The Problem

The first step in writing a great sales letter is to identify the problem. Your market has some problem that your product was designed to solve. You have to rattle their cage from the very beginning in order to grab their attention. And your number one place to do that in your sales letter is in the headline.

Your headline should grab your reader by addressing what they want most - to solve their problem by either gaining pleasure or avoiding pain. Either way, they want to move from where they are. So that's where you start the sales letter. Where they are.

The Pain

Then you stir it up a little. It's not enough to just state what they already know. Your sales letter has to make them feel the pain. The discomfort. Your readers are coming to your sales letter from different points of awareness. For some the pain is buried in denial, complacency, or just laziness.

You've got to shake them up some so they feel the pain of the problem they have.

The Promise

At some point in the flow of the sales letter you need to tell them what's possible. Sometimes this comes right behind your discussion of their pain. Sometimes it's interwoven with the pain.

The point is, the job of your sales letter here is to generate some hope, a little bit of fire inside your reader.

Your sales letter is creating desire.

The Product

Ah, here we go - the climax of your sales letter. Your solution to the problem. Your relief for the the pain you've just made them feel. This is where you tap into their desire.

You do that by stressing the benefits of your product, not just the features. In other words what the product's going to do for them. How it's going to change their lives. Not just the bells and whistles. Your sales letter should have one long emotional flow.

Fictions writers have a term for this. They call it showing versus telling. Telling is giving the facts. Ann went here and Ann did this and Ann said that. Pretty dull, huh?

But when you show, you describe Ann going, and doing, and saying. And the reader is able to feel what Ann's feeling. It's the same way with your product description.

In fact, that's the way your whole sales letter should be. Showing versus telling.

The Process

And finally, at the end of the sales letter, you've got to close the deal. You've stated their problem, made them feel their pain, given them some promises, and shown them your product.

Now you ask for the order and show them what to do next (ie., click the order button, fill out the form, etc.) Then lead them from your sales letter to your order page.

And there you have it. The five-step outline for writing winning sales letters. Follow this format, inject a lot of emotion, keep it interesting and you'll knock your next sales letter out of the park.