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Advertising, Sales and Marketing
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12-Step Foolproof Sales Letter Templateby David Frey You don’t have to be an award-winning copywriter to create effective sales letters. In fact, writing great sales letters is more of a science than an art. Even the pros use proven “templates” to create sales letters that get results. The following is a 12-step template for writing foolproof sales letters. Overcoming the Hurdles Leading to Buying Resistance Every person has some form of buying resistance. The objective of your sales letter should be to overcome your reader’s buying resistance while persuading them to take action. I liken writing a sales letter to running a steeplechase foot race. The first one to the finish line who has jumped over all the hurdles is the winner, or in this case, gets the sale. Whether you’re giving a sales presentation in person or on paper, the process of overcoming the hurdles leading to buying resistance are much the same. These hurdles are manifested in many spoken and unspoken customer comments such as:
Results-oriented sales letters will need to address some or all of these objections to be effective. The 12-step sales letter template is designed to overcome each of these objections in a careful, methodical series of copywriting tactics. The 12 steps are:
Each of these 12 steps add to reader’s emotions while calming their fears. Motivation Is An Emotional Thing It’s important to remember that people are motivated to buy based on their emotions and justify their purchase based on logic only after the sale. This means that each step in the sales letter process must build on the reader’s emotions to a point where they are motivated to take action. That being true - - there are only two things that truly motivate people and they are the promise of gain or the fear of loss. Of the two, the fear of loss is the stronger motivator. Think about it. Would you rather buy a $50 course on “How to Improve Your Marriage” or “How to Stop Your Divorce or Lover’s Rejection?” I have empirical data that proves that the second title outsells the first 5 to 1. Why? Because it addresses the fear of loss. Underlying the promise of gain and the fear of loss are seven “universal motivations” to which everyone responds. Whatever product or service you are selling you need to position it so that its benefits provide one or more of these universal motivations.
Ultimate motivations are what people “really” want. The product or service is just a vehicle to providing these benefits so make sure your sales letter focuses on these motivational factors. The 12-Step Sales Letter System Now that we know what impedes a person to buy and what motivates a person to action let’s review the 12 elements of a winning sales letter. 1. Get Attention The following are three headline generating templates that are proven to get attention.
People love to know how to do things. When combined with a powerful benefit the “How to” headline always gets people’s attention. In fact, they’re probably the two most powerful words you can use in a headline.
People always want to know “insider secrets.” We love to know things that other people aren’t privy to. Knowledge is power and those who have it feel powerful. Besides that, most of us enjoy a good mystery, especially in the end when the “secret” is revealed.
Remember that people are motivated by fear of loss more than the promise of gain? Well, the “warning” headline screams fear. The word “warning” demands attention and combined with something of interest to the reader, is a very powerful headline. 2. Identify the Problem This technique is called, “problem – agitate.” You present the problem then agitate it so that they really feel the pain and agony of their situation. People are such strong creatures of habit that we rarely change our ways unless we feel great amounts of pain. In fact, companies are no different. Most businesses trudge along doing the same old thing until things get so bad that they have to make a change. For example, if you were selling garage door openers you might agitate the problem by telling a short story about what happens when it doesn’t work.
In this scenario the problem was a faulty garage door opener and the agitation is all the terrible things that happen because of the faulty garage door opener. 3. Provide the Solution In this section you will introduce yourself, your product and/or your service. Relieve the reader’s mind by telling them that they there’s no need to struggle through all their problems because your product or service will solve it for them. 4. Present your Credentials List your credentials including any one of the following:
Your reader should get the impression after reading this section that “you’ve been there and done that” with great success and that the reader can expect the same results. 5. Show the Benefits Get a piece of paper and draw a line down the center of the paper. Now write all the features of your product or service on the left. Think about the obvious benefits and not-so-obvious benefits of the each feature and write them down on the right side of the paper. Most of the time your product will have hidden benefits that people won’t naturally think of. For example, a hot tub not only soothes and relaxes your muscles but it also gives you an opportunity to talk to your spouse without interruptions. The hidden benefit is greater communication with your spouse and ultimately a better marriage! Bullet point each benefit to make it easier to read. Think about every possible benefit your reader may derive from your product or service. In many cases, people will buy a product or service based on only one of the benefits you list. 6. Give Social Proof Testimonials are powerful selling tools that prove your claims to be true. To make your testimonial even more powerful include pictures of your customers with their names and addresses (at least the city and state). You might even ask if you can use their phone number. Most readers won’t call but it is a powerful statement to include their complete contact information. It demonstrates that you are real and so are the testimonials. 7. Make Your Offer
