Sales Letter Secrets - Michele PW

Sales Letter Secrets: Rev Up Your Business With Copy That Sells!

Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek)

Creative Concepts and Copywriting LLC

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Sales Letter Secrets: Rev Up Your Business With Copy That Sells! Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) • www.michelepw.com

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Disclaimer/Copyright This home study course is NOT free. You do not have the right to give it away, sell it or distribute it under any circumstances.

The material contained in this course is protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is forbidden.

The author and publisher of this course have used their best efforts in creating their course. They make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness or completeness of the contents of this course. The information in this course is strictly for educational purposes. By using this information, you are taking full responsibility for your own actions.

The author and publisher disclaim any warranties (express or implied), merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. The author and publisher shall in no event be held liable for any loss or other damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages. As always, the advice of a competent legal, tax, accounting or other professional should be sought.

The author and publisher do not warrant the performance, effectiveness or applicability of any site listed in this course. All links are for information purposes only and are not warranted for content, accuracy or other implied or explicit purpose.

Table of ContentsDisclaimer/Copyright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

About Michele PW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

How to Use This Workbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Before You Start Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Sales Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

Checklist for Writing a Sales Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82

Headlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84

Why Knowing Who Your Customers Are is so Important . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86

Testing/Tweaking (and Other Tips to Help Your Conversion Rate) . . . . . . . . .88

Psychological “Hot Buttons” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89

Three Tips to Improve Your Writing Rhythm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90

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About Michele PWConsidered one of the hottest direct response copywriters and marketing consultants in the industries today, Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) has a reputation for crafting copy and creating marketing campaigns that get results.

Michele started writing professionally in 1992, working at agencies and on staff as a marketing/communication/writing specialist. She started Creative Concepts and Copywriting LLC in 1998 and has never looked back.

Going into business for herself was the best thing she ever did. She discovered a passion for combining her creativity with her writing ability to help solve marketing problems for her clients.

But it was in 2004 when her business really started to take off. Her articles about marketing, creativity and copywriting are spreading rapidly over both the Internet and print publications. She started speaking to various organizations around Arizona. And she started working with well-known names including Melanie Benson Strick (Success Connections), international speaker Eric Lofholm, Christopher Howard Company, Adam Urbanski (Marketing Mentors), Kelly O’Neil (UpLevel Strategies), Beth Schneider (Process Prodigy), Mitch Carson (Impact Products) and her mentor Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero (Red Hot Copy).

Michele has completed two novels and a marketing/creativity ebook called “Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money.” She holds a double major in English and Communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Currently she lives in the mountains of Prescott, Arizona with her husband Paul and her three border collies, Nick, Maddie and Roxie.

Introduction Congratulations on purchasing this home study course! You’ve taken a big step toward successfully marketing your business.

I designed this course to give you choices. You can take a couple of hours to go through the entire course and get a good overview of the sales letter process, you can use it to write your first sales letter, or you can come back to it time and time again, every time you need to write promotional materials for your business.

While this course focuses on the long copy sales letter (in other words, the online letter you have to scroll down forever to find out where the price is) you can use these principles to write anything you want – from emails to postcards to web site copy. Once you master something as complex as the long copy sales letter, it’s much easier to craft shorter versions for other uses.

What makes this home study course different is the format. Most copywriting products focus on the pieces, I concentrate on the whole. I walk you through a sales letter, step-by-step, so you see how the pieces are knitted together to form the complete letter.

In addition, I’ve made this workbook interactive. When you’re finished with this course, I want you have your sales letter completed and ready to use.

I chose the sales letter to focus on because it’s the “workhorse” of promotional materials. Once you have a sales letter that converts well (translation, it converts readers to buyers) it becomes an asset for your business. It will make money for you each time you use it, with little or no effort on your part.

Remember, copywriting is salesmanship in print, so the idea is to create an environment that’s easy for your target market (i.e., the people you’re targeting to be your client or customer) to take action. You’re not trying to get people to do something against their will, you’re simply making it easy for them to invest in a product or service that will solve their problems.

Ready? Let’s get started!

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How to Use This Workbook The best way to start is to set aside a few hours to go through all the material once and get an overview of the process.

First, watch the DVD and page through the workbook.

Then, listen to the bonus audios. The “Discover The Secret of What Your Customers REALLY Want and How to Sell to Them” will walk you through researching your target market and the benefits of what you’re selling. The interview with Ann DeVere is a great overview of copywriting in general.

Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to dig in and write your own sales letter. Start by completing the exercises in “Discover The Secret of What Your Customers REALLY Want and How to Sell to Them” and in the next chapter of this workbook “Before you start writing.”

Then it’s time for the workbook. You’ll notice I have the sales letter from the DVD reprinted, plus I’ve included a description of the elements and added a space for you to take notes and start writing your own letter. (For instance, for headline, underneath the headline from the actual sales letter, I’ve included some information about headlines and a place for you to write your own.) As you write each section, you’ll see how that section fits with the one before and the one after. Before you know it, the first draft of your sales letter will be complete!

Once the first draft is complete, put it in a drawer overnight (at least) or longer if you can spare it. Then, go back and start the editing and polishing process. Here are some tips to help you get started:

1. Read it out loud (yes, that really works). Reading out loud helps you discover where sentences falter (or fall down completely). Take notes on awkward passages to revisit later.

2. Use verbs whenever possible. Verbs create a sense of action, of movement, to your copy. (Strong writing relies on verbs, but especially in copywriting where you want people to take action. You want your copy to incorporate that sense of movement).

3. Look for long sentences and shorten them. Most people make the mistake of too long sentences versus too short, so don’t allow your sentences to get away from you.

4. Take a hard look at the word “that.” Chances are, you don’t need it. And all it’s doing is cluttering up your copy.

5. Remember, the worst mistake you can make is to be boring. If writing doesn’t come naturally to you, this might be tough for you, but keep striving to make your writing as interesting and entertaining as possible.

I’ve included an article about writing in the Appendix if you want more help. And if you’re really stuck, you might want to consider hiring a good editor to smooth out your copy.

Before You Start Writing There are a few things you need to do before you ever set pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).

First, you need to do your research. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing your own copy or writing someone else’s, you still need to review background information. Here’s a list of materials to get you started. (Don’t worry if you don’t have some of them, but do your best. The more complete the better).

• All previous promotional materials, including but not limited to:

– Web sites

– Ads

– Brochures

– Articles

– Copies of speeches

– Press releases

– Catalogue pages/sell sheets

– Direct mail packages

• Samples of what the competition is doing (and as many promotional materials you can pull from the competition)

• Samples of the product

• Any technical specs, user instructions or operation manuals

• Letters from customers (testimonials AND complaints)

• Industry news or other industry facts and figures

Next, you’ll need to research your customers (or target market or ideal customer). My bonus “Discover The Secret of What Your Customers REALLY Want and How to Sell to Them” is full of exercises to walk you through this process.

Remember, one of the MOST important things you need to know about your target market is what keeps them up at night. What’s their pain. Once you know that, it will be much easier to craft a solution that solves their problems.

Buying is an emotional process, so you want to connect with your target market on a psychological level. Not only do you want to dig in and provide a solution to get rid of their pain (people move away from pain more than they move toward pleasure) but you also want to get the benefit of the benefit. In other words, people don’t want to make money, they want what money buys them (i.e. security, a new car, their child’s college education). Once you tap into what it is they’re REALLY buying, it will be easier to make the sale.

Once you’ve done your due diligence, it’s time to get started writing.

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Sales Letter

Prehead:

• Found above the headline

• Can be used to identify the target market (i.e. Attention golfers) or to further prequalify potential customers

• Also can be used as an extension of the headline to add curiosity, push more psychological buttons or add more benefits

Write your prehead here:

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Headline:

• First thing people read

• Red is the best color to use for headlines

• The number one job of the headline is to get your target market to start reading the actual letter (however, remember the number one job of the prehead, subhead and audio/photos is to get people to read the first sentence of the actual letter. The job of the first sentence is to get people to read the second sentence, etc.)

• More information about writing headlines can be found in the Appendix. Write your headline here:

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Subhead:

• Used to add more benefits, more curiosity, push more psychological hot buttons, etc.

• Blue is a good color for subheads

Write your subhead here:

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Photo and audio:

• Adds credibility and helps your target market realize there’s a “real” person behind the sales letter (video is even better)

• Involves another sense (auditory)

• Provides interaction (target market needs to click to turn the audio on and/or off ) – getting people to interact gets them involved with your sales letter, which increases conversion rates. (Although I’ve read some studies which say having the audio come on automatically is better for conversion, you might want to test both ways.)

Write your audio script here:

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Free Ecourse signup:

• Important to get contact info from your visitors so you can follow up. No matter how high your conversion rate is, there will always be people who aren’t ready to buy now (for whatever reason) and you need to follow up with them so when they’re ready to buy they’ll remember to contact you.

