LESSON #51: How to Create a Sales Letter
In the previous lesson we talked about the basics of copywriting. Today we’re going to take a closer look at the art of crafting a sales page, including the elements of a successful sales letter…
(Watch this video…)
Main points:
Note: In the video I go into a lot more depth for each point.
- The reason marketers use long copy is because it works.
- Traditionally, long copy has almost always outperformed short copy, but things are changing.
- Online sales letters are moving toward personalization and interactivity.
- Read The Death of the Salesletter, by Michel Fortin
- A new free tool to see how visitors interact with your sales letter is Visitor Spy
1) Pre-headline
2) Headline
As mentioned in video: Clayton Makepeace headlines webinar | PDF of webinar
3) Deck Copy
4) Greeting
5) Opening paragraph (hook)
6) Who are you and why should they listen? (credibility)
7) State the problem
Key: You want them to FEEL the pain.
8] Give the solution to the problem (your product)
Key: Benefits listed in bullet points.
Key: Proof.
Key: Overcome objections.
9) Testimonials
-Be aware of FTC rules.
10) Make the offer
-It should be an irresistible offer.
-You need to have a “reason why” it’s so irresistible.
Keys: Urgency and Scarcity
11) Reiterate the value and state the price.
12) Throw in some bonuses.
13) The money-back guarantee.
14) Ask for the order. (Call to action)
15) Order box.
16) Closing/Signature
17) P.S.
- Use subheadlines. (Important! Must stop scrollers in their tracks)
- Use Johnson boxes.
- Leave a lot of white space.
- Black text on a white background.
- Use a simple clear font.
- Do some text stylizing but don’t overdo it.
- Keep the background basic.
- Use Some Graphics. (Recommended: Ecover Engine)
Recommended Resource: The Copywriting Pack
Action step:
1) Write your sales letter (unless you’re outsourcing it).
Optional: Do a video sales letter. See lesson #41 for video info.
Salesmanship is key! See also resources listed in lesson #12.
In the next lesson we’ll talk about outsourcing sales letters and other writing tasks.
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below.
Have a great day!
Can you give you thoughts on video salesletters and whether they work better than the written word and if they are the future of the net.
Thanks,
Ben
Video sales letters are already outperforming written sales letters in some niches. And I do think that video will continue to become more prevalent for many more years.
However, I do not think think video will replace the written word as “the” future of the net.
For one thing, they are too linear. People are moving faster and faster (ie. twitter), and a larger percentage of people will refuse to sit through a lengthy sales video.
With a written sales letter, at least they can scan and scroll.
So for now and into the near future at least, I think a combination of written word and video will be effective. This could mean both video and written word integrated into the same sales page, or it could mean different sales pages to reach different segments of your market (those who prefer video and those who don’t).
So now the question is… what comes AFTER video in the evolution of the web? I don’t know the answer, but we must be ready to jump on that wave because it will open the online sales floodgates just like video did.
Hi Eric,
Videos and other interactive media may be taking over but long copy writing won’t be going away any time soon. Instead of sales copy, it’ll be called a sales “script” for the video. You’d still need to grab attention, draw them in and call to action. It’s an excellent skill to learn.
Thanks always for these high quality lessons.
Cheers,
Ryan
Agreed
Great Video on the techniques involved in creating a salesletter, you really could sell this video! (glad it’s free though!
)
Can this format also be used for creating autoresponder emails?..obviously they would be shorter!
Keep up the good work!
David
http://www.107tofreedom.com
You can use some of the techniques for autoresponders, but it’s a little different. With autoresponders you really want to come across as not selling anything. You want to make friends by providing helpful information.
Then when it comes time to sell something you merely send them to your sales letter, you don’t try to make the sale in the email.
The exception would be followup emails to prospects who are interested in a certain product. In that case, you would want to remind them of their pain (problem) and remind them of the pwoerful benefits of your product.
I’ll do a lesson on autoresponder/followup emails.
