If you’re ready to sell something online, a Sales Letter is a great way to do that.
When someone lands on your website they’re presented with a very friendly letter walking them through a sales pitch that will hopefully result in their clicking the “buy now” button at the end with their credit card in hand.
How Do You Convince People To Buy?
• Gain their trust.
• Convince them that your product will make their life better.
How do you do that?
Before writing your sales letter, it’s a good idea to work on your online reputation. If you spend time preparing for the launch of a new product, you will probably work on creating an online profile that creates confidence in you.
This will help people who look into your name find things that suggest you are worthy of buying from. A lot of people “Google” a product creator and look for reviews before buying a product they find online.
Before you start selling online, you need to be sure that your product is a high quality product. Ask people to test it for you. If they’re willing to provide a testimonial for your Sales Letter, that’s going to help you sell.
You can use text or video testimonials and this can help create trust as well. If the review process reveals problems with your product, you can fix those problems before releasing the product to the public. Beta testing can be a very wise decision!
Convincing People That Your Product Will Make Their Life Better
There are a lot of ways to convince someone that they need your product.
1. Is it going to solve a problem?
2. Will it save them time?
3. Will your product make them money?
These are the three big motivators for buying, especially online.
Another factor to get people to buy is to remove perception of the risk. If you offer a money back guarantee and use a recognised payment processor (like Clickbank, for example) people will feel safer in buying your product and by putting a money back guarantee out there, you’re telling people that you really believe in your product.
Address the cost of your product in a way that tells people they will get value by buying. If your product can make them money, save them money, or save them time, quantify that in your letter so people realise what a great value they are getting!
Finally, you need to create a sense of urgency! You don’t want people to leave your site empty handed. If you leave it to them to decide later, they probably won’t be back. Let’s face it, online surfers often have short attention spans so it’s in your best interest to keep them interested and convey that the best time to buy your product is now. A free bonus, a special price, or limited sales window can help!
It can take time to write a winning Sales Letter. That’s why some of them are 5000 words long and cost up to $5,000 to have written by expert copywriters, but if you believe in your product, look at the sales writing style of some gurus you respect, and take the advice listed here, you’ll increase your chances of selling more products because of believability and trust.
Have a most outstanding day.
Sean RasmussenAussie Internet Marketing
www.AussieSEO.com 2010
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sean,
Thank you for this post, writing a sales letter has been put on my list of things to do.
RIta
Rita Pepper´s last blog ..Creating Residual Income
Glad you like it Rita, I hope the info helps when you get to that stage.
Hi Sean,
Some very good tips here. If I am blogging about my product, say like the Common Law Course I offer or would I still need a sales letter?
Also, will I need to subscribe to Aweber or similar program to book people in for courses or for another product that I make myself, for instance?. Meaning that my product would not be on Clickbank so not set up for affiliate sales. I hope my question is relevant. I did enjoy reading this article. Thank you.
A well written sales letter with calls to action can be very effective for sales conversions of your product (combined with blogging about it as well). Aweber is a great product for capturing opt-in information and email marketing etc. It just depends on what your plans are and how you want to have your bookings set up Jill.
Hi Sean,
I think that all these components work together to help you make sales. It’s one thing to write a great sales letter but that will be useless if you haven’t got an online reputation to back it up.
I like your tips of giving some people free samples in return for testimonials and weeding out any bugs. Also, I think an iron-clad money back guarantee is a definite requirement.
I would rather pay someone to write my sales letter as I really don’t think this would be a strength for me. Still, I need to have some understanding of the elements that go into creating a successful sales letter. Otherwise, how will I know what I want written?
Jazz Salinger´s last blog ..Learn and Earn Competition – This is It
Even with outsourcing, you will have to provide a basic outline of what you want on your sales letter Jazz. Be clear and concise as to what you want and what you expect, and if it ends up not being what you want, don’t be afraid to let the writer know.
I can relate with you there Jazz. Work to your strengths, outsource your weaknesses
There is a certain art to putting together a sales letter that converts well. I have seen some dodgy one’s that just do not engage me at all and there is no way that I would purchase something from that specific site.
