Sales Letters that Sell!

The average consumer is inundated with sales pitches. So if you’re selling a product or service to today’s ad weary consumer, if you want your sales letters to get results, you’ll need a step-by-step plan that breaks down the barriers to buying. A plan that bypasses the head and goes right for the heart. 

If the heart’s in it, the brain will follow.

Buying anything is largely emotional.  Whether it’s paper clips or plain paper copiers, emotions lead the purchase.  Facts, specs and the like are simply used to justify the decision, once made.  Which means that everything about your sales letter, every sentence, every phrase must appeal to your customer’s emotions.

What emotions?

The simple truth is, there are only two emotions that really motivate people: The promise of gain or the fear of loss--with the fear of loss being the stronger. Example: Given the choice of headlines: “Save money in legal fees.”  Or  “How to keep from being sued.” The latter will probably get a better response. 

Supporting the promise of gain and the fear of loss are seven key emotional hooks or basic human needs. No matter what your product or service, to be effective, your sales letter must directly address as many of these basic needs as possible:

• Safety/Security

• Wealth

• Good looks

• Popularity

• Self-satisfaction

• Free time

• Fun/Excitement

So how do you get them to act? How do you go from head to heart? What’s the copy paradigm?  Imagine you’re in a baseball stadium facing an audience in rows of bleachers.  It’s the game of the century, ninth inning, bases loaded.  And you’ve got a bag of peanuts you absolutely must sell or the boss will fire you on the spot.  What would you do to get their attention? Yell “Peanuts?”  

Start with a verbal “2x4”

You’ve got to hit them over the head with an emotional motivator.  And that means you start with the envelope.  Remember-- gain or loss--it has to be right there on the outside, in bold. (When was the last time you rushed to open a plain white envelope?)  Two examples:

Gain-- “We Put a Money-Making Miracle in this Envelope.”

Loss-- “Throw This Away and Work Hard for the Rest of Your Life.”

Okay.  They’ve opened the letter and what do they see?  A boring paragraph about your leadership in the industry?  Stuffy sentences about commitment, innovation and dedication? 

Whoosh.  In the round file it goes.   

Time to visit our key motivators--gain or loss. Again, it’s got to be there in a headline they can’t miss.  And it must reinforce the headline that compelled them to rip open that envelope. Both headlines must dovetail in their message and emotional impact.

Example: “Finish reading this letter and you’re halfway to becoming rich.”

Next comes the all-important body copy.  What to say to leave them begging for your product. For this we go right into the consumer’s emotions, mining for clues to the perfect selling pitch. 

What’s the problem? 

A while back, McDonalds was beating the pants off its competitors. So Burger King hired a big powerhouse ad agency to gain them market share. They tried everything--analyzing secret sauces, elaborate contests, toy tie-ins. Nothing worked. Finally, they sent out questionnaires, did focus groups, and literally stopped people on the street.  And you know what they discovered?  Not what consumers liked, but what they didn’t like about hamburgers. For on thing, the leading hamburger came practically “factory made” with everything on it.  Some folks liked pickles, others hated onions or mayo.  That was “the problem.” The solution was simple: hamburgers made to order, followed by the now all-too-familiar slogan “Have it Your Way.” The point is, you’ve got to find and exploit your consumer’s problem.  And make your product the hero. 

Life without your product--miserable

So, you’ve succeeded in getting your reader’s attention. You’ve discovered their “problem.”  Now it’s time to remind them how many ways that problem affects their lives. If you’re selling a cordless electric lawnmower, you’ll want to remind them of all the headaches of their old gas powered mower.  Like running out of gas, finding the gas can, taking it to the gas station, driving back with a can full of smelly gas in the car, maybe spilling gas on the carpet. Once at home, there’s the annoyance of yanking the starter until your arm feels like a wet noodle. And the fire danger of having a can of gas in the garage with kids playing near it.  The point is, you want to paint a very troublesome picture of life without your product.

