Hello Everyone,

I wanted to bring back an old forum topic (started by Jane) that sparked alot of good discussion. I'm very interested in experimenting with "conditional copy" or "interactive salesletters".......but I was first hoping to hear some updates from people who've used/tested this stuff.

As far as I can tell....there are a few different types of interactive/conditional salesletter layouts.....with the 2 most popular being......

1. John Reese's BabyShowerSecrets.com type....where you are asked for some information before you ever see the sales letter.

2. The InteractiveSalesletter.com type.....where you answer quesions as you go through the salesletter...and changes are made a few paragraphs later....


Now....for me personally, I am much more interested in the first type...the BabyShowerSecrets.com type.........because I want to send each person to their own niche salesletter........rather than send everyone to one salesletter and make changes on the fly.

Basically....I want to do exactly what Michel said a long time ago....

"I wonder if there is such a script that does this better? I have heard, and originally wanted to, have a doorway page that had a form you submitted and the script (CGI, not java) would redirect you to the proper "sales pages."


This sounds pretty much like the babyshowersecrets way of doing things.

I'm wondering if Michel and others can shed any new light on this subject.....since I'm sure it's becomeing more commonplace since back then.........and maybe someone can share how this is working in terms of testing.....


Thanks for any info!

-Moose

hmmmm.....I thought some members might chime in on this thread, considering the popularity of the last "conditional copy" thread. No thoughts?

It depends. What I'm finding is, is this...

I've found that, lately, more and more people are becoming relunctant to give out their email addresses willy-nilly.

The opt-in (with forms for personalization) does work well ... but only when people are specifically looking for the information in a research process. In other words, when they are not looking for free information on the spot, but rather more information on a subject they are researching.

If you are doing research on how to lose weight, for example, you'd be more open to offer more personal information -- and you'd be more open to do so with an ecourse, or personalized/customized content (like content geared for a specific diet, disorder or weight, using the previous example), than a newsletter or a one-shot autoreply -- these are the 2 extremes.

Why?

Because the newsletter entails "more email" (and a bit of a commitment on the part of the info-seeker and a deluge of email), while the one-shot entails the assumption of both commitment and pressure, as in "why give up my email for one shot (like a special report)? I will get pressured into buying something I don't want (it's like the feeling of getting pressured by a salesperson on a phone call when placing orders, rather than leaving info on a recorded message -- the latter is best, according to what Halbert/Kennedy teach).

People who want one-shot information (mostly people scouring the web for a quickie answer to a question or an immediate, on-the-spot need for info, which is the majority of what people do when online), it's best to hit them with a sales page. (Actually, the process I described on another thread as an answer to John Angel, is best -- i.e., you hit them with landing page with a bit of content, and a link that leads to a sales page an exit pop only when they leave -- thus preserving the rules for Google for "no pop-ups" -- and only hit them with an exit pop on the "2nd" page they clicked through to, once arrived from the search engines.

With the exit pop-up, you can ask for more information, or send them emails and, over time as a relationship and trust builds, ask for more. It's more permission based marketing, a la Seth Godin.

Thanks Michel,

The whole point of this is Pay Per Click advertising.

Say you're a copywriter who can write for any market....but you specialize in writing copy for....

- Doctors
- Plumbers
- Mechanics


Obviously...you're going to want to run a PPC campaign for someone searching for "copywriter".........but there's no way for you to know if the person searching is a doctor, plumber, mechanic, or everyone else.....so you'd probably want to send them to a landing page which simply asks....

-are you a doctor?
-are you a plumber?
-are you a mechanic?
-none of the above?

...and based on their answer....they are sent to the appropriate website....(ie copywritingfordoctors.com, copywritingforplumbers.com, etc.)


...it's a crude way to describe it....but that's what I'm going to attempt to do.

It's funny...because I was just reading Gary's Boron Letters and saw the page about writing a book...that you can customize for different markets........that's pretty much what I'm doing.

....but when it comes to PPC....I have to have a way to prequalify the person.....and send them to the appropriate salesletter......so I can speak to them in their language....and address their problems...and show them benefits for their specific situation.


I really don't think there's any other way I can do it...

...also...I'm not interested in getting the email address of the prospect before sending them to the appropriate sales letter.

I'm interesting in making a sale....getting an opt-in snail mail address.....getting an opt-in email address........in that order.

BabyShowerScrets asks for specific information from a form, like email -- which is why I answered it that way. However, you might want to elicit a click on a unique link that leads to a more personalized content. Point is, sometimes asking for too much personal information, upfront for a one-shot free info seeker, might engeder a lot of bailouts.