Ever feel a little tinge of anxiety wash over you as you’re about to make a purchase? You know the drill. Your palms become a little clammy, you start feeling a little warm, and your heart begins beating a little faster.
It’s not uncommon. It happens to most people. Whether you’re about to try out a new course to help grow your business or just scoping out a new restaurant, it’s only human to run through the risks of giving away your hard-earned money and weigh them against the rewards.
In a world where most shopping happens online, however, buyers like you and me are haunted by more anxious thoughts and doubts than would be the case if we were shopping at a brick and mortar.
For example:
What if it arrives damaged?
What will it feel like? Look like?
Is there a catch?
What if the product/service isn’t what they promise it to be?
And, most importantly, can I get my money back if it’s not?
Those same thoughts that pop up into your head right as you’re about to click the “Buy Now” button, are the same thoughts your potential customers will have when hanging out on your sales page.
Worst of all? Those thoughts just might con them into running in the opposite direction—far, far away from converting into a paying customer. I hate to say it, but it’s true. I’m sure that’s the last thing you want to happen.
If that’s the case, you need a rock-solid guarantee. Know what I’m talking about? If not, take a quick look at these examples:
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Its purpose is to ease any and all anxious thoughts your soon-to-be customer might have just before investing a chunk of change in your product or service. Because, ultimately:
Anxious thoughts = hesitation. And, hesitation = less sales.
Thus, my reason for being here today: to share with you the four simple hacks to write a guarantee that will ease your prospect’s anxiety and promise you sales.
But first, what can you actually guarantee? As CrazyEgg.com explains, there are three basic approaches:
- Your product—what some marketers label as the “classic guarantee.” It’s your claim that a customer will be happy with your product. For example: “We know you’ll love this [insert product] as much as we do. In fact, if for any reason you’re not completely satisfied, return it within [insert number] days and we’ll issue a full refund.”
- Your service—this works best for service industries, of course. For example, hotels and hotel booking sites.
- The results—this works best for fitness or diet products, and even income-producing programs. For example: “If you don’t get [specific goal] results by [time frame], you’ll get 100% of your investment back.”
Now, are you ready to hear those hacks for writing guarantees? Of course you are. Here they are in all their glory!
1. Convince your ideal customer you believe in the quality of your offer.
The infamous English idiom “Fake it till you make it” just won’t cut it for you as an entrepreneur. If you don’t have faith in your product or service, there’s no way in heck you’ll be able to convince your ideal customer to believe in it. So much so that they actually purchase from you.
Therefore, you must have full confidence in the quality of your offer. Now is not the time to start doubting whether or not your product or service will actually work and gift your customers with the benefits you’ve been promising.
So, go on and tell them how much you love your product or service or believe in what it will do for your people. As long as you—as the mastermind behind it all—have full faith in it and are being completely honest (no fake feelings allowed here, my friend!), you’ll be able to craft a winning guarantee.
Take a look at the template sentences below to get you moving in the right direction:
“We are so certain you’ll love [INSERT PRODUCT OR SERVICE]…”
“We provide the finest [INSERT PRODUCT OR SERVICE]…”
“We believe so strongly in [INSERT PRODUCT OR SERVICE]’s ability to [BENEFIT]…”
2. Keep terms & conditions clear and to a minimum.
The last thing your guarantee should have is one too many strings attached. That said, aim to keep the terms and conditions (if applicable) clear and to a minimum. As long as you treat your customers as if they’re honest, meaning they won’t take advantage of you, they will be.
Do you require returns in “like new” conditions? Returns will all parts, forms, and in original packaging? A restocking fee? Or, will you choose to go with an unconditional, no-questions-asked approach? Whatever you do, keep it simple.
Take Halevy Life’s guarantee as an example. It’s a luxury health club in New York. And, the founder, Jeff Halevy, came up with a straightforward, smart approach to a money-back guarantee: if, at the end of 90 days, a client hasn’t improved in at least three of five quantifiable fitness measures, they get their money back.
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Those five quantifiable fitness measures include: lean body mass, fat mass, strength, cardiopulmonary fitness, and movement capacity. The only condition for clients to meet is that they must commit to working with one of Halevy’s trainers three times a week for 90 days.
Yes, the club’s guarantee still might sound a little crazy because, as a personal trainer, you’re unable to control whether or not clients actually follow your regimen outside the club.
But, Halevy wasn’t concerned he’d go bankrupt writing his clients checks. He trusted them and wanted to put some accountability on his own highly-trained team—not just those who come to him wanting to improve their health.
When you follow his lead, you’ll no doubt accomplish your ultimate goals just as he did (but, maybe not the nationwide attention he received!)—easing your target customer’s anxiety and grabbing hold of some serious sales.
3. Establish a fair time period to try out your offer.
Have you ever signed up for a free trial and felt rushed to test it out and figure out all the ins and outs? All before you were forced to make a decision as to whether or not you want to fork over your hard-earned money to stick around?
Yeah, not a good feeling, is it? So, don’t make your customers feel that same way with your guarantee. Instead, establish a fair time period so they can try out your offer at a much more relaxed pace before determining whether or not they need to return it.
And, ultimately, the time period is up to you as it’s based off the type of offer you’re serving up as well as the level of confidence you have in it. The most common, however, are 30, 60, or 90 days, or even a year.
On the other hand, there are some well-known brands that go to the extreme. For example, Lands’ End offers a lifetime guarantee. It’s a promise the brand has kept for more than 50 years now. Talk about some serious assurance in its timeless styles!
4. Communicate your process for dissatisfied customers.
As the Dalai Lama once said, “A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity.” Building off of that quote, you can’t expect to dish out a successful guarantee to your customers without giving a clue as to what you’ll do if they’re not satisfied with your offer or they’ve received a faulty product.
Therefore, reveal your process. Will you provide a full refund? Offer an exchange? Supply a service free of charge? Whatever it is, be sure you put it front and center. There’s no hiding anything!
BONUS: Advertise it and stick to it!
No one likes an over-promiser and under-deliverer. As soon as you’ve crafted your guarantee and plastered it onto your sales page (tip: place it right below your pricing!) and other appropriate materials, you need to stick to it. Yup, I said it. There’s no turning back. If you have a team, get them onboard and give them the scoop so they know how and when to abide by it. When you do, it’ll be so much easier for you to build trust and lower the perceived risk of your product or service.
And, if you need some guarantee templates to save you some writing time, check out PreneurMarketing.com’s ready-made guarantees you can swipe right away.
The bottom line is, no one wants to make a bad decision when it comes to purchasing a product or service that’ll alleviate their biggest headaches. And, your ideal prospect’s perceived risk can quickly turn into a loss of a sale. Thus, in order to prevent that from happening, take these four hacks shared here to craft a guarantee that’ll ease their purchase anxiety. And, make them feel like they’re in good hands.
Lastly, I’m feeling generous today: to make your sales copy even more successful, I’m offering you a FREE copy of our checklist: “The Copywriting Checklist That Will Make Your Offer Irresistible,” delivered straight to your inbox.
All that’s required to get your hands on it is your email. Just drop it into the box to the right-hand side of this page and you’ll get it right away!
Tell me: have you used a guarantee in your sales copy before? Leave me a comment below. I’d love to hear how it helped you achieve your sales goals.
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