The long sales letter: You should be used with advertising?

If you are a web marketer and you have done your homework, you've probably encountered the long sales letter in your travels on the internet. Top web marketing experts like Yanik Silver, "The Copy Doctor" Michel Fortin and countless others use it to launch their kit complete with instructions. It may also be made a purchase based on what we read in one of these letters.

Persuasive force, the long copy sales letter takes care to draw the reader in, emotionally identify with them, creating a need for the product, and encourage them to make an immediate purchase. The long sales letter, in all its verbosity and sensationalism, gleams with promise. It seems that the sure way to make sales pour in.

But is it? If the fork hard-earned savings into a copywriter that will create a hypnotic and compelling sales letter that goes on for pages and pages swell your product? If you grab for your credit card and buy one of those complete educational package that tells you everything you ever wanted to know to write a long sales letter yourself?

Answers often come in the form of questions. Here are some questions I usually ask my clients:

What are you selling and how much it costs?

The product offer on your web site to meet the immediate short-term needs?

Or is it something that could help someone else get a long term goal?

The items that meet the immediate aspirations for a low price does not require a speech exciting to attract buyers. What these products have the visibility you need. As would be fun to receive a letter by mail from the CEO of Bubble Yum, urging you to buy his product! Totally useless; Bubble Yum does a good job of selling itself on the "impulse buy" rack from the supermarket check-out. Music CDs and clothes are things that do not cost huge amounts of money, and practically sell themselves. The customer will know within seconds if they want what you have. In this case, skip the letter. On the contrary, show these elements in a high traffic area, where you will see.

Who are you marketing to?

I did some work recently for a company's e-greeting, which I had written a long letter and persuasive. I asked the question: "What we really need to get people to buy these e-cards are people like them, or they will not?". My client, in turn, made a good point: the sales letter was not necessary to toute the actual product on the site. But it would certainly be useful for potential affiliates and promoters. The sales letter has been a useful tool that was described as an intelligent group of people with a talent for sales - and that could very well be Decision guide for those who want to represent us.
So yes, a sales letter can actually work to your benefit, depending on the audience to address.

Would your product or service in question 'an investment?'

An investment is an asset acquired for future return or benefit. The elements that have long term benefits cost more money. They promise a better future, an investment for the future. They also need more convincing to get people to buy them. I recently met a coach who has a career of achievement of objectives in the form of an e-book, for the purchase on its website. His e-book is moderately priced for its category, and well written, in my opinion. I would recommend using a sales letter for launching the e-book? Yes, but I would point to an overview of its offer full service and not just about e-books.

The trick is to convince people that a career coach will help them achieve their personal and professional goals, which in turn will do wonders for their careers, enhance their confidence and improve the quality of life. If you can sell on this broad concept, then they would probably sign up for career coaching sessions, and buying less of a system of goals and eBooks. With your sales letter, you can build a case of maximum investment, and the very minumum, make a few extra dollars with a product support.

How much information you can fill your letter?

As you must build a solid argument. Start by addressing the customer's frustrations and fears openly. "Are you tired of throwing away money on lukewarm ads that just do not sell?" The reader is difficult to disagree. Follows the aspirations, the hope of a better tomorrow: "Imagine an advertising campaign can triple sales at minimum cost to your business!"

Pose your company to have a solution, the secret key, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. "Look at your rate of sales explode!" "Discover the secrets to successful marketing know!" They are not very secret and nothing is literally going to explode, but this language creates a sense of excitement and urgency. Build your credibility with testimonials and success stories. "Bob Luken had this to say about our system:" (list testimonial). "Marla Thompson lost 49 pounds in three months thanks to our weight loss program!"

Finally, the call to action: "Buy now, and get on the path to a more properous tomorrow!" "Click here to start saving immediately!" A word to the wise: once you make the point, wrap it up. Attention to the hypnotic effects of repeated words and ideas, and endless streams of numbing copy. Not everyone succumbs to such tricks! I speak for myself when I say that after four or so paragraphs, the reader is probably losing interest. At this point, one of two things can happen. They slide all the way to the end and click on BUY NOW or grow disgusted and leave your website.

How strong of a message you need?

The flashy, all-I-need-it-now-a-megaphone sales letter does not work for everyone. Take the hospitality industry, for example, that requires a little 'more subtlety and finesse. You do not want to seem frantic or desperate to make the sale, or you may scare the customer. Strong language can do just that. Some long sales letters to use what I consider the marketing tactics of brainwashing. The brainwashing comes when you begin to repeat what you said, but in a slightly different way. Or when you follow the formula I described in the previous paragraph, but it is not less than 12 times in the body of the letter. It is a form of advertising "strong" in itself!

If you ask the right questions, you'll have a better idea of ​​whether a long sales letter, or any other type of advertising strategy that could be learned, is the best approach for your company. Be honest with yourself during the interrogation process. It also helps to "put your feet in the shoes of the consumer." In my ten years as an advertiser, one thing rings true, as far as I can see: the more aggressively to push your products and "popular" ads, the more Lowbrow or consumption "low-confidence" attract. As a general rule, when creating ads, less is more. So if you have a good point to make, do it as best we can, but do not go to extremes. If your ads are always wordy, bold and hectic, you attract lots of attention. But it can not be the kind of attention you want.

Giolitto 2005. Use with permission ....