Writing a sales letter

Due to the Internet being a faceless form of marketing, sales letters are useful as deal closers and can be very useful online to convert visitors into sales. Keep in mind that you are not present when meeting your visitors and you are solely reliant on your copy or opt-in email to convert the visitor into a sale.

Planning your sales letter

When planning your sales letter it is important that you keep in mind the needs of your visitor instead of your own needs. It is easy to tell people what YOU want them to know. However, at that stage the visitor has questions of his own before he will even consider your product. Therefore it is important that you plan your sales letter around the needs of the visitor and compile a list of possible questions that the visitor might want to ask.

For example, if a foreigner is interested in purchasing a property in South Africa his questions might be allot different from a Citizen of the country. The visitor would like to know things like his possible growth on his investment or maybe how close the nearest beach is. There are a variety of questions that this individual might ask.

Once you have compiled a list of the visitors needs, you can start highlighting the items on the list that could have the highest probability of closing the deal. This will affect the entire sales letter from the header to the final sentence.

Header

The header must be powerful and attention grabbing. On the Internet you have in less than 7 seconds to capture the attention of the visitor before they close the website or email. The header is therefore the most important part of the letter and must create the desire to read on. The intention of the header is not to close the deal, but to get the reader to read the rest of the letter in excitement.

There are many techniques that can be used to mention the power of a header. To explain this I will compare two headers.

A 'subtle' insulting header like... "Why I am a rich bastard and you are not!"

Or

The formal header like. "Invest in South African real estate"

Which one of the two headers would you believe would get the best results?

With the first heading I can go further and explain the fantastic growth that the property I am advertising has had over the past few years etc. and capture the imagination of both an investor and a first time buyer. I therefore can get more visitors or email recipients to read my sales letter.

The second heading will at most get a person that are already interested in buying property in South Africa to read on. It will therefore be allot less effective and people that don't know the South African property market will most probably close the letter immediately.

Testimonials and facts

Testimonials are in most cases a requirement for doing business online. The visitors probably don't know you and has no idea whether or not they can trust you. If they read the great things told about you that already gains their trust to a degree. The degree of trust you gain also depends on the format of the testimonials that you give and how they are presented.

Here are two examples on how a testimonial can be used to accomplish a sale. When you read through them identify why the one will work better than the other.

"Bobby Soap Real Estate sold me my dream home. My wife absolutely loves her new kitchen and we had little drama obtaining a bond" - Peter

"As a property investor I have dealt with many estate agents. Bobby gave me excellent service and a great investment. My property value soared with $100K in just 11 months. I will recommend Bobby Soap Real Estate to all my friends any time" - Dolf Ludmore (DL Property trusts)

The first testimonial is a typical one found on many websites. But when viewing the testimonial a few negative points immediately put me off. First of all Peter said sold. That will be a great word for a seller, but remember I want to sell the properties to the visitor not get him to list it. That is a poison word to the would be buyer and will have a negative effect. There are also other poison words like "little drama" (Ah so they had drama, even though Peter thought it was just a little.) and "bond" to the would be buyer means, debt lots and lots of debt! The anonymous name "Peter" also means nothing. Peter who?

The second testimonial is packed with positive words that people want to hear. "property investor" speaks of success and financial freedom. "excellent service" means no drama! "great investment" I will make money! Giving actual figures and showing money profits also increases the reader's attention and will give them the need to read on. Clearly Dolf Ludmore has allot of friends as well! These are examples that you will often find one the Internet and in email letters.

Facts are extremely powerful in grabbing attention and beneficial to close deals. When making use of facts. Put in live links to the facts that you are referencing. The Internet has a funny way of about it, as it is easy for visitors to check on facts by simply Googling a bit. When that happens they often find other information and you loose them completely. You have two choices when using facts. Rather give the visitor a live link that opens in a new browser window and sent them straight to the facts you are quoting. Or actually taking the quote from the page you are referencing and ad the non-clickable URL to display where you got your information from. Both of these are very useful and ensure that the user does not leave your site.

Build interest

The compilation and word structuring of your letter should constantly build interest. By telling a story for example you can get the reader's attention. By telling the story in a manner that is interesting and exiting with a clear buildup to a punch line, you ensure that the reader will read the entire letter. Humor, success or tragedy is very effective interest builders. By making use of a relaxed writing style the user stays more alert and interested than the normal boring official sales talk letters. Avoid complicated industry jargon.