Elements of a Winning Sales Letter

Writing an effective sales letter is more a science than it is an art. This simply means that that even a person who isn’t the necessarily the best writer can create strong and effective sales copy by following a proven formula.

This proven formula for a winning sales letter is:

* Establish a unique selling proposition
* Target your audience
* Create excitement with an attention-grabbing headline and sub headline
* Establish credibility
* Present benefits
* Transfer ownership
* Provide a strong guarantee
* Add value with free bonus items
* Create a sense of urgency
* Last but not least…Ask for the sale

Include the elements of this proven formula in your sales copy to create the most effective sales letters possible.

Establish a unique selling proposition:
Your unique selling proposition or USP is what make your product or service stand out from all the competition. Whether your product is faster, takes up less storage space, or is the most durable; all these examples present a distinct USP that creates recognition and the opportunity to expand upon the usefulness of a particular service or product.

Target you audience:
Whatever you product or service may be, your presentation must speak directly to the needs of your particular target group. We’ve all seen ads for household products that reduce the work of busy home makers as well as those for office supplies that make organization a snap for business professionals. When writing your sales copy, think of who your customers are likely to be and what their individual needs might be. This is how you target an audience.

Creating excitement with headlines and sub headlines:
Most people are almost completely absorbed with their own lives and their own problems almost all the time. An attention-grabbing headline allows you to enter into their train of thought just long enough to direct them to your wonderful, incredible, out of this world “thing” that you have to offer them that is guaranteed to make life just a little bit easier. Without a headline that catches your customer’s attention your incredible offer could easily be lost in their daily shuffle.

Establish credibility:
Establishing credibility is especially important for small businesses. Larger companies don’t have to work nearly as hard to assure customers who they are and of the quality of the product and or service they represent. The important question to answer for you customer here is, “Why should I trust and do business with you?”

Present benefits:
This is a very important aspect of the sales letter. You must be able to distinguish between features and benefits, and present the benefits to your customers. Customers don’t really care as much about a product or service as much as they care about what that product or service can do for them.

People don’t buy shampoo because they want shampoo. People buy shampoo because they want clean good looking hair. Someone doesn’t buy a brand of cell phone because it has the best reception, but because having the best reception means they can carry on conversations with limited interruption. Selling with benefits means answering the customer’s all important question, “What’s in it for me?”

Transfer ownership:
Transferring ownership simply means that while reading your sales letter, customers should smoothly transition from reading about your product to learning more about their product they are about to purchase. Even in the snazzy car commercials we see on television every day, the intent is for each of us to see ourselves in that sleek new ride and imagine how much we’d enjoy ourselves.

Provide a strong guarantee:
By providing a strong guarantee you effectively reduce the risk involved in making a purchase. Someone is much more likely to spend money if they feel like they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Add value with a free bonus:
Adding additional value to an already attractive offer with little or no risk is effective way to seal the deal so to speak. This feature is often combined with…

Creating a sense of urgency:
Creating a sense of urgency simply encourages people on the desire you’ve already created to own your/their product and or service. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the phases, “order today and receive an additional…” or “call right now and we’ll throw in…”

Ask for the sale:
This may seem overly obvious, but it’s very important that you actually ask your customer to make the purchase and provide an easy and effective method for them to do so.