• I prefer ecourses to other downloads to get contact info because you’ll be sending them a series of emails, so your target market will be getting multiple touches and have multiple reminders to buy.

Write the title of what you’re going to give away here:

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• Remember to only require people to give their first name and primary email address. If you want to ask for additional contact info, such as physical addresses (which is a smart strategy, you always want the option to mail things to your potential customers as you can increase your conversion rates with direct mail) make sure those aren’t required. You don’t want to scare off potential customers by asking for too much information too fast.

• Always include your privacy policy, you want to reassure potential customers their personal info is safe with you.

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Introduction:

• Needs to capture your target market’s attention and get them to read

• Stories are good for introductions because they’re inherently hypnotic.

• A good 3-part format for sales letters is “problem, agitate, solution.” Start with your target market’s problem or pain – what keeps them up at night. That’s what they’re looking for, a solution for their problem. Start with problem.

• People move away from pain more than they’ll move toward pleasure.

Write your introduction here:

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Subhead:

• Subheads are important to have throughout the letter. They accomplish a couple important tasks:

– Break up the letter (so it doesn’t look intimidating to read)

– Allow skimmers (or people scrolling down the letter) to still get a sense of what the letter is about, so as to encourage them to actually read.

– Help you transition from on point to another.

Write your subheads here:

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Agitate:

• Here’s where we start agitating the problem, to further define the problem and also further define who this product is for.

Write your “agitate” here:

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Bullets:

• Bullets are similar to subheads as they help break up the sales letters and make it easier for skimmers and scrollers to absorb the letter.

• Bullets are also a good way to pack in a lot of information in a concise way.

Write your bullets here:

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Testimonials:

• Boost credibility and believability (people won’t believe you if you say you’re the greatest, but they might believe someone else).

• Helps overcome the objection that “this won’t work for me.” For instance, let’s say someone reads your copy who is a mother with 5 children. That person might say “Oh, this won’t work for me, I have 5 kids.” But you have a testimonial from someone with 6 kids. Now you’ve overcome that objection.

• If you’re promoting a new product or service and don’t have any testimonials, don’t sweat. You can use testimonials from other products or services until you collect some for your current product. If you don’t even have those, offer to give the product away for free or do some volunteer work, with the understanding they’ll write you a testimonial.

• Make your testimonials as specific as possible. For instance, a testimonial that says: “Jill is a fabulous consultant, I love working with her,” isn’t nearly as powerful as one that says: “With Jill’s help, I increased my revenue by 300%.”

• Adding audio to your testimonials increases conversion, and adding video increases it even more (adds credibility).

• Format testimonials by putting them in a colored box (yellow is good) and adding a photo.

• Scatter testimonials throughout the sales letter in natural “breaks” or “pauses” in the flow of the copy.

• Get as many testimonials as possible. The bigger problem is not having enough vs having too many.

Make a list of testimonials you have or you can get (tip: offer to write testimonials for your busy clients or customers and get their approval):

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Make a list of testimonials you have or you can get (tip: offer to write testimonials for your busy clients or customers and get their approval):

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Your story:

• Helps add credibility and believability. People do business with people they know, like and trust. By putting your story in there, they’ll feel like they know you and be more interested in doing business with you.

• This story in particular is very powerful because Melanie used to be where her target market is. So she understands her target market’s pain, plus she knows the solution works because she used it herself. Her story helps create a very strong connection with her target market. If you have a powerful story like that, definitely include it whenever possible.

Write your story here:

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Not your fault:

• Especially in this day and age, people want to hear things aren’t their fault and the reason why they’re stuck, broke, overweight, unhappy, have a terrible golf swing, etc. is because they don’t know the “secret.” Once they know this, the problem will vanish. (And, chances are you ARE selling something that will legitimately help them with their problem, so all you’re doing is reassuring them that it will be much easier to move to the solution with your product/service.)

Write your “not your fault” statement here:

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Write your “not your fault” statement here:

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Solution:

• We’ve now moved to the solution part of the letter, where we describe the product/service in detail and explain how it will benefit the target market and solve the problem.

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Give the target market a taste of your product/service:

• Many great sales letters include some nuggets of information (explaining the “what” but saving the “how” for the product or service.) This information:

– Lends credibility that your product/service really is for real

– Makes people think “if they’re giving this away in the sales letter, think how much MORE information is in the product/service”

– Provides some interaction (depending on how you do it, but if you can get people thinking answers in their heads or otherwise interacting with your sales letter, your conversion rates will probably increase)

• By giving your target market a taste, you’ll get them to start imagining owning the product or having the service. Once they mentally make the leap to having the product, it’s easier for them to actually make the purchase.

