One of the biggest mistakes made by business people is operating with prejudice based on ignorance. In the crucial areas of sales and marketing, this mistake is made most often by neglecting the absolute most effective vehicle for obtaining new customers and reigniting the interest of existing ones. An important mentor of mine, Dan Kennedy calls it "writing your own check". This vehicle is known commonly as a sales letter.



Basically, a sales letter done right gives you a salesman that does the job around the clock and never asks for time and a half. You can tell good advertising copy because it is copy that creates money for your business. Can visit www.10steps-to-killer-web-copy.com too bad most business owners never employ a sales letter in any form.

This omission is devastating to the bottom line, or at least what the bottom line could be. To clear it up, there is no one way or format to create a blow them out of the water, panting for more sales letter. So have no fear.

I want you to run with the concept right now, so I am going to tell you all you need to know: Go to the library and grab a stack of magazines from the popular genres. You are looking for things in the area of fashion, entertainment, sports, and health and fitness. Pick one from specific and one more general from each category. In sports, you might pick up Sports Illustrated and Golf Digest. Go through them and do nothing but look at the ads.

Trust me; you'll know really good sales copy right away. It is interesting to read and makes you interested in the product or service being sold. Put a book placeholder and go get two or three past issues. If you see the same or very similar ad in those back issues, the ad is very likely a successful ad.

The strategy of the big boys who throw their money around on the expensive ads is mass marketing to a mass market based on branding using singing polar bears and football playing frogs or whatever. It is highly likely that they have no idea of the ultimate effect of the millions spent. or visit www.the-gurus-apprentice.com That's fine; they have that luxury in many cases. For the purposes of bringing your product or service to everyday people with choices, you need to bring them benefit and make it real clear up front what that benefit is.

So strategy #2 is having a way of conveying a benefit to your customer that is unique in your market. Right up front you want to answer the question: "Why should I be doing business with you v. my other choices for the same product or service?" Bluntly, what can you do for me, and it better be unique and more beneficial than the the other guy can do for me.

It is likely that you have heard about the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and the power of a good one. Billionaire philanthropist Tom Monaghan turned Domino's Pizza into the goliath we see today with this USP: "Fresh Hot Pizza delivered in 30 minutes or Less, Guaranteed."

A billion dollar empire ensued. With that USP, and the guts to try to back it up on a mass scale, Domino's eventually had the big boys racing to catch up.