How to Write A Review that Sells!

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Whether you are developing a product or you are an affiliate for a product, creating effective advertising that looks anything but is the key to making sales and big fat commission checks.

Blended Advertising is the future of sales and if you cannot master this aspect of your copywriting, then you are behind the eightball before you even start blogging. Blended advertising keeps the product owners happy because you are providing genuinely helpful information about the product or service and your readers are happy because they do not feel like they are being ‘sold to’. With this in mind, let’s look at what makes an effective product review and how you can structure it to make more sales AND build trust at the same time. (now that’s a win win situation!)

I won’t go into the process of finding a product to promote, but if you want to read more on this, visit my Keyword Research section for the complete series on finding and optimizing Keywords. For now though, I am going to assume that you have a product, you have a niche and you at least have a blog.

The Anatomy of Good Sales Copy

The first step in any good sales copy is understanding your target audience and aligning your use of language according to this demographic. I will not go into detail about this particular area of ‘Good Sales Copy’ as in this instance, when writing a review, you are doing it on your own blog, so I HOPE you already know your audience and you are obviously writing for them when you put together this review. So let’s explore the anatomy of a good sales copy and see how we can implement this into our product review.

The Structure of a good article

A lot has been spoken about the structure of a good article, and these rules apply to your product review as well. So make sure you follow these basic page structure guidelines:

• A Heading. This should not be for Google. There is plenty of time to SEO the crap out of the page after the fact, but for now your title should be written for your readers, not some preformatted unemotional spider bot. Make sure it’s catchy and draws their attention in to ‘read more’
• Use Point forms, lists, subheadings etc. The idea is to draw your readers eyes down the page. Create captivating subheadings to grab their attention, create lists in point form to make scanning the post for valuable information easier to do (most readers have a very short attention span)
• State clearly what your intentions are for the article early on. And end with a clear and concise Call to Action. People like to be told what to do, and if you have constructed your article or review correctly, then afterward they are going to want to ‘check out the product’ so make sure you make this easy for them.

So how can I apply this rule to ‘Write Reviews that Sell’?

First things first, if you can craft an article that produces value and educates the reader without giving the impression that you are trying to sell something, you will make more affiliate commissions – simple. So let’s look at how to write reviews that sell

Product reviews that provide nothing but glowing positive feedback on the product or service will NOT sell as well as those that appear unbiased and genuine. No product or service is 100% perfect for everybody, and so make sure when you are writing this review you provide honest assessments of it from both sides of the fence. Your review article should be:

• Genuine
• Unbiased
• Focused on the needs of your readers

Here is a list of questions your Review should cover:

• What is the Product called and what is the URL (your affiliate link of course)
• How much is the product going to cost –and is this an ongoing payment?
• What is the product for?
• How would I use it?
• How could I suggest others use it – are there alternative ways to make use of the product and or service in question?
• What secrets and ‘amazing systems’ are revealed in the product?

You are probably thinking that the last thing you want to do is give away the inner secrets of a product you paid good money for but this actually works in your favour. You don’t have to give everything away, just explain the:

• Techniques used
• Core Concepts
• Key Points

For example: As opposed to saying “this program will reveal niche markets to base your keyword research on”. You might say “This program reveals niche markets for keyword research by using an algorithm that takes ebay pulse, amazon bestsellers, and the google adwords tool to filter in only those that are profitable and current.”

You can then comment on this system and how you have found it works for you, how you might implement it in your daily activity, and what you found excited you the most about it. (You should be excited! If you love this product, make sure you convey this message through your review – you want your readers excited too!) If you can provide screen capture video or image shots at this point, the value or your review will increase dramatically!

Qualify the Reader

This is the final step in a well constructed review, and is the part of the ‘sales copy’ that can make or break your conversion rate. Qualifying the reader simply involves profiling the context and characteristics of the type of person ideally suited to the product you are reviewing.

• What situation is this person in?
• What level of expertise are they expected to have?
• What prior knowledge or skills are required to make the most of this particular product or service?

This makes the reader go through a process of self selection and if your reader notices you just described their own position – they are more likely to buy!

Finally, provide the reader with the details of the money back guarantee, known in copywriting as the Risk Reversal

In Summary

You want your review to provide genuine value but also to arouse curiosity in your reader. Give them honest unbiased value and a clear and concise call to action. Cover all these points above and you will have a substantial quality review that WILL convert better. Add to this your growing influence and position of authority and over time you will see greater and greater returns for your product reviews.

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Tagged as: conversion rates, copywriting, how to, product reviews, sales copy, SEO