How To Structure The Perfect Sales Letter

In this episode, I walk you through one of the templates we use for constructing a new sales letter. I walk you through each individual section and explain what it is, why it's there and how to write better copy at each stage. Enjoy!

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Transcript

Hey guys and girls, Jeremy Reeves here with another episode of the Sales Funnel Mastery Podcast and I am really, really, really excited today. We have a client in the real estate coaching market and as you can imagine you know, I do not know how familiar you are with Google but getting something like that approved in Google is not an easy feat and we just got her approved in Google which is really, really exciting. So that is awesome. So I am very excited about that.

So now comes the moment of testing and tweaking and doing that for everybody here.

So today, I want to go over -- I want to go over basically what it takes to craft a sales letter okay. Basically, the structure of the sales letter because I know a lot of people kind of struggle with this, they you know, they are not good writers. They do not really know how to lay it out, structure, that kind of thing.

So I want to take you basically step by step through the basic sales funnel structure that we used for you know, for our clients and I want to preface this by saying that this is just kind of a beginning template to use, okay. This is not something that needs to be followed 100%. In fact, the sales letter for the client that I was talking about does not follow this sequence okay, because hers is very, very story-based.

So we kind of weaved all of this stuff into her story okay, like we used her story to structure it like this. Okay, so there is -- you know, in that case, we broke the rules, but I mean that is what we do every single day, day in and day out. So we have the knowledge and the skill set to be able to do that. If you are in a position where you -- you know, you cannot afford to hire a copywriter that can you know, knows when and how to break the rules, this is really, really, really good structure for you to follow okay.

So first of all, you are going to start off with the headline. Actually, let me step back. First of all, you need to know that you are writing to their core desires and frustrations. One of the biggest mistakes that people make is when they are selling their product, they talked about you know, the features of the product. They talked about why the product is so incredible and you know, and this kind of thing and that is kind of how the page starts and that is the wrong way of doing it because the first thing when you are writing your copy, you need to be writing to the core desires and frustration. You need to be writing the copy to overcome all of the objections and the beliefs.

Basically, you have to overcome all the objections and that in turn helps them believe that your product is going to work for them and it is going to be the solution for their problem and that is what makes the sale, okay.

So as you are writing, that is kind of the core of everything is to write to their core desires and frustrations and overcome the objections that they have in their mind so that they believe that whatever it is that you are selling is the solution to their problem, okay.

So with that said, first of all, you are going to start off with the headline. Everything, you know, I mean basically every page that you have starts off with the headline. So in the headline -- this is going to differ based on a lot of different factors but you know, one of the good places to start is you know, is kind of bring out and say, Hey, do you have this problem. Now you do not actually say, you know, are you suffering from you know, whatever gout or are you suffering from you know, whatever it is.

You can also kind of, you can also write this in a way that tells them that you could help them with the problem, okay. The headline is essentially used to grab attention, okay. I am not going to go like the various headline templates and all that kind of stuff right now.

The headline is used to get their attention, okay. Imagine your prospect is looking at different screens and they scroll across, they see your headline, okay.

You want that headline to get them to read the first sentence of the copy. That is the goal of the headline. It is not to sell your product. It is not to do anything else but to get them to read the first sentence of your copy, okay.

And then, that brings them into the opening or the lead, okay. That basically what you want to do, okay, is you want to intrigue them, okay. The lead is all about curiosity and intrigue and tapping into the dominant emotions that they are feeling as of this moment.

So you know, let us just say, you know, Hey, have you ever woken up in the morning and you know, you wake up and let us just say that you are selling something for pain relief, right. So when was the last time that you woke up and by the way, I am doing this off top of my head, so it is not going to be perfect.

When was the last time you woke up out of the dead sleep and took you know, took one step and your knees buckled and you know, you curse to yourself thinking why cannot I just have the joints that I used to have when I was a teenager, you know. I am sure that the last time that happened is probably this morning. I am sure it has also happened yesterday, the day before that, the week before that, the month before that, the whole year before that and if you want that to stop I am about to show you, you know, 3 things that are going to help you heal your joint pain without expensive medications, without you know, any dangerous surgeries you know, blah, blah, blah.. okay.

So essentially what you are doing is intriguing them, tapping into those, to those dominant fears and emotions and desires that they are currently feeling and getting them again to read the page, to read the next sentence. That is all -- as you, as you are building your sales letter, what you want to do is get them to read the next line. That is the goal all the way to the bottom and if they keep doing that, they will buy your product because you are essentially saying the right things, you are overcoming their objections, you are tapping into the desires that they have, you are showing them that your product is the solution for their problem, that kind of thing, okay.

