Whether your selling through direct response letters or on the Internet you will need effective sales letters. Writing effective sales letters is a talent that you cannot afford to be without. Learn some of the basics of how to write the words and structure the letter to get people to buy your product or service.
To write a sales letter you must learn the basics. It has to IMMEDIATELY GRAB THEIR ATTENTION. Once you have grabbed their attention you have to keep it. What you say is very important and you need to follow these two guidelines:
1. Write what they are interested in.2. Write like you are talking to a friend.
The format is as follows:
1. A catchy headline that immediately grabs their attention.2. The opening paragraph should be short and to the point.3. Next a sub headline featuring a main benefit 4. After that another paragraph of benefits.5. Then another headline about a benefit.6. Then another paragraph a benefit.
I’m sure by now you have gotten the point,
if not, it is ALL ABOUT THEM. Write descriptive phrases that help them to envision living the life they can have using your product or services. The sales letter has to be fast hitting and entertaining or they will quit reading it.
There is way too much competition out there and once you have gotten someone to your landing page or to open your direct mail sales letter you have very little time to gain his or her interest. You must, also in a very short time get them to trust you. The use of testimonials will help here, but what you are saying has to ring true.
Appealing to their desires is something else that will keep them reading. Using their basic drives to sell you product is something you will need to learn how to do. Learn the psychological reasons why people would want to buy your product or service.
Now that all that has been said they probably won’t read your sales letter word for word. Therefore you need to format it so that it is scannable. Use subheads to make points periodically. Highlight areas you want them to notice. Make boxes around important parts. Use quotes, underlines, italics and bold fonts to make your special points. Pull out important parts and put them in a colored box and repeat it.
Separate your testimonials and put a picture of the person making the testimonial along with the quote. Give their full name if allowed and where they reside. All of this just gives more credence to your sales letter. I personally would never buy something from somebody if it didn’t have credence.
Trust has to be instilled for a sales letter to be effective. There needs to be a lot of truth in what you are saying or you will not make sales. Evident truth will build the trust you need to write a successful sales letter. Otherwise you might as well not write it.
Target your sales letter to people that have shown signs of wanting your product. If you send it to people that don’t want whatever it is your selling you are just wasting your time and money.
Writing a successful sales letter takes a lot of creative talent and should also be entertaining to keep it from being discarded. Take to heart that it is all about what they need. Your message must leave them knowing that your product will make their life better. It must fulfill their desires and give them hope that it will solve whatever their problem is.
People go to the Internet for information on how they can solve a problem or get an answer to their question. Your sales letter needs to address this and provide a perceived solution. Give them what they are asking for and they will buy.
Of course not everyone will buy, but you are looking for a good conversion rate. A really great conversion rate is 3-5 percent, so that means you need to get a lot of traffic or send out a lot of promotional material. Presell when you can and following up is necessary for your success.
