(Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2)

The most important part of the sales letter..

If you send a sales letter, what is the one thing you absolutely need to include in it?

The offer!

A sales letter isn’t a sales letter unless it’s offering something.  You can have the best product or service in the world, and you can spend a good bit of time describing this in a sales letter, but if it doesn’t include an offer, the sales letter is nothing more than a product or service description.

But before we jump into the offer, I’d like to focus on what precedes it.

Before you make an offer, you have to understand your prospect.

Your prospect is crazy-busy. Often frustrated. And forever trying to get more done with less resources.

You need to get in the mind of your prospect. Put yourself in her shoes. For instance, what are her responsibilities? What is she expected to manage? What does she hope to achieve? What are the obstacles to achieving it?

This is called developing a “buyer persona.” A buyer persona is a type of behavioral map that will help you navigate your prospect’s motivation for doing her job well. You want to find out what motivates her (or frustrates her) so that you can position your offering within that framework.

Find her pain and speak to it, using your offer as a way to prove it can minimize that pain.

This is very important. Right now I’m seeing many sales letters going out that seemingly have everything right: The right target, the right offer, and written with persuasive copy. However, these sales letters aren’t getting the right response.

I think it’s because the letters haven’t nailed a pain point. If you’re talking about B2B sales, your prospect has a small mountain of pain points you can focus on, you just need to spend the time to find a few.

Once you craft that pain point and use your copy to “poke… poke… poke,” then you’re ll be in business! (Literally.)

The offers then can be varied. Here are a few:

 

Straight Offer

This is a basic “Here’s what I have. Here’s what it can do for you. Here’s how to get it…” offer. It’s sort of like the Green Beret of marketing. Get in fast and get out. It’s a great technique and can be combined with other types of offers.

The Big Promise/Guarantee Offer

If you have the track record to deliver a big promise with a guarantee that if your prospect doesn’t get the results you promise, you’ll refund their money… go for it! It’s a very strong offer and removes much of the risk (and a prospect’s objections) for purchase. An example: “If this exercise product doesn’t help you increase your muscle mass in two months, just send it back for a full refund!”

The Bribe Offer

You offer the prospect a free gift or bonuses that have a highly-perceived value. This is a popular tactic with online information products. Rarely is a product sold alone. It usually has several “extra” reports, videos, or similar products attached to the basic offer. When you see, “But wait, there’s more!” it’s a good sign that bribes will follow.

BOGO Offer

“Buy one, get one free!” Even grocery stores employ this type of offer and it’s very effective. If you have a product that allows you to do this, it’s a very enticing offer. Even with a service, it could be done.

The Fake Check Toward Purchase Offer

This is often used for high ticket items. You include a fake check or money order with the letter, saying this amount could go toward the purchase of the product or service. In essence, you’re giving them a discount but seeing and holding a check with your name on it and a specific amount of money printed on the check is a powerful motivator toward getting the prospect to take action.

 

So there you go. A few offers you can test on your own to see what type of results you get. Remember, one sales letter doesn’t typically do the trick. You need to send out several and always tweak them to see what works. When you find what works, start sending that letter out to other lists to see how it performs.

Marketing is always an experiment. Test, test, test! And what may not work today may work tomorrow.

I hope you got something out of this series. Drop me a note to let me know of your own successes. Good luck!