Writing Sales Letters That Work!
Merle

If you do any kind of direct mail, sooner or later you're
going to have to write a sales letter. The point of a
sales letter is to get people to read it and not toss
it in the trash. You need to get their attention fast
and get them to act. Your product has to sound appealing
and your copy needs to be written to sell.

Your sales letter needs to stress the benefits of your
product. If you don't know what they are, spend
some time writing them down. People generally
act on their emotions, so your copy needs to play on
emotions hard enough to force them to act. Start
your letter with your product's strongest
benefit.

There are no hard and fast rules on the length of
a sales letter. It can be 2, 4, 6, or more pages.
Just make sure that every word you include is
necessary; don't be wordy just to increase the letter's
length.

After you present the benefits, you need to ask for the
order. You'd be amazed at the number of writers who
skip this simple step. Tell the potential client
what to do -- i.e., call now or mail the card. Give people
directions and a good reason to act immediately. Phrases like
limited time offer, special price, and limited number
available can entice your buyers to act quickly.

Another tip that will help motivate potential clients is
to offer them a free bonus. No matter what you sell, try
to come up with a free bonus you can tack onto every
order. People love getting something for nothing. Offering
bonuses works, but make sure the bonus item is worthy.
Don't offer something that has no value. Try adding
a free bonus item along with your next sales pitch and
watch your sales increase.

Always offer an unconditional money back guarantee.
A strong guarantee convinces a customer that they
have nothing to lose by trying your product.

Use courier font in your letter and if possible scan
or write a handwritten signature. Studies have
shown that blue works best for the signature, while the
rest of the letter should be in black. At the end
of the letter make sure you add a P.S. line.
Besides the headline, the P.S. is the next thing that
grabs the viewer's attention.

Some may just read the headline and the P.S. and
just scan the rest of the letter, so you want to
make them stand out. The P.S. should repeat your
product's strongest benefits. That's right,
I said benefit, not feature. If you don't know
the difference between benefits and features, you
should. A benefit is what your product or service
will do for the potential client. A feature of
the product describes it -- for example, red or
6 inches in height. Remember this simple fact
and you'll do well in the crazy world of sales.

Now that your letter is complete, drop it in a
#10 envelope and send it off. If you've done a
good job and followed the advice above, those orders
will start pouring in.

That, my friend, was the benefit of reading this article!

About the Author

Merle's Cyber Promotions (MC)
http://www.mcpromotions.com
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