Write some scenarios to provide a taste of your product or service:

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Order now links:

• Scatter order now links throughout the sales letter – when someone decides to buy, the last thing you want to do is make them search for the link to order.

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Picture of the product:

Whenever possible, include a picture of the product – especially if it’s digital (you want to make it as real as possible).

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Quiz:

• Optional, but can add interaction and some fun to a letter (remember, being boring is the worst sin you can commit in marketing)

Write a quiz here:

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Features and benefits:

• Here’s where you start to list all of the benefits of your product or service.

• Features are the “what” of your product/service whereas the benefit is the “why” (why anyone would want it). For instance, a feature of a cell phone is that it’s small, the benefit would be it’s portable and can go anywhere.

• Benefits should fit your target market. Take the cell phone example. While being small might be a huge benefit for teenagers, it would be a deterrent for senior citizens because they can’t read the numbers on something that small.

• More information and exercises on writing features and benefits are in the bonus.

Write your benefits here:

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More interaction/giving target market a taste of the program.

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More interaction/giving your target market a taste of the program

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Bullets:

• These bullets are a little different than the other bullets because they contain a “teaser” – for instance, “The most powerful goal setting technique ever created.” It gets your target market wondering what exactly that is. Or “The most dangerous word in goal setting and why you must BANISH it if you want to succeed” which contains some pain/negative (you start to get your target market thinking “what is that word and am I using it?”)

• If you are writing these bullets to describe your information product or book, then it’s a good idea to include page numbers, as it makes the product real.

• Also, you’ll notice you can work in some features of the product (how many pages, how many CDs, etc.) Features do have their place in the buying process. Buying is an emotional process. Once someone has emotionally decided to buy, they need to get their “logical” mind on board, and the best way to do that is through features. People need to know they’re getting a good deal, and describing the features of the product is a good way to do that.

Write your bullets here:

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Offer:

• Here’s where you start crafting the offer and describe exactly what the prospect is getting. You’ll notice more features are listed, so they can see exactly what they’re getting. (You want to create a situation where people perceive the value of what they’re buying is far greater than the price you’re asking. You want your prospects to feel like they’re getting a deal.)

• You’ll also notice phrases like “step-by-step, paint-by-the-numbers system, fraction of the time.” Two of the biggest objections is money and time. The money objection we’ll get to a little further down, but the time and ease of use has been woven through the sales letter. Depending on your product/service, this may be more or less of an issue, so you’ll want to deal with it accordingly.

• Writing offers is an art. If the offer isn’t crafted persuasively for your target market, they might not see the value, at which point they won’t buy. (Offers are good to test.)

Write your offer here:

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Case studies:

• Similar to testimonials but longer and more involved. If what you’re selling is complicated or doesn’t have an obvious benefit, you might want to work in some case studies along with testimonials.

Write your case study here:

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Bonuses:

• Bonuses are part of the offer, so spend some time on them.

• It’s fairly common to have people purchase a product to get the bonus, so make sure the bonuses are valuable.

• A good way to justify the price is to make sure the bonuses are worth more than the product price.

• Bonuses are a great way to add urgency to the sales process (i.e., limit how many you’re offering or only for a certain time). If there isn’t urgency, you run the risk of a prospect leaving because they’ll “come back later.”

Write your bonuses here:

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Price justification:

• After you state the price is a good place to overcome price objections (although you should have been building the value of the product throughout the sales letter, so by the time they get to the price, they’re amazed at how low it is.)

• Compare the price to other things, and those things don’t necessarily need to make sense. Starbucks, dinner and a movie, a new pair of shoes, etc. Whatever you can do to make the price look like a bargain.

• You can also pile on the value (for instance, in this case we compare the price of the home study course with the price of her coaching, so it definitely looks like a good deal.)

Write your price justification here:

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Guarantee:

• If you’re selling a product, you need a guarantee.

• Read the above bullet again if you find yourself saying “but…”

• The point of a guarantee is to take all the risk off the buyer. You, as the seller, should shoulder the risk and make it easy for the prospect to become a buyer.

