How To Write Kick Ass Sales Letter
Despite what people think of sales letters today, as a writer, here’s what I think of them….they work! Sales letters work provided that you get the right writer to write the sales letter for you. Some of them are totally off-the-hook, long-winded and ludicrous and present some of the most ludicrous claims ever…but they work. Sales letters, though, like to beat around the bush and tell life stories. These works are produced by sales letter writers who are unfamiliar with how these things work on the Internet. Along the way, the writer forgets that the purpose of it all…and it’s to sell. Nothing turns buyers off more than a web page that appears to be nagging at them.
The one way to sell someone something, in particular, the target market, we need to zoom in on THEM. They have a problem, they have a pain and through the sales letter, we remind them of that. Then what the writer should do is to tell them that we understand their problem and can relate to how mind-numbing their pain is….and we have the solution! We want to tell them that with that solution, we can change the way they function and live completely. If it applies, the sales letter projects that the solution will bring them the kind of happiness that they’ve been hoping for!
And not tell them that your grandfather’s smoking killed him.
Another thing I find the writer should place into their sales letter is a guarantee. It’s not always possible but if you’re selling someone something, you have to have confidence in the service/product – so, if you think you can, guarantee them that the solution will work and if it doesn’t, you’re willing to give them something in return or return their money. I realize that you could be running a risk against fraudsters but let me assure you that most of the people who actually bite the bait through your sales letter, only a very minuscule number of them are really intent on ripping you off. One or two of these jerks isn’t going to kill off your business.
It’s almost a rule of thumb that sales letter are meant to give the customers something that they will find completely hard to resist. One of my clients liked to say “I want them to feel like they’d knock themselves over the head if they figure out that they missed the boat later on”.
About halfway through the sales letter, you remind them that they have a problem again….and you have the solution….and then remind them that if they missed the boat, this boat ain’t coming back! Hey, readers of your sales letter are just like everyone else, we forget very easily. Hence, about midway through it, you need to remind them of that – but don’t repeat it too many times to a point that you appear to be nagging them.
There’s something that I really hate about sales letters….I read and write a lot of them, remember that. And it’s the fact that they don’t reveal the price of the product or service. I find it annoying because I am interested and I just want to know how much – by hiding or not talking about the price shows that it’s either not worth my time or the sales letter is trying to hide something. Some of the sales letters reveal the price at the end of the page. Some of them give me riddles….like, it costs more or less like a can of sardines. But heeeelllloooo….a can of sardines could be cheap to those in the US but what if it’s expensive in Australia? The worst types of sales letters are the ones that tell you nothing at all and all they have is the BUY NOW button. Which means that in order to find out the price of that thing, I’d have to click on the buy now button. Annoying. And I don’t buy stuff from annoying people or annoying sales letters.
So, tell your sales letter readers the cost of your products or services right there on the web page. Trust me, it works better. At the very least, you won’t piss people off because they’d be like looking for the pricing, wondering if they can afford this miraculous solution. Once pissed off, the sales letter would serve as a shield against sales instead of a net.
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