Step by Step Process to Writing a Sales Letter // Dream Seed Multimedia, Lancaster, PA

Step by Step Process to Writing a Sales Letter

Written by Westly Lager Added: 01 March 2009

You can write a great sales letter. Sure, you may have to learn some new skills. But keep in mind, the great copywriters of today weren’t born writing great sales letters. They started right where you may be—having never written a sales letter. Or maybe you’ve written a few sales letters, but they have disappointed you. Take heart. In this article, I will show you step by step what you need to put in your sales letters to give them the structure and persuasiveness you may desire.

Every sales letter has a basic structure. Now, each sales letter may insert these basics in different orders or using a different method, but generally all sales letters will include these basics:

Headline

Every winning sales letter should have an attention-grabbing headline, one that draws the reader into your sales letter. If they don’t read your letter, they won’t buy your product. They must read the sales letter first.

Make your headline exciting. What will your product do for the user? For example, if you sell a product that helps the user find discount travel packages, a few strong headlines could be:

• How to Travel Like the Rich on a Pauper’s Income
• How to Travel for Less than Half-Price
• Travel the World for Less than Traveling Locally
• How I Travel Everywhere For Half-Price

Try to write some similar headlines for your product. Simply substitute your product and benefit for the keywords in those headlines. Try to write 20 or 40 or so headlines—some of them will be lousy, but some of them may surprise you. One thing about writing is that you will get more creative and efficient as you spend more time writing. Practice, practice, practice.

Benefit Bullets

These bullets will be key points about your product. For example, if you are selling a product geared towards grade school teachers, your bullets might be:

• Learn to manage your classroom with no effort
• Discover the keys to teaching vocabulary at any level
• How to teach math so that students learn the fastest
• What every teacher needs to know about discipline

Notice that these bullets promise a benefit to the reader. Bullets are designed to draw the reader to purchase the product, so that they can receive the benefits of the product. These bullets reveal the benefits to the purchaser.

Guarantee

Especially when selling online, you must include a specific guarantee. Online purchasers are already skeptical of purchasing an information product. By offering a money-back guarantee, you assure the buyer that if the product isn’t what you say it is, they can receive a refund. Your responsibility, of course, is to make absolutely sure that the product does everything you say that it does. If you do that, you will have few returns. Here is an example of a guarantee: Your complete satisfaction guaranteed: If for any reason during the first 30 days after you purchase this product, you are not completely satisfied for any reason at all, simply return the product and we will cheerfully refund your purchase price, no questions asked.

Obviously that guarantee should be modified to meet the nature of your product, and the time frame altered. By having the guarantee, although you will have to give a refund from time to time, you should sell far more units than without the guarantee.

Close and ask for the sale

This step is critical! No matter how good a job you do describing the product, it will not sell itself. You MUST ask for the sale. Tell the customer to buy. Give them an easy link to your order or shopping page. If you don’t ask for the sale, you won’t sell much.

Try to write your first sales letter using this template. Write comfortable, as if you were talking to someone at lunch. A sales letter should be easy to read and feel like a friend discussing the product. It should not have stilted or awkward language, but should flow naturally—just write the way you would talk about your product.

Category: Writing Tips