10 Tips for Effective Email Sales Letters

1. Write Your Objective -
Before you write your sales letter,
write down your marketing objective.
Is it to generate inquiries about your
products? Is it attract subscribers to
your ezine? Is it to find a joint venture partner? Having an objective will help you focus your copy.

2. Make A List Of Your Product’s Benefits -
How will it improve your prospect’s life? How will it save them money or time? How will it make them more productive? Use the top three or four benefits in your email. Be specific and tone down the hype.

3. Spend Time Creating Effective Subject Lines -
Don’t rush through this task. A subject
line is the equivalent of a print headline. If it doesn’t catch their attention right away, a reader won’t bother opening the message. Avoid writing cute punsor play-on-words.

Make your subjectline sound valuable to your prospect. For example, “5 Ways To Increase Your Web Traffic.” Using this “How To” approach is one of the most powerful tactics in advertising. People are always hungry for info on how to increase sales, save time or increase productivity.

Another effective technique is to
ask a question: e.g. “Need More Web
Traffic?”

4. Select Your Words Carefully -
With the increasing use of anti-spam
software, even legitimate “opt-in”
emails often get blocked. You need to
choose words that prevent your email
from being filtered out. Never use
the word “free” in a subject line.
For a list of words to avoid,
visit this site:
http://spamassassin.org ests.html

5. Use A Casual Tone -
Nothing turns off a reader faster than
stiff, formal language. You’re not
writing a college essay. Write your
email as if your were writing to a friend.

6. Use Short Sentences -
They’re easier to read and sound
more conversational than long
sentences. Keep your sentences
crisp and snappy. And use short
words rather than long.

7. Use Bullets To Highlight Benefits -
People tend to scan email rather than
read every word. Bullet points makes it
easy for a reader to quickly catch key
information on your product or service.

8. Use Testimonials -
Nothing builds confidence in your product quicker than comments from satisfied customers.

Collect testimonials whenever you can.
Include the customer’s first and last name. Comments that use initials, like “J. Smith,” are not credible.

9. Hyperlinks Should Be Specific
When you insert a link into your
email, make sure it takes the
prospect to the specific info you
referred to in your letter. Don’t
just link to your homepage and
expect the prospect to search for
your offer. Your response will
drop significantly.

10. Offer An Incentive To Get The
Prospect To Take Action Now -
It’s not enough to publicize
your product, you want the
prospect to take action. At the
end of your email, tell the prospect
what they should do next. Sign up
for your newsletter? Visit your website? Download an ebook?

You’ll get a better response if you
offer an incentive for them to take
action. Offer a limited time discount.
Give them lots of bonuses. Enter
them into a contest. They’re tons
of incentives you can come up
with.