• Because the point of the guarantee is to minimize risk, you should only use unconditional guarantees (Money back, no questions asked). The moment you put a condition on it (money back but you have to prove you used it and it didn’t work) your prospects are going to decide you’re going to weasel out of giving them back their money, and therefore the guarantee doesn’t “count.”

• If you want, you can offer 2 guarantees – 1 conditional and 1 unconditional, if you really feel the need to have a conditional guarantee.

• Longer unconditional guarantees result in less returns than shorter ones. The reason – the longer the guarantee the more likely your buyers will either forget about your product or will use it and not want to return it. If you only give 10 days or 30 days, the clock is ticking, and people might return it just because they don’t have time to look at it and they’re worried they’ll miss the window of opportunity. One-year guarantees are the best.

• Creative guarantees also can help conversion rates. One of the best guarantees was written by the late Gary Halbert that said: “If your friends don’t accuse you of having a face lift, return the empty bottle and we’ll refund your money.”

Write your guarantee here:

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Restating offer:

• Here’s where you state the offer again, in the customer’s own excited voice.

• Include the offer, the price, the bonuses and the guarantee.

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Order:

• Online it’s important to have the words “secure servers.” People are concerned about having their data stolen, so you need to reassure them that their credit card and personal information is safe.

• You also may want to offer multiple payment options – different credit cards, Paypal, checks – and multiple ways to pay you – online, fax, phone, mail. Everyone has a preferred method of purchasing items, and if you can accommodate that, you’re taking away another possible objection. (i.e., “well, I really want to use my American Express card, but they don’t take Amex so I guess I’ll wait to buy.”) And, think about it, if someone wants to give you money, don’t you want to make it as easy as possible for them to give it to you?

• If your product is over $100, offer a payment plan. Again, that increases conversion rates.

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Signature:

• Adding a signature has been shown to boost conversions, maybe because again it helps your target market know there is a real person behind the web site.

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PS:

• PS’s are the second most read item of a sales letter.

• Multiple PS’s are better than one, and if you have three, then the second one is read first.

• PS’s are a good way to add more urgency to the sales process.

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Physical address/complete contact info:

• Adds credibility because now there’s a real person/business behind the web site.

Privacy policy

Whenever you ask for contact information, include your privacy policy. You want people to know their contact information is safe with you.

Other elements to include:

• Make sure you have a picture of the product even if it’s digital. You want to make your product as real as possible.

• Captions are the third most read item of a sales letter, so if you do have photos, make sure you also add captions.

• Graphics are very important, but be careful not to overdo them. Remember, words are what sells, but adding some clip art, photos, color, etc. can enhance the readability of the sales letter, which will encourage people to read.

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Appendix

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Checklist for Writing a Sales LetterTo make sure you don’t forget anything, below is a summary of all the elements of a sales letter and the order to put them in:

1. Prehead

2. Headline

3. Subhead

4. Graphical elements (photo/audio/signup form)

5. The intro to the sales letter (From the desk of/Date/Dear Friend)

6. Introduction – explain the problem (weave in bullets and subheads)

7. Testimonials (weave in during natural breaks)

8. Agitate the problem (weave in bullets and subheads)

9. Your story

10. Solution (weave in bullets and subheads)

11. “Order Now” links (weave in)

12. “Not Your Fault” section (doesn’t have to be here, wherever it best fits)

13. Benefits of the product (bullets)

14. A taste of the product (quizzes, etc.)

15. Offer

16. Bonuses

17. Overcome price objections (or price justification)

18. Guarantee

19. Restating offer

20. Order buttons

21. Signature

22. PS

Overcoming objections:

Remember, you need to weave in overcoming objections throughout your letter. The main objections you need to overcome are:

1. The product/service performs as expected

2. You are credible and trustworthy

3. Price objection (i.e., is too much money)

4. Time objection (i.e., takes too much time)

5. It will work for the customer

And here’s how you overcome each objection:

6. The product/service performs as expected – benefits, testimonials

7. You are credible and trustworthy – your story, testimonials

8. Price objection – build the value through benefits, a price justification section

9. Time objection – statements like “easy to use,” “step by step,” “paint by numbers,” and depending on the product/service, may need a time justification section

10. It will work for the customer – testimonials

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Headlines – How to Write Headlines that Get Read Headlines are the most important part of a print ad.

In fact, David Ogilvy, famous ad man and author of Confessions of an Advertising Man, has said that four out of five people only read headlines. Nothing more.

And if people DO choose to read the rest of the ad, they make that decision based on the headline.

That’s a big job to put on the shoulders for what amounts to a few words.