Your offer can come in many different formats. The best offers are usually an attractive combination of price, terms, and free gifts. For example, if you were selling a car your offer might be a discounted retail price, low interest rate, and a free year of gas. Hint: When developing your offer you should always try to raise the value of your offer by adding on products or services rather than lowering your price. Include vivid explanations of the benefits of the additional products or services you are offering in order to raise the perceived value of your offer. 8. Give a Guarantee Give the absolute strongest guarantee you are able to give. If you aren’t confident enough in your product or service to give a strong guarantee you should think twice about offering it to the public. In reality, almost all small businesses already have a very strong guarantee, but don’t realize it! If you had an irate customer that wanted their money back would you just say, “No, I’m sorry. I will not give your money back?” Probably not. If they insist on getting their money back, in most cases you’ll give it back to them. You see, most businesses already have a strong guarantee and don’t hold it up and trumpet it for fear that a lot of people would take them up on it. That’s simply doesn’t happen. When was the last time you asked for a full refund on something? If you’re like me, it’s been a while. Here is an example of a guarantee that I give for one of my products:
Actually, you get double protection. Here's how. At any time during the 12 months, if you sincerely feel I fell short in any way on delivering everything I promised, I'll be happy to give you a complete refund. Even if it's on the last day of the twelfth month! This guarantee extends for an entire year and that they will receive specific benefits (in this case it’s money). It they don’t get what they expect, they get their money back with no questions asked. This virtually eliminates all the risk for the buyer. Hint: Your offer may be so good that people won’t believe it. You’ve heard the old axiom, “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.” To avoid this thinking, give the reason why you can give such as great offer. For example, you might have goofed when ordering inventory and now you’re overstocked and that’s why you can offer such a great price. When people read the reason why, it will help them reconcile your irresistible offer in their mind and make it more believable. 9. Inject Scarcity
To motivate people to take action they usually need an extra incentive. Remember when I said that people are more motivated to act by the fear of loss rather than gain? That’s exactly what you are doing when you inject scarcity into your letter. When people think there is a scarce supply of something they need they usually rush to get some of it. You can create a feeling of scarcity by telling your reader that either the quantity is in limited supply or that your offer is valid for only a limited time period. Your offer could sound something like this:
Or
Or
One word of caution: If you make an offer you need to live up to it. If you go back on your word after the deadline date you will begin to erode the trust and confidence your customers have come to expect from you. 10. Call to action Your call to action must be “action-oriented.” You can do this using words like ‘Pick Up the Phone and Call Now!” or “Tear Off the Order Form and Send It In Today!” or “Come to Our Store by Friday and …” Be explicit and succinct in your instructions. Plant your call to action throughout your letter. If you are asking the reader to call your free information line then perhaps some of the testimonials might say, “When I called their free information line” or in your offer you might say, “When you call our free information line…” Then when you give the call to action at the end of the letter, people won’t be surprised or confused. It will be consistent with what you said all throughout your letter. 11. Give a Warning
Try to paint a graphic picture in the mind of the reader about the consequences of not taking action now. Remind them just how terrible their current state is and that it just doesn’t have to be that way. 12. Close with a Reminder Voila! You now have a powerful sales letter. Using this 12-step formula anyone can write an effective sales letter that sells. The following are a few extra tips to help you write an even better sales letter: Tip #1: Write the Features/Benefits – The biggest hurdle to writing a great sales letter is just getting started. Many people have a fear of writing. One way to get your letter started and develop a helpful guide for your letter is to write a feature/benefit list. Take a set of 3 x 5 cards and write all the features you know about on one side of the cards. Then turn the cards over and write a benefit for each feature. You’ll have started your letter and produced a list of benefits you can use to write it. Tip #2: Once you have completed the letter, let it sit for a day or so. This will allow you to be more objective you when you edit your letter. If you’ve just spent the last few hours working on it you will find it hard to catch the mistakes or edits in the letter because you’re just too close to it. Tip #3: Develop a “swipe file” to help get your creative juices flowing. When you see a great ad or receive a particularly effective letter in the mail, keep it in a file that you can refer back to again and again. Companies pay thousands of dollars to develop their marketing materials; you might as well take advantage of that by using it as a model for your own work. Tip #4: Before you start writing your sales letter, develop a customer profile sheet by documenting every thing you know about your target customer. Some great copywriters put a picture of a typical customer in front of them as they write to help them remember to whom they are writing the letter. Tip #5: I often get the question, “How long should my sales letter be?” and my answer is, “As long as it needs to be.” Each part of your sales letter should be building your case. If it takes ½ page to build your case then that’s how long your letter should be; however, I use a 24-page sales letter to successfully sell one of my products. Most anyone can write a powerful sales letter by just following this simple 12-step process. Make sure that you include each of the steps because each step builds your case in a unique way and adds to the reader’s emotions. David Frey is President of Marketing Best Practices Inc., a small business marketing consulting firm and the editor of the Marketing Best Practices Newsletter. His products include The Small Business Marketing Bible, Instant Referral Systems, and Coaches and Consultants Marketing Bootcamp. |
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