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How to Write a Sales Letter
How to write a sales letter is something that often haunts people who are marketing online.
In this article, I’m going to lay out the basics of writing sales letters.
Here are the common problems in online copywriting:
1. Don’t believe long sales copy works.
While split testing can give you a definitive answer in a specific case, the whole history of direct response marketing and advertising shows conclusively this fact:
Sale letters can NEVER be too long. They can ONLY be too boring!
The reason you see people on blogs and forums saying that long sales letters don’t work is because they don’t! That’s right. THEIR long sales letters don’t work. A marketing letter that bores the reader to tears, doesn’t use proven emotional selling principles, doesn’t follow time-tested and proven methods of sale letters and doesn’t use every secret of persuasion available won’t work.
There’s a reason top copywriters get thousands of dollars to write sales and marketing letters that pull in orders: It’s just as much an art as it is a science.
Having said that, while it is a skill, it’s a learnable one.
2. Don’t hit on deep emotional benefits.
It’s one thing to state the features and benefits of an offer. It’s quite another to dig beyond the surface and hit the emotional nerve that gets the reader to react and respond. Plain vanilla copy you can get for $250 won’t do that.
And neither will the SAME copy in an online video. People mistakenly think there’s something magic about videos as opposed to sales letters. There isn’t. They’re just different media in which you implant your effective sales message.
3. Don’t cover all the features and benefits possible.
I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve avoided buying from a web site simply because the web site didn’t tell me what I needed to know in order to make a positive purchase decision.
Instead of being afraid your reader won’t read, be afraid of NOT telling them all they need to know in order to make a positive buying decision.
Now, the more an item is an impulse purchase, the less the copy is required to sell it. The greater the emotional involvement in the decision, the more long copy is needed to sell it.
A lot of the comparisons between videos and sales letters aren’t fair because they’re dealing with impulse purchase items.
But let’s take a product or service that involves an emotional decision. Long copy will work to sell that item because people want to get all the facts before they make a decision.
Why You Should NOT Use Either Sales Letters Or Videos Alone
The truth is that your best response will likely be obtained by using BOTH a video and a traditional long-form sales letter. That way the people who want to read can read. And the people who want to watch a video can watch a video. And people who just want to listen can listen.
You cover all the bases:
* Readers
* Visual responders
* Auditory responders
Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Videos are a powerful selling tool. But combine them with long-form direct response sales letters to obtain the highest response possible.
Marlon Sanders
How to Write Your First Paragraph
Most attention in how to write sales letters info products focuses on writing headlines. But your first paragraph is very important.
Here are a few ways to begin. I’m borrowing liberally from John Caples’ classic Making Ads Pay. A lot of people don’t realize that in addition to Tested Advertising Methods he also wrote two other books: Making Ads Pay and How to Make Your Advertising Make Money. Both are awesome in classic John Caples style.
1. Continue the thought of the headline and expand on it
Whatever your main thought in the headline is, continue this in your opening paragraphs and expand on it. The headline is a promise of a result. So you open by elaborating on that result by painting a picture of it or telling a story that illustrates it. Or simply by explaining more about it.
2. The Gary Halbert If You-> Then Opening
This is one of my favorites. Gary didn’t originate it but he sure made it famous. And he always executed it so well.
Back in the day, the opening to Amazing Formula read If you’d like to sell your products by the hundreds or thousands, listen up. This might be the most important letter you’ve ever read.
Here’s why….
That’s vintage Gary Halbert style. For those of you who don’t know who Gary was, he was a legend of copywriting and a hero to many entrepreneurs, in spite of his checkered history.
3. Begin with an authoritative quote
The classic sales letter for Dale Carnegie’s timeless book How to Win Friends and Influence People began with a John D. Rockefeller quote.
John D. Rockefeller, Sr. once said: “The ability to deeal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee. And I will pay more for that ability than any other under the sun.”
That’s beginning with an authoritative quote.
4. Hit ’em With a Challenge
This works well in the Internet age of skepticism. Instead of coming across hard sell, begin with a take away right off the bat questioning whether or not the person qualifies.
Here’s a classic quote by Bruce Barton:
“About one man in ten will be appealed to by this page.. The other nine will be hard workers, ernest, ambitious in their way, but to them a coupon is a coupon; a book is a book’ a Course is a Course. The one man in ten has imagination.
