When you are writing sales copy, you may think it is important to cover as many bases as possible. After all, you want to convince a prospective client that they will benefit from buying your product or service, show them various uses for it, tell them how your company is different from the competition, and generally make a compelling case for buying something now. You’ve got to accomplish all that in one piece of content.
Obviously this could easily become a very long sales letter. If you try to cram too much information into one page or document, you risk losing the reader halfway through – and this does nothing in terms of conversion rates.
Here are some ways you can avoid information overload in your sales copy.
What Not To Include When Writing Sales Copy
A boring sales letter is one that will not achieve results. Yes, you want to convince the reader that yours is the best product and instil trust in them by announcing your company’s achievements, but keep it simple.
No one needs to know the details of the research and development that went into making the product. No one is interested in hearing about exhaustive testing or the “Widget Wizardry Award” granted your company. Get to the point, quickly.
Don’t make it all about you and how great your company is. Talk to the reader is if you were enjoying a personal conversation. Tell them you understand their problem and you’ve got a way to fix it.
When writing sales copy, try not to make it one long sales pitch that unrelentingly asks the reader to make a purchase. No one responds positively to such pressure.
What To Include In Your Sales Copy
The most immediate factor your sales letter needs to address is the question every reader asks him – or herself, “What’s in it for me?” Use this concept when writing headlines and continue it throughout the body of the letter. Give the reader a real reason for paying attention to the copy. State the benefits succinctly and clearly. Offer a solution to a problem. Show how your product or service is going to enhance the buyer’s life by saving time, saving money, offering entertainment, or making a task easier.
You should include a reward for the reader who goes through the entire page. This can be in the form of a discount, a special, limited-time offer, or a freebie, such as an eBook or industry report sent after contact via email or online subscription (and this can be a great opportunity to start an autoresponder series to follow up with new subscribers who are not yet buyers).
Do quote a customer testimonial, but use these sparingly. Consider video testimonials or short excerpts from testimonials, rather than long letters.
Do use wording that makes the copy memorable. You might include useful information that the reader will refer back to time and again. Humour may be appropriate. Make your copy stand out from your competitor’s.
Keep the writing in accordance with your personal style. If you sell audio books by a famous broadcaster telling stories from his childhood, your sales letter can adopt that same folksy, down-home tone, too. If you also have a blog, consider writing in the same tone and consider quoting yourself a little, as well.
The trick to writing sales copy effectively, is to grab the reader’s attention immediately, focus on the most important points, and adopt a style and tone that reads more like a fictional novel than a treatise on some new scientific discovery. You do not need to write a book but do include information that will induce the reader to act, then follow up on their response in a timely manner in order to increase conversions.
About Sean Rasmussen
Nice article Sean.
I agree with keeping your sales letters short and relevant. One of my pet dislikes is long a sales page or long sales email that waffles on.
I tend to loose interest if they haven’t made their point in the first few paragraphs. I know most people don’t want to waste time in reading a long sales page and will scan parts of the page, looking or information of interest.
It also probably worth highlight important sales information or excerpts to help catch the readers attention. You could try bolding, different text color or size and maybe summary bullet points.
Same here Cade.
I mean it’s good to try and get your point across, provide advantages, benefits, etc. But surely someone if not going to hake an hour to read it all.
I have found a few sales pages that use video’s instead to explain the product or service and I have to admit that I like that more.
Hi Sean,
I agree, I look to see how long a sales page is once I have read the first paragraph, if it goes on and on and askes you to click their link every few words I just don’t bother.
If you cant come to the point without repeating the same thing six times I just click off.
Rita
Many people do the same Rita, sales pages seem to be getting shorter and shorter all the time, particularly by using videos to get the point across.
So true. If you don’t grab the attention of the reader in the first paragraph – why should they read on?
I tend to read the first paragraph and then skip through the rest – so when writing sales copy I think the sub-headlines are also important. That way I can get the main content without having to read every word.
I like your suggestion to have a bonus for the ones that read to the end. That will make sure your regular readers read at least the beginning and the end
Hi Sean,
I feel that writing effective sales copy is definitely not going to be one of my strengths. I’d like to learn to do it so that I have an understanding of what’s required but realistically, I’d rather outsource it.
I think it’s a huge part of having a successful business so, I’d much rather have an expert take care of it for me.
If sales copy is not one of your strong points, outsourcing can be a great option Jazz.
Hi Sean,
This is a such a good post that you have here. I do agree with you when you said, “If you ry to cram too much information into one page or document, you risk losing the reader halfway through – and this does nothing in terms of conversion rates.”
What some online marketers do not realize is that putting a lot of things on the sales letter has a direct impact on conversion. However, with the good sales copy, you can sell just about anything you want. Many people do not realize the power of a good sales copy. Writing a good sales copy is not that complicated, you just need to know and use the basics.
And in this article you have written you were able to mention the basic DOs and DON’Ts that people should know when it comes to writing a sales copy.
Writing good sales copy is something I need to practice. I need to get the balance right of the letter not sounding too pushy or spammy and make it interesting enough so people will get to the bottom. Hopefully this will come in time.
Hi Sean
Writing sales copy is a skill I believe we can learn. It will take effort, tweaking and trial runs but the information you have here in this article gives very solid guidelines.
I can relate to the reader asking “what’s in it for me?” because we all do that in some form. That is the big question and a good premise to base a sales letter on.
I too like short to the point sales pitches and the skill is choosing the right words in the most minimal amount that say everything that needs to be said to get a sale.
I will start saving sales letters that I feel are excellent in a resource file.