Writing Your Sales Letter

Now, we will cover each and every component of your sales letter - from top to bottom, chronologically - in detail.

Headline

You must have something at the beginning of your web page that you do not see on majority of the web pages out there - a headline!

This is a hard and fast rule: your sales letter must have a headline. That is the first thing your prospect is going to look at when he visits your web site. Not having a headline is like looking at a headless person!

Your headline serves as an advertisement to your prospects. Your headline must grab the attention of your visitors or else they will not read the rest of your sales letter. This is very crucial - the headline will make or break your sales letter!

The size of your headline should be bigger than the rest of the text in your sales letter (like the screenshot above). You may want to color and stylize (e.g. underline, bold, italic, and highlight) your headline text.

Since your letter's headline is the first contact your prospect has with your message, it must reach out to him. Promise him a benefit. Tell him how he will be better off if he reads the rest of the letter.

Headlines can be classified into the following 5 basic types:

• News Headlines

This form tells your prospect something he did not know before. "Now - a copy machine that copies in color" is an example of this type headline.

• Promise Headline

Here, you are promising something if the prospect follows your advice. For example: "Switch to XYZ Abs Flex and you will no longer see those spare tires in 6 weeks - guaranteed!"

• Selective Headline

Headline such as "To all who are suffering financially" or "Bald men - lend me your ears" limits to a specific group of prospects. Caution however, that this type of headline can eliminate potential customers so use carefully or draw in targeted prospects to read your sales letter.

• Curiosity Headline

The purpose of this headline is to arouse the prospect's interest enough to make him read your letter. An example of this headline would be: "Do you have trouble going to sleep at night?" The drawback, however, is that this headline often appears "cute" or "clever" and sometimes even deceptive.

• Demand Headline

Watch out for this one as most people resist pushiness. "Do it now!" or "Get your copy today!" headlines generally can be improved by changing to less obtrusive words such as: "Call for your key to success!"

Effective headlines often combine two or more of these kinds.

Warning! Remember that when your message is printed in all upper-cased or capital letters, it is difficult for your prospect to follow and remain interested in your offer.

Even in headlines, ALL CAPITAL LETTERS should be refrained from being used. Even if you plan to use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, limit this to only a selected few words, and make sure they are "hot buttons" or meant to grab your prospect's attention.