Which letter generates the most sales, a long one or a short one?

No prizes for guessing correctly – A long, interesting sales letter consistently converts more prospects into paying customers.

(And notice I highlighted the word ‘interesting’ because if your sales copy is boring nothing will keep the reader glued to it – no matter how short it is.)

Why is the long sales letter more effective?

A long and exciting sales letter keeps your prospects glued to your page from beginning to end, it focuses them on your words, words that will produce a strong feeling of companionship with you and make them want to take your desired action which is to buy your product.

The concept of companionship is very important and is something you should keep in your mind whenever you write a sales letter.

You have to identify with your prospects and really get to know their wants and desires. Your words must tell them that you understand where they are coming from and what their problems are. They let your prospects know that you genuinely feel for them.

This will build up a strong sense of security and trust with them, they will believe you can help them in their need and eagerly await the solution you have to their problems.

For this very same reason you have to address your letter to one person and talk to him/her as you would a cherished friend. – I have a post it note with these words written out in capitals, glued to the top of my monitor to remind me!

Once you have gained a prospects trust they will eagerly become a customer and await further recommendations from you.

Trusting customer

This is where you start to make real money – by ‘back selling’. Trusting customers will eagerly buy products that you recommend and you may be lucky to develop such good relationships with your customers that they buy on your word alone.

This puts a big responsibility on your shoulders – trust is the key issue and never to be undervalued.

So, whatever you sell ensure it is of a genuinely high standard and that you’ve tried it out yourself before offering it to your client.

Let me reiterate – The more relevant interesting copy you write, the better.

Yes, some people will say they do not like to read a long sales letter. When that happens, you know that they are NOT going to be your customer.

Also, they probably would not have the patience with your product or service, either which often leads to increased requests for refunds.

Is this the type of customer you want?

No. So the longer copy also acts as a qualification step for your prospects – you want to build up a customer base of highly targeted clients who will buy at your recommendation because of the trust you’ve built up with them.

Use your sales copy to weed out the ‘rubbish’

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Resource Box

Stuart Elliott is a world-class copywriter who has written numerous articles about sales letters and copywriting.

Discover how to get the most from your traffic, pick up your free copywriting power guide at
http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com

“The Best Copywriter On This Planet Is Free… No Hired Gun Has More Passion For Your Product Than You Do”

Article Copyright 2006 Stuart Elliott, All rights reserved. You may only reprint this article in its entirety and you must leave this resource box intact.

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Here’s a great little article about the marketing diary written by Marlon Sanders…

Dear Friend,

You may or may not know, but I just launched a brand new product that involves Matt Adler, who works here with me in my home office.

Most of you know Lisa, who has worked with me for years. Well, about a year ago, I added Matt to my team. Matt was working with Carl Turner right down the street from me.

Carl has worked as Jay Abraham’s sales person, on and off, for as long as I can remember. I don’t think there’s anyone in the business better at selling big ticket seminars than Carl Turner.

Anyway, Carl was living down the street and had hired Matt as his administrative assistant. But after only a few months, Carl’s plans changed, so in a jiffy, he put his home up for sale and bolted off into the wild blue yonder.

Matt had mostly done admin work for Carl, so he had almost no marketing experience (other than listening to Carl on the phone for 12 hours a day).

But Carl said Matt was the brightest and best worker he’d ever employed. And recommended him highly. Since Carl used to hire nuclear engineers, I figured that was quite an endorsement and snapped Matt right up.

I put him through a VERY intensive training program for 90 days. I also had Matt keep a diary. And EVERY day he would write an entrie about what he learned that day.

It’s very step-by-step.
Take a look

But there’s a few things you should know about this new product:

1. IT ISN’T ABOUT GOOGLE ADSENSE

Yes, I realize that many people have Google Adsense on the brain right now. And the income claims are flying around like junk yard dogs to a wagon of steaks.

But what we do here in my business is teach people how to sell stuff. Why? Because that’s how people have been feedin’ their kids and payin’ the bills for the past 10,000 years.

So whatever you learn from me about how to do that is gonna have value to you till the day you die. It isn’t going to “go out of date” next month.

See, the psychology of selling and the processes of marketing do NOT go out of date. Yes, some of the methods you USE change. But most everything I teach is evergreen.

It’ll work just as well 10 years from now as it does today. That means your investment goes a long way and you learn a skill that can benefit you for life.

Yeah, I don’t teach the “quick kill.” If you want “quick kill” marketing, then you’re wasting your time reading me. Go read someone who will tell you what you wanna hear, even though it ain’t true.

There’s always a market for blue sky and fast-appreciating swampland.

