by Betty Wilkins
| It
can take 10-20 hours to write a highly effective Sales Letter --- but
it is the most important thing you will ever do for your business and
the most often overlooked area of marketing a business. Why? Most people
just Do Not Know How to Write an effective Sales Letter.
The Average American is bombarded by over 2000 ads every day of their life. Do you want your sales letter to be merely one more advertisement that is forced on them? Most people go online to relax and have an enjoyable experience. Many are looking to be entertained or educated --- No One Goes Online to be Sold Something. You must keep this in mind while you are writing your sales letter. When you start writing your sales letter be sure to add the personal touch. Write exactly like you do when you are writing to a friend. Use your personal experiences in your letter, keep it like you are talking to someone directly rather than writing sales copy. Be very descriptive of the benefits and what your product or service will do for the reader of your sales letter. Do not use technical or intellectual language. Keep your writing very basic and simple. Make sure it understandable to the average person without talking down to the reader. Format your letter with short paragraphs and sentences. Keep it clear cut and simple. Your reader is more likely to read your entire letter if you make it easy to read and even entertaining (remember - use personal experiences and fun stories to fit with the product benefits). Make your sales letter interesting and flow together the same way as when you are talking (tip: before writing your sales letter make a tape recording of what you want to tell your prospects - this is very useful when sitting down to write the actual copy). Use a PS in your letter. Direct Marketing Gurus have been using this little secret for years because it gets just as much of the readers attention as your headline does. Readers tend to scan what they are reading from the top right corner to the bottom left corner --- so you will want to use CAPS, slashes, parenthesis, asterisks and bullets to capture their attention at other key points. Use these attention getters sparingly and only where need. Get some Testimonials and use them in all your sales letters. To get testimonials offer your buyers a discount or a valuable freebie for letting you know what they think about your product or service. You may only want to offer this in exchange for their permission to use their testimonial in your marketing materials. Most people will gladly give you a testimonial with permission to use it when you give them a discount or something valuable for free. If you have not had any customers yet and would like to use testimonials in your sales materials you can give a free trial of your product or service to a few people in exchange for their testimonial (this should be done during the testing phase to determine how marketable your product is). You have to make an offer. Make it as irresistible as possible. Include something of value for FREE. FREE is one of the most operative words in marketing - use it as often as possible. Many people will respond to your offer just for the FREE item they will get by doing so. This gives you the ability to follow-up with those that are interested. When following up be sure to use discounts and time sensitive offers to get your prospect to act. You Must Ask For the Order. This is where many sales letters fall short. If you do not ask for the order and give every available option for ordering and step by step instructions how to order you might as well forget about writing a sales letter to begin with. Do not waste your time, effort and money by forgetting to ask for the order! Whenever possible offer a money back or satisfaction guarantee. People very rarely go to the trouble of returning items they have purchased but the guarantee will give them a feeling of security. The guarantee will not cause you to lose money. You will only have to reimburse a few people but you will have many more ordering from you just because you do have a guarantee in place. Most people are afraid of commitment so take care not to make your prospect feel too committed by responding to your offer. Try to accommodate them in every way possible. Once you have completed your sales letter give it to a few friends to review it for you. If you want a truly honest opinion Do Not Tell them you wrote it --- just ask them what they think about this offer you received. Do not get upset if they are critical --- they are actually helping you to make your Sales Letter a Complete Success.
Other Resources for Learning How to Write Killer Sales Letters:
*This article available by autoresponder at: Betty Ann Wilkins © 1999 Betty Ann Wilkins, Publisher/Webmaster New Business Start-ups - Working from Home Resources, Information & Tons Of Freebies: http://www.the-work-at-home.com/ |