How would you like to give a COMPLETE sales presentation to thousands of prospects from all over the world; give that presentation at the convenience of your prospect; give that presentation while you're awake OR sleeping; know for sure that you will not experience any rejection whatsoever, and then have your ideal customers and clients call you and say, "Sign me up"?
Okay, okay, okay...dumb question. Of COURSE you would, and you can, by learning how to write (and implement) good sales letters to your prospect list.
I've been seeing a lot of hawking these days from marketers on how to write sales letters and most of the stuff I'm seeing is the same old, same old. Well, here's my version of the Top Ten Components Of A Good Sales Letter...with some extra goodies:
HEADLINES
This is the mother-lode of strategies for writing sales letters (at least the ones that get read), so here are some important points to remember:
A. Target your headline to your specific ideal customer or client ("If You Would Like To Get Rid Of Those Ugly Wrinkles, Warts And Zits...")
B. Focus the headline on the pain or motivations of your prospects. ("Don't Make The Seven Mistakes Of...")
C. Don't try to be cute, clever, creative or manipulative.
D. Forget about the myth of keeping headlines eight words or less. Make it as long as you like in order to attract your ideal client's attention.
E. Learn to write good headlines by tweaking and twisting OTHER companies' (past or present) headlines that grab YOUR attention and then make them your own.
Enough said about headlines.
THE HOOK
If your headline is good enough and if you are reaching a prospect that has an interest in your subject, they will read the beginning of the first paragraph. It's right here that you need a "hook" to keep them reading.
One of the best ways to "grab them" in that first sentence is to focus the most newsworthy point of your message in the first sentence (you can explain the details later). Here's a strategy for doing that:
Pretend that you're calling a friend to report some important news and the friend asks you what happened. The answer to that question is your lead: "Our Company Is Offering A Guarantee That Will Change Forever The Way Our Industry Does Business."
SUBHEADINGS
Sprinkle several subheadings throughout your letter when you're going to change the direction of your message. Also keep in mind that what you want to accomplish is to deliver the entire message (presentation) to your prospect by them reading the headline, the subheadings and the P.S.
THE FULL STORY
This one causes a lot of arguments between some folks and myself:
Give your complete sales presentation.
That's right, tell the entire story from beginning to end--no matter how many pages it takes.
Yes, it's true that most people won't read a long letter but so what? The important thing to remember is that you only need and want the perfect prospect to read it anyway.
You see, your ideal prospect will see your headline, and if it zeros right in on his/her hot buttons, he/she will be COMPELLED to read the entire story because this person has a strong interest in what you're selling. And when you get THAT kind of prospect, you want to give them your entire pitch. You may never get another chance to tell your story if you don't.
IT'S GOTTA BE CONVERSATIONAL
Suppose you were sitting across the table from a qualified prospect and they were not only showing strong interest in your proposal, but they were actually ASKING you to explain the whole program...how would you do it?
Would you try to speak professionally? Would you use big words? Would you try and be clever? Would you give them only part of the story?
I didn't think so.
Write a sales letter like you normally speak. Personalize your talk in a comfortable, conversational manner. Let your natural humor(assuming you have one) flow spontaneously...are we communicating?
That's how you make your sales letters conversational (and persuasive).
Note: As I'm writing this newsletter I'm thinking, "Good grief, I'd better sound conversational MYSELF and perhaps insert some humor here and there and, hmmm...maybe this is not as easy to explain (and do) as I thought."
UNDERLINED TEXT
Okay, so we said that if they don't read the entire letter we could still convey our message by having them read the bold headlines, subheadings and the P.S. at the end of the letter...right? Well, I forgot something:
When you have a key phrase or point you want to make but you don't want to "shout" at them with bold letters or a subheading, the next best thing is to simply underline the important points or key words. (I was going to give you an example here but heck, email doesn't do underlines.)
Anyway, when they read the headline, the subheadings, the underlined text, the P.S., and nothing more, you've still given your entire presentation...in a summary fashion. Not bad.
THE GUARANTEE
It's almost standard practice (whatever that means) to offer "better than risk free" guarantees in sales letters. That is, to offer a total satisfaction guarantee plus a free gift for "just trying the program out" if they should ask for a refund.
The problem with offering guarantees is that most people don't know how to take advantage of them. The idea behind guarantees is that yes, you may have to make a refund occasionally, but your guarantee could quadruple your sales overall because their is no risk in doing business with you. Get the picture?
If you're going to offer a guarantee or a warranty, you want to play it up. In other words, make it a major part of your sales pitch. Even better, make it part of your headline. Let people know about it in a big way.
Guarantees are very powerful...if you know how to use them.
TESTIMONIALS
It's almost impossible to see a successful marketing company that doesn't use testimonials as a large part of their infomercials, advertising and sales letters. Why? They work!
You already know that, but do you know HOW to get testimonials?
If you think that all you have to do is do a good job and then ask for them, you'd better think again.
To get satisfied customers and clients to write testimonial letters, appear on a video or on a cassette, you have to make it incredibly easy for them...or make it worth their while.
You have to do things like offer to write the letter for them, stick a camera in their face and ask them your questions or offer them a free gift. I could go on and on but I think you get the idea. (That last sentence is classic sales letter language.)
If you doubt the power of testimonials, just ask yourself how often do you buy things (especially expensive things) without hearing or seeing other people endorse the product first. Not too often I'll bet.
PAIN/PLEASURE
Because a sales letter is really "salesmanship in print," you write it as you would give a verbal presentation.
Since it doesn't make sense to do business with you unless your product or service can solve problems, begin your letter by focusing on the pain and end the letter on the pleasure of meeting your clients needs.
STEAL IT
Don't give me a hard time on this one because I don't really mean this in a bad way.
When you see headlines, phrases, techniques and especially conversational language that appeals to you, copy it, try it, and if it works, keep it. (There is an expression: "There is nothing new out there...it's just the way it's being presented.")
Here is an example of language used in a sales letter promoting the guarantee that has been copied so much that it's almost over used (see it this sounds familiar):
"If after 30 days you're not thrilled with (this product) simply return the package for an immediate and full refund...no questions asked and no hard feelings."
Sound familiar?
SPECIAL NOTE
NEVER send out sales letters without making it an iron-clad policy to do these three things:
1. Do a small test (say, 200 or so) BEFORE the major roll out to make sure it's going to pay off.
2. Track the numbers. Record the costs, number of pieces sent, how many inquiries, how many sales and how much each sale cost per mailing piece.
3. And most important, always, always, always back up your mailings with telemarketing. It's not uncommon to get ZERO responses to the mailings themselves only to experience a flood of sales when you call a few days behind the letter.
The marketing combination of sales letters and telemarketing for high ticket products and services is absolutely unbeatable.
The problem is that most people just won't do it. They might send out the letters but they won't make the calls. And they won't make the calls because they don't know what to say when they do.
The solution is to learn good scripts for telemarketing and then hire someone to do it for you. But let's not get ahead of ourselves...
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