Which leads me to point two…

2. THERE ISN’T A BIG INCOME CLAIM

I don’t think I’ve ever seen income claims so out of control. You have your choice today of whether or not you wanna make six figures in 6 weeks, a million in 6 months, or a million in 30 minutes or a few hours, or any variety thereof.

However much you wanna make, there’s someone who’ll teach it to you.

I’m NOT in the “money business.” By that I mean, I’m not here to teach you the latest, greatest way to make money on the Internet.

I AM here to share what I know about selling products and services on and off the Internet. As you know, before the World Wide Web even existed, I was selling stuff on AOL and CompuServe, doing freelance writing and so forth.

One of the popular arguments nowadays by Internet “gurus” (i.e. teachers) who wanna shoot down other teachers credibility is to say, “Well, they ONLY sell Internet marketing stuff and WE sell in niches, or do ppc, seo, blackhat, whitehat — or whatever.”

My response to that is, “Have YOU ever gotten paid $10,000+ to write even ONE sales letter for a client that had nothing whatsoever to do with Internet marketing?”

Were YOU marketing back on AOL and CompuServe?

What were YOU doing back in 1978 when I got started in direct response marketing? How many clients ever sent YOU a check for $5,000 for 5 hours of consulting?

How many times have YOU ever sat in Starbucks and made $1500 writing 2 pages for a client in an hour?

You’re speaking at whatever seminar next month? Oh yeah, well I’ve spoken at like 130. You got 100 to go before you catch up.

Name a big city you’ve done a big seminar in. I can probably name 10 times I’ve done a gig there.

Blah, blah, blah. I could go on and on and toot my own horn. I mean, in a horn tootin’ contest, I reckon I could toot with the loudest of ‘em if’n I wanted to.

Instead, I spend my time thinking about how I can help you sell stuff. I wouldn’t even bring it up at ALL and waste your time except some people pedal that dribble non-stop to their list and people buy into it.

None of that has anything to do with YOU selling YOUR product or YOUR service. And that’s why I normally avoid all the chest beating. It’s NOT about me. It’s about YOU and what you got to sell and how to do it better, faster, simpler, easier.

3. BUT THERE IS SOUND MARKETING INFORMATION

There IS sound marketing information on what it takes to sell products.

I’m about selling products and services. Why? Because it’s something that ain’t gonna be worthless a year from now.

People have been making money selling things and/or bartering for the past 10,000+ years. And 10,000 years from now, they’ll still be doing if the countries of the world don’t kill each other off by then!

Funny story I learned in Psychology. Put a dominant and submissive rat in a cage with a piece of glass down the middle. One one side you have electricity. On the other side of the glass is no electricity.

You teach both rats they can avoid getting jolted by jumping over the piece of glass. Now…

Put both the dominant and submissive rat on one side, turn on the juice and what do you think happens?

True story. I’m not making this up. The experiment was done by psychologists years ago. The dominant rat jumps on top of the submissive one to make sure HE doesn’t get over the glass.

And they BOTH get jolted. Now, let’s just hope those 2 rats don’t get elected as heads of countries!

There’s a sober thought that’ll keep you up at night!

4. BEHIND THE SCENES

When Matt started with me about a year ago, he couldn’t write a headline, couldn’t write an email. I honestly don’t think he knew the difference between a feature and a benefit.

He knew C Notes in music but couldn’t generate a C Note through marketing if his life depended on it.

I took a lot of time to teach him what I call “THE ROPES.” Just the stuff I thought he needed to know about selling products. That’s really what the product is about.

A lot of things I taught him that aren’t things you’d normally read in an info product. They’re insights, nuances, strategies. Kinda like a lot of littles add up to something big.

I call this “the bones” of marketing.

See, the skeleton isn’t sexy. It isn’t pretty. It doesn’t make heads turn like a beautiful face or gorgeous hair.

But take the most drop-dead stunning model in the world, remove their skeletal structure, and what do you got?

A lump of skin.

So in my estimation, putting together your foundational skeletal marketing structure is ALL important.

The bones of business always has been, always will be finding demand in the marketplace, creating products and services to meet the demand and keeping a share for yourself, for your bills, for your kids, family and
future.

I’m definitely against the grain on my opinion in this respect. Almost everyone in this market has gone to selling the “I can make you more money in the least steps with the least effort” kind of products. Because for the most part, that’s what is selling best.

I’m stickin’ with my guns of tryin’ hard to do the best job by anyone anywhere of teachin’ YOU how to get people to buy your product or your service.

If you wanna discover the secrets of selling stuff, come to Marlon Sanders. If you want the “quick kill” or to learn any of the other stuff, go to someone else.

For more info on the Diary, go here

Is Your Money On Marketing Info Wasted?

