 Creating a Powerful Sales Letter
using Four Main Ingredients
By
Steven Boaze
© 2005
Everybody wants
to make more money... In fact, most people would like to hit upon something
that makes them fabulously rich! And seemingly, one of the easiest roads
to the fulfillment of these dreams of wealth is writing effective Sales Letters
and using them correctly.
The only thing is, hardly anyone gives much real thought to the basic ingredient
of selling by email, selling by web site, selling by direct mail - the writing
of money making Sales Letters. If your online/offline business is to succeed,
then you must acquire the expertise of writing sales letters that sell your
products or services!
So what makes a sales letters good or bad? First of all, it must appeal to
the reader, and as such, it must say exactly what you want it to say. Secondly,
it has to say what it says in the least possible number of words in order
to keep your operating costs within your budget. And thirdly, it has to produce
the desired results whether inquiries or sales.
Grabbing the reader's attention is your first objective. You must assume
the reader is "scanning" the page on which your sales letter appears. If
your message is in the company of other huge distractions, such as graphics,
resource links or other images, there has to be something about your Sales
Letter that causes them to stop scanning and look at your message!
So, the first two or three words of your sales letter are of the utmost
importance and deserve your careful consideration. Most surveys show that
words or phrases that quickly involve the reader, tend to be the best
attention-grabbers. Such words as: FREE... WIN... MAKE BIG MONEY...
Whatever words you use as attention-grabbers, to start your sales letter,
you should bear in mind that it will be competing with similar attention-
grabbers, only if there are other means and ways of distractive material
are present. Therefore, in addition to your lead words, your sales letter
must quickly go on to promise or state further benefits to the reader.
In the language of professional copywriters, you've grabbed the attention
of your prospect, and interested them with something that even they can do.
The next rule of good sales letters copywriting has to do with the arousal
of the reader's desire to get in on your offer. In a great many instances,
this rule is by-passed, and it appears, this is the real reason that a sales
letter doesn't pull according to the expectations of the advertiser.
Think about it - you've got your reader's attention; you've told them it's
easy and simple; and you're about to ask them to do something. Unless you
take the time to further "want your offer," your sales letter is going to
only half turn them on. They'll compare your sales letters with the others
that have grabbed their attention and finally decide upon the one that interests
them the most.
What I'm saying is that here is the
place for you to insert that magic word "guaranteed" or some other such word
or phrase. So now, we've got a sales letter that opens with or leads on that
reads:
MAKE BIG MONEY! Easy & Simple. Guaranteed!
Now the reader is turned on, and in their mind, can't lose. You're ready
to ask for their money. This is the "demand for action" part of your sales
letter. This is the part where you want to use such words as:
Limited offer - Act now! Write today! Only and/or just... Putting it all
together as you flow through your sales presentation.
These are the four ingredients of any good sales letters.
Attention - Interest - Desire - Action...
Without these four ingredients skillfully integrated into your sales message,
chances are your sales letter will just "lie there" and not do anything but
cost you money. Although such a letter could be placed in any leading publication
and would pull a good response, it's known as a "blind letter" and would
pull inquiries and responses from a whole spectrum of people reading the
publication in which it appeared. In other words, from as many "time-wasters"
as from bona fide buyers.
The point I am making is that:
l. You've got to grab the reader's attention...
2. You've got to "interest them" with something that appeals to them...
3. You've got to "further stimulate" them with something (catch-phrase) that
makes them "desire" the product or service...
4. Demand that they act immediately...
There's no point in being tricky or clever. Just adhere to the basics and
your profits will increase accordingly. One of the best ways of learning
to write good sales letters is to study the other sales letters out there
- try to figure out exactly what they're attempting to sell - and then practice
re-writing them according to the rules I've just given you. Whenever you
sit down to write a sales letter, always write it all out - write down everything
you want to say - and then go back over it, crossing out words, and refining
your phraseology.
Generally speaking, readers respond more often to sales letters that include
a name than to those showing just initials or an address only. However, because
advertising costs are based upon the size and number of words, or the amount
of space your sales letters uses, the use of some names, graphics, bold or
Italic wording in sales letters could become quite expensive. If I were to
ask our ad representatives to write to or send their money to The Research
Writers & Publishers Association, or to Book Business Mart, or even to
Money Maker's Opportunity Digest, my advertising costs would be prohibitive.
Thus we shorten our name Researchers, limit graphics or Money-Makers. The
point here is to think relative to the placement costs of your sales letters,
and to make every inch of space count on the page.
The important thing is to know the rules of sales letters writing, and to
follow them. Hold your costs in line. once your sales letter is written,
now is the time to use it wisely.
Know the Basics...
Grab Their Attention....
The rest is up to you.....
About the Author:
| Steven Boaze,
Chairman, is The Owner of Boaze.com Corporate Web Solutions. Steven is the
Author of two successful Books, thousands of articles featured in radio,
magazines newspapers and trade journals. Steven has 25 years experience in
journalism, copywriting, certified Web Developer.
http://www.copywriteplus.com |
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Web
Development
