Sales letters can be one of the most powerful tools available to businesses when used correctly. But unfortunately, even the best of sales letters can fail — bringing in only a small percentage of their true potential — because they’re missing one of the crucial ingredients needed to close the sale.
In fact, I see this all the time when offering my free sales letter critiques. Beautiful, hard-working sales letters that are pulling weak conversion because they’re missing one of the elements needed.
A sales letter is like a machine. When all the parts of the “engine” are present it will run like a dream, pulling in profits or leads around the clock. But when a piece of the engine is missing, the sales letter will “sputter” and spit out a tiny conversion.
Trust me when I say that a quick “tune up” for your sales letter can instantly begin pulling you a much stronger conversion.
So here are some of the most common missing pieces I’ve found from sales letters that aren’t running at their full potential:
WEAK HEADLINE
If your headline is not speaking directly to the audience interested in your product if it’s not getting them excited and if it’s not building enough curiosity to drive them into your sales letter, then you’re going to lose them.
So the first place to start with a sales letter tune-up is to rework your headline. I’ve seen conversions sway wildly from just a simple reworking of a headline. Sure, it takes a little time to gage results; but in the end, a strong headline can easily double or even triple your conversion by keeping prospects glued to your sales letter.
FEATURES, NOT BENEFITS
There is an important lesson here
People don’t buy because of certain features your product possesses, but rather how these features work for the person as a benefit.
For instance a feature of a diet pill could be “it speeds up your metabolism”. But the benefit of using this pill would be “kick your metabolism into overdrive and start burning fat like a 15 year-old on the cross country running team.”
To convert your features into strong benefits simply look at the end result obtained.
WEAK CLOSE
A weak close shuts down even the best of sales letters.
A strong close needs to do a few things
First, it needs to convince the reader that they’re making the right choice in ordering. This can be accomplished by telling them the ugly downside of not having your product or service.
Second, if the potential customer feels there is a risk with ordering, you need to eliminate it. Do this with a strong guarantee.
Third, especially if your sales letter is long, run through what the prospect is going to get after ordering. This reminds them about the value and pumps up their desirability meter right before you ask for their commitment.
And fourth, you need to tell them what to do and ask for the sale. No tiptoeing here. You need to come right out and give the prospect a command, “Click the link below right now and order”.
FREE: Sales Letter Critique by Grady Smith where he details how
you can instantly increase the response of your sales letter
using deadly effective mind techniques. Limited offer — visit
his website right now for your FREE revealing critique:
