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One of the most powerful weapons in any marketer’s arsenal is a well-constructed sales letter. It provides the perfect vehicle to drive home your sales presentation, and it allows you to reach thousands and even millions of people all at once.

There are many ways to go about crafting the perfect prose needed to grab and hold the attention of your target market. Here are some tips that you may want to keep in mind.

Tip #1
Your Opening Sentence Or Headline Must Make Your Reader Sit Up And Take Notice

A great copywriter’s secret is to begin your ad or article or web page with a powerful question. This makes the reader curious right off the bat and it usually does a pretty good job and making him/her want to read more. For example:

If you could learn a simple strategy with a proven 85% success rate at getting every day guys/gals like you a juicy raise at work, would you like to know what it is?

Asking your readers a question is fantastic and highly effective way to get attention. Why? Because you are asking them to enter into a conversation with you. You’re not lecturing them, preaching to them, screaming at them, or boring them with stats or ideas they don’t care about.

In essence, what you’re doing is engaging your reader by asking them for their opinion. And you’re simultaneously giving them the option of whether or not they want to continue to be engaged, whether or not they want to read more of what you’re saying. Even more, you’re getting them to open their mind, which is tremendously important, because once they’re open to what you’re saying, then you’ve got your foot in the door.

In addition to a question, or in place of a question, another effective attention-grabber is to begin your piece by using what’s known as a damaging admission. For example:

If you’re looking for an accountant who will do your taxes quickly and at a very low cost, then we’re not for you.

But if you’re looking for an accountant who can help you save money by coming up with legal tips, tactics, resources and strategies that you either don’t know or have never heard of, and which can save you a ton of money this tax season, then check out our Pay Less Taxes Today website to get our free report on the top ten best legal ways to save money on your income taxes.

This damaging admission method is a very effective opening salvo because it’s disarming. By honestly telling your reader what you’re about up-front, they’re more likely to believe you. A damaging admission is attention-getting because we all like to relate to other human beings, and when our fellow man/woman starts admitting their weaknesses or mistakes, we find it compelling and interesting to say the least.

It’s certainly more compelling than hearing someone go on and on about how great he or she is.

TIP #2
Make a list of all the benefits of the product or service you’re selling, and use this in order of importance in your copy.

It’s well known in marketing circles that people don’t buy products or services. People buy the great results those products or services can bring them.

You’re not buying a car when you purchase a Mercedes; you’re buying comfort, class, elegance, and prestige. And when you buy a Volvo, you’re buying safety. Does Disneyland just sell rides? Does Las Vegas just sell gambling? Or do they sell magical dreams of fulfillment of one kind or another? When writing about your product, you need to identify and see the product achieving great things for the prospect.

Even better, if you can discover what copywriters call a “hidden benefit,” one that is secondary to the benefits the products/services were designed for, then you can strengthen your appeal. We all want to be in on secrets, ever since we were in kindergarten. For example, a hidden benefit of red wine, besides it tasting so great, is that it helps reduce the risk of getting a heart attack and stroke by thinning the blood and thus unclogging our arteries. I think you’ll agree that this is a pretty amazing benefit.

Just about every product out there has a hidden benefit that often times may be even more attractive than the obvious benefit. Like finding hidden treasures, hidden benefits engage us and are exciting to read about.

TIP #3
Always explain your key benefit in great detail

Anyone can make claims like, “we’re the pioneer,” “we’re the biggest,” “we’re the cheapest priced,” “we’re the best.” But not everyone can persuade us that their claims are true. All copywriters and all marketers in general know that it’s important, no, imperative, to prove your claims.

This is done by explaining in detail about how and why your product/service can and will succeed at achieving the things, the benefits, your competing products/services can’t. Now, you don’t do this by screaming at your readers, and you don’t do this with a lot of BS hype. You also don’t do it by using shallow surface words like “fantastic” and “number one.”

You do this by giving facts, explaining reasons, and providing social proof, and giving interesting details about your product.

A Marketing 101 story teaches us of the legendary copywriter Claude Hopkins. In 1919 he was hired by the then faltering Schlitz beer to craft an ad campaign that would rescue the company from slipping sales. He visited the Wisconsin plant and found out how intricate the process actually was, which is something he never knew.

Digging deep wells to find pure water; using only the best barely and hops; facilities where hey sanitized the bottles. Hopkins told company heads to reveal this to the public, but they were apprehensive at first, as all companies brew their beer more or less the same way. Hopkins countered by explaining that, while this may be true, the first one to tell the public about it would be viewed as the first company that took the most steps to brewing beer.

Can you guess what happened?

People who love beer were fascinated by the subject, and before the year’s end Schlitz jumped in ranking from #15 to the top #1 selling beer in the country. Turns out, beer lovers were thrilled to know exactly and precisely why they should pick one beer over the rest.

