A question that I often get asked is "Stuart, What is the perfect sales letter layout?"

And its a question that I'm not really able to answer, you see there isn't really a perfect layout.

The marketplace is dynamic and what had the best conversions yesterday may not be so hot today - the only surefire way to know is to test and track.

But...

You've still got to start your sales letter somewhere, otherwise you'll never sell any of your products, and this can be a little bit of a challenge especially if you're new to the whole process. So let's have a look at the process in a little more detail...

The very first thing you should do, and I mean before you even start to think about your product, is read as many good sales letters as you can. Study them to see what grabs your attention, trying to find out what words and phrases get you hooked.

All good sales letters make use of words that trigger emotions and these have a very powerful influence on the reader. By reading these sales letters not only will you start to get the words and phrases embedded into your mind but you will also change your thinking into the sales letter mindset.

This is a very important place to be when you write your sales copy, you can't hope to write a successful sales letter if your mind is wondering what you're going to eat for supper all the time you're trying to write killer copy. Your sales letter is important to you and your business - give it the attention it deserves.

After reading a few letters you will begin to notice a pattern - all of them follow a general template which starts with the headline or, sometimes leader before having a qualifying subheadline and then off into the body itself.

Here is a basic overview of the format of the basic 'Killer Sales Letter':-

* Lead-in [Mini headline teaser to lead into main headline]

* Main Headline [Big and bold]

* Sub-headline [Hook]

* From: [Insert your name here]

* Date: [Today's date]

* Introduce yourself. Confirm/agitate the problems/challenges your prospect is facing.

* Sub-headline: [Introduce your product here]

* Text

* Highlight the benefits of your product

* Text

* Sub-headline: [Introduce testimonnials here]

* Testimonials Include a collection of neatly-lined up testimonials and endorsements

* Sub-headline: Bonuses (optional)

* Sub-headline: [Guarantee]

* Text

* Sub-headline: Call to action [Reason To Buy now!]

* Persuade your prospect to buy now. Include Order Form here

* Signature and Picture [A hand written signature adds more power to your sales letter]

* PS's [Main Benefits of owning your product/fear of loss/extra bonus]

* Final Order Button

* Contact Details [Don't make your email address clickable or the spam robots will pick it up and bombard you with spam]

* Privacy/Disclaimer

The list above is an overview, a rough format of what your sales letter should look like.Of course you can vary it slightly as you wish but this format has been proven to work time after time so don't be too radical at first - after all, why reinvent the wheel?

One thing that can have a dramatic effect upon the conversion rate of your sales letter is the position and wording of the testimonials. Sometimes positioning a testimonial or two near the top of your letter, especially if it says something like: "XYZ product saved me $700 - Fantastic!" can make the difference between no sales and hundreds of sales.

The more credibility you can build near the start of your letter the more chance of people reading to the end and buying your product.

Now that you've seen what the format looks like go back to a couple of the sales letters you read before and see if you can pick out the points above.

Next you need to start imprinting the words and phrases into your brain and the most powerful way of doing this is to actually copy a few really great sales letters out by HAND!

Do not try and type them or copy and paste them, you have to write them down word for word. As you do so the very act of writing the words down will start to implant them into your brain so that they are there to call upon when you need them.

The more often you take the time to do this the quicker you will become a master copywriter and start producing killer copy that propels your readers into action.

Remember there are no short cuts to success so take some action now and copy down a couple of killer sales letters!

Copyright (c) 2006 Stuart Elliott