I hope you have had a chance to read part one of my ten tips for writing a winning sales letter. If not, click here Writing A Winning Sales Letter Pt 1 to get you to the first five tips. This post covers my final five tips and I hope you find them of interest and benefit.
Benefits, Benefits, Benefits
In this part of your sales letter you give the reader every reason that you can muster so that their emotions take over and they buy from the heart. Present the reader with every fact, example and every scrap of evidence at your disposal so that their emotions make the purchase.
You outline each and every benefit for your product over and over until the reader will wonder how he , or she, has survived for so long without it
Provide Evidence
If the reader sees glowing testimonials from users then they will be more inclined to purchase. If a sales related product, show results of the use of the product. If you can get endorsements from market leaders then that can be a useful source of evidence.
But what if the product is new and has never been sold before then you need to get 3-7 “experts” in the area in which the product is based to create a product review for you. This is usually done by giving a copy of the product pre-release to them in exchange for an unbiased review. You would hope that they are kind to you, but without telling untruths about the product.
In fact I would recommend that once you get to a beta version, you get the product reviews done at this early stage as they can highlight any errors or omissions before you launch and save you having to make corrections after launch!
Explain The Cost
By now in your sales letter, you are getting to the bog sell part and this is where the cost is best explained.
If the cost appears low, explain why! If the cost appears high, explain why and show the savings/income that can be achieved by buying your product
Always Give A Guarantee
You must ALWAYS give the customer a full guarantee as this reduces the perceived risk to then of buying your product.
Yes, you will get time wasters who will “buy” your product, copy it and then ask for a refund to get their money back. Pay them back in full without fail, even covering any affiliate costs as well as this will give you more credence in the marketplace. As this will be a downloaded product in the main, you can even tell them to keep it!
Create Urgency
Finally, if the prospect has got this far then they are almost sure to be buying your product, but to make them punch in their credit card number, add some urgency!
Perhaps say only 100 sets available at this price or the offer ends at the end of the month, but if you do set a time limit, stick to it! You can always open it up again for the next month again! How many times have you seen sites that say “24 hours before the offer closes” and, as you refresh, the 24 hours start again!
By creating urgency, you are creating a call to action requiring their immediate response. This makes it clear to the reader what he is now required to do to secure your product.
So will these tips help you create your own winning sales letters or, at least, make you more able to critique one that has been generated for your business. Let me know below
Next time you receive a sales letter, see how many of the ten points described in my two posts are covered. Tell me below!
2 replies to "Writing A Winning Sales Letter Pt 2"
Hi Dave
Great post about sales letter, with regards to your questions, I recently received a hard copy sales letter for a product via the traditional method i.e. through snail mail and in that sales letter, it feature mostly of what you have discusses i.e. benefits through out on why we should buy it and how it could help us, there was definitely an urgency as in the latter part on the sales order form, a call to action about replying back within 10 days to receive a free bonus gift, as well as a price discount, oh and that there were only 150 copies available.
Least not to forget lots of testimonials from people I haven’t heard of but had surprisingly tested the product, and finally a guarantee of 30 days No Quibble money back refund.
Surprisingly though I didn’t see any justifications or explanations of the price, so…. that was different.
Anyway Dave, I look forward to reading your next blog posts, keep up the progress
Kind regards
Sky
Sky Nealon recently posted…P2S – Week 11 – More Research
Thanks for those kind words Sky
I think sales letters have grown so long over the years because people want to put everything they can in to them so you buy just so you can stop reading. With a web based sales page, you don’t often really notice how long it is, it is only when you get one by post that you can feel the weight and hold all those pages!
I’m putting together part 3 of 2 (if that makes sense?) as I missed a few things out of the first two posts. Keep an eye out for that!
Many thanks again
DaveT