THE most important part of your sales letter

I made a post a few weeks back about using the Pareto principle
in my business. Some call it the 80/20 principle.

And then this morning, I read a post by Mal titled "The Death of
the 30 Second TV Spot"

I started thinking about how it all ties in to the book I recently
read, by Michael Masterson called "Great Leads"

(If you're a copywriter, it's definitely worth grabbing for $10 on
Amazon)

Anyways, there's a passage in the book....



And it got me thinking about how it tied in with Mal's
post.

You've got literally seconds to hook someone in.

If you don't get them in 1 to 2 seconds with your lead,
they're gone.

So without a doubt, your headline/subhead/lead
accounts for 80% of your results... simply because
if it's good, people read on and possibly buy.

If it sucks, they don't. No sale.

Well, with Mal's post... it really does take
about 5 seconds to get someone either interested
or not.

And there's also a passage in Great Leads where a lot of
other copywriters mention how the lead or intro to
your sales letter/ad is the most important part.

They all say, in some way, that the lead (20%) of the letter
will account for 80% of your results....



Bottom line, whether it's a written sales letter,
video, or TV commercial... make sure the first
part of it is as gripping and persuasive as possible.

What I'm doing now, in my business, is making sure
my list/target market is spot on... make sure the
offer is solid...

but instead of busting my a** on writing very long
copy, I'm now focusing 80% of my time on the
headline/sub/lead... making sure it's as solid as
possible and could almost sell the product itself.

And then just making sure the rest of the letter
doesn't destroy the work I put into the lead.