Now, we have come to an interesting part of writing your sales letter where the champs love to express themselves and the chumps wish there was no such thing as writing a sales letter.
I once heard th e speaker at a Network Marketing seminar say, “Talk with personality”. When you compose your sales letter, write with personality. Don’t write a stiff sales letter! Not only will it be boring, your prospects would not likely buy from you– unless they have got no personality, too.
Birds of a feather flock together . If you are fun and easy-going person, express yourself in such a manner in your sales letter. Be friendly and approachable. If you are serious person, you write in a serious manner (but not too serious, it might just sell people away from your web page, and it is cheaper that way).
Remember that attract people of the same kind. If you have to take a personality test on the Internet, please do. It will be worth your time!Write casually . You may be in business but the key here is to write an informal letter. Address your prospects with “Dear Friend” and not “Dear Sir”.
Be personal and find how you can relate yourself to your prospects. If you are a break dance enthusiast, you can relate to your prospects your first six months of snapping every bone in your body before getting the power moves down.
You write with the understanding of the trouble and frustration your prospects are going through therefore you have the solution– you are going to teach your prospects how to break dance every step of the way with your how to videos!
Warning and tip: I noticed that many novices write their sales letters from the perspective of a group of people or a company. This is obvious as they always address themselves as “we”. And very often, “we” refers to the Internet Business owner – and the web site domain name!
Don’t hide behind a company or a group that never exists. Write from the perspective of “I” especially if you are working alone. It pays to be personal in your sales letter.
That way, you can build trust with your prospects. Include your signature (not your real one) and a good-looking photo of yourself, if possible.If you have at least one business partner, you are still advised to write from the perspective of “I” instead of “we”. For example, at the beginning of my sales letter, I write:
From: John Doe with Jane DeeInstead of:
From: John Doe and Jane Dee
That way, I can still write from the perspective of one person talking to my prospects and at the same time, the prospects are aware of my business partner.
More examples:If I have more two business partners
From: John Doe with Jane Dee and Robert Smith
If I have a team to represent (more than three members in the team, myself included)
From: John Doe with XYZ Team
Now that you know you should write from the perspective of one person, you should also write your letter to one person and NOT many people, although many prospects will visit the same web page.
Do NOTaddress your prospects as “you all”. Address your prospects as “you”. Make your prospect feel personal, as if you are talking to your prospect in person. Besides, I doubt your prospect will like to be reminded of the truth that he is one of the many people visiting your web page.
Study your prospects problems and needs. Very likely, the people who need your product have the same problem.
For instance, if you are selling a product on weight loss, your customers are people who are looking for ways to lose those fats– and you have the solution. Therefore, your sales letter may start like the following:
Throughout my schooling days, my classmates kept mocking me Fatty Bom-Bom. It hurts like knife through my heart. Not being able to get along with my friends, looking for a suitable partner to go with to the prom and being called names owing to my physical looks was a turning point in my life. So I had a dream.
Now, this is a personal letter from you to your prospect. Enter the word personal. Your prospect surely understands you. He is an obese himself and very likely, he is having the problems you used to have!
Let’s carry on:I know I am good-looking. I just need to get rid of those spare tires! So I set out and look for every solution possible. I sampled slimming products– one after another. But none of them worked. Today, each time I see those slimming ads, I say to myself, “hog wash!”
Up until now, your prospect understands what you have to say. He is probably thinking that those slimming ads are hogwash, too! So, you have learned an important factor here: relate yourself with your prospects.
Important! Before I forget, here’s another important reminder: do not use slangsor be too informal! Avoid using words such as “Yo dude” “whazza!” “Check out the juice” and the likes.
Write your sales letter in simple English. This is a common problem especially for professionals. Professionals are very prone to using technical jargons and flashy words that only another professional of the same field like would understand.
Understand that not everyone’s first language is English. When your prospects leave your web page without understanding a thing, you know whose fault is it.
In your sales letter, you MUST address and answer the important questions your prospect will definitely have in mind when he is reading your sales letter.
I know. The problem is that you do not know who and how many of your prospects will be seeing your web page but I will help you out here by giving you some of the most important questions you MUST answer well, because these are the questions that almost everyone will definitely ask.
Here we go:1. Why should I buy from you? What credibility do you have?
If you cannot answer all of these questions well, your chance of making even at least one sale is almost second-to-none.
Selecting the right words is critical to the success of the sales copy. Sales people and Network Marketing members aptly call it “pressing the hot buttons”. You will want to do the same for your own sales letter because it will be doing all the selling for you!
Recent research conducted at Yale University found that the following 12 words are the most personal and persuasive words in our language. Be sure to use as many of them as possible!
þ You
Notice something? It is “you” and not “I”. You see, the sales letter is about solving your prospect’s problem, not yours. You simply provide the solution. And when you write in terms of “you”, not only does it become more personal, you shift the focus of importance and limelight onto your prospect rather than blatantly talk away or praising yourself.
þ Discovery
Sometimes, your prospect may perceive a problem he is facing as “cannot be solved” that he wishes, “I hope there is a solution” or subconsciously thinking, “It would be nice if someone had already discovered it”. Thus “discover” or “discovery” is a powerful hot button to press and use in your sales letter. For example, if you are facing a situation with your spouse and fear that if the divorce is granted, you would have to part 50% of your asset, you would probably wish there is a way to stop your divorce. What if I told you that I have discovered a way? Sure, you would jump on that!
