A successful sales letter is one that achieves plenty of sales. The sales letter is the critical part of your direct mail or web package and often stands alone when following up a cold call or web site inquiry. Writing a good sales letter can be time-consuming if you care enough to get it right. Too many entrepreneurs overlook or minimize this aspect of marketing your business. Why? The simple truth is that most people just don't know how to write a sales letter All winning sales letters "talk" to the prospect by creating an image in the mind of the reader. They set "the scene" by appealing to a desire or need; and then they flow smoothly into the "visionary" part of the sales pitch by describing in detail how "wonderful" life will be and, how "good" the prospect is going to feel after he's purchased your product. This is the "body or guts" of a sales letter.

Winning sales letter always follow the same proven formula:

1) Get his attention

2) Get him interested in what you can do for him

3) Make him desire the benefits of your product so badly his mouth begins to water

4) Demand action from him - tell him to click the right button or send for whatever it is you're selling without delay - any procrastination on his part might cause him to lose out. This is the "AIDA" formula: (Attention, Interest, Desire and Action) - It works.

Preparing your sales letter means you need to understand the product or service being offered, the market, and the customer's needs. There is no substitute for product or service knowledge. Any source of information should be considered. On-Line resources, ads, brochures, articles, books, reports, newsletters and newspapers, and in-person interviews, are good sources.

On your website, your sales page should be the length of what it would be if were doing a mailing, or longer if you're using bullets to emphasize benefits to build the desire. Of course on the Internet, you don't have to worry about letterhead stationery or the cost or postage, which is a considerable savings.

If you are planning on initiating a mail camoaign then you should apply the following. The sales letters in mailings that pull in the most sales are almost always two pages with 1 1/2 space between lines. For really big ticket items, they'll run at least four pages. If your sales letter is only two pages in length, there's nothing wrong with running it on the front and back of one sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. However, your sales letter should always be on letterhead.

Regardless of the length of your sales letter, it should do one thing, and that's selling, and selling hard! Yours sales letter is critical if you plan to close any sale. Your sales letter sould leave your customer wondering what to do next. The brochure or circular you send along with in your mailing will just reinforce what you say in the sales letter, the actual sale and close must be accomplished by your sales letter.

There's been a great deal of discussion in the past few years regarding just how long a sales letter should be. A lot of people are asking: People will actually take the time to read a long sales letter if written compellingly? The answer is a simple and time-tested yes indeed! Surveys and tests over the years continue prove that "longer sales letters" pull even better than the shorter ones, so don't worry about the length of your sales letter - just make sure that it sells your product for you!

The "inside secret" is to make your sales letter so interesting, and "compelling" with all the benefits you're offering to the customer, that they can't resist reading it all the way through. You break up the "work" of reading by using short, punchy sentences, underlining important points you're trying to make, with the use of sub-headlines, indentations and even the use of a second color, and leaving lots of white space around it.

On your website, the sales letter should run down the middle of the page so the viewer doesn't have to keep adjusting the screen to see the whole sentence. This is very confusing and more likely to send that customer to a competitors website than losing patience reading a long letter.

With the collateralmaterial you include in your mailing ? make sure the materials you're enclosing are high quality, professionally printed and they reinforce the sale for you.

If they look cheap and don't compliment your sales letter, then you shouldn't be using them. You will be identified as an independent home worker if you hand-stamp your name/address on these brochures or advertising circulars instead of having them printed.

Whenever possible, if you have really good brochures to send out, have your printer run them through his press and print your name/address - even your telephone number and company logo - on them before you send them out. You want your prospect to think of you as his supplier ? The Company - and not as just another independent entrepreneur.

Above all, you've got to include some sort of ordering page or coupon if you're mailing. The coupon has to be as simple and as easy to fill out and return as you can possible make it.

The order page on your website should already be filled out, with perhaps just the shipping left to choice. If your product is an eBook or software to be instantly downloaded, then you don't have any options to be chosen.

A great many sales are lost because the order coupon is just too complicated for the would-be buyer to follow. Don't get fancy! Keep it simple, and you'll find your customers returning over and over again.

Copyright (c) 2007 Chris Sullivan