My Secret Formula For Writing a Winning Sales Letter

1. Write a powerful headline that offers a solution to a major problem - "How to make your car instantly get 18% better gas mileage with the revolutionary googliedoozer recommended by top auto mechanics."

2. Personalize the letter - Dear Mr. Smith... NEVER say "Dear Friend" or you tell the reader you are sending them junk mail.

3. Opening 1-2 paragraphs - discuss the problem. Exaggerate the problem if needed. Make the person reading the letter really feel the problem and how the problem is hurting their life. Create an emotional response to the pain caused by this problem.

4. Body. Introduce the solution - the product or service the sales letter is marketing. Should be 2-3 paragraphs long and describe why the product/service is the best solution to this problem.

5. Include 3-5 bullet points of the benefits the product/service provides.

6. Add 1-3 customer testimonials stating how well the product/service works for solving the problem being discussed. This is offering social proof of the quality of the product.

7. Make the offer and then make it better and tell people to order by a specific date - "Start getting better gas mileage today by ordering the Googliedoozer for only $79.95. However, if you order by December 15, 2008, we'll knock $20 off the price so you can get if for only $59.95! Order today so you don't miss out as our supply is limited. To order, do this (call 800-123-4567, go to our website, other...).

8. Offer a guarantee. "We are so confident that the googliedoozer will make your car get 18% better gas mileage that we offer a 100% money back guarantee. Try it for 30 days and if you do not get 18% better gas mileage, send it back to us for a full refund minus shipping."

9. Repeat the offer. Don't miss out, order today....

10. Close (Sincerely, John Scott, CEO, Googliedoozer Inc., phone, email, fax, etc.)

11. P.S. Reminder of the value of the offer and to order today. Should be in bold type.

12. If room, add more testimonials.

If you do all of the strategies outlined in this article, you will see a much higher response rate to your sales letters. Now get to work and write your best sales letter ever!

To your business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing company
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
(920) 471-1638
Fax: (920) 491-9090

The 10 Mistakes that are Crippling Your Sales Letters

Sending out sales letters to prospective customers or potential clients can be one of the most effective ways to create loyalty and get your market to buy. But so many sales letters are regarded as junk mail by today's consumer – and they are right. When was the last time you opened a sales letter in the mail and actually read it? Why not? Because the bulk of today's sales letters don't entice you, they don't speak to you, and most importantly, they don't give you any reason to bother. Here are ten mistakes that you might be making now that is costing you thousands of dollars:

#1. Your letter doesn't speak to anybody in particular.
Okay, you bought a mailing list and you shipped out a letter. Who is receiving it? Is it a specific gender? Do they have a particular career? How much money do they make?

Companies fail to get to know their market, and it cripples not just their sales letters, but their marketing in general. Take some time to study your target – what makes them tick? Then you can craft a sales letter that speaks directly to their wants and desires.

#2. It's missing a headline.
Sales letters need to attract the eye. Without a headline, a sales letter is just a block of words that can easily be ignored. Just look at the headline of this article: it speaks directly to YOU, doesn't it? It speaks in the present tense, and it implies that there is information in this article that you need to read now (and it's true, too!). That's a big reason why you are reading this, isn't it? Motivate your readers to keep reading!

#3. You don't know the difference between FEATURES and BENEFITS.
This is the biggest, most common mistake that companies make in their sales letters. If somebody writes me a letter and says, “Hey! Look at what we've got! Look what we've done! Aren't we great?!?”, I'm going to throw it away in a heartbeat.

What do people want to hear about? They want to hear about themselves. It's simple human nature. We all have egos, and they need to be stroked. So talk about them: “Hey! You know that problem you have? This is how we can help you out...”

If you are writing about your business, you are writing a FEATURE. That's not what you're supposed to be writing. If you are writing about the consumer, you are writing a BENEFIT. That's what people want to hear about – what's in it for me?

#4. Give them a reason to respond.
If your response rates are down, you may not be giving your market enough of a reason to contact you. Where's the offer? If the consumer reads your entire sales letter, but they are not motivated to take action IMMEDIATELY, you did it wrong.

Give them a discount or some form of special offer for responding to the letter. You need to motivate them.

#5. You are assuming they'll take your word for it.
You need proof. That means statistics that show it works. That means testimonials from people who have enjoyed the benefits. People won't just listen to you based on what you say – show them what others are saying.

#6. Your letter is unpleasant to look at.
Beyond the headline, how have you formatted your letter? Is it just a bunch of words? Then forget it. You might as well have mailed them a 700-page Charles Dickens novel, because that's what they will relate this to. You don't have to put in pictures necessarily, but at least put in some sub-headlines or lists. They need something they can easily scan to get the gist of the letter beforehand. It will increase the odds of them reading the whole thing.

#7. You didn't break down the barriers.
Barriers are things that keep the consumer from buying from you. Most of the time, this refers to risk: they worry that they are investing their time or money in something that won't work. You need to guarantee them that it will be worth it. Offer them a 30-day, money-back guarantee. Give them a reason to take the plunge, risk-free, and there's a good chance they will.

