The Michel Fortin Blog

The greater portion of my career has been in copywriting, selling, and direct marketing. And one of the common denominators I’ve found in any successful piece of copy is the power of risk reversal.

That is, taking more of a risk from the sale than the purchaser of your product.

Risk reversal is a powerful method to increase sales by easing the buying decision and allaying fears consumers might have.

When people are considering an offer, and if the offer is “too good to be true,” they will invariably seek out more secure means to benefit from it. Otherwise, they will have a tendency to think, “What’s the catch?”

The greater the guarantee, the greater the sales. This has been consistent in almost every industry in which I’ve worked, and with every split-test I’ve conducted.

For example, a 30-day guarantee will outsell no guarantee. A 90-day guarantee will outsell a 30-day one. And so on and so forth.

However, there are some exceptions to this rule.

Sometimes, shorter or more creative guarantees can outperform longer ones.

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The other day, one of my coaching students emailed me about his dilemma — something that’s all too common in our business.

“Too many times,” he said, “I’ve known what I needed to do, and I always end up waiting weeks on end to do it.” He asked, “How do you cope with procrastination?”

Procrastination is indubitably the copywriter’s most stifling problem. Since our job is fraught with deadlines, procrastination can be one of the costliest problems in the copywriting business. It can murder your reputation…

… And your career!

So, how do you cope with procrastination? Even better, how do you overcome it? Here are six tips I use, which helps me to get more done faster.

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Ah, yes. The new year is right around the corner. I’m no futurist by any stretch, but I do observe and notice trends. And I love talking about how these trends are going to shape the business world.

So in keeping with that famed tradition on MichelFortin.com since I wrote The Death of The Salesletter, here are some of my predictions based on simple observations.

1. Mobile Commerce is Going to Explode

Yeah, sure. You’ve heard it before. “Mobile is going to be big.” That’s old news. It’s already massive. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

It’s the business of mobile.

That is, building businesses for, marketing on, and conducting commerce through mobile markets will explode. I believe mobile marketing will become a greater industry for small to medium-sized businesses. Even taking over Internet marketing.

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