One of the things that bothers me is I get emails from people saying they’ve “wasted all this money” on Internet marketing stuff and when is their ship gonna come in.

Maybe they bought gimmicky stuff that won’t work a year from now. So maybe they did waste money. But if what you invest in is the “know how” of how to sell products and services, and if you’ve increased your knowledge and skill, I absolutely don’t understand how that is a waste
– even if it hasn’t paid off yet.

That’s a skill that applies to ALL of life. It’s something that has value your whole entire life. And in that regard, the answer to the question is self evident. If you’ve invested in increasing your knowledge of how to make money by selling things and you still aren’t making money, then,
by definition, it means you still aren’t selling things.

Which means you haven’t learned all you need to learn. There’s more to learn. See what I’m saying?

And if you know more and understand more TODAY than you did six months ago about how to make money by selling things via marketing on or off the Internet, I can’t see why that would be “wasted money”.

I would see it differently.

I would see it as look how much TIME you WASTED by not discovering the secrets, the information, the systems earlier.

An investment in yourself, your mind, your know how is the best investment.

Best wishes,

Marlon Sanders

PS: Head to the Marketing Diary right away to learn more about it and how it will benefit YOU.

Now we’re getting to the nitty-gritty part of your sales letter – getting your prospect to part with his money – ‘Will He or Won’t He?’

By now you have acknowledged and agitated the problem your prospect is facing, you have introduced your solution to him.

You have stressed the benefits of your solution and shown your collection of testimonials to back up all your claims about your product’s effectiveness. Your prospect has read your iron-clad guarantee and feels secure that were he to buy from you he would have no risk whatsoever.

All that remains is to persuade him to hit that ‘buy’ button and enter his credit card details into your online order form.

You’ve built up an intense desire in your prospect but this is no time to let up, the ‘marriage hasn’t been consummated yet.’

Don’t give him the slightest chance to hesitate, show him a stunning sub-headline that pushes him over the edge and makes him hit that buy button with a frenzy that cannot be surpassed!

Your follow-up sub-headline must impel him into immediate action, whatever you say must be strong enough to remove the last vestiges of doubt from his mind. He’s near boiling point from your powerful sales copy so the final push could be:

• Stop losing money, get your copy now
• Why wait until tomorrow to change your life?
• It is time to get a better life, isn’t it?
• If you aren’t man enough to take on a challenge – Don’t Order Now!
• Are you ready to change your life?
• Test-drive XYZ program now
• Try ABC out for 30 days, risk-free

You can also remind your prospect about your risk- free guarantee policy:
“…don’t forget that when you purchase…”

Also you can use the fear of loss to help push him over the edge. Show him exactly what the stands to lose if he doesn’t buy your solution now. If necessary remind him why he has read the letter so far, restate his problems and urge him to act now!

Don’t forget to add a couple of PS’s after your signature, many people will scroll to the bottom and read these first. they should contain the major benfits and/or the fear of loss as mentioned above.

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Resource Box

Stuart Elliott is a world-class copywriter who has written numerous articles about sales letters and copywriting. Pick up your free copywriting power guide at
http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com

“The Best Copywriter On This Planet Is Free… No Hired Gun Has More Passion For Your Product Than You Do”

Article Copyright 2006 Stuart Elliott, All rights reserved. You may only reprint this article in its entirety and you must leave this resource box intact.

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Many people have told me that they have a mental block when it comes to writing their sales letter.

No matter how hard they try and think they just can’t seem to get things moving.

Are you the same? Do you ever sit there staring into space struggling to find the words?

It’s really frustrating and can happen to us all from time to time but there’s a great way to get those ideas flowing and break out from the mental blocks.

Let me ask you something first though… Do you know your product?

I mean really know your product.

You see in order to be able to sell something you really have to know it in intimate detail. I mean how can you sell the benefits of Liposuction unless you are a woman who’s actually been through the process?

What do you know about it apart from heresay? You don’t know whether there’s any pain involved, whether there’s a special diet you need to eat afterwards.

What feeling is there immediately after the operation? – Do you look into the mirror and see the hour glass figure you were dreaming about before you went for the op, if not how do you feel deep down?

Are there feelings of anger and dismay or is there a deep sense of ecstasy as you look out and see the real you that was hiding inside that tired old body all the time?

Only someone who has really experienced those first fearful glances can really tell this with an emotion that rings true.

You have to know every little thing that you can about your product defore you sit down and try to write your sales letter.

Knowing and loving your product gives you the burning passion to tell all the world about it and is the first step in overcoming the dreaded ‘blank screen’ that so many sit in front of for hours on end.

So the first thing you need to do is to get hold of your product and fall in love with it – that means buy, borrow or test drive it.