So that is the lead, it is essentially -- you just, you resonate with them, you know. You kind of -- you have a discussion with them. Hey, you know, are you suffering from this you know, I can be able to show you this, you know, blah, blah, blah and you are being very, very empathetic to their you know, to their needs and desires and frustrations and all that kind of thing, okay.

And then you are going to lead in with credibility and sometimes, a lot of times, you will actually, you will actually show them you know, you will actually give them content, okay. So if you said, you are going to give them 3 ways to -- in this section, you are going to -- this is kind of like the body of the copy. You are going to essentially given them what you just told them you are going to give them, okay.

Usually, like when you are structuring this, if you say that you are going to help them whatever, overcome whatever problem they are facing. This part of the section is the, is kind of like they credit about you actually doing that and the way that you structured this is that essentially you just -- you overcome their objections okay. So you know, if they said, you know, if in their mind if your market thinks that the best solution for them is you know, again, going back to the knee pain problem. If they think that the best solution for them is going to the doctors getting steroid shots, getting surgery, that kind of thing, you then overcome that objection by showing them why that is not necessary, okay and that of course leads them into your product which would be like an all natural safe solution that kind of thing.

So in the body of the copy you are essentially you know, you are telling your story, a lot of time that is usually how it is. Okay, let me step back for a minute and tell you my story. Let me tell you how I got here, you know.

And the recent one I wrote for one of my clients we kind of did that. We opened with a really like -- it is a really engaging lead that got them and it kind of like shook them up a little bit, but then we went back and we did. We said okay, you know, let us come back to this in just a minute okay, and then I went into their story you know, let me tell you how I first discovered this new, you know, incredible miracle nutrient thingy.

And we told them about this (inaudible 9:05.8) that he had through the rainforest and how he met this guy and he gave him this like mystery substance and you know, it was just really like dramatic story that lead into him discovering this new thing that he then you know, that he then test it and you know, we talked about his background and how his background allowed him to do all this like fancy testing on it to make sure it work properly and test it on people, you know, blah, blah, blah and you know, I went through all this expense before I brought it to you and that kind of thing.

So you layer this -- the body of it with credibility and proof that what you are about to show them you know, actually works and a better choice than something else that they have, okay.

So that -- I mean you get to the part where you are at the introduction. So this is just basically an introduction of the product. So you know, introducing product X and then you know, product X is a revolutionary new thing that does this and this for you.

In particular, you will find out that the you know, the second you start taking it or the second that you know, you kind of you know, introduce into your life, you will experience and then bullets, okay.

And that is the next thing you know, is bullets you know, it is going to help you this, this, this, this. It is also going to help you this, this, this, this. In a sense of -- a lot of times -- and this is why it is hard to structure a sales letter because everyone is very, very different you know. This is a longer form of sales letter. If you are doing something like a product page, that is a little bit different, okay, and that is actually something that we are doing right now for a client, 2 of them actually.

So you know, after you introduce the product, you go through step by step exactly you know, what it is exactly you know, the details of it. So like if you are selling an information product that is going to be the modules, you know. In module 1 and then the tail of it. In module 1, you will discover -- you know, bullet, bullet, bullet, bullet, bullet. In module 2, you will discover bullet, bullet, bullet, bullet, bullet. If it is a supplement or a product you can talk about you know, the details of it, so exactly you know, what ingredients are in it and exactly how it was made and why it is made like in a certain unique fashion.

Basically, you know, you are layering on the proof and the credibility to what you already started talking about but now it is more along the lines of, okay you know, I have already, I have already kind of found out that you are having this problem and that is what you did in the very beginning of it. So they would not be reading the page if they did not still have that problem. So hey, you know, I already told you about the various solutions and why they do not work and here is the new solution that does work and let me show you why it works so well. So you are in that stage right now.

So you know, so you talked about the product you know, you talked about -- you know, a lot of people go into the benefits or the features. Basically, features are okay, the problem and I know there is this big thing with copywriting, the problem is, if you only write about features, it does not tap into the emotions, it does not tap into the desires that your prospects are having to overcome the problem that they are facing, okay.

So that is why you have to say feature and then the benefit of that feature, okay.

So again, it is not just feature it is feature plus benefit.

