Conceptually, writing a sales letter is one of the most difficult things the average person can try to do when starting any kind of online business.
The thing about it is, when that same person applies these seven tricks, writing a sales letter can become as simple as writing an email to a friend.
Here they are…
1. Read other sales letters. Seems simple enough but countless people I’ve interviewed over the years have this one fault in common. They don’t read other sales letters. It’s like trying to ride a bike without ever putting your but on a bicycle and riding it. Is it possible? No, and neither is learning to write a sales letter without reading and understanding how sales letters are written.
2. Swipe other sales letters. I’ll probably get a tongue lashing for this but who cares! From junk mail that comes in the form of sales letters or those little booklets are really a sales letter in disguise in the mail you can start a swipe file of your own. Then save all the pages of websites that are trying to sell similar products or even non-similar products. You’ll know a sales letter when you see one. Save them on a folder called “Swipes.” Read through these and look for language patterns and phrases you can use and edit to suit your product or service.
3. Start writing ‘just’ headlines. Headlines are the most important elements of any sales message or sales letter. Write between 10 and 50 headlines per sales letter following the A.C.E.S. principle. Attention, Curiosity, Excitement, Specificity. TO learn more about A.C.E.S. search on Google for an article called, “How To Write A Headline That Converts More Visitors Into Customers.”
4. Write to a friend. In other words, write your sales letter as if you are writing an emotional letter to your best friend about your product or service. Keep writing and don’t stop to correct mistakes until you can’t write any longer. If you use informal language, so be it. Anything that makes your sales letter seem more personal will make it more compelling.
5. Write short sentences and paragraphs. Keeping your paragraphs short and simple, will help you to increase the readership of your sales letter. The easier it looks to read the more likely they are to read it and buy your product! People are lazy, make it easy. Please note…I didn’t say, make your sales letter short, I said, “keep your sentences short.”
6. Use subheads. Subheads are like mini headlines. Heck, many of them ARE in fact headlines that you wrote earlier. Just make sure they work seamlessly with your copy. Subheads are used to break up long copy and drag people deeper into your words. Especially people who are skimming your copy. Online, it is also a way to relax the eye and give your sales letter more ‘optical appeal’. Subheads can be compelling statements, confusing statements or positive reinforcing statements about your product or service.
7. Use a P.S. or two at the end of your sales letter. Two of the most important places on any sales letter and the two that get read most often are the headline and the P.S. It seems strange, but the truth is, like I said earlier, “People are lazy!” Many just don’t have the time or patience to read your sales letter so they read your Headline and if it’s interesting to them, they read your P.S.’s So make sure you restate your offer in your P.S. and you also, apply a scarcity tactic to get your reader to take action immediately.
These seven tricks are by no means an exhaustive list of sales letter writing methods but they can and will help you improve your copy and improve your product sales at breakneck speed. Apply them today and profit fast!
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2 comments ↓
Very interesting post. How long should my sales letter be? No one ever really tells you how long a sales letter should be? 10 pages, 20 pages?
Hi Bob,
Great question…simple question…
BUT not so simple answer.
You see, the straight answer is, a sales letter should be as long as it takes to sell the product effectively.
That’s where the confusion starts. SO…let me give you a quick guidline.
Let’s say you’re selling a $27 info product. Well you could most likely sell it in a 7-10 page letter including graphics, testimonials and more. But that depends on you. Take a look at one of my other letters at… http://www.sleepyourwaytoriches.com
You’ll see what I mean. Now if you’re selling a product that is $97 or more then a 20-25 page sales letter may be more appropriate.
Again, that depends on the type of product as well as the pre-sales letter marketing material as well.
If you were buying an MP3 player, for $199 then you could try to sell it with a long sales letter but it can easily be sold on a 1-2 page letter with a headline, feature benefits and emotional benefits layed out nicely.
Again simple question, not so simple answer. I can go on and on but I think you get the point.
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