My Proven 10 Step Sales Letter formula

1. Headline: The only job of your headline is to get my attention and force me to keep reading. Try to summarize exactly what major benefit I will gain from buying from you. What problems will you help me solve? What end result will you help me achieve? Make a bold promise and offer instant results. Your headline can determine 80% of the success or failure of your sales letter, so spend some time on this step.
2. Problem – Solution: The opening must force me to keep reading your sales letter. Show me that you understand my problem and that you have the solution. Make me really feel the pain – then paint a vivid picture of the end results you will help me achieve. A tried and tested way to start your letter is to use an “If you <have this problem> and want <main benefit>, then read this important letter right away…” angle. Summarize your entire offer and show me the major benefits I will receive.
3. Credibility & USP: I see hundreds of sales letters every day… Give me a VERY good reason to trust you. How can I be sure that you really know what you’re talking about? What makes you so special? What makes your solution unique? Establish your credibility and give me success stories if possible. Share your personal story and make me trust you.
4. Testimonials: Can you show me testimonials from people who have bought from you? Give full contact information. Try to include a few really good ones from industry experts, detailing the specific results you helped them achieve. Specifics are 10 times more powerful than general hype.
5. Benefit Bullets:Can you show me exactly what benefits I will receive, bullet by bullet? Spell out exactly what I get, every single problem you help me solve, every single benefit I get – and the end result each one will help me achieve. It should read like a long list of headlines. This is where you build up the value of your offer, so make it exciting and use specifics whenever possible.
6. Bargain Price: OK, what’s the price of this thing? Can you give me a GREAT deal if I act now? Remind me about the pain and compare your price to the cost of NOT having your solution. Dramatize the low price and explain to me exactly why it is a bargain.
7. Risk Reversal: Can you guarantee results? I don’t want any risk here – how do I know I can trust you? Give me a generous, unconditional money back guarantee. Let me know that there is no way I can lose and that you are willing to take all the risk. If I feel that I can try everything risk-free, I’d be stupid not to order.
8. Bonuses & Scarcity: Can you throw in a few valuable extra bonuses or give me a special discount if I place my order today? What do I lose if I procrastinate? Extra bonuses increase the perceived value. If I feel that I get a great limited deal by acting right away, you have my order. Include one final bribe to make me act right now and show me what I will be missing out on by NOT acting now.
9. Call to Action: Tell me to place my order NOW. Show me exactly what to do. What steps do I need to take? How long will it take – will I get instant access? What will happen after I place my order?
10. P.S. OK, you have one final chance to sell me. Remind me again of the major benefits I will receive. Remind me of the risk-free offer and the guarantee. Remind me of the deadline and tell me again that I need to act NOW to take advantage of your generous deal. If I skip straight to your PS section, it must be attractive enough to make me want to go back and read your entire sales letter.

Build Your Sales Argument in a Simple, Straight Line

Once you have captured a reader’s attention with your headline, don’t assume that you will keep that attention after the first line, second line or third line. Most readers won’t read your entire web page. Most will bail well before the end. How come? Because something you write will make them feel that you are not taking them directly towards finding what they want.

Here are 3 ways to ensure that you keep moving forward in a straight line…

Follow these three guidelines and you will significantly increase the number of people who read all the copy on your page and, of course, you will increase the number of people who take action at the end of that page.

1. Be clear about your page’s objective.

Before you start writing, determine the objective of the page. What is its purpose?

And if you’re thinking, “Well, there are a few things I want to achieve with this page,” be very careful. Because by writing to a few different objectives, you are giving your readers a few different reasons to bail on you. You’ll achieve far higher conversion rates by sticking to a single topic or message per page. In fact, that’s why landing pages were invented. Marketers understood that their general web pages were not converting very well. So they started creating stand-alone pages, or landing pages, which were created with a single objective in mind. The need for landing pages tells us we are not very good at creating and writing regular site pages that are focused on a single, clear objective.

2. Let your readers see the final outcome, from the beginning.

In other words, let your readers see where they are going. For instance, if you want to sell me a vacation in Greenland, let me see the road ahead. A typical way of doing this would be to write a headline that says something like, “5 reasons why Greenland has become the #1 travel destination for adventure lovers.”

When you write a headline like that, the reader knows where you’re taking them, and they know you are trying to sell them a vacation. They even know there are exactly five steps between the beginning and end.

But if the headline were to say, “Greenland grabs hearts of outdoor adventurers,” then I don’t really know where you’re taking me. Is this a general description of the country? Is this about travel, or about conservation? Are you trying to inform me? Or sell a vacation package?

When you make the purpose and objective of the page clear from the beginning, the reader doesn’t have to be distracted by these questions.

3. Write in a straight line, without detours.

When writing editorial there are some excellent reasons for taking the scenic route. You can add character and depth to a story with a paragraph that begins with the words, “Which reminds me…” Or, “By the way…” These scenic diversions make editorial content all the more interesting.

But when you are writing to sell, you would do better to take the direct route. When people come to the web to make a purchase, they are task oriented, impatient and anxious to find what they want and get the task completed quickly.
This means readers want their sales information given to them straight. No meandering. No side trips. Get to the meat of the message quickly, and tell them why your product and service will deliver exactly what they want and are looking for.

Conclusion…

The reason behind the need to build your sales argument in a straight line can be found in that last section. Compared to print or other offline media, users of the web are impatient and generally have a specific goal in mind before they even arrive at your page. If they want to buy something, then they want to find what they want quickly. No side shows. No diversions. Keep your sales pages direct, straight and uncomplicated.

Copy Writing

Writing copy for the internet, and especially for internet ads and Landing Pages is quite different from any other writing. In this area of my blog I will be teaching you how to write more effective copy and whenever possible, why it is more effective.