Sales Letter Success...Turning your words into wealth

Class #6Putting some polish on that copy

We have covered…

• Do your customer research! Know them intimately or you cannot (effectively) sell to them

• Write your headlines to look like news – and write lots of them

• Reuse headlines as your subheadlines• AIDA formula• Bullets make the sale• Need to close the deal and wrap it up• Make it flow and easy to read

Transitions…

• And that’s just the beginning • Wait, there’s more • And that’s not all • And here is the most important factor • And don’t forget this • And I’m not done yet • Please remember this point • Here’s even more proof • But I’m willing to meet an even higher standard• Does the system work?

More…• Thousands of success stories are the best proof of all • And here’s the kicker • And here’s the fatal error • Warning: All calcium is not equal • Let me tell you more • Plus, there is something else I’d like to send you • This offer will not be repeated • Act now or you’ll miss out • Please don’t take my word for it • What people are saying• What about you?• You take no risk whatsoever • Free bonus for early birds

More…

• Don’t hate yourself for missing out • Can you put yourself in this picture • Here is some really good news • What lawyers (government…rich people) don’t

want you to know • Act now • Case in point• Hang on…because I’m not finished yet • It’s even better than free! • At last, a solution

Making it flow to the reader…

• Replace if with when all through your copy• Remove the words we, or our, and replace with

I. A group cannot speak to one person effectively… one-on-one is the only way to go

• Speak to one SPECIFIC person on your list• Count the number of times you have ‘I or ‘me’

and count the number of times you have ‘you’, ‘yours’…

• talking about yourself should be < 20% of the copy

More editing tips…

• Read the piece out loud to catch mistakes. You’ll also discover the tough parts that need to be smoothed over

• Have a 12 yr old read it to you• Sleep on it. Give yourself a break, then come

back with fresh eyes and a bright red pen.• Trim words. Use strong verbs. Great writing is all

about strong verbs. (thesaurus is your friend)• Avoid passive sentences. Whenever you come

across “to be” and it’s conjugations (was, were, is, am) it’s a red flag.

• Trim the word “That”.• Strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Prune

clutter ruthlessly.• Very few sentences come out right the first time.• Believe in your own identity and your own opinions. Don’t

hedge. It just makes your writing weaker.• Never write anything that you wouldn’t comfortably say in

conversation. If you wouldn’t say it that way don’t write it that way.

• Consider the sound, rhythm and alliteration of every sentence. Great writing has rhythm.

• Get rid of words like “a bit,” “a little,” “kind of.” They lack authority.

• Often the easiest way to fix a bad sentence is to get rid of it and start over.

Make sure you use

• Repetition of key points• Reason why for everything• Be consistent throughout the copy – do

not change the story, the offer, the bonuses half way through

• Compare your product, price and offer to something else

• Use analogies, metaphors (apples to oranges)

• Tell them the price, then show your product why the product is worth this price

• Take the risk on your shoulders so the prospect has NO reason not to buy now

• You must let your prospects know, if they request a refund, their will be no hassles or questions asked

• Tell them why you offer such a powerful guarantee

Let them keep the bonuses, is better than a risk-free guarantee

Four very best words you can use are YOU, YOUR, YOURS AND FREE

• Magic phrase prospects love... “You Get...” • Vest average sentence for business writing is 14 to 16

words. 40 or more words and your ad becomes unreadable/intimidating

• Indent a few of your more important paragraphs • Make sure body copy delivers on the headline.... people

don’t like being deceived or lied to. • Keep paragraphs limited to four lines, five at most • Make sure you have scarcity

Truths

• Be the leader

• Help them see the future when they get the results you promise

• Cover all the major objections you experience

• Get good at stories – most of us need to work at this – but the pay off is HUGE

More truths

• Have a Unique Competitive Advantage (UCA) • WIIFM – “What’s In It For Me” • Simple words: instead of saying “You’ll receive” say

“You’ll get” • One word sentences, one sentence paragraphs, one-

word paragraphs • Use a couple of sayings, ie “that’s water under the

bridge” but usually no more than two • You must exude a caring, problem-solving attitude and

personality so the person reading the ad feels strongly that what he’s reading was written especially for him, no one else