Thanks Eric, great stuff as usual! Here some of my thoughts about details …
Bonuses can be disgusting. These days bonuses make me think that the actual product is crap and the bonuses only are reason to buy. There are $27 products with $1997 in bonuses. If you download all these bonuses and read them you forget about the actual product and never read it or apply it. Outdated stuff most of the time anyway, I just click away when I see too many bonuses, distracting stuff worth nothing most of the time, given away for free all over the ‘net anyway.
Even worse affiliate (guru) competitions in huge product launches. Why should should somebody buy from Superaffiliate A instead of Superaffiliate B? Because of the damned bonuses. Not affiliate competitions anymore, but bonus competitions. Would take you 6 months opening bonuses and gifts: what did I actually buy here, by the way? Somehow perverted, as if you only can sell 4 tires when you give away a new car with it …
I totally agree about the competitions. I’ve told some of my “guru” peers that I’m sick of the bonus war, and most of the time I refuse to participate in it. I’ve refused to promote most of my friends products lately because I know there are other marketers promoting with huge bonuses. It’s to the point that you have to make it a part of your business strategy if you want to compete.
Fortunately that mainly applies only to products that are being promoted by gurus and ones that are heavily promoted by affiliates on clickbank. So there is still a world of products for affiliate marketers to promote without having to get into the bonus war.
The things that’s tough about it for me is that it does work. The guys giving the biggest bonuses are often making $10k to $100k from promoting one product launch. It’s become a fact that he who has the biggest bonus (and a relatively big list) will make the most sales. So it is a legitimate strategy, albeit an annoying one.
I’m fairly new at all of this, but my understanding is the bonuses are pretty much a necessity for e-products, largely because internet searchers are used to getting things free.
I wrote what I think is an excellent ebook for writers (I think it’s even better after reading a lot of other e-books - I’m a download addict!) and I’m still offering bonuses to support it.
Testimonials encourage sales, too - but, most of them are obviously phony and anybody who is inside the e-product trade knows how things go and that testimonials don’t tell you much about the real usefulness of the product.
From the buyer’s end, I think I’d be more enticed by bonuses! That’ stuff is kind of fun!
- Angela
So fine is it, too much interesting, please inform me wether excepting copywriting pack, is there any other copywriting software.
hope reply.
Sujit
Nice work there!
I like this one, thanks Eric!
Have just read your Lesson #51, which I found extremely helpful. I learned a heck of a lot of things in this and yet I reckon I am an experienced copywriter! Keep up the good work - I shall be reading all your past editions
Dr Dennis Coote
Thanks for the lesson Eric It’s a lot to absorb in one sitting so ill listen again and again and again or just outsource it naw that’s not me thank you again.unless you know of an inexpensive freeleancer that could does this.
Doug
There are some inexpensive freelancers, so watch the next lesson and then you can make your decision.
good lesson. but i have a question thats not relative to this lesson.if you already have a word press blog can you incorperate it into your hostgator reseller account?i’m using my reseller account to set up my sites and need to know is this viable?
Yes you definitely can.
all tactics mentioned in above videos already all marketers know. there is nothing new
dont we see tons of sales pages daily showing bonus,testimonials,money back gurantee,tricky headlines.scarcity,percived offer .
eric plz note to whom we trying to sell products knows everything what u mentioned in above video.
these may be hard words from my side but this is true.
do you really think we dont know or doing things what u mentioned in videos
in short even u implement these ideas you can increase sale only maximum 1% and no more
moral of the story all internet marketers knows these are gimicks to increase sale s.
huh?
Hi Eric,
I’m interested in your ideas on how to effectively encourage my free subscribers to upgrade to a new monthly/yearly subscription service. Up until now I’ve given everything away (videos, patterns, e-letter ideas, etc)with the goal of building a customer base who would buy from my online store. So far it has worked fine and I have some loyal customers. But now that my email list has grown to almost 3000 I would like to generate steady income and provide them more than what I’m currently giving them for free. My concern is losing a lot of subscribers. Any ideas or things I should watch out for?
Thanks much,
Marty
Good question. I think you are on the right track, as you say you want to “provide them more than what I’m currently giving them for free”. This is the key.
