| |
| |
|
Sales Information |
|
|
|
Long Sales Letters vs. Short Sales Letters
Everywhere I turn, I'm being asked to weigh in on the issue of whether copy should be long or short in a sales letter. I receive countless newsletters on copywriting and marketing, and they are all still debating the issue. I doubt that the question will be answered definitively, but after hearing from other Internet copywriters and after considering the issue myself, I've learned that if you follow three guidelines, the issue of length will become almost irrelevant. Guideline #1) TELL PROSPECTS WHAT THEY WANT AND NEED TO KNOW TO MAKE A BUYING DECISION. Interested prospects will read even a sales letter of several pages long if they are interested and if your sales letter has good content. Many of us are more interested in telling prospects what WE want them to know. But we should all be telling prospects what THEY want and need to know. Guideline #2) OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS. This guideline is actually Rule #17 from Strunk & White's famous little book on writing, _The_Elements_of_Style_. (If you write, you really should read this small but influential book.) Anything that doesn't have a direct purpose or work toward winning over your prospect should be cut out. I don't care how much you want to tell them about what a great reputation your company has and how successful you were last year. Unless that information takes the reader one step closer to buying (admittedly, sometimes it does), cut it. Do the research and know your target audience. Then, write with their needs in mind. Write everything your prospects want and need to read, but write ONLY what they want and need to read. Cut the rest. Guideline #3) TEST. TEST. TEST. This is the best indicator of how long your sales letter should be. If you don't like to test, you have to rely on luck. Not a good idea. Put together the best sales letter you can with everything a prospect needs to know to make a buying decision, cut out anything that's not essential reading for your prospect, then run it. Record the results. Rewrite a portion of the letter. Test again. Record the results. Keep doing this until conversion rates improve and you'll know how long your sales letter needs to be. Of course, this kind of testing is much easier online than in offline direct mail, but it needs to be done. (Offline direct mail will probably require a split mailing.) Although many people will tell you that "research has shown longer sales letters pull better," the only research you should be paying attention to is your own. Long sales letters don't pull well for everyone. There's an easy way to answer to the question of how long or short a sales letter should be. (It's the same for other similar questions of tone, diction, and how much text you should emphasize.) Determine the needs and desires of your readers and you'll have your answer. About The Author Matthew Cobb is an independent copywriter/consultant. Contact him at contact@cobbwriting.com or learn more about Sales Letters by Matthew Cobb by visiting his Web site at www.cobbwriting.com/salesletters, and sign up for his free monthly e-publication, The Seductive Sales Letter Clinic.
MORE RESOURCES:
Sales - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How to ASK for Business -- WITHOUT appearing Pushy -- GIVING Vs "SELLING"Never lose sight of the importance of providing a "reason" to buy BEFORE you attempt to SELL anything to a client/prospect.In the current business climate you have to GIVE first. How To Shorten The Selling Cycle And Reduce Buying Stalls The main reason for buyer resistance and selling stalls boils down to one simple fact: the reasons for not buying are bigger to the prospect than the reason to buy.If you sell an intangible product or service, it may be even tougher to close down a sale because your product or service is not something people can see, touch, or feel. 5 Tips to Choosing a Direct Sales Business With hundreds of direct sales companies out there, how do you choose the right one for you? Here are a few tips to make sure you choose the right one the first time:1. Find your passionBefore you even start looking for the "big money", you need to decide what type of products interest you. Mindset Over Materials: The Secret Weapon of Sustainable Sales Success Long-term sales success has less to do with skills or knowledge than you might think. Nor are stunning brochures or excellent products guaranteed to make one iota of impact over time. Creating More Effective Proposals The need for good proposals - the business kind, not the marriage kind - struck me again a couple of days ago, when I received a poor proposal. I had talked on the phone with a sales rep, and then she followed up with a proposal. Nothing Happens Until Someone Sells Somthing You can always tell a good salesperson, they are always on the look-out for opportunities to do exactly that. Every chance they get they'll promote whatever it is they offer. YOUR Future Profits -- Protect Source With CARE At 21 years, just out of Business College, I went into the mail-order business. Spent 4-1/2 years in this venture and learned many valuable lessons about building customer relationships. People Buy People So Sell On Relationships (Objection handling tips excerpted from Objections! Objections! Objections!)People buy people. If everything else were equal wouldn't you buy from the person that you liked the best? Of course you would and so do your clients. Packaging Maketh the Person The multi million pound cosmetics industry is acutely aware of the value of packaging. You'll know this if you've ever bought anything from those glamorous ladies whose counters are always just inside the front door of Department stores. My Competitor Has a Better Product The topic of this issue's article is a response to a question submitted by one of my newsletter readers. QUESTION - "At the moment, my competitor's have a far better product/deal, due to circumstances out of my control. 6 Creative Questions To Move From HOW Are You To WHO Are You Imagine you just met someone new. The formalities of names, jobs and the like have been exchanged and you seem to be getting along famously. Casual Networking What comes to mind when you think of networking -- cocktail parties? Shaking hands and exchanging business cards at a Chamber of Commerce events? Endless lines of people anxious to make you a customer? Sweaty palms and panic?Networking is not about how many business cards you can collect -- it's about building a long-term and mutually beneficial RELATIONSHIP with another business person. And it doesn't have to be painful or forced! When you do it the right way -- networking is as natural as starting up a casual conversation. 10 Incredible Ways To Sell Your Products Now 1. Make your reader visualize they have already bought your product in your ad. Customer Loyalty in the Technology Industry For technology companies, service after the sale has emerged on equal footing with innovation as a competitive advantage.As technology-related products and services touch nearly every area of our lives and our businesses, technology has become integrated in how we communicate, learn, work, and entertain ourselves. Sales Letters - How to Write Them You could just send out your brochure to potential customers but it's much better to personalise your mailing with a well written sales letter.Personalise - Using the person's name in a sales letter will give you the greatest success. When Selling, Keep It Simple Stupid! After our first half-hour telephone coaching session, when asked what he thought about our training, my client felt the learning process we had undertaken together earlier in the week, "was a bit too elementary." As a Branch Manager with over 18 years of sale experience, a supervisor who must also produce sales over and above the five representatives reporting to him, when he purchased our training, he thought that he would receive and then drill-for-skill some new and yet undiscovered selling process that would magically change his ability to produce sales. What Do Mobile Auto Detailers Clean When it Rains? A mobile auto detailer and their profits are tied to the weather perhaps more than any other business. There are ways to make money even on a rainy day if you are smart. Everyones Favorite Topic - 3 Tips for How To I believe that everyone understands that no matter what business you are in- Real Estate, Financial Services, Teaching, Auto Sales any other profession, we are all in the PEOPLE BUSINESS. It's been said that fully 85% of your success in life is directly related to your ability to effectively work with people. How to Leverage Your Influence Why do we get into sales? Typically it is two reasons for most people. One is to make money, and the other is often that we like working with other people. Too Much Empathy Will Cost You Money Ever have a prospect start out your sales call by asking you "so how much does this cost?" as the first question out of his mouth? How you handle this question, and subsequent ones like it, will greatly influence the outcome of your sales-call. Right now is an excellent time to examine some of your beliefs about selling.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
