The Sales Letter Begins

We will now go back to the AIDA model to begin our sales letter.
 

Grab Their Attention Quickly

The absolute first thing we need to do is capture the readers attention. Experts claim that we have about 5 seconds to accomplish this. The first element to consider is a header graphic.

A header graphic can be useful in helping to capture the readers attention. It can just as easily work to distract the reader and you will lose their attention. Header graphics work best when they are kept simple. A general rule of thumb is that if the header is not helping to convey a attention grabbing message, then you are probably better off without it. This isn't about making your sales letter page "pretty" with a snazzy header. It's about every element on the page working to close the sale.

Next we need a powerful headline. I normally format my headlines using the Tahoma or Impact fonts in a size of 24 pt. Some fonts will look good in bold and others will not. In my examples below I have put Tahoma in bold but the Impact font is not. You will also notice that I use the form of "title case". This means I capitalize all nouns, pronouns, verbs and all other words of four or more letters.

I find that the best headlines are question based. Questions stimulate the brain. Since the brain is programmed to answer questions it becomes determined to find the answer when a substantiated question is posed to it. Exploiting the brain's natural curiosity helps to gain the attention of the reader.

The headline is where you need to spend the bulk of your time when crafting your sales letter. It is mission critical because if you can't get them on your slide with a magnetic headline, then the rest of your effort is for nothing because it will never be read.

Fill a legal pad with your best headline attempts. Read them out loud and polish them like they are fine jewels. Make them powerful. Then test them. Allow 50 to 100 people to see your first headline and check your stats. Then insert headline #2 into your sales page and run it for another 100 visitors and see how it compares to the first. If you want to get more advanced with your testing there are also scripts available that will rotate the headlines for you so that you can test them simultaneously.

A sub-headline can also be very effective in captivating your reader's attention. I normally insert a sub-headline in the same font as the headline, but in an 18 pt black format.
 

This Would be My Main Headline That I Would Use to Stimulate Questions. I Would Test to Make Sure it is My Best One Then I would have my sub-headline down below it. I would just use normal capitalization. I would use this to further get the readers attention and to start building interest.

The sub-headline will serve as a re-enforcement to the headline and quite possibly serve to demonstrate that I understand their situation and have the solution which begins to gain their interest.

For example;
 

Ugly Acne Will Vanish When Attacked by My Great Grandmother's Home Remedy. These 3 Proven Ingredients Have Been Used For Generations to Make Acne Disappear I was the brunt of their "pizza face" jokes. They didn't care how badly they hurt my feelings. Grandma insisted that she could help me and finally, one day I let her.  That day my life changed and I was no longer "Pizza Face Julie"

Now honestly I just came up with this headline and sub-headline off the cuff in about a minute and a half. But that shows you how easy this is to do. If we spent some time we could certainly improve on them both. But it will suffice and allow me to illustrate a point.

Can you see how my headline and sub-headline have lit up the brain's sensors? Look at all the questions that are now stimulating the reader's brain...

Who's grandma?
What home remedy?
What 3 ingredients?
Used for generations... Why haven't I heard about this?
Who was making jokes, and about whom?
Why wasn't grandma allowed to help at first?
Who is Julie, and why were they calling her pizza face?

The brain now wants answers to all of those questions. I have also made a couple of fairly bold statements. Do you see them?

I have stated that the remedy makes acne disappear and I have mentioned that the remedy changed my life. Those are bold claims.

Continued on page 3

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