And imagination rules the world.”
Wow! What a great opening.
5. Lead off with a blockbuster testimonial
This is another one that works great in the Internet age. Lead off with your best testimonial.
You just can’t provide too much proof of credibility in the Internet age.
6. Spin a story that illustrates the main benefit
That’s another classic way to begin a letter.
John Carlton does this better than just about anyone. He’s the master of leading with a story that pulls you into the letter.
Now, once you get that killer sales letter written, you need a web page for it.
How to design web pages that sell.
That’s an article I wrote over on Go Articles.
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Sales Letter Template | A nifty template for your sales letters|
Sales letter template? Looking for a good one?
Seems that everyone is. So in this article, I’m going to give you a simple yet powerful template you can plug into sales letters, marketing letters, online ads and many other things.
This template is built on 3 key steps:
1. Your sales letters or marketing letter MUST have a big, juicy benefit for the reader.
It’s not enough to have plain old boring benefits that everyone else has. You need that one, big dominant benefit that causes the mouth of your potential buyer or responder to water.
That benefit could be promising a solution to an annoying or painful problem they have.
It could be promising an end result they desperately seek.
But you MUST have a dominant benefit.
Template formula: Put the one big, dominant, giant, juicy benefit in the headline of your ad, sales letter or marketing piece. Focus on ONE benefit that really stands out. The one thing you can really hang your hat on.
If you only had 10 seconds to get someone to buy from you, what’s the ONE REASON you’d give them? Put THAT in your headline.
2. Your sales letters or marketing letters MUST have dramatic proof of performance.
In this highly skeptical Internet age, it’s vital to include PROOF of performance early on. And proof that is different or more powerful than what the potential buyer or responder is routinely used to seeing.
You’ve gotta stand out.
Your template now looks like this:
Headline: Big, juicy, dramatic benefit.
Opening: Restate or elaborate on the juicy benefit.
Proof: After the opening, launch into the single biggest and most dramatic piece of proof you have.
Differentiation: This is the NEXT element of your sale letter template.
What makes your solution DIFFERENT from everything and everyone else? Is it faster, cheaper, easier, safer or differentiated on some other attribute?
This is where you talk about THAT, giving examples, illustrations, bullet points, videos, before-and-after pictures or whatever you have.
Finally, there is the call to action. You gotta give people a reason to respond today. This typically means the use of deadlines and scarcity or a limited supply or availability of some sort.
The Ultimate Sales Letter Template
1. Headline — Big, juicy benefit
2. Opening — Elaborate on the big benefit
3. Proof — Go with your biggest proof element
4. Differentiation — How is your solution different?
5. Credibility (optional) — What is the background of your company or the person providing the solution? What are their credentials?
6. More proof — If you have more proof, present it here.
7. Bullet points (optional) — If you want to provide bullet points concerning your solution as a summary, put them here.
8. Call to action
Give ’em a super powerful reason to respond to. Often, this involves extra bonuses or a price discount for a n immediate response.
There you have it. This is an incredibly powerful sales letter template or persuasive template to get people to RESPOND to whatever your offer or cause is.
No longer will you wonder what you should put in your marketing letters or communications. instead, you’ll know to zero in immediately on your dramatic benefit, your super powerful proof of performance and credibility and what makes your solution different.
Do these things and you’ll find out why I call this the ultimate sales letter template.
For more help with your sale letters and persuasive communications, go to: sales letter software
Sales Letter Software
I created a category or genre of software called Sales Letter Software. It’s what some people use as training wheels to write sales letters with. A pro doesn’t need it. But a newer person sure does.
Here’s WHY I created this software:
1. I created a 12-step formula for writing copy.
What I found is that MOST people didn’t follow the formula, no matter how much I encouraged them too. That’s when I got the idea to practically force feed people the formula.
Push Button Letters was born.
2. It uses a proven formula
There are many formulas for writing sales letters. The oldest one I know and, in my estimation the least useful, is AIDA. Attention-Interest-Desire-Action. That’s a dumb formula because it doesn’t explain HOW to do those things.
My 12-step formula lays it all out.
3. You need to start with structure
A little structure to start with is good. Before you learn to break the rules, learn to follow them.
