Why You Should Avoid Hype In Your Online Sales Copy ... Or You'll Lose Customers

When writing your copy, avoid including too much hype. Adding too much hype is a common mistake if you're new to writing copy. When you hype up your copy, customers find it hard to believe your claims and won't buy.


Or they may believe your claims, but when they buy your product or service, they'll find out they've been fooled. And it backfires on your company in the long run. They'll spread bad word-of-mouth. Refund requests will increase.

For example, one successful online entrepreneur wrote that in the past, he used to write hype in his sales copy. The reason was that it pulled a lot of sales. He felt guilty doing it, but did it anyway because it worked.

However, he found that it eventually backfired. Customers stopped believing his company's sales copy and stopped buying. Eventually, he had to close down his business. From that day forward, he avoided including too much hype in his copy.

Another example is that I once bought a home-study course online by a reputable marketing expert. The sales copy was hyped, but unfortunately, I was gullible at the time. I bought the course. I bought it when I was running a web games business at the time.

The sales copy said that the product would help all types of business in any industry. That's a bold claim. But when I received the product, it turned out the product is helpful to established businesses. My web games business was still in the start-up phase.

Also, my business depended on advertising revenue, but the product didn't mention anything about advertising revenue. All its theories assumed the business depends on sales.

So the claim that the product would help all businesses was hype. Customers who buy the product will feel fooled and cheated.

To make sure you don't include too much hype in your copy, do the following steps:

1. Give your copy a final check. Check for any hype. See if the claims you've made are believable and accurate.

2. If a claim is unbelievable, add proof to convince the prospect it's true. Or try to make the claim less hyped until it's more believable. For instance, “Increase your productivity by 10,000%” is unbelievable. But “Triple your productivity” is believable.

Remember, if your claims are unbelievable, then the prospect isn't going to buy. You've heard the saying, “It's too good to be true.” You don't want your prospects thinking that. So you'll need to include proof to make your claims believable, or make them less hyped. Apply the above 2 steps to your copy so prospects will believe your claims.

By: Francis Lui

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Want more web copywriting and Internet marketing tips? Get your FREE 31-page report along with a FREE newsletter subscription to The Web Copy Letter at www.francislui.com/. Visit his site now by clicking on the link. Francis Lui is a web copywriter with web technical skills.