10 Traits of a Successful Sales Letter

Consumers don’t purchase items for one single, compelling reason; they have a myriad of motivators that salespeople need to identify and touch upon. And even after they’re sure one product is superior to another, consumers still have other major concerns that you need to address before you can close the sale.

To eliminate any doubts and clear the other hurdles standing in your way of a sale, be sure to include the following 10 key traits in your sales letter.

1. A compelling headline
   Most sales copy is best introduced with an exciting headline. If you don’t grab your audience’s attention with the headline, they won’t continue reading. Lure in readers by including a number in the title. A number provides certainty to readers about what to expect in your letter, such as the number of reasons to buy a product.

   The word “free” also intrigues readers. If you’re offering some sort of freebie, be sure to state it! If so, be sure to use the word in your headline.

   Don’t use hyperbole. Grand promises and outrageous assertions aren’t believable. If your audience suspects you’re exaggerating or misleading them, they will quickly discredit the letter as spam.

   Lastly, the headline should summarize the letter’s content, while being vague enough to spark readers’ curiosity, prompting them to keep reading to discover the rest. For more information about writing a compelling headline, check out this article.

2. Identify with your readers
   By naming the issue that your product or service resolves, you highlight the reason to make a purchase, while letting your audience know that you understand or share their frustrations. For example, you could ask, “Don’t you just hate it when ABC happens?” or “Aren’t you sick and tired of XYZ?”
3. Offer a solution
   After reminding your readers of their pain or frustration, introduce the product or service that will resolve it. Emphasize that your product or service is the answer to their problems.
4. Describe the benefits
   You might be tempted to list your product or service’s features, but listing the benefits is far more appealing to prospective customers, as well as more effective. For example, rather than “web-based technology,” highlight that your product is “accessible instantly without any downloads required.” Benefits are best delivered in list form, which provides easy reading and helps it stand out from the rest of the text.
5. Explain your credentials
   As the author of the sales letter, you are essentially recommending your product or service, so your readers want to know why they should listen to you. Explain why you are qualified to endorse the product or service. Perhaps you’ve worked for many years in the industry, you’ve published articles on the topic, you do public speaking engagements or teach on the subject, you suffer from the same ailment, or you have another relevant connection.

   Including photos or a video of yourself helps personalize the letter and demonstrates that you’re a real person. You may want to include a short bio at the bottom of the letter to further illuminate your credentials.

6. Provide testimonials
   Testimonials show that you’re not the only person advocating what you’re selling. Their mere existence demonstrates your product has been tested, customer-approved, and that you’ve already begun to establish clientele.

   If possible, include the testimonial authors’ full names, photos, location and audio, all of which add to the authenticity of their statements.

7. Offer a bonus
   Customers love to get a deal, so create one by offering a free bonus. The free bonus doesn’t have to be expensive. It could be something as simple as a free video tutorial that you developed or a Kindle e-book that you wrote or outsourced.

   Even if the bonus isn’t sold separately, place a dollar value on it and advertise the freebie as such. If you can offer multiple freebies, be sure to promote their worth, which collectively may dwarf the product or service’s price — in essence, making the deal simply irresistible.

   If you offer a money-back guarantee, sweeten your deal by promising customers that they can keep the bonus even after returning the product.

8. Provide reassurance
   Even when customers know why they should buy, they fear the unknown. Alleviate their concerns by offering a money-back guarantee or a free 30-day trial, which demonstrate that you have so much confidence in your product that you are willing to allow customers to test it without financial risk.
9. State the cost
   After introducing your product and persuading customers to buy, it’s time to state the cost. If applicable, emphasize its discounted rate and how long the cheaper price will be available, which adds a perceived time limit and motivates them to decide sooner.

   Another tactic is to justify the price. If the product is $30, for example, you could say, “For less than dinner for two, this product…” To be effective, the comparison must compare something with short-term benefits, such as a meal, movie ticket or haircut, rather than items with long-term advantages, such as a new shirt, shoes or cell phone. The reason for this is simple: purchases with short-term benefits are typically not necessities, which makes it easier to justify the price of the product. Longer-lasting items tend to be necessities.

10. Seal the deal in the P.S.
    Many prospective customers skip to the bottom before reading the letter in its entirety, so persuade them to start at the beginning by including an exciting P.S. Appeal to their emotions (e.g., “Don’t you deserve XYZ?”) or spark their curiosity (“Save this letter because these 5 tactics will skyrocket your success with ABC.”)

    If you can craft more than one enticing postscript, include them all, but don’t use more than three, which would be excessive. Also remember that additional postscripts are abbreviated P.P.S. and P.P.P.S., not P.S.S.

    Although these tactics were crafted with a sales letter in mind, this information can easily translate to the Web, podcast, video and sales pitches. Your message needs to be wherever your customers are, so increase your chances of making a sale by converting your sales letter for your other available media.

About the author

Simon Slade is CEO and co-founder of Affilorama, an affiliate marketing training portal with over 100 free video lessons; SaleHoo, an online wholesale directory of over 8,000 prescreened suppliers; and their parent company Doubledot Media Limited, which provides seven different training and software applications to over 500,000 customers worldwide.