Instead of making it sound like you are suddenly charging for what they were previously getting for free, you position it as something much bigger and better (even if much of what you’re delivering is the same stuff you were previously delivering for free). In other words… if you liked my free stuff, you’re going to LOVE this because it’s 10X more powerful.
Then keep providing a small amount of free info to your old list to keep them involved and you shouldn’t lose many subscribers.
If you’re using Aweber it is easy to segment your lists. You can continue to send small amounts of free info to your old list along with offers to join your new paid program, and those emails will NOT go to your new paid list. When someone joins the paid list, you can have them automatically removed from the free list. Your objective is to move as many people as possible from the free list over to the paid list. And then just overdeliver and provide lots of premium info to your paid list (most likely via a membership area).
From my point of view, a buyers view, I dont have time to read a long drawn out story about a product. If there is a video, I will watch the video, (video on how to use the product) read the bullets points of What is Included or What You Get and the bullet points of Features. What I would like to see included is also a list of FAQs. These should be all on the same page. And if I have a question that is not answered by the FAQs, I would like an email at the bottom of the page where I can submit my question. I also like to see a few Testimonials, maybe 5 or 6 and not by other marketers. The bonus only helps if I have already decided that the product will be beneficial for me to purchase. It seems easy enough, but 8 out of 10 sales pages seem to be missing my few requirements, so guess what, no sale. This goes for the Upsells (backend products) too. I dont know how many will agree with me, but I dont buy until I am satisfied.
Fabulous, Eric! I love your newsletter. - Great information.
Hi Eric.
Thanks for your teachings.
I need to have a way to overcome my credit card issue which is needed for my paypal account.
So, i mean how to add a “buy now” button to my website.
Please try visit and tell me your opinion.
regards
I will be covering this topic in lesson #53 and 54
Do you think a short sales letter with video converts better than a long text base sales letter? The reason why I am asking is that as a buyer/customer I dont really read the whole sales letter..only the key points and whats contain in the product and price is what am interested in.
I think a video with short keypoints about the product with a short sales letter is better..at the end of the day people want to buy the product…not read about your life story.
In many situations I think a shorter sales letter with video integrated effectively will perform better than a long copy sales letter. However, it is something that needs to be split-tested for each situation.
And remember, a long copy sales letter is not merely about giving them “your life story”…
A well written sales letter that effectively targets its audience WILL engage its readers.
Eric -
Oh what a wonderful debate! Short vs. long, pain vs. pleasure, bonus vs. take-away…in our experience the style that works best is (drum role please…) ALL OF THEM!
We have used all sorts of sales letters from time to time. We find that having the flexibility to shift as needed is our greatest asset.
Matt
“Let Your True Colors Show!”
http://www.TrueColorsTest.com
hi
loved the video very much
one small qustion
what is behind the i agree check box
Good question. The reason to put a checkbox at the top of your order form (or even earlier throughout your sales letter) is because it causes the reader to take an action. It is a known sales tactic to lead the prospect to say “yes” and agree with you as much as possible. Those small yesses will add up to one big yes at the end (you make a sale). The checkbox is a simple way for them to take an action without feeling like they are fully committing to something. Yet, checking the box will then make them more comfortable with clicking the order link. It’s sort of a sales psychology thing.
Pls I need to know out of the best practice where to put the landing page if before the sail page even if the landing page convert very well I still loose people coming to the sail page
I’ll be talking about squeeze pages in an upcoming lesson.
HI Eric,
Can you recommend a checkout/payment gateway. What are your thoughts on the wp-ecommerce and google checkout system?
Thanks Rachel
I will be addressing this is in more depth in lesson #53. I do see you are using clickbank, and that generally IS my recommendation for low priced information products.
Love the video. Its really through and gives great tips and insights into the sales page process, only thing is its over an hour long! Im not a tech guy but is it possible to break the video and audio apart, so that I can consume more of your product from my ipod, on my way to work?
Sitting here at my computer just isnt an option all the time.
thanks
ArtP.
Not at this time, but it’s a good idea. I will definitely put it on the development list for the (hopefully) near future.
hi Eric; please don,t stop sending lessons; been tied up for month an half but i been saving all lessons. sorry i missed sending something for mission trip,can i send something next time with prepayed debit card?