Life with your product - absolute bliss

Now that you’ve raised your reader’s interest by making them feel the pain of life without your product, it’s time to provide your solution.  Here’s where you’ll briefly introduce yourself and your product or service.  No more running out of gas, no more smelling gas cans in your new car, no more yanking that starter cord till your arm falls off.  Just flick the switch and you’re ready to mow. Plug it into your electric outlet and it charges overnight.  Your worries are over. You go on and on, hammering home the fact that your product or service is the perfect solution.  At this point, your reader will probably ask, “Sounds interesting, but who the heck are you to think you can solve my problem? I never heard of you.”

Credentials time

Here’s where you build trust by detailing key facts that build confidence in you and your company. You could start by listing some testimonials from satisfied customers.  If these come from people in the industry who your prospect is familiar with, so much the better.  And if you can get photos, phone numbers and so forth, it will add even more to your credibility. This is also the time to mention how long you’ve been in business and any articles that about your company and/or its products that have appeared in the local or national media (these can be particularly valuable, since they come from an impartial source).  

Now that you’ve assuaged their fears about doing business with a complete unknown, they’ll want to be totally sold about your product or service.  Here’s where you go into detail.  And this is the perfect time to do so, because you’ve established trust. They won’t be thinking about who you are, but what you can do for them--how you’re going to solve their problem.  

Detail benefits, not features

A key caveat here.  Don’t get your reader quagmired in “Featurespeak.” It’s easy to do and it’s what most unskilled writers fall victim to.  Featurespeak is for your sales team, not your potential customer.  Avoid things like “Our new cordless electric mower features the X9T Autoflex handle, or the PT600 Zenon Battery. Better to say, “Our new electric mower’s handle easily adjusts to your height for maximum comfort.” Or “The easily rechargeable battery lasts up to 5 years without replacement.” If your product or service has more than three major benefits, list them in bullet point form to make them easier to read.  

Make them an offer they can’t refuse

This is the crucial part of your sales letter. Your offer should be compelling, irrefutable and urgent. You want your reader to say, “This is a great offer, I’ve got nothing to lose but my problem.” Try to combine the big 3 in your offer--irresistible price, terms, and a free gift. For example, if you’re selling a cordless electric mower, your offer might be a discounted retail price, low interest rate, and a blade-sharpening tool.  Try to raise the perceived value of your offer by adding on products or services--for electric mowers, it might be an extended warranty or safety goggles.  Augment this with compelling benefits these additional products or services will provide. 

Assuage with a guarantee

There’s a little voice in the back of every customer’s head that whispers, “Buy this and you’ll be sorry.” So make your offer bulletproof.  Take the risk out of the purchase. Give the absolute strongest guarantee you can.  It tells your reader you’re confident in your product or service.  Enough so to back it up with a strong guarantee. Don’t be afraid to make this final commitment.  

Motivate the procrastinators

So they’re reading your letter and are pretty convinced that your company and your product or service can solve their problem.  They want to buy.  The mind is willing but the flesh is weak.  Time to bring in our key motivator—fear of loss.  One way to tap into this fear is by convincing your reader that because this is such a good deal, only a scant few mowers remain.   Or that the extended warranty is being offered only for the next few days, or for the next 50 customers.  Our old motivator--gain--can be used here as well.  Example: “Buy now and get a $20 gift card--FREE!” 

Call to action - KISS

You and your staff know what readers need to do to buy your product or service, but your readers are inundated with offers every day. And each offer has a different procedure for buying. Give them a break and walk them through the order/purchase process. And KISS (keep it simple stupid). Use simple action words like “Pick Up the Phone and Call Now!” If your phone number spells out a catchy slogan or company name, always add numerical phone numbers. If they need to fill out a form and mail it, say so.  And if possible, use large type on your form—especially if you’re selling to seniors.  Be clear on what they’re ordering and for what price. 

ABC!

