subject: How To Structure A Sales Letter [print this page] When your livelihood is writing sales copy for online and offline businesses, its absolutely crucial that your copy converts, or your clients simply wont come back! A huge proportion of my work is repeat business, and a big reason for that is because over the last 7 years or so, Ive developed a formula that works over and over again, for any product Im asked to sell.
So if you cant afford to hire a sales letter copywriter like myself, then heres my formula for writing a profit-pulling, high-converting sales letter
STEP #1 The Headline
Sure, its a pretty obvious one, but its arguably the most important part of any sales letter, so neglect it at your peril! The fact is, if you want your prospect to remain on your sales page once theyve landed on it, then your headline needs to grab their attention straightaway, and keep them reading down to
STEP #2 The Sub-Headline
As well as the headline, its also a good idea to include a sub-headline, too. This allows you to expand on the main benefit of your product offer, or even include another major benefit as well. A sub-headline essentially gives you room to include powerful pulls, without making the headline waffle on too long!
STEP #3 - Address The Prospects Problems
At the beginning of the main body copy, you need to address the BIG PROBLEM (the reason why the prospect is on your page in the first place), and then make it crystal clear that youll be providing a SOLUTION to this problem very soon. A popular method of doing this is to ask a few questions, like do you wish that you could lose 10 lbs? (for a fat loss product), or are you fed up with always being broke? (for a business opportunity or make money online type of product).
STEP #4 Talk About The Benefits Of Your Product
After youve addressed the prospects main problem(s), then you need to make it clear that YOUR product will offer the solution theyve been looking for, and if they stick around for a little while longer, youll reveal precisely what it is! This is the perfect place to list some of the main benefits of the product, in order to whet their appetite a little and keep them reading.
STEP #5 Reveal Who You Are And Why Youre Qualified To Help
Naturally, If youre reading a piece of sales copy and thinking about buying the product in question, then youll want to know who the product creator is, and whether or not theyre actually qualified to help you. So at this point you need to introduce yourself to the reader, and reveal your qualifications and experience. Only by doing this will you be able to build trust and credibility in the minds of your readers - a crucial thing to consider when it comes to selling anything online.
STEP #6 Reveal The Product!
After youve addressed the prospects problems, listed some of the main benefits of your offer, and introduced yourself, the reader should now be very keen on finding out exactly what the product is. And this is the point at which you should reveal the product, and explain exactly how its going to help provide a solution to their problem.
STEP #7 Build Value
Once you introduce the product, you should then be working on building value. This can be done by splitting up the product package into individual components, and assigning a value to each one of them, which when added together, far exceed the actual price. By the time the prospect reaches the order button, your product should represent a huge bargain.
STEP #8 Include Bonus Products
Another great way to increase perceived value is to add free bonuses to the product package, which of course, must be strongly related to the main product. Including a bonus or two is a great way to convince fence-sitters to take the plunge and click on the buy button!
STEP #9 The Price
After youve revealed exactly what the prospect will receive with their product package, its time to hit them with the price! And as I said, the price you list must appear very cheap at this stage, which it will (if youve done a good job of adding perceived value)!
STEP #10 Include A Money-Back Guarantee
These days, its absolutely crucial that you include a money-back guarantee with your product, because it demonstrates that you have absolute faith in what youre selling. More importantly though, it reduces the risk of buying, and therefore, makes it far more likely that the customer will go ahead with the purchase.
STEP #11 Include A Post-Script Or Three!
At the end of the sales letter, its vital that you add a post-script, because studies have shown that after the headline, this is the most read section of any piece of sales copy! Therefore, you need to include the main selling points and benefits of the product. In short, if a prospect were to ONLY read the post-script, it needs to be strong enough to convince them to go back and read more!
Now, of course, this isnt the ONLY sales letter formula that you can use, but its certainly a good one to go with if youre not sure how to go about writing sales copy. And hey, if you want to sidestep all of the hard work and just get a professional direct response copywriter to do it for you, then feel free to get in touch!