So let us just say that -- for example, we just had a product that were about to launch from one of our other supplement client actually. And we talked about this liposome delivery you know, nutrient delivery, and it is basically liposomes help deliver the new trend to your cells and you know, they help absorption. Basically, it is more (inaudible 12:55.3) but you get more out of it you know. So for every milligram that you take, you are getting -- it is that much more potent because of this new delivery system.

So we talked about you know, the liposome delivery system but we do not say like, Oh you know, it does this -- like we talk about how it benefits that person, okay. We talk about why the liposome delivery system is important to getting better results from the product and how it is going to change their life because of that, okay.

You go through all those. You kind of pile them on there. And then you get to the you know, the price, the guarantee that kind of thing, so it’s you know, Hey, it is only you know, it is only whatever you know, it is a dollar a day you know, whatever your pricing is, price justification. You say why it is such a bargain for them and you can do this by the way, you can do this regardless of how much it actually cost. It does not matter if it is $10, if it is $15,000. You should not be selling a product that you cannot deliver at least 5 to 10 times the value for. So, if it is $10, it should be worth at least $50 to $100 for them. If you are selling over $10,000 it should be worth at least $50 to $100,000. So you can say, you know, I mean the price justification is basically the same. It is structured the same way regardless of what you are selling. So you have the price justification.

If it is a cheap product, if it is kind of just an impulse buy you do not have to go into this very long, okay. If it is you know -- essentially, the higher price it is the more you have to justify the price, okay. (inaudible 14:38.5)

And then you go into the guarantee and by the way you know, it is you know, it is thousand dollars and you know, if you do not get XX result within 90 days, we will refund you in full and you know, whatever your guarantee is. We will give you double your money back. We will, you know, you have a lifetime guarantee, whatever your guarantees, you talk about that and then you have a call to action, okay.

And then you go into who it is for and who it is not for. So you list out a couple of the qualities of the people that you want in buying this and of course, you know, you are making this up. So you are not going to say like, you are not -- in this part you do not get too specific, okay. What you do is you get, you get specific enough so that you are telling, you are explaining the right type of person that you want to buy this. So, you know, you are looking for achievers. You are not looking for people who are going to use this as to get rich quick scheme and you know, that kind of thing.

So you are keeping it like semi broad but you are using it in the way this kind of like you know, a little bit of like reverse psychology. You kind of have to -- it is a fine line of thread. And this is where good copywriting comes in, well, I mean the whole page does but you know.

So essentially, you are telling them specifically the type of person that should be buying this and the type of person who should not be buying this. So for example, if you are selling a let us just say a product for crossfit athletes right. You are going to say this is for people who you know, who love crossfit, who you know, could not stand doing long boring cardio you know, it is not for people who like the skinny fat look and you know, only you know, they want to stay skinny, they do not care about muscle and that is why they only jog and they do not work out you know, whatever it is.

You are essentially creating polarity. So in who it is for, you are saying exactly who it is for and then who it is not for. You are kind of making fun of the people that you do not want to buy. You are making fun of the -- if you are thinking of it in terms of you know, us versus them, okay, so think of like Mac versus PC. If you are thinking about it like that which every market has this you know, the whole us versus them. For me the us is you know serious entrepreneurs looking to build a serious business. They are looking to grow and automate the marketing as they grow, make it more casual stable that kind of thing.

For me the people who it is not is you know, people looking to do you know, get rich quick kind of products or projects I mean, you know build funnels where they just want to build it and they never even touch it again, they never even think about it again, like that kind of thing, that is my you know, nemesis. That is the exact opposite of what I am looking for, okay.

So essentially, you are creating polarity and then you do what it is and what it is not. So you say like you know, this is you know, it is going to help you do this. It is not going to help you. It is very similar to the who it is for and who it is not for but it is just you know, kind of slightly tweaked a little bit.

And then you can do you know, you can do something like a comparison chart, you know, you go into -- you are going in for the close now, okay. So you could do -- a one good close is you know, you are at crossroads, by the way you have another call to action after the who it is for and not for and what it is and is not, you have another call to action.

And then the last section is the you know, the close. So you know, you are at the crossroads right now. You came in to this page knowing that you are suffering from problem X. I showed you why there are better solutions out there that you do not have to listen to everything else you know, that has been said about solving this problem. I have shown you a proof that you know, you could see through all of our case studies. You can see it through the experience that I have you know. Again, you kind of reiterate all the proof that you put on the page just in case they skim the page and did not really see it. You reiterate all that proof in a quick little summary okay.

