This post is an authorized reprint of a COPYWRITER’S ROUNDTABLE article published and sent to me on July 3, 2012. Copywriter’s Roundtable is owned and managed by John Forde. The article’s author is a colleague of John Forde and fellow copywriter, Jason Strachen who has done a masterful in job delivering such a powerful piece.

On this eve of our nation’s independence, what could be a better celebration than a discourse on honing your own entrepreneurial skills, strategies and business acumen? It is my opinion that the Sales Letter is singly THE most important tool a Web Marketing Entrepreneur can have in his/her toolkit; And a superbly composed sales letter puts you heads and shoulders above your competition. So here we go!

Introduction

Copywriters and article writers are often pre-occupied with the best ways to start an article or sales letter, so it’s not uncommon for questions lke, ‘what’s the perfect opening line?’ to recur frequently. While the answer is not “Call me Ishmael”, and the opening thought is hardly, “Was your Dad a baker? ‘Cause you’ve got a nice set of buns”, the true answer to such a question is, there isn’t one. At least not one that’s perfect for every situation.

There are some, however, that work a lot more reliably than others. And we’re fortunate to have copywriter Jason Strachan show us three of the best ways to start a sales letter. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this free lesson in sales letter writing, titled…

THREE SUREFIRE WAYS TO START ANY SALES LETTER

by Jason Strachan

So…

Why is the start of the direct mail letter so important? Here is the answer in a nutshell: Because when reading begins your target customer will be glaring point-blank into the loaded barrel of your promotion. You are NEVER going to get such a great chance to get her interest again.

So what are you waiting for? When you start your letter or email, or video, go ahead and fire the most powerful, single most seductive message you possibly can! Because the cold truth is, as corny as it may sound, if you don’t get her (or him) at hello’ you wont get her at all.

Now In this article I’ve selected my 3 most tried and tested letter openings that I’ve used with a lot of success in my career. You could call them my ‘old faithfuls.’ Because if my life was on the line, and I was in a position where I had to write a letter that worked, or I’d be executed by firing squad, I would use one of these three openings, every time. So here’s the first one…

First favorite

If you’re like me – i.e. If you’re like me, you spend way too much time in front of your computer…

Now there are two distinct reasons why I like this opening. First: because it is an approach that works for practically ANY market place. And second: because it establishes immediate rapport.

The whole tone of “If you’re like me” immediately conjures up the feeling of a trusted friend wrapping her arm around your shoulder to give you a bit of counsel. And it causes your prospect to just drop her guard a little, while she starts to read what you have to say.

Now even though a LOT of marketers have discovered how powerful this opening is and have started using it a lot. It’s STILL very effective in the marketplace today. Just as long as its expressed with sincerity. So in other words, don’t attempt to write an “If you’re like me” opening if you’re actually nothing like your customer.

*TIP: Remember what David Ogilvy famously said: ‘The customer is NOT a moron – she’s your wife’

Second favorite

Ask a provocative question
– Okay, here’s where we step into some dangerous territory…

You see, a lot of people who attempt to write sales copy understand how to write a question. It’s the qualifier ‘provocative’, that they do not seem to get a handle on. However if you get it right, it works like a charm!

First let me show you how most marketing agencies mess it up.

The way they get it wrong is by opening the letter with a question that has no relevance to your prospect, so they dismiss it straight away. For example: If I open a letter with, ‘Do you know the name of the ancient Greek God of sunshine?’

Your response will likely be: A) Are you nuts?’ B) ‘Who cares?” or worse C) Something’s wrong with you, and If I did know the ancient Greek God of sunshine there’d be something wrong with ME.”

A provocative question is a question that really triggers some type of dominant emotion inside your target customers. Here are some examples…

Continue reading “Three Solid Ways to Start a Sales Letter”

The in-expense of driving traffic

When some Web marketers think of traffic, they think in terms of the most inexpensive techniques to generate targeted website traffic, and in many cases this translates to paying for banner ads and text link ads; but there are other ways to generate inexpensive web traffic. Let’s take a look at some of those relatively easy ways to drive free or inexpensive targeted website traffic to your website, blog or webpage.

There is one essential ingredient for generating income for any website: A steady flow of targeted website traffic! If no one goes to your site, it won’t stand a chance of generating an income. However, knowing that it does take some money to maintain an income-generating site, and believing the old adage that, “…it takes money to make money”, it could quickly become very discouraging if you have little or no advertising dollars to invest in your website in order make sales.

Have you wondered how the huge portals drive traffic to their sites? Most of them are spending tons of money to drive a continuous flow of traffic to their websites, investing in many advertising campaigns and different forms of marketing schemes and strategies.

BUT, unlike those huge portals, it doesn’t need to take a whole lot of cash to generate website traffic for your website, because fortunately, there are many ways to generate low-cost website traffic without having to spend what you don’t have or can’t afford. The following discuss a number of highly effective techniques you can use to generate low-cost, targeted website traffic.

The link exchanging strategy

Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one another so that they could produce more exposure for their sites. You’ll soon see and feel the sudden upsurge of traffic coming in to your site from other sites when you utilize this method.

A major prerequisite in exchanging links with other sites is having the same niche or content as those other sites. They should share a common subject so that there is continuity in the providing of service and information to what interests your target traffic.

Exchanging links can also boost your chances of getting a high ranking on some SERPs (search engine result pages). It is common knowledge that some search engines rank high sites that have inbound and outbound theme-related links. With a good ranking position in the search engines, you will generate more traffic to your website without the high costs.

Traffic exchange participation

This method is similar to exchanging links except on a slightly higher level. This may cost a bit more than exchanging or trading links but could be made cheaper because you get to earn credits. You can use those credits when viewing other people’s websites, while you earn traffic hits when someone views your website.

Traffic exchange services are the viewing of another person’s website or webpage. This is done vice versa where a site can use your sites content in kind of a reciprocal arrangement where you use his or her site. You both benefit from each others efforts to generate traffic. The other sites visitors can go to your pages and know more about your site as well as theirs. Once again the public awareness of your sites existence is boosted.

Article writing and submission

There are many e-zines and online encyclopedias on the Web which provides free space for articles to be submitted. If you want to save costs, you can write the articles yourself, but if you’re not the writing type you can let someone else write your articles. There are many freelance writers who are willing to write your articles for a small fee, but to save money, it is wise to do those articles yourself.

Write articles that are themed to the niche promoted on your website. Write something that you have expertise in, so that when they read it, they can feel your knowledge about the subject and will be eager to go to your site. Write articles that produce tips and guidelines to the subject or niche covered on your website.

Include a resource box at the end of your article that will link your article’s readers back to your website. Write a little about yourself and your site. If you provide an easy-to-read, information-laden and interesting article to them, they will go to your site to learn more.

Starting your own newsletter

This may sound like hard work because of all the articles you may need to use to build a newsletter but, on the contrary, this is not the case. There are many writers and sites that are willing to provide free articles as long as they can get their name in your newsletter. This will provide free advertising for them as well.

As your newsletter grows in popularity, you can profit again and again from repeat loyal visitors.

Joining online communities and forums

This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with many online communities as well as your website. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche with your site.

Share your opinions and let them see how knowledgeable you are on the subject. As you build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site, making it a reputable and honest business that could be frequented and trusted by many people.

As you can see targeted website traffic does not need to expensive to be effective. Using the above methods steadily and consistently will have a great impact on your site’s profits over the long term.

Now you may have a better understanding of why there’s such a growing interest – among website/webpage owners and Web marketers of all stripes – in Web traffic. When people start looking for more information about traffic, you’ll be in a position to meet their needs also

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