Follow Alec Baldwin’s admonition in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross - “ABC…Always Be Closing.” Sprinkle your call to action throughout your letter.  Ask for the order.  Then when you give the call to action at the end of the letter, it won’t come as a surprise, but just another reminder.   Better still, if they’re ready to order halfway through your letter, they’ll know what to do.  

Postscripts are magic

Nobody reads postscripts, right?  Wrong. The P.S. is the third most read element of a sales letter - after the headline and any picture captions. The top wordsmiths use several (P.P.S) in their letters.   It’s one of the best places to remind readers of your irresistible offer.  But you have to be brief and compelling, establishing urgency and value, and drawing on your key motivators of gain and loss. 

Drive it home on the order form

The order form is where some of the greatest sales are won or lost.  It’s where that little voice in the back of your customer’s head comes alive once again and says, “You’ll be sorry” or “You sure you want to buy this now?” It’s what I call Preemptive Buyer’s Remorse.” Time to bring in our top gun persuaders--gain and loss--one last time.  Use the same persuasive arguments as before--only be brief, more compelling and urgent.

Do you want the steak knives or the El Dorado?

Okay, you’ve got the prized Glengarry leads. And the formula for writing a winning sales letter. Start by knowing your prospect’s problem, then drive home key benefits using the emotional motivators I’ve described. And don’t forget Alec Baldwin’s other maxim, AIDA--Attention. Interest. Decision. Action.  Get their attention, build their interest, convince them it’s the right decision, and finally, urge them to act.  Good luck.  You’ve got 26 letters in the English alphabet.  How you use them can make all the difference …between getting the steak knives or the Cadillac El Dorado.

Should You Write a Long-Copy Ad or Keep it Short?

Okay, you’re ready to write the ad of a lifetime.  The one that will pull like crazy and leave them begging for your product like Somalians for food.  So, do you whet their appetite with a short and sweet ad?  Or write a long-copy ad that’s stuffed with information?  

The 80-20 rule says 80% of the people only read the headline (and maybe a caption, if you have one).  But the fact is, readers will read a long-copy ad.  One McGraw-Hill study looked at 3,597 ads in 26 business magazines. What they discovered was that ads with 300 or more words were more effective that shorter ads in creating product awareness, inducing action and reinforcing the decision to buy.  Another ad for Merrill Lynch crammed 6, 450 words into a single New York Times page.  It pulled over 10,000 responses— even without a coupon!  The truth is, the reason people read ads has nothing to do with copy length.

“Nobody reads long ads…” and other urban ad legends

People shun too many of today’s ads—long or short—because several misleading myths have stubbornly remained with us. Things like “negative headlines are a downer since people want to feel good when reading your ad.” Or “show the product or they’ll never know what you’re selling.”  Then there’s the stuffy axiom, “there’s no place for humor in business advertising. “ Or the ubiquitous saw,  “all your ads should look the same, blend in or be swallowed up.” The list goes on and on.  Presented with unabashed hubris by the high priests of advertising.  The basic fact is, ads really fail for three reasons.

Your ads are all about you

You’re telling customers what you want to hear, not what they want to know.  Impressive sounding features are fine to motivate your sales force, but your customer is only interested in one thing: “What’s in it for me?” This offense is particularly egregious in business-to-business advertising, which is infamous for its addiction to phrases like “the XP90 does it all” or “now with Duo-Pentium Processor”—without a hint of what these features do.  Also contaminating many of today’s ads are such chest-pounding headlines as “Taking the lead,” “The promise of tomorrow, today,” or “A tradition of quality.” They sound good but say nothing. 

Your ads are boring

You’ve got to break the boredom barrier—big time.  Many ad gurus say blend in, be one of the pack and survive.  No wonder so many ads look alike, proudly showing big pictures of their products, or worse yet, featuring a giant photo of the company’s CEO—usually with a caption that’s been scrubbed clean of originality or compelling information.  If you want people to stop and read your ad, you have to make the ad more interesting than the editorials in the publication you’re in.  Give them real news, a fresh new way to look at what you’re offering them.  Stand out from the crowd.   Start trends, don’t follow them.  One of the most interesting car ads I ever saw showed the car only sparingly; instead, it featured an animation of a human heart beating furiously to the soundtrack of an accelerating engine.  Breakthrough stuff. 

