"The Importance Of Sales Copy"

By Randall Helling
Posted Tuesday, January 11, 2005

There are a lot of online entrepreneurs trying to sell excellent products - but failing! They are failing because they are overlooking the importance of getting their message out to prospective clients. (...their "sales copy" - an effective direct response sales message.)

To many internet newbies focus on the fancy website technology. I have personally been to hundreds (...maybe even thousands) of websites that have sounds, flashing popups, scrolling messages and more...but I can't find what they are selling!

Your goal, whether it's a webpage, sales letter or newsletter article, should be to get visitors to take immediate action. You want visitors to view literature that you've created and immediately be motivated to learn and/or know more.

There are numerous individuals promoting information on writing sales letters and advertisements - and I'll even recommend a few at the end of this article. But what you need to fully understand first, is the basic ingredients of a "sales copy":

1. The Headline
2. The Opening
3. The Selling Copy
4. The Tone
5. The Offer
6. The Guarantee
7. The Motivation
8. The Postscripts

Obviously I don't have time to go through all of these items here. So, let me just touch on the first item. But remember, you are going to have to fully understand all of these basics to be successful.

The Headline - "Writing Headlines"

The headline of a sales letter is so important because this one little item will either make or break you. It's estimated that 85% of the of a sales letter's effectiveness is gathered in the headline!

The key ingredient is emotion. Emotion is what moves people, for example, loss of income, loss of health, fear of failure, etc. All of these things are purely emotional and will be extremely effective in regards to sales power. Examples:

"Your Health Depends On This Information!"
"Stop Letting Others Cheat You Out Of Income!"
"This New Vitamin Will Add Years To Life"

I even saw a headline recently that read: "Don't Open This!" (...of course, I admittedly did!)

The point is, try to get readers focused on a quick benefit. Grab their attention. If you can't do it in the initial heading, try a sub-heading.

In the example above, "Don't Open This!"...the sub-heading read, "Just another example of a sales heading that increases profits"

Notice that the sub-heading spoke only about the benefits of the initial heading...and it was emotional.

Remember, the heading is only a part of the overall sales letter. You need to incorporate all of the parts to be successful. To learn more about all of the parts of an effective sales copy, visit my website at: (http://www.websuccess-online.com)

To Your Success,
Randall Helling

PS: As promised, here is a link to several individuals promoting sales writing techniques that I highly recommend: (http://www.websuccess-online.com/_salescopy.htm)

About the Author
Article by Randall Helling of Helling Enterprises. Visit us at (http://www.websuccess-online.com) for FREE "hands-on" & "how-to" online business success strategies. Featuring internet marketing assistance, software, manuals, web services and much, much more.

Entrepreneur Randall Helling started his online business on a shoestring budget after nearly losing everything. Today, he lives comfortably teaching others how to spin serious profits from the web, right from the comfort of their own homes.