How to Differentiate Your Product or Service Using Sales Copy
The text below is supplemental to the video, so watch it first. Then read what follows.
As you know, there are 3 basic steps in my marketing method (5 if you want to use the full Amazing Formula). But the 3 basic ones are:
1. Target buyers
2. Get them on a list
3. Make sales
To make the most money from sales, you want to get a premium price. The way you do that is by differentiating. Let me explain.
The way you win in product marketing is by getting a premium price for your product or service. But how do you do that? Today’s Marlon’s Marketing Method video covers that topic.
Watch the video then read the below:
There are many methods to DIFFERENTIATE your product or service. Some people call this “positioning a product.” The method I want to talk briefly about and have you think about is called “differentiation by product attribute.”
What that means is you differentiate your product from others by a single ATTRIBUTE. What’s an attribute?
Think of it this way. Many years ago Stephen Pierce came out with a product called THE WHOLE TRUTH. That was a product attribute. If you wanted to know the Whole Truth, then that was the product to get.
I later created a positioning for an amazing product by Tinu called the Evergreen Traffic System. Evergreen = product attribute. Since then, other marketers have grabbed the evergreen attribute and ran with it.
Your product or the product you promote as an AFFILIATE may be the most complete or the fastest method. Or one of a million other product attributes. The thing is, there are thousands of attributes available. Almost an infinite number.
Go to your grocery store or drugstore and look at the hair color products. Look at Shampoos. Look at deodorants. Many of these differentiate on an attribute like “shine” or “color” or “longest lasting.”
This is important even if you promote as an AFFILIATE because you STILL need to KNOW the attribute and differentiate based upon it.
If you do NOT differentiate what you sell, whether your own product or on a pre-sell page as an affiliate, then you’re just competing on the basis of a commodity where every product is just as good as another.
There’s no price premium in that Game. And no marketing advantage.
The way you gain an advantage is by differentiating and getting a price premium.
There are many ways to differentiate but one of the easiest to use and apply is differentiation by product attribute.
Is there some attribute YOU could differentiate by? For example, early on the differentiation on Amazing Formula was that it was a FORMULA. That was more or less the attribute. Now, you may feel you don’t know of any ideas. But just think of products you yourself have bought. Why did you buy them? What made them unique, different and valuable to you?
Now, how could you make whatever you sell or promote — a product, service, business, group, idea or organization UNIQUELY VALUABLE? Is there an attribute people highly value that you can emphasize in your marketing and promotion? If you’ve listened to or read old Jay Abraham stuff, you know he always gives the Schlitz USP example. That example was really about PURITY. That was the trait they differentiated on by explaining the elaborate process they used to brew their beer. It was all about differentiating on the attribute of purity.
My corporate name is Higher Response Marketing. Originally, my idea was to differentiate on the basis of response. Of course, that was a long time ago when I still wrote copy fully or partially for a living. So response was a valuable attribute to clients. I still think it’s one I might dust off and use again.
That’s your product marketing lesson for the day. Your comments are welcome.
Sales Marketing Letter | How to Use A Sales Letter to Boost Revenues
If you believe what you hear in the news, many countries of the world have gone through a bit of a recession.
Let’s say that you want to boost sales without spending a lot of money. How can you do it? You already know the answer. Marketing. More marketing.
Here are the steps:
1. Ask yourself, “What do my customers really want?”
Even if it’s something not directly related to your product or service, perhaps you can find a way to tie it in. I remember reading a great story about how one marketer for a minor league baseball team in Hawaii needed to drum up attendance. It seemed that everyone loved attending picnics.
So this enterprising marketer created a picnic night at the ballpark. People ate it up.
2. Target a specific segment or group of your customers
You can’t develop a great offer for a nebulous blog of people. Instead, select a sub-group of your customers, so you can create a great offer for them.
For example, in my business I have a segment of customers who are under age 30, have graduated from college but are disillusioned with the corporate world. For these people, I could put together a special package called the “Up-And-Comer’s Kit For Escaping The Corporate World and Finding Fulfillment.”
What OFFER could you put together for a specific group of people that would uniquely meet their needs? Maybe you get a few other businesses to throw in a few things to make your package more attractive. And in return, you give those businesses something of yours they can package in.