Your ads don’t make human contact

They’re not reaching readers on an emotional level.  We all want to be liked, appreciated and loved.  We want to feel secure in our lives and our jobs.  So be a mensch.  Create ads that touch the soul. Use an emotional appeal in your visual, headline and copy. Don’t just show a car on the road; show the guy captivating his sweetheart with the car.  If your buyers were on the moon, would they care about your car’s styling?  No.  They’d get an ugly, crawly vehicle that got them from crater to crater.  Selling computers to business? Show the guy getting a raise or promotion for selecting your latest model.  You’re selling the emotional end result, the human need-based bottom line, not a box, or vehicle with four wheels and an engine.

So if you’re struggling with the notion of whether to write a long- or short-copy ad, you can do both and still get results.  The key is not length or lack of it, but information, interest and involvement in your customer’s needs.  These are the ingredients to creating a successful ad.

The NEW Secrets to Copywriting That Sells

Anyone who has worked with me over the past 25 years knows that my mantra has always been “benefits, benefits, benefits.”  Benefit headlines, benefit copy, benefit subheads, benefit captions. anything to hammer home the customer benefits.

Benefits are still a vital key, but today, copywriting needs much more than just benefits.  To sell the most, copywriting needs to connect at a much deeper and more dramatic level than ever before.

There are 6 main reasons why.  I call them The New Secrets to Copywriting That Sells.

The “Yahoogle” effect

Thanks to mega search engines like Yahoo and Google, tons of information on just about any topic, product or service is literally at your fingertips.. for free.

Here’s what that means to your marketing:

Internet search engine rankings for your business/product/service are vital.  Most people search on the internet for things they are interested in. 

• People won’t pay for information they can get online for free.  You can’t succeed selling generic basic plain vanilla information any more. 

• You can’t get away with outrageous claims.  Everything you say can be checked out in an instant. 
• Many people comparison shop on the internet before making any purchase.

Solutions: 

• Use search engine optimization (SEO) to get your website ranked high. 
• Most businesses will have to use Pay-Per-Click advertising for their best keywords and phrases. 
• Copywriting must uncover and feature the unique advantages and superiority of whatever is being sold. 
• Your offering must be extremely differentiated from the competition – or else you’ll end up having to compete on low prices alone. 
• You must make it clear – very quickly – that you are providing something they can’t find elsewhere online for free.

Advertising Overload Filter

In today’s hectic, media-frenzied world, people are bombarded by hundreds or even thousands of advertising messages every single day.  Therefore, to maintain their sanity, most people have become more immune to advertising. 

They can’t possibly devote their full attention to every message they receive, so they’ve learned to “scan” and “filter” the messages they receive in a matter of a split-second or two. 

So, to succeed today – marketing must cut through the “advertising filter” and get attention and interest from target prospects. 

Solutions: 

• Don’t send out “advertising.”  Instead – send out valuable helpful information.  Make it something that will obviously benefit your prospect just by reading it.  Weave your sales pitch into this helpful information. 
• Make your marketing look and sound valuable. 
• Use specific numbers. 
• Make a great offer.  You can “buy” a new customer this way and profit from their Lifetime Value (LV). 
• Consider a free offer to get prospects/customers into your marketing funnel. 
• Be outrageous, crazy, unique – if appropriate. 
• Be personal, corny, homey – if appropriate.

Super SKEPTICISM

You may be the most honest person in the world.  Your company may be the most honest in the world.  But all your potential customer knows is there are a lot of dishonest people out there.

Internet scams, ID theft, companies going bankrupt, and credit card fraud are all in the headlines almost daily.  And many people simply disregard claims that sound “too good to be true” today more than ever.