þ Safety
Most people are not risk-takers by nature, thus safety and security are appealing to them. When you especially recommend a tangible product or service, you can automatically put a seal of assurance by letting your prospect know that it is safe to use or 100% tested.
þ Money
Money, money, money– this is yet another hot button to press on! Let’s face it, we are all interested in money, whether we admit or make a self denial. Words such as “make money”, “save money” and “multiply the amount of money you already have” are hot buttons you can easily tap on.
þ Proven
You want to convince your prospect that your product or service is already proven and tested before being brought to the online public. It would really scare most people if they are to find out that they are the first to test at their own risk of time and money. If you lose the sale, you know why!
þ Results
No matter how highly you claim about your product or service in your sales pitch, your prospect would only find you spewing hot air without the results. So, you showcase your testimonials. So, you showcase your own results which you have personally tried with your own product or service. Examples of results are: “I have lost 22kg in three weeks!” “I have made $1,031.00 with DEF program!” and “With JKL Software, I have saved 3.5 hours everyday in writing and submitting my articles to 1,211 directories!”
þ Love
Tap onto your prospect’s positive emotion with this yet another hot button for you to press. Call it passion if you want to, but here are some examples on how you canuse the word “love” in your sales letter: “Don’t you love the idea of having plenty of free time with your spouse and watching your children grow up?” and “You would love this program, because it can buy you the freedom to travel”.
I have mentioned it earlier but it is worth mentioning again: most people are non-risk takers. They prefer certainty over uncertainty. Also, not everyone wants to be the first guinea pig. So, you offer a guarantee. You let your prospect know that you shoulder ALL of the risk for your prospect and he can test-drive your service or simply sample out your product for the next 30/45/90/180 days. Some even offer a lifetime guarantee, which makes your prospect feel silly if he ever leaves your page without giving your offer a try. If your prospect gets what he wants, well and good and if he does not, he can still ask for a refund. This is how confident you are in your offer, and it can clearly show to your prospect.
þ Save
We would all do anything possible to save. In anything we do– we want to save money, we want to save time, and we want to save effort. Be extremely sure to use this word in your sales letter because everyone has the desire to save himself from a lot of trouble or even work. Here is an example of how you can use the word “save”: “For only $97, you can save yourself 10 years of guessing, credit card debt, risk, time, effort, and frustration!”
þ New
The word “new” automatically beats “old” anytime in terms of opinion, facts, and even solutions. For example, in the past, people have to manually submit their articles to 100 directories. When you introduce your article submission software, you pitch in your sales letter that this is the latest, new solutions that would enable your prospect to submit their articles to 1,000 directories at the click of the button! This is an example of a new solution beating the old.
þ Easy
Don’t make things look harder than it already is. Your prospect is probably willing to pay but it had better be a good investment. Your prospect has already had enough troubles and he is probably desperate for an easier solution. For example, if you have your own software for sale, you state the benefit that it is user-friendly and that it does not require any programming or technical skills on your prospect’s part. It is that easy – even a half-brainer can run the software!
þ Health
Health is a very HUGE niche on the Internet, and this word is a hot button to those who are health-conscious. If you are selling a health product, use this word– no other exceptions! Example: “If you want to feel good living your health life free from asthma (and spend less money and pain the process), then may I suggest you get a copy of my Ancient Secrets To Asthma Cure?”
Why Not Free?
“Free” is not a hot button. In fact in some cases, it is a cold button to press. You can use this word when offering bonus incentives, but you want to make money - ultimately. This is WHY you are in business. You cannot make money from free-loaders, period.
If the person has no intentions of buying from you in the first place, he is NOT your prospect.Speaking of hype, you should refrain from using words and phrases in your sales letterthat can insult your prospect’s intelligence.
While there are many to name, I can think of one right now and it is the “Until Midnight” script. In a nutshell, a number of hyped sales letter use this “Until Midnight” script whereby the prospect reads the sales letter to the end and learns that if he does not buy the product by midnight, the price of the product will increase the next day.
Some claim that this “Until Midnight” script works well for niche products outside Internet Marketing but it boils down to this– it is plain insulting people’s intelligence.
Chances are that some of your prospect-turned-customer will become Internet savvy in the near future and discover the B.S. behind the “until midnight” mania that your sales letter – like the other 1,001 sales letters out there with the same gimmick– was taking advantage of his ignorance at that time. What would he be thinking of you?
Words are powerful tools. They can persuade people. They can even drive people away from your web page. Below, I offer you a list of commonly used words in sales letters that you should consider changing or at least, be aware of:
Cost, price Investment, amount
Monthly fee Monthly investment
People in general do not like to be sold, though selling happens all the time. So, use words to make your prospect feel involved. An investment makes your
prospect feel that his hard-earned money is put into something worthwhile. Costing, on the other hand, paints an ugly picture of putting your prospect’s hard- earned money down the drain. Do not make your prospect see that he is paying bills instead of a
Deal Opportunity
Problem Challenge
Cheaper More
economical monthly investment into
something more worthwhile. Buy means that your prospect takes his money out but
ownership means that your
prospect acquires something of value in exchange for his money. Opportunity spells out more like a chance. Deal, on the other hand, may just give your prospect the picture of those shady “deals” that crooks often do in the back alley in the 1950’s.
There are already enough
problems for everyone and no one wants anymore. The least you can do is making the “problem” a challenge and a positive one at that.
Cheap also means less in quality in many instances. Economical means being thrifty.