Tweet

Elements of a Sales Letter and What Makes a Good Headline?

Guest post by: Charles Godbout

Article Overview: The first step to write a good sales letter is to describe the problem: When people first reach your sales letter, you need to put them in the right frame of mind. Talk about their problem -- what you think has brought them to your page or email. Tell a story that empathizes with them, telling your personal story. Make the problem bigger, so that they feel like they need a solution. Every sales letter has a problem, that of paying for your product. You want to make their problem big enough, so that it's more worth their while to pay for your product than to suffer whatever problem brought them to you.

Elements of a Sales Letter and What Makes a Good Headline?

The first step to write a good sales letter is to describe the problem: When people first reach your sales letter, you need to put them in the right frame of mind. Talk about their problem -- what you think has brought them to your page or email. Tell a story that empathizes with them, telling your personal story. Make the problem bigger, so that they feel like they need a solution. Every sales letter has a problem, that of paying for your product. You want to make their problem big enough, so that it's more worth their while to pay for your product than to suffer whatever problem brought them to you.

Educate: Next you educate them about your product. Talk about the solution to their problem. Talk about the features and uses of your product. As you mention these, tie them in with the problem. Present the proof that your product works. Include testimonials and case studies. Make sure testimonials describe tangible results people have achieved with your product.

Introduce the Offer: Talk about the benefits of the product, and tie them in with the features. How will this product benefit them in relation to their problem? Why do they need to buy the product right now?

Call to Action: This is where you bring the reader into your order form or your website. Lay out your guarantee. Tell them what you want them to do next.

What Makes a Good Headline? It doesn't matter what size it is, as long as it pulls people in. It pre-qualifies them before they read the sales letter, meaning it has to let people know right away whether your product applies to them.

The Who Else Headline: It says something like: "Who Else Wants to Enjoy This Benefit?" "Who Else Wants to Explode Their Income by A Million Dollars?" Adding the "who else" part can almost double your conversion rate. So take, "Discover The Secret to Losing Weight," and add "who else" to it to get: "Who Else Wants to Discover The Secret of Losing Weight."

The If Then Headline: If you meet this condition, then you can enjoy this benefit. Example: "If You Can Copy and Paste, Then You Can Boost Traffic to Your Website." It appeals to the broadest range of people, because everyone can copy and paste.

The Give me, and I'll Headline: Give me something, and I'll give you this benefit. Example: "Give Me Thirty Days, and I'll Give You Sculpted Abs."

The How To Headline: How To Enjoy XX Benefit. Example: "How to Uncover The Secrets to Boosting Traffic to Your Website." Putting "How To" before a verb has been known to increase response 40 to 60%.

For a hundred good headlines, Google "100 greatest headlines."

Related Articles
  Using a Pre-Headline and Using a Story
  Writing Sales Letters and Pull your customer In.
  The Most Powerful Marketing Strategy You will Ever Learn
  We Live in a Headline World; Will Yours Do its Job?
  How To Make Sure Your Sales Letters Get Read

Article Tags: case studies, conversion rate, frame of mind, losing weight, million dollars, personal story, proof, tangible results, testimonials
Referred by: http://jaykubassek.com



Related Forum Posts
Important tips for online business - 1.Traffic. Without traffic, you have nothing. It is like having a store where nobody walks through the door. Without traffic, there is none to buy your product. 2. Your Sales Letter. This is where you sell your product. It is of vital importance that you have a sales letter that converts, and you should work on it continuously to increase conversion. Otherwise those prospects that you have got to your website will just leave and go somewhere else. 3. Your list! You should continuously be trying to build your list and your network. It is easier to convert a qualified prospect into a customer, and an existing customer in to a repeat customer. Hope this helps guys!
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Elements of Style - Can't comment on the two books you listed, but Strunk and White's Elements of Style belong on every writer's shelf.
Re: Stopping Drive-by Spam - I've also noticed that in this and other forums. I wonder why they do it that way. Makes it easier to catch them. I suppose it's probably just laziness. I've even seen the same person spam the same thread multiple times one after another with the exact same post. I guess that just how stupid some of these spammers are!!!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Coaching Tip: Identify Your Core Values

The OLD Way of Advertising, May Not be so OLD

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.