Write Great Sales Copy In 10 Steps

When you embark on copywriting, it usually involves a product, person, service or concept that you want to deliver content about in a persuasive manner the reader feels compelled to read. If you are selling anything, or if you want your users to sign up for an opt-in email list, you'll need to master some basic copywriting principles to achieve your goals.
1. Your headline has got to be catchy - it can exploit a situation (e.g., reflecting on the current economic scenario), can be direct and straight (e.g., making a fixed offer), or can start off as a story. The bottom line is that the headline has to be catchy enough to hook the reader and make him feel compelled to read through the rest of the narrative that follows logically therefrom and finishes with a "call to action".
2. After grabbing the reader, your body copy should convey a casual and informal tone that is both conversational and confident. As the reader goes along, he should be shaking his head mentally in agreement. Just like you would talk to a friend, it is all about building rapport. Watch your grammar and punctuation, however, because the fastest way to break a mood is by misspelling a word that jumps out or misplacing a punctuation point. You can emphasize sections by using the one paragraph - one line approach.
3. There has to be a section that talks about the advantages of your product and each advantage must be written in brief, preferably formatted in a bullet form.
4. The writing needs to be kept clear, concise and easy to understand. You never want to confound your reader with words and phrases they need to stop and go look up on dictionary.com. In other words, avoid humungous words, long sentences and anything that equals confused message delivery. This is not the place to demonstrate how many sentences you can string together by combining commas and semi-colons.
5. The copy should reflect what the reader is looking for - their desires and wants. Keep your ego in the closet. Put yourself in your readers' shoes when copywriting. Keep asking yourself, why would they buy this or even, why are they still reading your copy.
6. There has to be a commitment or a promise made early on, preferably before the end of second paragraph.
7. The way the paragraphs flow together should be seamless and most of all logical. If there is any fluff, wandering or digression, clean it up and toss it out. Web visitors have short attention spans and even shorter tolerance for extremely long-winded copy that appears to be imploding.
8. Avoid making claims and promises that have no basis in fact, just because they sound good. Your reputation is built upon honest delivery of fact. This is not creative writing. It's copywriting and if you have a "magic ingredient" that makes your chocolate taste incredible, you'd better be able and prepared to back that up with facts and testimonials.
9. Many sales letters will have an extremely persuasive opening, bulleted benefits to the reader, and a number of decent testimonials and when it comes time to make an offer of the service or product, there's nothing there. Please realize that by the time a reader has gone through all of points above and has reached the bottom of the page, they are expecting something. On the Internet, they are usually looking for a deal, bonuses, freebies and inducements for buying right then. Essentially, they want an offer they can't refuse. Well, give it to them. You will strike gold as a result. Miss this, and people will leave your page scratching their heads. Which would you prefer?
10. If there are any questions left in the readers' mind, any doubts, this is where you quash them. You need a finale, just like in the movies, but in this case it compels the reader to take action. Whether you offer a truckload of extras, promise a secret formula only for buyers or some piece of free software they get in addition to their main order, this is where it's offered. You want to spice it up to the point where it is irresistible. In some cases, I've actually heard of people who bought because the bonus was so good and the product was just okay. That's the excitement you want to bring to your closing copy.
These were some principles of good copywriting. If you are starting off, look up the Internet for sales letters that have worked in the past and try to model your pitch based on them. Slowly, you will get a hang of copywriting, and from then on you can only get better.

By: Kale McClelland

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Marketing on the internet is not as difficult as you may think.