copywriting Martin Lee on 11 Dec 2006 07:01 am
Writing a Good Sales Letter
I’m currently in the process of watching a Dan Kennedy seminar on copywriting, so I thought I will share some of the things that I had learnt.
Writing words that sell is an important skill that everyone should master. True, you can outsource the copywriting task to a professional copywriter. But at the end of the day, you still need to know some basics so that you can differentiate a good copy from a lousy one!
There are a few formulas for writing a sales letter:
Formula 1
State the problem.
Agitate the problem.
Solve the problem.
Formula 2 – AIDA
Arousal – Catch their attention, alarm them, make them curious, offer them a huge promise
Interest – Provide support of your points, tell a story
Desire – Promise them results, make them an irresistable offer with a guarantee
Action – Instruct them on what they need to do to close the sale, give them a sense of urgency
Whether your target audience is a consumer market or a business customer, the letter should be written as if you are talking to a single person. Remember that at the end of the letter, it is always a single person reading it and making the buy decision.
The first step to writing a good sales letter is getting into the frame of mind of the target audience. You must know the target market very well as well as any lingo that they speak.
One good place that you can go for this research is internet forums. Go to DMOZ, search for the category that you are researching for, and look under “Chats and Forums”.
Look around the forums to find out how they speak, what are some of their problems/concerns, their “hot buttons” and any words or special phrases that they use.
If you are part of the same target audience, then this step will be simple or even unnecessary. Otherwise, considerable time should be spent doing this research even before writing anything.