#8. You don't have a “P.S.” at the end.
The “P.S.” is a great way to hit the last few skimmers – people who aren't reading. Sum up your biggest benefit, combine it with your offer, and throw it in as the last line in your letter. Watch those response rates grow! For example:

“P.S. Stop wasting your time resharpening those old knives! Order your complete set of 6 Revolution Steak Knives and use them for 60 days at no cost!”

#9. Nothing makes you stand out.
Who are you targeting and why? You need to position yourself as something unique. If you are just like the others, then no one will buy. Remember that when you make your offer and explain your benefits. They need to have something different about them to motivate your specific target market.

#10. They're not even opening the envelope.
If your letter comes in a plain white envelope, you're going to lose. Put a killer headline on the outside of the envelope. Consider hand-addressed envelopes. Or, as many companies do, take advantage of the “lumpy mailer”, where you put something in the envelope that makes it feel bulky – so people will tear it open just to find their free gift. Your envelope needs to stand out from the rest of the mail in their mailbox. How is your sales letter standing out?

To your business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Advertising Agency
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

Formula for Writing a Winning Sales Letter

1. Write a powerful headline that offers a solution to a major problem – “How to make your car instantly get 18% better gas mileage with the revolutionary googliedoozer recommended by top auto mechanics”

2. Personalize the letter – Dear Mr. Smith… NEVER say “Dear Friend” or you tell the reader you are sending them junk mail.

3. Opening 1-2 paragraphs – discuss the problem. Exaggerate the problem if needed. Make the person reading the letter really feel the problem and how the problem is hurting their life. Create an emotional response to the pain caused by this problem.

4. Body. Introduce the solution – the product or service the sales letter is marketing. Should be 2-3 paragraphs long and describe why the product/service is the best solution to this problem.

5. Include 3-5 bullet points of the benefits the product/service provides.

6. Add 1-3 customer testimonials stating how well the product/service works for solving the problem being discussed. This is offering social proof of the quality of the product.

7. Make the offer and then make it better and tell people to order by a specific date – “Start getting better gas mileage today by ordering the Googliedoozer for only $79.95. However, if you order by December 15, 2008, we’ll knock $20 off the price so you can get if for only $59.95! Order today so you don’t miss out as our supply is limited. To order, do this (call 800-123-4567, go to our website, other…).

8. Offer a guarantee. “We are so confident that the googliedoozer will make your car get 18% better gas mileage that we offer a 100% money back guarantee. Try it for 30 days and if you do not get 18% better gas mileage, send it back to us for a full refund minus shipping.”

9. Repeat the offer. Don’t miss out, order today….

10. Close (Sincerely, John Scott, CEO, Googliedoozer Inc., phone, email, fax, etc.).

11. P.S. Reminder of the value of the offer and to order today. Should be in bold type.

12. If room, add more testimonials.

To Your Business Success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing companies
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

How to Write a Good Sales Letter

To write a good sales letter, there are several strategies you should use in every sales letter you write:

* At the top of your sales letter, use a strong headline that states the most important benefit you are offering. This headline should be bold and a larger font size than the font size you use for the body text in your sales letter. A great headline promises a specific result. For example, “If our skin care product does not make your face look 10 years younger in 30-days or less, we’ll give you a 110% refund!”

* When writing your sales letter, always use a friendly conversational style. Do not try to write “cold and corporate" where you use large words and try to impress your prospects with your vocabulary. All that does is turn people off. Instead, write your sales letter using friendly simply language as if you were talking to your best friend.

* Your sales letter needs to explain the benefits your potential customer will receive. Understand that everybody cares about one thing in life - "What’s in it for me?" Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and ask yourself, "If I was receiving this letter, why would I want to buy the product or service being sold? What’s in it for me?"

* Offer quantitative proof why your product or service is better than the competition. For examples of how to show proof that your product is better than the competition, your sales letter should make statements that you can prove such as, your widget lasts 3.7 times longer, it costs 27% less, our company offers a 90-day 100% money-back guarantee while our competitors offer no guarantee, our widget is guaranteed to last 5 years or we will replace it for free, while our competition only offers a 6-month replacement guarantee, etc.

* Include several customer testimonials to give social proof of the quality of your product or service. Testimonials are one of the most powerful marketing tools you can use, so take advantage of them and always use them in your sales letters.

* To get your prospects to take action, your sales letter must ask your customer to purchase by a specific date and give them a bonus for ordering by a specific date. For example, “Buy our widget by March 25 and get an instant 10% off”, or, “Buy our widget by March 25 and get a second widget at half price.” This strategy works like magic and that is why you see it used so often on TV, particularly in infomercials and other successful direct-response advertising.

* Use a P.S. in your letter and restate your most power benefit and sales offer in it. Most people will read a P.S. first before reading the sales letter, so it is important that your P.S. has a very strong sales message and a call to action.

