The Top Thirteen Mistakes in Preparing a Sales Letter

1. Poor Headline. Or what's even worse, no headline.

The most important part of sales letters is the headline. Unless the headline immediately attracts attention and generates interest, your prospect will stop reading right then and there. This means you have no chance--zero--to fulfill the purpose of the sales letter, which is to make a sale. Your headline should communicate the strongest customer benefit(s) of your product or service.

TIP: Creating a great headline. This is entirely contrary to what many "experts" say, but it is what most experts do!

Headlines are critically important and yes you can spend hours, days, even weeks if necessary, creating headlines and then testing one headline against another. You can create at least 15 to 25 and test the strongest ones. You can write as many as 200 to 250 before choosing two to four to test against each other to find the most profitable.

Or you can do what most copywriters do when they critic someone's copy. They read the copy and pick out a biggest benefit and make it the headline. Then they look for one or two other big benefits and make them sub-headlines. Here's an Example:

"How To Get a New Roof, And a FREE 42" Flat Screen TV Just in time for the Big Game"

I Really Don't Want to Lay Off My Crew this Winter

I only Have 10 TVs - Call Now To Be Sure Your Get Yours!

2. Copy is full of "Me" messages.

Some examples: My products are terrific. My company is wonderful. We've been in business for 15 years. We have a long tradition of quality, blah, blah, blah.

So much advertising is full of this drivel. This is all about you. No one in the world cares besides yourself. Your prospects want to know exactly what benefits they will get from your products. In other words, if you sell grass seed, don't dwell on what it's composed of. Instead describe how beautiful their lawn will be.

TIP: Here is the fastest way to improve your copy. Review the first draft of your copy. Eliminate all these words--I, our, we, my. Substitute you and your. I promise you'll be amazed and truly gratified with the result. It's sure to blow your mind!

3. Copy fails to answer the question "What's in it for me?"

The process, of course, starts with the headline. An excellent copywriting technique is to prepare bullet points. These should consist of all the benefits a buyer of your product will get.

Tip: Your benefits should be stated in headline format. The secret of making benefits even more powerful is to describe the benefit of the benefit.

4. Exaggerated Claims.

Many copywriters and marketers think the more astonishing your claims are, the more persuasive. This is a fallacy. If a claim is exaggerated, it seems and feels untrue. You thus lose that all-important credibility.

Tip: First you should dramatize your advertising claims with the help of short emotional words. Then prove each claim. Expert comments and testimonials can be a big help. Give a reason why.

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