Chicken or the Egg (Sales Letter or Content)

Content, Content, Content...

That's the way I do it anyways... always get content in place first.. I understand some people might do the sales page first..

BUT

How can you construct a sales page that truly describes the benefits of the content being sold, if the content isn't even alive yet?

Peace

Jay

Is the niche site going to be a drip feed where the person receives new instructions each month- or just a site with content added every month for its members?

In my personal opinion I would start the content first and it may make it easier to write the sales letter.

Or, some people put a sales letter together, sell the product, and have no finished product for it... so it depends on your personal opinion and strategy. I don't think there is a right or wrong but a matter of opinion.

Just make a decision, do it, stick with it, and finish it.

Well I would say write the content first because I'm sure the best benefits for the sales page will come to you when you're compiling it.

The sales page should reflect the actual benefits of the content rather than the other way around.

Just seems more logical to me creating the product first Create the best content you possibly can then the sales letter should write itself.

But I've never created a membership site so there may be compelling reasons to do it the other way around - can't think of anything though !

Cheers
Neil

Although Alex...

Doing the sales page first might not be a bad idea...

I'd like to insert a plan if I may..

Step 1: Write your sales page as you normally would for the finished content, including price, monthly costs etc..

Step 2: Leave out the purchase button and have a early bird notification opt-in process in place, so that the people who opt-in will get a notification when you open the doors. Maybe insert FREE report here, teaser of some sort.. bit of spice from your current content..

[you following me here, dude?]

Step 3: On the back end of this opt-in, right after they click submit... you have a survey... ask your niche EXACTLY what they want and what YOU can do for THEM. This will allow you to over-deliver by adding even more content to what you already have and the content will be highly targeted because your niche have told you in your survey what they want, right?

Step 4: Think about an interior up-sell inside the membership (this can be skipped if you are happy with your planned model)

Step 5: Drive some traffic to that bad boy.. ideally you want a BIG section of your market to fill in that survey so you can gather plenty of thoughts, opinions, views and ideas of EXACTLY what they want and how they would like it delivered.. yeah?

Step 6: Take the survey data and use that to expand and improve on the content that you already have... bingo ..

During all this, you are building a list of highly targeted, hungry buyers who are ready for you to open the doors on the content that they have asked for...

Selling Ice cold water to runners in the desert....

Could really move this forward into a whole new area, no?

Peace

Jay

I save my sales page till after I have to product fully completed.

I do not think it will matter which one you do first since you outlined what is in the product.

Personally, the reason I save my sales page to do last is because I find it rather exciting to do. I know when I get to this point that my product is almost ready for launch!

Additionally, you might want to place a video squeeze page in front of your sales page (depending on your niche, I use single opt in here). The thing with sales pages is that you have to be ready to test them like crazy, so writing it first might not be to your best advantage, but writing a brief sales letter won't hurt either.

In the field of Education they tell you that you should always
start planning a lesson with the Desire Learning Outcomes (DLO)
in mind. In other words what do you hope your product to
accomplish.

So even before you plan your lessons you know what you want the
students to get from the lessons. It's called a 'backward design'
because you start with the end in mind.

So in this way the sales letter should be written FIRST because
it would force you to deliver on what you promised in the letter
when you create the content.

-Ray Edwards

I write the sales letter/page first... I find it helps me develop a better product.

When I'm writing the sales letter I'm not constrained by a product
that already exists... so I write a letter describing what I believe would
be the perfect product.

I then go about attempting to create the perfection I described
in the letter. If there are things in the letter I just can't produce
(or find someone who can) I then edit the letter to conform to
the facts.

Tsnyder

I'm a firm believer in the old... Write a salesletter, see if there's interest then, invest in the product... BUT..

If you're sure the niche is viable... selling something that doesn't exist does put a sour taste in people's mouths. With membership sites you can't say the product will be available in 2 weeks time..

I see 2 options...

#1. Signup now and post and answer questions and enjoy free answers for the next 2 months knowing this will be a paid site soon...

OR

#2. Build out all your content hiring experts and writing yourself and hiring others to write related topics, then launch as soon as you have enough content to make the first 30 day membership fee worth it.

Dan

Great posts, I would write the content first because I think this would compliment the sales page and will make make the information easier to remember when you're compiling it. Typically I think the sales page should reflect and show the actual benefits of the content rather than the other way around. I think you would put some effort into creating the product first and then create the best quality content and then the when writing the sales copy it should all come naturally to you! I can't say I've tried it the other way round, but maybe there are some benfits I'm not aware of! Hope this helps!