For a specific group or segment of customers, you’re creating the ideal offer.
3. Create a sales letter, teleseminar, webinar or web page that systematically gives the benefits of taking advantage of the offer today.
I’ve always felt that good sales letters are me-to-you communications. In other words, a good sales letter sounds just as though we were sitting down over coffee and I was explaining the offer to you, casually and without sales pressure or hype.
That’s what a great sales letter does. It’s a conversation. Now, that sales message can be printed on paper, put on a web page, sent in an email or delivered via fax. The VEHICLE that sends the sales message is far less important than the message itself.
Direct Mail Sales Letter Another Effective Sales Letter
Anyone who uses email knows about these letters. Almost every day you get a few and they are not that long but you do not bother to read. There is a reason for that. They have come to the wrong place. When you write a direct mail you must remember few things get results from them. If not the letters will end up in the waste bin and your effort will be in vain.
It is not easy to get a letter of this nature delivered to the people concerned. Once you achieve the difficult feat you must get the maximum out of that.
In the first place your direct mail sales letter should go to the target. When you write the letter you must write to the procurement manager and not to the company CEO. If it goes to the procurement people you stand a chance to sell your product to them. Your letter has to be very concise and to the point. If the reader has to read a long introduction he probably will not read it at all.
When you write about the product you are going to sell you need to describe about the merits of your product but never try to explain the different features of the product. Instead try to explain the benefits the customer is going to derive from your product. Try to convince that your product is the best out of the lot.
Don’t try to be too official. Write in simple language as if you are talking to the reader. Make it more personal looking. This type of direct mail intends to build up a relationship rather than making a sale. So, try to establish connection rather than selling.
While writing your mail in simple language, make it short. One page letters are the most effective. You can offer something to the recipient and make it an offer with no risk. Give them discounts with deadlines. Make you letter a reply paid one. This eliminates the expenditure for your customer.
When you offer a product it is always good to give a guarantee. There are various types of guarantees. Guarantee will give the confidence for your customer to develop trust towards your product.
Testimonials are a must for any product to persuade a customer to buy it. When a customer reads a testimonial he will notice that your product has been used by others and it looks trust worthy. This will help you build up a relationship with your customer.
Your letter could go to the recipient through email or the ordinary post. If it doesn’t bring results the first time don’t just give up. When you send mails to 100 people there are only five people replying. This is a good figure for a no cost campaign.
IF you can get your mail delivered to the right person it is not difficult for you to get him to read it if you follow these simple tip which will make a big difference in your letters.
Need help in writing your sales letters?
Sales and Marketing Letters | How To Get Your Products To Sell
If you are searching for that effective tool to assist you in creating effective sales and marketing letters then you should consider reading this article, for there are some tips you must consider when writing a marketing and sales letter to grab readers interest towards your product and services. Essentially, you must know how to target the market you are trying to reach- for this the key to gaining potential customers. And to target the market, you must first know to write effective sales and marketing letters.
The first tip you can utilize on when writing sales and marketing letters for your online business is a ‘sales letter generator’. The software type will simply show you the steps you can use when writing sales letters. Additionally, not only does it shows you exactly how to write sales and marketing letters, but it is guarantee to help you in writing the most powerful and effective letter that is necessary for online business success.
If you are wondering how to go about using this particular software, well it is very simple. All that is required from you is to enter some simple information regarding your particular product and service, and this sales letter generator software does the rest of the work. Whether you are looking to create professional or simple looking sales letters, this particular soft ware can help you create just this. Additionally, this program has been used by numerous online businessmen who have successfully gained optimum results and increased sales through this soft ware. So if you are wondering whether the sales letter generator is effective enough when used, well it is proven to give you the best sales and marketing letters that your online business require.
We all know that marketing expenses for your online business can be very straining to bear, and marketing can take a lot of time to get started. However, if you know how to locate the best tools to assist you in getting started to increase your sales level, then you can automatically witness an increase and popularity in your online business. And the sales letter generator can help you with this endeavour! Within a few minutes, this particular software will create the best looking professional sales letter for your potential customers and targeted market. Whether you are looking to increase your sales, or aiming to target that specific market, the sales letter generator software can help you with this goal.