But before you start despairing over your headline-writing skills, take heart. There are several “headline types” that have proven to sell products and services over and over again. Below are four of the most powerful and the easiest to implement.

1. How to. Everyone loves a how-to headline. How To Quit Smoking in 30 Days Or Your Money Back. How to Write a Novel in 30 Days. How to Lose Weight Fast.

1. Why do these headlines work so well? Because they promise a solution to your customer’s problems. Why else do so many nonfiction books have how to in the title? If the how to is addressing a need, you feel almost compelled to pick the book up and look at it. Or, in the case of marketing materials or articles, this same natural curiosity can entice you to keep reading to discover the answer.

1. Keep in mind the better the benefit, the more likely you’ll catch your customer’s attention. (The benefits in the above headlines are quitting smoking, writing a novel in a month and losing weight. All of these can be powerful benefits.)

2. Question. These headlines ask a question (obviously). If you want this headline type to work, it better ask a question that your customers want an answer to. Are you spending too much on your car insurance? Will your marriage fail? Will you know what to do if you’re in an accident?

1. Whatever you do, don’t ask a question that only your business cares about. Something like: Do you know what our company has been up to lately? Again, focus on the benefit for the customer.

3. Top ten reasons. Okay, it doesn’t have to be ten reasons or even the top reasons. But just as everyone loves how to headlines, they also love top ten reasons.

1. Five ways to fix a broken toilet. Seven warning signs that your house may be making you sick. Are you making these 7 mistakes in the English language?

1. Again, the customers see the benefits immediately. Plus, they know exactly what they’re getting — so many reasons for something.

4. Testimonial. This headline uses your customer’s words to sell your products or services. This works because people see proof up front that your product or service does what it’s supposed to do. If used correctly (meaning people believe it really is a testimonial from a real customer and not something fabricated) then this can be a very effective strategy.

1. If you choose this headline, put it in quotes so it’s obvious it’s a testimonial. And use the customer’s words as much as you can to make it sound authentic. Whenever possible, get permission from your customer to use his/her name. You may even want to consider adding a photo as well.

Creativity Exercises — Write those headlines

Get a stack of paper, find a couple of pens (I’m partial to colored gel pens) and let’s start brainstorming.

Start by making a list of all the benefits of your product, service or business. (Benefits, not features. Benefits are what your customers will get out of your product.)

Put that sheet of paper aside. Now pick a headline type and write it on top of the paper. For instance, Question headlines. Underneath start writing as many different types of question headlines you can think of. They don’t have to be pretty, they just have to be a question.

Come up with at least 50 of them. Don’t let your brain or pen stop until you do. No matter how painful. If you get stuck, go back and look at your benefits list and pick a different benefit.

I practically guarantee by the time you reach headline number 50, you’ll have written at the very least one pretty darn good headline. You might have even uncovered a brilliant one.

Try this same exercise with all the headline types and see what new ad concepts you uncover.

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Why Knowing Who Your Customers Are is so Important Which statement sums up how you define your customers?

1. I have a very specific customer in mind — very specific and very narrow. I only want to sell to this specific customer, I’m not interested in attracting anyone else.

1. Or

2. If they have a pulse, they’re a potential customer.

Okay, in care you were wondering, number 1 is good and number 2 isn’t.

Yet I can’t tell you how many business owners I run into who are closer to number 2 than number 1.

I know, it’s difficult to think you might be turning away potential business. But trust me, your life will be much easier once you’ve carefully defined your potential customer (also known as your target market). And to further convince you, here are 3 reasons.

1. You’ll be able to find your target market more easily. If you know exactly who you’re looking for, you’ll have a much easier time tracking down where they’re hanging out (i.e., publications they read, Web sites they visit, radio stations they listen to). Then you’ll know exactly where you should be spending your advertising dollars and/or which editors you should be courting for potential PR stories. Best yet, you’ll probably be spending less money/time and yielding far better results.

2. You’ll be able to persuade your target market more easily. If you know exactly who you’re talking to, and what their challenges and problems are, you’ll be able to craft far more targeted marketing materials. You can use language and images they respond to (which will make them feel like you understand them) plus you’ll be able provide a specific solution to their challenges.

1. You can’t do this if you’re trying to please “everyone.” “Everyone” is a tricky fellow. He’s tough to pin down. After all, “everyone” buys a product for different reasons. Take cell phones, for instance.

