The Secrets Of Writing Winning Sales Letters - Part 2

How long should your sales letter be?

Copywriters have been debating for the past few years whether long copy sells better than short copy.  And I still hear people complain today that they can’t be bothered to read long sales copy and as far as they’re concerned they simply can’t sell as well as writer much shorter and to the point sales copy.  Well, you’re about to find out what really sells. 

As I said, most people question whether readers will really take the time to read a long sales letter and the answer to this is a simple and time-tested yes!  I always say that if the information is interesting to the reader and it’s something they’ve been looking for, they’ll read it.

For example, when I was looking to purchase John Reese’s Traffic Secrets course, I sat down one evening and read every word of the sales letter and watched every video clip online.  Why?  Because I was interested in purchasing the product and I really wanted to see whether this $997 course was going to give me the answers to my most burning questions about getting traffic to my website. 

It’s no secret that surveys and tests over the years emphatically prove that long sales letters pull even better than the shorter ones, so my point to you is not to worry about the length of your sales letter.  Your job is to ensure you give them enough information to pique their curiosity, keep them interested and overcome their objections.

Also, be sure to keep your sales copy benefits driven and make your sales letter so interesting, that your reader won’t be able to resist reading it all the way to the end.  The fact that they don’t at least skim to the end is an indicator that either your sales copy "stinks" or they are suspects who may never become prospects and that’s fine because good sales copy is also meant to act as a pre qualifier otherwise your refund requests will just increase.  

Keep the copy very focused and easy to read by chunking it down into short, punchy sentences, underlining important points you’re trying to make (not too much underlining though - this can be annoying), with the use of subheadlines, indentations and even the use of a second color and, ensure you leave lots of white space around the text.  The purpose of this to give the eye what the eye is used to.  Check out your newspaper and magazine and you’ll notice the white space around the copy. 

Keeping on the point of giving the eye what the eye is used to, keep the sales letter at the standard letter size or A4 size in width and have the sales letter centered on the page so the viewer does not have to keep adjusting the screen to see the whole sentence if they’re using smaller monitors.

It took me a while to get used to creating my web pages like this because  I saw the flashy sites that took up the whole width of the screen.  But remember that when you are writing your copy and creating your web pages, it’s for the benefit of your customers and not about you and always bear in mind that graphics don’t sell, words sell! 

Tomorrow, I’ll cover some of the elements of sending out a physical sales letter and some of the things you can do to increase readership.

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