Look, you’re going to be writing a story form your heart telling me exactly why I should buy your product, if you don’t know and love it how can you in all truth and honesty tell me to buy it?

Next list the reasons why it’ll help me, look at it, ‘feel’ it, live with it.

How heavy is it? Is it easy to use? Does it have any weaknesses? Understand why I need it and should buy it from you.

An easy way to do this is by ‘brainstorming’.

The way you do this is to take a blank piece of paper and draw a small cicle in the middle, write your product’s name in the middle of the circle.

Now it’s time for you to get the magic going!

Look at the name of your product and write the very first thing that comes into you mind down on the paper.

Draw a line radiating out from the circle and write your thought at the end of the line.

Don’t think or worry about spellling, just write. As Soon as you’ve finished writing one thought another will be there, write that down also.

Soon you’ll have so many thoughts hitting you that you won’t be able to keep up – Just keep going until you have nothing left inside your head.

This is such a stimulating exercise that it’ll often leave you panting for breath!

Once you’ve finished all you need to do is look at what you’ve written and make a list of all the great ideas you have. List them in order of importance.

Now you have the outline for your letter.

Use the most important reason on the list, the main reason why I should buy your product and make this into a sensational headline.

Allow the ideas on the list to flow into one sales letter using sub-headlines when you need to emphasise a point, soon your letter will have almost written itself.

When you write your letter remember to only write it to one person at a time – make it personal!

That’s it for now, go and grab your product, fall in love with it and start to list the reasons why I should buy it. Go on do it Now!

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Resource Box

Stuart Elliott is a world-class copywriter who has written numerous articles about sales letters and copywriting. Pick up your free copywriting power guide at
http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com

Article Copyright 2006 Stuart Elliott, All rights reserved. You may only reprint this article in its entirety and you must leave this resource box intact.

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Today let me tell you something that you may not
remember.

You are UNIQUE, you are special, there is nobody like you amongst the billions of people on this whole planet!

Think about that for a little while, let it really sink in…..

That’s right, there is nobody in the whole world like you, nobody looks like you, talks like you or writes like you and that is a fact.

Take Jack Nicholson for example, he is a world famous actor who has played many famous characters but every time you watch his films you see him portraying the character in the way that only he can, not a different person.

He injects his own personality into every single character he plays and that is why he is good.

Why does he or any other actor do that?… Because that is what makes him different and stand out above all the other actors! That is why he is famous and rich because he is himself, he doesn’t try to be another person.

If you go online and read any sales letter you will see that the best ones contain the personality of the writer, as you read the words you can see his/her personality shining through and you know that you are ‘talking ‘ to a real person and not some automated robot.

When you write your sales letters you must remember your uniqueness, let it come into your letter, let your personality shine through.

But how? I hear you saying!

Well, how do you talk and act if you are talking to your best friend?

Yes, that’s right you act naturally, you don’t have any ‘airs and graces’, if you want to be sad – you can be, if you want to jump and shout for joy – you can do. If you are excited about something you show it in your words, the tone of your voice and your gestures.

In short you act as YOU!

This is what I mean by write from the heart. Let all your feelings come out onto the paper, be truthful, let your words tell me exactly how you feel and be yourself. You have a unique way of expressing your thoughts and views. Don’t try to be somebody you aren’t, leave that to somebody else.

You are a real person and I want to listen to the real you, warts and all!

When you write what do you see?

Do you see the computer screen staring back at you or do you see beyond it?

Right now as I write these words I see you, I don’t see anybody else and certainly not the computer screen. I’m talking directly to you, so I see your face and it is my pleasure to do so!

This is what you must do as you write your sales letter. It doesn’t matter how many people may see it at the same time, you can only address it to one person.

Keep this firmly in your mind whenever you write – I’ve got a big ‘post it’ note that says ‘Write Articles/ads To Only One Person’ stuck to the top of my computer screen.

I don’t need the reminder this minute, because I know I’m talking directly to you, my friend, but sometimes I forget, I get a mental blank and sit there staring into space. Then I see my note and I’m reminded that I have to talk to you and nobody else!

This helps me to direct everything I write only to you, not to anyone else who may read this letter – YOU are the only person reading at this moment and I am only talking to you!

Have a good think about the power of that last statement, put it into practice and you will see a major change in the responsiveness of your sales letters!

Keep well and enjoy your writing!

Stuart

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Resource Box

Stuart Elliott is a world-class copywriter who has written numerous articles about sales letters and copywriting. Pick up your free copywriting power guide at
http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com

“The Best Copywriter On This Planet Is Free… No Hired Gun Has More Passion For Your Product Than You Do”

Article Copyright 2006 Stuart Elliott, All rights reserved. You may only reprint this article in its entirety and you must leave this resource box intact.

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