1. Senior citizens, teenagers and parents buy cell phones, but they buy them, for different reasons. Teenagers buy them so they can chat with their friends all the time. Parents buy them for their teens in order to keep track of them (the teens, not the cell phones). My 90-year-old grandfather bought one for emergency use only. Each one of those reasons is a different benefit. The ad that appeals to parents knowing where their teenagers are is certainly NOT going to work for teenagers, and neither of those ads will be terribly persuasive to my grandfather.

1. So if you’re trying to sell to “everyone” just imagine how complicated it’s going to be to try and cover all those different reasons in a single marketing piece. Not really possible, is it?

3. You’ll have an easier time with your business. If you’re busy running around providing different products or services to different customers, chances are you’re not as efficient as you could be. This is especially true for business owners who are service providers. If you’re constantly learning new skills for each client who walks in the door, how efficient will you be? Wouldn’t it be better to stick with what you’re good at and just sell that?

Creativity Exercise — Discover your target market

Here’s an exercise you can try if you’re still unsure of your target market or if you want to make sure you aren’t missing any potential customers.

Get a sheet of paper. Write down all the features of your product. Features are descriptions of your product. Take cell phones, for example. Features of cell phones are they’re small and wireless.

Now change those features to benefits. For a cell phone, you can carry it anywhere and use it anywhere (anywhere there’s a signal, that is.)

Now make a list of who needs those benefits. Think broadly here. Maybe parents or people in certain industries or people with certain jobs. Try to come up with at least 50 markets. Be silly. That’s when you’re most likely to hear your muse (or genius) speaking to you.

Another technique is to ask your subconscious for help. Do a meditation where you ask your subconscious to show you someone from your target market. Ask questions and see what the answers are.

Once you come up with your list, then it’s time to critique and judge. Try and narrow it to no more than five target markets. One or two are better yet. The more target markets, the harder it gets. You can always start with one, and once you’ve made yourself known in that market, you can move to a second and a third and so on.

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Testing/Tweaking (and Other Tips to Help Your Conversion Rate) First off, know that it’s okay if you don’t get great results the first time you send out your sales letter. The important thing is to get it out there and start collecting some data.

Second, before you decide if your sales letter is a complete bust, make sure enough people have actually viewed it to make that judgment. Let me explain.

A 1% conversion rate is considered good. One percent means one person out of every hundred buys your product.

So, if only 20 people in one day viewed your letter and no one bought, you don’t have nearly enough information to make any sort of determination of what’s going on.

In that vein, saying “the letter has been up for 3 months and 4 people bought” tells me nothing. Maybe you only have 20 visitors to your web site a day, and only 3 of those are actually looking at your letter on average. If that’s the case, you’ve had 270 people look at your sales letter and 4 people bought – which is actually a better than good conversion rate.

What I’ve discovered is getting enough eyeballs on an online sales letter is hands down the biggest problem entrepreneurs have. So before you do anything else, check your web site statistics. And aim for getting 3,000 to 5,000 people looking at your letter before you decide to chuck it out the window.

Now, what do you do once you’ve realized the letter isn’t converting as you hoped. Here are a few of the top things to test (and test one thing at a time, otherwise you’re not going to know where the breakdown happened):

• Headline

• Offer (think about repackaging or changing some bullets)

• Price (too high/too low, or maybe you need a payment plan)

• Name of product (I’ve seen sales go up when the only thing that changed was the name of the product or package)

• Credibility boosting items, such as adding the Better Business Bureau logo or equivalent.

Psychological “Hot Buttons”Buying is an emotional decision. Therefore, sales letters need to incorporate emotions into the letter.

When you get right down to it, people buy things because those things satisfy deep psychological needs. Needs that go back to prehistoric times, when we were cavemen and women wandering about with big clubs and leopard skin tunics (okay, maybe not). But it IS true that psychologically we haven’t changed much in hundreds of years. So the more you connect with your prospects at this deeper level, the more effective your promotional materials are going to be.

Below are some of the main triggers:

1. Self-preservation/family preservation (gotta survive)

2. A need to belong/being a part of the community (it’s easier to survive if you’re a part of a group)

3. Being at the “top” of the social structure (you get treated better when you’re at the top)

4. Love/sex/attractiveness (gotta procreate to keep the species going)

5. Helping out people “below” us in the social structure (ties into being a part of the community, everyone taking care of each other)

If you notice, money is NOT on the list. That’s because money, by itself, isn’t a psychological hot button. What people want is what money can buy them (which is basically everything on that list). It’s fine to use money as a hot button, but if you want to deepen it, connect it to one of the other triggers.