To succeed today, you need to add heavy credibility to your marketing.  This will reduce the risk or fear people may have about doing business with you.

Solutions:

• Show the number of years you’ve been in business, membership in trade organizations, awards won, etc.
• Offer a free sample or free trial.
• Offer a risk-free, money-back guarantee.
• Sign your name to the ad or sales letter.
• Use a photo of the person writing, product photo, business photo, employees photo.
• Use customer testimonials extensively.
• Use case studies.
• Use lots of specifics.
• List your physical address, phone, fax, email and business hours.
• Have an “expert” be your spokesperson.
• Acknowledge any doubts or “sneaking suspicions” your prospect may already have, and give them valuable, factual information to support your product/service.
• Don’t make claims that could sound “too good to be true” – even if they are true.

The Entertain-Game Society

Today, entertainment is everything.  Even hard news websites are full of flash, video, audio, surveys, contests, games, etc.

So, use this new environment in your marketing as an advantage.  Look for ways to entertain and get prospects involved with your marketing promotions.

Solutions:

• This can include new uses of traditional “action” devices like stickers, rub-offs and inserts.
• Personal stories/testimonials in your promotion are entertaining and engage people on a personal level.
• Surveys with results
• Self-tests with answers
• Trivia
• Celebrity spokesperson
• Games
• Streaming audio and video
• Humor – if appropriate

The Right Now Factor

The days of “please allow 6-8 weeks for shipping” are dead and gone … just like any company who still thinks anything close to that kind of policy is ok.

More than anything else, the internet has conditioned consumers to expect everything instantly. Instant ordering, instant payment, instant confirmation and, in many cases, instant downloading of product.

Solutions: If you are going to grab the attention of today’s consumers, you must let them know you can satisfy their needs IMMEDIATELY.  Play up how fast they will get their product, premium or first issue.

The Bonding Factor

We all want a hero, a guru, someone we can relate to, and someone we feel has our best interests at heart, right?

Today’s consumer is very jaded, skeptical and frustrated with the lack of love and bonding in his life, whether consciously or subconsciously.

Today, you need to be seen as a guide and friend first, and a helpful confidant second.  If you even smell like just a greedy salesperson, you will lose your advantage.

Solutions: Be likeable, friendly, personal, passionate, unique and different.  Be authentic – a person and company that your prospect can genuinely bond with.

Writing The Perfect Sales Letter

Before you actually write the e-book we are going to write the sales letter first. Now I suggest you write it in Microsoft Word and save it. Then we can transfer it to the main “Sales site Page” when we are designing our basic site in step 5 

The main reason we are writing our sales copy before we ever write a word in our e-Book is because it hasn’t actually being created yet, which means there is absolutely no limit what you can write in your sales letter. The sales letter doesn’t fit the e-Book; it’s the other way around. 

Now you can describe exactly what your e-Book will show to the potential customer. There are no restrictions on what you can write in the sales letter. When the sales letter is completed you can then incorporate all the ideas you have come up with into your e-Book 

Your sales copy must do the following three things 

• Get the attention of the prospects 

• Communicate the benefits of the product 

• Persuade the prospects into the desired action 

Remember the most important part of your page design is your actual sales copy. A fancy website and graphics help but the key is in the words used 

Sales letter Structure 

• Header/Title 

• Promises 

• Testimonial 

• Info product 

• Benefit 

• Bonuses 

• Guarantee 

• Summary 

This is the structure that you should use for your sales copy. If you check out the best sales letter they will all follow this formula? 

Header 

The main function of the header/title is to grab the reader’s attention. The header should be displayed in a large, bold font. This demands your potential customer’s attention and intrigues them to read further on. Include your logo or e-Book cover (discussed later on) close to the header. If you header is not well designed you run the risk of losing the potential customer straight away. Spend time creating your header. 