Sure thing. I’ll send out an announcement again for my next trip, which will be in Spring 2010.
Thanks Eric! It’s wonderful how you have included almost everything I need to know about writing a salesletter. This one-hour lesson is worth more than the books and tutorials I have to read in order to write a really good salesletter!
Very Useful,thank you Eric.
A very good day to you Eric,
I’m a new member from deaf memeber from Nigeria who really enjoys reading all of your educative, informative and profitable tips on online business articles.
Due to my hearing loss, I cannot hear all ocf your videos and so I suggest that you should please help me to caption your videos so that I can read all of the spoken words of the speakers in your videos to be able to understand what’s said!
I just cannot find Nigeria on the list of countries your programmes can reach. I would like to know if you offer your services too Nigerians.
I would really love to start making money online right away so please let me know if you render your services to Nigerians.
I very much look forward to hearing from you soon.
More powers to your elbows!
Ajaiye Meretighan
For now at least you can read the notes under each video. But when I am done with all the lessons, I will be releasing the transcripts as well.
Half way through my shower, I REALIZED YOU ARE A GENIUS!
OK, I was splashing away, wondering how the new G.caffeine standards would work and how to capitalize on them. Then I thought of this blog. Your video, followed up by text summary is perfect.
OK that is out of my system. Now for another comment.
“Reputation”
I’ve bought several of your products (under your name or aff link or pseudonym) because I trust you. Also, every time I mention that I like you in a blog, there is someone else who chimes in and supports what I say.
If you email me and suggest something, I will take time to seriously look at it.
As the internet expands, so too does the search for trusted sources. A good reputation may be the best marketing advantage.
Yes there are and will be the Hit&Run marketers. But how about the Tried and True?
Is it worth it to develope a reputation like yours? Do people buy more from trusted and tested sources, or is it simply shrewd copywriting, broadcast to the masses?
Thanks Colin, I appreciate it
to answer your question, I think both can be “legitimate” business strategies.
Some of my peers are hit and run marketers and some of them make more money than me.
However, I think you have a better chance of long term success if you do build your reputation. And of course some of us care about integrity. So yes I think it’s worth it.
It also depends on your niche. Here in the IM niche, the shrewd copywriters can come in and make a killing selling a product under a fake name, with zero reputation.
But in some niches, you would need to be a trusted source.
When in doubt, take the high road
Great lesson Eric,
Thanks again for all the useful info!
All The Best,
Jason
Hi Eric,
I have been following your video series since video number 1.
This video on lesson #51 is simply wonderful. I can’t believe that you are giving way this kind of quality information for free.
The concept that you have mentioned in the video can also be applied when writing email messages or articles.
Cheers to you for sharing. I am looking forward to your next series of videos.
Zack
hi Eric; is every thing ok? this is last lesson i got…
Sorry for the delay, lesson #52 is posted now.
Thanks for the efforts to prepare the topic that I’m trying to looking for all these while. Thanks again.
[…] the previous lesson we talked about how to write a sales letter. But what if you don’t want to do your own […]
Eric, thanks for sharing. I just found this site and it is refreshing to see someone willing to extend thier knowledge and time to help others. I will go back and review the lessons and get caught up.
Hi Eric , Thank u again for keep sending Valuable lessons.indeed your lessons are more helpful to me
Hi Eric , thanks for you sending available lessons more
Proof and Testimonials —
Hey, Eric, great stuff. I will be launching my product soon, but it is a new concept and there are no previous customers or true proof to show.
So …
What is your advice for the proof and testimonials sections on launch?
Due to the FTC rules of Dec 2009, I would be very careful about using testimonials. So if you don’t have any testimonials, that’s fine… I’d skip it. As far as proof… you can talk about your own results. And if you don’t have any results, then you’re going to have to be conceptual, which means you have to be a good copywriter
And of course be sure to include any necessary disclaimers.
Eric thanks for the info, Pls I mean sign up form or submit form not legal forms, how to insert it on my website. do I save it with form.php or form.html, thanks, Kingsley
Either of those would be fine.