* To get your sales letter opened, use a standard white business envelope and handwrite the recipient’s name and address. Yes, this takes a lot more time than using mailing labels, but mailing labels scream junk mail! The first key in a successful sales letter campaign is to get your envelope opened, and by handwriting the recipient’s name and address, you can almost guarantee that your envelope will be opened.

* Make your envelope "lumpy" by enclosing a small, inexpensive free gift. Make sure the gift has your company name and contact information on it and that the gift is something a person would want to keep - such as a nice pen, a good highlighter, etc. And, the promo gift should have your company information on it – your company name, phone number, and website address.

* Here is the most important sales letter tip: Use repetition. You will rarely have success with your sales letter campaign if you only send out one mailing. Each prospect on your contact list should be contacted a minimum of four times during a 12-month period.

As a final thought, understand that the national average response rate for sales letters is a little less than 1%. What that means is if you send out 100 letters, a good response rate is for one customer to contact you. However, one way to greatly increase your response rate is to use the tips I mentioned in this newsletter and to make follow-up calls to the contacts you sent your letters to, especially if you are marketing to businesses.

If you would like help writing a good sales letter, please call (920) 471-1638.

To Your Success!

Peter Geisheker
CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
(920) 471-1638

Split Testing - The Most Powerful Marketing Strategy You will EVER Learn

Every business owner is looking for that golden marketing strategy that works like magic to grow their business. Well, I hope you’re sitting down because I am going to tell you the most powerful marketing strategy you will ever learn. The strategy is called split testing.

“What the heck is split testing”, you ask? Split testing is the process of comparing the results (sales, leads, etc.) of one marketing piece against another marketing piece to see which generates the most sales. Clear as mud, right? To make split testing easier to understand, I will show you an example of split testing using direct mail sales letters.

You write 2 sales letters to sell the sales training course you are offering. Both sales letters are identical except for one thing – they each have a different headline. Sales letter “A” has the headline, “How to easily double your sales in 180 days with this little known marketing strategy” and sales letter “B” has the headline, “Learn the marketing secret twelve small businesses recently used to increase sales by over 173% in less than 180 days.” Then, you send letter “A” to 2,000 prospects and letter B to 2,000 prospects. You then track which sales letter produces the most leads and sales. The results tell you which sales letter is the stronger sales tool – letter “A” or letter “B”.

“But how do you track which sales letter is producing the most leads/sales” you ask? Easy. You add a unique key code to each letter campaign so you can track it. So, for letter campaign “A” you use the key code 111 at the bottom of each letter and for letter campaign “B” you use the key code of 222 at the bottom of each letter. When a customer calls (or places an order), you simply ask them for the key code in their sales letter. Then you track these codes in a spread sheet so you know which letter produced the lead and the sale. After a few weeks to a month, you will know which sales letter is producing the most sales and you can feel confident sending the stronger sales letter to the rest of your prospects.

“What happens if both sales letters bomb and produce poor results?” Then you write two more sales letters and test them against each other on a small scale (sales letter “C” versus “D”). Testing like this is far less expensive than sending a single, untested sales letter to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of prospects. By split testing different messages on a small scale, you can test the pulling power of a sales message without breaking your bank. And, you learn which sales message is the one that generates sales like crazy and will grow your business. If you want to be successful in marketing, always test on a small scale and once you find a winning message, then market on a large scale. NEVER market on a large scale with an untested sales message or you will almost certainly lose a ton of money.

While testing the headline is one of the most important things you can test when testing marketing pieces against one another, you can also test things like price, ($99 per widget in letter “A” and $79 per widget in letter “B”), coupon versus no coupon, promotional specials (get 3 widgets for $197 versus get 4 widgets for $249). But the key is to only test one thing at a time. Do not test a headline in one letter against a price in another letter because you cannot compare the two. Only test a headline against a headline and a price against a price.

“This sounds like a lot of work” you say. “Explain to me again why is split testing so important because I still don’t get it?” First of all, you are right. Split testing is a lot of work. However, the reason it is so important and worth all the work is that it is the one market tool that allows you to significantly increase your marketing return on investment while greatly reducing your financial risk. Split testing allows you to determine which sales message (campaign) is producing a profitable result while eliminating marketing campaigns that are not producing profitable results. Using the sales letter example above, let’s say that the results of your split test of letter “A” versus letter “B” showed that letter “B” produced 34% more leads than sales letter “A”? Wouldn’t you rather use letter “B” for marketing to the rest of your clients instead of letter “A”? Of course! That is why you do split testing. You do it to find out what sales message is going to generate the most sales and make you the most money! So, split test your way to success.

To Your Success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group advertising agency
920-471-1638

The importance of your sales copy in internet marketing

Hello everyone,

Do you know what the most important, yet rarely talked
about aspect of Internet marketing is?

Your sales copy.

That's right! No matter what kind of methods and
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to make any sales.

Yet, virtually all the info you find on this subject is,
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"Talk TO your reader, not AT him," "Use bulleted lists,"
etc. etc. This kind of advice really doesn't help you.

What if I told you that I found a product that will allow
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To Your Success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firms

P.S. For more marketing resources, please visit
http://geisheker.com/resources.htm