TIP #4
Tell readers exactly what they will get when they buy your product or service.

When you buy something, don’t you want to know exactly what you’ll be getting for your money?

Sure you do. And so do your readers. As customers, we want to know where our hard-earned dollars are going. Think about it. When you buy something, let’s say a computer or printer, you want to know exactly what all the features and benefits are, don’t you? How well does it perform? How fast is it? How many miles does it get per gallon?

Keep this in mind when writing your copy. You should always include all the information your prospects need in order to make a buying decision. Bullet points work well here, as they provide just the highlights. However, you should definitely include a complete list somewhere.

If you’re selling anything, you should include right on the box an impressive photo of all the materials your customers will be getting. After all, your letter is like your sales package providing a ton of valuable information.

TIP #5
Give social proof whenever possible, and make sure the people or companies you choose are credible.

As a copywriter writing a sales letter, you are a salesman. And it’s important that you understand this. Being bombarded these days with messages from all directions, we’ve become weary of salesmen and marketers.

We’re skeptical, regardless of how compelling their story and claims, and regardless of all the details described. What we need is social proof, best believable when coming from famous and respected people, to confirm that what the sales guy or marketer is saying is true.

If you are selling a new system for sanitizing toothbrushes, you should get endorsements by top dentists. An endorsement of your revolutionary dental product by the dentist for presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush is impressive, isn’t it?

It’s a good idea to try to get testimonials on audio and video and put them directly on your website. Be creative. Also, use website links as much as possible. For example which testimonial below is more believable? A or B?

a) “They gave me the best website ever!” Posted by John from Nebraska.

b) “My website’s design was spectacular, the company provided me with unlimited design revisions, the price was affordable, and the turnaround was fas.” Posted by Jane Betty Frier. Click this link to see her website.

OK, bad example, but you get the idea!

The more testimonials the better, as long as they are detailed and credible. You can never have enough testimonials.

Richard Cagney heads the SEO/SEM division of the affordable custom website design and marketing firm All Access Unlimited in Stamford, Connecticut (http://www.allaccessunlimited.com). AAU provides high conversion marketing to companies seeking to expand and grow in the American and world markets.

One of the true laments from management today is that employees cannot express themselves with the written word. Owners and stockholders have the same complaints about management. Today in the age of the paperless office the importance of the written word is increasing especially as direct live voice contact becomes more and more problematic.

If you want to communicate, you have to write. The written word, whether digital or etched into stone, remains the primary means of relaying data, information, thoughts and ideas.

Many businesses lack the ability to generate a well written business letter or well scripted marketing collateral. Not having this ability puts these businesses at a competitive disadvantage.

Who wants to consider a business proposal that is awkward and full of errors? What impression does a homepage with spelling errors project? Good business writing is not just a nice frill — it is a necessity.

Every text that is written by your business is a reflection on your business. Misspellings, poor grammar, awkward syntax and weak logic project a negative image. These weaknesses can relay the impression that you are uneducated, unsophisticated, lack personal pride, are lazy, ill or all of the above.

Since the consequences of poor writing are surprisingly severe, it is better to not write anything than to write poorly. No writing leaves the issue up in the air; poor writing tells the world just where you establish your standards.

Pick up three or four pieces of written material from your company. How does your company rate? Do you require employees use spelling and grammar checks before sending out important letters or email? A spell and grammar checker can act as an editor and prevent simple typos and oversights; a first line of defense against poor writing.

Or do you or your people have difficulty clearly expressing themselves? If so, take a step back and look at your capabilities. You can either send everybody to Adult Ed and Junior College to learn how to write or hire someone that already can.

For your people that can write having their own writing style is fine as long as it is correct and in good business taste. You don’t have to go to military speak but neither is this the time to wax poetic and verbose.

Using slang in a memo to a company CEO may look cool at first but be perceived as ‘low rent’ when the CEO reads it. Always think first, what impression do you want to give?

If you are hiring for a position that requires writing skills, ask the applicant to write several paragraphs about what attributes they will bring to the company. For assessing writing skills what they write about is not as important as how they write it.

For managers this is more important since written reports are part of a manager’s job description. Never hire a manager before you clearly know their writing skills.

To write well it helps to read. Read whatever interests you and read as much as you can every day. If you read a newspaper; look how style and syntax relay the message.

By reading well written material the rules of grammar and syntax become more formalized in your brain. Simply put, the more you read, the better you write.

Clearly writing practice makes for improvement if not perfection. Good writers write everyday and take pride in each piece they write. Good writers make sure the intended meaning is the meaning expressed. It is not only challenging to write well but fun if one develops positive attitudes about writing. Besides, what’s not to like about writing well?

