The Shocking Truth About Writing Copy with Ease

Regardless of some nay sayers, the long copy sales letter continues to be the hub of all direct response copy. But long copy does not work on its own. Much like a wheel, a sales letter won’t do its job without its support spokes. Each of these spokes requires specific copy. Here is how you use the Sales Letter Copy Wheel to get that sales letter rolling along… and boost your bank account at the same time!

Step One: Take a deep breath and craft your long copy sales letter.

Relax. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Sales copy is always a work in progress. Just throw it up there and make little tweaks over time to get better conversion rates. The good news about the sales letter is you can repurpose parts of it for your next steps. In other words, reuse the same bullets, points and headlines to grab your readers’ attention.

Step Two: Use copy to drive traffic to your site.

There are multiple ways to get visitors to take a gander at your site. The cheapest way is via permission-based email. These are prospects who have already raised their hands and told you they are interested in hearing from you. That means they are targeted from the get-go. Unfortunately, in general it’s more difficult to get email prospects to take action. They deal with too much unwanted email and spam. One touch of the delete key and you end up in the trash.

Sending postcards is another great way to let them know about you. They are fairly cheap to send and don’t have to be opened to get your message across. Don’t want to send them out yourself? Hire a service to do it for you.

If you have fax numbers for people on your list you can send a fax driving them to your site. (You can even rent mailing and faxing lists but I don’t get into that personally.)

Finally you can simply print a hard copy of that sales letter and mail it. Costs a bit more but the results traditionally pay off in spades.

Step Three: Grab the opt-in!

In exchange for a value-packed e-zine, a special report, or a free e-course prospects will often give you their contact information. Then you can continue to market to them over time. Unfortunately getting them to give you their email address is much harder than it used to be. Now you have to “sell” the opt-in.

Here’s where good copy plays a big part. You have to focus on the benefits the prospect will get from your information. List hot bullet points that sell them so they feel comfortable giving you their private information.

Step Four: The sale isn’t over until you get their credit card and they press “order”.

The order page is where most sales fall through the cracks. That is why you need to carefully craft your order page copy to build trust and excitement. Reinforce their good decision with testimonials singing your praises. Send them an email immediately after the order, letting them know exactly what to expect next in the sales process. Also have a landing page that explains what the email says. Using the right words in this critical part of the sales process goes a long way toward banishing the post-sale jitters.

Step Five: The fortune is in the follow-up copy.

Congratulations! You’ve made the sale. Now it’s time to make sure your new customers are around for life. Groom them for your “herd” with instructions on how to use your product. Send stick letters with a reminder that product is sitting on the shelf, and it’s time to use it. Reward them for their decision to buy from you by granting them VIP status and offering future discounts. Ask for testimonials on how your product helped. Don’t forget the upsell.

In short, don’t look at your sales letter copy like a standalone piece of copy. Think of it as more integrated like more of a Sales Letter Copy Wheel. No part of the copy is more important than another. It all fits together like spokes in a wheel.

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Copywriting guru Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero has been helping entrepreneurs and copywriters get their marketing messages razor sharp since 1999. Get free access to 5 tips to turn your "blah" sales message into red-hot copy that ROCKS... at www.redhotcopy.com

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