The Sales Letter Does Not Matter :-)

by BrandonLee

Posted: 15 years ago 15 replies

COPY WRITING

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to be one of about 40 people who were personally trained by Jeff Walker in Product Launch Formula over the course of four days at PLM. We started around 9am each morning, and went until about 730 each night, and we worked on three million + launches (and my time, Jeff Walkers Illegitimate Step-Children) won!

During the event I also had the opportunity to continue continue my mentorship with Jeff by joining his private mastermind group, this allows me to have personal access to Jeff when David Raybould and I do a launch for a client.

I met several of of the most successful Internet Marketers and Product Launch Formula students around there. Greg Polous is one of the guys I met, and I have followed his work for a long time because several of my clients promote his launches as affiliates and have done very well. His most recent launch, Forex Income Engine, did well into seven figures with only about 100 affiliates.

I got to talking to Greg, and he had something to say, which I'd like to have your feedback on: "I spend 80% of my time on the story, theme and offer of the launch, and only about 20% on the sales letter and mechanics".

Now, I don't think Greg is saying that the copy is not important, and I know I'm not. I think that every single bit of communication you have with your clients and prospects, from your landing pages, blogs, autoresponders and even tweets needs to be approached as copy -but it's an interesting statement. I have seen myself with several launches I've been involved in that the story and momentum of the launch can carry people into a buying frenzy. I have not had million dollar hours like some of the big name guru's, but I've done close to $100,000 in less time then it takes to read my sales letters.

I think that Jeff's "Sideways Salesletter" approach is brilliant which is probably why I was willing to spend $25,000, and then more on the Mastermind with him to learn more about it.

My own take is that on relatively inexpensive products the sales letter can have a much bigger effect, but that once you get into selling things at a higher price, it becomes more and more important to involve your prospects in an event if you want to turn them into your buyers.

I'd love to have the feedback of all the copywriters here.

#letter #matter #sales

Jay Truman

15 years ago

Originally Posted by BrandonLee

but that once you get into selling things at a higher price, it becomes more and more important to involve your prospects in an event if you want to turn them into your buyers.

Hey brandon,

good post.

I'm actually just learning how to setup a web event or webinar to sell people on products/services. I think this is a great way to acquire better/higher paying customers than just using a plain old salesletter.

Overall i think its good to have customers at an event (especially with higher price points) and with a good offer, a buying frenzy could be the result.

thanks for your input.

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2 replies

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Tom Vo

15 years ago

It`s well-known to most copywriters that a sales letter is not the most important part to get a sale. A successful mailing needs several elements in place:

1.Product and offer
2.List
3.Copy

As to the percentages involved in balancing these elements out, I don`t think that one can really measure these numbers reliably (the numbers often mentioned are 40/40/20 , Ted Nicholas talk about 33.5/33.5/33/5)

It`s often said that a strong offer can save a weak sales letter. On the other hand, a strong sales letter for a weak product mailed to an unresponsive list will probably bomb.

If elements 1. and 2. are in place, a strong sales letter will help to maximize the number of sales. And don`t you want to get everything out of everything you can?

Yours,

Tom Vo

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MikeHumphreys

15 years ago

Originally Posted by watashimo

Great post Tom and I completely agree.

Yes, you can get by without a strong sales letter if you nail the product type, offer, and build some major prelaunch excitement with your list. A list that *should* have a prior relationship with you in order to improve your chances.

I've seen some launches do well without a solid sales letter. I've seen some launches bomb miserably b/c the marketer got cute and thought they could skip the sales letter entirely because they were "a guru" (whatever that means).

The way I see it... if you're looking to produce maximum results from your launch, then why not use every weapon in your arsenal including a solidly written sales letter?

Brandon... I think one aspect that wasn't mentioned by some of the PLF folks is that copywriting is the most expensive thing to outsource. Getting a copywriter with a solid track record for consistently very good or great copy also means getting on their dance card... which could mean weeks or even months until they can start your project and/or deliver it.

That means you'd have to have the extra cashflow to hire a copywriter far enough out to deliver the copy before your launch date which not every marketer can boast, especially leading up to their big launch. Depending on the type of product or service, there could be other more "pressing" needs like paying a programmer, transcriptionist, audio/video production, etc.

