Many of you get stuck as to how to construct your sales letter and very simply, when you follow the anatomy of a sale letter which was used at my recent copywriting workshop . . . your sales writing process can not fail . . . as long as you follow the blueprint.

Here’s Part 1 of 3.

Anatomy of a Sales Letter

Introduction

Here’s a whistle-stop tour of what you will be getting in the workshop. This Module is a synopsis of the whole three and a half days. Maybe come back to this section after the workshop to help you put it all together.

Even with just this Module, you’ll be able to write copy better than 95% of what’s out there.

With a little practice, you could go on to write really good copy.

It’s a very learnable skill.

Take the very simple fundamental formula:

Traffic + conversion = sales

The conversion element of this formula is your sales copy. Without good copy, you will make few sales, even with a boatload of traffic. Get it right, and you will make a LOT of sales.

There is a structure to good copy and you’ll discover this.

When you really, really want your conversions to increase appreciably – then take the time to study copywriting. It will be time well spent.

So how do you write your own sales letters?

YOU start with a blank pad of paper and model successful sales copy.

I am often asked the question: Long copy vs. Short copy.

There is no right (or wrong) answer to this.

Your letter needs to be as long as it takes to tell your story.

Copy can never be too long it can only be too Boring

If it’s 4 pages (of your writing pad that is) fine. As long as you’ve addressed everything.

If it’s 32 pages (or more) that’s also fine.

Copy should be straight to the point, tell your story. No waffle. No fluff. No B.S.

Winston Churchill said: “Short words are best, and the old words when short, are best of all.”

The best thing you can do when writing copy is to research your topic.

The very minimum you need to do is to read your product and make a list of all the benefits.

Going that extra mile will pay off.

1. Do some research on the Internet.

2. Go to your local library.

3. Make a spreadsheet and then visit 10 of your competitors websites.
Find out what their USP is, make a note of their headline. What’s their offer? What price are they at? What is their guarantee. And any other relevant points.

Enter all this information into a spreadsheet. It’s now your target to emulate ideas and to be better than all of them.

Let’s look at the various elements of a sales letter.

There are variations on this, but the basic structure is generally always the same.

The first thing you need to do is to study your product. Get to know it, inside out. And, back to front!

Do some up-front research on your topic. Time spent doing this will be well-rewarded. And you will be able to add some real golden nuggets to your copy.

And before you start to write a word of copy you will need to know who you are selling to.

This is called: Profiling your customer. I have covered this in precious blog entries.

And the very first thing when it comes to putting pen to paper, if to define your offer.

Construct a compelling offer, and the rest of your sales copy will virtually write itself.

Here are just a few things you need to consider when crafting your offer:

Guarantee your customers satisfaction
Offer discounts (time limited discounts work best)
Include valuable bonuses
Give free samples
Offer free shipping
Limited availability
Be exclusive

Next, go through your product – page by page and extract all the benefits. As many of these as you can.

Each of these benefits then needs to be turned into a bullet point.

The Headline

Your next step is to write a minimum of 50 benefit laden headlines. Up to 200 is better as confirmed by my special guest Ted Nicholas.

Why 50?

Because it is extremely unlikely that you will discover a great headline at first writing. Plus, you need to find your ‘hook’. What is it which makes your product stand out from the rest? (refer to your competitive analysis spreadsheet to find out what your competitors are up to).

There are different types of headlines but the type you should consider is one that is called a benefit headline. That is, it should contain your biggest benefit.

A headline can be considered good if it contains, as well as the best benefit, these four ingredients.

They are:

believability
ease of use
a time element
some curiosity

Your headline can be two parts, to fit all the above criteria, i.e. you can have a main headline and a sub-headline.

Example:

Now, write one headline for your product or services containing all the above:

Writing a good headline takes practice.Bullet points just under the headline work but are not essential. You could equally add a testimonial here, or nothing at all.

Best to test!

The Salutation

Next part of your sales letter is the salutation.

Not just ‘Dear Reader’ how impersonal is that? Remember, you are talking one on one with your prospect. So you need the right salutation. Dear Friend works just fine.

For your business, write down what your salutation would be:

Okay . . . that’s part one of part 3.

Dedicated to kicking your ass until you succeed.Warmly

Trevor ‘ToeCracker’ Crook

PS. When you want to discover the creme de le creme of copywriting Homes Study Course, where daylight is second – check out the Resources Section.

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