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Three Tips to Improve Your Writing Rhythm As a professional copywriter, not only do I do a lot of writing but I also look at a lot of writing. One of the things I’ve noticed that sets apart the good/great writers from the so-so is rhythm.

What I mean by rhythm is how the writing sounds. The rhythm of the words and sentences. It’s a subtle aspect of writing, one not normally talked about, but that doesn’t lessen its importance.

Unfortunately, rhythm is also tough to teach (which is probably why it isn’t talked about very much). It’s something felt deep inside, like it is with music. It isn’t as straight forward as pointing out a grammar error. What makes it tougher is that everyone has his/her own style and own unique rhythm. However, these three tips should get you started thinking about your own writing rhythm and how to improve it.

1. Watch out for long sentences. In fact, you might want to consider avoiding them altogether.

1. There’s nothing inherently wrong with long sentences. And there are times where longer sentences are necessary (see next tip — but note I said longer and not long). The problem is that long sentences have a tendency to turn into flabby sentences.

1. Think of a sentence as an eel. The longer it gets, the more slippery and elusive it becomes. Long sentences are sentences just waiting to slither far away and completely out of your control.

1. So what’s going on with long sentences? One problem is they’re tiring to read. By the time readers reach the end of a long sentence, they’ve most likely forgotten the subject/verb/point of the sentence. And they’re probably too tired or too lazy or too busy to go back to the beginning of the sentence and sort the whole thing out.

1. Another problem is long sentences lack punctuation. Punctuation is a big part of rhythm. The start and stop of a period. The bated breath of an em-dash. Think of punctuation as your percussion section.

1. But when you write a long sentence, all you have to work with is the quiet sigh of the unobtrusive comma. Yes, they have their place. But it’s a subtler instrument. (Think triangle rather than kettledrum.)

1. A good rule of thumb is to make sure a single sentence doesn’t go over 30 words. If it does, strongly consider breaking it in two. Or three.

2. Vary sentence length. In music, a steady beat is usually a good thing. In writing, it’s considered one of the deadly sins. (Okay, not really. But it still isn’t good writing.)

1. If every sentence is the same length, your writing is going to get pretty dull pretty quick. You need short sentences, longer sentences (but not too long) medium length sentences and very short sentences.

1. How do you know if your sentences are all the same? Does your piece sound monotonous? Are you getting a sing-song voice in your head when you read it? Better take a closer look at those sentence lengths. They’re probably all pretty close to being the same.

3. Sentence fragments are a good thing. Forget your fourth-grade English teacher. Forget that obnoxious green line in Microsoft Word telling you your grammar is wrong. In copywriting, as well as in many other forms of writing, sentence fragments are a lifesaver. Those fragments allow you to quickly and easily vary your sentence length. Plus, they can help your writing sound conversational. People talk in sentence fragments. Therefore, reading sentence fragments gives people the impression you’re talking to them — in your own voice and your own style.

1. So what’s a sentence fragment? A sentence that isn’t complete. It’s missing something — noun, verb, both. It’s not a complete sentence.

1. Rhythm in writing is much more than just what’s going on with your sentences. (Not that we’ve covered everything that goes wrong with sentences.) But it’s a good place to start.

Creativity Exercises — Get in touch with your writing rhythm

Hearing your words spoken out loud is a good way to start getting in touch with your writing rhythm. You may have heard of this technique to find mistakes — and yes, it’s a good way to discover errors. But, this is also an excellent way to start getting to know your own unique rhythm.

Start by reading your own work out loud. If you’ve never done this before, try not to be too hard on yourself. Chances are you’re going to discover all sorts of problems — including too long sentences and paragraphs where all the sentences are the same length. Make a note of what needs fixing.

Once you fix it, read it out loud again. Then read it the original way. Listen to the difference. Even better, try to feel the difference — deep inside, in your gut. The gut is an excellent rhythm sensor.

You should also read out loud things you haven’t written. And read a variety of things — plays, novels, direct mail pieces, newspaper articles, web sites, poems. Read bad writing and read writing that’s so beautiful your knees buckle. Listen to the rhythm while you’re reading. How does it make you feel? More importantly, how does it make your gut feel? Your gut will never lie to you — learn to trust it.

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Sales Letter Secrets: Rev Up Your Business With Copy That Sells!

Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek)Integrated Marketing Communications and Copywriting Strategist

PO Box 10430, Prescott, AZ 86304

Documents

Sales Letter Secrets - Michele PW