It also means having to plan for the launch even further out... again, not a favorite tactic of many marketers in the era of "instant cash" online.

Of course, when you look at some of the guru launches closely, you can see why they can "get away" with a weak sales letter: they're getting a massive amount of affiliate traffic for a limited quantity of their product before the sale is closed.

If you're getting a million unique visitors hitting your site and you're only looking to sell 1,000 copies of your product... well, you don't need a strong conversion rate to accomplish it.

Sort of like throwing 1,000 pounds of dirt onto an empty 5 pound bag... you can pretty much fill the bag because of the sheer volume of dirt hitting it.

The problem with that model is that the majority of marketers don't have the ability or connections to produce that volume of traffic in such a short time span. So they follow the same model... use a crappy sales letter... and wonder why they get sub-par results.

My 2 cents,

Mike

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BrandonLee

15 years ago

Webinars can be *very* effective. One of my clients uses them almost exclusively to sell people into her $700 course on the stock market and will often close up to 40% of the people who come.
I heard that Perry B made close a little over $1million in the twenty minutes he had his sales cart open last week after his webinar as well.
Brandon

Originally Posted by Jay Truman

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Matt James 15 years ago

Holy provocative thread title Batman!

Brandon... sure... on big ticket launches a well orchestrated pre-launch is essential. Splitting the sales process up into bite-size chunks over a course of time seems to be 'de rigueur' these days.

But any pre-launch should end in a strikingly effective sales letter. Why should this be less important than any other part of the launch?

I mean... you want to cover all your bases you know? I think Jeff himself uses a gigantic sales letter for PLF2 if I remember correctly...
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ghyphena 15 years ago

Gary Halbert said something like 50% list, 30% offer and 20% copy. (Could be off on those numbers but that was the ranking.)

I think that with big product launches the "official" sales letter might not matter that much because you've been selling them throughout the launch process. But there was probably long-copy involved, even if it was masked as interviews / case studies / special reports and other launch-frenzy-building widgets.

Webinars etc are also basically just long-copy...

When you say "copy and mechanics" - do you include these giveaways or are you just referring to the strict logistical stuff?

Gil-Ad
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Raydal

15 years ago

Nobody NEEDS a sales letter to sell. That's pretty obvious.
Sales letters are just one way to sell online. But if you are
a copywriter then you want to make the sales letter as
effective as possible.

You'll also expect a copywriter to tell you that your sales copy
is the most important thing in the world as a plumber would tell
you good plumbing. There shouldn't be any surprises that a
copywriter sells his client on copywriting just as Jeff would sell
product launching.

Because the visitors to a sales letter placed at the end of the
sales process are already pre-sold in a 'launch formula' campaign,
then the copy become less important because it carries less
of the selling weight.

-Ray Edwards

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Jay Truman

15 years ago

Originally Posted by BrandonLee

Webinars can be *very* effective. One of my clients uses them almost exclusively to sell people into her $700 course on the stock market and will often close up to 40% of the people who come.

cool, this gives me more hope

Those are nice numbers.

Originally Posted by BrandonLee

I heard that Perry B made close a little over $1million in the twenty minutes he had his sales cart open last week after his webinar as well.
Brandon

and perry didnt have a salesletter, right?

Just him speaking over some bullet points?

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Paul Hancox

15 years ago

Brandon, great post. I've always maintained that the sales letter is part of a larger sales PROCESS. Jeff Walker definitely understands that

And I agree... to me... EVERY COMMUNICATION WITH POTENTIAL CLIENTS IS COPY, in the sense of gradually moving them closer to where you want them to be, even if you're not directly selling to them.

You might write a blog post (or a post here) to demonstrate authority (as well as to help them), and in the case of the blog post, you want a non-subscriber to take action, i.e. subscribe. The subscription may one day... soon... lead to the actual sale. So even when writing a blog post, I'm still writing in copywriter mode, even though I'm not "selling" the product there and then. I'm simply "selling" my knowledge, my expertise, and my blog... with the call to action being to subscribe, or to find out more... which may ultimately lead to a sale.

Incidentally, I always have a call to action in each and every blog post... namely to subscribe, and if they're on Twitter, to retweet the post, along with a handy link to do exactly that.

