Assumption: You have something to sell that people determine is worth buying.
Let’s talk about the basics of writing sales copy.
Sales Copy 101
Your sales copy must answer the following questions:
- Here is what I have to offer.
- Here is why it may be a fit for you.
- Here are the most frequently asked questions about my product/service.
- Here is what you need to do next if my product/service is a fit for you.
There’s more that can be done to write great sales copy, but if you just follow the brief guidance I gave you then you are ahead of most small business owners in answering the questions that your ideal clients need answered to consider taking the next call to action.
Sales Copy + Blog Platform
Today, more small business owners are using their blog to promote their products, services, and programs.
- WordPress is the best blog platform hands-down. Google love, developer plug-ins, buzz, etc…
- SEO sticky. Google loves blogs (especially WordPress) and so a blog receiving constant traffic can promote a product, service, or program very easily.
- Format flexibility. You can make a WordPress blog page not look like a blog page and still maintain benefits of a blog page over a standard HTML page. See how we promote one of our programs on a blog page that looks nothing like a standard blog page (But it is.)
A friend of The Strategic Incubator, Jonathan Fields of Career Renegade provides an example of great sales copy while using WordPress to promote an upcoming program.
A few more tips to remember when writing a sales letter, which I hope will prove to be useful to your readers. Some of these points you have already covered to an extent, but repetition for emphasis never did anyone any harm.
Whilst it is true that the beginning and the end of the sales letter are the most important parts of any sales copy, but that does not mean that the rest of the sales letter is any less important.
The first part of your sales letter, generally speaking is not the headline, it is the preheader.
The purpose of the preheader is purely to get the reader, to read the headline.
The purpose of the headline, as well as getting one’s attention, is to have this person/s read the first sentence.
The purpose of the first very short sentence, is to get people to read the second sentence and so on and so forth (a slippery sales funnel).
The introduction to the sales letter is all about setting the tone of the sales copy, otherwise referred to in the trade as creating the buyers or buying environment.
You can do this by getting the potential buyer to say YES! – as much as possible in their subconscious mind.
You might ask questions which also empathize with the target audience feelings of frustration and pain.
Realize that most people do not buy for rational reasons, they buy to satisfy their emotions.
It is your job with any sales letter to move the prospect from a feeling of frustration or pain to the emotion of pleasure. If you do this well, you will get the sale.
The main offer you should make as irresistible as possible, giving the prospect every reason to want to buy from you and you alone over your competitor’s in the same niche market.
Do not underestimate the use of scarcity, testimonials and bullet points to draw attention to your benefits.
There is a vast difference between benefits and features, another good point to bear in mind.
Keep your language simple, do not use overly complicated long words. They might help you to think that you look intelligent but in salesmanship in print, they are always best avoided.
Offer a darn good guarantee, usually longer is better. 365 days sounds a lot better than 1 year.
Never underestimate the power of the PS points, these should once again draw attention to your main benefits.
Bonuses, make sure they are related to your product or service and use no more than 3 of them. If you pay too much attention to the bonus items and not the offer itself, your main offer will lose it’s credibility.
Finally – On the point of the guarantee.
If anyone is selling an informational product, for example an eBook or information system and you write a sales letter for that, in order to get more sales….don’t be afraid to offer a longer guarantee over a shorter guarantee.
What you’ll find is that a longer guarantee your offer will have more credibility in the mind of the reader if you employ this tactic.
So, rather than offering a 30 day guarantee, extend that guarantee period up to 365 days instead.
In doing so you take away any urgency to get a refund if any reader is not perfectly happy with the information ordered and received.
They’ll put it off, asking for the refund, telling themselves, ‘Hey! I’ve got all year to ask for this refund’. And they will never get around to it in the vast majority of cases.
It works a treat this strategy. It makes your offer look more valuable and you retain more money in your pocket as a direct result of employing this strategy on your sales letters.
In a nutshell if you can offer a longer guarantee over a shorter guarantee, do so!
Here is to everyone’s continued success, writing their sales letters!
Best regards.
Mark Andrews
http://IMCopywriting.com
Internet Marketing Copywriting
@Mark What a great and comprehensive overview of sales copy. I learned more from you with your comment then I’ve learned from reading books. Really appreciate. Really enjoyed your point on 365 day guarantee.