How To Create A Great Sales Letter To Funnel Prospects To Customers

Why write your own copy? Well, who knows more about you, your product, your business than you?

Copywriting is one of the most important skills to acquire, whether your writing a sales letter, an article, a press release or even a classified ad. They all contain similar parts.

You may consider yourself as a "Non-Writer" or tell yourself that you can't write. Whether or not your were any good in English class doesn't matter because when copywriting many of the common rules are broken.

In order to write copy and become good at it, you must do it and keep doing. (practice makes perfect) By writing copy using the proper techniques you will start to see the difference in your results.

A big reason for learning how to write your own copy instead of outsourcing it is primary based on how expensive it is to hire a professional copywriter. Top copywriters charge upwards of $10,000 or more per sales letter.

When you write your copy, there are 5 phases to follow:
- Opening
- Body
- Offer / Overcome
- Close
- Scanability

OPENING - is what your can see "Above The Fold" before you start scrolling. The opening focuses on 3 parts - powerful headline, target market identified, enticing hook.

Your headline is the most important part of any copy whether it's a 10 page sales letter or a 3 line classified ad.

Types of Headlines:
- How To: How to make $500 a day from answering questions.
- If _____, Then _______: If you have this problem/interest, then I have this solution.
- List (# specific): 3 top sources for creating profitable leads.
- Credibility: When Guru's need quick cash, what do they do?

Target Market Identified - using "Attention Market" ie: "Attention Copywriters" or using Dear Copywriters.

Enticing Hook - If you have this interest/problem, this will be the most important letter you will ever read.

BODY - The majority of all purchases especially those online are made on emotions. Buying decisions are made because you WANT it, not because you NEED it. Most of the time you will give yourself or someone else a reason why you need it, even though you don't. By doing this you are selling yourself or someone else.

The use of features and benefits of the product is the most powerful selling tactic when used correctly. Most people don't understand how this works and usually get it wrong. You must first identify the "Feature" of your product: what the product has. Next add the "Advantage" of the feature - what it does. Then the "Motive" - what motives of the feature is satisfied. And finally comes the "Benefit" - what the feature means to the customer. The benefit is the gain the customer will get form a specific feature.

Most people get the Benefits wrong, instead of using the benefit they use the advantage. To make a powerful benefit, add the phrase "so that" or "means" after your feature. By continually adding "so that" until you can't think of any more, you will then have your powerful benefit.

Example: Cordless House Phone
Feature - Cordless
Advantage - cord doesn't get tangled up
Motive - saves time unraveling cord
Benefit - means you don't have to spend time unraveling your phone cord so that you have more room to move with the phone so that it doesn't interfere with your phone calls.

Bullets - use your features in your bullets. Your bullets can make the difference whether the order is made mainly due to scanners - people who scroll through you sales letter usually take notice of bullets.

Use a story (yours or someone else's) in your own words grabs the prospect and pulls them through your sales letter.

OFFER / OVERCOME:

Offer - explain exactly what the prospect gets including bonuses. Make it easy to see, you don't want to hide it. Use a box with: different background color, border color, border size, border style - dotted, solid, double, etc.

Overcome Objections - too much money, too much time, too difficult. By overcoming these objections in now, you will eliminate people's doubts and create more sales. It can also lead to less support emails.

Strong Guarantee - guarantees increase sales, you may receive some refunds but more sales. By using a guarantee, it asks as a safety net for prospects making it risk free. To reduce refunds, use longer guarantees as it will put less pressure on the customer instead of forcing them to use the product right away. By having a longer guarantee such as 90 days or 365 days, many customers will set it aside and forget about it (adding to their virtual dusty bookshelves) If you use a 30 day guarantee, they may find they don't have enough time to put it use or see results and request a refund.

CLOSE - includes a summary of your product, usually 2-3 paragraphs. Your Call To Action - why they need to buy now: time limit, limited # available, increasing in price, bonuses available

Post Script - is the 2nd most important part of your sales letter. You should include 3 post scripts: P.S., P.P.S, P.P.P.S, after each include a link to order. The second post script has been tested to bring in the best results. Your post script can include points not included in the body, tips, stats, highlights, release dates, etc.