Cemil´s last blog ..Scribe SEO Plugin – Making SEO Easy
Hi Cemil,
That’s my biggest fear. I’d write a dodgy sales letter that no-one will want to read let alone want to buy a product from. So, I’d really feel more comfortable paying someone to write it for me.
I just need to know the specifications of what I want. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to communicate that effectively to whoever I get to write my ads.
Jazz Salinger´s last blog ..Finding Your Passion
I find it difficult to conceive that most people will buy a product after reading a 5000 word sales letter. I accept that that is the case, but long sales letters make me suspicious and therefore I have difficulty conceiving of how such a beast makes people buy. Therefore I would definitely need a professional to write any sales letters that I publish. In the meantime I will work on building trust.
I know what you mean about selling products that you know are high quality. I began my blogging by trying to find Chinese gadgets that people would buy. I took the precaution of buying them for myself first, but they were rubbish so I abandoned that blog.
Wal Heinrich´s last blog ..Cheapest Granny Flats In Australia
Having made that comment, another thought sprang to mind. Is there a software package that automatically writes sales letters? Say it asks you the relevant questions and when it is done you click a button and alacazaam a sales letter appears on your screen?
Wal Heinrich´s last blog ..Cheapest Granny Flats In Australia
Hi Sean
You make some very valuable points here that should not be overlooked. You suggest that it takes time to build peoples trust and that we also need to be selling a quality product. With that in mind we need to have the right kind of sales letter that will be of high quality and will convey how our product will save them time and money and solve a problem.
Looking at it in this light, the sales page needs to captivate it’s audience and it certainly would need to be very professional. I think at first I would tend to outsource this task in order to get it right the first time. Once I gained confidence I would certainly have a go myself.
Writing a sales letter
Elly´s last blog ..
I hate long sales letters that get stuck in my face. If I’ve come to your site to make the final decision if I want to buy something from you, then I’ve done most of my homework online already.
Don’t bother going into lengthy detail about how it’s going to improve my life, or show me all the “unsolicited” testimonials (which I won’t likely believe anyway) or list all the great freebies that you’re going to throw in as “bonuses”. Just give me a description of the product (make and model number would be useful if there is one) so that I know that it’s what I’m looking for, show me the short version warranty or guarantee, and tell me how much it’s going to cost with shipping. That’s all I really need. If it’s what I’m looking for then the price will be the deciding factor.
Sorry about the rant, but did I mention I hate long sales letters.
Don White´s last blog ..Psycho-
Hi Don,
I am with you on that, I don’t like these long in-your-face sales letters.
In the 5000 words it seems they repeat the same stuff 5-6 times and hardly answer any questions. I rather have a nice page with different options to find out about details of the product (including pricing).
But I guess there are other people out there for whom such a sales letter is the thing they need …
Renee´s last blog ..10 Good Habits Worth Having
Hi Renee,
I just popped over and had a look at your blog. Very nice and very informative. I’ve bookmarked it for further reading once Sean isn’t using up most of my free time.
Keep up the good work.
Don
Don White´s last blog ..Fundraising Event – Manotick- August 14- 2010
Hi Sean,
Thanks for the tips for writing a great sales letter as I sometimes find this to be a difficult task.
Convincing people that your product will make their life better is a sure way to increase your conversion rate!
Hi Sean,
I appreciate your advice very much. You offer great value to us mere mortals who want to know the secrets of successfully Writing A Great Sales Letter.
Teach us how to weave the most marvelous of magic spells into a sales letter to die for.
Teach us Sean, all your charms and conjurations that you put into a winning sales letters.
Jill Brown´s last blog ..Couples Marry at Common Law
I’ve never actually had to think about writing a sales letter from scratch. I do sell ebooks on my website but he sales letters were already written. I have just tweaked them a little to make them my own. I must say though, I’m not that impressed with long winded sales letters which take half and hour to get to the bottom.
Jackie Stenhouse´s last blog ..Anxiety Separation in Children