Eric,
As I get closer to product launch, I am examining this lesson more. Long copy vs. Short copy & video integration … hmm … did a little research and would like your opinion.
I read “Death of the Salesletter,” which was very interesting. I decided to check some top websites in the weight loss niche (not my niche, but obviously some big money — and research — being done there).
The Weight Watchers website is what I would consider a “corporate” website where there is no long copy anywhere. Every page is short, has a call to action, and they build a deep website with sections, categories, content pages, etc. Every page has a call to action, but no one particular page looks anything like a long copy salesletter.
Then, I took a look at Fat Loss 4 Idiots. That website has always intrigued me because it is a long copy sales letter broken down into 4-5 short copy pages. The visitor must click through to the next section of the sales letter.
So, considering “Death of the Salesletter” and these two websites, where no doubt a lot of testing and research have been done, it seems like these shorter versions must be converting better, at least for what they are offering.
What is your take on breaking up the long copy sales letter and doing the Fat Loss 4 Idiots concept (maybe along with some video) instead?
Have you tested it or know someone who has? What have been the results?
Thanks!
Good question. Yes I do know people who are using that method (short pages), and it is working very well for them.
I do think it depends somewhat on the niche. It’s obviously working well in the weight loss niche, and I also like your idea of incorporating video.
And as I often say… the only way to find out if its the best method is to test it. See lesson #57
[…] ALL 17 of the elements described in lesson #51. […]
That was a very good lesson. Great information… thanks a lot, Eric.
All the best,
Arne
Hi. Eric,
As the beginner, I am looking to email marketing, and got regd. on CJ. I am approved by many advertisers as affiliate. I am getting their html code but can not produce them on my Gmail composers, The template I am provided is on NOTE PAD. Am I suppose to use any other program to decode the html ?
Iam enjoying yor all Mails,(sofar 54 ) THANKS
SATISH
I am not familiar with the Gmail composer you are referring to. Do you mean you’re trying to put the link into an email that you’re sending on Gmail?
When getting links from CJ, I just take the text link… not all the HTML that they provide. Then I make my own link. Generally I cloak them with PHP redirects.
What a fabulous video. It was simple, clear and I learned a ton. I’m not so nervous now about doing my first sales letter. Thanks a lot for all of the information that you share. I just discovered your site today, but I’ll be back.
Thanx for the post, Eric. The information you provided is very valuable.
Working as email marketing manager I have nothing to add.
Hi Eric,
Great sales copy video!
A powerful technique I’ve used is tell them the main “deal” in the headline. “turn $100 into $5,000 by August 1st using my gizmo or Double your money back!” An outrageous deal headline followed immediately with a strong testimonial. then a confirmation (longer) 2nd headline explaining the “deal”.
I’m “old school” & I’ve really got to get some video on my sales pages so I’ll get stuck into your lesson #41. Thanks for the great content!
Good Lesson enjoyed it while having dinner and my partner Liz, added comments on all the various sales tecniques and copy styles through out!
Great lesson, Eric.
I personally don’t like long sales letters. I have not time and not patience to read them. But it seems to work for many people
Hi Eric,
Great video series. I have revisited this section several times. I am trying to take the concepts here and apply them to a local service company’s website, with the call to action or successful conversion being the submission of a request for estimate. Our conversation rate with locally generated sales leads from the site are triple that of purchased leads.
Any thought on how to do this?
Thanx,
Dan, (Scogzy)
I would go to google and check out the top paid advertisers for all your keywords. Chances are they have a good lead capture system, especially if they are bidding top dollar for keywords in your niche.
Obviously you want to make it abundantly easy for them to submit the request. Keep it simple. ASK for it… every place applicable on your site.
I might test changing your check boxes into dropdowns so you can save room and make the form look smaller (keep it above the fold).
Make a BIG submit button, colorful, test it.
Try tweaking the working… instead of “Request a free estimate” maybe something like “Get your free quote” or “Get a free no-obligation quote within 24 hours” (I have no idea what’s best.. the point is to split test a bunch of variables) Try putting a trust-mark on the submission form, or a picture of an attractive female contractor…