One of the most powerful weapons in any salesperson’s arsenal is a well-constructed sales letter. It provides the perfect vehicle to drive home your sales presentation and allows you to reach thousands and even millions of people at once.
There are many ways to craft the perfect prose needed to capture 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 should make your reader sit up and take notice.
The secret to a great copywriter is to start your ad, article, or web page with a powerful question. This makes the reader curious from the start and usually does a good job of making them want to read more. For example:
If you could learn one simple strategy with a proven 85% success rate for getting a hefty raise at work every day for guys/gals like you, would you want to know what it is?
Asking your readers a question is a fantastic and highly effective way to get attention. Because? Because you are asking them to engage in a conversation with you. You’re not reading, lecturing, yelling, or boring them with statistics or ideas that don’t interest them.
In essence, what you are doing is engaging your reader by asking for their opinion. And at the same time he’s giving them the choice of whether or not they want to stay engaged, whether or not they want to read more of what he’s saying. What’s more, you’re getting them to open their minds, which is tremendously important, because once they’re open to what you’re saying, then you have your foot in the door.
In addition to a question, or instead of a question, another effective way to get attention is to start your piece by using what is known as a hurtful admission. For example:
If you are looking for an accountant who will do your taxes quickly and at a very low cost, then we are not for you.
But if you’re looking for an accountant who can help you save money by providing legal tips, tactics, resources, and strategies you don’t know about or have never heard of, and that can save you a ton of money this tax season, then visit our site. web Pay less taxes today to get our free report on the top ten legal ways to save money on your income taxes.
This damaging intake method is a very effective opening salvo because it is disarming. By honestly telling your reader what it is about up front, they are more likely to believe you. A hurtful admission draws attention because we all like to associate with other human beings, and when our fellow man begins to admit his weaknesses or mistakes, we find it compelling and interesting, to say the least.
It’s certainly more compelling than listening to someone go on and on about how great they are.
TIP #2
Make a list of all the benefits of the product or service you are selling and use it in order of importance in your copy.
It is well known in marketing circles that people do not buy products or services. People buy into the great results that those products or services can bring them.
You’re not buying a car when you buy a Mercedes; you are buying comfort, class, elegance and prestige. And when you buy a Volvo, you’re buying security. Does Disneyland only sell rides? Does Las Vegas only 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 doing great things for the prospect.
Even better, if you can uncover what copywriters call a “hidden benefit,” one that is secondary to the benefits the products/services were designed to achieve, then you can strengthen their appeal. We all want to be in on the secrets, ever since we were in kindergarten. For example, one hidden benefit of red wine, in addition to its great taste, is that it helps reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke by thinning the blood and thus unclogging the arteries. I think you’ll agree that this is a pretty amazing benefit.
Almost every product out there has a hidden benefit that can often be even more attractive than the obvious benefit. Like finding hidden treasures, hidden benefits draw us in and are exciting to read about.
TIP #3
Always explain your key benefit in great detail
Anyone can make claims like “we are the pioneers”, “we are the biggest”, “we are the cheapest”, “we are the best”. But not all of them can persuade us that their claims are true. All copywriters and all salespeople in general know that it is important, not imperative, to prove their claims.
This is done by explaining in detail how and why your product/service can and will succeed in achieving the things, benefits, your competing products/services cannot. Now, you don’t do this by yelling at your readers, and you don’t do it with a lot of BS hype. He also doesn’t do it by using shallow shallow 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 from legendary copywriter Claude Hopkins. In 1919 he was hired by the then-floundering Schlitz beer to design an advertising campaign that would rescue the company from declining sales. He visited the Wisconsin plant and found out just how intricate the process really was, something he never knew.
Digging deep wells to find pure water; using only the best barely and hops; facilities where they sanitized baby bottles. Hopkins told the heads of the companies to disclose this to the public, but they were concerned at first, since all companies brew their beer in more or less the same way. Hopkins responded by explaining that while this may be true, the first to tell the public about it would be seen as the first company that took the most steps in brewing.
Can you guess what happened?
People who love beer were fascinated by the subject, and before the end of the year, Schlitz had jumped from #15 to #1 in beer sales in the country. As it turns out, beer lovers were delighted to learn exactly and precisely why they should choose 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’re getting for your money?
You sure do. And your readers too. As customers, we want to know where our hard-earned dollars are going. Think about it. When you buy something, say a computer or a printer, you want to know exactly what all the features and benefits are, right? How well does it work? How fast is it? How many miles does it do per gallon?
Keep this in mind when writing your copy. You should always include all the information your prospects need to make a buying decision. Bullet points work well here, providing only the highlights. However, you should definitely include a full list somewhere.
If you’re selling something, you should include an impressive photo of all the materials your customers will receive in the box. After all, your letter is like your sales kit that provides a ton of valuable information.
TIP #5
Offer 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 salesperson. And it is important that you understand this. Being bombarded these days with messages from all directions, we have grown tired of salesmen and salesmen.
We are skeptical, regardless of how convincing their stories and claims are, and regardless of all the details described. What we need is social proof, most credible when it comes from famous and respected people, to confirm that what the salesperson or marketer says is true.
If you are selling a new system for sanitizing toothbrushes, you should get the endorsement of top dentists. The endorsement of your revolutionary dental product by the dentist of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush is impressive, isn’t it?
It’s a good idea to try to get audio and video testimonials and put them directly on your website. Be creative. Also, use website links as much as possible. For example, which of the following testimonials is most credible? A or B?
a) “They gave me the best website in the world!” Posted by John from Nebraska.
b) “My website design was amazing, the company provided unlimited design revisions, the price was affordable, and the turnaround time was fast.” Posted by Jane Betty Frier. Click on this link to view their 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.