One of the most important steps you can take “before” writing your sales letter (whether that be for an email campaign, capture page sales letter, or direct mail) you need to do your homework so you can make sure you are targeting your right prospects. For most in the MLM field, it’s fairly easy if all you do is recruit others into your business. But that will be in another post …

The goal of your sales letter is to offer a solutions that speak “directly” to your prospects problems and/or challenges. To do this the right way, you need to harness the power of a few things first.

1) Make certain that your message matches the needs of your prospects: Check yourself at the door before you write your letter. Does your offer match the needs of the recipient?

2) Build that trust! Some say that “testimonials” are over-done, but the truth of the matter to keep on the top of your mind, and especially if you’re writing to those who don’t know you all that well, is testimonials do provide an initial trust based relationship offer. Let’s put it his way, by adding “high-profile” endorsements from former or current associates - heck even those you have worked with in the same industry that are recognized and popular, will provide trust. So for this example, your sales letter could read at the top and “after” the short and to the point testimonial, “says, Mike Dillard, a Guru Internet Marketer who trains others to become the hunted instead of the hunter.”

3) Get to the point and don’t give out a bunch of hazy information: It’s important to make your point in the first few lines of the sales letter. If you provide information that is going in circles, or straying off the point, you will risk a high chance of losing your readers interest right off the bat. So make sure to be very clear and concise about what you are saying. You don’t have to speak to your prospect as if they are a 2 year old, but you might want to consider keeping is at a grade-school level. This doesn’t mean your prospects are stupid adults! But studies have shown that the majority of society do read at an 8th grade level. Just avoid BIG words and keep the language simple and easily understood.

4) Its IMPORTANT to sell the “benefits” and NOT what you think the great features are: This goes back to leaving your opinion out of it. Your prospect wants to know how they will benefit from what you are selling. Feature listing is “ok” but only if you list the benefits to the prospect “just” after each feature listing.

5) Stand out and become memorable! Your goal is to end up on the prospects refrigerator! You need to provide some “staying-power” to your letter, so your prospect prints this out and slaps it up for later consideration. Provide 5 tips on lead generation, or whatever your niche is. Make sure those tips are something they can implement right away. Make sure those “tips” are something that are worth trying out because they are proven to get results fast.

6) Stay away from the “form letter” style - it’s NOT for a sales letter! Simply, write like you talk and this will provide a “warm” feeling for your prospects. You will create a genuine appeal to your reader on the other end.

7) White Spaces! Short paragraphs, indents, bullets or numbered lists will give readers a break from gobbled up text. Keep them short and to the point. One of my favorite books has two to three page chapters with short paragraphs. Don’t bore your prospect with too much clutter and big paragraphs. You’ll lose them every time. With that said, also try and keep this within one page.

8 ) The CALL TO ACTION, deadline and incentive: Tell the prospect what to do next and emphasize a real deadline. This will increase the rate of responses. You have created a “limited” time to act and “why” to act now! The “why” should be explained as the benefit they’ll receive for acting. Then provide the way to action with your telephone number, email, or sign up form.

9) The “No Risk” or Guarantee offer: Offer something to the prospect free, like industry tips in form of an article, eBook, or a “how to” tutorial, or even a product sample. Include that guarantee, whether it’s 100% money back, 24/7 customer service support, the follow-up, free delivery or whatever you feel is right for your product and time.

10) Lastly, don’t get stuck trying to “sell” your prospects: I know this feels like a contradiction, but by “pushing” your service or product will only result in a dead sale and maybe lost lead. Develop that long-term relationship with your prospect by “solving” their problems and meet their needs. Again, nobody wants to be “sold” to, they just want a simple solution to their issues and to be the one who makes the decision based on the information you’ve provided to them, to buy or not.

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