Boost Your Sales Copy With One Simple Tweak

By Palyn Peterson
Posted Monday, July 5, 2004

Do you want an amazingly simple trick to move far ahead of your competition and increase sales? With this free, no- software little tweak, you will be able to put customized information into a web page that is different for everyone you invite to visit. It is incredibly simple; seriously, I promise! All that you need is a very basic understanding of HTML, like how to make hyperlinks, and I will teach you everything else. Sound fair?

What can you do with this, you may be wondering? Well, if you have a newsletter, you can create a link to your web site and the page displayed could have your subscribers first name where ever you want it. It doesn't have to be their first name either; it could quite literally be any custom variable that your newsletter managing service/script/program has saved for each of your subscribers -- their last name, email address, snail mail address, gender, age, favorite color, etc.

But we don't have to stop there, not at all. You can go on and use as many variables as you want, not just one. We'll thoroughly cover this.

Why is this HTML tweak useful, you may now be asking? Just imagine this, you email your list of subscribers about a new
product you have recently released. In your email, you write a few paragraphs about the product to generate interest and conveniently provide a link for them to click on to go back to your website and read your full sales copy. Since you have such a trusting reputation with your subscribers, they give your product the benefit of the doubt and click on the link to read more. When they get to your sales copy, lo and behold their name is used throughout the page!

We all learned in Marketing 101 that your sales copy needs to be personal; that when you write it, you need to speak to
one person and in everyday language. With this cool HTML tweak, you will be able to reach new levels of personalization. Yes, the subscriber will be impressed that their name is used in the middle of your sales copy, and yes, they will have more personal interest in what you are saying. It is a whole new experience at that point, because you are talking to them ndividually. Heck, you just used their name! It won't just be, "You will get big results!" but, "Fred, you will get big results!"

Now, let's get on to the code! For this example, we are going to be using an HTML file named "choppers.htm". Open up choppers.htm" in your favorite editor. Now, where ever you want the subscribers first name to appear, put this code: "" (minus the quotes), and wherever you want their last name to appear, put: "?>" (again, minus the quotes).

Do you see the "$a" in the first bit of code and the "$b" in the second? For every custom variable you want to appear on
your web page, just put that little bit of code with a different letter.

To explain it a little more, for every place the subscribers first name should appear, put "". For every place the subscribers last name should appear, put "". For every place the subscribers email address should appear, put "". And so on and so forth. Yes, you can use each bit of code as often as you want. No, it doesn't really matter that the first name is using the code with "$a" -- it could be "$h", "$p" or even "$z", just as long as each custom variable uses a different letter.

Now you will need to rename "choppers.htm" to "choppers.php". Some HTML editors do not open up .php files, so I suggest only doing a "save as" to a .php file. That way, you will still have "choppers.htm" to edit whenever you need to, then just do another "save as". Upload the .php file to your web host.

Now we need to create the link the subscribers will click on to get to the newly created "choppers.php" file. For this part, you need to know what codes your newsletter managing service/script/program uses to customize your emails. Just for this example, let's say two of them are ;First-Name; and ;Last-Name;.

When you write your email, the address of your sales page in the link you will create to go to it, will look like this:
"yourdomain.com/choppers.php?a=;First-Name;&b=;Last-Name;". But when you send out your email to your subscribers, your newsletter managing service/script/program will fill in those codes with the subscribers first and last name. So when the subscriber clicks on the link, the address to your sales page will actually look like this: "yourdomain.com/choppers.php?a=Fred&b=Jones".

If you only cared to use the subscribers first name, you would only need to use "" in "choppers.php", and the address to that page in the link in your email would look like: "yourdomain.com/choppers.php?a=;First-Name;", and for your subscriber Fred, his link address would end up looking like: "yourdomain.com/choppers.php?a=Fred".

You have just now taken many steps in front of your competition. You are now able to market much more personally than most people think is even possible.

Copyright © by Palyn Peterson
mailto:palyn@futureinternetmarketing.com
About the Author
Palyn Peterson publishes the acclaimed Advanced Internet Marketing News. A professional newsletter with a refreshing perspective and a strong focus on no-cost techniques. (http://FutureInternetMarketing.com) FREE Tips, Tricks, Tools, Resources, eBooks, and More!