It's the same with articles. I know there's a sticky at the top of the copywriting forum, pointing out the difference between article writing and copywriting... but to me, there's also a big OVERLAP, in the sense that a good article is very much like a mini sales letter.

A good article will have an attention-grabbing headline, "copy" (oops, sorry... wording) that pulls the reader deeper into the article, it should demonstrate (without spelling out) the author's authority and expertise, it should get them to desire more, and then it should skillfully get them to take some action, i.e. click through the author's resource link.

That sounds remarkably like copy, to me! You just have 500 words to play with... instead of 5,000

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Jay Truman

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Paul Hancox

It's the same with articles. I know there's a sticky at the top of the copywriting forum, pointing out the difference between article writing and copywriting... but to me, there's also a big OVERLAP, in the sense that a good article is very much like a mini sales letter.

I agree, there is a huge overlap and I consider article writing, copywriting. Article writing is just a different branch of copywriting. If I write an article there will be a goal in mind, an action, which is designed to create a transaction. Articles can also sell, but in a more subtle way.

some copywriters recommend to read tabloids to improve copywriting and that top copywriters work for tabloids like National Enquirer. Its full of articles, so why are copywriters working for them? or they're not?

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RentItNow 15 years ago

I think I am learning one is not more important than the other. It is like saying the save function is more important than the import function in a certain piece of software.

Today I walked through how a customer sees my product, beginning to end. Revealed that it is not one problem (weakness) in product, list, offer, copy...it is a discontinuity in the process.

What made me think of it is my experience with Market Samurai.

You DL their free software.

You are sent a video lesson (and initial offer) which I followed each day with my own IMing. But then one day, one of the videos didn't follow the same format (was not the same guy) and it just sort of threw me off as a customer. (even though they have an amazing sales funnel).

I saw the same problem today while going through my sales process. It was something very simple and I can fix it easy but until I walked that mile in my customer's shoes...

Btw, with my software example above, years ago, someone came to the same conclusion. They stopped making features just for the sake of features and began using USE CASES which are stories of how a customer gets to where THEY want to get. And you only build what it takes for them to get there and not the 3,000 unnecessary features.

Do the same with your sales process (from new eyes) and look for those small inconsistencies.
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Desmond Ong 15 years ago

Now, I don't usually read this part of WarriorForum because I am too lazy to read posts about copywriting yada yada yada....

But now, I noticed my buddy, Brandon here posted heck tons of powerful and insightful post here. Now, I gotta keep track of this part of the forum now! ;-)
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adamlibman Banned 15 years ago

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- MarkAndrews IMCopywriting 15 years ago
  
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  Darrel Hawes 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by WordPro
  
  Adam will you STOP spamming the Copywriting forum to boost up your post count!
  
  It's getting to be highly annoying.
  
  Attachment 2414
  
  LOL.
  
  Maybe he's just enthusiastic?
  
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DougHughes 15 years ago

Everything matters. Every touch-point is an opportunity to connect with your customers.

In order to be successful, we always need to have a media to market message that speaks to our target audience.

Of course copywriters will tell you copy is one of the most important things, and...copy is very important.

Having viewed Jeff Walker's Product Launch Formula, I felt that Jeff strongly reinforced the importance of strong copy throughout your communications.

On that note, copy can be expressed in may mediums such as video, and audio. I will cite Frank Kern and Eban Pagan (videos) and Alex Mandossian and Tellman Knudson (teleseminars/audio) as examples of intergrated marketing or salesmanship.

Remember, the goal of selling is to make sales. Copy writing for sales letters is simply a way of selling in print.

In my opinion (and I'm sure there are those who disagree) sales through video and audio work as good or better than copy alone.

As an internet marketing strategist for a large direct response marketing company I can tell you that we make the most money from integrated marketing campaigns that combine print, web, television, and radio sales with inbound telemarketing.

You will always convert more people with good in person or phone salesman.

As far as the story and the theme, of course these are important. These are really part of the larger marketing communications strategy that copy writers bring to life for people.

As revered as copy writers are here and elsewhere online, at the end of the day, they are still in something of a technician category similar to graphic designers in that they are cogs in the larger wheel of the sales/marketing process.

Thanks for your post.
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The Sales Letter Does Not Matter :-)

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