Archive for Sales Letters
Sales Writer for Hire: How To Write Sales Copy
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For Sale
Most people have little idea of how to judge sales copy, and that really isn’t a bad thing. If people consciously thought about what they were reading, the best efforts of your sales writer for hire would be in vain. It is a professional writer’s job to use emotion and voice to entice the reader to invest in your services, using their expertise in how to write sales copy.
If you are looking for a freelance sales writer for hire, what sort of copy do you want them to produce? What makes sales copy powerful?
Sales Copy: Quality Writing vs Powerful Writing
The problem with sales writing is that it does not always correlate with quality writing. Somebody can write wonderful, flowing prose yet produce ineffective sales copy, simply because they don’t understand the little tricks and nuances required to sell products. While there are many other good reasons for producing quality content, the most important judge of sales copy is how many products you sell.
The key to good sales copy is understanding how people behave online. The vast majority of readers skim through an article, trying to pick out relevant information quickly. If they don’t find what they are looking for within a few seconds, they will simply move on to one of your competitors. That is where a professional copywriter earns their money, because they can write a sales pitch that balances quality, impact, and SEO requirements.
A Few Sales Letter Format Suggestions
Here are a few suggestions of how to judge good sales copy and determine if your sales writer knows their business.
Strong Start: The first paragraph is the most important part of your sales pitch, because it has to grab the attention and tell the reader that it is worth reading on. The first paragraph should be punchy yet information packed, identifying a problem and suggesting a solution.
Clarity: Sales copy should be clear and focused with an economy of style, telling the reader everything they want to know. The writing needs to carry passion, because you are appealing to the emotions of the reader, but it should avoid long sentences and useless adjectives.
Cliché Free: The vast majority of people are sick of hyperbole, and a pitch filled with exclamation marks and sales words such as ‘great,’ ‘super,’ amazing will fail. As a rule of thumb, if you find the word on used car forecourts, don’t use it in your sales copywriting. Subtlety is your friend.
Overcome Objections: As in real-world sales, one of the keys of selling is answering all of the potential questions and overcoming objections. If you manage to do this, your sales conversions will soon rocket.
Build Trust: Internet users are increasingly savvy and know how to avoid most of the sharks. Build trust with words and don’t insult the reader’s intelligence. Again, gentle prodding is much better than trying to metaphorically punch the reader in the face.
Sprint to the Line: To match your strong opening paragraph, you need a very strong closing paragraph, known as ‘The Call To Arms.’ This is where you persuade the reader to click through to the sales page.
Impersonality and Availability: Treading the Line
Ultimately, selling online is a different preposition to selling offline. Online, you lack the personal interaction and the ability to counter objections as they arise. You need to think ahead, because you only have one chance to impress the reader. The advantage is that you don’t need as much physical effort; once the sales copy is written, it will work 24/7 with little further action on your part.
For this reason, it is vital to get it right first time, ensuring that your copy sells and keeps on selling. A good freelance writer for hire knows how to use words to create instant impact, selling you and your products to potential clients. Hire a professional sales writer who knows how to write sales copy, and watch your profits grow.
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How to Write Sales Letters – Passion, Voice, Simplicity
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Knowing How To Write Sales Letters Is A Useful Skill
For a writer, knowing how to write sales letters is a very useful skill, one that can open up a good source of income. As a result, I am often asked, by budding freelance writers,
“Which book should I buy to learn how to write sales letters?”
“Which sales letter template is the best?”
My answer is none of them.
A quick browse through Amazon brings up countless search results, books claiming that they have the secret that will help you to create compelling sales letters and make thousands of dollars everyday. However, I have found that very few of these writing guides have any substance or contain real pointers. Instead, most encourage laziness and concentrate upon helping the talentless become even more talentless.
Killing Your Writer’s Voice
The problem with sales writing books, or the equivalent online resources, is that they usually adopt one of two approaches.
- Cut and Paste ‘Em: These books give you a ‘tried and trusted’ template, based upon a sales letter structure that they claim is guaranteed to work, every time. This is despite the fact that unoriginal sales copy does not work.
- Paint by Numbers: These authors explain the process in intricate detail, telling you where you put every last full stop, persuading you to use ‘power words’ drawn from 1980s middle-management meetings. “Lets think outside the box, use blue sky thinking, and incorporate paradigm shifts…” Useless unless you intend to buy a suit with shoulder pads and travel back to the Age of Yuppiedom.
These two approaches carry the same inherent weakness; namely that they make it very difficult for you to develop your writer’s voice. This unique voice is the gift that makes any type of writing stand out, and it is certainly no different for sales letters.
The best sales letters, as with any other style of writing, are most effective when they are infused with emotion. The key to writing an effective sales letter is not about which words you use; it is about you, as a writer, and your personality and individuality.
Companies don’t want to pay a few hundred dollars for a copycat template or bland sales letter – they pay for your unique style and, if you can allow your personality to shine through in your writing, you will be successful.
A Sales Letter Skeleton
Now, despite my claims that you should avoid using templates, there is a basic layout to sales letters that can help you to succeed. It operates upon the principle of ‘Identify a problem, provide a solution,’ but gives you plenty of room to add a personal touch.
Title
First Paragraph – Identify or manufacture a problem.
Body – Explain how Product X can help
Final Para – Tell them how they can buy Product X
That is it – use this basic template to build your own sales letters, incorporating a style based upon your own unique voice and flow.
I have seen sales letters where the writer managed to fit everything into a hundred words and achieve great conversions. On the other hand, I have seen some writers flaunt convention and draft 1000 word monsters; their style is so engaging that clients still read the entire letter, bucking the trend towards instant gratification often found online. Clients make up their mind to buy long before they reach the bottom of the page.
Whatever approach works for you, try it – through trial and error, you will develop a style that works.
Now, I have given you a few pointers – now go out and do it!
Oh – you want an example – well, this post is a sales letter of sorts, but my Sales Letter Page is built around the basic skeleton.
My Russian friend offers a great translit product on his website, so I have created a sample sales letter for him:
Sales Letter Sample
Mikhail Alexandrov - Inventor of Translit
Across the English-speaking world, most of us take typing for granted. We boot up the computer, open the word processor, and start to lay down our thoughts. For Russian speakers, the process is much more difficult; they can buy a Cyrillic keyboard in their home country, but this option is not always available to expatriates.
To get around the restrictions, enterprising Russians have learned to use transliteration, the process of typing Russian words with Latin letters. For this, a good transliteration program, which shows you the right keys to press, is essential.
Online services, such as translit.ru, are a good way to get around the difficulties, but they suffer from one infuriating problem. These services are only available online, tying you to your internet connection and forcing you to copy/paste the work into your word-processor. A program that runs from your computer would be much easier, but a quick search online reveals that there are few commercially-available software options.
At transliterator.org, an expatriate Russian software engineer, keen to speak to his family and friends in his own language, developed a program to help computer users needing a phonetic Cyrillic translit program. This application gives you the freedom to work and write, without having to connect to the internet or vainly search for a Wi-Fi hotspot.
The transliteration program is simple to use: you simply download the program, run the installer, and start typing. With this Cyrillic translit software, the intuitive interface makes communicating in your own language straightforward and instinctive.
With full customer support and guidance, this product will not let you down. Escape frustration and make life easier – download the Translit Russian Keyboard.
