Sales letters are something that every business needs, but few people actually know how to put together. Whether you’re building a landing page for your website, writing content for an email campaign, or sending out old fashioned snail mail, this is a problem that’s just not going to go away. No matter if you’re an aspiring copywriter, or a small business owner putting together their own content, you need to know how to write an effective sales letter.

There’s more than one way to do this, but we’re going to go over one simple and effective way to grab a reader’s attention, provide the information they need to make a purchasing decision, and prod them to get in touch.

EXPLAIN THE PROBLEM

Start off by helping the reader determine whether they’re in the right place. You can do this easily by making a statement or asking a question that illustrates the problem. A few examples might look like this…

• Are you tired of your cat tracking litter all over the house?
• Keeping your website updated with fresh content while also running a business is just too much work for many small business owners.
• Is your HOA knocking the door down because your front lawn hasn’t been mowed in a month?

The point of this statement is to get the reader’s interest by showing them that you understand the problem. Additionally, it sets you up to provide a solution without just pushing a product at someone out of the blue.

OFFER YOUR SOLUTION

Immediately after setting up the problem, indicate how you’re going to fix it. Many readers will want to make a quick evaluation before digging for more details, so don’t include any extraneous details here. A quick “We can help!” followed by a quick one or two sentence description or a few bullet points describing your product or service is enough.

At this point you’ll want to provide your contact information, or a link to your contact page. Many customers won’t be interested in reading on to get more specifics, and some might simply prefer to discuss your product or service with you over the phone or in person.

EXPLAIN HOW IT WORKS

Depending on what your product or service is, you can provide additional information in any number of ways. You might walk the reader through your process, describe product features, offer industry data, or explain exactly what makes your product or service particularly important or relevant to your potential customer.

You might do this using an infographic, a bulleted list, a procedure document, or just a few paragraphs of prose. In this section it’s ok to be more exhaustive, because readers who look at it will have scrolled down to get there on purpose, and are actively looking for more information.

CALL TO ACTION

It’s important that you don’t just let the page come to an awkward end. Someone reaching the bottom of the page needs to be naturally led to the next step, which would be to make a purchase or to contact you. Do this by again touching on the problem and your solution in conclusion, and then calling on the reader to take action by following a link, filling out a contact form, or calling a number.

Don’t have enough time to write your own sales letters for email marketing or landing pages? Get a hold of me using this contact form.