How To Write a Sales Letter

Boost your salesletter effectiveness by learning how to write a sales letter that will get viewers attention, hold their attention and ultimately get them to buy.

Writing an effective sales letter is very powerful.  There are many suggestions for writing sales letters but from the standpoint of most experienced writers, the following strategies work the best.

Before starting to write your sales letter, first write down the answers to the following questions. You may have to go through each of them a few times but keep going through them until you feel you've covered them all well enough.  For a more thorough description of what a good sales letter should be have a look at Yanik Silver's Analysis of a Winning Sales Letter.

1.  Who's your audience?
Think about who your customers are and design your copy for them.   For example, are they young professionals? Are they retired? Are they stay at home moms? The products you sell can also tell you what type of audience you are most likely to attract.  What is your product going to do for them? Once you know who these people are, it's a lot easier to develop copy and you'll also attract the people that will be most interest in what you have to offer.

Don't make the mistake of thinking this is about simply selling to your reader. It's more than that. This is about understanding and satisfying THEIR needs. Your job is to create and build a relationship of trust with the customer so they feel comfortable and assured that your product is what they want to buy.

2. Appeal to their Emotions
Most purchases, with the exception of specific needs, are based on emotion. For example, "I don't need that 80" flat screen TV, but I sure do want it".  Hitting home emotionally is what puts your reader in "buy" mode.  People are very emotional when it comes to these 5 things:

• Money - either making it or saving it
• Beauty/health -  living longer, looking better 
• Entertainment - sports, leisure 
• Comfort
• Making life easier or saving time

If you can strike a chord in your reader that says, "I want that!" then you are on your way to making that sale. 

3.  Persuade & Motivate
Don't be tempted to write your sales letter as a flat presentation of the facts, you will bore your audience. They don't really want facts, they want reasons to buy.   Your job is to persuade and motivate your reader.  This is best done with a friendly conversation with your reader.  Speak to them from experience and interject personal tips or suggestions that will help motivate the reader to consider your product. Be genuine and try to put yourself in their shoes. Understand what it is they want and what motivates them to buy.

4. Make your copy easy to read?
Use short sentences and easy to understand words.  Remember, people on the internet read a lot, so they want to be able to get through your copy fast without a lot of long wordy copy. Keep it to the point and keep it flowing.  Don't jump from one thought directly into another. 

5.  What are the benefits to your reader? 
We're talking benefits, not features.  Features are what a product has, the things it can do.  The benefits are what the product actually does for them.  For example, leather seats are a feature but the benefit is they are softer and easier to clean.

Your goal is to come up with as many useful, compelling benefits as you can.  Name each one individually  Your reader is always thinking 'What's in it for me" so keep that in mind when you write.

6. How can you Arouse interest?
Your copy should continue to pique interest of your reader.  Continue to pepper your copy with curious facts, interesting phrases and human interest.  Write things that involves your reader and helps them to relate to what you are talking about. You want your reader to feel that they know you and can count on you to understand what they are feeling and needing.

7.  What do you want your reader to do?
If you've done a good job of convincing your reader that you have what they need then tell your reader what to do to get it. If you want your reader to order today, or sign up for your newsletter then say so.  If a signup box is on the left, tell them 'sign-up is to the left'.  If your order box is below, tell them 'order now below'. 

People like to be directed on what to do.  They much prefer it over trying to figure it out. 

Formatting your salesletter

These are the sections of our salesletter and are delivered in this order...

Headline/Sub-headline
Start with a compelling, attention grabbing headline. A headline must create interest and your sub-headline needs to back it up.  It should hit a nerve for the reader with regard to emotions, wants and needs. 

Your headline should point out what your reader can expect to get and your sub-headline should emphasize the points you just made in your headline.  Always test your headlines and sub-headlines.  Create several of them and swap them in and out for several weeks at a time to see which ones work best.

Attention grabbing headlines start with thing like 'Discover how ...', Get Ready To ..., Experience the.... Your sub-headlines work well with asking questions like:

Did you know that..., Wouldn't You Like to...? Are you Ready For...?

Your headline should be in centered at the top of the page.  Capitalize the first letter of each word only.  The text should be in BOLD.  After skipping a few lines your sub-headline should be directly beneath your headline. It should be a font smaller, text is bold and in a different color than the heading text.

Introducing the problem Section
Write a few sentences or paragraphs on what the problem is.  If you're selling a product that relieves back pain you would touch on things like how back pain limits things that you love to do.  How sleeping can be a problem, how chronic pain can lessen your enthusiasm for like, things of that nature. 

Introducing the solution Section
Now it's time to introduce a solution.  Talk about your remedy or what you have to offer without really introducing the specific product. Simply talk about the things that you can help the reader accomplish.  For example, here's what I can help you with

Credibility 
Give reasons, personal or professional on why you created the product and why the reader should listen to you. For example, if you wrote a book about ' how to grow award winning roses' tell your reader how many awards you have won with your roses, how long you've been growing roses, etc.  Give the reader some background into understanding how you qualify in giving them what they need.  Kind of like writing a resume.

Features and benefits 
List the feature and benefits of your offer.  Use a bullet point to list each feature, then next to the feature list the benefit of the feature. Be clear and to the point.

Introduce your product
Here's where you introduce your product.  This section should be in paragraph form.  Mention the most important and impressive features of the product.

Testimonials
Pepper small customer testimonials throughout your sales letter. You may not have one to start and that's ok, as you get them you can introduce them into your salesletter.

Summary
Do a nice little summary that covers the overall benefits of your product.

State the price
State the value of your product and include the price.  Hint:  I've been told that prices that end in a 7 or a 9 seem to work the best. For example $7, $9, $27, $29, $37, 39... etc.  For some of my products I've experimented using both 7 and 9 and I didn't find a difference either way.  You may want to experiment with this as well.

List your bonus
Include bonuses.  Bonus products are always a plus.  It gives the reader an impression of over-delivering.  Be sure to include the value of each bonus product but that you are offering it for free with purchase.

Your Guarantee Box
Specify a separate box for your guarantee. Clearly state what your guarantee is and is not if you think there may be confusion.

Download box
I like to use a download box that summarizes exactly what the customer will get with their purchase. Also include any details about how their order will appear on their credit card statement.  Include your guarantee statement if you have one and have your 'buy here' button clearly at the bottom of the box.

Your signature
Include a closing salutation with you name. 

Create a sense of urgency
Most people are procrastinators so even though they might want your product,  they tend to put off buying it. To help get around this, create an overwhelming reason to buy NOW.   For example you could mention that your offer is available for only a limited time, or offer a bonus that is limited, or mention that you're only selling a limited number of copies. You could also take a few dollars off the price and limit that offering or offer limited free shipping.

The P. S.
Many people will not read all your copy at first, they may simply scroll to the bottom. By having a powerful P.S. at the bottom it gives you another opportunity to get them involved in your copy.

Use the P.S. to repeat the strongest elements of your copy in a short paragraph.  The P.S. should contain things like your money back guarantee (if you have one).  If your offer is time sensitive state that in the P.S.  If you offer a FAQ state that.  

A final word...

Learning how to write a winning sales letter takes practice and patience. Don't expect to get it perfect the first time through.  If the task of creating sales letters becomes a source of frustration, give Instant Sales Letters a try.  It's Guaranteed To Sell Your Product Or Service... Without Writing it yourself!