• Generalities don’t sell, specifics do

• People are silently begging to be led, but they want to be led by a leader who has their emphatic best interest at hear, not someone who is looking through them and to their wallet or treasury

• Being the professional: be warm, don’t make people feel insecure or unworthy, you cannot succeed if you are viewed as an untouchable god

• Each sentence, ask yourself: Does this help get my prospect to act now, or not? If it doesn’t it should be thrown away

• Make your copy short and spunky, full of energy. Use action words and avoid adverbs and adjectives. Using non-specific adverbs tell your prospect that you don’t have any specific facts or numbers to share. You must prove these words when you use them.

• Make your copy active... get rid of conditional phrases like “you could get” and instead write “Get...”

• Write your sentence is the present tense. “Have this today by calling” instead of “You will have this”

• Fear of loss motivates more powerfully than hope for gain • Create comparison charts to show advantages over

competition • Make Your offer as risk-free as you can possibly make it –

you must turn the risk of loss from your prospect to yourself. Let them know they aren’t the one that’s going to get stuck with a bad product.

• Put your offer in your headline; or sub-head; or opening paragraph; or on the front page of your letter

• Magic words for a powerful guarantee: a) No risk b) No hassles refund c) No questions asked d) Simply return it and you’ll receive a no hassle, no questions asked guarantee

• Even if you do ask for your money back, you may keep the bonus items as my gift just for giving us a try

Psychology

• People will do (and pay) anything to fix something… but won’t spend a dime to prevent it

• You must have common ground• They are only interested in WIIFM • We all want what we don’t/can’t have• We all want to feel special and recognized• Most people don’t get to do many interesting

things… tell them about yours• People round numbers down• People do what others are doing (or not doing)

Psychology cont’d

• Reciprocation – give first• Scarcity - genuine• Authority - credentials• Consistency – start small and build• Liking - similarities• Consensus – testimonials and responses

of others• Together – “We” marketing

Story Lines To Start Playing With

• Bonding Campaigns

• Before and After

• Underdog

• The Amazing Discovery or Secret

• Testimonial and Case Study

• Common Enemy

• Ridicule

• Big Discovery Revealed

• Everyone laughed at first

• Person who made discovery helps the underdog

• Passes on their secret

• Underdog now a master

What my clients see…• Things To Keep in Mind Before Reading The Copy Draft• The writing style you will see is probably quite different than you are

used to. It is designed for one thing – bring out personality in the sales letter, and convince them to take action of some sort.

• Headline – I typically use very strong headlines – because they work. The only purpose of the headline is to get them to read the copy. Headlines must be strong, and contain a “hook” – something different that has never been written about before in your materials and something that gets them to stop, and then read on

• The next purpose of the headline is to get them to read the sub head, the sub head is designed to get them to read the first sentence, first sentence designed to get them to read the second, the second sentence is designed to get them to read the third sentence etc….

• It will be a very different way of writing for your marketing materials but it is designed that way. The only way we will know the effectiveness is to test it.

• It will be more aggressively worded than what you have ran in the past. That is the point. Direct marketing in the spiritual or non-spiritual fields works the same – it must follow the proven steps to getting people to take action. So while it may not fit exactly how you have promoted in the past – it will be tested this way first before modifications are made.

• This style of copywriting is proven to sell services and products – it may require some modifications later – but that will be know when we test it in the marketplace – as the only ones that can say if it is a good letter or not is your potential clients – and if they buy or not

• Please do not edit grammar or punctuation right now – nothing can destroy the effectiveness of a sales letter more than an over analytical editor. Proof? One company had a headline they wanted to run “Put Music Into Your Life” then they tested against adding one single letter “s” so it ended up “Puts Music Into Your Life”. The addition of the s TRIPLED response… so little things DO matter and if the editor does not understand sales copy and direct response marketing they WILL destroy the effectiveness of the copy.

• The only person who can truly say if this copy will sell seats is your potential client. Sorry to say; not me, not you, no one in your staff has a clue if this will work UNTIL it is tested.

• Scared yet?• No need to be… just some things to note before you look at the

actual letter.• Troy