Only basic common sense should tell you that anything that is written or in text, such as a webpage or a handout brochure needs to be reviewed thoroughly before posting or printing. If you dare put out ‘junk’ that is full of holes, you will be shooting down your efforts before you start. So don’t even try.

Review all of your written materials to see if they need to be improved or rewritten. Be your own editor first and then have some “outside eyes” look at it. Take all criticism constructively and use that criticism to improve.

Look in the mirror when you come up with excuses for poor writing. Excuses such as lack of formal education do not count in the marketplace. Some with little or no education have excellent writing skills while many university graduates cannot write a simple sentence correctly.

If you write poorly your message will be muted and not accomplish what you intend it to do. Good writing is a challenge and not something one can fudge or postpone.

If you can’t do it, hire someone that can. Always remember that for better or worse you and your company are what you write.

Jack Deal is the owner of Jack D. Deal Business Consulting, Santa Cruz, CA. Related articles can be found at http://www.jddeal.com/blog/writing and http://www.freeandinquiringmind.typepad.com

Have you ever wondered how all of these guru types make these astounding eye appealing sales letters? I know I have! Every time I get an e mail and read one of these letters I think to myself how do they make it look so good? Or how did they make that great graphic heading and e book picture?

For me I just wanted to learn how they put something like that together and made it look so good. So I did some research and found that some people were making these sales letters by using simply a word document or some were using a software program to make the sales letter.

Well then I thought how do you structure the letter in a way that the reader stays with you and reads the whole thing? Simple as I began educating myself through this journey I quickly realized that there are a few key ingredients to making a great sales letter that pulls.

I would say that this is a simple 10 step process that you need to follow in order to have the best success at having a great pulling sales letter. Here we go.

First have a great Header Graphic at the top of your page. It has been proven that you can increase your sales by as much as 300% with a professional looking graphic.

Second you need to grab your reader’s attention with a great headline. You only have a few seconds when someone visits your site to get their attention and a headline will do it, as this is the first thing that your reader sees on your page.

To add to this be sure to include a hypnotic attention getter. This is a partial sentence which captures the reader’s attention. An example of this would be something like “I was totally amazed when”. Then to follow add an opening paragraph which continues from that sentence. The opening paragraph should keep hold of your prospect by giving them important information and a benefit to the reader of what is in it for them.

Step 3 – You should introduce your product and give your reader the reason why you created it. Make it benefit driven to let them know why you made this product.

Step 4 – Give a list of features and benefits to your reader. Your reader’s probably don’t really care about your feature unless there is a specific benefit to them an example of this would be,”Use my Quick Start guide to get up and running quickly!” and the benefit would be “So you can start earning money immediately”. Remember the benefit is what your reader wants not the feature. Use as many as you can 6 – 10 of them is good.

Step 5 – Tell your reader a summary of the benefits that they will receive when they purchase your product. It is important here to create a burning desire for them to want to buy your product. You will have to point out the reasons why.

An example of this could be,”Basically There Is an Opportunity Here for You to Make Some Serious Money without having to fork out thousands in start up costs!” I will Show You Exactly What Products Earn More Profits That Your Customers Will Want! Plus I Will Show You 6 Different Ways To Find New Locations and Get Immediate Cash Into Your Pockets!

Step 6 – Give your prospect testimonials, the more you have the better. If you can get 3-5 that’s a good start. Obviously if this is a new product that you are looking to sell then you could ask a few of your friends or colleges to try your product and ask for their opinion? Once you get a few opinions then ask if you can use it as a testimonial. This is a great way to start.

Step 7 – Tell your reader what problem that your product will solve and what they will receive when they purchase your product. This is where you can really shine and divulge some great information. If you can solve someone’s problem and be the solution then you immediately have great credibility. Solving a problem should always be your focus when creating a product.

Step 8 – Give your reader your guarantee, headline of why they should buy today and price. This is where you tell your reader that the risk is all yours, give some reasons for why they should buy today, also include the price.

Step 9 – Use bonuses to make your offer even sweeter. Your bonuses could be some free consulting or some personal coaching or even a free report of some sort. Use bonuses to make the sale.

Step 10 – Have a closing statement and a p.s. These are your final words to your prospect. Give them a strong reason as to why they should buy your product. Give a few more benefits and reassure your prospect that your product is everything that you say it is.

Also be sure to include a p.s. This goes at the bottom of your page. This acts as a reminder to your prospects as to why they should buy your product and is a chance for you to also include any information about your affiliate program if you have one. If you don’t have an affiliate program consider getting one this can have a substantial positive impact to your sales volume.

Chris Robertson has used many sales letters to boost his sales of his information products. To find out more about making a great sales letter with ease please visit Chris’s site http://www.saleslettersthatpull.com

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