A sales letter exists for one and only one reason… to sell.

You may sell a product, sell a service, sell a prospect on the value of being on your mailing list or you may even sell an idea but, every time, the sales letter’s purpose is to “sell” the prospect.

Whatever you are selling, you will be writing a sales letter to sell.

Unfortunately, so many sales letters forget this one simple fact, usually by making at least one of these 5 mistakes:

1. Focusing on the Seller Not the Buyer

So many sales letters focus on the seller, who they are, what they want, what they do, what they have and the like.

BIG MISTAKE!

It is a rare buyer who cares more about the seller than their own needs, desires and pain.

When sellers speak too much about themselves and their products then the focus of the copy is not on convincing the buyer that they’ve found exactly what they were searching for.

Which of these little blurbs makes you more likely to buy?

or

Most people will be sold by the second one because the first focuses on the seller and on the product, the second focuses on the buyers and their needs.

Time after time, sales copy like the second will bring in many times more sales than the first.

This single mistake is responsible for a huge number of lost sales.

2. Forgetting to Sell

While it is a good idea to provide lots of good information in a sales letter and not just “sell, sell, sell” don’t forget the purpose of the sales letter and neglect to (or be afraid to) sell.

Think about it, why have a sales letter if you aren’t actually doing any selling in it? It sounds like wasted time and effort to me.

That doesn’t mean the selling should be blatant and aggressive, in today’s world that will more often than not be bad.

It does mean though that you need to include subtle selling techniques and invoke emotional reactions in the reader that will have them wanting to buy what you are selling.

Of course, you make sure they know about that one way or the other (unless you are doing a sequence then sometimes, only sometimes, you can leave this out at the beginning of the sequence).

3. Boring Copy

People always say they don’t like those long sales letters but the truth is that what they don’t like is boring sales copy.

If something is boring then people won’t read it whether is short or long and it doesn’t matter if they are reading a story, a book, an article or a sales page.

Write interesting, exciting and compelling sales copy and people will read it just as they do anything else they find stimulating.

Start with a “killer” headline and each section should make the reader want to read the next section all the while becoming more convinced that they want to do what you want them to do.

Follow the AIDA principle I talked about in “The Most Important Marketing Principle”

4. Too Sales-y or Hype-y

Don’t make you sales copy sound like a used car salesman!

Too much sales hype will turn off your buyers and, on the Internet, they will be gone in a second.

Too much hype also jeopardizes credibility and people have learned to just skip sales copy that has too much.

Balance the hype with other important factors every sales letter should have. Have enough “hype” to attract but not enough to drive your prospects away.

5. Plain Old Bad Writing

Some sales letters are just so poorly written that people feel distrustful and turned off by them.

Not everyone can write well but everyone can follow the basic writing fundamentals.

This doesn’t mean you need to write so your English teacher would have given you an A; in fact, you generally don’t want to write like that.

A few grammar and spelling mistakes won’t detract, and may help, but lots of awkward language, misspelled words and incoherent phrases will make the reader uncomfortable and an uncomfortable prospect does not buy.

Another type of “bad writing” is to make sure you write to the audience.

By that I mean to write like your audience talks.

Use words and phrases like they would if they were talking to you.

Use the appropriate level of formality (or informality) so they feel comfortable.

Talk to them like you’re their good friend and you were having a conversation.

6. No Call to Action

Your “bonus mistake” is something you can see frequently in sales copy.

The copy is interesting, compelling, good sales copy but when they get to the end the prospect doesn’t know what to do next; they’re just left hanging.

After you’ve convinced a person to do what you want them to, then explicitly tell them what to do. Be direct.

If you want them to sign up then have a big button that essentially says “Click Here to Sign Up”.

If you want them to buy then tell them to “Buy Now!” (except don’t ever say “buy” except in extraordinary circumstances).

Whatever it is you want them to do, make sure that you tell them explicitly what action to take.

Conclusion

The above mistakes should be avoided at all costs because they will directly affect the goal of your sales letter, which is, of course, to sell.

A great start would be to avoid making these mistakes:

1. Focusing on the Seller Not the Buyer
2. Forgetting to Sell
3. Boring Copy
4. Too Sales-y or Hype-y
5. Plain Old Bad Writing
6. No Call to Action

You should see an immediate improvement in your conversion rates and the amount of sales you make.

Are you making any of the mistakes? Post a comment and tell me what mistakes you make or see other people make.

Talk soon,

The Shameless (Ethical) Marketer

http://www.8-8-8Sale.com

http://www.MusicForInternetMarketers.com

http://www.SecretsOfGoogleAdwords.com

http://www.MadMondaySale.com

http://www.2ForTuesdaySale.com

O.Y. If you want some software that will help you create great sales letters check out Interactive Sales Letter Pro

This post from: Street Guide to Copywriting. To read more post like this, head over to Street Guide to Copywriting

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