And then you say, so now, the choice is up to you. So you put it in their -- you put the decision you know, in their hands. You give them the responsibility okay which I mean it is because they are buying. So you say you know, there is basically you know, imagine closing your eyes you come into fork in the road. If you take the left you are going down the same path you have always been down. You are going to stay in pain, you are going or you know, whatever the problem is soon the, you know, the knee pain example, you are going to stay in pain, you are going to put yourself through you know, torture for the next however many years you know. Every year that you live, your knees are not going to get better unless you take action now.

Like you give them basically a motivational (inaudible 19:13.8) you know what I mean and say why they are essentially crazy for not taking action right now or you can look to the right. The right is you know, when you invest in my product and you know, within 7 to 30 days or 7 to 10 days or whatever the timeline is for you, you know, you are going to feel this much better, it is going to do this for your life you know, your friends are going to wonder what your secret is, you are going to be able to you know, jump up out of bed with no pain, you are going to be able to you know, play with your grandkids again, you are going to be able to do activities like play golf without pain every time that you come in for the follow through, you are going to be able to you know, whatever. You essentially paint a picture for them for the future, okay.

So in the left side, you are saying why the past was so bad. On the right side, and this obviously be (inaudible 20:07.6) you are going to paint a picture for them. Paint a vision of the future for them about what is going to happen to their life when they buy your product okay, and that is essentially your close and you have another call to action and then you sign off you put you know, thanks in your good health you know, however you sign off you know, on your things and then you can have a P.S. you know, I am not a believer like -- there is a very old kind of myth in copywriting that everybody reads your P.S. I am not a believer in that because I have seen you know heat map studies and I have watched videos of people you know, reading pages and that kind of thing and it is really not how people read pages.

So you could either put a P.S. or not you know, a lot of times, for example, one example is if you have proof that does not quite fit into what you are talking about before it is like you know, you kind of going like A, B, C and then like F, but it also adds a little bit more proof, it is kind of like a little side benefit you know, it is kind of like if you are going out and buying a TV and you were like, Ah, no that is alright and then the guy comes and says, Oh, you know, I will give you this cool fancy remote if you buy and I will give you, you know an extra like 6 months warranty, it is kind of like that extra little tiny push to get you over the fence. That is what the P.S. is you know, in my opinion is good for and then that is your sales letter.

Obviously it sounds a lot easier than this. But you know, again, that was a long form sales letter, okay. If you are selling a product page, I know not everybody listening to this is going to have a long form sales letter, okay.

Just for example, we are getting into the SaaS space the B2B SaaS space, so by the way if you are listening to this and you have a B2B SaaS company, shoot me an email because I want to talk to you about something. It is going to be probably the most badass thing you would ever seen in your life. That is actually one of our 2 secret projects that we are working on right now.

So anyway, in SaaS companies, you know, they are not going to have long form sales letter. What you do in situation like that or if you are selling a product or you know, you just do not like the look of a long form sales letter whatever the case is, essentially, what you are doing is breaking this structure down into the various pages of your website, okay.

So you know, I mean it is kind of hard to explain, I have to show you an example, but essentially, just think of this, you know, you have the headline, you have the opening or the lead, you have the kind of transition like the empathy resonating with them that section which is usually part of the lead, you know, you have your proof and credibility, you have your introduction of the product, you have the bullets, the benefits like you know, exactly what the product is, what it helps you know, what it does for you that kind of thing, you have your guarantee, you have you know, who it is for and not for, you could put in like a comparison chart, you have -- let us see you know, (inaudible 23:19.1) better than competition which you know, goes along with the comparison chart, you have your close and you know, P.S. that kind of thing.

You can break that up into different pages of your sales funnel, and if you need an example of this just shoot me an email. I can send you an example of this if that would help you, otherwise, I hope that explains it.

So that is it, that is kind of how you structure a sales letter. That is kind of basic formula that you can use to structure sales funnel if you do not have the money to hire a copywriter or if you just want to kind of check the copywriters work or whatever it is or if you just hire us and you do not worry about any of that because you know it would be done right.

Anyway that is it, I hope it helps you. As usual, if you enjoyed this episode share with friends, go on iTunes and leave as a review and remember that if you leave us a review and shoot me an email at [email protected] we will send you our free product that is something that we used to sell for $77 it is a 101 Conversion Tips that you can use to increase your conversions throughout your entire sales funnel and yeah, if you are interested in getting in touch, [email protected] and my staff will forward the email to me and otherwise I will talk to you soon.