November 2002

Copywriting Technique
Why You Should Use Guarantees
by Tom Antion

Ok, last month I told you why I hate guarantees. This month I'll tell you why you should use guarantees most of the time.

• For people who are on the borderline of ordering, the guarantee frequently pushes them into the order column because their risk is reduced.

• When the risk is reduced to zero, your prospect is hard pressed to find a reason NOT to buy. NOTE: A guarantee probably won't overcome other things you may be doing to make the prospect mistrust you like poor quality, homemade looking website, outrageous claims, etc.

• Guarantees give people a logical reason to buy. They figure they can always return the item if they don't like it.

• Guarantees give people an "excuse" to buy in case they have to justify the purchase to someone else. "Honey, this fluorescent garden hose will look great in our yard at night and if it doesn't it's guaranteed, so we can always return it."

• Guarantees reduce people's fear of ordering.

• If you have a good product, guarantees will give you many more sales than you would have without the guarantee. With good products, the increased sales will far outweigh the number of returns.

• On unique products you can generally charge more than the standard markup for your product category because of the guarantee. This will give you more profit per sale.

• In reality, most people don't return things even if they are junk. This is less true for expensive products.

• Most people are honest and won't rip you off.

• Many people simply forget about your guarantee, so make it as long as you want when you tell them about it.

Next issue I'll show you different ways to craft a strong guarantee.