie-downs on marketing statements where theywould help build agreement that will lead to sales?  Ifnot, you know what you need to do!

About the Author:

Mike Adams has been building web sites and playing withInternet marketing since 1996.  Visit his site for Internetmarketing tips, tools, news, articles, and resources:http://www.timberway.com/

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That’s all for this time – thanks for reading!

To contact us, go to: http://www.esworldmarketing.com/contactus.html

Your success is our success!
(c) 2001-2005 ES World Marketing

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=>> OUR MISSION
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We, at The Winning AdVantage, are devoted to helping our subscribers
develop their marketing skills and promote their home-based Internet
marketing businesses and affiliate opportunities. This publication
features tips, techniques and how-to articles on such topics as ad copy
writing, finding good FRËË or inexpensive places to post ads, finding the
best available resources, and other issues related to making money on
the Internet. The Winning AdVantage eZine is dedicated to the
enhancement of your home-based Internet marketing business success.

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