Write a Riveting Sales Letter
By Mike Jezek
Posted Saturday, October 2, 2004
How do you get people's attention and build their interest to take the time to read your sales letter? Let's face it. If you can't get the attention of prospects and keep their interest your sales letter will just fall flat on its face and thus not make you much money.
Today, I'm going to show you how to take that limp sales letter and inject more money making power into it. How? You make your sales letter more riveting. And you do that by creating a thread of curiosity and or surprising information that keeps your prospects on the edge of their seats. There are various ways to do this, but today I'm going to show you three simple things you can do right away to make your sales letter more riveting.
1) The 25% Rule
Simply stated, if the first quarter of your sales letter isn't absolutely compelling and interesting enough your sales letter will bomb. So here's what you do. You craft an irresistible benefit laden headline and subhead that pull people into the first sentence of your body copy. You write the copy in such a way that to complete the thought forces your audience into the next sentence. Next, your first paragraph will naturally flow into the second paragraph and then into the third and so on. The trick again, is to write the copy in such a way that you're using stories, case histories, testimonials news or even descriptions that take several paragraphs to write. Then you break this huge block of copy up into multiple paragraphs. As a result, the first 25% of your sales letter should become riveting.
2) Sentence Enders
At the end of key paragraphs you can add a special sentence that beckons your prospects to read into the next paragraph. Here are several examples: "Stay with me." "Let me explain." There's more." "What happened next will surprise you." "I was blown away by what happened next." "Now here comes the good part."
3) Preview
Have you ever noticed on talk radio or on various news programs that the announcer or radio host will give you a preview of what's to come in their show in order to whet your appetite to know more? You can do the same thing throughout your sales letter. Note this technique is closely related to Sentence Enders. Here are a few examples. "As you read on, you're about to discover how XXX can boost your sales by 30% to 400% in just 7 short days." "I'm going to reveal my magic metabolism secrets that can peel off 20 lbs within 30 days time. But before I do .. " "In the next 5 minutes as you read every word of this letter, you will know the 7 secrets to exploding your online profits without paying a single dime in advertising costs." "By the time you finish reading this eye-opening letter you will know how to take these three fighting techniques and stop any attacker foolish enough to get in your face."
Here's the bottom line. You must keep your prospects focused on your sales message. If your sales letter is like most people's sale letters - boring - no prospect will take the time to read it and as a result you won't get sales. Use these three techniques and try inventing some of your own to keep your reader focused and riveted on what you've written. Build suspense in your sales letter. As if you're constantly dangling a carrot before them. Do this and you should see your sales boost.
About the author:
Sign up for Mike Jezek's acclaimed "Confidential Psychological Selling Tactics" mini-course today at irresistiblecopy@worldresponders.com or enjoy more of his articles at (www.irresistiblecopywriting.com)
