Six Essential Elements of Successful Sales Letters

By Joanne L. Mason
Posted Saturday, January 8, 2005

I’m about to reveal to you six essential elements of successful sales letter. These are time-tested principles that have been used by master copywriters for many decades. Include these elements in your sales letters and you can dramatically increase your income.

Success Element #1: Always Use Attention Grabbing Headlines

A great headline is your best opportunity to capture your prospect’s attention. In fact it’s been proven that a great headline can actually increase the responsiveness of your ad or sales letter by up 1700%! Use your headline to immediately tell your prospective customer the number one benefit that he/she will gain from your product. Keep your customer focused by using sub-headlines throughout your sales letters that go into more details about your product.

Success Element #2: Bring on the Benefits!

Benefits tell your customers what they will receive from your product. Reveal every possible benefit so customers will be anxious to buy from you right away. Offer benefits that give you the edge over your competition. Some benefits that customers want include a fair price, great bonuses, a risk free guarantee, easy payment options, and reliable customer support.

Success Element #3: Use Testimonials to Add Credibility

Nothing adds more credibility to your sales letters than testimonials. A testimonial is the equivalent of a trusted friend or respected expert’s recommendation of your product. Testimonials help customers feel at ease in purchasing from you because it says that others have tried your product and were pleased.

Success Element #4: Reverse 100% of the Risk

A great way to dramatically increase your sales is to totally remove all risk involved with the purchase. Offer customers a 100% money-back guarantee if they’re not satisfied. Studies have shown that the longer the guarantee the lower the ratio of returns. If you know you have a great product you won’t have to worry about very many returns, so go ahead and offer the longest guarantee possible.

Success Element #5: Give Customers a Reason to Act Now

The “everyday low prices” marketing tactics may work for huge retail stores but your small business will quickly be out of business unless you give customers a compelling reason to act now. Do you want the customer to call now for a free estimate, visit your shop or web site for “Two-for-Tuesdays”, or purchase today and receive a free bonus? Determine what immediate action you want customers to take and be sure to specifically tell them to do it.

Success Element #6: PS…Don’t Forget to Use Your Postscript

After the headline the second most read part of every sales letter is the PS, or the postscript. This is why it’s absolutely crucial that you use a PS on every single sales letter you ever write. Use the PS to summarize your offer, introduce an extra bonus or set a limit for the offer. Be sure that your PS is intriguing enough to get your customer to go back and read your entire sales letter.

Now you have the six essential elements of successful sales letters. Even if your marketing efforts are doing okay, a winning sales letter you can actually double or even triple the results you're getting now. Apply these six elements to your sales letters and watch your profits soar!

About the Author
Joanne L. Mason is the publisher of the Sales Letters Secrets, your source for great ideas, tips and techniques for creating winning sales letters. Get your FREE subscription online at (www.moneymakingsalesletters.com/ezine.html)
Discover How To Instantly Grab The Attention Of More Customers And Increase Your Sales By Up To 1700%" (http://www.moneymakingsalesletters.com/greatheadlines)