A recent coaching session touched upon the growing trend that some marketers have adopted to squeeze out sales from exiting traffic.

In other words, you visit a website and read the salesletter. You decide it’s not for you, so you leave. But when you try leave (either as you close your browser or simply hover your mouse outside of it), the website attempts to make a last-ditch offer.

The common practice is to offer a discount, and a recent trend is to make it through virtual sales assistant just before the prospect clicks away from the screen.

(Virtual assistant or not, it is no different than a one-time offer appearing in an exit pop-up or spawned browser window once the visitor leaves.)

Not only is the practice annoying, it can be detrimental to your sales efforts.

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Preamble: In response to some excellent rebuttals as well as countless comments I’ve received on my previous post, “The Real Sinister Side of Forced Continuity,” I believe some people are missing the point of my argument, and I want to clarify a few things.

I’m not a lawyer by any stretch. But as a copywriter and business owner, I do know the rules enough to know that there’s a difference between “optional continuity,” “forced continuity,” and “hidden continuity.”

Optional continuity is self-explanatory. Forced continuity is a very common marketing practice (I’m not a fan of it, but I don’t mind it). In fact, there’s nothing wrong with forced continuity in and of itself.

What’s wrong is when it’s used in a wrong way.

The real problem, I believe, is that good marketers, including marketers using “forced continuity” in an ethical and legitimate way, are getting a bad reputation because some marketers unscrupulously misuse forced continuity.

The lack of transparency is the real culprit — such as hiding it or disguising it. Especially when it’s done on purpose. That annoys me. Because it’s no longer an issue of misuse. It’s out-and-out abuse.

But what bothers me more is how it affects us all. And it affects us all, both customers and marketers alike, in more ways than you think.

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I know Paul Hancox.

Paul is a fanatical tester. He’s also an excellent copywriter.

But what you may not know is that Paul is also the creator of the very first split-testing software I’ve ever used. We’re talking, um, circa 1999, I believe. It was called “Sales Page Master Pro.” (Paul has a new version out now.)

Well, another copywriter, Paul Myers, recommended this new “report” written by Paul Hancox. I snatched it up in a heartbeat. I did because the simple title piqued my curiosity. In it you discover how to raise the conversion rate of any piece of online copy you write.

Not to 2% or 3%. Not even to 5%.

It shows you how to boost your conversion rate…

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“In addition to self-awareness, imagination and conscience, it is the fourth human endowment, independent will, that really makes effective self-management possible. It is the ability to make decisions and choices and to act in accordance with them. It is the ability to act rather than to be acted upon, to proactively carry out the program we have developed through the other three endowments. Empowerment comes from learning how to use this great endowment in the decisions we make every day.”
– Stephen Covey

“Motivation,” the author of The Psychology Of Winning Dr. Dennis Waitley wrote, “comes from within and not from without; all motivation is self-motivation.” You can not find motivation outside of you but can develop motivation inside of you. Oftentimes, it is sleeping within you. People can get pepped up, enthused, encouraged, or even inspired by others, but they can never get motivated by them.

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“Commitment is what turns a promise into reality. It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions. And the actions that speak louder than words. It is making the time when there is none. Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year. Commitment is the stuff character is made of; the power to change the face of things. It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism.”
– Unsourced

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
– Anonymous

You may have heard of Thoreau’s advice, “Do what you fear and the death of that fear is certain.” I figured that becoming a salesperson was the best way to fight my fear since rejection is commonplace in sales. In the beginning, though, I certainly was no sales superstar. Working solely on commission and with no income to show for, I filed for bankruptcy (one of two, if you recall). You might say that I became what my father programmed me to believe.

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The call 2 weeks ago with the legendary Gary Halbert was pretty awesome. Gary and I enjoyed it. It was fun, and we will do it again. (Thanks to Peter Stone for producing it.)

But until Gary and I do that second call, I’ve got some great news you don’t want to miss.

So take out your calendar or daily planner. Mark this date in it right now (yes, now!). Circle it, highlight it, sticky-note it. Because…

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Copy has a much greater job online than offline.

Like a salesperson, a website must communicate emotions that empower people to buy. But then it must also direct visitors to take some kind of action. And in both cases, the responsibility boils down to the words.

Radio or TV may or may not use direct response. But online, there’s no choice.

Online, you must use words that drive your readers’ actions and compel some kind of response. Even if it’s to simply keep reading. However, dealing with this issue in greater depth requires an entire article on its own.

So for now, let’s stick with the biggest challenge we face with online copy, even before we elicit some kind of response from our readers. And that is: benefits.

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