So if you have used numerous tools and was not able to see an increase in your marketing sales, then you should consider opting for the sales letter generator soft ware. Even if you are inexperienced in creating sales and marketing letters for your online business, you can still use the sales letter generator to help you target your specific market or prospective customers that you trying to reach out to. And within a few minutes you are presented with the most powerful and persuasive sales and marketing letters which is guarantee to help increase your business sales.
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Instant Sales Letters | Create Amazing Letters
Instant sales letters are needed by all business owners to help introduce their products to potential customers in the market today. And it is still considered to be an effective and valuable means of advertising for all business owners. When writing instant sales letters however you must first follow these essential tips.
You must ensure that you have a post script and proper introduction as most potential customers are likely to check these two parts of the letter before actually deciding to read the overall letter. Thus, you must ensure that your introduction and opening statement are precise while at the same time displaying the general message of your sales letter.
Secondly, you must pay attention to the letter’s layout. That is you must ensure that your paragraphs are properly structured, as the more organized and detailed your letter is, the more comfortable the customer will feel when reading the letter. You must also avoid writing confusing letters, as this will result in your letter heading straight to the trash.
Keep your sales letter short and simple. Sales letters should be at least one page long. The longer the sales letter content is, the more bore some it might be to customers, as no one like advertisements which are lengthy.
You must also avoid jargon writing. Business owners, who use immense amounts of “jargon” with the aim to impress readers, are more likely to confuse customers with this sort of fancy language. Thus, it is recommended that you try to be simple and avoid sounding like a con man out to impress customers.
You must always go for the bottom line and stick to point. Whatever point you are trying to make, just say it plain and simple. The more complicated your sales letters are, the more customers will be irritated and confused. So try not to beat around the bush as we all know where that can lead to.
Consequently, you must remember you are aiming to sell a particular product or service via this sales letter, so emphasize about the benefits that this product can offer to potential customers. Do not stress on pointless details such as high tech materials, research and new creations that went into the making of other products- for this is irrelevant!
Proper communication is also necessary when writing instant sales letters. This simply means that you should keep your tone light and conversational. Your approach and tone of your letter must suit the type of customers it is intended for. If your sales letters are targeted for high income business people, then you should use corporate jargon within your sales letter.
Try not to push for a sale as customers would lose interest in your company. You should instead aim at receiving the customer’s interest. Additionally, you should offer special deals and guarantees as this can convince and persuade customers to purchase your products even more.
Sample Sales Letter: For Easy and Effective Sales Letter Writing
For business entrepreneurs who do not have sufficient background in writing, making a sales letter may prove to be a bit difficult. With so many thoughts in mind, it is indeed hard to organize such thoughts into a powerful content that would convince the readers to purchase your products or use the services you offer. Fortunately, you can now find sample sales letter on the Internet that can help you in your sales letter writing tasks.
Most of the sample sales letters on the Internet were written by professional copywriters who are trained in writing different types of business letters. There are literally thousands of free sample sales letters on the Internet today. Browsing through the different major search engines allow you to find a great sample sales letter that will aid you in promoting your products through a good business correspondence. Apart from samples of sales letters online, there are also template sales letter packages available for download at very affordable prices.
The good thing about the downloadable sales letter templates is that they are very easy to use. They are actually pre-written by professional writers and formatted by professional graphic designers. The templates are mostly created in Microsoft Word format but others can also be used using different software. Sales letter templates are very user-friendly. All you need to do is choose between the several style sheets and insert your customer’s information and you are on your way to converting prospect customers into loyal customers.
If you are just starting your business, it is very important for you not to blunder in your sales letters. Not only that it would be costly on your part, it would also cause losing prospect of customers. Sending hundreds of sales-letter mails to your prospect customers does not come cheap at all. And what’s worst is that you get no responses from your mails.
While sales letters can be done through email nowadays, most business owners especially those who are just starting usually do it in the old way– through snail mail. The problem with sending sales letters through email is the huge possibility that they would just go to the customer’s recycle bin without being read. What most business owners do is that they send them through snail mail and include some small and inexpensive tokens like pens or highlighters with the company’s logo and contact information at them.
By using a sample sales letter or a sales letter template, you are assured that your sales letters will attract more customers and allow you to keep your existing and loyal customers as well.