A Promise 

This section promises the potential customer a huge benefit which is almost too good to be true. It’s ok if it’s a bit too unbelievable the testimonials will take care of that. Here is an example of such a headline 

Discover how my 5 step affiliate programme can increase your income by 10,000 a month 

Testimonials 

In this section you include testimonials that old/new customers have sent you about your product or service. You probably don’t have any customers yet so email some potential ones your e-book for free in exchange for a testimonial. When you do start selling you can always ask a new customer for one. 

Now the testimonials page has assured the potential customer that you can fulfil the promises you made in your header also you have gained a bit of trust from your potential customers so anything else you say that follows the testimonials page will be taken as true. This is the reason why the testimonial is placed at the top to gain trust right away where if it was placed at the bottom after presenting some good sales copy it may be already too late. 

Info and product 

In this section you will give info on what your product or service is about. You should show your customers a list of problems in this area. Agree with the customers, on how frustrating these problems can be and how you, yourself dealt with these problems. The key is to show the person that you have a deep understanding in this area and you are an expert on the subject. That is very important. 

Next you must introduce your product as the solution to the problem. Then you must have a proper e-Book cover design. This is crucial. Many people have never purchased an e-book so you must give them some idea what exactly they will be purchasing 

Benefit 

This section is basically telling your potential customer of the benefits they will receive from purchasing your product. Show your potential customers the enjoyment they will get from using the product. Give them as much information on your product as you can. Use bullet points to emphasize the benefits. Put in another testimonial just to remind the person that it’s all true. Keeping their trust is highly important. 

Bonuses 

This is a powerful tactic used to increase sales. Including free bonuses with the purchase of your e-Book will increase the perceived value of the e-Book. Also a deadline on bonuses is also a good way to speed up consumer purchases. Bonuses also reduce the risk of money back returns 

Guarantee 

Offering a guarantee to your potential customers takes the risk off their shoulders. A good guarantee is the final bit in the jigsaw that will make the person finally purchase the product. The agreement is such that if the customer is not happy with their purchases then can get a full refund. You must remember that lots of your potential customers will be “first timers” therefore a guarantee puts their minds at ease. Guarantees can be 30 day, 60 day, or lifetime; however such guarantees must be backed up with an exceptional product. 

Summary 

This is one of the most important steps in the sales letter; this is where you close the sale. In this section you must include your most appealing benefit and finally ask for the order, because if you don’t they wont. Finally make it easier for them to order like an “order now” button shown below. 

At this stage you should start to write your sales letter in Microsoft word we will concentrate on the html design and implementing the sales letter in it in section six but for now just concern yourself with writing your sales letter. To help you here are some of the web’s top e-book publishers sales sites. You can check out my own sales page at http://www.ebookprofitmaker.com 

Sales Letter generator 

Ok ill now offer you an alternative to writing the sales page yourself. Only use this if you are willing to spend some money. You may want to check out this piece of software that actually writes the sales letter for you. All you do is answer the questions it asks and you will receive your sales letter. You can find this software at sales generator here 

Credit card Transactions 

Finally you will need to find a credit card processor later on so your e-Books can be ordered. The one I seriously recommend is Clickbank. Ill go into them in more detail in section 6 but for now I want you to know that all these company’s, including Clickbank, have a set of rules that you must abide by to use their software. Don’t panic ill go through these rules now. Basically it involves putting a certain amount of details in your sales letter and product delivery page so you can be accepted by your credit transaction company. So here they are: 

You must provide on your sales page: 

• Detailed description of your product 

• Buy now link 

• Explain how the product will be delivered 

• Mention how long the delivery will take 

* remember theses are rules not suggestions 

So that is everything you need to know on how to write your sales letter, hers a quick summary 

We need to: 

• Write the sales letter before the e-Book 

• Sales letter structure must have , header, promise, Testimonial, info and product, benefit, bonuses, guarantee and summary 

• You can have your sales letter made by Sales letter generator 

• Certain set of rules should be included in the sales letter for the purpose of the credit card transaction company