Author: Bob McClain, Web Copywriting Expert

Okay, in Part One of this series, we established who we are trying to sell to by answering a series of in depth questions. If you haven’t read Part One yet, I suggest you do so first. In Part Two, we talked about the power of “Story” and three tools to utilize it in your website copy.

In Part Three, we’re going to talk about the “iron-clad” guarantee. The greatest deal-maker on the planet.

The “iron-clad, money-back” guarantee…

I learned about the power of the “iron-clad” guarantee from two people. Jay Abraham, a brilliant marketer and author of the book “Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You’ve Got”, and Maria Veloso, website copywriter and author of the book, “Web Copy That Sells”.

The whole idea is to offer a money-back guarantee that is so “iron-clad” and fool proof, that the buyer would be a fool to pass up your deal. Jay Abraham calls it the “risk reversal”. You take all the risk out of the buying decision by making it a “can’t lose” situation.

I know, I know, the idea of a money-back guarantee scares the pants off of a lot of business people. However, the way to look at this is if a money-back guarantee increases your conversions by 30%, and you only get 3% money-back requests, who wins here? You do!

Most businesses who offer powerful money-back guarantees only see a 1%-3% return request. If the rate is higher than that, maybe you should be looking at your product or service and figuring out why so many people don’t like it.

How to write a “risk-reversal” money-back guarantee…

Okay, so let’s look at a few web copywriting examples of how to write a money-back guarantee that is a bullet-proof sales tool for your website. Here is a simple template that Maria Veloso recommends following to create your money-back guarantee:

Do this [whatever you’re asking them to do], and if you don’t [achieve the results you’re claiming they will get], then simply give us a call, and we will cheerfully refund your entire purchase price.

She gives this finished example:

Take the ABC System for a test drive. If you don’t triple your sales in 60 days, then return it for a full refund.

A real-world example of the “risk-reversal” money-back guarantee…

I have a client named Judy Merrick-Lockett who is a business coach. She and I discussed this approach for her business. First of all, because no business coaches that either of us know of offers a money-back guarantee.

But more importantly, Judy felt so confident that she could improve any business person’s income that she decided that a money-back guarantee was a perfect offer to make.

Here’s Judy’s guarantee as I wrote it for her Smooth Sailing Business Coaching website (including the headline):

Business Coach Money-Back Guarantee from Judy Merrick-Lockett

A 100% money-back guarantee from a business coach is not exactly common…

A business coach money-back guarantee is a bit unusual. In fact, ask yourself how many business coaches you know of that offer a money-back guarantee?

Well, Judy is different from the norm. She believes that a real business coach should be able to guarantee results.

Ask yourself this:

How many business coaches do you know of that offer a guarantee?

Now read this:

If you don’t recover your investment through increased business, I’ll refund your money.

No Questions Asked!

It’s a no-brainer. So what are you waiting for?

Now, is that a guarantee that’s hard to walk away from? You bet it is! Do you see any “risk” to the business person? No, because there is none. This guarantee has been extremely successful for Judy if for no other reason than it completely sets her apart from all other business coaches.

But more importantly, she’s created a “can’t lose” situation for her clients. If they don’t recover their investment through increased business, she’ll refund their money. No questions asked.

(She’s been offering the guarantee for a year as of this writing. As yet, she’s had no one ask for their money back.)

Since I’m having so much fun with this series, I believe my next post will cover some of the deeper and subtler subliminal persuasion psychological tricks available for web copywriting.