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The Top Ten Mistakes in Preparing Sales Letters
Ted Nicholas 
1.
Poor Headline. Or what's even worse, no headline.
The most important part of sales letters is the headline.
Unless the headline immediately attracts attention and
generates interest, your prospect will stop reading
right then and there. This means you have no chance--zero--to
fulfill the purpose of the sales letter, which is to
make a sale. Your headline should communicate the strongest
customer benefit of your product or service.
TIP:
Spend hours, days, even weeks if necessary, creating
headlines. Create at least 15 to 25 and test the strongest
ones. I write as many as 200 to 250 before choosing
two to four to test against each other to find the most
profitable.
2.
Copy is full of "Me" messages. Some examples:
My products are terrific. My company is wonderful. We've
been in business for 15 years. We have a long tradition
of quality, etc., etc., etc.
So
much advertising is full of this drivel. This is all
about you. No one in the world cares besides yourself.
Your
prospects want to know exactly what benefits they will
get from your products. In other words, if you sell
grass seed, don't dwell on what it's composed of. Instead
describe how beautiful their lawn will be.
TIP:
Here is the fastest way to improve your copy. Review
the first draft of your copy. Eliminate all these words--I,
our, we, my. Substitute you and your. I promise you'll
be amazed and truly gratified with the result. It's
sure to blow your mind!
3.
Copy fails to answer the question "What's in it
for me?" The process, of course, starts with
the headline. An excellent copywriting technique is
to prepare bullet points. These should consist of all
the benefits a buyer of your product will get.
Tip:
Your benefits should be stated in headline format. The
secret of making benefits even more powerful is to describe
the benefit of the benefit.
4.
Exaggerated Claims. Many copywriters and marketers
think the more astonishing your claims are, the more
persuasive. This is a fallacy. If a claim is exaggerated,
it seems and feels untrue. You thus lose that all-important
credibility.
Tip:
First you should dramatize your advertising claims with
the help of short emotional words. Then prove each claim.
Expert comments and testimonials can be a big help.
5.
Confusing offer. So many sales letters do not make
a clear, easily understandable offer. The result is
few or no orders. Reason? When consumers are confused,
they don't act--they do nothing. Confusion always breeds
inaction.
Tip:
Think through your offer very carefully and write it
down before you prepare a single word of your sales
letter.
6.
Copy is too short. < As the old saying goes-- the
more you tell, the more you sell. Tell the complete
story of your product. Include every benefit you can.
Copy can never be too long. Some of my sales letters
are as long as 56 pages. But you can be too boring.
The biggest sin of any copy writer, even in a two-paragraph
letter, is to bore the prospect.
Tip:
The secret is to tell a complete story, but in the fewest
words possible. Eliminate every single unnecessary word.
7.
Large blocks of copy and few subheads. Lengthy paragraphs
without frequent subheads make copy intimidating to
read. This discourages reading and response. Place at
least two or three subheads on each page. Plus, keep
paragraphs and sentences short. Paragraph length of
no more than five sentences or less should be your goal.
Some paragraphs can be one to three words.
Tip:
When you write subheads, strive to make them short and
benefit driven. If the subheads are well done, readers
with short attention spans can simply read the headlines
and subheads and make their buying decision on those
alone.
8.
No testimonials. Customers who rave about your product
or service are extremely effective and should be included
in every sales letter. The words from the mind and heart
of customers build your credibility. However, most marketers
waste the potential impact of testimonials. Common mistakes
include using initials rather than the full name, as
well as omitting city and state or country.
Tip:
When getting written permission to use a testimonial
in advertising, also request a photo. Most will happily
agree. Photos help to add power to testimonials.
9.
No money-back guarantee. Your response to any sales
letter will be significantly higher if you include a
money-back guarantee.
Tip:
The longer the guarantee, the more sales and less returns
or refunds requested. For example, 30 days works better
than 10 days, 60 days works better than 30 days, etc.
A full year "no quibble" guarantee works very
well.
10.
No P.S. The P.S. is the second most read part of
any sales letter. Many people read the headline and
then turn to the end of the letter to see who it's from
when they read the P.S. My strong recommendation is
to never send out a letter of any kind without including
a P.S. This includes personal letters. Make it a habit
from which you never vary. So when you are writing to
your mother, father or friend, end the letter with a
P.S.
Tip:
When preparing a P.S. for a sales letter, a good formula
to follow is to simply restate the biggest benefit of
the product, the guarantee and the offer.
Extra
Bonus Tip--The signature in any sales letter is very
important. When a prospect receives a letter, they look
at the headline, who it's from and then the P.S.
A
few tips:
1.
Make sure the signer is given a title.
2.
The signature should be bold and done with a felt tip
pen. Most signatures are shaky and weak. They appear
to come from someone who is not proud of their letter
but apologetic.
3.
The signatures should be printed in process blue. No
other color--not black or red or purple or green. I've
tested other colors and none works as well as process
blue. Blue "feels" more natural to the reader.
Remember this. When you prepare a sales letter you are
asking the recipient to suspend belief while they read
your message. Your signature plays a big part in that
process.
Sincerely yours,
Ted Nicholas
P.P.
"The secret to success, in life and in business,
is to work hard at the margin. Relentlessly. It's as
powerful as compound interest, the eighth wonder of
the world. Those little marginal extra efforts will
inevitably grow into something big." --Bill Bonner
Little things mean a lot.
"God is in the details".
*******************************
Ted Nicholas is known as the "Entreprenuer's Entrepreneur,"
having founded and sold 23 companies. He is the author
of 14 best-selling books, including: "Magic Words
That Bring You Riches" and "How To Form Your
Own Corporation Without A Lawyer For Under $75. Go to
www.tednicholas.com
to subscribe to his free newsletter "The Success
Margin".
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